Yukiko Kudo

Yukiko Kudo (工藤 有希子 Kudō Yukiko) is the mother of Shinichi Kudo and, along with her husband Yusaku, one of few characters who knows he is Conan Edogawa. She was once a famous actress, but retired after marrying Yusaku. She was also close friends with fellow actress, Sharon Vineyard, both being excellent masters of disguise.

Background
Yukiko was born in the Tosa Province (today's Kochi Prefecture, located in the southern portion of Shikoku), and became a fan of Sakamoto Ryoma after having played the part of his older sister Otome in a historical drama. (This role also made her internationally famous as a talented actress.)

Despite her then-tender years as a student at Teitan High, Yukiko had a prospectively prosperous future in the film industry. Thus it came as a major surprise to the world when, practically out of the blue, she married Yusaku Kudo and retired from acting. She still retains good contacts in the acting and film industry, however, and has since become known as the "Night Baroness" (named after one of her husband's characters) after babbling out some clues provided by Yusaku on a live television show which helped solve a criminal case.

During her acting years, Yukiko went to a famous stage magician and disguise artist to learn the finer arts of disguise for a role she was preparing to play. There she met another actress who would become one of her closest friends, Sharon Vineyard. Until Sharon's (supposed) death, the two women stayed in touch, and Yukiko even attended her funeral, but her appearance was overshadowed by a small scandal involving Sharon's 'daughter', Chris Vineyard. Yukiko has since learned from her son about Chris/Sharon's secret life, a revelation which troubles her deeply. She has since confronted her former friend with her knowledge, partially to know for sure, but also to save the life of Ai Haibara, who was being threatened by the Black Organization.

Despite a certain rivalry for popularity in their high school years, which had culminated in a Miss Teitan Election, Yukiko is also a close friend of Eri Kisaki, and (unlike Eri) finds her daughter Ran Mouri, a perfect match for her son.

Personality
Despite her adult age, Yukiko still behaves like a teenager. She is bubbly, overconfident and attention-seeking, and prefers to stand in the lime-light (literally) whenever possible. She can be prone to jealousy over Yusaku's occasionally flirtatious behavior, and can demonstrate impulsive tendencies. She is an extremely reckless driver and very sensitive about her age: whenever her son dares to call her "oba-san" in Japanese (in English, the closest equivalent would be "aunt" or "old lady"), she sets up such a furious face that Conan must quickly correct himself by calling her "onee-san" ("older sister" or "young girl").



However, despite her faults, Yukiko is extremely loyal and cares for both her husband and her son (though a heavy streak of mischief causes her to often tease Shinichi). Her loyalty extends to her friends, as she thinks nothing of flying across the Pacific to help a friend from elementary school. She takes pride in being an excellent actress and a mistress of disguise, able to fool even close friends and family with her skills.

Plot overview
===Conan Edogawa Kidnapping Case (Manga: 049-050 and 051, Anime: 043)=== Yukiko first appearance was disguised as Fumiyo (Fanny in the Funimation Dub) Edogawa, a woman claiming to be Conan's mom. ==='''The Cornered Famous Detective! Two Big Murder Cases (Manga: 131-138, Anime: 096)'''=== After having a quarrel with her husband, Yukiko secretly returned to Japan. She then meets Ran and Conan in front of her house. She successfully covered for Conan who Ran suspected at that time. In the Manga she gives the explanation that Conan is "the nephew of the grandfather of the cousin of the daughter of the brother of my uncle," which produces a family tree showing that Conan is Yukiko's fictitious uncle once removed.

Bell Train arc (Manga: 818-824, Anime: 701-704)
Yukiko turns out to be the lady who had been visiting Subaru Okiya at the Kudo house. On the Bell Tree express, with Conan and Okiya's help, she foiled Bourbon and Vermouth's plans to capture and kill Shiho Miyano respectively while also tricking the Black Organization (except for Vermouth) into thinking Sherry died. Her part of the plan involved removing Haibara from danger when she tried to run away, and then challenging Vermouth in order to draw her attention. Yukiko then kept Vermouth occupied, so that she was unaware that she was being tricked until it was too late. At the same time, Yukiko also extracted a promise from Vermouth that she would truly give up on trying to kill Sherry. ===A Scarlet Return (Manga: 891-898, Anime: 779-783)=== Yukiko disguised as Yusaku to attend Macademy Awards. After finishing the job, she returned home to meet Akai Shuichi and disguise him as Okiya Subaru once more. Akai had learned to how to apply the disguise himself satisfactorily, which makes Yukiko a little disappointed since she has no reason to meet Akai anymore. Conan becomes annoyed that Yukiko liked seeing Akai a little too much. Yukiko nearly outed Conan's secret identity as Shinichi in front of the three FBI agents.

List of disguises used
Main article: Disguise

Yukiko prefers relatively simple female disguises. These are the known ones used so far.

Appellations
Friends & relatives=
 * -|Law Enforcement=
 * -|Others=

Relationships analysis
Main article: Kudo family

Character popularity

 * eBookJapan held a character popularity poll from April 12, 2011 to May 12, 2011 in which readers of Detective Conan (international included) could vote for their favorite character. Yukiko placed 17th in the poll with 37 votes out of the 5,883 that were cast.
 * In honor of the release of the 800th manga chapter, Shonen Sunday held a popularity poll/contest containing 91 Detective Conan characters to choose from. Yukiko placed 20th overall with 34 votes.

Name origin
The name Yukiko Fujimine (藤峰) name comes from Lupin III character Fujiko Mine and actress Yukiko Nikaido (the original voice of Fujiko). Her alias, Fumiyo (文代), comes from Fumiyo Akechi, wife of Edogawa Rampo's Kogoro Akechi.

Trivia

 * Aoyama has stated in Super Digest Book 10+ that Yusaku and Yukiko met because Yukiko had been chosen to play the main character of a drama based on one of Yusaku's books.