Kazunobu Chiba
| Kazunobu Chiba | |
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| |
| Japanese name: | 千葉 和伸 (Chiba Kazunobu) |
|---|---|
| English name: | Detective Chiba |
| Age: | 24-25[1][2] |
| Gender: | Male |
| Relatives: | Older brother (Yoichiro Chiba)[citation needed] on that name |
| Occupation: | Police Detective |
| First appearance: | Manga: File 269 Anime: Episode 138 |
| Appearances: | Chapters: 101 Episodes: 230 Movies: 17 OVAs: 1 Specials: 1 Openings: 21 Closings: 7 |
| Keyhole number: | Volume 33 |
| Japanese voice: | Isshin Chiba |
| English voice: | Chris Cason |
Kazunobu Chiba (千葉 和伸 Chiba Kazunobu), commonly referred to as Detective Chiba (千葉刑事 Chiba-keiji), is a character in the manga and anime franchise Detective Conan. Chiba is a detective in the Tokyo district, and very often works alongside Inspector Megure and Wataru Takagi. His main duty appears to be to obtain information outside of the crime scenes. Sometimes, he will even go out and substitute as inspector when Megure is busy on another case. He is a childhood friend and the love interest of Naeko Miike.
Contents
- 1 Background
- 2 Personality
- 3 Appellations
- 4 Plot overview
- 4.1 Sato's Father Case (Manga: 269, Anime 205-206)
- 4.2 Sato's Omiai Case (Manga: 328-330, Anime 253-254)
- 4.3 Takagi's Last Case (Manga: 450-452, Anime: 390-391)
- 4.4 Group Date Kidnapping Case (Manga: 511-514, Anime: 431-432)
- 4.5 Hammer Man Case (Manga: 625-627, Anime: 530-531)
- 4.6 VHS Tape of Memories (Manga: 741-742, Anime: 624)
- 4.7 Co-Investigating with a First Love Case (Manga: 790-792, Anime: 659-670)
- 4.8 Yumi's Love Story Case (Manga: 847-849, Anime 731-732)
- 4.9 UFO Sighting Murder Case (Manga: 942-944, Anime: 847-848)
- 5 Non-Canon Plot Overview
- 6 Relationships analysis
- 7 Name origin
- 8 Different looks
- 9 Quotes
- 10 Trivia
- 11 See also
- 12 References
Background
Initially, he was introduced with a minor cameo in The Final Screening Murder Case, as well as a minor role in the 4th Detective Conan Movie. He later takes more of a noticeable role throughout the series.
Chiba attended Teitan Elementary School, in the 20th graduating class, 2 classes below Sumiko Kobayashi. Since childhood, he has a tendency to sweat.[3]
Chiba currently works in the Second violent crimes investigative division, section 3.[4]
Personality
Chiba can be serious, but he is shown to be a mostly light-hearted officer. He loves to eat and is sometimes shown stuffing his face, usually with burgers and sodas, but usually this is merely done for comic effect. Chiba can be very supportive, and is a big help, especially for using his size to catch criminals. He, as well as Yumi Miyamoto, is very supportive for Takagi's relationship and feelings for Sato, and is one of the few officers in the Tokyo district to not get involved in Shiratori's schemes to get the couple to break up.
A very notable trait of Chiba praised by his colleagues in Law Enforcement is that he would always follow and uphold the law no matter what the circumstances are, especially when it is he who breaks it. This is one of the main reasons why Naeko liked him in the first place; it was because he scolded her over a traffic violation, saying that doing the wrong thing will develop into a habit that's hard to get rid of. This event also inspired Naeko to join the Police Force as a traffic cop.
He has been a huge fan of tokusatsu shows like Kamen Yaiba and Gomera for a long time, and was a member of the broadcasting committee at his elementary school. For a project, he and the other club members made a tokusatsu film called Kamen Baiya. Since then his enjoyment tokusatsu has grown and his apartment seems to be covered in figurines based on the characters.
Chiba seems to be very knowledgeable about Betamax tapes He has a habit of checking VHS tapes to see if they were rewound. He believes he picked this habit up from his older brother.[3]
Appellations
Plot overview
Sato's Father Case (Manga: 269, Anime 205-206)
Kazunobu Chiba makes his debut in the manga series.
Sato's Omiai Case (Manga: 328-330, Anime 253-254)
Takagi and Chiba work together to catch a robber despite conflicting witness statements. Once they finally discover the identity of the robber, he flees. After catching him, Chiba sends Takagi to stop the Omiai by saying "You're a detective right?, then like a detective... go after your target until the time actually runs out!"
