On Shinichi

On Shinichi Kudo

by Samuel Curtis

Here I should declare: I am an avid fan of Shinichi's, and my fandom of Detective Conan, chronologically started from 00:35am 14 July, 1998, started off on fantasizing on Shinichi. The nickname of "Samuel Curtis" was actually my second Westernization of his name (The first trial was Samuel Cotone; since September 2002 it was Samuel Kudora.). Just in case some more of a Shinichi fanatic said my article despised her/his idol, I'll just say: "I'm also a big Shinichi fan. However, on character analysis I wanted as few emotional input as possible"

That meant I'm quite aware that this essay would possibly cause somebody else to think that I'm despising him. Why?

The reason is, from my interpretation of the series, Shinichi, yes, is handsome, clever and cool, and this is enough to arouse the most (me included). However, most would not notice he actually having problems with socialization, even voluntary, that caused him to be:

1.Marginalized in the classroom, if not the society, fame not considered;
2.He is actually desocialized, and, worse, he thinks there's no problem in that.

This was an expected -- yet unexpected -- conclusion. Here I should put
forward the evidence why I said so, and explain why it is so.

Shinichi and Conan Must be Separated for Analysis

Everyone who knows a bit about the series of Detective Conan knows Shinichi and Conan are the same person, and, when necessary, I refer to "Shinichi-Conan" in my posts. But why I decide to make "On Shinichi Kudo" and "On Conan Edogawa" as two separate articles?

The reason is, that his shrinking in Volume 1 and the subsequent loss of identity (as requested by Agasa) is an impact that is big enough to change his basic logic, and clearly represented by his new personality. If I don't separate the articles, I even have to compare "pre-shrinking" and "post-shrinking" Shinichi-Conan. It's better off, then, to separate the two write-ups.

It should be noted that there are still two features common to the two:

1.Deduction ability; and
2.Mentality towards Ran.

The former is not my concern. The latter topic, I would write the general tendency, common to both Shinichi and Conan, here. Things only related to Conan will be written in the write-up about Conan.

Also noted that if some quotes happen during the time that Shinichi has been shrunken as Conan, but are in line with the normal Shinichi mentality, it will be quoted when necessary.

The First Evidence

Most remember that Conan was turned back into Shinichi for about one day and a half in Volume 26, and clearly he received many hurrays when he appeared in the auditorium. But how did his classmates react when he arrived at the 2B classroom? (The quote below is from Pages 8 to 9 in File 5, Volume 26.)

(Shinichi appeared at Class 2B's classroom of Teitan High with Ran.)

Classmate A: Hey, Kudo! The first day you're back and you're going with your "wife"?
Shinichi: Idiot! It isn't that...
Classmate B: ::whistle::
Classmate A: By the way, the new English teacher (Jodie St.Emillion
--Samuel.) was quite a sexy gal ::heart::
Classmate C: A sexy white gal with great figures ::heart::

Shinichi disappeared for at least a few months, and then heard classmates teasing about his relationship with Ran, then followed with a somewhat ecchi line. No, not a line of welcome. Is that a way to greet a long-lost friend with? The only possible answer to the attitude of his classmates is that for them, Shinichi isn't a person worth welcoming, although it's not too big a problem teasing him with a few lines, especially those on his relationship with Ran. This is still better than total silence, though, since his classmates were still aware of the existence of a guy of the name "Shinichi Kudo"-- but it's alarming to note the difference of attitude in the auditorium. Clearly his hurrays in the auditorium was due to his fame as the Meitantei, Saviour of the Police, not anything related to campus life -- even though he was the main player in the school soccer team before he voluntarily dropped soccer. Then his image in Teitan was even a bit worse than the average student, if he's not became a detective. This is marginalization, isn't it? As always in history, marginalized people still have mock respect...

The Mystery Geek

Why was he being marginalized? Many reasons can be stated, but all reasons can be stemmed to one source: his obsession with crime and detection, or being a "suiri-otaku" (Here I use Summon Illusion's idea of translating this term.) How geeky he is in this respect, and be explained from the following quote: (P. 17-18, File 10, Volume 2):

Conan: Whaaaat?! Another haunted mansion?!
Genta: Yeah! Ayumi found another one!!
Ayumi: This one's "Etou"-san's house, at Nichou-me, house 21!!
(Alphabet "I" and kanji "tou". The kanji "Ku" is similar to the
alphabet, and as alphabet it's sounded as "E". --Samuel.)

Conan: "Etou"...?
Ayumi: The rumour goes, that it's a creepy house overflowing with weird
books, and nobody lives there because the boy who used to live
there by himself was eaten by a monster!!

