Yusaku Kudo Is The Head Of Black Organization (I guess)

[HiddenDetective]

don't forget Katsuragi Yukiko and Tsujimura Takayoshi, the couple/step sibling from file 92, the diplomat case where Hattori first appeared. They made a brief appearance in the end of the mermaid case, meeting up with Conan, Ran, Kogoro, Hattori, and Kazuha.

[AgOkami]

Wow OO Nice list! There really is quite a lot I've compleately forgotten. 5 years aready since I read many of the volumes.
Always been hoping to see Hatamoto Takeshi again from the Hatamoto Family case. Kinda liked him, hehe =P

[AgOkami]

Got the Case Closed Casebook today \o/
There's a great bunch of interesting things in there, including bits from interviews with Aoyama here and there.
Here's a few interesting pages (if you buy a used book from Amazon, it's very very cheap):








By the way: I've seen this picture many times before, but I never noticed that Shinichi's wearing glasses untill now. (Or is he just showig thumbs up?)

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

Got the Case Closed Casebook today \o/
There's a great bunch of interesting things in there, including bits from interviews with Aoyama here and there.

Thanks a bunch, AgOkami I really appreciate the scans!

don't forget Katsuragi Yukiko and Tsujimura Takayoshi, the couple/step sibling from file 92, the diplomat case where Hattori first appeared. They made a brief appearance in the end of the mermaid case, meeting up with Conan, Ran, Kogoro, Hattori, and Kazuha.

I added them to my list. Thanks a bunch! If you come up with any more doesn't hesitate to tell me.

[Rellik]

wow looking at the scan, it can probably be mistakened as a history textbook o.o

[AgOkami]

That book gives a really great summary of the whole series as it was before it was released (I think right after the Fuurinkazan case). Although it does have a couple of weird things like "Kogoro never seems to worry about how he usually gets so drowsy around Conan" though he did mention it quite early in the series.

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

That book gives a really great summary of the whole series as it was before it was released (I think right after the Fuurinkazan case). Although it does have a couple of weird things like "Kogoro never seems to worry about how he usually gets so drowsy around Conan" though he did mention it quite early in the series.

I'm a half-supporter of theory that Kogoro has figured Shinichi out, and he's covering for him by pretending to be unaware of it. It could also be the case that Kogoro only strongly suspects and waffles back and forth like Ran. I think there is some good evidence for and some good evidence against this theory.

Arguments for Kogoro knowing:
As stupid as Kogoro can be sometimes, I’m sure he’s noticed Conan hanging around whenever he gets pricked by the needle. Conan calls him out to places in order to dart him and sometimes starts in on the bowtie before putting Kogoro to sleep (causing Kogoro to look around in confusion). Also, it's suspicious that Kogoro hasn't sought any sort of professional help for sudden narcolepsy and memory loss.
Back in chapter 5 when Ran asked Kogoro if Conan could stay over at their house for the time being, he consented pretty quickly saying he got the feeling that with Conan around he would solve cases easily. This could easily be attributed to Gosho pushing the plot in order to allow the story to develop. A similar logic also applies for Kogoro allowing Conan and Ran to come on a lot of his investigations. The purpose of the allowance could be to push the plot forward.
Kogoro knows Shinichi from when he was a boy. There are also photo albums around so there is nothing stopping him from recognizing the similarity. In chapter 10.16 he feels like he’s seen Conan before around the time Ran was in grade school.
Kogoro starts questioning Conan’s incredible ability. (chap 11.13) When the criminal claims he is beaten by a kid, Kogoro immediately identifies the closest kid at hand… While Ran says "no way", Kogoro doesn’t reject the possibility of Conan besting the criminal out loud. (12.16)
In 10.15, Conan makes the excuse that his parents who were in a hospital had then went overseas. In 33.03 Mouri asks when his parents will get back from America. How did he know Conan’s parents were in America? I'm pretty sure this detail was not mentioned by Conan; Conan only used general terms like "overseas" and "abroad". I need to crosscheck the translation of chapter 33 for this. Based on the anime version of chap 10 (ep 38) America is not mentioned at all. (Note the ep. is out of order.)
In the Desperate Revival arc, Ran says she has the same blood type as Conan’s after he is shot. Kogoro’s reaction is a little anomalous - “How do you know?” (translation from the anime ep 189) and a rather shocked look akin to Agasa's who is in on the secret.

Spoiler:

The manga doesn't get it across quite so well.