Takagi's Last Case (Manga: 450-452, Anime: 390-391)
Chiba's roommate becomes the main suspect of a murder case. As a result Takagi, Sato, and the Detective Boys search the apartment for clues. The room is covered over with toys from the Kamen Yaiba and Gomera franchises. He tracks his tv programs using the newspaper listings and posts sticky notes of the times on his television.
Group Date Kidnapping Case (Manga: 511-514, Anime: 431-432)
Chiba invites Takagi on a group date to make the numbers even. The leader of the group is Chiba's middle school friend Emoto. Emoto mentions that Chiba had wanted to be a police officer since he was a kid. Emoto's sister happened to be friends with Yumi, who also dragged Sato along. After it is realized that a kid was left alone, the group agrees to go get him, however it seems that Chiba and Yumi are too drunk and they get left in the car.
Hammer Man Case (Manga: 625-627, Anime: 530-531)
Takagi is surprised when Sato tries to kiss him while on a stakeout, pretending they are a couple. When he mentions this to Chiba, he says that he has been on stakeout with Sato in the past where they also had pretended to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Chiba says that it was a warm feeling which makes Takagi jealous. Later Chiba asks Takagi how far his relationship with Sato has progressed, and reveals that in the past he and Sato had only held hands while she glared at the culprit. This makes Takagi rethink why Sato tried to kiss him.
VHS Tape of Memories (Manga: 741-742, Anime: 624)
Chiba accompanies Shiratori to Teitan Elementary to deliver some notices about crime prevention. While in the video library room looking for a long lost tape, Chiba encounters the Detective Boys. He mentions that he was a part of the Broadcasting Committee for the school and was responsible for creating the morning announcements. As a trial run they had created a mini audio drama and later filmed a live action tokusatsu drama titled "Kamen Baiya". Chiba mentions that there was a girl who seemed really enthusiastic about helping him create the drama and even got other members to participate. Chiba had sent her a love letter and her reply mentioned a hidden message in the video room. He had never found it and had not seen her in the last 13 years. She had contacted him recently saying that she would go to a class reunion and wanted to know if he would be there and whether he had seen the tape. With the help of the Detective Boys he recovers the message and goes to meet her at the reunion. He parks illegally and rushes inside leaving his car running, however it seems she did not come. He returns to his car and encounters a police woman writing him a ticket. She tries to say that she might not finish because he is a police officer, but he tells her that he broke the law and deserves it. Chiba does not recognize her. After he leaves she reveals that she was the girl on the tape, Miike Naeko, and that she was transferring to Tokyo. Naeko is partnered with Yumi.
Co-Investigating with a First Love Case (Manga: 790-792, Anime: 659-670)
The Detective Boys come across Chiba's car with the message "Die" written inside. Chiba calls Yumi and Naeko to the scene. Conan and Haibara quickly realize that Naeko is the girl from Chiba's past and manage to lead the situation so that Chiba and Naeko end up investigating together. Naeko's hat is blown off by the wind and they look each other straight in the eyes, but Chiba still does not recognize her. Yumi realizes that if the two of them get together, that all of her friends may be too busy for her and tries to push them apart. Although by the end of the case, Yumi has Naeo drive Chiba back herself. Chiba says that he feels like he has met her before and recalls the time she wrote him a parking ticket. In his head he thought that surely she couldn't actually be Naeko from back then.
Yumi's Love Story Case (Manga: 847-849, Anime 731-732)
Sakurako Yonehara discovers a body and calls her childhood friend Naeko, who happens to be accompanied by Yumi and the Detective Boys. As usual, halfway through the investigation Chiba arrives at the crime scene to deliver important information. Sakurako and Chiba recognize each other because they went to the same elementary school. Chiba asks her if she remembers a certain someone who was always by her side, while remembering Naeko. The case then distracts them and its not brought back up.
UFO Sighting Murder Case (Manga: 942-944, Anime: 847-848)
Chiba tries to track down information on a case that he believes involved aliens. As he was leaving headquarters, a few patrol women commented on Chiba's weight. This resulted in Naeko sending him an anonymous package filled with weight loss pamphlets. She signed it as his "number one fan in the entire universe". The package also listed Chiba's full name as "Kazunobu Chiba". He manages to loose so much weight that even Ran almost doesn't recognize him. After the case it seems that the patrol women from before, now find Chiba attractive which results in Naeko sending him enough cookies to reverse his progress.
Non-Canon Plot Overview
Prior to Manga Appearances
The Final Screening Murder Case (Manga: 222-224, Anime: 138-139)
Chiba's first appearance in the Anime. He was inserted into a Manga canon episode despite still being an Anime Original character at the time.
