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{{quote| ''"With a keen eye for details, only one truth prevails!"''}}

 

 

Shinichi Kudo (Jimmy Kudo in the US) is one of the world's foremost detectives. And he's only in high school. His sharp analytical mind allows him to connect points faster than just about anyone else. The local law enforcement agencies frequently ask him for help.

== #ABC ==

* [[Absence of Evidence]]: In one episode, the daughter of a wealthy businessman has been kidnapped and Conan figures out who the kidnapper is when he remembers that no one reported hearing the sounds of dogs barking the previous night. (For clarification, the [[The Butler Did It|butler]] who claimed to have witnessed the kidnapping said that the kidnapper climbed down a tree, but the businessman's dogs routinely barked at anyone who got near the tree.)

* [[Actor Allusion]]: When Conan runs into Two-Mix, everyone notices that he sounds like [[Minami Takayama]] (she plays his voice).

* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: The anime tends to build the cases' backgrounds and characters further than the manga (after all, [[Talking Is a Free Action]]). Therefore, cases like the murder of Mina by her sister Masayo over a misunderstanding or the asshole writer killed by his twin brother become [[Tear Jerker|much stronger]], since we see a smooth transition of the murderers, from keeping their cool to becoming completely deranged.

** Shinichi's and Heizo's fathers are great detectives, even better than their sons, they just basically never show up. Yusaku is just ''not'' interested in being a full-time detective, being quite happy as a mystery author, and Heizo's father is probably busy with the administrative kind of police work. Ran's mother, Eri, is pretty effective at being a detective as well. Probably why she's such an effective lawyer. She's just so rarely involved that it doesn't matter.

* [[Adult Fear]]: Any danger that happens to Conan, who the majority of the characters believe is a six year old kid, or any other children in general. Conan has been alone with murderers before, held at gunpoint or knifepoint, taken hostage, willingly staying in an elevator with a bomb, being kidnapped and so forth. Another example that could applied is in the 15th movie {{spoiler|where Conan is buried under an avalanche and they only had minutes to save him.}}

** The Stage Magician case brings a BIG one when we find out that {{spoiler|the victim's daughter, Ayano, ''has been kidnapped by the killer''. Fortunately said killer was a [[Sympathetic Murderer]] and, though she admits that she wanted to kill the girl (since her father murdered her older brother), she decides not to and returns her unharmed before turning herself in.}}

* [[Aerith and Bob]]: In the dub, the children of Oscar Hotta are Ryan, Kevin, Karen...and Famke. Famke? While yes, technically it's a real name of Dutch origins, it's so uncommon they might as well have just kept her original name, Famiko.

*** Sadly [[Truth in Television]].

* [[All That Glitters]]: Played with several times. One case had a mansion where the treasure was the view from a hidden window. On Conan revealing this, the villain had a complete breakdown over all they had done to find it - including mass murder and disfiguring their own face. Another episode had the treasure be the experience of the journey to find it...except there was also a real treasure as some robbers had been hiding their gains in the same spot.

* [[Almost Kiss]]: {{spoiler|Takagi and Satou, so many times. Finally resolved when Takagi was in the hospital.}}

** {{spoiler|Shinichi and Ran during the Desperate Revival arc, the New York arc, and the Lupin III crossover special (Ran's dream).}}

* [[Blondes Are Evil]]: Vermouth, Shiho, and Jodie play this trope straight, subvert it, and avert it respectively. Sonoko has her moments too, if you ask Shinichi.

* [[Bodyguarding a Badass]]: An [[Badass Grandpa|old man]] protects his late friend's nephew from Brazil by pretending to be his late friend and having the nephew pose as the bodyguard. In reality, his goal was to be the decoy when one of the family members tries to kill the old man to get a larger inheritance.

* [[Bound and Gagged]]: Also appears in the first volume in the "The Sixth Smokestack" when the young kidnapped victim tries to explain the location where she's held.

* [[Briefcase Full of Money]]: Just before Gin attacks Shinichi and gives him APTX 4869.

 

* [[Cast Herd]]: With 70+[[Loads and Loads of Characters|recurring characters]], it is needed. Story arcs usually select from one of the following herds: the Mouri family itself, the folks in the Metropolitan Police Department, the Detective Boys, the Osakans, the [[Eagle Land]] law enforcement, and so on. There are times when the herds overlap, though.

* [[Cell Phone]]: Because ''Conan'''s first few years of airing span the ramp-up of Japanese adoption of the cellphone (''keitai''), it is interesting to watch the evolution of its use in the series. (All the more so since the series is "supposed" to take place over the course of a few months thanks to [[Comic Book Time]]. At one point nine or ten years into the series's run, Kogoro reflected on how payphones had all but disappeared over the past five years in favor of cell phones--even though they were all over the place in early episodes!)

** Early episodes:

** Cell phones are also frequently used as remote detonators for bombs. ("Trembling Metropolitan Police Headquarters: 12 Million Hostages"; the non-serial movies ''Captured in Her Eyes'' and ''Countdown to Heaven'')

* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: Together with [[Art Evolution]]; what started as a cliche mystery comedy started getting serious in its third year of serialization.

* [[Cherry Blossoms]]: Movie 7 (Crossroad in the Ancient Capital) starts out with a flashback to when Heiji saw {{spoiler|his first love, a girl in a kimono, under a flowering tree, with blossoms floating around her}}. And seeing how {{spoiler|[[Oblivious to Love]]}} Heiji is, you can pretty much guess who it is.

