Is Kogoro the tritagonist of the series?

[thriceplus]

OK, it seems that there is some consensus (wikipedia, DCW, etc) that Kogoro is the tritagonist of the series and that Conan/Ran/Kogoro are the three protagonists. I agree that Kogoro used to be the tritagonist early on and acknowledge that he has the third most appearances out of anyone outside of Conan and Ran, but here are some points to consider:

1. Kogoro just doesn't appear as much anymore. Kogoro appeared in 72 and 67 chapters in the chapters 1-100 and 101-200 respectively. Compare that with the Detective Boy (sans Haibara) who appears in 18 and 20 chapters. Fast forward to chapters 800-900 and Kogoro appears in 47, DB (sans Haibara) 48 and Haibara 51.

2. Even when Kogoro appears, he's rarely the focal character. Kogoro gets a huge chunk of appearances today from driving Ran and Conan to some remote cabin since Ran can't drive. He naturally appears in almost all the Heiji or the Nagano trio cases because of said reason but it's clear who the chapters are really centered on. True Kogoro cases where he actually plays a non-trivial, non-driving role are infrequent.

3. Kogoro has minimal relevance to the plot. One of Kogoro's main role used to be as an information provider to track the Black Organization through receiving cases, but Kir and to a lesser extent Bourbon have made the role less necessary.

4. Kogoro's other role is "sleeping Kogoro". Now sleeping Kogoro is iconic for the series but it's clear that for the past several years it has largely been irrelevant. I have no statistics backing this, but I estimate that early on, sleeping Kogoro solved maybe 2 in 3 murders, but that number is more like 1 in 5 now. Conan just has so many new options, such as "Shinichi-niichan", but also remember that every other case some combination of Heiji, Nagano trio, Bourbon, Sera, Shukichi or Okiya appear so Conan just doesn't need to solve the murder himself anymore.

5. Kogoro has minimal character development with Conan, the eponymous character. Kogoro's the only major recurring character other than Sonoko and Kazuha not to have character development with Conan. Now Sonoko and Kazuha make sense since they have both other male love interests but Conan's basically Kogoro's adopted son. Pretty shocking that 900 chapters later, the most father-son bonding with between Kogoro and Conan is that one time they ate ramen together before somebody dying 2 pages later.

I'm kinda curious as to what people think, since I really don't think there is a tritagonist but if I had to go with one, I'd take Haibara over Kogoro.

[kkslider5552000]

Sure. *shrugs*

[k11chi]

Kogoro is just Kogoro... He's just supposed to be this silly middle aged drunk parent (he's Very similar to my uncle) with funny dialogue now and then.

Spoiler:

[Wakarimashita]

1. Kogoro just doesn't appear as much anymore. Kogoro appeared in 72 and 67 chapters in the chapters 1-100 and 101-200 respectively. Compare that with the Detective Boy (sans Haibara) who appears in 18 and 20 chapters. Fast forward to chapters 800-900 and Kogoro appears in 47, DB (sans Haibara) 48 and Haibara 51.

The increase in DB chapters is depressing.

[Serinox]

5. Kogoro has minimal character development with Conan, the eponymous character. Kogoro's the only major recurring character other than Sonoko and Kazuha not to have character development with Conan. Now Sonoko and Kazuha make sense since they have both other male love interests but Conan's basically Kogoro's adopted son. Pretty shocking that 900 chapters later, the most father-son bonding with between Kogoro and Conan is that one time they ate ramen together before somebody dying 2 pages later.

I think you're overestimating their relationship. Kogoro cares about Conan, sure, but I don't think he's sees him as his adopted son. Kogoro also lies to the police for Shinichi and agrees to hide him when he is suspected of murder; Kogoro cares about people close to him or his daughter. But that's mostly it.

And Conan obviously doesn't think of Kogoro as something even close to a father, considering he is smarter than him, basically takes care of him with Ran instead of the other way around and he already has a father he loves.

[MoonRaven]

I thikn there is no tritagonist anymore. Kogoro was once. Then Haibara for a while. Now it's just Conan and Ran with some or other person to stand next to them before being put back into character-storage(Heiji for example).