Movie 4: Captured in Her Eyes
Very minor appearances
Relationships analysis
Family & Friends
Wataru Takagi
Takagi and Chiba are fellow officers in the 1st investigative division (Homicides) of the Metropolian Police, and very good friends and partners. In fact, Chiba was the only male officer in the department who did not harbor an obsessive crush on Sato and would even assist Takagi in his endeavors to win her heart.[8] Takagi has even spent the night at Chiba's apartment multiple times and borrowed his T-shirts. [9] When Takagi was kidnapped, Chiba maintained the closest proximity to the tablet showing Takagi's fate. [10]
Miwako Sato
Chiba is the only male officer who does not have a crush on Sato and they are shown to be just friends. However in the past they have gone on stakeout's two or three times together where they pretended to be boyfriend and girlfriend by holding hands, so Sato could glare at the culprit over Chiba's shoulders. [11]
Ninzaburo Shiratori
Chiba seems to be supportive of Shiratori's relationship and makes fun of him in front of Kobayashi in a similar way to how he treats Takagi.
Naeko Miike
Chiba and Naeko were childhood friends and attended Teitan Elementary together where they both joined the school broadcasting committee (although Naeko only joined because Chiba did). When Naeko was to move away, Chiba wrote down his feelings in a love letter. Naeko wrote her response on the side of a VHS in the committee storage room, hoping Chiba's sweating habit would cause the message "I like you, too" to show up on his hands after grabbing the tape. Unfortunately, Chiba couldn't find the right tape and never got the message.
On the day of his elementary school reunion, Chiba returned to the school and searched for the tape again. With the help of Conan and the Detective Boys, he finally finds the message and heads for the reunion. Unfortunately Naeko doesn't show, and he hears from a former classmate that she said she is "now with the one she loved". Depressed, Chiba immediately leaves and finds a lady traffic cop giving him a ticket. When the officer offers to forget about the ticket since he is a fellow officer, Chiba scolds her for offering to ignore his illegal parking. Chiba leaves with the ticket, but then wonders how the girl knew he was a detective. The officer turns out to be Naeko, who has just been transferred to the police headquarters in Tokyo (working under Yumi) and looks forward to working with the one she loves.[3]
Sakurako Yonehara
Chiba remembers that the person who created the message on the VHS tape (Naeko) was good friends with Sakurako, and they were always together. Sakurako was in the grade level below Chiba.
[[Chiba's Older brother
Chiba's older brother worked at a video store where he was required to open the heads of VHS tapes to see if the video had been rewound. Chiba has picked this habit up from him because he thought it was cool.
Mio Ashida
Mio Ashida, age 23, is an office worker from The Rainy Night Menace. She was his first love.
Name origin
Chiba's name comes from his voice actor Isshin Chiba. The kanji for Isshin (一伸 ) can also be pronounced as "Kazunobu", which was the voice actor's original name. Gosho gave the character a given name with different kanji that are still pronounced as "Kazunobu" (和伸 ). His original physical appearance was modeled after him as well.
SDB70+ : Q73: Have you established detective Chiba’s first name?
A: His voice actor’s is Isshin… It might just become Isshin. But everyone with “一” (ichi) in their name is a cool guy… I don’t know what to do. (laughs)
He effectively removed the "一" (ichi) in Isshin Chiba (千葉 一伸 ) and changed it to a "和" which can be read as "Kazu" for the original name Kazunobu Chiba (千葉 和伸 ).
Different looks
Quotes
| “ | If you break the rules and let yourself off the hook even once, it'll become a habit! You might think you can break a habit, but you can't! | „ |
— Kazunobu Chiba to Naeko Miike[12] | ||
Trivia
- His given name was reveled more than 500 chapters after his first appearance.
- Chiba has a scar on his right palm from falling down in the rain as a child.[13]
See also
References
- ^ Volume 71, File 742: "Love Transcending 13 years": Chiba was in the 6th grade 13 years ago, when he was about 11-12 years old, which would make him about 24-25 in the current timeline.
- ^ Volume 71, File 741 and Volume 80, File 848, Page 11: Chiba was two grade below Kobayashi (who's exactly 26) and one grade above Sakurako (who's exactly 23).
- ^ a b c Manga Chapters 741~742: The VHS of Memory Case
- ^ Manga Chapter 792 page 4
- ^ a b Detective Conan 80 + Super Digest Book - p121
- ^ a b Detective Conan 80 + Super Digest Book - p113
- ^ Detective Conan 80 + Super Digest Book - p130
- ^ File 330: Sato's Feelings
- ^ Azusa's Brother Case
- ^ 804-808
- ^ Hammer Man Case
- ^ Volume 71, File 742
- ^ File 742