** The ''[[Lupin III]] vs. Detective Conan'' TV special involved a blossoming cherry tree as a major plot point {{spoiler|related to a double murder that takes place during the show's opening act}}.

** KID has indigo eyes. Let's face it, he's a [[Badass]].

** Ran also has indigo eyes.

** And yet if you look at the colored manga illustrations, it seems that pretty much ''everyone ever'' has blue eyes for some reason.

*** When asked about it, [[Word of God|Gosho]] stated he liked the contrasting colorful blue eyes better.

** The London Arc had a bomber leaving a trail of Sherlock-Holmes-themed clues all over London for Conan to chase down in order to stop his next bombing.

* [[Crossover]]: ''[[Lupin III]] vs Detective Conan''. [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|No, they don't really use the potential.]]

** For that matter, the Lupin III crossover special probably also counts as "fake", from the point of view of overall series continuity. When Lupin is a manga in the movie and a person in the special, and the TV series tends to use [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]] names to refer to other TV shows ("Kamen Yaiba", "Urban Hunter"), it's hard to tell ''what'' Lupin's relationship is to the "main" Conan continuity.

* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: It's easy to forget about Kogoro's black belt in Judo and marksmanship skills given the way he's portrayed most of the time. He's also got a pretty good head on his shoulders, he just doesn't take time to use it. However, when it's personal, children are at stake, old firends are involved, or the criminal threatened Ran or Conan, he breaks out of it. Takagi also has his moments.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Shinichi has his moments, particularly when Richard is around.

* [[Dead Little Sister]]: Outside of the case of {{spoiler|Ai Haibara}}, dead little sisters (or other relatives), especially as a result of hit-and-run accidents, are a frequent motive for murderers, as well.

* [[Death in The Clouds]]

* [[Demon Head]]: This happens a lot beginning in the late 200s to early 300s when one character is yelling at another (usually in the more comedic episodes). Is usually Ran or Kogoro but could be anyone.

** Though he does lose some of the uncertainty that makes him such a monkey as time goes on. (For instance, in "The Man Who Called for an Ambulance" {{spoiler|he ends up delivering a lecture to a more senior detective about jumping to conclusions that Conan silently applauds}}.) However, it looks like he will always be a monkey where his relationship with Satou is concerned.

* [[Detective Patsy]]: Several [[Monster of the Week|Killers]] of the Week hire Kogoro as a detective to use him in their alibi. This would usually work if it weren't for Conan, but considering Kogoro's undeserved [[Famed in Story|reputation]] as one of Japan's [[Great Detective|greatest detectives]], [[Too Dumb to Live|it makes those killers look like idiots for choosing him of all detectives]]. Once the culprit actually didn't recognize him when picking him as her patsy and was shocked when he revealed himself as Kogoro Mori.

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [http://skyechan.deviantart.com/art/DC-The-Running-Joke-220183105 this comic]

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: The motive in quite a lot of cases. Your son praticed baseball too hard, and was hit by a truck clearly due to his exhaustion? You pay back by blowing up the company that owns the truck, and attempting to blow up a baseball stadium, potentially killing thousands of innocent people.

* [[Dying Clue]]: Multiple examples listed on that page.

** One really has to marvel at the amazingly intricate code messages most normal people in this series can conjure from out of nowhere ''while bleeding to death''.

** 3-year-old versions of the Detective Boys appeared in the Magic File #2 prequel OAV, in which middle-schooler Shinichi helped a man prove his alibi.

* [[Elephant in The Living Room]]: Conan's increasingly noticeable failure to act as a normal little boy arouses suspicions from just about everyone in the cast not privy to his secret, yet nobody really thinks of just sitting the kid down and asking him just how on earth does he knows so much, rather preferring to harbor vague suspicions relatively forever.

* [[Embarrassing Old Photo]]: In one episode, an old college professor is killed by one of his former students over two of these. The student had plastic surgery done after graduating and became a fashion model, and the professor wanted to leak two old pre-plastic surgery photos of him to tabloids, including a photo of the student dressed in drag.

** Actually, the killer didn't mind the drag photo, and wanted that one sent to the newspaper, as the make-up he was wearing covered his pre-plastic surgery face well enough. It was the professor's insistance that the other photo be sent that was the problem.

** In one case, KID teams up with {{spoiler|his self-proclaimed arch-enemy Jirokichi Suzuki}} out of all people. The reason for this is that {{spoiler|his dog, Lupin, had been locked up in a safe together with the instructions to open said safe, and Jirokichi asked KID for help to open it.}}

* [[Episode On a Plane]]:

** The "New York Arc" started with a flashback episode in which Shinichi solves a variant "locked room mystery" that took place on board a plane in flight.

** A case featuring a disgruntled former relief pitcher was solved when Conan realizes that the suspect had taken the same flight they did.

* [[Eureka Moment]]: Played straight AND subverted. A lot of Conan's epiphanies come in this way and the Detective Boys' sole reason for existing seems to be triggering these; however Conan later makes a habit of artificially creating these moments to lead others in the investigation. After a while, most of the cast seems to be consciously aware of this, with varying degrees of suspicion.

* [[Evil Overlord List]]: Kaitou KID and Vermouth apparently have read it.

** Likewise, if Conan is ever permanently restored to his adult identity, there will no longer be a "Detective Conan" for the show to be about.

** Ironically, played in Conan's favor for the same reasons whenever it comes to his identity and the Black Organization. Vermouth excluded, any Black Org. member who discovers his or Haibara's identities is instantly given an appointment with [[The Plot Reaper]] scheduled at "just before you get to tell Gin".

