Sonoko Suzuki

Sonoko Suzuki (鈴木 園子 Suzuki Sonoko') , known in the Funimation English dub as Serena Sebastian, is a character from the manga and anime Detective Conan''. Sonoko is Ran Mouri's best friend and is the girlfriend of Makoto Kyogoku, with whom she currently is in a long-distance relationship. Conan Edogawa sometimes has to knock her out with his stun gun watch to use her as his mouthpiece. Because of this, Sonoko has claimed to be a great high school detective in her own right, "Deduction Queen Sonoko".''

Background
Sonoko is the daughter of Tomoko and Shiro Suzuki, heads of the extremely wealthy family and large company. Sonoko has an older sister, Ayako, and an uncle named Jirokichi, who is often involved in trying to capture the Kaitou Kid. Sonoko and Ran have been close friends since before Junior High School.

Personality
At the series' start, Sonoko's primary interest was in boys and in trying to snag the "perfect boy". She often tried multiple avenues to attract a boyfriend, including dressing up specifically to attract a boy, making a boy chocolates, trying to impress a boy while wearing a bikini, or going to various events that young guys were going to attend.Whenever Ran's company diverted the attention of Sonoko's target, Sonoko would feel jealous and disappointed. However, this changed when Sonoko met and began dating Makoto. Although Sonoko is still easily attracted to other men, she is loyal to Makoto and tries to act the way she thinks a girlfriend should, including making him gifts and planning romantic rendezvous.

Sonoko loves to go on big vacations, like expensive ski trips, and loves to buy fancy clothes and items. She also loves to go to festivals where sugary sweets are on display, often picking up gigantic plates filled with various cakes. She has even used Conan for the sole purpose of having a children's discount on food. She is also a big fan of the band LEX, and various other people in pop music, including Two-Mix.

Conan has had to use Sonoko sometimes when he needs to do a deduction show. At first he struggled to mimic Sonoko's mannerisms and feminine speech patters, but now he is better at it. However, because he has had to use Sonoko so often for a deduction, Sonoko, like Kogoro Mouri, completely buys into her whole "sleeping" person, calling herself the best detective in Teitan High School, and a "Deduction Queen." This makes Conan sometimes regret using her to solve a case, though he does admire her courage in certain situations. Sonoko is sometimes able to solve little things on her own, and can figure things out when she is provided some assistance by Conan, such as when Conan was sick and had to communicate to Sonoko, Kogoro, and Yamamura in charades and sign language.

Like many other people, Sonoko is a big fan of the Kaitou Kid, due to his style, charm and daring exploits. She keeps cheering him on in trying to steal something, even when that something is a rare treasure of the Suzuki family. She wishes to meet Kid up close (and have it develop into something more), and sometimes almost gets her wish, but is very disappointed when she doesn't.

Appellations
Protagonists=
 * -|Friends and relatives=
 * -|Law enforcement=
 * -|Detective Boys=

Appearance
When not in the Teitan High School uniform, Sonoko often wears a bandanna holding back her fringe, a skirt, and a cute shirt. Her clothes often show more skin compared to Ran, mostly for the purpose of attracting guys. In Countdown to Heaven, she temporarily changes her hairstyle to a perm.

Plot overview
===Deduction Queen Sonoko (Manga: 40-44, Anime: 34-35)=== Conan and Ran visit Sonoko's mountain villa to see the autumn leaves and meet up with some old friends. On the way to the front they see a strange bandaged man in a dark cloak crossing the bridge. When they see him he turns around, shocking them with his face and eye contact as he quickly makes a retreat around the side of the house. Everything seems fine as Ran tries to find her room, accidentally walking in on the men also staying the house. When everyone is asked about the bandaged man he is brushed off as possibly a crazy man with nothing better to do. However, he is taken far more seriously when Ran is attacked in the woods, to be scared off by Conan, and later one of the women is seen being carried off by him from the windows. Conan and the other men give chase and find her dismembered body in the woods.

Everyone decides that it's best to go to bed for the night, when he strikes again, this time trying to kill Ran in her sleep. Conan saves Ran by waking her up to defend herself, but when the bandaged man retreats Conan wonders why Ran is a target. Everyone decides to stay up for the night and keep together to throw off the murderous man in bandages. Conan suspects that Ran saw something that made her a target, and the culprit is one of the people staying there. When Conan solves the case. Kogoro isn't there to be put to sleep, so he decides to solve the case by Ran. When he shoots the anesthetic needle, however, Sonoko end up in the way and she falls asleep. Left with no choice, Conan reveals the killer via Sonoko. While Sonoko doesn't remember making the deductions, she is very proud of having "solved" the case.

