Kazuha Toyama (遠山 和葉 Tōyama Kazuha, also known as Kirsten Thomas in the Funimation dub, is character in the manga and anime Detective Conan. She is a childhood friend and the romantic interest of Heiji Hattori.
Background
Kazuha has been Heiji's friend (and not-so-secret love interest) since childhood. At one time, Heiji had had the unfortunate idea of locking each other together with a set of old handcuffs which had no key to unlock it; as a result they involuntarily had to spend time together even on some rather intimate occasions (i.e., bathroom visits) before the cuffs could be removed. As a reminder of this 'closeness' and for good luck, Kazuha fashioned two identical lucky charms, each incorporating a chain link from the cuffs, which she and Heiji have been wearing ever since. At some later point, Kazuha added a picture of Heiji into her own charm pouch as a sign of her devotion to him.
After Heiji had met Conan and discovered his true identity, he kept talking about him enthusiastically, but since he neglected to mention that Kudo was male, Kazuha thought Heiji was entertaining annother love interest. When Heiji invited Conan, Ran and her father to a culinary trip in Osaka, Kazuha furiously confronted Ran as her apparent rival over Heiji, but after the misunderstandings in their true relationship were cleared out, she and Ran quickly became best friends.
Kazuha is also a 2-dan in aikido.
Personality
Kazuha is an Osakian version of Ran Mouri. Though she is a bit less optimistic than Ran, the two girls share many common things, including a special passion and pride for their respective detective boyfriends and a strong fear of the supernatural. It is perhaps because of these similarities that the two girls understand each other so well and treat each other like sisters.
Appearance
Kazuha has brown hair which she mostly keep as a neck length pony tail, she often ties ribbons of different colors(Mostly Yellow or Orange) at her pony tail. She has green eyes. What was originally a wave in her bangs has evolved into a stylized triangular point.
Plot overview
Introduction
Soon after Heiji made Conan/Shinichi's acquaintance, he invited Kogoro, Ran and Conan to Osaka. Several times throughout the day Ran felt herself being watched by a pair of malevolent eyes. At lunchtime that day, a girl sat down and, to Conan's horror and Ran's bafflement, addressed Ran as "Kudo." She warned "Kudo" to stay away from Heiji, who soon returned and sets her right. Heiji introduced her as his childhood friend Kazuha and introduced Ran as Kudo's girlfriend- which Ran hotly denied -, whereupon Ran asked them if they are together, which Kazuha and Heiji hotly denied in turn.
Subsequent appearances
Since her introduction, Kazuha has accompanied Heiji in the majority of his appearances. The two frequently visit Tokyo and stay at the Mouri residence, and Kazuha accompanies Heiji on several cases. Because of this, she has from time to time been in great danger. She was almost killed by the Spider Mansion murderer because she found a BB gun bullet that the
criminal had used in his setup; only Heiji's arrival chased the murderer away before Kazuha was strangled. Later, in the Mermaid Island case, Heiji nearly fell off a cliff during his investigation. Kazuha saved him, but overbalanced and fell off the cliff herself. Heiji jumped after her, managing to grab her wrist with his left hand and a jutting branch with his right. However, the branch began to bend, so Kazuha stabbed Heiji's hand in an attempt to make him let her go and save himself. Despite the wound, Heiji did not let go, and managed to save the both of them. He still bears the scar on his left hand, and has been known to mock Kazuha about it.
In a later case, Heiji and Kazuha were kidnapped by a corrupt lawyer in an attempt to force Heiji to crack a code. When he wouldn't comply, the lawyer decided to kill them both. Heiji asked to be allowed to say a few last words to Kazuha, claiming he had to tell her something he had wanted to say for a long time. This, it turned out, was a ploy to distract the lawyer, but when it failed, Heiji, with a gun to his head, told Kazuha that "I meant it when I said my last words were for you" and promised, if they survived, to tell them to her "until you're sick of hearing it." Afterward, when she asked him what he was going to say, he panicked and insisted that he had wanted to tell her that her ponytail had been tickling him while they were handcuffed together - which earned him an enraged slap in the face.
Relationships analysis
Family & Friends
Heiji Hattori
Heiji's relationship with Kazuha is a very close one; they were childhood friends, and have stayed close through the years. Their relationship is identified as a romantic one by other characters and fans alike, even though they claim that they don't have that sort of relationship or feelings for each other. Heiji is clueless when it comes to love and has not yet realized he has actual feelings for Kazuha. However, it has been shown that he becomes visibly jealous when he sees Kazuha with other guys, becoming distracted throughout the whole case. At one point, after a certain case, while looking at Kazuha, his thoughts read: 'Fool. You're too naive. I promise you, as long as you're with me, I'll never let anyone hurt you.'. Kazuha knows she has feelings for Heiji, as she shows this by being protective and chasing off other women that might have a interest in him In on of the mangas Kazuha attempts to confess her feelings after finding out that Ran had done so with Shinichi, but is unlucky because by telling him, Heiji ran off to tease Shinichi for it. She one time even attempted to sacrifice herself to save Heiji during a case that they accidently both fell off a cliff, and when they were both hanging on the branch Heiji was holding was breaking so to prevent him falling she stabbed him hand with an arrow of love to force him to let her fall, however he still held on despite a wounded and bloody hand. Also, they have the same situation as Ran and Shinichi, being childhood friends that have romantic feelings for each other and have the same background as them. Heiji is a teenage detective and she is a police's daughter, like Ran is a police's daughter and Shinichi is a teenage detective. They are even called the 'Ran and Shinichi of Osaka' by fans of the series, since they're so similar. Although they are constantly fighting, they both are very close friends. It is also shown in the seventh movie, Crossroad in the Ancient Capital, that Kazuha is Heiji's first love, though he didn't know it was her at the time.
Ran Mouri
Despite having rather different temperaments and personalities, Kazuha and Ran have several things in common, including: proficiency in a martial art, father's connection to police work and detective work, and detective-obsessed childhood love interests. Kazuha was initially cold and rude to Ran, suspecting her of being interested in Heiji. However, thanks to Kazuha's frankness and Ran's accommodating nature, the girls quickly overcame this misunderstanding. They have since become close friends and seem to regard each other as confidantes, since they are in similar romantic situations: Ran and Shinichi cannot confess their feelings for each other, as Shinichi is, aside from telephone calls, physically absent from her life, and Kazuha and Heiji cannot confess their feelings for each other due to their own stubbornness and irascibility. While Conan/Shinichi and Heiji are on cases together, Ran and Kazuha almost always spend the time together. When Kazuha visits the Mouris' in Tokyo with Heiji, she is shown to share Ran's bed.
Shinichi Kudo
Kazuha respects Shinichi as a great detective as Heiji. Sometimes she refers Shinichi as better detective than Heiji, which annoys Heiji.
Name origin
Toyama comes from Edo period "police detective" Kagetomo Toyama, aka Toyama no Kin-san, while Kazuha comes from one of Gosho Aoyama's assistants.
References
- All text on this page is taken from Detective Conan World Wiki.