[...]
Conan: You, you morons... it's not "Etou", it's "Kudou"...!!
{IT'S MY HOUSE!!!}

The neighbourhood cannot just make a ghost story of the Kudos out of the fact of it has many books, a young boy (Shinichi) living alone there and he disappeared -- and by the reason of "the books ate him." It is rational to think the reason of such a rumour is from Shinichi himself -- he spent so much time locked into his house alone reading mystery novels (left by his father), going out just only for school and soccer training (for the latter, before grade 11 -- he thinks he's good enough to be a detective after all, and need to "train his reflexes" [Vol1, File1]" too much any more.) -- so that he's the mystery of his neighbours, and such a reason can be just naturally attributed to him for his disappearance.

Oh yes, the real mystery geek -- if the above itself is just a bit less of a fanatic than Hiroki's working on his laptop at PE lessons (Around 38th minute, Movie 6. He was exempt), then, what if he can quote any mystery stories at an instant (e.g. Movie 2, the part when the Mouris and the police were at Sawaki's), engaging in mystery fan activities (such as Holmes Freak case in Vol.12), anxious of a rare version of Sherlock Holmes (as above), and talking nearly exclusively of crime and deduction that even a person as close to him as Ran was annoyed (Vol 1 File 1), and Agasa has to quote Sherlock Holmes to persuade him (Vol 2 File 6). We're pretty sure Shinichi is so much a mystery geek as to sacrifice any of his socialization (except maybe Ran) to devote into deduction. Such geekiness wasn't uncommon, especially in academic circles, but Shinichi isn't an academic... Anyway, he thinks cases are his life, nothing else. Of course, as in most cases, Ran might be the exception...

But does he know he was in such a situation, and if so, did he try to make remedies? He seemed to know, given Shinichi's a great mind reader (Or, how can he solve cases just by facts alone?). However, he thinks that was perfectly normal -- due to three reasons:

1.Classmate interactions aren't something that he found of any importance, if not preference; you see Shinichi is in excellent terms with Megure.

2.He thinks he's superior to others -- even he did not speak much (In my opinion), he kept a veneer of "cultural superiority" into his head, and thinks his classmates are worthless to talk to. (The famous flat-eye stare of Conan is a extension of this thought.)

3.He's so used to living by himself that he thought that he needed nobody's help, Ran included.

However, this did not come from his own mind; all the foundation of that came from his family.

Sourcing

Everybody knows Shinichi's father is Yusaku, famous mystery writer, and mother being Yukiko, ex-star. It went without question that Shinichi's fondness in crime and detection came from his father, and his [presumably] acting skills -- more useful after he's being shrunk -- came from his mother. But what else did they bring?

As I mentioned above, Shinichi's problem of socialization have their roots in his family.

In File 2 of Volume 1, Ran mentioned Shinichi "has always been full of mischief", and, accordingly, in Volume 11 Shinichi-Conan recalled when he (Shinichi) was six, he always played with Ran so as get dirt all over their clothes and scolded by Eri -- the Mouris were yet to be divorced. A far cry from the solitary, desocialized mystery-reading geek and seemingly a more well-balanced individual, isn't it?

First, try to know a bit about Yusaku. Before he married with Yukiko at the age of 20, he was a little known mystery writer. From this mere fact, and others, we can get two things of the same conclusion -- Yusaku is a person who dared to, if not already was, acting different:

1.Not going on to study but to write novels. Although in 1974 there are still fewer tertiary places than now, but I still hold the feeling that he opted not for that.

2.The fact of marrying with Yukiko, which was the hottest star of the moment itself. Even the facts behind that was not understood, one needs to have much courage-- if not eccentricity -- to even try to propose to her and being not famous. And he wasn't her childhood friend, or it should be mentioned in Volume 40.

3.He wasn't bound by the publishers and always tried to sneak off from their attention (See Volume 6 File 1; it seemed that it was such a practice that Shinichi was so accustomed to that);

4.The action of leaving their only child Shinichi in Japan while he and Yukiko lived in Los Angeles; and

5.As Shinichi-Conan said in File 1 of Volume 14, "He only has deduction on his mind; how can he get another girlfriend?" (Explaining to Agasa of the news that Yukiko found Yusaku drunk and lipstick-stained after a reception)

All in all, Yusaku acted differently. He was well-natured and was quite gentle -- in my opinion, much more pleasing than his wife -- and he did what he wanted to do (except, in most cases, what Yukiko wanted him to do-- I won't be surprised if he is henpecked.) -- and became rich and successful, though not many people in 2-choume of Beika know Lot 21 was his home. Maybe it's Yukiko's idea to prevent from the presses (Even I doubt), but Yusaku wasn't to object, even now they had a son called Shinichi. It is possible to say the Kudo household lived in seclusion from the most of the Beika-cho, with the exception of Dr. Agasa -- probably because they are both eccentrics; Yusaku could care less for the non-eccentric, publishers probably excluded.

