Lack of Information Sharing

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Within the Detective Conan universe, one of the most notable recurring tropes is the lack of information sharing that could potentially help the cause of individuals or groups. While this is mostly evident between the protagonists, antagonists are not immune from it. Almost everyone among the main characters, as of file 1090, is hiding (or has done so in the past) certain pieces of information from other characters whose allegiance is beyond suspect. The whole phaenomenon constitutes a single but significant portion of a number of illogical and irrational behaviors by many characters.

Instances

Conan Edogawa

Conan has withold numerous useful pieces of information regarding the Black Organization and the past of certain individuals from a multitude of proven allies. In particular, what was withold from whom seems arbitrary, and only serves the purpose to lengthen the overall story. Any optimal plan to tackle the Black Organization would begin by staging an explain-everything-to-everyone meeting with Ai Haibara, Yukiko Kudo, Yusaku Kudo, Heiji Hattori, Shuichi Akai, Jodie Starling, James Black, Andre Camel, Mary Sera, Masumi Sera, Hiroshi Agasa, Rei Furuya, Yuya Kazami, and, potentially, Koumei and Shukichi Haneda. Conan is the only character who knows the importance of each of them, and some of their links to the Black Organization. As such, it would make sense for him to reveal to each of them every single piece of information he knows, and vice versa. Yet, he failed to do so. Among the most important non-shared facts:

• He failed to report to any Japanese police force the existence of both the Black Organization, and APTX 4869. Not doing so at the very beginning did not make much sense, despite Agasa's comment in file 2. It was not until the end of the Vermouth arc that he collaborated with a police force (the F.B.I.), and not until the end of the Bourbon arc that he collaborated with a Japanese force (the NPA SB) against the Black Organization.
• He failed to update his own parents with most of the ongoing discoveries about the Black Organization. As, prior to moving back to Japan, they lived in the U.S.A., they would have been powerful allies, far from the immediate reach of the organization.
• He failed to inform Haibara about Akai's past, and his involvement with her sister - the fact that Akai and Rye are the same person. The same can be stated about the Subaru Okiya disguise.
• He failed to reveal his secret identity to many proven allies, except for a small group of people. The same applies to Haibara's identity and past.
• He failed to inform most allies of his premeditated plans in many occasions (e.g., Haibara during the full moon case), sometimes putting the very life of his allies in danger.
• He failed to inform most allies (e.g., Haibara) of Amuro's true identity and allegiance. To some extent, the same applies to Kir's.
• He failed to fill in Masumi and Mary with numerous details about the Black Organization and Shuichi Akai faked death, once their allegiance became clear.
• He failed to inform the F.B.I. about most of his plans with Shuichi Akai. While a certain level of reticence was on purpose to trick the Black Organization about Akai's fake death technique, the sheer amout of withold information contributes to slowdown the collaboration, especially after the scarlet showdown events.

Ran Mouri

• Ran did not share with Shinichi that she witnessed a long-haired Akai in New York. As she knew that a long-haired assassin was roaming around, at least mentioning it would have been a sensible option at the time.
• She also did not share with anyone that she saw through Vermouth's disguise as Azusa in the Asaca case. As the full moon case has been publicly regarded as a kidnapping, and is obviously still unsolved, Ran is witholding potential useful information from the law enforcement.

Ai Haibara

• Haibara is hiding from Conan many aspects of her past that would help him in his fight against the organization:

• She has not explained the full extent of her parents' work on the Silver Bullet, nor she has shared the content of the tapes her mother left her.
• She has not fully explained the extent to which the APTX 4869 drug she worked on, is related to Silver Bullet, or whether they are codenames for the same project.
• She has not openly shared all her knowledge about the Black Organization (e.g., its members).
• She has been evasive and not fully clear about the Black Organization ultimate goal.
• She has been keeping Conan mostly in the dark about her research of an antidote to APTX 4869. Sometimes, she provides him with prototypes, though.

