Jimmy Kudo

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Jimmy Kudo, shown in his regular form (right) and his "Conan Edogawa" form (left)

Jimmy Kudo, known as Shinichi Kudo (工藤新一, Kudō Shin'ichi^?) in the original Japanese anime and manga, is the main character of the anime and manga Case Closed, known in Japan as Detective Conan (名探偵コナン Meitantei Conan).

Viz romanized his original name as Shin'ichi Kudo while Shogakukan's website romanizes it as Shinichi Kudoh; it is pronounced as "Senshi Kodo" (سينشي كودو) in the Arabic release of the series.

Jimmy's character voice is done by Minami Takayama in the Japanese version. And Robert Brillantes in the Filipino version.

1 Character Information
2 Gadgets
3 Trivia
4 References
5 Sources and external links
6 Navigation

[edit] Character Information

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jimmy is a 17-year old student at Titan High School (Teitan High School in the original version) and is already a well-known detective. He dreams of being a great detective like Sherlock Holmes^[1], his idol, and gets his dose of reality from his childhood friend Rachel Moore (Ran Mōri in the original Japanese). Jimmy's parents, Booker and Vivian (Yusaku and Yukiko) live in the United States^[2] while Jimmy lives in Japan.

After solving a murder at the theme park Tropical Land, Jimmy witnessed an exchange between an unknown man and another person in all black. He is so focused on the exchange (a blackmail over an arms deal) that he does not notice an accomplice sneak behind him. This accomplice, another man in black, hits him at the head and spills into his mouth a newly manufactured poison. This poison called APTX 4869 is designed to kill a person and leaves no traces of itself. However, instead of killing Jimmy, it slowly shrinks his body, making him have the appearance of a six or seven year-old boy.^[3] He found the only person who may believe his story; his next door neighbor, close family friend, and an eccentric scientist Dr. Agasa. Jimmy convinces Dr. Agasa that he was shrunk and was determined to discover who the men in black are. However, Dr. Agasa convinces him to keep his identity secret lest the Black Organization will come back and kill him for real, as well as anybody who knows Jimmy is still alive. So Jimmy fashions an alias, Conan Edogawa (江戸川コナン Edogawa Conan) , after Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Rampo. "Conan" goes to live with Rachel and her father, Richard Moore (Kogoro Mori), a private detective. Jimmy hopes that by living with a detective, he can stay on top of current cases and be able to gather hints about the "Black Organization".^[4] Unfortunately, Detective Moore is so incompetent that Jimmy often has to solve the mysteries for him.

Jimmy, as Conan, isn't taken as seriously as a child, so sometimes he has to improvise. Jimmy frequently knocks out Detective Moore with a dart shooting watch and uses his voice-changing bow tie to imitate Moore's voice. Because of this, Moore gets the credit and becomes famous quickly. Cases begin to pile up, occasionally giving Jimmy a chance to gather hints on the Black Organization.

Because Jimmy expects himself to return to his original form soon, he never tries to convince anybody that he is dead. As a matter of fact, knowing that Rachel misses him, Conan calls her over the telephone and imitates Jimmy's voice so that she is not worried about him. He convinces her that he is off solving a very difficult mystery and will return once the investigation concludes.^[5]

Due to striking similarities between Conan and Jimmy as a child, Rachel often suspects Conan of Jimmy^[6], but every time she does, Conan does something childlike to make her ignore the idea. Larger schemes, created by Jimmy and his friends, has been used to convince Rachel that Conan is not Jimmy. This usually follows an extremely long story arc.^[7] In such arcs Conan tends to drop his guard in order to save someone or to fully investigate a crime.

In more recent of the stories, Rachel becomes really sure of Conan's true identity and asks him to admit the truth. Sometimes, Jimmy feels he cannot trick her anymore. Jimmy gets close to tell, but then something suddenly happens which hinders him to do so. After his first encounter with Harley Hartwell (Heiji Hattori), Conan discovers the poison that was fed to him could temporarily be deactivated through drinking Chinese alcohol. He makes this discovery when he temporarily turns back into Jimmy after Harley gives Conan some Chinese liquor as some kind of cold remedy.^[8] This is one of the three occasions when Jimmy turns back into his teenage form. This cure however, only works once.

Following Jimmy's transformation and her own transformation using Chinese liquor, Ai Haibara manages to create a temporary cure for Jimmy which lasts 24 hours in book 26 of the manga. Jimmy solves a case (under his real identity) and manages to bring Rachel out for dinner during this period of time, while Haibara disguises herself as Conan to erase Rachel's suspicion. He has to "leave for an important case" during the dinner, and Conan returns.

Due to the unstable characteristics of the temporary cure, it is highly possible to die from taking it. Thus Jimmy has only taken the cure once so far, and that is under desperate circumstances. It is not known whether this temporary cure works only once like the Chinese liquor which Jimmy ingested previously, or works every time. Ai also mentions a "time lag" to Jimmy once, which suggests that the temporary cure may not work for exactly 24 hours all the time.

