Anita Hailey

Infobox animanga character
name = Anita Hailey
series = Case Closed ("Detective Conan")


caption = Anita Hailey shown in her child form
first = The Girl from the Black Organization and the University Professor Murder Case
last =
creator = Gosho Aoyama
voiced by = Japanese:
Megumi Hayashibara
acted by = Yu Kashii
oaux* name =
oaux* =
nickname =
alias = Ai Haibara
age = 18 as Shiho, 8 as Ai
gender = Female
relatives = Atsushi Miyano (father; deceased)
Elena Miyano (mother; deceased)
Akemi Miyano (older sister; deceased)
Nationality = Japanese/ English

Anita Hailey, known in Japan as Ai Haibara (previously Shiho Miyano (宮野志保 Miyano Shiho)), is a character and protagonist in the detective manga and anime "Case Closed" ("Detective Conan"). She first appears in the 2-hour special episode #129 "The Girl from the Black Organization and the University Professor Murder Case" and manga volume 18 file 6 ("A Transfer Student").

Anita is a friend, ally, and classmate of the main protagonist, high-school detective Jimmy Kudo/Conan Edogawa, and an ex-member and fugitive from the malevolent "Black Organization" which she betrayed. Although mentally an adult, her body has reverted back to childhood form due to an experimental poison, APTX 4869, which she developed for the Black Organization and subsequently used on herself in a failed suicide attempt. She often helps Jimmy Kudo with cases while she tries to develop an antidote for the poison she created.

Anita's disenchanted, mistrustful, sarcastic attitude contrasts with Jimmy Kudo's optimism and idealism. While honorable herself, she grounds the other characters by reminding them of the darker side of reality and human nature. When grouped up with less insightful characters, she is often used to explain to the audience the reasoning behind Jimmy Kudo's deductions or point out the flaws in the premature deductions of the others.

Character Information

Anita grew up within the villainous secret crime syndicate, the "Black Organization," along with her sister, Akemi. She is the daughter of an English mother and a Japanese father, also members of the Black Organization, both of whom are dead. A prodigy, she was sent to the United States for education at a young age, then came back to Japan as a biochemist to continue her parents' unfinished secret project in the Black Organization. In the Japanese version, she obtains the codename of Sherry in the process.

When the timeline of Case Closed begins, Anita is an 18 year old biochemist working on her late parents' secret project for which she developed the experimental poison APTX 4869. While researching its effects, Anita noticed that a rare few of her lab mice had become younger after being given the drug instead of dying. Meanwhile the Black Organization has been using APTX 4869 for untraceable murder. Two members of the Black Organization force Jimmy Kudo to swallow a pill of APTX 4869 to silence him after he witnesses a blackmail exchange. Left to die, instead Jimmy Kudo's body shrinks to that of his eight year old self, precipitating the events of the story. Unaware of the drug's rare side effect, the Black Organization orders a search for Jimmy Kudo because his body had not been found. Anita searched Jimmy's house for the Black Organization twice after he had been shrunk to confirm his death. She began to suspect Jimmy's transformation after she searched his house for the second time and noticed his childhood clothes were missing. Anita then confirmed him as deceased so the Organization would not kill him.

Sometime after Jimmy Kudo's transfiguration, Anita's sister Akemi Miyano who had tried to arrange for the two of them to leave the B.O. in exchange for committing a robbery was murdered by the Black Organization member codenamed Gin.

Her dissatisfaction over the Black Organization's usage of one of her test compounds -- the APTX 4869-- for killing purposes, in addition to her open questioning over the murder of her sister Akemi Miyano resulted in her imprisonment and scheduled execution by the Organization. With no other way out, she decided to secretly commit suicide by taking a pill of APTX 4869. However, it made her body shrink to that of about her seven-year-old self, the same fluke that happened to Jimmy Kudo (Shinichi Kudo). With her new small body, she easily escaped from the Black Organization's cell and collapsed in front of Jimmy's house hoping that he would sympathize with her situation. ["Detective Conan" Chapter #179.] She was then found and adopted by Jimmy Kudo's friend and next-door neighbor, professor Hiroshi Agasa. To prevent the knowledge of her transfiguration from being discovered by her pursuers from the Black Organization, she pretends to be a child and attends Teitan Elementary school under the alias of nihongo|Ai Haibara|灰原哀|Haibara Ai, along with the shrunken Conan Edogawa and normal children Amy Yeager ("Ayumi Yoshida"), George Kaminski ("Genta Kojima") and Mitch Tennison ("Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya").

Anita's constant worry is that the Organization will eventually track her down and her friends will be killed along with her, so she was initially very cautious about taking risks with her former colleagues, at times to the point of paranoia. Determined not to run from her fate anymore, however, she has recently begun to shed this caution.

She is still working on the antidote for the APTX 4869, and helps Conan gather clues about the Black Organization in order to help bring them down. She appears to know the secret objective of the Black Organization judging from the first conversation between the Black Organization members Gin and Vodka in episode 129. ["Detective Conan" Episode #129.]

Relationships with other characters

and Calvados.

She also has a good relationship with her fellow elementary classmates Amy, George and Mitch, and considers them, along with Conan, as the first real friends she has ever had.

Anita is terrified of the members of the Black Organization, especially Vermouth and Gin. She can "feel their presence" when they are close by and dissolves into a trembling state of fear.

Profile

*Real Name: Shiho Miyano
*Codename: Sherry
*Alias: Ai Haibara
*Age: 18, but appears to be 8 years old
*Occupation: Chemist, Biological Researcher
*Parents: Atsushi Miyano & Elena Miyano
*Sibling: Akemi Miyano
*Organization: Black Organization (Case Closed)
*Favorite Books: Beauty Magazines

Name

Ai Haibara

She and Hiroshi Agasa created her child alias using the names of two fictional female detectives:
* V.I. Warshawski (for 'Ai') (Note: Agasa proposed the homophonus kanji 愛 (love) for the name but she deliberately chose 哀 (sorrow), possibly to reflect her mental situation.)
* Cordelia Gray (for 'Hai' in Haibara, which means gray)

Anita Hailey

This is the reason for Anita's name as mentioned in the manga "Case Closed" Volume 18, Case 9. ["Detective Conan" manga: Case 9, Volume 18 .]

* Anna Katherine Green the first American mystery writer was the basis for Anita.
* Hailey was suggested by Agasa as it means Hero. Though she took the name, she disagreed with the reasoning.

Name in English

The English Manga refers to her as Anita Hailey. This will be the English anime name as well. It is confirmed in Vol. 18 of Case Closed. ["Detective Conan" manga: Volume 18.]

Voice Actor

Her character voice role is done by Megumi Hayashibara in the Japanese version. A different voice actor played the character during the eight movie. Her appearance was temporarily limited and showed in re-runs due to Megumi's pregnancy leave in the Summer of 2004. ["Detective Conan" Episodes # 346-349.] This is also why some episodes made around 2004 do not have the character Anita Hailey in them, because she was on leave, and couldn't lend her voice for the show. An English voice actor has not been picked by Funimation at this time.

References