Jimmy Kudo - Appearances - in The Case Closed Manga and Anime Series

In The Case Closed Manga and Anime Series

Jimmy appears at the beginning of the series as a gifted 17-year-old student at Teitan High School in Tokyo. He was already well known as a brilliant young detective who closed many difficult cases that the professionals could not. After a trip with his childhood friend Rachel Moore at a theme park, Kudo leaves Rachel and follows two suspicious characters, Gin and Vodka, suspecting they are criminals. Gin ends up attacking Kudo and forces him to drink an experimental poison APTX 4869 (四八六九, Yon Hachi Roku Kyuu?) which is supposed to kill him, and then leaves him for dead. However, instead of killing Jimmy, a rare side-effect occurs, causing his age to regress and he shrinks into the form of a young child. With advice from Dr. Herschel Agasa, Kudo adopts the identity of Conan Edogawa, devised from the names of Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Rampo in order to prevent Gin, Vodka, and their syndicate, the Black Organization from returning to kill him and those around him. For this reason, he chooses not to reveal his true identity to anyone else, in order to keep them safe.

Kudo pretends to be a distant relative of Dr. Agasa's, and is placed in the care of Rachel and her father, Richard Moore, who owns a Detective Agency. Jimmy and Dr. Agasa feel that some clues regarding the Black Organization may possibly filter through the agency, allowing Jimmy to learn more about them to ultimately bring them down. As for Jimmy Kudo's disappearance, Conan has to constantly find creative ways to fool Rachel into believing he is off solving a very difficult case and will return once the investigation is concluded. This becomes increasingly difficult as she begins to suspect who he really is.

As a child, Conan must attend Teitan Elementary, where he inadvertently forms a detective club called the Junior Detective League with friends he makes at the school. Conan is forced to adapt to his new daily life and becomes accustomed to attending elementary school while secretly helping Richard solve crimes with the use of his gadgets invented by Dr. Agasa. The most prominent of these are: his voice-changing bowtie, allowing him to impersonate anyone's voice; his customized glasses which allow him to track and listen through his covert listening devices; his super sneakers which multiply his kicking force; his wrist watch stun gun, which allows him to tranquilize Richard or a criminal; his Solar Powered skateboard as well as a soccer ball dispenser belt, super strong/elastic suspenders, among others.

Conan eventually meets Harley Hartwell, a detective from Osaka who is seeking to challenge Kudo in a deductive battle. After drinking a Chinese Alcohol known as Paikaru while sick with a cold, Conan reverts back to a teenager and corrects a deduction made by Harley. In their second encounter, Harley is able to deduce Conan's identity as Jimmy Kudo and confronts him about it. The two later become good friends.

As the series progresses, Conan befriends biochemist Shiho Miyano, a former member of the Black Organization and the inventor of the APTX 4869 poison. She and her sister had grown up within the organization, as their scientist parents had been members too, before their deaths. After her sister was killed by Gin, she took the poison in order to commit suicide. However, like Jimmy, her age regressed and she shrank back to a small child's size. She then escapes and adopts the pseudonym Anita Hailey. Dr. Agasa ends up taking her in, and she vows to help Conan take down the Black Organization. She later invents a prototype antidote to the APTX 4869 allowing Conan to temporarily become Jimmy again, which Conan uses on occasion to fool Rachel when she suspects his true identity. During the events of Holmes' no Mokushiroku, Kudo, while in his original form, confesses his feelings to Rachel.

Conan's investigation of the Black Organization leads him to discover the American FBI's existence in Japan, as they are also investigating the syndicate. His collaboration with FBI agents Jodie Starling and Akai Shuichi allows them to capture the organization's member Kir. They discover she is really an undercover CIA agent and returns her to the organization to continue to spy from within.