Kazunobu Chiba

This article is about the character Kazunobu Chiba. For the voice actor of the same real name, see Isshin Chiba.

Kazunobu Chiba (千葉 和伸 Chiba Kazunobuundefined) , commonly referred to as Detective Chiba (千葉刑事 Chiba-keijiundefined) , is a character in the manga and anime franchise Detective Conan. Chiba is a detective in the Tokyo district, and very often works alongside Inspector Megure and Wataru Takagi. His main duty appears to be to obtain information outside of the crime scenes. Sometimes, he will even go out and substitute as inspector when Megure is busy on another case. He is a childhood friend and the love interest of Naeko Miike.

Background
Initially, he was introduced as a minor role in the 4th Detective Conan Movie, as well as with a minor cameo in The Final Screening Murder Case. He later takes more of a noticeable role throughout the series.

Chiba attended Teitan Elementary School, in the 20th graduating class, 2 classes below Sumiko Kobayashi. Since childhood, he has a tendency to sweat.

Chiba currently works in the Second violent crimes investigative division, section 3.

Personality
Chiba can be serious, but he is shown to be a mostly light hearted officer. He has been a huge fan of tokusatsu shows like Kamen Yaiba for a long time, and was a member of the broadcasting committee at his elementary school. For a project, he and the other club members made a tokusatsu film called Kamen Baiya. He also loves to eat and is sometimes shown stuffing his face, usually with burgers and sodas, but usually this is merely done for comic effect. Nonetheless, Chiba can be very supportive, and is a big help, especially for using his size to catch criminals. He, as well as Yumi Miyamoto, is very supportive for Takagi's relationship and feelings for Sato, and is one of the few officers in the Tokyo district to not get involved in Shiratori's schemes to get the couple to break up.

A very notable trait of Chiba praised by his colleagues in Law Enforcement is that he would always follow and uphold the law no matter what the circumstances are, especially when it is he who breaks it. This is one of the main reasons why Naeko liked him in the first place; it was because he scolded her over a traffic violation, saying that doing the wrong thing will develop into a habit that's hard to get rid of. This event also inspired Naeko to join the Police Force as a traffic cop.

Chiba has a habit of checking VHS tapes to see if they were rewound. He believes he picked this habit up from his older brother.

Appellations
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Wataru Takagi
Takagi and Chiba are fellow officers in the 1st investigative division (Homicides) of the Metropolian Police, and very good friends and partners. In fact, Chiba was the only male officer in the department who did not harbor an obsessive crush on Sato and would even assist Takagi in his endeavors to win her heart.

Naeko Miike
Chiba and Naeko were childhood friends and attended Teitan Elementary together where they both joined the school broadcasting committee (although Naeko only joined because Chiba did). When Naeko was to move away, Chiba wrote down his feelings in a love letter. Naeko wrote her response on the side of a VHS in the committee storage room, hoping Chiba's sweating habit would cause the message "I like you, too" to show up on his hands after grabbing the tape. Unfortunately, Chiba couldn't find the right tape and never got the message.

On the day of his elementary school reunion, Chiba returned to the school and searched for the tape again. With the help of Conan and the Detective Boys, he finally finds the message and heads for the reunion. Unfortunately Naeko doesn't show, and he hears from a former classmate that she said she is "now with the one she loved". Depressed, Chiba immediately leaves and finds a lady traffic cop giving him a ticket. When the officer offers to forget about the ticket since he is a fellow officer, Chiba scolds her for offering to ignore his illegal parking. Chiba leaves with the ticket, but then wonders how the girl knew he was a detective. The officer turns out to be Naeko, who has just been transferred to the police headquarters in Tokyo (working under Yumi) and looks forward to working with the one she loves.

Miwako Sato
Chiba is the only male officer who does not have a crush on Sato and they are shown to be just friends.

Name origin
Chiba's name comes from his voice actor Isshin Chiba. His original physical appearance was modeled after him as well.