The only reason Gosho would ever want Detective Conan and Magic Kaito to be separate universes is to cover up his own mistake in making them intertwined at all. And even then, it’s really just because he doesn’t want Akako magic in Conan’s world, not because he didn’t mean for them to cross over. Him backtracking because he realized an issue I do not take as an excuse to say they are separate universes. More likely he did want to write them as happening in the same universe, did write it like that, and only made up an excuse after he went too far with it. Aside from Akako, every relevant Magic Kaito character has appeared in Detective Conan (or mentioned, with Phantom Lady for Chikage), and Kaito is clearly still looking for one gem in particular. That story is clearly the same.
The issue I see with other people is for Detective Conan in Magic Kaito. ( Which overall is extremely unfair since the majority of MK came before too much involvement in DC, so saying that there isn’t as much evidence when you barely see any MK is a terrible argument. )
But, the chapters that do come after DC reference DC things too often to be written off. It’s easier to take them as actually attached to DC than try and say ‘everything is happening the same just not in the same universe’ for one ‘problematic’ character that doesn’t even show her face in the ‘logic’ side of the crossover and isn’t overt now anyway.
1) Shinichi outright appears in Magic Kaito. In a similar cameo to Kid’s heists in Detective Conan, he and Megure pop up and give Kid a bit of trouble. And this is all in flashback, prior to the Suzuki Black Star heist that marks their first meeting after Shinichi shrunk in DC. Shinichi never saw or really knew who he’d been up against (which I still find mildly odd, because sure it was never said over the radio, but people were down on the ground with signs, did none of those say Kid), him not realizing in DC could be kept.
2) Chaki (Nakamori’s boss) was introduced in Kid’s first DC appearance, and came over to MK during Nightmare’s chapters.
3) At the end of the Phantom Lady chapters, Kaito is clearly going to do the Ryoma heist in DC afterward.
4) Jirokichi was clearly given a reference at the beginning of the Corbeau chapters.
5) Any and all Kichiemon encounters from Kid have only ever been shown in Detective Conan. Eccentric Mansion, the Iron Tanuki safe, Kirin Horn heist. The Sun Halo incident reference it both in the fan popping up after possibly killing the people trying to get into the safe and Kaito’s reaction to it.
( ‘Oh great, now you’re in my story, too. Don’t think I didn’t recognize that. Why couldn’t you stick to popping up with the small detective? Kindly refrain from impaling my girlfriend, you maniac.’ )
Magic Kaito is written far too rarely to just dismiss every single reference and nod as ‘same thing happening but not in the same universe’. If the story basically directs you to the other series for continuation (look under point 3), it is crossover in the same universe. I don’t care if Gosho said things to try and cover his tracks after looking at Akako again, he dug his hole himself.
…was probably a prototype for the Black Org in Detective Conan to be honest. Or at least started in the same serious vein because they were made around the same time, Conan starting in January 1994, and the third Magic Kaito volume released in October that year. As I assume the Blue Birthday and Green Dream chapters were serialized sometime before the whole volume was released, it also leads to my assuming that Snake and Gin + Vodka’s first appearances were in the same planning process.
I wouldn’t say Kaito’s mysterious organization is as competent, at least not anymore. But there’s a good chance Snake and the people above him were supposed to be just as threatening, careful, and smart as the DC men in black, and then it was toned down because of how the MK world works in comparison to DC. It’s not meant for an incredibly serious takedown plot, but Gosho threw it in anyway to make up for the lack of drive to Kaito’s thieving. MK was fun and silly, until Gosho started working more on DC and the more serious elements from that bled into the story. And those few serious elements have hurt MK a bit, but that’s a rant for another time.
Right now, my thoughts on the MK org. (With Japanese scans purely for quality purposes)
In the manga, Kaito knowingly walked into a seafood restaurant, and is fine with eating lobster. Don’t be surprised by the girl eating fish in a seafood place, Kaito, really…
The specials kept the sign.
But it looks like they gave Kaito steak or such instead. Possibly to separate Kaito from eating things from the water.
The anime entirely omitted the fact it’s a seafood restaurant, and I have noidea what they decided to have Kaito order. They also downgraded the sides and drink quality, which makes me think they opted to make it a more casual place to eat. …And they decided to put roses on the table, interesting, especially when they make Kaito’s and Aoko’s yellow. Leads to interpretations more than if they’d had all the roses red.
I told myself I wouldn’t go over this chapter, but technically last time I did it was more looking into the overall situation than looking at the chapter, so… doing it anyway~
Something random I noticed. (And small warning this is just a quick post before class because I happened to wonder about something.)
