Dangerous Characters: Conan Edogawa/Shinichi Kudo
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Welcome to the newest set of blurbs I've got planned. "Dangerous Characters" highlights the fact that a lot of collateral damage happens while in the noted character's presence, usually in the form of casualties, but in many cases I'm also willing to count injuries to others and property damage where it is extremely severe. Most of the time, they do it on purpose, but it isn't always their fault. Sometimes its an occupational hazard, sometimes it's part of their nature, and sometimes, it's just their bad luck. In the case of Conan/Shinichi from the series Detective Conan by Gosho Aoyama, I'd say it's probably a combination of the first and the third. For one thing, being a detective, you get a lot of stuff like that, and for another, well, bad stuff just seems to be attracted to him. As noted below, it's like he's a real murder magnet.Conan Edogawa, the alias of Shinichi Kudo after being shrunk down to a 7-year-old size from his 17-year-old detective self, may not seem like much of a threat. He himself is not that dangerous. He's really a sweet-natured (and cute!) guy who just wound up in a bad situation. However, by sheer coincidence, it seems that any would-be murderer within his immediate vicinity (or anywhere he's likely to show up in the near future) is instantly drawn to the nearest character he may have a grudge against with a kindling of murderous intent. It's like something is sparked within the murderer's mind that says "The kid's coming! I must kill in an incredibly intricate way that no one will suspect! NOW!" It happens everywhere! He goes out to lunch, someone gets murdered. He goes on vacation, someone dies. He can't even go on a trip with the kids he hangs out with as Conan without someone biting the dust nearby. I honestly don't know how he can bear to leave the house sometimes. The police inspectors in the series seem to notice this after a while, and later, they even start commenting on it. "Wait... you're on the scene again?" If you ever find yourself in an anime and find that Conan's involved, you'd better hope none of your crew have any reason to kill you or someone else nearby, because if that is so, you've just received the kiss of death friend. The survival odds for a potential victim are not impossible (there are episodes that don't involve a death, rarely), but they are certainly not high. Don't worry, he'll solve the mystery and find the killer after the fact, but in the mean time, you'd better hope the victim isn't you, or that you're one of the lucky few who actually survives.
Images taken from Detective Conan.