I'm new to this forum and I wanted to introduce myself by creating a new thread about my favorite topic: character studies and analysis!
There has been much talk about your favorite police characters but as far as I know, would be the first one to try and rate the diverse police officers in DC on a scale related to professional capability in general and abstract (case solving) intelligence in particular...
I am aware of 24 police officers who appeared so far in DC on a crime scene, so I listed them from the most capable one (No. 1) to the least (No. 24).
For the sake of a clear overview, I have always added the rank (you can verfiy them at the Detective Conan Wiki!), the name, the prefecture, the division, the police quarter and the volume, in which the person in question appeared for the first time in the series.
I have also given diverse reasons for scaling them in the way I did. If you don't want to be bothered with reading all of it, just skim it over.^^
Of course, these are just my pieces of opinion and I would be very keen on reading your opinions, too!
And here we go:
1. Superintendent Supervisor Hattori Heizo/Osaka, headquarters (Vol. 15)
I put him at no. 1 because he managed to solve the Tokugawa Treasure Case in vol. 32 way before Conan and Heiji. It was quite a difficult case to begin with. Not only did he solve it, he arranged a cunning trap for the culrpit, using his son as bait!
He has got much experience in general.
In vol. 50, he gave his 15 year old son an important hint via phone to solve the case concerning the ski lodge and the murdered (fake) ski star. In this case, Shinichi and Heiji met for the first time.
I think intellectually, he's on par with Yusaku!
2. Chief Superintendent Ginshiro Toyama/Osaka, headquarters (Vol. 19)
He can't be far away from the level of Heiji's father, since it seems that he also managed to solve the Tokugawa case before Conan and Heiji...
3. Police Inspector Takaaki Morofushi/Nagano, Arano quarters (vol. 65)
He managed to solve the Red Wall Case in vol. 65 before Conan, Heiji, and inspector Yamato, getting attacked in the process... Plus, he was considered to be the best student absolving the police school, even beating Yamato!
4. Police Inspector Kansuke Yamato/Nagano, headquarters (Vol. 59)
This one-eyed, tough inspector solved the Centipede Case concernig the feud of two old families in volume 59, in the same time as Heiji and Conan!
5. Police Detective Yusuke Sakata/Osaka, Tojiri quarters (Vol. 19)
It may seem strange to include him in this list, since he is the culprit in the Osaka Serial Killer Case (vol. 19)... But it takes a lot of intelligence and wit to fool the whole police apparatus of Osaka (Heizo hattori ansd Kazuha's father, too) and Conan/Heiji for such a long time!
6. Police Inspector Chosuke Takagi/Tokio, 1st division, headquarters (vol. 44)
Not our lovable, clumsy Wataru, but the old goat from vol. 44 who is 2 years Megure's senior. He appears only in the one case where gets confused with Wataru, because of the same surname. Being at the end of his career, Chosuke Takagi is about to get transferred to Tottori, in order to hunt an infamous robbery gang.
He solves the case in which Chiba's flat buddy killed his ex girlfriend (almost) without Conan's help, appears to be very wise and experienced and is praised for his capability, even admired by our usually high demanding and austere Megure.
7. Police Inspector Yuminaga/Tokyo, 1st division, arson investigation section (vol. 39)
He is always called on the scene when there is a fire involved, killing the victim. He is quite smart, acknowledges Conan's and Heiji's dedcution skills (after initial distrust, even going so far as thanking Heiji and Conan instead of our Sleeping Kogouro). At least after Heiji's and COnan's demonstration, he sees the truth behind the Red Horse Case (vol. 39), also concerning the Rolls Royce Case involving electrostatic charge (vol. 61).
8. Assistant Police Inspector Miwako Satou/Tokyo, 1st division, headquarters (vol. 19)
She is very capable and witty. With her around, Conan is very reluctant to put Kogouro to sleep, since she already wa ssuspicious at the first time he did it and almost managed to ruin his show (vol. 30 Train Drug Dealer Case). She often manages to impress her entourage with her deduction skills, for example in the case concerning the murdered banker's wife (vol. 21)...
9. Police Inspector Jugo Yokomizo/Kanagawa (vol. 34)
The rough, self-confident and younger version of Sango Yokomizo with the athletic marine's haircut doesn't like civilians like Kogouro to get involved in his cases, not being impressed by him in the slightest. He is very attentive and his deductions in the Scuba Diving Case (vol. 64) concerning the cause of the victim's death were quite impressive, not even needing a coroner to get the task done.
10. Police Sergeant Wataru Takagi/Tokyo, 1st division, headquarters (vol. 18)
He is not as dumb as he looks, that's for sure! He may be naïve and clumsy, but what he lacks in certain respects, he makes up for it with his intuitive capabilities. He managed to solve case about Satou's deceased father (vol. 27) and the case about the kidnapped little boy (vol. 50) before Conan!