Arguments against:
Obviously Kogoro doesn’t seem like he realizes Conan is Shinichi.
Kogoro does on occasion suggest things like Ran and Conan take a bath together which seems to go against his overly protective nature. (I forget when he suggests this.)
Kogoro let Conan go with his fake parents easily (49.06)

In any case, I think Kogoro holds the keys to the Syndicate in some way or another. (I posted this once already in this same thread earlier but I'll post it again for good measure)

There is a conspicuous absence of anything pertaining to Kogoro's family background. He's a main character and absolutely nothing has been mentioned even in passing about any of his kin beyond Ran. Considering the length of the manga and that character history stories are otherwise quite common, I believe this omission is intentional. I can think of three situations that would account for the censorship.
1) Someone(s) in Kogoro's family has a critical connection or position in the Org. I do not support the theory that Kogoro himself is part of the Crow Corps, but with the family name "Mouri", and its difficult-to-ignore resemblance to "Moriarty" from the Sherlock canon, I think that this theory concerning relatives on the dark side holds thematic appeal.
2) Someone(s) in Kogoro's family was a victim of the Org, and that the circumstances/mystery behind it are a major clue to one of the central mysteries like the identity of the boss, or the org's name, etc.
3) Kogoro's background relations are not important or non-existent. I think this explanation is weak because it goes against Gosho's style. The vast majority of the main and secondary characters have had some member of their family brought up, often as participants or suspects in cases, as motivation for why the character is where they are now, or simply mentioned in passing. The idea that Gosho would ignore using Kogoro's family for any case/plot purposes without a genuinely good reason for (as of now) 691 chapters is unreasonable.

Later Edit: This is outdated. Please refer to here for the most recent version.

The reasons why a relative of Kogoro can't be introduced too early could be one of the following:
a) It would be too big of a hint.
b) It would call unwanted attention and suspicion where Gosho does not yet want it.
c) It serves as a major plot key which will enable Conan to solve a very important mystery.
Given that this censorship on Kogoro's kin has been going on since the very beginning of the manga, it would be logical to assume that the reason is pertinent to the overarching mysteries - namely what is the true nature of the Org, who is the boss, and what is its goal.

In short, I believe it is reasonable to assume that Kogoro has (or had) one or more plot-significant family members who have (or had) vital connections to the Black Org, as either victims or members.
As for Kogoro's background, we know he went to Teitan high along with Fujimine Yukiko and Eri Kisaki, followed by Baker university where he was in a Judo club. Ten years ago he was still on the police force and had to deal with a murder mystery at a warehouse in Haido port. Apparently it was pretty dangerous at that time (571). Kogoro was also suspicious of people wearing black, but it could be due to stupidity (571.13). He left the police force and became a detective. While Movie 2 strongly suggests that Kogoro left the police force because of the incident where he fired upon Eri Kisaki who was held as a hostage, his exact reasons for leaving the force were not confirmed.

[AgOkami]

I thought at first that Kogoro knows about Conan being Shinichi. He isn't as stupid as he somtimes (often) look. But then comes those things like him suggesting Ran and Conan take a bath together, and I get confused of what to think.

Anyway, Kogoro never said anything about Conan's parents being in America. I don't even think he said abroad or out of the country, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

Abut Kogoro's relatives never being mentioned: Shinichi's grandparents never get's mentioned (which annoys me a lot), and we've only seen Ayumi's mother in one picture as far as I know, and there's a lot more, so I personally don't think we can make much suggestions of why certain realtives hasn't been mentioned.

[miakakiri]

Abut Kogoro's relatives never being mentioned: Shinichi's grandparents never get's mentioned (which annoys me a lot), and we've only seen Ayumi's mother in one picture as far as I know, and there's a lot more, so I personally don't think we can make much suggestions of why certain realtives hasn't been mentioned.

Also we've seen only one mention of Eri's father, and that's only in one panel, it was a hint for Kogoro about a case. (One of the few that he actually solved himself. The anime version hasn't been subbed yet.)
We actually don't get a lot of background information about the characters. A couple bits here and there in stories, but that's it. We have 1 story from Megure's past (the Locked-Away Secret), 2 stories from Satou's past (her father and Matsuda), one from Shiratori's past (the recent one with the sakura chain), and maybe a couple from other characters. We only really have about 2 stories from Ran & Shinichi's past: the little kids code case and the Yuki-onna mountain case.
How many relatives of main/major characters do we see? We've met both Ran's and Shinichi's parents, of course....no mention of their granparents, though. Megure's wife shows up once. Satou's mom appears at least once. We've met Genta's dad and Mitsuhiko's sister; seen Ayumi's mom (but not her face)... Actually the kids' parents show up at the end of their first case in the manga (yelling at them for being out all night). It's volume 2 ch 10 (file 19) on page 172 (about 3 pages from the end of that file). We see Ran, Ayumi's dad, Genta's mom, and Mitsuhiko's mom.
And now I forgot where I was going with this....sorry. ~_~*

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

Anyway, Kogoro never said anything about Conan's parents being in America. I don't even think he said abroad or out of the country, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

Yes he does according to one translation of the manga. I even provided citations up above. 10.15 = chapter 10, page 15 and 33.03 is chapter 33, page 3. I do want to cross check the translation to make sure that the line in chapter 33 really did say America because some of the earlier translations weren't as good.

Abut Kogoro's relatives never being mentioned: Shinichi's grandparents never get's mentioned (which annoys me a lot), and we've only seen Ayumi's mother in one picture as far as I know, and there's a lot more, so I personally don't think we can make much suggestions of why certain realtives hasn't been mentioned.

