#and im really grateful that he created detco!

[marivanilla05]

Totally agree with this!

As someone who's grown up watching the early series repeatedly (mainly due to lack of dubbed episodes) that era of the show is really special to me! At the time, the plot and roles of the characters seemed simpler, so there was a bit more freedom in terms of their actions.

I just want to say: I love when characters have hobbies/personality outside of their usual traits! Usually, in DetCo, it happens just to fill in plot gaps, especially in anime-only content. Not to say that it doesn't happen in the manga as well, of course!

As a child watching the show, Ran stood out to me the most. She was strong, caring, kind, patient, and had a strong sense of justice. She was my childhood role model. Unlike Conan/Shinichi (who I did admire for other reasons), I felt like I understood Ran better.

Like you mentioned above, Ran was a perfect "stand-in(?)" for the parts Gosho needed her to play before we had this huge ensemble of characters, and I think that's what made her so involved in the storyline other than being a love-interest.

I think the reason why it doesn't feel like she's getting in on any action (lately) is that Gosho seems to favor portraying her emotional side in a romantic context. Which is not a bad thing, per se, as it is part of her character, but people seem to forget Ran's other qualities and reduce her to just one aspect of who she is, when she is so much more.

(P.S. gotta say, Ran's theme is definitely the best out of the og soundtrack, with this one from movie 5 being my personal second favorite)

Hi Mirror! I hope your week is starting off on a good note. I have a question for you: what's your favourite thing about Ran and/or Ran's interactions with the other characters? ~ Santa

Short long answer: This.

Long short answer: Beneath the cut.

So here's something I once dropped the esteemed - and infinitely-more talented - @scratchface in a DM, which is probably the closest anyone's ever come to making her respect Ran.

"Ran has enough parts in her for a good character. She probably has enough parts for three or four good characters. When a series, however banal, runs for a thousand installments, it can come up with those purely by accident."

This may sound backhanded to you and a lot of others, but it's genuinely, unironically why Ran appeals to me so much. Having grown up on AmeComi and Batman specifically, I'm used to stitching all my favorite characterizations out of dozens of different stories that at-best pay only lip service to each other's continuity and at-worst go out of their way to contradict and overwrite each other. What's really fun (and/or "fun") about Conan is that it somehow manages the same despite having only one author, one publication format, and one almost painfully-faithful adaptation.*

And Ran - especially early manga Ran - is the absolute pinnacle of this. Where Shinichi/Conan and Kogoro had their roles pounded out in cast-iron from the getgo, Ran's a Jack (Jill?) of All Trades who can play almost any other part the ensemble needs. Sympathizing civilian? She can "How awful!" with the best of 'em. Butt-kicking cavalry? Watch those fists fly. Distressed Damsel? She can give even that creaky old trope a level of agency I'd never thought possible - just witness Golden Apple, or the wharf showdown, or:

Better still, the fact that she has to be the plot-hook for roughly one-third of the filler cases gives her a correspondingly wide range of interests and hobbies, for those willing to squint at the margins. You know she's a black-belt; you probably know she goes "Rhosts, Rhaggy?!" at the slightest mention of the supernatural; but did you know her for a Three Kingdoms reader?

A gambling prodigy?

A Yoko Okino fan, just like her pop?

Scraps these may be - but it's usually from scraps that you get the richest fruit in any Transformative work. And so it goes with her presence on AO3: a shadow of Shinichi's or Kaito's in raw numbers, nevertheless capable of unparalleled tear-jerking and side-splitting from any author that puts in the work. Hell, I don't even mind the straight-up bashfics that turn her flighty or abusive; canon's planted enough seeds to make that sort of characterization juuust this side of plausible, and plenty entertaining besides.**

(Predictable self-plug: I've spent years working on a longfic to stitch all the above (and a dozen other traits!) into a single, coherent narrative tentatively titled Hey, What If We Didn't Lie To And Manipulate Our Female Lead For 1050+ Chapters?. There are authors who've pulled off similar projects for Shinichi, Kaito, and Shiho, but I think as far as Ran goes it's still fairly uncharted territory - and will probably remain so even if I finish it in 2030 or thereabouts.)

Of course, if I told you that my Purely Story-Minded Doylist Eye was the only thing at work, you'd call me a liar, and you'd be right. Ran's no less flexible in terms of lowdown wish-fulfillment, whether you want a straightforward action-girlfriend, an overbearing Onee-chan, a too-pure Ingenue/explanation magnet, or - my personal favorite - an old childhood buddy who can needle you in ways nobody else would ever have the nerve and the right to. She's got the range. She's got the style. One day, she might even get a story - a canon story - that deserves her again...

(Detractors, consciously or otherwise, usually point to the fact that Ran's irrelevant to most of the Big Organization Cases, and indeed is meant to remain irrelevant to them for as long as they keep happening. Just three or four years ago I might've shuffled my feet and mumbled an objection along the lines of "She has relevance, and she can get more!", but at this point I've long given up on any impression that the Big Organization Cases are meant to hold any weight at all. Far as I'm concerned they're just an extra-dull flavor of filler; the series' real heart is in the slice-of-life romcom fluff, and very possibly always has been.)

* "But what about the live-act-" What about the live-action?

** In controlled doses, anyway.