(Hmm… something that I think might get confusing after a while, especially with the Magic Kaito 1412 anime, is what ‘version’ Kaitos will be from. Because even if the manga, the specials, and the anime all follow the same general story, certain key elements still change between them.

The manga is the technical end all be all for the series, technically. The overall canon. However… people might not have read it. I’d hope Kaito rpers have, considering they never did animate all of the chapters, and there are areas that bring development in the few that haven’t been touched. That, and lets face it, the manga better showed Kaito’s jerky side to begin with. Both of the animated ones can be asses, but overall are painted to be much more likeable sooner. The manga was originally a gag manga who’s plot didn’t pick up until the third volume, so of course the whole tone was different to begin with. And Pandora and Snake weren’t the biggest of issues until after Hakuba showed up, even. Hence why the Adam’s Smile originally didn’t have the BS reason of containing a hidden gem for Kid to steal. Kid wasn’t stealing gems at that time. And Kaito’s revenge motive was better sent across in the manga.

The specials gave Kaito the most likeable feel, and focused more on Kid than Kaito, overall. Not in terms of story so much, more in terms of appearances. Was something I noticed taking screenshots, and the fact they wanted to focus on the bigger and important heists Kid had done. Shouldn’t be surprising, since the specials are called ‘Kid the Phantom Thief‘. And then there were the slight changes made there… and larger one. Slight being merging chapters for Akako together, and also doing that to Hakuba as well, taking out certain scenes, modifying others. This was the one that started the whole ‘Chikage wasn’t there when Kaito became Kid’ aspect. She was home in the manga. And then, of course, Spider being wedged into the plot. I’m incredibly biased when it comes to him, but he does add an interesting pivot point on anything regarding Toichi, Snake, Kaito, and Hakuba. Since he’s involved with Toichi’s death in some way, and Hakuba’s target isn’t Kid because of the assassin, and the thief is instead thought of as ‘bait’. Huge change in character dynamics with this guy…

And then, Magic Kaito 1412. It does follow the manga more closely, as it had set out to do, so mostly just off on smaller details. One: The single cassette tape where Toichi tried giving the message of being Kaitou Kid (and mostly wasn’t working after eight years) was replaced with the jukebox (where he never mentioned Kid at all in the first one that I recall…). Biggest change for that, to a Kaito, would be… the cassette couldn’t be listened to again. The jukebox could. And it seemed that Toichi was pushing Kaito more and advising to be a magician, though at the same time, the way everything was getting revealed almost made it look like he did want Kaito to take up the mantle. Hmm… Other changes include foreshadowing of Corbeau, some extra explanations about magic that may or may not come back into play, the Nakamori’s being neighbors, Kaito more consistently relying on Jii for help, the decision between continuing as things are or whether he should consider his future and actually go into the practice of being a magician… and finally the Kaito Kid squad. *snrk* Just because of that, the interactions between the teens should be quite different. And the use of the bar.

I’m looking at this more as a Kaito RPer myself, since the devil’s in the details, but it’s something to keep in mind. Not everyone will have the same idea of Magic Kaito in their heads that might have existed five years ago anymore. And it might get confusing at times.

…And let’s not bring the whole ‘does he know about Conan or not’ from Detective Conan. That’s another aspect people will have to define themselves.)