Case Closed: Difference between revisions

Now, as six-year-old Conan Edogawa (a combination of the names Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ranpo Edogawa, two famous mystery writers), he has to find and apprehend the men that shrunk him while keeping his friends in the dark, lest the men in black kill them all for knowing too much. The fact that he witnesses (and subsequently solves) about three murders a week in the process doesn't seem to slow him down.

 

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[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).}}

** Seriously, if it's not about Kaito Kid, it's about murder.

** Sometimes ''Even''

* [[Alternate Character Reading]]: ''Very'' commonly used, especially in [[Dying Clue|Dying Clues]].

** A strange use happened in ''Moonlight Sonata'' case: {{spoiler|Seiji Asai [[Disguised in Drag|pretended himself as a woman]] just by changing the pronunciation of his name from the masculine ''Seiji'' to the feminine ''Narumi''.}}

** Don't forget Hakuba and Nakamori (They were in the series too).

** Eri's assistant also appeared in the anime before being introduced in the manga.

** Gosho did several of Magic Kaito chapters that are directly linked to Cases in Detective Conan. First Contact! is a flashback Kaito has right before encountering Conan when attempting to steal the black star. When Kid returns Ryoma's Treasures a thief called Phantom lady is mentioned. Next two chapters of Magic Kaito the next year explain exactly how Kid and Phantom Lady know each other.

 

* [[Compulsory School Age]]: See [[Comic Book Time]], above.

* [[Connect the Deaths]]

* [[Cool Old Guy]]: Jirokichi Suzuki, uncle of Sonoko/Serena. Kept publicly challenging Kaitou Kid with highly elaborate setups {{spoiler|and had Conan steal the limelight every damn one time}}.

* [[Costume Porn]]: In-universe case: the "Kimono Goddess" [[Filler]] case happens in an inn that possesses [[Kimono Fanservice|LOTS of beautiful and very pricey female kimonos]] (which make Ran [[Cuteness Proximity|squeal in amazement]]) and is near the shrine of the aforementioned Goddess. {{spoiler|The [[Asshole Victim|Asshole victims]], Asuka and Ema, appear dead in carefully-arranged crime scenes that involve such kimonos: this is because they caused the death of a girl who was a big devotée of the Kimono Goddess.}}

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[Designated Monkey]]: Takagi

** Officer Satou is another crazy-good driver whose unmarked patrol car is a high-speed sports car. She has the endearing habit of screaming at the top of her lungs because it helps her concentration when she drifts around curves.

* [[Dub Name Change]]: Played straight in English, where most characters got American names. Averted by Conan.

* [[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''.

* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: In the anime, the members of Detective Boys got speaking roles in the first episode, before Shinichi was shrunk.

** 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.

** Takagi does get the chance to ask Conan during one of the most famous cases of the series, but Conan replies that he'll tell him in the afterlife. Somehow, Takagi forgets all about it.

** Though usually Conan catches their weird looks and claims that he learned it on TV. This is lampshaded by Kogoro in chapter 716, after Conan gives his Condensed History of the Rooster Festival spanning three very wordy panels: "And I suppose all of that was on TV, huh?"

* [[Enemy Mine]]: Even though catching the Kaitou Kid is one of Conan's chief aims, second only to busting up the Black Organization, Conan often ends up working together with Kid to catch bad guys or otherwise avert disaster, especially in his [[Non-Serial Movie]] appearances. (For that matter, he has occasionally worked together with Black Organization agents against ''other'' Black Organization agents, as well.) His TV-special team-up with Lupin III would probably count as well.

** 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.}}

** 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.

** Some guest characters are also fox-faced, and Okiya Subaru's eyes are just evil little white dots in the middle of black eyelid lines.

* [[Everyone Is a Suspect]]: Pretty much every case, although sometimes you can narrow it down based upon a few hints and the obvious. (The main characters never did it) {{spoiler|During the "Billionaire Birthday Blues" case, you can spot that one person isn't shown drinking coffee, other than Conan. They actually give a closeup of everyone's face, but the killer actually deliberatly avoids holding the coffee up to his mouth}}.

* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: If Conan's identity is revealed, Kogoro and Ran (among others) will be targeted and likely killed by the organization that shrunk him.

