Illogical and Irrational Behavior

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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

Conan Edogawa

Conan tends to rush some of his actions ignoring the possible consequences.

• He runs towards the source of ominous noises despite the possibility that armed criminals might overwhelm and/or outnumber him.
• He does not share many pieces of evidence he discovers with law enforcement mebmbers until his final exposition as Sleeping Kogoro. By acting in such manner, he is likely to ruin the chain of custody of several pieces of evidence.

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.

Ai Haibara

• Haibara has exhibited both a hopeless self-immolation behavior (e.g., during the bus hijacking case), and determination, strong temperament and power of will. While her character has developed during the story arcs, the two faces of her behavior still coexist, as of file 1054. Unless she has some mental disorder, for which no evidence or hints are provided, her actions are contradictory.
• Her approach to the research for an APTX 4869 antidote is fundamentally anti-scientific, as no real research has been shown to be performed on apotoxin victims, in order to gather data and test theories. For instance, the effect of the baijiu liquor on the shrunken body of the victims has been largely ignored and not scientifically investigated, when it would have constituted a good starting point.

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.
• Nobody other than Ran has ever criticized Kogoro for punching Conan, or grabbing and throwing him out of the way, despite such behavior potantially constituting abuse. The list of individuals who do not react includes law enforcement members. The same applies to his verbal abuse of Conan, and the Detective Boys.

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.

Crime perpetrators

• Kogoro has the reputation to be able to find the perpetrator of a given crime with exceptional accuracy. Therefore, it would makes sense for wannabe criminals to delay their intents as long as Kogoro is present at the crime scene. While there are cases where not seizing the day would render the criminal act impossible for the foreseeable future, most of the crimes can be delayed by a few days without major consequences. Even excluding unplanned crimes, the majority of the criminals still proceed with their actions, despite knowing that an infallible detective is around them.
• None of the criminals ever objects to the opaque and unclear chain of custody of several pieces of evidence which seemingly come out of nowhere during Conan's exposition as Sleeping Kogoro.

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 existing, and the potential benefits for the mission.
• 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 has also put many colleagues' lives in danger.

Black Organization

• Several members of the Black Organization always wear conspicuous clothes which do nothing to draw random people's attention away from them. As members of a major criminal organization, it would make much more sense to try to go unnoticed. Gin and Vodka are among the worst offender when it comes to being inconspicuous. Gin's black and peculiar car only adds to the problem.
• Most of Vermouth's actions are the epitome of illogicity. She has discovered the secret identities and plots of powerful enemies of the organization, yet has a massive double standard when it comes to act against them. Even discounting her vow not to harm Conan and Ran, the way she wittingly allows them to harm and weaken the Organization and thwart its plans is met on the other side by a ruthless attidude versus other enemies such as Haibara. Vermouth's goals are not fully clear, and it is possible that she is experiencing an internal crisis. However, whatever her goals, her actions do not aid any of them. She also does not seems to mind too much that fact that Bourbon knows her secret relation to the Boss.