The gun Kaito’s using here isn’t his usual card gun.
And it makes sense for how it’s used, since you can see the other side of the plunger attached to the gun and left behind.
The specials keep with that…
…except this point where it just looks wrong. Possibly perspective, but a mistake one way or another.
Funnily, the newer anime got rid of it altogether. It feels like they were updating Kaito’s technology and making it less goofy, which makes some sense…
This metal grip over a plunger probably looks better, anyway. (Not sure how well either method would work on the ceiling in reality, but ah well.) The only issue is that they specifically don’t show how the other end is attached to the wall, so I don’t think they thought it through and hoped people wouldn’t wonder about it.
More interesting thing is that it’s not Kaito’s gun he also shoots cards from.
Yes, he clearly uses it in DC when going against Makoto. But the only similar time I remember in MK is the Red Tear and…
Of course it’s from his sleeve somehow, because he does need his gun to deal with Snake. Off the top of my head, I can’t really recall him using his own gun as a grappling hook/plunger, even though the image sticks with me…
(Woooow… was looking into something for a 30 days of DCMK post on my personal, and I ended up with a notepad file that eventually became this:
Black Star [Returned via Conan] Clocktower [Kept safe, ‘successfuly unsuccessful heist’] Midair Walk (Blue Wonder) [Returned via Conan] Teleportation (Purple Nail) [Returned via Conan] Iron Tanuki [Pft] Kirin Horn [Returned through Conan] Blush Mermaid [Never stolen, informed Jirokichi that it’s fake] (Alexandrite) Green Emperor [Returned via Makoto]
Eye of the Moon (anime) or Kono Star Sapphire (manga) (Jii’s heist Kaito showed up to, it looks like a generic diamond shape either way) [Returned accidentally] Beaucoup de soleil a Paris (also has a different manga name) [Returned via Nakamori] Ticking heart (technical) [Returned with a note] Angel Crown [???] (It was never shown if Kaito actually got it the second time, it just went into his disguising as Aoko) Akako’s appearance (The gem was never named or described) [Never stolen] Cleopatra’s vanity case (tiny robots heist) [???] Enperor’s Gold Seal [???] Homerun ball [Pft] Cue of legend [Never stolen? V: ] Star War (Giant’s Star) [Returned-ish via Nakamori’s tree] Adam’s Smile [???] Bronze statue [Never stolen] Pink Sapphire (Unnamed in the manga) [??? Akako has it?] Treasured Sword [Returned/never stolen/not a successful heist] Blue Birthday [Returned by leaving it to be found] Green Dream [Never stolen] Crystal Mother [Returned through Aoko] Red Tear [Cancelled target, protected] -Clocktower- [See first time] Golden Eye [Given to Ruby] Black Knight [Returned by Jack…] Midnight Crow [Never stolen]
Other gems stolen include the one from Jii’s first heist Kaito didn’t show up to, a spoken-about heist by robo Kaito before the one we see (and he says he stole ‘things’, so who knows what he actually took), three heists in a row before Hakuba got a piece of hair that are assumed to be successful, a mention before the Blue Birthday heist that the ring he stole was the 5th target that month, implied recent heist before the clocktower that Kid was successful in, [unltimately failed/returned] attempt at stealing the Jeweled Dagger before the Golden Eye heist, likely stole something even if he had trouble escaping when he met Nightmare…
And then finally we see a more casual theft and return of a jewel before the backstory of the Phantom Lady is shown, and it being mentioned that this is the fifth time Kaito’s used Aoko’s face to deal with escaping. If you want to headcanon Kaito’s always returned what he stole, go ahead, personally I’ll keep my doubts about the heists prior to Kid’s better image stemming from DC that bled into MK.
…Clearly I don’t like to analyse things at all. But really, the tangent I went off into on thoughts just made me want to make a point in saying that most of the good things we associate with Kaito were made in DC first. MK was a gag manga before DC’s more logical/suave way of portraying Kid bled over into when MK was continued. Even most returning of targets (not exclusively jewels, which happened after learning about Pandora) was accidental or done for a reason in the beginning, not the casual giving it back he has now.)
This has been bugging me a while, and the full chapter analysis tend to take up a lot of time… So, I just wanted to go over some common thoughts about Kid/Kaito that aren’t quite accurate (or could be entirely wrong altogether). From common ideas to ones I’ve only seen every once in a while (but still more than once). The fanon, so to speak, and some thoughts on why they the ideas came to be.
Moonlight Archive 