Kaito is more than just ‘never forget your poker face’.
In context and out of context quotes from the manga.
Kaito is more than just ‘never forget your poker face’.
In context and out of context quotes from the manga.

(Hmm… Well, originally, all he knew was that his father had been murdered and it had been made to look like an accident. Nothing else, really. Which was why the original motive was revenge on those who killed him, so he continued being Kid to draw them out. You say ‘watched’, and the anime makes it sound slightly different in all honesty, which I’ve said bugged me a bit before. Both versions didn’t mention revenge specifically, just finding out who killed him. Though… the specials did still make him sound angry, at least….
As far as the motive now… yeah, after he found out the reason Toichi was killed – interfering with a group of people looking for a specific gem – he shifted the focus more to stopping their goal specifically. Finding Pandora before they do and destroying it, hence why he largely only goes after large jewels. If he steals other things, it’s normally because he was either challenged or a specific reason comes up. If anything, it went from widespread to focused. In the anime, and in manga, though not focused on too much, would be when he helped out his mom sort problems out from her past. Stopping forgeries and such isn’t his overall motive, but it gave a side reason for why he wanted to interfere with those two from the Ryoma heist.
Or, ya know. If you want Kid’s completely original purpose, it was mostly to stand out so much as to put Phantom Lady out of everyone’s minds. From there, Toichi must’ve come across Snake and co at some point and gotten on their bad side. As I’ve said before, Toichi and Kaito’s motivations for becoming Kid were vastly different, so… *shrugs* Kaito’s is still revenge focused, though. Just does side jobs.
I hope that answers your question, going based on what I know and remember. The rest is just a bit of rambling. And ranting.
…It’s so easy to find faults with how A-1 is handling this…. they pushed all the major episodes out quickly to explain everything as soon as possible for those who needed to know. Full motive at episode two. Two. Two. And then all sorts of character introductions. None of Kaito having time to get used to being Kid even with all sorts of chaos going on around him, settling into his job. And it has him immediately going to stealing the gems, and needing to have reasons for Kaito to steal items that originally had nothing to do with them. At the start of being Kid, Kaito didn’t know why his father was killed, just that it had to do with Kid. Hence why he stole all sorts of things, from gold boxes, to paintings, to statues… And why the police didn’t immediately write him off when someone said they were Kid and would steal a baseball. He stole everything. Wasn’t until the whole Pandora explanation that he went to jewel focused thief most people recognise from Detective Conan.
…Not to mention handling the episodes like this throws a lot of things in the story off, and leaves some characters hanging for quite some time after their introduction so that they can go back and use the material they wanted to use from the earlier chapters. *looks sadly at tantei-san*
And for those who haven’t read the manga… a little perspective.
Aoko had her date with Kaito – meaning her dad suspected him of being Kid – in the fourth chapter of the manga.
Akako appeared in the sixth, and that was only the time she tried to feed him chocolate to make him a slave.
She appeared again in ten, which was when she’d decided to try killing him instead. As some have said, this makes more sense for the cool-down time from when she obviously liked Kid after the first meeting, and feelings of jealousy that he doesn’t even look at her to build up.
Hakuba appeared in chapter fifteen. (and for even more perspective, this is in volume three. Of a currently four volume series.) Then again the next chapter.
And then the next chapter, seventeen, he’s convinced Kaito, whom he’d barely interacted with at this point, is Kid. Who knows how long it’ll be before Hakuba shows up for this, but it’s obviously going to involve a longer passage of time than the detective originally needed. Which undermines Hakuba’s ability quite a bit, imo.
Everything regarding Pandora doesn’t come into play until after all of this in chapter nineteen. During all that time, Kaito was literally not making any apparent headway in finding his father’s killers, and not for lack of heists. Sure, plenty of chapters weren’t heists, but more because he had no leads. And manga Jii isn’t nearly so helpful in the manga as he is the anime. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure he assists Kaito at times, but it’s never a focus. Much more like ‘the man who was dad’s friend who’s willing to help’ than ‘Batman Kaitou Kid’s Alfred’.
Can’t really get mad at the others, Black Star and Phantom Lady, since Black Star was a flashback anyway, and PL didn’t have to be at an exact place per se. Did make people (myself included) a little irritated they brought Conan in for Ryoma after the Phantom Lady. It’s chronological to the heists, yes, but they should have shown Kid meeting Conan for the actual Black Star heist from the Detective Conan series. Else people don’t necessarily know this weird kid and the detective in the helicopter from earlier are the same person….)
/End rant