** 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.

 

* [[Gag Boobs]]: In one story, Yukiko rides a motorcycle cross-country carrying Conan in her cleavage.

** The climactic confrontation with Vermouth is also one of these: Vermouth, posing as Dr. Araide, attempted to kidnap Ai--but Ai was under the protection of Jodie, who was trying to lead Vermouth in a trap set by an FBI agent. Except Vermouth figured this out and dismissed the agents while disguised as Jodie and set off her ''own'' trap--and this is when Conan dramatically reveals that he's been disguising himself as Ai (while Heiji, elsewhere, pretended to show up as Shinichi). {{spoiler|Then ''Ai herself'' shows up, intending to turn herself in to the organization, which causes Vermouth to knock Conan out with his own needle. Just as Vermouth is about to shoot Jodie, Ran, who was hiding in the trunk of the car because she saw Jodie's pictures of her friends in the bathroom and assumed that Jodie was spying on the school, jumps out to protect Ai from both Vermouth and the sniper. When Shuichi Akai shows up to take out the sniper and disables Vermouth, Vermouth manages to get away by taking Conan hostage and [[Every Car Is a Pinto|blowing up the other car]]. Except Conan had anticipated Vermouth's get away (or at least was [[Crazy Prepared]]) and hooked himself up to a wire to capture the cell phone number Vermouth called. But Vermouth got the last laugh, as she knocked them both out with sleeping gas, then forced herself awake and slipped into the night, but not before destroying Conan's equipment.}} Phew.

* [[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!''

** 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).

* [[Jack the Ripper]]: See [[In the Blood]], above.

* [[Japanese Holidays]]: Many a clue comes from expected knowledge of these. Also, as the films are released during Golden Week... so the first one was set during Golden Week, amusingly enough.

* [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot]]

* [[Just a Kid]]: Applies to the high schoolers as much as the elementary age kids.

* [[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.

** Subverted in the 8th [[Non-Serial Movie]], ''Magician of the Silver Sky'', and the 14th, ''Lost Ship in the Sky'', as well as the OAV "Kid in Trap Island". A number of times, Kaitou takes advantage of his close physical resemblance to Shinichi to disguise himself ''without'' a mask, so he passes the pinch test.

** 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.

** As well as the popular kids' action show ''[[Kamen Rider|Kamen]] <s>Rider</s> [[Kamen Rider|Yaiba]]'' (which is also a namedrop of an otherwise-unrelated manga called ''[[Yaiba]]'' from the same mangaka as Conan). This one has been lampshaded in the ''Conan vs. Kaitou Kid vs. Yaiba'' OAV in which the Detective Boys meet Yaiba {{spoiler|in an episode-long dream sequence}} and accuse him of lying about his name because he is obviously not ''Kamen'' Yaiba.

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

* [[Meitantei]]

* [[Million-to-One Chance]]: For the other 999,999, Our [[Fountain of Youth]] is a deadly poison.

* [[Mistaken for Murderer]]: In one episode, Ayumi hides in the trunk of a car {{spoiler|that seems to be carrying a murder weapon and stolen money. Based on overheard conversation through the badge, Conan and the other Detective Boys assume the car's occupants are criminals and they might harm Ayumi if they discover her, and race to the rescue. It turns out that they're actors for a community theater and the money and weapon are props for a play}}.

* [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]: In the thirteenth movie, The Raven Chaser, {{spoiler|Conan has the crap beat out of him at the ending by Irish, gets shot at multiple times, and has no real way of fighting back since Agasa's inventions have been put out of commission by this point.}} To make matters worse, {{spoiler|Ran also loses the upperhand against Irish after trying to protect the injured Conan and even gets slammed into a wall.}} It's hard not to cringe at these two scenes.

** 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 One Could Survive That]]: Gin and Vodka's original opinion on the effects of [[Fountain of Youth|APTX4869]] to Shinichi.

* [[Non-Serial Movie|Non Serial Movies]]: Conan has gotten one of these per year since a couple years after the show first started airing. Due to the relative scarcity of arc-based stories in the mostly-picaresque TV and manga series, the movies do not usually pose story-based continuity difficulties the way other series' non-serial-movies can. They do involve a number of considerably different elements to the main series, however, which sometimes makes it a little hard to reconcile the two.