** Earlier, Takagi and Satou had pretended to date on a few occasions to tail a suspect (Takagi couldn't enjoy their time together at all because Satou is pretty damn scary when in Work Mode).

* [[Fake Ultimate Hero]]: any episode where Conan's deductions are credited to Kogoro (most of them), boosting Kogoro's reputation as a detective. Kogoro is typically unconcious, but takes credit when he wakes up regardless.

** Sonoko will do the same thing whenever Conan has to use her instead.

* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]: From Chapter 1, someone is decapitated on a roller coaster via piano wire. Notably, it's the last crime Jimmy solves before he reverts to a kid.

* [[Fingertip Drug Analysis]]: At least once when Conan identified heroin, in the Moonlight Sonata case.

* [[First-Name Basis]]: An arc had as a side plot Ayumi trying to work up the nerve to call Ai by her first name. She's the only one of the children (including Conan) who does so (or has permission to).

* [[Giving Someone the Pointer Finger]]: The exposition sequence at the beginning of the movies always end with Conan pointing at the camera to deliver his ultimatum. ''There is only one truth!''

** Also, the detectives often point dramatically at the suspect when making their accusation. (Especially Mouri Kogoro, who is usually wrong.)

** "A secret makes a woman woman." (Granted when Vermouth says it it sounds more like "ooman", but I digress.)

** In one episode, Conan is able to tell the difference between a British accent and a Texan accent in spoken English--which is really quite impressive when you consider that the words were actually spoken with a "read phonetically by a Japanese actor" accent.

** The Detective Boys are a veritable love parallelogram in the making: Mitsuhiko and Genta have crushes on Ayumi, and Ayumi has a crush on Conan.

*** Mitsuhiko also has a crush on Haibara and Haibara is believed to have a crush on Conan.

*** At the end of ''Lost Ship in the Sky'', Conan is left wondering what it was Kaitou did to Ran that he (Shinichi) wouldn't have done that gave away that Kaitou really wasn't Shinichi after all. {{spoiler|(He thinks it's kissing her—but it was actually groping her bottom ''while'' he kissed her.)}}

** ''Almost every unmarried man in Megure's department'' has a crush on Officer Satou, to the point of forming a "defense organization" to try to torpedo the budding romance between her and Takagi (whom they resent). (Shiratori was the ''leader'' of this organization until {{spoiler|he met Kobayashi-sensei and realized his affections had been misplaced}}.) Because Satou is [[Oblivious to Love]], she doesn't notice any of this…and her mischievous co-worker Yumi shamelessly takes advantage of this blind spot to pull pranks on those jealous men. (Such as the time she {{spoiler|innocently gave Satou a ring to wear}}…)

** Somewhat subverted since it's implied that Conan would have returned it if he could, and actually asked Kogoro to replace it.

* [[He's Dead, Jim]]: Practically every episode with a corpse. Sometimes a pulse is checked on those without obvious injuries, but usually they are immediately proclaimed dead. Dead people are usually depicted open-eyed, with the pupils the size of pin pricks and the mouth agape.

** Subverted once, as it was used as one of the clues to the killer in one case.

** You can also hear several familiar voices in the dub.

* [[Hilariously Abusive Childhood]]: Usually played for laughs, Kogoro would yell at, throw, and even punch Conan for simply opening his mouth. Though, it seems punching is a valid form of punishment in this show.

** He even went as far as placing his fist on Conan's head and saying [[Calling Your Attacks|"Killing move... DRILL PUNCH!"]] and delivering the noogie from hell.

* [[Hollywood Tone Deaf]]: Shinichi/Conan, whose mastery of music is so bad his old elementary school teacher almost discovers the truth about him because she ''recognizes his terrible singing''.

* [[Honorifics]]: The way Shinichi/Conan refers to Ran in particular has some focus.

** At one point, Ran scolds Conan for using the wrong name/honorific when speaking to Hattori. (Conan is addressing him as an equal, when from Ran's point of view he should be addressing him with -san.)

* [[Ill Girl]]: In general, [[Ill Girl|Ill Girls]] are used as a motive and [[Ill Boy|Ill Boys]] are character attributes in this series.

** Female Examples:

**** In her confession, she mentions that her boyfriend was her [[Morality Pet]] and the only one who ever loved her after her parents's deaths. As [[Orihime]] of [[This Wiki]] says, be careful when threatening an [[Ill Girl]]'s loved ones: if she gets better, she'll kill you!

*** In another ([[Filler]]) case, this was played [[Tear Jerker|heartbreakingly straight]] with Kaori, a young girl whose brother Toshiya Todakoro is the ghost writer for the [[Victim of the Week]], writer Daisuke Torakura, who used to pay for her hospital bills in exchange for the guy's hard work. {{spoiler|We later learn the horrible truth: Kaori actually died six months ago, because [[Complete Monster]] Torakura actually ''bribed her doctor into keeping her on '''painkillers only''' instead of paying for '''crucial''' and expensive treatment abroad (as per his end of the bargain)'', so Todakuro could remain indefinitely time as his subordinate, which ultimately killed her. And when poor Todakuro found out from the guilt-ridden nurse who used to tend to the girl, he went nuts with pain and murdered Todakura.}}

** Male Examples: Prominent enough to have them listed on the character sheet.

* [[I'm Melting]]: The rare deaging side effect of APTX makes survivors feel like their bones melting and ''smoke'' comes out from their bodies.

