[KookieIt]

Have any of you noticed it too? Looking at the eariler volumes of Detective Conan, Shinichi is leading Mouri to the right clues right? I mean, he does that now to before he knocks him out with the watch but in the eariler cases before the watches apperance Mouri seemed to have understood his leading and thus made some observations of his own. But as the story goes on it seems like even if he is lead, he doesn't come up with some actual good ideas like he did in the beginning. In fact, it seems like he's gotten even more stupid then from when he started.

And then there is Ran. When she first thought that Conan was actually Shinichi she realized that Conan had been leading them with his words. And yet in every crime scene after that she still tries to prevent him from meddling. She also only realizes that he's leading them again closer to the more recent chapters and then concludes that he's just really smart after he tricked her with the cellphone again. It just seems that she always suspects him, degrades his intelligence by thinking he's just a kid at mmost times and then suddenly says he's really smart and stuff.

No offence to this great series but I can't really see much character developement with these two.

[tootsxky]

yeah, he kind of becomes more stupid in succeeding chapters.. but i guess all the fame got into his head and got the better of himself that he doesn't notice that conan is giving out clues..

about Ran, well.. how do i put it.. she acts like an older sister to Conan whenever he tends to meddle with the evidence or the crime scene.. she had her own instincts to think that Shinichi turned into Conan but the way conan tends find a way out of it makes her hard to prove it.. and since shinichi's mom even helped him in making Ran think conan is just a kid.. a first grader..

[reflyh2]

If Mouri's being serious he's pretty good. I still remember the story with his former judo teammates. But now, I've never seen him being serious. I think it's as tootsxky suggested, the fame has gotten to his head, and now he isn't able to get serious....

[yasiru89]

This isn't really true- certainly, as you've all said, he's let the 'meitantei-ness' go to his head (and will be content to drink booze, play mahjong and watch Youko-chan in dramas) but he was particularly strong with his reasoning in the case involving his former class-mate (a woman) who tried to cover up for her father's crime. This was a rather recent case (Mouri Kogorou's decision I think the arc was named), then there's a few more where minimal help from Conan has helped him get at the truth (he even had a brief, surprisingly good deduction a while ago where he found Eri's wedding ring for her!).

Also, as ridiculous as they often are, he usually has his own theory about what happened (whenever he's not agreeing with the obvious), he also always picks up on the hints- at the very least he's on par with Satou Miwako in his investigative prowess. Which admittedly isn't 'meitantei' calibre, but is atleast police inspector calibre. However, I'll overlook such shortcomings anyday- he's an awesome character!

Ran I believe has opted not to believe Shinichi is Conan no matter how strongly its implied in a given situation. She's often had to think she was wrong (in desperate revival and the time she caught hold of Conan's cellular phone) and right now she seems to be content to wait for Shinichi without thinking too much. She finds Conan a great 'support' needless to say (in a not as shotacon as you think way XD).