Conan Edogawa (江戸川 コナン ) is the alias used by
Shinichi Kudo in his shrunken form. Indeed, he took the appearance of a 7 year old boy after being forced to swallow a poison, a prototype called
APTX 4869, by two men in black later revealed to be members of the
Black Organization. Besides his changed appearance, the poison did not inflict any other damage and therefore he still has the brain and mind of an adult. He's able to use his gifted powers of deduction to solve cases and eventually close in on the Black Organization in the hope of finding an antidote to the APTX 4869.
Conan is often treated as a separate character from Shinichi by fans, and often viewed as the main character of the series while Shinichi is viewed as a recurring character. He has become a popular figure in Japan and even appeared at numerous occasions in different anime series (i.e. mainly cameo appearances) as well as other medias.
At the beginning of the series,
Shinichi brings his friend
Ran to
Tropical Land, a local theme park, to celebrate her victory in the Metropolitan Karate Championships. He later ends up solving a murder case there.As they are leaving, Shinichi witnesses a suspicious exchange between an unknown man and a man in black in a secluded area just outside the park.
As he leaves her to investigate, Ran feels like she's seeing Shinichi for the last time (which will happen to have been somewhat of a premonition). While spying on the suspicious men, Shinichi does not notice another man in black, who knocks him out from behind and forces him to swallow a new experimental poison known as
APTX 4869. They then leave him to die. However, instead of killing Shinichi, a rare side-effect occurred. It shrinks his body back to that of his six-year-old self.
In desperation and confusion, Shinichi heads back to his house and runs into his next door neighbor and close family friend,
Dr. Hiroshi Agasa. After a few attempts at proving he's in fact Shinichi, he finally succeeds in convincing the Professor. The latter warns him he must keep his identity secret as the
Black Organization will kill him and others associated with him should they learn the truth.