An Important Date (Manga: 105-107, Anime: 32)
At the end of the case, Conan asks Ran if she was meeting Shiro Wakaoji, a young man who was in the coffee shop with plans to take advantage of a "naive" teenage girl he met while skiing, despite his already having a girlfriend. She says no, but Shiro tries to flirt with her just before Sonoko announces her presence—Sonoko was his intended date, but she overheard Conan revealing Shiro's intentions. She slaps Shiro and storms away. ===Makoto's Introduction (Manga: 219-221, Anime: 153-154)=== Sonoko, Ran, and Conan go to Izu, where Sonoko's schemes to get a boyfriend. At the beach, Sonoko takes a picture of Ran fixing her bathing suit and threatens to send the picture to Shinichi, since she teases Ran and Shinichi frequently about being an "old married couple". Sonoko also laments about her lack of a love life, just before a college student, Michiwaki, asks her out to lunch. Ecstatic at the romantic attention, she agrees to lunch and then also to dinner as well. However, due to being nervous, she has Ran and Conan come along for lunch. During the meal, Michiwaki tells a story that young brunette girls have been found murdered in the woods not far from the restaurant, once a year ago and once much more recently, but he offers to keep Sonoko safe. Later, Sonoko is attacked when she interrupts a suspicious figure searching her belongings, and bites him before he escapes. The stoic and somewhat unfriendly high school student that is working at the ryokan moves the group to another room. Ran thinks she has seen him somewhere before but cannot remember where. Michiwaki arrives muddy and wet and Conan suspects him of attacking Sonoko, but he does not have a bite mark on his arm. Makoto has a bandaged bicep and falls under suspicion but Sonoko says he wasn't the attacker because the attacker was hairy. Michiwaki, Sonoko, Ran, and Conan decide to have dinner at the ryokan because Michiwaki says his car broke down. Conan speculates that Sonoko's attacker was looking for the photographs she was taking during the trip, but cannot figure out why. Conan does not think there are any incriminating photos, but perhaps the murderer overheard Sonoko talking about the photographs and misunderstood.

The next day, Michiwaki, Ran and Conan go eat at a restaurant while Sonoko tries to doze in the car. Suddenly, the car starts rolling toward the nearby cliff edge, and Sonoko barely escapes with her life. However, there is not evidence pointing toward a culprit. Ran and Conan go to report the incident while Michiwaki keeps Sonoko company. When alone on a walk in the forest, Michiwaki reveals that he is the serial killer and Sonoko is his target. Before he can hurt her, Makoto appears and saves her with an impressive martial arts display. Ran realizes that Makoto is a champion she's seen in competitions before; Makoto confesses awkwardly that he loves Sonoko, to Sonoko's surprise and delight. Though Makoto is often traveling for tounaments, he and Sonoko maintain a long-distance relationship.

Jodie's Introduction (Manga: 271-273, Anime: 226-227)
Sonoko, Ran, and Conan are at the arcade taking sticker photos, which Ran realizes Sonoko suggested because Sonoko wants to put a sticker with her face on a letter to Makoto. Sonoko blushes but doesn't deny it. Soon after, they encounter their High School English teacher, Jodie Saintemillion, who is an avid gamer. Jodie introduces Ran to a virtual reality fighting game which uses mechanics to simulate a real fight. Ran loses to a gamer named Kengo Bito who taunts her for losing before going on to fight against his rival, Takayasu Shimizu. The battle is projected on a large screen, showing Bito's avatar overwhelming Shimizu's until just before the final blow. At the strange behavior, spectators check on Bito and discover that he is dead.

The police investigate and after reviewing the security camera's footage, they limit the suspects down to four people. When Conan deduces the culprit, he uses Sonoko again as he mouthpiece to expose the murderer. On the way home, Jodie says that Sonoko was like Kate Martin, and Ran says Sonoko was just like Shinichi. Ran and Sonoko part with Jodie on good terms.