I disagree; sometimes the best hints come from analyzing the recurring literary techniques used by the writer. Kogoro is one of the top three main characters along with Ran and Shinichi/Conan. He was introduced in the second chapter of the manga. Furthermore he appears very frequently; he is probably in over half of the manga chapters. Despite this, not a single one of his relatives except for Ran and Eri have been mentioned even in passing ever. That's really unusual considering that we know something about the relatives of a lot of the other secondary or more recently introduced characters if only that they exist.

Spoiler:

Juzo Megure - (wife Midori)
Satō Miwako - father
Takagi Wataru - ?
Shiratori Ninzaburō - (caretaker/butler, childhood love Kobayashi)
Yoshida Ayumi - mother
Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko - sister
Kojima Genta - father, mother
Miyano Shiho/Ai Haibara - sister, father, mother
Agasa Hiroshi - uncle, (childhood love)
Suzuki Sonoko - brothers (or were those triplets cousins or uncles, I don't remember), mother, sister, uncle
Hattori Heiji - father, mother, (police acquaintances)
Tōyama Kazuha - father (I think her mother has been mentioned as well but I'm not sure)
Kudo Yusaku - ?
Kudō Yukiko - ?
Kaitō Kid - (counting M.K. canon) father, mother, (associates)
Kisaki Eri - ?

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. If they weren't important somehow, why would Aoyama Gosho have not brought them up? Mysteries involving one of the main character's relatives are prime literature material. It's not just Detective Conan, but other mystery series also make frequent use of the primary protagonists' relatives to make the cases personal and up the intensity. Why avoid such fertile subject matter without a good reason? It's not like Gosho would forget about using relatives of Mouri Kogoro after writing for ~fifteen years. Child parent relations are on my list of recurring plot devices.

Spoiler:

Recurring plot devices
0) A significant portion of the important characters are connected within one degree of freedom somehow. Envision drawing a relationship chart between all the characters. This applies especially to the adult characters. They probably had direct interactions that predate the current timeline. They also probably were not aware of each other before the current time.
1) Childhood friends and childhood connections. This is copiously used among the protagonists/regular characters. It would make sense thematically if this is extensively applied to the antagonists as well.
a) Many characters were childhood friends which then evolved into romance.
2) Child parent relationships seem to come up fairly often as well.
3) Characters in physical disguises.
4) Death of an important person in the past which motivates the character. Megure’s wife (sort of), Sato’s father and partner Matsuda Jinpei, Kaitou kid’s father, Shuu’s girlfriend, Shiho's sister, Superintendent's Matsumoto's police partner, etc
5) Law of conservation of detail, devil in the details, and Chekhov’s gun. Take note of what Conan is doing, especially when his thoughts on the matter are not revealed, because he probably knows something that the readers should be trying to deduce.
6) Unexpected culprit. Mystery authors, Gosho included, with some regularity like to make the culprit the person who would seem least likely to do it, whether through appearance, gender, or alibi strength.

[miakakiri]

The triplets are Sonoko's sister's fiancee and his brothers.

[AgOkami]

Anyway, Kogoro never said anything about Conan's parents being in America. I don't even think he said abroad or out of the country, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

Yes he does according to one translation of the manga. I even provided citations up above. 10.15 = chapter 10, page 15 and 33.03 is chapter 33, page 3. I do want to cross check the translation to make sure that the line in chapter 33 really did say America because some of the earlier translations weren't as good.

I got that info from the Norwegian and the Swedish translation. But sometimes they're very different from the translations here (and I haven't read the early volumes here), so I don't know which ones are correct.

[kaitoushinichi]

2. In the chapter about Pisco, the password in the warehouse where Haibara was prisoned is about detective.

The reason for the password being related to a detective was explained by Haibara. In Japanese, there are a lot of ways to read different numbers, and by combining those numbers, you can make words. In 4869's case, it can be read as SHERLOCK (Japanese pronounciation- shi-ya-ro-ku), which was the reason why APTX4869 is sometimes referred to as the "Unfinished Detective" by the organization. Because the drug was still a prototype, it is "unfinished," which is why the password was Shelling Ford, and not Sherlock Holmes. (Conan said that Conan Doyle's original character's name was "Shelling Ford", but decided to use "Sherlock Holmes" instead.)

[Hydok]

Because the drug was still a prototype, it is "unfinished," which is why the password was Shelling Ford, and not Sherlock Holmes. (Conan said that Conan Doyle's original character's name was "Shelling Ford", but decided to use "Sherlock Holmes" instead.)

The name I think that you (and Conan) are looking for is Sherrinford Holmes.

[AgOkami]

Because the drug was still a prototype, it is "unfinished," which is why the password was Shelling Ford, and not Sherlock Holmes. (Conan said that Conan Doyle's original character's name was "Shelling Ford", but decided to use "Sherlock Holmes" instead.)

The name I think that you (and Conan) are looking for is Sherrinford Holmes.

I was very confused about that when I read the manga. Never ever heard the name Shelling Ford, but Sherrinford Holmes sounds more familiar (though I thought he was Sherlock's second brother or his father).