It was natural for anyone to agree that Shinichi's fanaticism in Crime and Deduction is Yusaku's legacy, in addition to eccentricity. In anime episode 59 (The First-time Shopping Murder Case), we can see Shinichi-Conan remembered when he was very young, presumably at around 6, he has already role played mystery novels by himself alone. Mystery novels might be the only printed matter that Shinichi can get touched with -- except textbooks -- in his early days. Yukiko didn't seem to share her husband's fantasy; but her readings were surely put out of young Shinichi's reach -- women have the tendency to make her private things secret. That is, culturally, Shinichi was fed by Yusaku.

Then, let us switch to Yukiko, the ex-star. The reason why Yukiko married with Yusaku when she was the hottest and then left the showbiz was not mentioned -- and I'm not in my position to propose any theories. But Yukiko has been very popular a few years before that; she was popular enough at 16 to attract a large crowd to Teitan High to see her at her school's open day. Even now she should be about 38, she had not a bit forgotten her glitters, and she was actually very proud at that, although she was clearly content to be a housewife.

But the important point is, "she had not a bit forgotten her glitter." In any rate, we have seen Yukiko was being an extremely pretentious person -- she isn't deceiving, but she did things in such an exaggerated way that people will think she's actually acting -- to the level that Shinichi-Conan hated such a attitude (Volume 14). However, he might hate his mother on being overly pretentious, but actually Yukiko's legacy on Shinichi is far from little.

Proof is on Shinichi's side. In File 1 of Volume 1, Ran asked why Shinichi, being the "detective geek," wanted to be a detective, but not to be a mystery writer like his dad.

Shinichi answered, "I don't want to write about detectives... I want to BE one!! The Heisei Sherlock Holmes!! The more cases, the more excited I get!! The thrill of that moment when I foil the schemes of the criminal!! The sensation!! Once you start, you can't stop... That's what detectives are like!!!"

And in a few lines previous, he said, "But look, fan letters... Everyone loves a detective geek!"

The conclusion is: Shinichi did cases because he's feeding on the high (or euphoria?) and pride of cases being solved -- and he can be on the spotlight with all the fame.

Which is analogous to ask an actor, who's a drama fan since childhood, why s/he want to act rather than writing scripts.

Please don't forget who Yukiko was. Yukiko treasured her fame in the past very much; and it is quite certain that it was mentioned frequently to her son. Given Yusaku is majorly desocialized, that was young Shinichi's only social education, school excluded. That actually caused him to fantasize all the glamour of being a star and being popular, and that gave him a desire to perform. When this mixed with Yusaku's legacy -- the love of crime and deduction -- the product is, naturally, the want to be a detective.

Shinichi's pride of the self might be able to trace to Yukiko too. Yusaku is more or less humble, while Yukiko is extremely arrogant -- this is certainly because of her extroverted character. She of course has reason to be arrogant; she was the most popular star in last 70's! But as early as in Grade 4, he was commented by a teacher of his elementary school "rude." (Volume 15 Chapter 1, recalled by Ms Yonehara, Ran's class teacher in Grade 4. The two were in different classes then.) He has nothing to boost of then, in my opinion...

Some might say the latter reason why he wanted to be a detective, quoted above, might contradict my earlier mention of marginalization, but being in spotlight and how did he feel about his position is two different matter -- the latter is actually the proof that he's being a loner.

First, what is a loner? Jessica Romero said, a loner is "someone who keeps to himself and doesn't really fit into the social groups in his environment, and probably doesn't make any effort to fit into them." Regarding to the facts I've said, Shinichi can be a loner since:

1.With Ran and Megure as an exception, generally he refused socialization, especially in the current year.
2.He thought it's okay, if not thinking he's being different.

But why?

As I said, the Kudos has always been lived in a life more or less on
themselves, and Shinichi's eccentricity caused him to be more or less cut off from the other colleagues (Ran excluded). He has been so much used to it all the time, and given himself being fascinated of his parents' past and present, he has all the "feel good" mentality and thinks he's being superior, and hence thinking there's not the need for others -- as I said, he inherited his mother's arrogance -- and hence he made no attempt in normalizing his relationships with others.

And it should be noted that even though both Yusaku and Yukiko seldom left the house, it seemed that they sometimes neglected their son as to he had to play with himself, which seemed impossible. (Anime Episode 59; original) That was actually the root of his sense of independence.