* [[Impairment Shot]] (Volume 9, Ran was nearly drowned after being drugged. She assumed that her savior was Shinichi {It was him, as Conan, before the whole [[Improbable Antidote]] incident.) This also occurs whenever anyone in the anime goes back and forth when they were being shrunk by Apotoxin or going back with [[Improbable Antidote|Baiganr.]] with funky colors and blurred outlines. The manga has a negative version of the outlines and is either black or white, besides when Shinichi first became Conan and Aoyama decided to show his eyes wide and his entire form literally ''steaming'' as his insides 'melted', leaving you to wonder exactly how that feels.)

* [[Improbable Antidote]]: The toxin can be temporarily canceled out by {{spoiler|a certain type of liquor and a head cold.}}

** In a special, Kogoro makes a lame joke involving Heidi and Alps seating, and it ends up being the final clue to prevent a bomber from exploding a baseball stadium. Actually, Kogoro uses puns often, to the disgust of.... virtually anyone listening, but especially Conan.

* [[Inner Monologue]]: Conan uses it constantly, and other characters such as Ran do so to a lesser extent.

** Often used for somewhat redundant recaps during multi-part cases.

* [[Innocent Innuendo]]: Between Heiji and Kazuha

* [[Inspector Lestrade]]: Most police officers, but specially Megure.

** Few notable exceptions include Misao Yamamura, the thoroughly incompetent inspector from the Gunma prefecture, and, on the other side of the spectrum, Kansuke Yamato and Taka'aki Morofushi, who somewhat get to hop into the [[Competence Zone]] and keep up with Conan.

* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: Shinichi and Agasa.

* [[Interservice Rivalry]]: The FBI versus {{spoiler|the CIA}}.

** Of course it's not so much this as the bad reputation such a revelation would cause if it went public that scared him, because the hereditary culture would turn him into that character in the eyes of the people. And then at some point his panic caused his common sense run a red light or two and hit a streetlight, a little understandably. Basically, it could be about how concentrating on erasing the mistakes of one's ancestors can make you repeat them.

** The said social commentary is actually subverted; see [[It Runs in The Family]], below.

* [[I Thought It Meant]]: Again, this is not about [[Conan the Barbarian]] as a sleuth.

* [[It Only Works Once|It Only Works Once Per Episode At Most]]: Conan's tranquilizer-needle wristwatch only has one shot, which means Conan has to save it until he really needs it. Sometimes Conan uses the watch early in the mystery (or, less frequently, misses his shot or the watch gets damaged) only to discover that the next time he needs to use it he's already shot his one bolt (and he must then work by the slower method of dropping hints or else find some other way to knock Kogoro out).

 

 

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Shinichi Kudo. Not a case of [[That Man Is Dead]]. {{spoiler|Not [[The Hero Dies]] either. It's a case of [[Name's the Same]].}}

* [[Kissing Cousins]]: In one of the earlier cases, the killer's motive for killing his grandfather, was that he had been in love since childhood with his cousin {{spoiler|and the heiress of the family fortune, as she was the old man's favorite grandkid}}, and the older man ''brutally'' forbid them to marry and mocked him. The killer's parents were also cousins, and the patriarch only ''very'' reluctantly agreed their marriage. Note that Japanese culture consider cousin marriages as more or less acceptable.

* [[Latex Perfection]]: KID seems to have brought this down where he can fool Shinichi {{spoiler|that he is Ran, or vice versa. This is scary ([[Crowning Moment of Funny|and at the same time, hilarious]], seeing as Shinichi has known Ran for years.}} Yukiko (a prize-winning actress) and Vermouth also manage to do this. Enough that throughout the series the only way [[Muggle|muggles]] can make sure someone was not impersonated is by literally pinching their faces.

* [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]]: [[Death Note (Manga)|''Kiss Note'']], anyone? Or [[City Hunter|''Urban Hunter'']]?

** The ''Urban Hunter'' appearance is especially worthy of note since the [[Actor Allusion|voice actor for Kogoro at the time was also the voice actor for]] ''[[City Hunter]]'' Ryo Saeba.

** One of the first examples in the series is possibly one of the creepiest ways to go about this - a Japanese diplomat is found poisoned in his office, with opera playing in the background to cover up any noises he made and the key in his trouser pocket. Heiji deducts that {{spoiler|the criminal used a simple trick with a piece of string to pull the key into the pocket - but he's actually wrong because this is physically impossible. The murderer (his wife) actually poisoned him when she ''brought Conan and the gang into the room'' and set up the Locked Room scenario by unlocking the door to show them in.}} Shinichi downright called this an application of a ''psychological'' locked room.

* [[Lolicon]]: Referenced. Haibara asks Conan if a specific man ({{spoiler|Shuichi Akai}}) was a loli-con. Conan's reaction was pure shock, so she said, "I was right, then?" What makes the scene particularly hilarious is the fact that {{spoiler|[[The Stoic|Akai]]}} and "lolicon" just don't belong in the same sentence.

** Sonoko's boyfriend Makoto, a karate champion, also travels around a lot due to his schedule.

** And Shinichi has taken considerable effort to make Ran ''think'' that they're in one, despite the fact that they actually live in the same apartment.

 

== MNO ==

* [[Make It Look Like an Accident]]: Some of the murders.