* [[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]]

** In the Mountain Villa Bandaged Man Murder Case, the victim {{spoiler|Chikako is killed by having her head chopped off '''with an axe''' and have her other remains distributed.}}

* [[Oh Crap]]: the look on Conan's face when he realizes that the murderer he was confronting alone in the forest at night brought fifty armed men along with him to help dispose of the evidence. {{spoiler|Que [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment when Ran and then Makoto shows up and beats the crap out of all of them.}}

* [[Red String of Fate]]: ''The Time-Bombed Skyscraper'' - confronted with a [[Wire Dilemma]], Ran can't bring herself to cut the red one because of the association with the String of Fate (which is a good thing, because earlier the bomber had overheard her talking about how red was her favorite color and rigged it to go off on the red wire).

* [[Retirony]]: A high diver in "The Last Dive" / "Sports Club Murder Case".

** Another in the London case, in which [[Mad Bomber|Hades]] {{spoiler|goes on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against champion tennis player Minerva Glass for losing a match on which he bet all the money need to pay for his mother's life-saving operation. All the money was lost and [[It's Personal|Hades' mother died]]. In turn, Hades plants a bomb in a gift lent to Minerva's mother during the Wimbledon Championship that will be triggered at the end of the game so that Minerva will lose her mother in return for Hades losing his}}.

* [[Reverse Psychology]]: KID challenges Jirokichi not to rely on children to protect his [[MacGuffin]]. Jirokichi, thinking it's because KID cannot disguise as somebody several heads smaller than himself, promptly asks the Detective Boys for help. [[Batman Gambit|Just as KID planned...]]

* [[Reverse Whodunnit]]: Used quite a bit.

** 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!

* [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]]: A number of episodes feature this sort of thing--since the series is set in a strictly rational world (with just one or two notable exceptions), ''any'' invocation of the supernatural can be assumed to be a Scooby Doo Hoax. (That doesn't stop normally-stalwart [[Action Girl]] Ran from cowering whenever [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|she suspects she may be up against ghosts]], however.)

* [[Secret Identity]]:

** The Kaitou Kid has it better, however. For some reason, even the daughter of the police inspector assigned to catch him is incapable of noticing anything strange about a high school student named Kaito whose hobby is stage magic.

** 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}}.

* [[Ship Tease]]: Conan and {{spoiler|Haibara Ai}}. She even confessed and then threw it off with a "[["Just Joking" Justification|just kidding!]] ^_^" (though at other times she ''has'' expressed veiled jealousy of his feelings for Ran). This caused quite a lot of [[Ship-to-Ship Combat]] (see the entry on the YMMV page).

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

** In yet another, a similar rock commemorating the drowning of a young boy is the plot point to the mystery.

** The biggest [[Shout-Out]] of all is Shinichi and his environs; judging by names one can safely say he has been living in London rather than Tokyo. ("Beika" Street, "Haido" Park…)

** 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.

** Hattori Heiji may well be related to [[Hattori Hanzo]], especially considering how good he is at Kendo.

** In volume 17, Kogoro exclaims 'Hellooo Nurses!' most likely referencing Vaudeville or Animaniacs.

** An entire story in the 63rd tankoubon is a shout-out to [[Initial D]]. Why so? First, the case happened in Gunma in a place named Mt. ''Fuyu''na<ref>Takumi's home course is named Mt. ''Aki''na; that place is based on a real-world place named Mt. ''Haru''na.</ref>. Second, the 'legend' is named Fuyuna's Silver Ghost<ref>Bunta/Takumi in the AE86 is known as Akina's White Ghost</ref>.

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

** Used and abused by Kaitou Kid in the 14th non-canonical movie, where Kid {{spoiler|accidentally overhears Shinichi tell Haibara and Agasa that Ran mistook the first airship she saw for a UFO. Kid later uses this nugget of information to convince her that he IS Shinichi, after he passes her pinch-test, but she still suspects him using Shinichi as a cover identity because they have 'similar faces'}}.

* [[Spank the Cutie]]: Happens to Conan at the end of episode 90.

