Jimmy Kudo

Jimmy Kudo, known originally as Shinichi Kudo (工藤 新一, Kudō Shin'ichi), is the protagonist of Gosho Aoyama's series Case Closed, which is known in Japan as Meitantei Conan (名探偵コナン^?, lit. Great Detective Conan, officially translated as Detective Conan) . A high school detective, he is forced to ingest the lethal poison APTX 4869 after his encounter with Gin and Vodka. Due to a rare side effect, the poison shrinks him into a child and he adopts the pseudonym Conan Edogawa (江戸川 コナン, Edogawa Konan) to hide from those who poisoned him. He moves in with his childhood friend Rachel Moore and her father Richard Moore as he awaits the day he can take down the Black Organization.

Creation and conception

The idea that Jimmy Kudo would be turned into a child stemmed from the idea of a Tortoiseshell cat Sherlock Holmes as a protagonist. Gosho Aoyama's idea was the cat would indicate the crucial evidence needed to solve the case; a performance the child-turned Kudo does to help those around with the investigation. Kudo was inspired by the fictional private eye Shunsaku Kudo. Gosho revealed that his editor was against the name Conan due to the protagonist from the anime series Future Boy Conan sharing the same name and had suggested to name him Doyle instead. Gosho stuck with the name Conan believing it would overtake the Future Boy series. According to Gosho, Kudo's catch phrase Shinjitsu wa Itsumo Hitotsu! (真実はいつもひとつ!^?, literally There is only one truth!) was thought of by the anime series script writer and drawn into chapter 96 of the manga at the same time. In the English localization, the catch phrase was translated as "One Truth Prevails".