saorin wrote:In addition, YAY for some Ran-involvement. The idea with her confronting either Shiho or Okiya/Akai or even Vermouth again sits fine with me. She needs to take some part in this finally. Not also for the sake of her position as a character but also for the sake of plot progression in general.
Some people might find her a nuisance or superfluous now, but let's face it: Gosho wrote her in in the first place, so we can't ditch her half-way. Gosho tends to neglect her, or at least her involvement, and this needs to be changed at some point - and this would be a good one. =D
I'd love it if Ran got some action time too, yes. But I don't think it's a bad thing that her involvement in the general plot is not consistent: even if she's the female protagonist, she's not (as of yet) one of the key players in the main plot; which makes sense: the entire reason behind the Edogawa Conan persona and all the trouble he, Haibara, Prof. Agasa, and even
Vermouth (because of the whole Angel thing) go through to maintain it is to keep Shinichi's acquaintances out of the loop and therefore out of harm, and at the center of that group is Ran.
Therefore, it wouldn't be necessary for Aoyama-sensei to mix Ran in the whole ordeal (yet), especially because in a way, it'd mean the key players failed in their mission. Once Ran gets a more prominent role in the main plot, she's in harm's way; which is what everyone is trying to avoid.
As for Ran's suspicions about Conan, I too find it a little bit hard to swallow that one moment Ran is all "it has to be him" and by the next episode she's forgotten about the whole ordeal. However, there might be a way to explain why this happens. This is the way I see it:
First of all, the mere idea of a 17-year-old passing as a 7-year-old is pretty ridiculous. Ran herself thought it, too, when she began suspecting.
Second, Ran simply has no access to all the information. She might have a theory for why it could be possible, but it's crack-theory quality at most; and she thinks of it as such (every time she's mentioned her Agasa-invented-something-to-shrink-Shinichi theory, she's said it with an air of incredulity. Not even she believes it could be true.)
Third, there have been several situations where it could appear that Conan and Shinichi are separate entities (from her point of view, of course), especially machinated so as to assuage Ran's suspicions. It's pretty obvious that they don't work (as Ran still suspects Conan), but they serve their purpose at the time they're put in action.
What would you do if you had a hunch that depended on a ridiculous idea, and you lacked crucial information to cement your point? Add to that the fact that said information is apparently impossible to get, and that there's even evidence (which from your POV looks true) that your hunch is wrong. The most probable cause of action would be to forget about it! I mean, it's not that there aren't other more important things to think about in life. Let's remember that Ran is an active high-schooler who's into an after-school club and also takes care of the house and of her family. She has a lot of stuff to worry about already, to add stuff to that stack would be overdoing it.
So what I'm saying is, if we consider Ran is not actually falling for Conan's tricks (because it's clear she doesn't, she even asks Yukiko and Conan once if they're both trying to fool her), but merely dismissing the issue in favor of more important things to think about at the moment, only to return to the issue when it's relevant to what's happening around her, her behavior is pretty believable.
). Ran being a DoD is a stereotype created and flanderized by anime-only material like OVAs, movies, and fillers. Rarely in the manga is Ran actually in distress. I would like to stress this point as much as possible, especially in a manga related discussion topic
I guess the two of us mostly agree anyways.