11. Police Inspector Ginzo Nakamori/Tokyo, 2nd division, headquarters (vol. 16)
He's the principal foe of our beloved Magician in the Moonlight, Kaitou Kid, never tired of chasing him...
He managed to decode Kid's announcement and got the location where he would appear right (Black Star Case, vol. 16)
In the creation process of DC, Kogouro was clearly intended to be Nakamori's counterpart, though Aoko's father is definitely more intelligent and capable than the former.
He takes his job very seriously and doesn't surrender anything to chance...
12. Superintendent Kiyonaga Matsumoto/Tokyo, 1st division, headquarters (vol. (8)
He only appears in cases of national (or at least prefectural) importance. He's a reasonable auhtority figure and clearly knows how to do his job. He is also used to make difficult decisions...
13. The local police officer from the Shinigami Case (vol. 62)
This local village officer may not be very bright and doesn't take Heiji very seriously, but at least, he is careful about his work and was able to see through the plump "ruse" of Kogorou and Heiji, trying to exempt Shinichi from suspicion and to conceal the foot prints of the real culprit.
14. Assistant Police Inspector Yumi MIyamoto/Tokyo, traffic division, headquarters (vvol. 30)
Our traffic enforcement lady may be a little naïve and has to get help from Conan in solving cases, but in the Voter Fraud Case concerning the lost cell phone (vol. 43), she developed some nice decutions of her own...
15. Police Inspector Jugo Megure, 1st division, headquarters (vol. 1)
And finally, we arrive at good old Megure, who is our most well-known police member...
He is man of mediocre abilities who always follows the most obvious (fake) clues, since he is a by-the-book-cop. At least, he is able to falsify Kogouro's dumb and absurd theories concerning the current case and ot correct him.
He is able to solve normal, weekly cases, is very methodical in his approach and always conscientious and careful. With a little help from Conan, he manages to solve a few cases, from time to time (the XXX case in vol. 34 or the Ghost Writer Case in vol. 52, for example...)
16. the police inspector from Okinawa (vol. 45)
He only appears in the case about the murdered baseball star. He admires Kogouro, but in striking contrast to him, suspects the sports moderator from the beginning and manages to solve the case, with help from Conan...
17. Police Inspector Momose/Tokyo, 3rd division, headquarters (vol. 38)
This guy who looks like Columbo takes the Detective Boys and Conan seriously, but in the case about the japanese festival puppets (vol. 38), he is on the wrong track...
18. Assistant Police Inspector Isshin Chiba/Tokyo, 1st division, headquarters (vol. 27)
Well, Chiba might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but if there is a case of emergency you can always coun on him to do the right thing...
19. Police Inspector Nishimura/Hokkaido (vol. 22)
This inspector only appears in the case about the jewelier who gets murdered in a train. In this case the culprit's method of killing is based on a stolen crime novel manuscript of Yusaku!
Nishimura is very arrogant, rude, aloof and likes to be his own man, not taking shit from anyone.
Unfortunately, his abilities do not match his self-confident, cool demeanour... He is very careless and slow, not even getting the fake clues the culprit setup in order to believe the most obvoius theory which Kogouro presents him...
20. Police Inspector Goro Otaki/Osaka, headquarters (vol. 19)
Our good old Otaki is very naive and tends to follow the most obvious clues/theories. But at least, he knows how to do the basics of his work.
21. Police Inspector Sango Yokomizo/Saitama, later transferred to Shizuoka (vol. 6)
He is not as sharp as his younger brother. He puts too much trust in Kogouro, instead of taking the cases in his own hands. He's got very seldom thought of his own and if he does, he is generally on the wrong track...
He is very naive, hasty in his conclusions, not very courageous and very superstitious, for he's got a an unhealthy fear of ghosts!
22. Superintendent Shintaro Chaki/Tokyo, 2nd division (vol. 16)
This old fart is clearly a joke of a police chief! It is no wonder, that Kid always manages to escape him! His theory at which place Kid could appear, was even dumber than that of Kogouro (Black Sta Case, vol. 16)!
23. the police officer from Fukui (vol. 28)
That police officer only appears in the Mermaid Case. He is so unimportant, that he was drawn by one of Gosho's assistants.
He is very arrogant and loves to yell at all the people around him but can't do jackshit!
24. Police Inspector Misao Yamamura/Gunma (vol. 14)
Well, this goes without saying...
He can't get anything done, is a joke, stupid, seems to have got his police mark from the backside of a kellogg's box and couldn't be bothered in a million years to do/utter something helpful/intelligent.
It's a shame and clearly Conan's fault that he got promoted at all!
Pheeeew! Done!
Please excuse the long text!
What do you think?^^
PS: Dear Chekhov, i have been following this forum since a long time and am very fond of your insights and your analytical skills! I would especially love to read some of your thoughts, too!
