Illogical and Irrational Behavior

This page is currently being edited. Please consider helping the users to complete the page and fill in the missing pieces if you are able.

Within the Detective Conan universe, one of the most notable recurring tropes is the illogical, irrational, or outright contradictory behavior of a considerable number of characters. Sometimes, the easy explanation for such seemingly dangerous pattern is that Gosho Aoyama is artificially prolonging a story arc, by preventing a quick breakthrough. In that case, a plot device usually referred to as plot armor prevents anything too nasty from happening to those characters who appear to behave irrationally. Sometimes, on the other hand, the irrational behavior is intrinsically required by the universe itself for certain cardinal elements of Detective Conan to be possible in the first place (e.g., the Sleeping Kogoro act).

Instances

Ran Mouri

Ran has agreed without any question to take care of Conan when they first met at Agasa's house. Under normal circumstances, it is unlikely that a never seen before 7 years old who, supposedly, is a distant relative of Agasa, would be taken in by a family with an unstable financial situation.

Kogoro Mouri

• Kogoro is as much responsible as Ran for taking in Conan, despite struggling to make enough money.
• He also usually takes Ran and Conan with him while meeting clients in remote and unfamiliar locations. Other than not being ethical from a deontological point of view, the lives of two underaged students are often put in danger by such careless behavior.
• His mannerism is also particularly inappropriate in multiple occasion, ranging from sexism and sexual harassment to defamation of innocent people, physical assault, etc. It is unclear how he was able to join the police force in the first place, and how can he still receive so much credit despite his unrepentant nature, and persistent unacceptable behavior.

Reaction to Kogoro's unprofessional behavior

Kogoro's behevior is deeply unprofessional, inappropriate, and sometimes borderline criminal. Nonetheless, he has always faced little consequence for it.

• None of the woman he has sexually harassed ever denounced him to the authorities, despite showing clear signs of annoyance. A similar point can be made about those (including law enforcement personnel) who witnessed the numerous episodes of harassment.
• None of the suspects whom he has accused of committing a crime (usually murder) without evidence ever denounced him for defamation, nor seeked any kind of compensation. While the accusations are usually retracted by Sleeping Kogoro (often with the cliché excuse that it was a ruse to make the real culprit lower their guard), it seems unreasonable that Kogoro has always got away with them.

Reaction to the Sleeping Kogoro act

The way bystanders react to the sleeping Kogoro act does not make much sense. The conditions for the ruse to be discovered by other characters appear to be arbitrary. Everyone should be able to see that Korogo is sleeping and not talking. Therefore, the level of intelligence required to discover the truth is unclear. Additionally, it is hard to belive that any adult would just remain calm and listen to a simingly coming out of nowhere speech, without, at least, acting to check Kogoro's condition. That is especially true for medical professionals and first time spectators of the act.

Japanese law enforcement

The police is known for not taking any issue with children, teenagers, and other unauthorized individuals being present at, and messing with crime scenes. Conan, Haibara, the Detective Boys, Ran, and Sonoko are usually reminded not to interfere with any ongoing investigation, but no real effort is made by any officer to remove them from the scene, and to prevent them from re-entering it. Other than Kogoro occasionally punching Conan for being bothersome and insistent, being at a crime scene when not supposed to, does not have signficant consequences. While the presence of adult detectives such as Kogoro, and teenage detectives such as Shinichi, Hattori, and Masumi can in principle be tolerated, any contamination of the crime scene could both hinder the investigation, and render the collected evidence inadmissible. As such, the police is not doing a good job at restricting crime scenes, and enforcing those restrictions.

F.B.I.

The F.B.I. team lead by James Black has been behaving sub-optimally for most of its mission:

• No collaboration with the Japanese law enforcement has ever been seeked, despite no real obstacle exists, and the mission would benefit from it.
• No explicit collaboration with the C.I.A. has ever took place, despite the shared common knowledge of Hidemi Hondou's allegiance.
• Team members have been keeping secrets from each other which not only has hindered the quest against the Black Organization, but have also put many colleagues' lives in danger.