People knowing Conan's identity include Dr. Agasa^[9], the Kudo couple (Booker and Vivian)^[10], Harley Hartwell^[11], Ai Haibara^[12], Vermouth, and Phantom Thief Kid. (Only in the movies, and there is no description about him knowing it in the original manga.) Both Akemi Miyano (Ai Haibara's elder sister)^[13] and Hiroki Sawada (a character in Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street) learned Conan's secret before they died.

[edit] Gadgets

Conan has gotten many gadgets from Dr. Agasa to help him solve crimes even as a kid. These six are among his most useful:

The power-boost sneakers, (First introduced in Episode 5) when turned on, send a mild current through Conan's legs, effectively supercharging them for short periods. This is a critical device for Conan, for with the shoes on, Conan can briefly run fast, jump high, and kick even harder than he did when he was in his original body. They come in most handy in clutch moments.
The voice-changing bowtie allows Conan to take on another person's voice. Another of his critical devices, he will often change voices to point out clues and disguise himself as Richard to reveal solutions. Every so often, he also has to use it to reassure Rachel by mimicing his original voice in a phone call.
The stun dart watch is armed with tiny tranquilizer darts that can put a person to sleep for a number of minutes and a face that flips up to become a sight. Richard has gone to sleep via these darts often; Conan will afterward pose Richard and pretend to be him at the end of a case. This device has one shot only, however.
The radio badge, emblazoned with the Detective Boys logo and given to Jimmy and the junior detectives, allows continuous but covert contact between them. Also, they have a transmitter that can be detected by his tracing glasses.
The solar-powered skateboard is able to propel itself so long as there's sunlight to power it: a handy means of getting around town when short legs just don't cut it.
Tracing glasses: These glasses can pick up radio signals from special transmitters that Conan frequently sticks onto a suspect. Conan's glasses aren't corrective, since he has good vision already. Originally, he just pushed the lenses out of his father's spare pair of glasses and used him as part of his disguise. Dr. Agasa later gives him different glasses with various abilities, but the lenses are always just plain glass. Once, however, he had Dr. Agasa fit the frames with bulletproof glass in preparation to defend himself against a criminal (Detective Conan: The Last Wizard of the Century).
Soccer ball making belt: a belt that is made to form 1 soccer ball of any size, and is greatly used with the power-boost shoes, but at some points, he uses it for soft landings.
Portable Bento Box Fax: a bento box with a fax machine hidden in it. Also contains real food.
Ear Cell Phone: A gaudy looking ear ring that is also used as a cell phone.

Conan befriends three classmate children, Amy Yeager (Ayumi Yoshida), George Kojima (Genta Kojima), and Mitch Tsuburaya (Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya). Together they form the Junior Detective League (Detective Boys or Shonen Tantei in Japanese).

[edit] Trivia

Shinichi Kudo/Jimmy Kudo in Detective Conan, the anime series in Japan.

Jimmy's birthday is May 4^[14], the date when Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty fought over Reichenbach Falls.
His zodiac sign is Taurus.
Jimmy and Rachel make a cameo appearance in InuYasha episode 128.
In Episode 90 of InuYasha Sota Higurashi wears an outfit strikingly similar to Conan.
Jimmy's favorites:

Food: Lemon Pie.^[15]

Sport: Soccer.^[16]

Detective: Sherlock Holmes.^[17]

Detective Story: The Sign of Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle^[18]

Phrase: "One Truth Prevails" (English version), "There is Only One Truth" (Japanese version)

Jimmy knows a note when he hears one but can't for the life of him create music with his own voice. This often leads people to think that he's tone-deaf. He has special interest in violins because Sherlock Holmes plays one.^[19]
In episode 149, Not yet reached in English, Rachel shows a picture of Tropical Land. In the picture is the roller coaster from the first episode. The first row of seats has the murderer and the murderer's friend; the second row shows Jimmy and Rachel; the third row is the victim's girlfriend and the victim, whose head is covered by a word; and the last row has Gin and Vodka from the Black Organization.
In the English version of Case Closed, Jimmy thinks with his adult voice, acted by Jerry Jewell, while he is Conan. However in the Japanese version of Detective Conan, he thinks with just a more relaxed and matured tone of his young Conan voice, Minami Takayama.
He also made a cameo appearance in the anime Yakitate!! Japan, when Pierrot played him in a vision. In that appearance, he bragged about Detective Conan's TV ratings being better than that of Yakitate's.
Jimmy's tranquilizer darts appear to work on all his victims except Gin, which is shown in episode 178 when he attempts to help Ai from being killed. Gin still manages to move, but barely. (This is probably due to the fact that Gin shot himself in the arm in order to keep himself awake, according to the manga)
Other than Richard, Jimmy has used his voice-changing bowtie to solve cases on Sonoko Suzuki (Serena Sebastian), Heiji Hattori (Harley Hartwell)^[20], Eri Kisaki (Eva Kaden)^[21], Doctor Agasa^[22], and His mom (Vivian Kudo)^[23]. Besides Doctor Agasa and Vivian Kudo, he has used his stun-dart watch to knock them out before talking to them.
He hates Hide-and-seek since his childhood and prefers to play soccer instead. This is made clear in the 9th movie Strategy Above the Depths and in series episodes such as 81 The Kidnapping of a Popular Artist Case.