(…Kaito has a great and terrible power that really… Umm… Oh dear lord.)
(So… I’m actually going through and re-reading the manga this time rather than just skimming (and over-analyzing everything, but there will probably be more posts on those later) and… Kid be a scary figure to think about, actually. I’ve said and will always say that Kaito became Kid for revenge and it’s been shown before that he doesn’t take kindly to people using his name to blame him for crimes he didn’t do… But whether he completely destroys what you had and/or gets you arrested… or helps you out is completely dependent on how he feels about the person.
Now, about this power… that would have to be…
Well… having the skills and natural ability to do practically anything he wants. Resources, acting, general manipulation, magic… Gab mentioned in Skype once that my Spider is like an evil, hardcore Kid. Well… that might just be a bit more true than I considered. He got a lot of Kid’s… more… ‘evil’ traits that were more evident in the early manga chapters. I realise the beginning made practically all the main cast look like jerks…)

(And can never know if it’s just because of how it was translated, I’m aware, but…)

(I think people are aware that Kid is dangerous. I mean, if the department store thing was enough of a giveaway…)


(…Yes, I know he was acting in this one… I think… Honestly, given his experience with robots, he might not have been as much as he looked like he was later… But just even that he could immediately come up with this plan and act on it when he figured out what was causing him the trouble is a bit telling to how his mind works. Destroy a building, let a guy jump out a window from the fourth floor, let that mofo standing on top of a train have and up close and personal meeting with brick and cement. And those lesser guys can just get arrested, sure.

‘Cept you.

No, you get to explode.

Yes.
Now, Kaito’s a nice guy, for all that he’s an ass sometimes. Be kind or neutral, and he’ll act in kind. If he likes you, he’ll actively…

cheer you up


encourage you



or even take a hit to the name Kid itself, if he has reason to. Failing to steal aside, the ‘returning what he steals’ thing has been set aside too, in the Golden Eye. He has patterns, but surprisingly no real rules for what he will and will not do, for all that the fandom (myself included) would say otherwise. He quite literally does what he wants, and if the rules are in the way, screw ’em. (…Actually, no, my Kaito is still like this, just he’s more friendly in general and less of a jerk than canon Kaito. Seriously, get on his bad side, and he will take you down.He does try to find redeeming qualities most of the time, but seriously, don’t push him.)
…Aren’t we lucky he’s a good guy?
But he’s a very serious threat. He has means to do practically anything (within limits, of course, else Snake and Pandora wouldn’t be as much a problem), and he’s excellent at getting people to react the way he wants. Love him, hate him, trust him, get angry at him, be afraid of him, get overconfident, think you’ve won, believe you’re at the end of your rope, know when to tell the truth and when to lie, getting others to help him unknowingly… He’s done all of these, most of them on purpose, a few times on accident, but he also can think quickly enough to pull it around to his favour anyway.)

(…And I’ll be honest and say the 19th movie trailers never even came to mind while I was thinking this. Yeah, he’s insane in that, for whatever reason… And I still don’t think canon Kaito would go that far under normal circumstances… But just imagine how bad he would have been if he’d gone full criminal, instead of being the overall nice, if oftentimes annoying, magician we know and love.
…Does make me appreciate the fact that Nakamori-keibu and Hakuba can still hold their beliefs that Kid wouldn’t be a murderer, though. Because he be scary sometimes… even if they’re very right he wouldn’t go that far. Minor physical damage, possibly broken bones, that one incident with a taser and a certain chibi… But nothing so permanent as death. To people. And more than likely animals. Just not inorganic things, I suppose.)
Though he wasn’t as surprised by his counterpart’s actions as he would’ve been a few months back, the gentle kiss was still enough to stun him for a few moments, cheeks tainted a faint pink.
And then he blinked, attention turning towards the bag held out before him. A grin almost instantly spread across his lips and he laughed brightly, reaching out to take the rather unexpected gift. Hey, it wasn’t exactly every day he got a Christmas present from a parallel version of himself.
“You really know how to make a guy’s day,” Kaito snickered, gaze darting up to meet the thief’s own. Something playful and mischievous flickered across his face and before the other male could decide to leave, he swiftly moved to close the small distance between them, leaning in to capture his other self’s lips in a kiss, warm and gentle and just a few moments longer than usual, before pulling back, grinning.
“Thank you~”
A contemplating hum left his lips and he tilted his head, scanning the thief over thoughtfully. There were quite a few things that came to mind, and quite easily at that – which he supposed was no surprise, considering Kid was, technically, him – but none that particularly stood out to the magician. He wanted the present to be something special, but—
Oh.
Yes, that could work. If nothing else, it at least gave him another opportunity to tease his counterpart.
With a smirk an almost identical copy of his alternate’s own, Kaito leaned forward just a little as well, that familiar mischievous and playful spark back in his eyes.
“How about a massage, followed by a bath~?”
The thief blinked. Then again. And no, no, not going to think about that time… Dammit, other self, to say it like that…
He straightened some, cupping his chin as he debated. It… really it felt more like a challenge than a present. Not that a challenge couldn’t also be a gift. And it did sound nice…