Girl Clubbing Case (Manga: 284-286, Anime: 217-218)
Ran and Sonoko shop for a sweater that Sonoko wants to buy for Makoto; Ran scold Sonoko when she realizes Sonoko wants to pass the sweater off as hand-knitted by her. Ran sends Sonoko ahead to join Kogoro and Conan at a pasta shop, where they had coincidentally encountered the police investigating serial attacks on Japanese women following the "ganguro" fashion with darkly tanned skin, bleached hair, turtlenecks, miniskirts and high platform boots. Ran gets turned around and ends up in the parking lot, where she discovers a fourth victim, dead. During the investigation, Sonoko and Ran point out that the victims are wearing a jacket that wasn't theirs, and Conan realizes the victims were attacked just after leaving somewhere warm—their cars. Sonoko leaves to put her shopping in the car and then use the toilet, attracting the attention of someone in the crowd. It turns out the culprit blames the victim wearing platform shoes while driving on the death of his son, and he is attacking any woman who drives with platform shoes. Sonoko is wearing platform shoes, and when she leaves the department store toilet the culprit is waiting to attack her. Sonoko screams and runs away, but manages to knock off the hat and scarf hiding his face, leaving him determined to kill her so she can't identify him. As Sonoko runs, her ankle twists under her and she falls. When the murderer attacks her, however, Inspector Megure arrives in the nick of time to protect her and confront the culprit. Megure was injured while protecting Sonoko, and at the hospital, Superintendent Matsumoto tells Ran and Sonoko the story of a girl Megure knew who impersonated a serial killer's victims and was gravely injured. Sonoko and Ran are moved to tears, thinking that the girl died, but it turns out that she survived and is now Megure's wife. ===Murderous Pottery Class (Manga: 305-307, Anime: 228-229)=== Sonoko shows off to Ran what she made in pottery class, a small cup for her with Makoto's name on it and a large cup for Makoto with her name on it. Her purpose is to have Makato think of her every time he drinks from it, so that he can't forget her and fall in love with another woman. She invites Ran to join the pottery class as well, and Ran thinks of Shinichi and accepts. As Ran works on her project, Sonoko tries to have Ran confess what she's written on the cup, but Ran refuses. Meanwhile, Conan sneaks in to spy on them, but gets caught. Sonoko keeps teasing Ran as they continue working, until a strange crash leads Ran to investigate—but not before warning off Sonoko from checking on Ran's project. A murder has occurred, and Conan investigates to discover the culprit. On finding the truth, he uses "Deduction Queen Sonoko" to reveal the killer.

A few days later, Sonoko shows Ran a picture that Makoto sent her—to Sonoko's embarrassment, Makoto mistook her cup for a vase, and sent her a picture showing off the flowers he'd put in it. ===Bloody Valentine (Manga: 331-334, Anime: 266-268)=== ===Halloween Party (Manga: 429-434, Anime: 345)=== Kogoro Mouri receives an invitation to a Halloween cruise; the Halloween cruise is famous for hiring guests to star in a horror film. Sonoko lends her makeup skills tu turn Kogoro into a vampire. Because Ran hates horror-themed things, Sonoko ends up going to party as Kogoro's guest, dressed as a witch. During the cruise, the party members are divided into groups; team "Devil" consists of Kogoro, Sonoko, and people disguised as a werewolf, a mummy, a medusa and an invisible man. During the party, the host is murdered by a crossbow arrow with a card identifying team devil attached. Sonoko investigates with Kogoro and both suspect the mummy, who has no card, but later it is revealed to have been a trick. Sonoko is shocked when the invisible man turns out to be Shinichi, who solves the case, although he is later revealed to have actually been Heiji Hattori in disguise.

Jodie's Truth (Manga: 435, Anime: 346)
Sonoko joins Ran in visiting Jodie at the hospital. She tells Jodie she is very surprised that Jodie is a FBI agent. Later, Sonoko also talks with Ran about what Ran did during the Halloween cruise, and about Jodie's photos.

Dark Photograph (Manga: 582, Anime: 484)
At the beginning of the case, Sonoko is walking with Ran and Conan to return home after school. She complains about the heat and says she should emulate Eisuke, who disappears after school.

The Culprit is Sonoko (Anime: 602)
Sonoko and Ran play tennis while Conan watches. Sonoko likes Takao Goto, the tennis club vice-captain, but suddenly Goto dies. Inspector Yamamura investigates, and accuses Sonoko of being the culprit despite the other three suspects. Conan discovers the truth and uses Sonoko to solve the case, proving her innocence. After Sonoko wakes back up, Ran expresses her relief and Sonoko is upset with Yamamura for suspecting her.

White Day of Betrayal (Manga: 725-727, Anime: 608-609)
Makoto won the competition for Sonoko's white day present. Although she was happy at first, at the end of the episode, she was seen asking Makoto whether he was planning to give anything else.

