Miwako Sato

Miwako Sato (佐藤 美和子 Satō Miwako), also known as Detective Saimone in the Funimation dub, is a police assistant inspector and detective in the manga and anime franchise Detective Conan.

Background
Eighteen years ago, when she was still at elementary school, Miwako lost her father, Masayoshi Sato, in a traffic accident as he was about to deliver a bank robber to the police - an event that marked her life. She eventually became a police officer on her own and now works alongside Inspector Megure, Ninzaburo Shiratori, Detective Chiba, and especially Wataru Takagi in the Tokyo police district.

Sato first met Conan and the Detective Boys during a blackmail case against Nichiuri TV. In a subsequent case which dealt with a cunning murder of a banker's wife by her husband, she became impressed with Conan's intellect and deductionary ability and has since come to trust his judgements implicitly. Eventually, the case of her father's death was also resolved with Takagi's help, which helped fanning the spark of affection she was feeling for him at the time.

Sato's first love interest was Jinpei Matsuda, whom she only got to know briefly due to his death in a bomb explosion. Although she denied it at first, she finally acknowledged her feelings for Takagi, which made him the outcast among the other jealous police officers who were interested in her, especially Shiratori, at first (although he supports their relationship now). Nonetheless, for a very long time, each time they were about to take their relationship to the very next step, something got in the way (mostly in the shape of Miwako's best friend, Yumi), until Sato and Takagi - mostly undisturbed (thanks to the help of Conan and the Detective Boys for creating a makeshift reason for the interlopers to leave) - shared their very first kiss when Takagi was hospitalized in the course of a hard case. Then had their second kiss (and third) when Takagi survived a bombing accident.

Personality
Sato is considered one of the most dangerous members of the police, being not at all afraid to get tangled with dangerous men in fights, which she almost always wins. However, she does have a softer personality, in which she is very friendly with the Detective Boys, and especially Conan, whom she considers is a big help in difficult cases. When in action, however, Sato can be quite reckless and daring, which has earned her the title 'The Silver Witch' among car racers on Mount Fuyuna due to her driving style.

Her favorite hobbies are going to the karaoke, attending all-you-can-eat offers, and going out to eat ramen.

Appellations
Law enforcement=
 * -|Friends & relatives=
 * -|Detective Boys=
 * -|Others=

Plot overview
===Stadium Bomber Case (Manga: 189-191; Anime: 130-131)=== Miwako's first appearance was in Episode 130, and in manga File 190, where she is seen trying to arrest the culprit's accomplice along with other police officers, but failed.

Treadmill Murder Case (Manga: 208-210; Anime: 146-147)
This case is the very beginning of the long and enduring love story between Miwako Sato and her fellow police officer, Wataru Takagi.

One night, Sato and her best friend Yumi Miyamoto from the traffic department have a drink together. In her drunken state, Sato unknowingly reveals to Yumi the person that she has feelings for. However, when she wakes up, she doesn't remember the exact details of what she has told her friend. The next day, Sato arrives at the Police Headquarters and meets up with detective Takagi, who is talking to the Detective Boys at the time. She asks Takagi who the children are, only to be mistaken by them that she is his girlfriend. However, both of them deny this. She also wonders if Takagi has heard anything from Yumi, without knowing that her friend has already told the police officer about what happened the previous night, saying that the person whom Sato likes is "someone from the first investigation division".

Later, the bank manager from a recent bank robbery case comes to see the police. During his phone call to his wife, everyone hears her sudden scream. Sato immediately drives Takagi, Conan and the manager to their house, only to discover the wife's stabbed body instead. The person to be in charge of this murder case is Inspector Ninzaburo Shiratori, a police officer who has just been promoted recently. Sato sarcastically congratulates Shiratori on his rapid promotion, and jokingly comments that he may as well consider her "a possible wedding match", without knowing that this statement has raised a major misunderstanding from Takagi, who thinks that she really has affection for the new police inspector.

With the help from Conan, the trick and the identity of the killer are uncovered, and the case goes to an end. When all is done, Shiratori invites Sato to have dinner with him at a restaurant that he knows, but she turns down the offer, saying that French cuisine isn't her favorite. She instead invites Takagi to go out and eat ramen together. Just as the misunderstanding earlier is about to be cleared and Takagi finally has the chance to be with Sato, a drunken Megure suddenly appears and suggests to them to go out for a drink with him at a bar. Sato immediately approves of the idea despite the other invitation to Takagi, thus raising another serious misconception: Detective Sato has special feelings for Inspector Megure. ===Innocent Suspect Case (Manga: 231-233; Anime: 156-157)===

Police Escort Murder Case (Manga: 296-298; Anime: 240-241)
===Sato's Omiai Case (Manga: 328-330; Anime: 253-254)=== In these episodes, Sato and Takagi's feelings for each other are explored. Sato chose randomly and incidentally Shiratori for her omiai. Meanwhile, Sato realized her feelings for Takagi. Before she and Shiratori can kiss, Conan stopped them with Araide's help.

Parade Bomber Case (Manga: 366-368; Anime: 301-302)
===Serial Bomber Case (Manga: 369-373; Anime: 304) === During this case, Sato was having many flash backs of her former crush, Jinpei Matsuda, who was killed during a bombing incident. When the bombing started to involve more familiar police officers (including Shiratori), she became very worried for Takagi. When Takagi and Conan were trapped in an elevator with a mercury lever bomb, Takagi told Sato that he and Conan would have to remain and die with the bomb to get the name of the location of a much bigger bomb. She tried to force her way through police to get to Takagi, but failed. However, the bomb was disabled by Conan at the last second. Later after apprehending the bomber, she chased and attempted to kill him, being fully taken in with the impulse of revenge. At the last moment before she would have killed him, Takagi tackled Sato and even smacked her in the face to make her regain her senses. Takagi and Sato then almost kissed, but the arrival of Inspector Megure broke the moment.