[thriceplus]

Judging by the response, I guess nobody cares much about Kogoro lol, but I think it's a pretty important question because it's relevant to speculating about how Gosho plans to continue the series. I see quite a bit of theories, such as Chekhov's about Kogoro's missing parents, that are based on the assumption that Kogoro is still the tritagonist, something that wouldn't make sense if Kogoro got permanently demoted to just a major recurring character.

Either way, there's a noticeable trend over the two decades where the DB are getting increasing amounts of screen time at the expense of Ran and Kogoro. Genta appearing more than Ran seems crazy now, but Genta ever appearing more than Kogoro seemed crazy a decade ago as well. Either way, the character's roles in Conan are changing and poor Kogoro's suffered the most and I can't see Kogoro ever making a comeback.

[Serinox]

The lack of Sleeping Kogoro recently shows that kind of. When he recently reappeared in File 927, it was the first Sleeping Kogoro since File 861 in June 2013.

[Wakarimashita]

Also, there's a difference between the manga and the anime. Kogoro is still very much the 3rd most important character in the anime.

[thriceplus]

Also, there's a difference between the manga and the anime. Kogoro is still very much the 3rd most important character in the anime.

I think this is a good point. AO episodes are partying like it's 2001.

[DCUniverseAficionado]

Kogoro has had a couple times where he's stopped being lazy and put his effort into solving a case, and looks very good, by the end of it—those are times when he has a speech just like Shinichi/Conan would—but mostly, he serves as Shinichi's/Conan's proxy, and to make a fool of himself in all the ways he can. Look at him narrating that case at the bar (File 853–File 855)—he's so lazy, he thinks he has an alternate personality, that a woman he just met is in love with him, and gets annoyed by Shinichi/Conan... and this is after 10 years of a not so good life, and months of benefit after Shinichi/Conan showed up.

Since the FBI, the CIA and the PSB/PSIA have come in on the plot, and plenty of characters from those agencies can talk to Shinichi/Conan directly, and vice versa, using Kogoro to get closer to the BO has become less necessary. He could honestly tag along with the FBI and try to find leads that way, at this point.

He'll certainly be involved, somehow, in the final showdown—I don't think anyone's getting barred from that—but beyond that, only having BO connections through his family will give him plot relevance, and a chance for character development.

[MrDetective]

Is Ran supposed to be the deuteragonist according to OP? because most of the points concerning Kogoro applies to her as well

[DCUniverseAficionado]

Is Ran supposed to be the deuteragonist according to OP?

I thought this was about who the tritagonist was. The OP didn't mention a deuteragonist.

As for who is the deuteragonist, since you're asking about it, if we're talking post-Vermouth, it's Shuichi/Subaru. He and Shinichi/Conan both ran circles around the BO and the FBI, not to mention the other characters.

[Wakarimashita]

Out of curiosity I went back and searched for the last pure Kogoro-Ran-Conan manga case and the latest I could find goes back a very long way :

http://www.detectiveconanworld.com/wiki ... me's_Sword

I suppose one could argue that Amuro's first case could count but even then it was nearly 15 volumes ago.

I miss the 'Ran, Conan and Kogoro/Sonoko' go somewhere in the middle of nowhere cases. Those were always the best stories imo. There was a ton of them at the beginning (Bandaged man, Moutain Villa in the snow, Reika case, Yonehara-sensei case etc.) and they got progressively rarer until they simply became extinct. Those were among the cases where Kogoro actually did something.

Too bad AOs haven't taken the opportunity to fill this gap.

[Uchiha Shadow]

Out of curiosity I went back and searched for the last pure Kogoro-Ran-Conan manga case and the latest I could find goes back a very long way :

http://www.detectiveconanworld.com/wiki ... me's_Sword

I suppose one could argue that Amuro's first case could count but even then it was nearly 15 volumes ago.

I miss the 'Ran, Conan and Kogoro/Sonoko' go somewhere in the middle of nowhere cases. Those were always the best stories imo. There was a ton of them at the beginning (Bandaged man, Moutain Villa in the snow, Reika case, Yonehara-sensei case etc.) and they got progressively rarer until they simply became extinct. Those were among the cases where Kogoro actually did something.

Too bad AOs haven't taken the opportunity to fill this gap.

I agree, I miss the old cases, I also really really liked the cases that Kogoro solved by himself with only few hints from Conan, Gosho should do one sometime.