• Additionally, she has not revealed her true identity and past to most of the allied character. However, that might reflect the fact that Conan has been evasive with her about the identity and allegiance of numerous proven allies (e.g., Akai/Okiya, Amuro, etc.).

Yukiko Kudo

• Yukiko has not informed Conan about her presence in London during the Wimbledon case. That seemed rather pointless.
• She has not informed Conan about the full extent of her past interactions with Sharon Vineyard (e.g., the disguise course by Toichi Kuroba both of them attended). Not only that prevents Conan from digging deeper into Vermouth's past, but also might have delayed him in his quest to discover Vermouth's identity, as she was already known to be Chris Vineyard soon after the Reunion with the Black Organization events.

Yusaku Kudo

• Yusaku has never fully explained to Conan the true extent of his ability to help him. Yusaku is assumed to know influential and powerful people (he told Conan about that hoping to lure him out of Japan one time). However, his role in the fight against the Black Organization has been mostly marginal, as of Chapter 1090.
• He appears not to have revealed yet to Rei Furuya that he was the one staging for Okiya during the scarlet showdown events.

Shuichi Akai

• Shuichi Akai has failed to properly inform at least Conan about his family members, and their involvement with the Black Organization. While it is possible that he is waiting for Conan to reveal his share of secrets first, such behavior is ultimately deleterious for their common cause.
• He has failed to communicate to Conan his suspects on Bourbon's true identity and allegiance, and anything related to Scotch.
• He has also withold all of the above, and many of his plans from his F.B.I. colleagues, including his boss James Black.

Jodie Starling

• Jodie Starling failed to communicate to Conan that she witnessed and survived Vermouth's assassination of her father when she was a kid. It is unclear whether anyone other than James Black knows about it.

James Black

• As the head of the F.B.I. squad, he failed to seek a deeper collaboration with the C.I.A., especially after the Clash of Red and Black events, given Kir's true allegance and secret double mission for both agencies.

Hidemi Hondou

• Other than a few laconic intelligence about Bourbon and Rum, she has never fully revealed to Conan and the F.B.I. the true extent of her knowledge about the Black Organization.

Masumi Sera

• Masumi has not come clean to Conan with regard to her true identity, while throwing at him vague hints over time.
• She has also played the same game with her mother's identity and allegiance.

Mary Sera

• Mary is witholding many details of her past from Conan, even though she made Masumi act in such a way that he would remember the ripples case, and the Akai family with it.
• She has not mentioned her husband Tsutomu Akai's role to anyone outside her children.

Tooru Amuro

• As Bourbon:

• He did not reveal to his fellow members the full extent of Vermouth's relation to the Boss.

• As Rei Furuya:

• He has not shared with Conan, the F.B.I., or the C.I.A. the full extent of his knowledge of the Black Organization.
• He has not shared with any ally his past relation with Elena Miyano.
• He has not shared with any ally (except Shuichi Akai, to a degree) any information about his former colleague Scotch.

Gin

• Gin has never divulged to at least Vodka the details of his past relation with Sherry. Had he done that, the hunt for Sherry would have been probably aided.

Vermouth

• Vermouth has withold from her fellow members of the Black Organization a large amount of damning information about Conan, Haibara, their friends and family, and their plots. While some reticence descends from her wish not to harm Conan and Ran, she could have shared certain details about Conan's plans which would have, at least, thwarted them.
• She has not promptly shared with most of her fellow members of the Black Organization any detail about Bourbon's boss-approved mission of determining whether Shuichi Akai was really dead. Such omission almost caused Bourbon and Kir to be shot down by Chianti and Korn.

The Boss

• For a long time, Bourbon wasn't allowed access to the recording of Akai's death even though the boss had approved of a mission where he was to investigate whether Akai was truly dead.

Consequences

As of file 1090, none of the characters have been shown repentant of not sharing information with other allies. An important corollary is that one cannot be sure whether character X knows information Y, unless the contrary is explicitly proven or implied.