"Hmm… I think that would be a good present, yes~” So very innocent smile. “Especially since we made it clear that I don’t short circuit in water before.”
…But really, memories aside, – far, far aside, for right this moment, as much as possible – the offer as a whole… Yes. Very much yes.
Though he wasn’t as surprised by his counterpart’s actions as he would’ve been a few months back, the gentle kiss was still enough to stun him for a few moments, cheeks tainted a faint pink.
And then he blinked, attention turning towards the bag held out before him. A grin almost instantly spread across his lips and he laughed brightly, reaching out to take the rather unexpected gift. Hey, it wasn’t exactly every day he got a Christmas present from a parallel version of himself.
“You really know how to make a guy’s day,” Kaito snickered, gaze darting up to meet the thief’s own. Something playful and mischievous flickered across his face and before the other male could decide to leave, he swiftly moved to close the small distance between them, leaning in to capture his other self’s lips in a kiss, warm and gentle and just a few moments longer than usual, before pulling back, grinning.
“Thank you~”
“I’m not sure it really counts as a return ‘gift’,” Kaito laughed. “But you’re very welcome either way. At least it looks like you liked it~”
And he couldn’t help but throw his duplicate a playful wink, eyes resting on the faint flush on the thief’s face. Then again, he supposed he was hardly one to talk, but. Well. Still. How could he possibly pass up an opportunity to tease his other self?
“I still think I should find you a real gift, though.” He grinned, one hand settling on his hip, the other curling around the bag of chocolate. “Anything in particular you want?”
Kid’s smile grew a touch wider at the wink. Really, teasing just might be the end of them both, the way it tended to go… Yes. The kiss was liked. Possibly just a bit more than it should have been. However… that alone didn’t completely make up the gift the thief had mentioned. Was okay that the magician had only put his words to the action, though.
At the question, Kid tilted his head in thought, looking off to the side briefly before shaking his head.

"Nothing really comes to mind…”
The thief looked back at his counterpart and smirked, arms slipping around behind his back as he leaned forward.
“So why not surprise me, magician-san?~”
“…”
“Ah, well… my hairflip was better. And… you’re still an ass.”

“Love you too, tantei-san~”
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“And just how do you explained the jeans? Or polo shirt with the popped-collar? Or the little hair flip that you did?”
"Well, Kuroba-kun?”
“Well?!?!”

“…”


“I’m sor~ry, was it not as prim and perfect as you wanted, tantei-san~?”
Not going to talk about the clothes. That was for maneuverability, dealing with guys who had guns and he needed to be able to run. But he was not getting flack for that hair flip!
“Kuroba-kun…!”

“Kaitou, tantei-san… And geeze, lighten up. Not like my disguising has actually made fun of you…”
…Just the detective being put in a position where he was caught in one of the thief’s traps. But his portrayals of Hakuba were meant to poke fun. Most of his disguises were needed when he used them… Can’t blame him for using what he could. The detective had some trust from other’s after all, and even if the disguise was found out, any fall for actions would go to Kid, so…
*grins and winks* Imitation and flattery, tantei-san~
“Don’t even start, you ruddy thief.”

“Hmm?~”