In the last two years, after Yusaku and Yukiko emigrated to the US and leaving him alone, the isolation tendency has been even more severe -- he lived by himself; and without too many negative effects (or so he thought), doing what he wanted to do -- constraints weren't much; he always have ample amounts of money from his parents from the US -- by then the sense of independence had been firmly rooted into him.

And that was why in Vol.6 File 1, he declined Yusaku's help, saying that "I can do what I ought to do." (Ran, then, was the second reason, of course, but that was to explain why he couldn't leave Japan.)

Which meant also as a result he became quite egocentric, as in not very sensitive to what the others feel -- especially when he's on his detective nerve. Two examples of that can be observed in the first chapter; the first being Shinichi didn't even know Ran's father is "still a detective"; and second being extremely insensitive to Ran and saying insensible things after he solved the roller coaster murder -- Ran was still scared and wept, while Shinichi still said I've seen cases more scarier than that...

Which seemed normal for most of us is an exception in Japan, the most homogeneous society. And even not so, being insensitive to others was never good, is it?

Kylie Griffin was commented by Agent Stone, "A loner without a purpose." ("Grease", Extreme Ghostbusters) Then I might say Shinichi as "A loner with a purpose"?

Ran -- the exception

In the above, when I try to conclude Shinichi's problems, I always say, "Ran excluded." Yes, Ran does have a special relationship with Shinichi. This special relationship was extended to a relationship that they think is love, though none of them did really speak out. (Shinichi had a chance in Vol 26, and he planned so -- unluckily the antidote faded untimely. Clearly, it hurt Ran too much...)

But what does it mean for Shinichi?

First, how Shinichi and Ran met is obscure -- it was never mentioned in manga except for the fact that they're childhood friends. And according to volume 11, they are friends at the latest since 7. (Shinichi-Conan recalled being scolded by Eri since he and she made a mess of themselves playing outside-- Eri separated from Kogoro 10 years ago.)There are some theories around:

1.1.In Shinichi's first case in Volume 21, Megure mentioned that he knew Shinichi since he was always seen with Yusaku. That was until Grade 6. Possibly in earlier times Yusaku needed informants inside the police force to provide him with material to write novels. It is possible for Shinichi to meet Ran, son of Mouri Kogoro who has already been an subordinate of Megure's until he was fired 10 years ago.

2.In "The Clash of Two Mothers" in Volume 41, it was found Eri and Yukiko knew each other -- they we in the same high school (Teitan as a fact) and has been engaged in a "rivalry" due to the school's beauty contest. They were friends, as a fact, but haven't seen each other for long. The two kids might get to know of each other through their mothers.

3.A very simple reason: They've been in the same school, and in most of the time, same class (at least not in Grade 4 -- see Vol.15 File 1).

Regardless of the reason, Shinichi and Ran started their acquaintance through play, and this had set the tone of their relationships till to this day -- if one remembered that frame in Volume 11, actually you should know what type of game they played then -- clearly, it would be anything but gentle; and never would I be surprised if playground fights were quite often at the time -- and often started out by Shinichi. Playmates they had been, then friends they were, and lovers now they are -- quite a simple order.

But exactly why would she be his exception, so he won't be quite acting like himself when Ran was in the scene? Reason: although Shinichi isn't that sensitive enough to know the whole of Ran's emotional niche, through all the time together -- in my opinion, he is the person who gave most of the emotional support to her at that difficult time when her parents separated. He, of course, did know what Ran thought during all these years, he did certainly know what is appropriate for her and what's not, and actually he adjusted himself a bit when Ran was involved, if the Deduction Junkiness is not overly high. As a fact, Ran was the only person that Shinichi would give out some longer-lasting passion.

And why now both sides don't even dare to tell the other side s/he's in love with him/her? This is because they had not even made clear that the feeling between the two is friendship -- or love. So, as to play safe, they thought it's not the correct time to tell others, even others have already seen love over friendship... And all the flushing of both are signs of affliction, not friendship.

There is a caveat, though. Ran is part of Shinichi's emotional niche, of course, but compared to Ran (See "On Ran"), Ran is not as indispensable to Shinichi. Actually part of Shinichi's affection to Ran is based on possessiveness -- somewhat a feeling of "monopolizing" Ran. There has been a few times in Conan that Shinichi-Conan got jealous of somebody else just by the other side's innocent actions -- for example, the relationship with Dr Araide in Volume 24, and even he even tried to stop a 7-year-old kid to do something that he thought it would made the kid able to see Ran's chest (And actually the kid just wanted to make sure where the place of his long-lost mother's mole was. See "The Little Client", Volume 39). So actually the relations between Shinichi Ran isn't that equal as most thought; It is reasonable for Ran to be jealous, but it is totally incorrect for Shinichi to be jealous!