* [[Stab the Scorpion]]: Ai and Tsuburaya are scared away from a crime scene by a gunshot, but Conan eventually deduces that {{spoiler|the man who shot at them did it to keep them from being mauled by a pissed off (literal) [[Monster Is a Mommy|Mama Bear]].}}

* [[Stage Magician]]: The mangaka, Aoyama, seems to be a big fan of stage magic, since stage magicians (both professional and amateur) appear as the subject of episodes time and time again.

** 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.

** Subverted in "The Culprit is Genta's Dad": {{spoiler|The Kojima adult who looks most like Genta turns out to be the culprit but ''not'' Genta's father.}} Genta turns out to look nothing at all like his father--he takes after his mother.

** Also a very important plot point in the Naniwa Murder case: {{spoiler|Yusuke Sakata's ''huge'' physical resemblance to his [[Disappeared Dad]] Inaba makes a [[Serial Killer]] blurt out the truth about Inaba's strange death 20 years ago, allowing Yusuke to start a serial murder spree [[Love Makes You Evil|to punish whoever had a hand on it.]] And on the other hand, seeing a picture of Inaba is what allows Heiji and then Conan to unmask Yusuke as the [[Sympathetic Murderer]].}}

* [[Sue Donym]]: Conan nearly did this at the very beginning, before he came up with Conan Edogawa, he nearly said "Shinichi."

* [[Suck Out the Poison]]: Volume 17 of the manga.

* [[The Watson]]: Countless characters take turns playing Watson, Conan even pretends to be Kogoro's Watson constantly.

* [[Wedding Deadline]]: A storyline in revolved around an arranged date between the policewoman Satou and the snobbish superintendent Shiratori. Another policewoman, Yumi, tried to get Satou out of it by sending her "help", who Satou correctly guesses to be the shy Takagi, who also loves her. The brash Satou makes a deal with Shiratori that if Takagi doesn't show up before sunset, she will marry him. Unfortunately, Takagi is involved in a robbery case, with three witnesses all giving contradicting details on the culprit. Luckily, the main character gives Takagi some tips that helps him solve the case... but the culprit escapes, forcing him to give chase... a few minutes before sundown. {{spoiler|In the end, he never actually makes it to the restaurant that Satou and Shiratori are at; the main character uses a decoy to trick both of them into thinking that Takagi actually showed up, then lures Satou to where Takagi actually is.}}

** Kogoro's (and occasionally Sonoko's) "habit" of stumbling to the ground and delivering brilliant deductions while appearing soundly asleep, especially after spending most of the investigation making inaccurate and counter-productive guesses, was at best only treated as "quirky" for a long while. Eventually, he earned the nickname of "Sleeping Kogoro" for this, to the point where most of the people assisting the investigation eagerly await the moment of sudden inspiration, and find it strange when he solves cases without falling asleep.

*** Subverted in that the first time this happens in front of Officer Satou, she is unable to resist playing with Kogoro's mouth, and afterward Conan is extremely reluctant to put Kogoro to sleep in front of her again because he is afraid she will notice Kogoro isn't really talking.

** 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]].

* [[Wise Beyond Their Years]]: Most of the adults who don't know the truth, especially those in law enforcement, think this of Conan and Ai.

* [[Woman Scorned]]: The motive of many a murder; Ran also got very ''tsun'' when a young girl showed up claiming to be Shinichi's girlfriend (the little boy she was babysitting had been kidnapped and she was looking for Shinichi to help, using the "girlfriend" claim as her cover).

* [[Would Hurt a Child]]: More than one case had children being hurt or even killed. Conan himself isn't immuned. Shortly after he was de-aged, Conan was beaten up by the suspect, prompting him to later find ways to compensate for his smaller size. In the 13th movie ''The Raven Chaser'', {{spoiler|Irish}} not only beats up Conan badly but also [[Would Hit a Girl|hurts Ran]] when she protects Conan.

* [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]: The various highschool detectives are very good at this, though it usually only shows up in special, plot-relevant episodes. One good example is the Halloween party murder two hour special (ep 345). For that matter, Kaitou Kid excels here as well, and it shows up anytime one of the tantei is pitted against him.