Twin Bets (Manga: 862-864)
Sonoko made a bet with Kaitou Kid but asked him to promise her not to hurt Makoto as he has an upcoming tournament.

Family & Friends
Main article: Suzuki family

Ran Mouri
Sonoko and Ran have been best friends ever since they were little. Sonoko is often there to help Ran whenever she is bullied by other school children, more often there than even Shinichi was. They were often shown hanging out with each others on the way home after school. Sonoko usually invites Ran to join her on trips, family events (such as Jirokichi's Kid heists), other trips or activities, or simply just go shopping together. Sonoko once said to a murderer what she thought about friendship: "So what if friendship is unreliable and fragile! That way when you communicate with your heart, you can feel the warmth inside. If it were as hard as some chattering iron plate, you wouldn’t feel the warmth, y’know?"

Meanwhile, even though Ran knows that Sonoko has a lot of money, she always makes sure that money never gets involved in their friendship. Ran once chose to not go on a ski vacation with Sonoko because she didn't have the money to pay for her own trip, when she knew that Sonoko would pay for her to go if asked. This, along with other things, has helped strengthen the bond between both Ran and Sonoko.

Before meeting the man of her own, Sonoko was sometimes envious that Ran always got the attentions from boys. However, this didn't affect the deep friendship between them.

Conan Edogawa
Whenever Conan is near at Sonoko, she gets annoyed. She thinks of him as a brat who knows a lot of weird stuff. Conan finds her annoying in turn, especially when she teases Ran about her relationship with Shinichi.

Makoto Kyogoku
Sonoko originally met Makoto Kyogoku while on a vacation, when he worked at his father's hotel in his spare time. At first, neither she, Conan, nor Ran recognized him, because he wore glasses to hide his features. He later saves her when he takes a knife in the arm for her, to protect her from getting killed by a crazed serial killer. This is when Ran finally realizes that he is the famous karate champion. After defeating the killer, he confesses his feelings for her, which leaves Sonoko dumbfounded and flustered. According to Makoto, he originally met Sonoko during one of Ran's tournaments, and loved how feisty and firey she was in trying to cheer her friend on. After this, Sonoko and Makoto begin a long distance relationship. Makoto often saves Sonoko from dangerous peril, like in a snow lodge, and in a forest. Sonoko loves to plot romantic rendezvous with Makoto, he tries to go along, though things don't always go the way Sonoko imagines they will. He often warns her against dressing to revealingly, afraid she'll attract predatory men as a result. Sonoko often wants to show Makoto that her feelings for him are stronger than he thinks, planning simple ideas to make him feel special. However, these often go in awry, as she either cannot make what she had planned to make, like when she promised to make him a home-made sweater, but had to resort to buying one in a mall, or Makoto has no idea what she gave him is, like when he believed that the pottery she sent him was supposed to be for flowers. Sonoko keeps a photo of Makoto in her purse, and uses it as a good luck charm for when she takes exams. She has also made him Valentine's chocolate, trying to make him feel jealous by not saying who it was for, thus forcing him to visit her in a snow lodge to ask her what was going on. When he finds out that indeed, she made him the chocolate, he gets very embarrassed himself.

Although long distance relationships can be hard to be in, Sonoko has stayed faithful to Makoto, other than dreaming of meeting up with the Kaitou Kid, though this is mostly to see him up close more than anything else.

Heiji Hattori
While having a conversation with Ran and Kazuha, Sonoko once jokingly stated that she was interested in Heiji.

Kazuha
Sonoko and Kazuha have met each other only a few times in the anime. Despite this, they have a friendly relationship. In movie 10, Sonoko seemed to be pleased after seeing Kazuha at the Wonder Land, she even offered her to come with her and Ran.

Masumi Sera
Sera appear and Ran, Sonoko, Sera sometimes goes home together. She always joke Sera about her chest

Kaito Kid
Sonoko thinks that Kaitou Kid is a really cool guy because of his quick and versatile actions when he is doing his thievery. Her love for Kid and Makoto are the same level.

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. Sonoko placed 7th in the poll with 86 votes out of the 5,883 that were cast.

Name origin
Sonoko Suzuki may have gotten her surname from Shinichi Suzuki, a famous violinist.

Trivia

 * Sonoko has been shown to be very aggressive. For example when Genta called her "Auntie Sonoko", she punched him extremely hard, and when she was interrupted by a soccer ball, she threw it back at the kicker, causing him to fall back.