Richard Moore (Case Closed)

Infobox animanga character

name = Richard Moore
series = Case Closed ("Detective Conan")


caption =
first = Roller Coaster Murder Case
last =
creator = Gosho Aoyama
voiced by = Japanese: Akira Kamiya
English: R. Bruce Elliot
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nickname = Sleeping Kogoro , The Sleeping Sleuth
alias =
age = 37(JP) 43(US)
gender = Male
relatives = Eri Mōri/Eva Kadan (wife)
Ran Mōri|/Rachel Moore (daughter)
paux* name =
paux* =
divider =
aux* name =
aux* =

Richard Moore, known as Kogoro Mori (毛利 小五郎 "Mōri Kogorō") in the original Japanese anime and manga, is one of the main character of the anime and manga "Case Closed", known in Japan as "Detective Conan" (名探偵コナン "Meitantei Conan").

Character Information

Kogoro is a private investigator ["Case Closed", Volume 1, File 1.] , but he prefers to laze around all day. Richard can easily become infatuated with beautiful women and he would always boast of his career achievements so as to make them admire him. His dream woman is pop idol Yoko Okino, ["Case Closed" Volume 3, File 6.] and he never misses her television show. [Such behaviors can be seen consistently from "Case Closed" Volume 1, File 6, to "Detective Conan" Volume 52, File9.] Because of his behavior around attractive woman, he often embarrasses his daughter Rachel Moore and while it is not the reason why Richard's wife left him, it is why she hasn't come back.

While he is never outright called an alcoholic, Kogoro has a tendency to get intoxicated at social events, and Jimmy/Conan makes sarcastic remarks about him spending money on alcohol. In the anime, his office is littered with empty beer cans ["Case Closed", Volume 1, File 2.] , and he keeps a well-stocked liquor shelf.

Throughout most of the series, he is seen as a pretty incompetent detective, often missing obvious clues and jumping to conclusions, though it should be noted that several of these conclusions were shared by other people on the scene, as well as the fact that Kogoro also follows many police procedures (asking questions, following leads) quite well. Despite his ineptness, he had been a prominent police officer under Inspector Juzo Megure ten years prior to the start of the series [Case Closed: The Fourteenth Target.] He is shown to have left the police force after events addressed in the second movie, .

Thanks to Conan's undercover help in solving numerous cases, Kogoro's reputation as a detective grows quickly. [ He first rises to fame in "Case Closed" Volume 4.] He hardly remembers the solutions of any cases because of Conan knocking him out with tranquillizer darts so that he can announce the solution to the case using an imitation of Kogoro's voice as a proxy. However, Kogoro never seems to wonder about that and often boasts about his merits.

In later stories, there are times when Kogoro is actually able to solve crime cases without the help of Conan, especially when people he knows or cares about are involved. (It appears that, while he can connect the dots just fine, he can't actually find them as quickly as Conan does.) The most notable of these events takes place during a trip to a hot spring, where one of his old college friends is murdered. Richard is actually so disturbed and determined to find the killer on his own that Conan cannot bring himself to drug him, limiting himself to surreptitiously drawing attention to the necessary clues. [ This story is in "Case Closed" Volume 9, Files 4-6.] Despite his frequent moronic analysis, Richard is actually smarter than most average men, as he is able to decipher certain clues and figure out things which most average men probably wouldn't figure out. He is even able to completely solve a crime himself in the ninth movie, , and Conan applauds him mentally for it.

In college, Richard was the ace of the Judo team. However, he was highly vulnerable to stage fright. ["Case Closed" Volume 9, File 6.] He is also an excellent marksman. [Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target.]

Richard's daughter, Rachel Moore (Ran Mori), is also the daughter of Eva Kadan (Eri Kisaki), who is now living separately after an argument ten years prior. [Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target.] Despite constantly feigning disinterest in her, Richard still has feelings for his wife--he has even asked her to move back in with him, but she pretends not to hear him because she is not "ready" yet, ["Case Closed" Volume 17.] though she still has feelings for him as well. These are expressed through jealousy when he comments on other girls' looks.

Name and Age

The name "Kogoro Mori" came from two mystery-related sources. "Kogoro" came from "Kogoro Akechi", the detective created by Edogawa Rampo, while Mori came from Maurice Leblanc.

In the Japanese verson Kogoro Mori is often mistaken for the famous astronaut Mamoru Mohri when he introduces himself, because they both are in the news frequently, of Japanese decent, and have the same last name. In the English verson when Richard introduces himself he is often mistaken for "oh, that famous astronaut," as well. In the English verson it is possible he is also confused with Patrick Moore.

In the US version, Richard Moore says that he is forty-three, in opposed to being thirty-seven in the Japanese version. It is unknown if Eva's age remains the same since they had attended school together, and if not, if it'll affect the Princess Pageant storyline that occurred twenty years ago, making her in her twenties when she participated instead of a teenager.

Anime Appearances

Richard is (mostly) a main character and appears in a majority of the episodes. When he is absent, Conan tends to use Serena Sebastian, to solve the crimes (by knocking her out with his Stun-dart watch, then using his Voice-changing bow-tie, similar to what he does with Richard). Other episodes where Richard is not there, tend to involve the Junior Detective League.

Despite being a key character in majority of the episodes, Richard/Kogoro is not seen at all in the 15th, 17th, 19th, or 20th-22nd opening sequence

References