* [[Magic Antidote]]: In Heiji's debut, Conan is feeling poorly so he gives Conan a dose of Baiganr (a kind of alcohol) claiming it to be an old family tradition and a surefire cure for the cold. It does, in fact, make him feel better-so much better, in fact, that it temporarily counteracts the poison and makes him return to his sixteen-year-old self. He literally has just enough time to rush to the scene of the crime of the week, solve it, and rush off so that he can regress again without breaking [[The Masquerade]]. He puts two and two together and tries to sneak a larger dose in hopes of permanently returning to normal, but Ran catches him and chases him off, telling him that it's not really good for children and the first time was a special case on account of him being sick. (Later he succeeds in filching the bottle and drains it, {{spoiler|but apparently his body has built up a tolerance because all that happens is he gets drunk}}.)

{{quote| '''Ran''': ''You took one of Dr Agasa's weird chemicals, didn't you!?''}}

** For that matter, she had a similar theory the second or third time time, too ("I thought you needed to hide and had Dr. Agasa create some kind of shrinking drug.") prompting Conan to remark to the audience about how close she got.

* [[Meaningful Echo]]: "My mom said it's bad luck to waste even one grain of rice", in the 5th Non-Serial Movie.

* [[Meitantei]]

* [[Mistaken Nationality]]: Inverted from the usual case; in the episode introducing James Black, kidnappers mistake Black for the wealthy American owner of a trained dolphin show. Conan explains to the Detective Boys that, just as [[All Asians Are Alike]] to many Westerners, all Caucasians look alike to many Asians. At the same time, this is subverted when Conan is able to differentiate Black from the show-owner because he speaks English with a British rather than Texan accent (at least for the show's purposes. However, he ''actually'' speaks it with a "Japanese actor reading phonetically" accent).

* [[The Mole]]{{spoiler|s(?): Vermouth is seen talking on the phone to someone about "gaining trust, per our agreement" with Conan & Co. at the same time mysterious transfer student/teen detective Sera, mysterious houseguest/Sherlock Holmes fanboy Subaru, and mysterious private eye/Kogura fanboy Tooru answer their phones. And it seems that Tooru knows Sera...}}

* [[Moment Killer]]: Before Takagi and Sato got their first kiss, every time they tried to gets ruined.

* [[Motive Rant]]: Almost every single murderer/con artist/blackmailer goes into this.

* [[Musical Trigger]]: Movie 12 ''Full Score of Fear.''

* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Happens to a few of the murderers when Conan reveals that their motives for murder were completely unjustified.

* [[Mystery Writer Detective]]: The protagonist's father is a mystery writer who occasionally steps in to solve mysteries when his son is stumped.

* [[Myth Arc]]: All of the recurring story lines fall under this.

* [[Never Suicide]]: Inverted in the ''third'' case of the series, but eventually used straight several times.

* [[Nightmare Fetishist]]: All the teen detectives, ever, and occasionally the Shonen Tantei. Particularly Shinichi in the very first arc. ("Stop crying, Ran; this kind of thing happens all the time!")

** Heck, the first case Conan runs into, he gets the everloving crap beaten out of him by the suspect, prompting him to find ways to compensate for his smaller size. (Enter the magical shoes.)

* [[No Longer With Us]]: When Conan first finds out who Ai really is, he demands to know what she's doing at the professor's house. Ai replies that the professor is "no longer in this world", Conan barges into his house... and sees him on the internet. Of course, this was written in 1997, when people still used modems.

* [[No One Could Survive That]]: Gin and Vodka's original opinion on the effects of [[Fountain of Youth|APTX4869]] to Shinichi.

** The movies are considerably more action-packed, giving Conan a lot more physical things to do (and putting him in a lot more jeopardy). Over the course of the various movies he has {{spoiler|crash-landed a helicopter, rocket-skateboarded the length of an amusement park (including along a roller coaster track), parasailed, jumped a car from the top floor of one skyscraper to the roof of another, been shot at by a helicopter gunship on the roof of the Tokyo Tower, fallen out of and jumped out of a helicopter onto a blimp}}, and more. His secret identity should have been blown by now from the things ''other people saw him do'' alone.

** And speaking of his secret identity, Kaitou Kid knows exactly what it is in the movies, whereas the TV series and manga have always been more cagey about it. Also, Kid and Conan almost always end up working together to some extent in their movie appearances, whereas they're always more at odds everywhere else.

** Events that take place in the movies may be referenced in other movies, but are never brought up in the TV series. Also, the movies only rarely mention events from the TV series except in general terms. (An exception being the 13th movie, ''Raven Chaser'', which built heavily on earlier Black Organization arcs.)

** Two more points are also disputed by the fandom: should the [[Backstory]] between Kogoro and Eri in the second movie be considered canon? And should [[Brain Uploading|Noah's Ark]] be listed under the people who knew the truth?

* [[Now That's Using Your Teeth]]: in one case, it looks like an old man had committed suicide in his room; then Conan deduces that {{spoiler|the victim had his hands bound behind his back, and then the rope that was looped around his neck was also threaded through his teeth so that if he called for help or his jaw gave out he would hang himself.}}

* [[Obfuscating Disability]]

* [[Opening Narration]]: All of the movies have Conan explaining the basic plot of the series to the current version of the main theme. All of the Japanese episodes state that he's an adult trapped in a child's body opening the intro animation.

* [[Original Video Animation]]: Conan Vs. KID Vs. Yaiba. [[Rule of Cool]].

** Was he a bit too calm in response to {{spoiler|Ran killing herself in-[[Inside a Computer System|game]] by jumping off with [[Jack the Ripper]]}}?

*** Considering he knew he was in [[Inside a Computer System|a game]] entering a [[Heroic BSOD]] over {{spoiler|losing the most obvious way to save her real life}} seems completely in character.