-- And the Case of Soccer...

Ai: "The meitantei's just became a kid when it come to soccer..." (Vol.19, File 9)

Soccer is another thing that's indispensable from Shinichi. He's certainly a great player of soccer (Ran said in Vol.1 File 1, "If you had not quit the [school's soccer] team, you would have been the national hero by now..."), and also has great fanfare of it as a speculator sport (For example, the way Shinichi-Conan watched the World Cup, mentioned in File 9 of Volume 19. Although the manga and anime rendition is different -- in manga Mitsuhiko mentioned when Japan got into the finals; and in anime he mentioned when Japan was unable to got into the second round of the finals, but all pointed to the same conclusion.)

However, there left few lines of Shinichi on soccer, both of them in Volume 1:

1.File 1, explaining why he left the soccer team: "I only played soccer develop my reflexes needed for detective work..."
2.File 2, Ran remembering Shinichi would kick a soccer ball on himself when he's thinking hard, saying that: "Doing this clears my head..."

However, to "develop my reflexes needed for detective work", one need not to have world-class class soccer skills, even one should not be physically unfit to be a detective. (Ms Marple is just a story, remember?) And world-class soccer cannot be achieved overnight. The earliest record of Shinichi in the soccer team (In Shinichi's First Love case, Vol.18) he has been the default striker at Grade 7 -- since Teitan must be quite a prestigious institution, its striker place would not be a place for the inexperienced. And he was being put into that as soon as he was in the team, what did meant he had been a superb player on his right then. Which is not quite possible for him to just start soccer in Grade 4. It might be as soon as he was in the elementary -- a time when he wasn't overly affected with the loner tendency-- just as a type of playing -- and it caught on.

But why he now explained it now as "training detective reflexes"? Many things happened over all these years, which DID have influences on how he viewed things. As Shinichi changed from a normal boy to a secluded deduction geek, how he viewed soccer must have changed accordingly, from a game as when he was younger, to a tool to build up reflexes needed for detection, even he didn't consciously tried to change it -- soccer was part of his life. This is what I said as the shift of basic logic, a term of more importance in my next article, "On Conan".

Conclusion

In this essay I have attempted to analyse Shinichi Kudo's characters and his favours, by the method of "developmental analysis" -- that is, analyse through his past events and the environment he was grown up, at least the way I am perceived to have. As a deduction geek (or suiri-otaku as you like) living alone, he actually was quite desocialized and probably marginalized at school; and that was a gradual progress -- he was not that at his earlier ages, and, actually, things that were set at that period -- most importantly, Ran and soccer -- became quite an exception for his case.

Body: Started on the evening of 11 January 2003, and finished at 1:45 am of 2 April 2003, at Hong Kong. (Or 2 Martin, Shinichi 4)

Afterward

I wished I could write shorter -- this is 23KB as pure text -- and I could written faster -- nearly 3 months, actually an inefficiency -- but at least I'm satisfied with what I have written.

I know characterization is quite personalized; for the same character in any work: novels, scripts, poems, movies to manga, each have their own
characterization on the same character; one literal commentator said literal commentary is actually the reader's rendition of the work. Characterization being part of literal commentary so it cannot escape from such a tendency. Some people voiced concerns on my interpretations on the first two quotes I used to support my point, thinking that I've been interpretating overly serious, but I still think my view is justified at least for myself.

I have no wish to write a essay anybody can agree on -- as I've said above, this is quite impossible. I just want to put forth my view as detail as I can, and that's all.

Credits

The first credit goes to Hisashi Nozawa, script writer of the 6th Movie. The movie provided a certain Hiroki Sawada, who did provoked me on my
characterization of Shinichi. This Hiroki-kun has more far-flung influences than that -- but this is out of topic.

The second credit came to Orla, who provided me hosting for this essay.

Then, all beta readers, including Jessica, Cherie, Marsha [These names should be known to you when you've been in the fandom earlier], the Roulette of Fate, the Conan Freak [Two members of the Hong Kong Conan newsgroup] and Azusa of edogawaconan.com. Jessica worths a special mentioning, actually I was updating her with latest developments of tis and give ample comments. Cherie, Roulette and Azusa also worth more mentioning, as they've given quite a number of comments. It should be also noted that some of the quotations here are using Paul Stephen's translations of the early manga.

That's all. Ended at 2:44am of the fourth of April 2003 (or 4 Martin Shinichi 4), in my room in Hong Kong. Samuel.