Jewel Robber's Suicide Case (Manga: 484-486; Anime: 401-402)
===Group Date Kidnapping Case (Manga: 511-514; Anime: 431-432) === ===Fake Wedding Case (Manga: 535-537; Anime: 449) === ===Sato's Ring Case (Manga: 576-578; Anime: 487) ===

Whistling Killer Case (Manga: 670-673; Anime: 534-535)
Sato and Takagi had agreed on going out to a spa as soon as a difficult case (involving a serial killer whose cases are about to caducate) that they were working on (alongside Megure, Shiratori and Matsumoto) was resolved. Takagi gets very fired up and decides to work harder than usual; their seniors, however, see it as a terrible signal since officers who behave like that often end up dying in the line of duty, which greatly worries Sato. This bad omen almost becomes true when Takagi ends up being shot, with only a mahjong tile he carried in his pocket saving him from death. Sato is greatly relieved when he survives, and they finally can share a kiss. ===The Life-Threatening Broadcast of Love (Manga: 804-808; Anime: 681-683)=== Takagi is kidnapped by a mysterious man who mistakes him to be Wataru Date (a deceased police officer and Takagi's former mentor) who had made the kidnapper's daughter commit suicide. He is bandaged on a plank of wood and there is a bomb under it. Sato saves Takagi from getting killed by the bomb, and the duo kiss again. ===Metropolitan Police Detective Love Story 9 (869-871; Anime: 748-749)=== Sato hesitates when thinking about that she's expecting but has lost. Naeko, Takagi and Yumi believe that her period is late... and since Takagi is now her lover as well as her partner, this means she might be pregnant. The thing Sato was actually missing was her red badge which is given to all officers in the 1st Division. The whole pregnancy situation was a huge misunderstanding.

Captured in Her Eyes (Movie 4)
During Captured in Her Eyes, Miwako was a target of a serial killer. She thought she was safe, but when she and Ran went to the bathroom, a blackout in the hotel occurred. A gunman then came into the bathroom, and she jumped on Ran to protect her. However, she was shot several times and put into a coma. This incident caused a large deal of grief for Ran and Takagi, even going as far as to make Ran completely lose her memories. She was given by doctors a 50% chance at surviving due to one bullet stopping extremely close to her heart. Luckily, she survived.

Wataru Takagi
Main article: Wataru Takagi and Miwako Sato

Miwako started to have feelings for Takagi after seeing the resemblance he had with the deceased Matsuda Jinpei. Their relationship gradually develops as the series continues, hastened by Takagi's help to Sato in solving the case regarding the death of her father. At present, Takagi and Sato are very much in love, having kissed at least thrice.

Yumi Miyamoto
Yumi is Miwako's best friend in the headquarter. They are seen together a lot, and Yumi always teases Miwako about her relationship with Takagi. She often tries to bring the two closer together, much to the chagrin of Sato and Takagi. They have been friends for at least 10 years.

Inspector Megure
Inspector Megure is like a father figure to Miwako as she said to Takagi in one of the episodes (although Takagi mistook it as a love interest at first).

Conan Edogawa
Miwako seems to admire Conan and consider him an equal (quite surprisingly), like Takagi, usually telling Conan information that is actually forbidden to be leaked to normal citizens.

Ninzaburo Shiratori
Although Shiratori, initially, had a crush on Sato and attempted to marry her, she views him only as a friend. It is later revealed that the main reason Shiratori had a crush on her was because he believed her to be the "girl of destiny" who changed his life, but later it turned out that the said girl was Sumiko Kobayashi, who bears an extreme physical similarity to Sato. Once this is revealed, Shiratori stops chasing after Sato's affections, and has become very friendly to her.

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. Sato placed 13th in the poll with 50 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. Sato placed 14th overall with 107 votes.
 * She ranked 7th in the Super Digest Book 60+ "Cutest Detective Conan characters" poll, with 80 votes.

Trivia

 * Sato drives a red series 6 Mazda (Ẽfini) RX-7. It used to be white, but she painted it red so it would be more visible in the fog.
 * Sato has a habit of shrieking while drifting without pulling the handbrake, as she feels that shrieking helps make it easier. But she finds it embarrassing, though. This habit caused the "Mountain Witch" story to happen, as people reported the the witch would drift using a white FD and scream really loud.
 * Sato is a fan of Lupin III and has stated that he was her first love.
 * Sato dislikes any shiny and expensive jewelry. This fact was used by Yumi to trick some of Sato's admirers to buy expensive jewels for her that Yumi herself finds nice. However, Sato currently wears a ring that Takagi had bought for her, not realizing that he intended it to be an engagement ring.
 * A running gag in the series is how whenever she and Takagi go on a date, they are stalked by other police detectives who have crushes on her. Previously, this 'Miwako Sato's Line of Defence' was led by Inspector Shiratori.
 * In the English Dub of Movie 4:Captured in Her Eyes, a script error says that Sato died after she was shot. This is false; however, all parts of the movie state her death, until the end of the movie where the news of her recovery reaches the policemen. Why this is so is unknown.
 * Sato is bad at drawing.
 * Sato, Takagi and Yumi are the only Police Officers to take Conan seriously, usually treating him as an equal.