* [[Potty Failure]]: One arc humorously applied this; Eri [[Bound and Gagged]] Kogoro on his sofa, and while Eri was out with Ran and Conan, Kogoro complained about [[Potty Emergency]]... When they came back, they noticed a strange smell from the sofa, which Kogoro said was "dog pee."

* [[Power Walk]]: A number of the OPs have various members of the Conan cast doing this.

** But the manga itself is also guilty of this. Since there's no way to know whether the person reading the current issue missed the previous one(s), each segment of a multi-part case after the first will usually feature exposition of the important plot points from earlier issues via somewhat unrealistically-detailed dialogue.

* [[Public Secret Message]]: In "The Secret of the Sun, Moon and Stars", Professor Agasa and Shinichi Kudo (really Conan Edogawa) suggest that the drawings of the sun, moon, and stars found on various objects in the home of Agasa's late uncle were a code much like the Dancing Men from the [[Sherlock Holmes]] story "The Adventure of the Dancing Men".

* [[Red Herring]]: Conan can see past most attempts at framing innocent suspects, but he's gone down the wrong track a few times; most importantly, the readers were being set up to expect that {{spoiler|Jodie was Vermouth}}, but this turns out to be completely wrong.

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Invoked several times over in this series, with romantic, friendship, and enemy connotations. Ran and Shinichi/Conan are red and blue respectively. Kazuha and Heiji are orange or red and green, KID is dressed in white and Hakuba all in black. The Black Org. is red and black and Conan is blue. Ran and Sonoko are red and blue.

** The [[Chekhov's Gun]] from episode 12--''[[The Syndicate]]'' killing their [[Mook]]--was removed in the anime, by changing it to generic-evil-guy-seriously-hurting-but-not-killing-a [[Mook]]. However, Aoyama fired the gun by making the murder victim a [[Red Herring Shirt]] and the [[Dead Little Sister|Dead Older Sister]] of a new character. Result? [[Continuity Porn]] was applied by killing her ''again'', this time by [[The Syndicate]], in a [[Filler]] 116 episodes later. [[Lampshade Hanging|A lampshade was hung]] by Ran asking Conan if they had seen that character any time before. {{spoiler|This arc is the Billion Yen Heist. It was pertinent because Akemi Miyano had to die under the organization's hands to bring her little sister Shiho aka Ai in, because she is Ai's [[Dead Little Sister|Dead Elder Sister]].}} This also resulted in the series running in a very [[Restricted Expanded Plot]] so as to prevent [[Continuity Snarl]] by preventing any of the writer's [[Chekhov's Gun|Chekhov's Guns]] to be removed.

** If that wasn't gratuitous enough, see this: in episode 4 (involving the bomb on the train), the villains were supposed to be [[Those Two Bad Guys]], and in the manga Conan overheard their name as Gin and Vodka. Again, in the anime they were changed to some other [[Long Coat Badass|Long Coat Badasses]]. The anime writers didn't even try to [[Hand Wave]] that; Gin and Vodka's names were ''inserted'' into Conan's memory in the second season!

* [[Screwed By the Network]]: US, arguably

* [[Secret Identity]]:

*** To be fair, 'Kaito' is a legitimate Japanese name for a boy, (used among others for the boy-classmate of the Shonen Tantei in the episode Okiya Subaru is introduced), and his interest in magic is also legitimate as his father was a world-reknown magician. What also has some readers baffled and has sparked some debate, however, is his surname; 'Kuroba' almost seems like a reference to 'Kuro Baron', an in-universe famous character from Kudo Yuusaku's novels. This may however be a case of the author making another inter-fandom nod.

*** Kuroba is is also a homophone of how the Japanese pronounce the English word clover. What possessed the original Kid to run around with a hint to his last name dangling next to his face after he turned that outfit into his thief attire is confounding.

* [[Sherlock Scan]]: Played straight in the first episode by Shinichi just for amusement and in the second episode to convince Agasa Conan is really Shinichi, though later on he keeps it to himself as Conan. Used sparingly when he needs and can afford to make a suspect uncomfortable. (Often, Conan will take "shortcuts" in his deductions though — spin them out longer just to impress the one he's scanning, ''e.g.'', spinning out a series of deductions to explain why someone is a tennis fan when he actually noticed a tennis brochure sticking out of his pocket. Ironically, or perhaps intentionally, this sort of ''inductive'' reasoning--working backward from a conclusion to get facts rather than work forward from facts to get a conclusion--is what Conan Doyle actually used to invent Holmes's original ''deductive'' Sherlock scans.)

** Used in a manga story involving a trip to London, when Conan needed to convince a boy that Conan was "Sherlock Holmes's apprentice" so he would hand over a threatening letter for Conan to investigate.

* [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]]: No, really! We're [[Just Friends]]- in fact, we're [[Like Brother and Sister]]. Heiji and Kazuha could say it a hundred times, but it's not going to change anyone's opinion because [[Everyone Can See It]]. {{spoiler|A random stranger has TOLD Kazuha to ask Heiji out.}} Trope can also be applied to Ran and Shinichi.

** Subverted as the series progresses {{spoiler|for Shinichi and Ran. Shinichi is quite acutely aware of his feelings for her (having in fact liked her before she liked him, a rare case for Shonen Manga) while living with Ran removed any possible lingering doubt he might have had on reciprocation}}. As time passes in-universe and {{spoiler|Shinichi continues to remain missing, Ran drops almost all pretenses of 'just friends' behaviour and denial whenever he is mentioned or he calls}}. The subversion culminates in later chapters/episodes where {{spoiler|Shinichi has finally confessed his feelings to Ran. She has, however, yet to reciprocate directly}}.

