Shinichi Kudo

Shinichi Kudo (Jimmy Kudo in the english translation) is the sort-of protagonist of Detective Conan. Only 'sort of', because most of the time, he's shrunken.

Shinichi Kudo was a high school detective. Full-blown mystery geek from day one, he was starting to gain fame, and was becoming pretty well known. Sixteen years old, he lived alone, and had for the past three years, since his parents moved to the US. One day, while out on a 'not-date' with his 'not-girlfriend', Ran Mouri, he ran into a couple shady characters, two men dressed all in black. Mystery lover that he was, he couldn't help running off to follow them. He found one of the men, and spied for a few minutes, but before he could get away, the other snuck up behind him and knocked him out. Half-concious, he heard them planning to kill them. Not wanting to draw attention, they decided against shooting him, opting intstead to poison him with a prototype poison, apparently a gift from a mysterious 'Organization'. Unfortunately for them, and unbeknownst to them, as they ran off immediately after forcing the pill down, it didn't kill him. Instead, it shrunk him down to the size of a six-year-old. He quickly realized he couldn't tell anyone who he was, as the 'Men in Black' would certainly come after him if they knew he was alive. With a bit of help from the crazy professor next door and a pair of his dad's old glasses, he disguised himself, and chose the name 'Conan Edogawa', from two famous mystery writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Ranpo. He moved in with his 'not-girlfriend' and her dad, unsucessful private detective Kogoro Mouri, but did not tell them who he was. He secretly helps Kogoro solve cases, in hopes that it will boost his fame, bringing more cases, ultimately helping him find a lead to the mysterious organization, and a cure for his shrunken state.

Name
Shinichi Kudo's name comes from the word Shin'ichi, meaning "new one", and fictional detective Shunsaku Kudo.