Heiji Hattori

Heiji Hattori
Profile
Japanese name:	服部 平次 (Hattori Heiji)
English name:	Harley Hartwell
Age:	17
Gender:	Male
Relatives:	Heizo Hattori (father) Shizuka Hattori (mother)
Nicknames:	Hei-chan (Otaki) "The Great Detective of the West"
Statistics
First appearance:	Manga: Chapter 92 Anime: Episode 48
Appearances:	Chapters: 213 Chapters: 13 Episodes: 108 Movies: 10 OVAs: 7 Specials: 4 Openings: 40 Closings: 10
Cases solved:	All cases with Conan
Keyhole number:	Volume 10
Actors
Japanese voice:	Ryo Horikawa
English voice:	Kevin M. Connolly

Heiji Hattori (服部 平次 ,Hattori Heiji), also known as Harley Hartwell in the Funimation dub, is a character in the manga and anime series Detective Conan.

Background

Heiji is the son of Heizo Hattori, chief of the Osaka Police Department, and his wife Shizuka Hattori. Heiji wants to become a detective, and his father is very supportive of this, helping him solve tough cases. However, his father has given him tough love, though mostly for the sole purpose of having Heiji get him to bring a suspect out. Heiji is also very skilled in kendo and has become a favored tournament contender for his school.

At one time during their childhood, Heiji had had the unfortunate idea of locking himself and his friend Kazuha together with a set of old handcuffs which had no key to unlock it; as a result they involuntarily had to spend time together even on some rather intimate occasions (i.e., bathroom visits) before the cuffs could be removed. As a reminder of this 'closeness' and for good luck, Kazuha fashioned two identical lucky charms, each incorporating a chain link from the cuffs, which she and Heiji have been wearing ever since.

Appearance and Skills

Heiji is 182cm (5'11") and weights 63kg (139lb). He has dark brown hair and dark skin, and his eyes are normally dark green but have occasionally been drawn as blue. He speaks with a strong Kansai Ben accent, typical of the Osaka region. He also speaks fluent English.

As Shinichi is to soccer, so is Heiji to kendo; he's the fifth position, or taisho, of his high school Kendo team, meaning he's the captain. He is also a capable motorcycle driver.

Personality

Even while solving a case, Heiji tends to be lighthearted and good-humored, preferring to work through it with a grin on his face. He is a big fan of baseball, and is most of the time shown wearing an Osaka cap, to support the local Osaka baseball team. He usually wears his cap with its visor pointed backward, but if he feels challenged, he turns the visor forward.

Despite him knowing the value and necessity of remaining calm in the face of a crime, Heiji tends to be impulsive at times, which tends to cloud his judgment a little. He's also known to be extremely protective of those he values as close friends, and tries hard to keep them out of harm. There's several instances where he'll tell Kazuha to stay out of cases, simply because he's afraid of her getting hurt. Furthermore, he's pretty much always watching Shinichi's back, and does whatever he can to not only keep the boy safe, but to keep his identity under cover.

On a related note, however, he appears to be a poor liar: he frequently calls Conan 'Kudo' in public, and when others question him about it, he stammers out an excuse with an awkward laugh that makes Conan roll his eyes.

His friendship with Conan/Shinichi is a close one, although neither of them can resist adding a more competitive air to their relationship. But when a case gets hot, the two set aside this trifling and work effectively together. During Shinichi's first return to his high school during the play performance, Heiji let him take the lead role in the investigations, saying it was because they were in Tokyo, Shinichi's turf.

Relationships analysis

Kazuha Toyama

Heiji's relationship with Kazuha Toyama is a very close one; they were childhood friends, and have stayed close even through the years. Their relationship gets mistaken for a romantic relationship by everyone, even though they claim that they don't have that sort of relationship or feelings for each other. But of course, this is not true, since he has shown that he is protective of her when she is with other guys and says that he will never let her get hurt no matter what. Now, Kazuha has the same feelings for him, as well as being protective and chasing of other women that might have a interest in him. Also, they have the same situation as Ran and Shinichi, being childhood friends that have romantic feelings for each other and has the same background as them. Heiji is a teenage detective and she is a police's daughter, like Ran is a police's daughter and Shinichi is a teenage detective. They are even called the 'Ran and Shinichi of Osaka' by fans of the series, since they're so similar. Although they are constantly fighting, they both are very close friends. It is also shown in the seventh movie, Crossroad in the Ancient Capital, that Kazuha is Heiji's first love, though he didn't know it was her at the time.

Shinichi Kudo

Heiji acts rather brotherly towards Shinichi, even going so far as to pretend to be him on various occasions, so no one figures out that Shinichi and Conan are the same person. Of course, this might also be to make up for all the times Heiji calls him Kudo, which has nearly given Shinichi away multiple times. Heiji can be a little bit worried for Shinichi when he gets into trouble and in a life or death situation. They are as close as real brothers, both being detective's and having feelings for their childhood friends. When they're caught solving a case together, it's not unusual for their minds to move in sync; because of this and several other factors, they maintain a sort of friendly rivalry with each other, although when a case gets serious, they are both all business. Heiji has, on several occasions, declared himself to be Shinichi's best friend.

Plot overview

In Heiji's first appearance, he went to Kogoro's detective agency, looking specifically for Shinichi Kudo. He had been publicly declared the Great Detective of the West, while Kudo was the Great Detective of the East, so he tried finding him to see who would win in a showdown of wits. (In fact, they had such a contest before, three years previously, during a skiing trip in the Yamagata prefecture, although they never learned about each other's identities at that time.) However, after Conan temporarily turned back into Shinichi, Heiji was soundly defeated in the case, but gained a lot of respect for Kudo.

During their second encounter, Conan knocked him out to solve the on-going case, but during the deduction Heiji awoke prematurely and discovered Conan's secret. Ever since that revelation and after learning the truth about it, Heiji has been helping Conan try to hide his secret identity, though he occasionally slips up by calling him "Shinichi" or "Kudo" in front of Ran.

Heiji has helped Conan investigate the Black Organization on several occasions, such as when the two investigated Jodie Starling . He's also helped cover for Conan during several of the brief instances where he regained his body

Trivia

• Heiji's name comes from fictional Edo period police detective Zenigata Heiji (銭形 平次 ) and famous samurai and ninja Hattori Hanzou (服部 半蔵 ).

• Heiji has become somewhat infamous for the amount of injuries he has sustained throughout the series. A fan-compiled full list can be found here.

• Heiji, along with Shinichi, Kaito and Saguru Hakuba, are sometimes referred to as 'The Four Geniuses' or 'The Gosho Boys' by fans. If Ai/Shiho is included, they are referred to as 'The Five Geniuses.'

• At 182cm, Heiji is the tallest of the Gosho Boys. Hakuba, however, is heavier by 2 kg.

See also

• Characters