* [[Shrine to The Fallen]]: In one mystery on Case Closed, Conan deduces that the name placard of such a shrine is the hiding place of a valuable stamp.

** In another, Heiji and Kazuha almost fall to their deaths investigating a memorial rock that has incense placed on it.

* [[Shoot the Hostage]]: ''The Fourteenth Target''

* [[Shotacon]]: Sonoko jokingly thinks this might be the reason why Sera seems to be more interested in Conan than her classmate Ran's company.

** One of the mysteries taking place at a mansion has [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] versions of famous detectives.

** Jodie Starling is most likely named after Jodie Foster and the character she played in [[Silence of the Lambs]], FBI agent Clarice Starling.

** Just about all of the characters have [[Theme Naming]] to a famous detective; some of the victims and suspects also have had names reminiscent of [[The Shinsengumi]] or [[Jidai Geki]] big names.

** Movie 6 has Ran actually copying a trick from [[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]], hoping it works like in the movie.

** In episode two, the dub changes the kidnapped girl's name from Akiko Tani to [[Full House|Michelle Tanner.]]

* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: Shinichi's sense of justice is such that he has very little tolerance for even the most sympathetic [[Motive Rant]]; he even shut up one suspect by [[Hannibal Lecture|Hannibal Lecturing]] at ''him''.

* [[Snap Back]]:

** With few notable exceptions (such as Heiji Hattori, {{spoiler|or members of the Organization}}), whenever anyone notices Conan is significantly smarter than he should be or that most of Kogoro's deductions while awake come from hints dropped by Conan, they invariably forget about it by the end of the episode. For example:

*** It is very much an either-or proposition: outside of the episodes where she suspects Conan is Shinichi, Ran by and large fails to take notice of his unusual intelligence--or if she does, it is trumped by his young age.

** This was somewhat averted after a long while. Many of the less-oblivious characters around Conan (and some guest investigators from other precincts) eventually came to realize that he keeps noticing useful stuff and that things he tends to say (supposedly) at random end up leading them on to solve the cases. Satou caught onto his usefulness almost immediately (and is so sharp in general that Conan has come to realize he dares not pull the "Sleeping Kogoro" act when she is around lest he risk her catching on).

* [[Snooping Little Kid]]: The Detective Boys, with the exception of Conan and Haibara, best fit this category--they are not actually smart enough to be true [[Kid Detective|Kid Detectives]]. But they sure do snoop around and get themselves into trouble a lot.

* [[Social Services Does Not Exist]]: Where do I begin? Obviously, Kogoro is alcoholic and is regularly hung over, (Although to be fair, he's more of a "Happy drunk" than an angry drunk, the latter kind you hear about in alcoholic abuse cases. Happy drunks are ''rarely'' abusive, and Kogoro actually ''does'' know not to drive while drunk.<ref>not that he drives any better when he's sober...</ref>) Conan and Ran are regularly exposed to dead bodies and often ''extremely violent'' murder cases once or twice a week, sometimes are the ones who ''find'' the dead bodies, are sometimes actually ''put in danger'', are often clearly ''in view of the police'' and yet nobody seems to find anything wrong with this. [[Fridge Logic|One can assume the inspector has probably noticed that they don't seem to be too disturbed or injured by it, and has been keeping social services away, especially since Conan seems to be pointing out stuff the police missed]].

** Kaitou Kid is third in a line of famed stage magicians, and his secret identity is known to be a magic fan.

*** Kaito is not actually a 'fan' of magic, but a very good magician himself as thought by his father Toichi, so much so that Nakamori - detective in charge of catching Kid... amongst other things - occasionally calls him to crime scenes to test out their defenses. Little does Nakamori know...

** Also, the {{spoiler|Kimono Goddess}} case starts with the suicide of {{spoiler|[[Broken Bird|Sakurako]] [[The Ophelia|Suzuka]]. Her sister Eri is actually the [[Sympathetic Murderer]], and the cruel [[Alpha Bitch|Alpha Bitches]] who drove Sakurako to kill herself become the [[Asshole Victim|Asshole Victims]].}}

* [[Status Quo Is God]]: Subverted, but only just barely. The plot does move forward and progress is made, but the entire series moves at such glacial pace it might as well be standing still to someone not following it closely. Of course, anything that threatens to cause TOO big a change too quickly is certain to be [[Snap Back|rolled back]] almost instantly.

* [[Statute of Limitations]]: One criminal got caught because time spent overseas didn't count towards the statute and {{spoiler|his plane was held up at the gate due to inclement weather}}; another featured a series of murders that happened as the statute expired on a bank robbery gone wrong.

* [[Strange Minds Think Alike]]: At the end of the fourth movie, ''Captured in Her Eyes'', Conan is just a little disgusted with himself to learn that he proclaimed his love for Ran the same way Ran's father did her mother.

* [[Strong Family Resemblance]]: Yusaku and his son Shinichi look almost exactly the same (Yusaku has glasses and a funky mustache, Shinichi has a cowlick and a pointy rat-tail). The same goes for Kaitou Kid and Shinichi; even though nobody knows whether or not they're related. {{spoiler|Supposedly, Gosho Aoyama has said that the resemblance between them is not a coincidence.}}

** Also, any scene with Takagi and Genta, considering they have the same seiyuu. (His name: [[The Danza|Wataru Takagi.]] Mad props for having an official manga character named after you!)

