Or is the idea for a ‘non magic’ world that she just wouldn’t exist? Did any of the other silly things in MK happen?
Personally, I don’t think of things that only happened in Magic Kaito as canon to Detective Conan and the other way around, e.g. in Detective Conan, Shinichi never faced off against an unknown phantom thief at the clock tower and in Magic Kaito, Jirokichi doesn’t exist. I like it more to make a clear cut between the two, also because that’s more supported by the way Gosho handles things (though obviously he was kinda wishy-washy on many things, but still, I like this more than just putting everything from MK into DC).
That would certainly help more with timelines, and the fact no recognition comes up after Conan is more aware of who he’s facing the first time he meets Kid. ( Though of course outside of any universes, it’s because the clocktower chapter wasn’t written until after the DC chapter that introduced Kid into Conan’s world. ) It could also open up the possibility that what happened to Shinichi never occurred in the MK universe, since the MK chapter with the clocktower flashback never gave any indication of whether the events of Black Star would have gone the same or not.
( Though since events apparently lead to Kaito being Kid in the DC universe, it’s just as possible Shinichi still ended up with his fate in MK. There’s no mention of Conan in MK, even with the nods to DC heists like Black Star and the Ryoma’s treasures. )
Jirokichi does exist in the MK universe, though. Could be debated whether he challenges Kid, but Kaito’s aware of him as he was referenced in the chapters with Corbeau. Unless you were to argue it could be a different Suzuki altogether, but that’d be a stretch.
It’s still probably more up to personal preference than set in stone, though. Word of Gosho I just have a hard time trusting when he talks about things long after they’ve happened, and when he has a habit of making non-canon events, people, and traits canon after they’ve only happened in things like the movies. Or adopting the background characters from the anime and giving them a plot. The series has gone on too long and he’s very inconsistent about what’s actually supposed to be in Conan’s universe, and the anime doesn’t help with things.
Both the anime for DC and MK1412 really don’t help the argument of the worlds supposed to be separate on the whole. Since they had the clocktower without Akako in DC, and the MK Kaito going up against Conan and Jirokichi. But I also know that the manga is supposed to be the set in stone thing, just know beyond a shadow of a doubt that not everyone reads the series and will get tripped up on that.
Gosho didn’t just say so in a Q&A, he included it in his additional comments in the 2011 MK volumes re-release. He wrote for the Akako chapter in Vol. 1: “Well, you’ll just have to accept these two works as parallel world.” Not much room for interpretation there I think, no matter how you like or dislike the fact.
It’s still largely retconning. Or maybe not quite that, but covering himself when he realized it might not have been the smartest idea to mix an actual magic world with the one that’s supposed to be logic. Fans have been around long before he decided this clarification needed to be brought up, and while he might want to stick to that idea now, it doesn’t change how people want to think about the two series. If he’d stuck with just the one initial cameo for Kid, that might be allowed to slide, but covering his tracks after the DC crossover had been going on during multiple encounters, it feels like ‘oh, people are starting to go back and read Kaito’s manga, which has actual magic that can’t be in Conan’s story because magic can’t exist for a detective, let me just get a disclaimer out of the way.’
Either way, Gosho did not give the best way to handle it, because some fans just wouldn’t know or care to see if the universes are connected. I do try and look things up (though I wasn’t aware he said it in comments in a re-issue, scans and the manga I have are the older version), but most people would just read one, and then look at the other because it’s about a character that appeared in the series they read and it’s by the same author. The fact that Kid does appear so much in DC makes it unsurprising the majority of people think they’re in the same universe.
He’s done brief cameos between series before before. Between Magic Kaito, Yaiba, 3rd Base Fourth, the short stories, small things that would just bring a smile because of the reference. No explanation. He wouldn’t have to be trying to use the excuse of ‘parallel universe’ at all if it weren’t a bigger problem than any of those others.
I RP and write them being in the same universe for character interaction because we know the most about how things work in their respective stories. I’d be fine with the idea of parallel universes if there was any real indication that it was the intent, and not just some excuse used to bandage liking Kaito too much that he wove him into Conan’s story more than just a small appearance. What would Kid be looking for? Still a stone with a story that would have to be fake about immortality just because his baddies believe it might work? What would Akako be like if she weren’t a witch? Or is the idea for a ‘non magic’ world that she just wouldn’t exist? Did any of the other silly things in MK happen?
It’s a fun idea, but I can’t accept the word of Gosho when it reeks of an excuse and isn’t actually utilized except to give Kaito an excuse to be in Conan’s world.
I feel like they could exist in the same universe, if magic is kept lowkey, but word of Gosho is apparently that the world in Magic Kaito and the one for Detective Conan are supposed to be parallel worlds, and that the Kid you see in DC technically isn’t the one from MK.
…Which I find most of what Gosho says during Q&As to be full of a ton of BS, so it’s still technically up for interpretation. He can’t actually keep his stories straight and I feel like he just makes things up when he needs a safe response. Kid is still clearly looking for something specific, and while it might not be an immortality granting stone, there’s… zero indication of what else it might be.
Magic in the DC universe would explain more than just the charms and premonitions, though. Haibara’s ‘BO sense’ is too convenient to brush off as normal, Conan has a similar ‘Kid sense’, and then there’s an apparent telepathic connection characters have that lets them know when something’s wrong with someone they care about. (See: Shinichi and Ran in general, Shinichi and Heiji like when Heiji was shoved off a ship into the ocean. It happens in canon, but the movies especially are bad about it.)
Not to mention that Gosho had a literal psychic tell Conan a big secret would be found out during the Holmes Freak murder case, and sure enough Heiji learned the truth.
Early DC did have a more fun, silly feel that a lot of older Gosho works had, even if it was in a more serious genre. A lot of the instances of things that can’t be explained have died down as the series goes on, which could be why there’s more of a push for a separation of magic from the logic. But people aren’t actually capable of separating the two in their mind, they just want to get rid of all the magic entirely, which is what annoys me. No hate on Magic Kaito for having magic. The MK fans don’t go hating on Detective Conan for not showing magic, they know Akako would probably break the DC world, so it’s just. Disheartening. When the opinion comes up that MK is at fault and ruining the DC experience because of the possibility of magic comes up.
Besides, the whole ‘took something that was supposed to be a poison but it changed me into a kid’ idea borders on the disbelieving side anyway, and yet it’s accepted without much fuss. Yes, it has some form of explanation later, but you had to have already invested time into accepting it without putting the series aside by the time you get that explanation. Magic shouldn’t be an experience killer compared to the very first time you read the series.
Magic Kaito started in 1987. Detective Conan started in 1994.
I don’t care if Detective Conan (or Case Closed) was your childhood, I’m sick and tired of the times I see people hate on Magic Kaito. MK has it’s own story, it’s own characters, and it’s own style. If you don’t like it, fine, but don’t hate just because it’s not like a completely different series that came after most of its story was created. It can’t ruin anything if it came first, the occasional cameo is the worst you get and it doesn’t even drag Kaito’s story into Conan’s.
Moonlight Archive 