* [[That One Case]]: Since a large amount of the characters are policemen or detectives, several of them have this:

** Sato has ''two'' That One Cases, both of them "inherited": in one, her father perished chasing the suspect from a bank robbery, and in another, she lost her former partner to a serial [[Mad Bomber]] (who himself had an earlier That One Case that lost ''his'' prior partner).

** Subverted with Megure's That One Case, where a serial hit-and-run driver critically injured both himself and the girl who offered herself up as bait--turns out that was how he met his wife and he's embarrassed to tell the tale.

** Conan himself considers the death of {{spoiler|Ai's sister}} and his inability to stop the murderer of the Moonlight Sonata from committing suicide his [[My Greatest Failure|greatest failures]].

* [[Theme Naming]]: Listing all examples of this trope in this series is as an exercise of futility as listing all [[Les Yay|LesYays]] in [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]. The main characters are all named after fictional detectives. The Black Organization uses alcholic drinks as codenames. All of the characters in Magic Kaito that appear have a color in the kanji for their name. And then the characters in many cases have their own theme namings, and those are often clues to solving the case...

** One such [[Theme Naming]] is even [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]] by the FBI: Rena Mizunashi, {{spoiler|Kir's}} cover name, could be an allusion to [[James Bond|007]]<ref>First, arrange in Japanese order of Mizunashi Rena. Then the explanation: "nashi" means "nil," referring to zero. "Ren" is a reading of the kanji for "zero." As for "na," see [[Seven Is Nana]].</ref>.

* [[Theme Tune Cameo]]: The Detective Boys keep singing openings/endings of the series when they go camping. The theme songs also frequently appear when characters sing karaoke.

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: One of the many [[Fridge Logic]] elements that goes along with the ridiculous number of murders Conan witnesses; shouldn't anyone worry it might be a little disturbing? Conan himself seems to have little trouble with seeing brutally murdered people on a daily basis likely because of his upbringing, the same could be said for Heiji. Ai's past seems to suggest she'd be used to it as well, but the only three genuine little kids in the series (Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko) have probably seen more than a couple hundred warm corpses over the course of the series with no apparent repercussions. In general, the teenagers Ran and Kazuha tend to have stronger immediate reactions, but don't develop any psychological problems either.

* [[There Is Only One Bed]]: Actually, there's two but Ran chooses to sleep with Conan one night anyway because she's damn scared after a murder. {{spoiler|That actually ''saves'' her from being killed as well; the [[Monster of the Week|Killer Of The Week]] attacks her in her sleep since Ran supposedly [[He Knows Too Much|knows something she shouldn't about the aforementioned murder]], but Conan manages to wake Ran up in time and they jump away from danger.}}

* [[They Fight Crime]]: He's an age-regressed Sherlockian super-sleuth, she's his unwitting girlfriend/baby-sitter. They Fight Crime!

* [[Trademark Favorite Food]]: Genta's eel and rice. (An argument could also be made for Kogoro's beer, sake, and other alcoholic beverages…)

* [[Tranquillizer Dart]]: Conan's wrist-watch tranquilizer needle gun. The victim barely has time to mumble a few words before keeling over. So far, very few characters have proven resistant to it. Gin shoots himself in the arm to overcome the sedation with a rush of pain and adrenaline and [[Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist|Inspector Zenigata]] from the crossover with ''[[Lupin the Third]]'' goes down quickly, but is so tough that the effect wears off in no time. Both times, this catches Conan completely off-guard.

** But subverted in that Conan's lack of a true identity and, thus, a passport is brought up as a plot device whenever the story requires him to travel to another country (as in the ''[[Lupin III]]'' crossover special and a manga story involving a trip to London).

* [[Underwater Kiss]]: The way the 2nd movie gets Ran to kiss Conan. Also Heiji and Kazuha in Volume 20 of Detective Conan Special manga. Both are Type Bs.

* [[Victoria's Secret Compartment]]: Once again, Conan gets to ride in his mom's shirt.

* [[Victorious Childhood Friend]]: Gosho Aoyama LOVES this trope. Right now, there's Shinichi/Ran, Heiji/Kazuha, Kaito/Aoko, Kogoro/Eri, {{spoiler|Shiratori/Kobayashi (technically not friends, but they met when they were children)}} and so on and so forth... {{spoiler|Detective Chiba has also found a pairing between him and a traffic enforcer named Miike Naeko.}}

** Conan's involvement in the investigations, particularly him wandering around the crime scenes finding or noticing things, was for a long time treated as simply annoying behaviour from a nosy kid. Unlike the previous two points, this became an actually recognized point when several characters became aware that the stuff he comes up with tends to be important and ends up leading everyone else with the investigations. Satou was the first adult to consider him useful, and eventually Ran, Megure, Takagi and others accepted it as well. Nevertheless, Heiji is still the only one who actually drew the right conclusion from it instead of simply treating it as quirky.

* [[What Does She See in Him?]]: This is pretty much how Sonoko sees Ran's relationship with Shinichi; for Sonoko Shinichi is just a mystery [[Otaku]].

* [[Wine Is Classy]]: A number of episodes, movies, and OAVs have significant plot points concerning the tasting of fine wines.

** At least two of the television episodes involve crimes that take place in or around wine cellars. {{spoiler|In one, the murder uses a clothesline to deposit the body of the victim in the middle of the cellar without actually entering himself. In another, an assault victim at a wine-tasting ruins a bottle of fine wine by heating and shaking it up as a message that his attempted murderer has imprisoned him in the cellar.}}

* [[Win to Exit]]: See [[Holodeck Malfunction]], above.

* [[Wire Dilemma]]: ''The Time-Bombed Skyscraper''