Alright, so… I’ve had the urge to go through all the Magic Kaito chapters and post analyses on all of them. This won’t be a simple re-reading with reactions (though there might be some of those), but I mean to actually go in detail about what makes each chapter important, special, fun, and interesting. There will be random observations, offhand comments, and comparing to animated adaptations where possible. And general randomness. (Sometimes lamenting that there isn’t an animated adaptation, since that applies to every chapter still untouched.) I won’t be going over the robot and Silver the pirate, simply because I already made posts about those chapters and I don’t have much to add since then. (Though after looking them over, I might do Silver’s. I do have other parts of that I’ve thought about, but outside the point I was trying to make in that post.)
…Anyway, all that said, jumping right into chapter 1: Rebirth of the Phantom Thief.
Tag: manga reflections
(I made a small post about people’s habit of having Kaito encounter others, like detectives and/or a Snake up on the roof. Well, I finally got around to making a more picture evidenced post about how that compares to what Kaito does in canon to escape.)
Not Kaito, but a small reminder that both Kid!Jii and Kid!Toichi broke through windows on the heists we see them do. Jii went to the roof and Kaito had to meet him there to confront him,
Kaito himself just poofed away, so we don’t really know how he left. Not by glider, though, easy at that would be to notice. (And he really doesn’t use it for the first time until later, the only reason I mention that is because this whole situation did technically take place on the roof, even if it was Jii’s escape route and not Kaito’s.)
This is a dummy, but still a perfectly valid escape route Kaito could have tried. If he hadn’t been smart enough not to use that with the gun happy detective…
And in this instance he used one of his more common routes of disguising as someone and walking out the door. Which when used later works almost every time, Kaito had planned to be suspected here to give Nakamori a chance to look good.
Jumped out the window and ran.
The second attempt at the Angel Crown we never see exactly how he leaves, but assume he simply ran off again since that’s what he’s doing when he ditches the mask. I doubt the police got themselves together quickly enough to catch up to him, when their distraction and Nakamori’s anger stalled them enough to give Kaito a head start down whatever route he planned to take.
Poofed and ran away (or walked, he wasn’t in the best of condition and the police were a little too shocked to follow). ((…Though I feel like Hakuba would be asking what on earth they were doing, with evidence they could have used right there. Eh, side note.))
I just like this because he actually broke into the building through the window…
And then broke another one leaving. Where the heck were these helicopters before, Kaito should have seen them coming down…
Anyway, then he used the scooter coming down.
And here we have the first instance of Kaito picking the roof to escape.
And technically the first use of the glider, even if it wasn’t his original plan. First option was to ride a cord to the tower, the glider only came out because of Akako’s interference. And even then only for a few moments to get both of them to the next building. Afterward he poofed again, and who knows what that means for how he leaves, so…
This is technically Jii doing the escaping out the skylight, but eh. Kaito walked out on his own because he could.
Poofed away again. I’m going to start assuming this means he left a distraction to walk away without being noticed. Going partially based on what was said in the Teleportation heist, that all he has to do in order to not be noticed is swap his white for black to slip away. (Even if his poofing thus far has much less smoke cover…)
With Hakuba, he’d been planning to leave using the balloon.
It wasn’t until that plan was literally cut off that he resorted to using his glider. And it’s still out of a window.
Another balloon, but he brought this one with him.
Window crash and a balloon.
Not related to how he escapes, but really Kaito. Maybe this is why he doesn’t need to use his glider, he can easily jump from building to building. :V
This was a goofy chapter, but I guess you could say he did use his glider from the roof in this. Of a wall. Not the image most think of, and it’s not a skyscraper or anything, but it counts.
Out the window, but the dummy got the balloon, he just walked off and got a mysterious phone call.
Blue Birthday is the first and technically only time the after-the-heist scene matches what people might write. On the roof, glider set, then has a confrontation with Snake. Who knows how he survived falling from the building here, since it was never explained in the manga.
Poofed later.
Officially he walked off the train as Kuroba Kaito, but the dummy took a balloon exit.
Look, even the fake hops out a random window to glide. Shame on you, fake, you wouldn’t have had a person fall on top of you if you’d gone with a balloon instead of going in circles with the glider. (Granted, his whole job was to hold police attention while Snake did his thing inside, and he was expecting it to be done quickly and have some sort of signal when he could stop, but still.)
And Kaito walked out the building after that.
He had a more unique escape with Shinichi, because the circumstances allowed him to do this. Straight up jump off the clock tower and land to mix in with the crowd.
Clearly used his glider from this random heists we don’t get to see. Who knows where he umped, but his track record is saying it’d be from the window. Possibly from that building we see on the right. Naka was on the ground with the floodlights, though, isn’t he normally always right where the item Kid’s trying to steal is kept? Or did he plan ahead of time that he wanted to pursue by police car? I don’t think he’d have had time to both try being up wherever Kid stole the dagger and make his way down to hop in a car to catch up with Kaito on the glider.
Made a window for him to jump out of and use his glider here.
He clearly had to run during the heist he was forced to accept help from Nightmare. While he knows he can’t use his glider, that doesn’t necessarily means it was his first option. (Likely would have been, though, since at this point his balloon days are behind him, he’s never used one himself since the Blue Birthday. And there are probably good reasons for that… Not least of which due to the police picking up new measures to keep Kaito from using his normal escape means, as we’ll see later. However, people after his life, who like using guns, is good incentive to switch from an easy to pop balloon to an easier to maneuver glider…)
And even if it’s half Nightmare’s plan, more likely he did go to the roof of the heist building in order to glide to this rendezvous point. The escaping the building part was on Kid, from what I got, so it counts.
Here’s the police action stepping up. Kaito can disguise as Aoko to slip through because she’s known to the police and no one wants trouble from Nakamori, but everyone else in the building is kept from being let out until they’re searched. And Kaito says he’s using Aoko’s face again, and while it could be a reference to the time he did it during the Angel Crown heist, Goudzu mentions it’s the fifth time. Kaito’s had to use her face often, even if we don’t know how necessary it was. Good organization and planning going on, even if Kaito continues to get around it. Both sides are adjusting and narrowing how they respond and act. (This might also have to do with Kid’s growing fanbase. Normally they’re kept out of the building, but I’m sure there are times the police can’t shut down the entire place. All those fans would get in and a crowd would be easy to mix in with.)
Pffft. Well… it’s unique again, because he has to take the car with him when Aoko’s handcuffed to it. And that handcuff causes a lot of panic before he can safely use the glider. Or if we put it simply, it’s another jump out the window and glide, now with Aoko and a small car. V:
Walked out during this one. (And better Kid proofing here, since they kept the jewel completely safe and successfully drove the thief off based on police planning alone. Too bad the main idea for it came from an outside source who knows the workings of magicians.)
Final escape from MK uses the glider from who knows where, but they’d have had the opportunity to leave from the roof if someone wants to interpret it that way.
…But we’re not done yet. Apologies for the length, but I do like to be thorough.
First appearance in Detective Conan, they meet on the roof, and he shows he has a glider…
But he disguised and mixed in with the police instead.
He did plan on gliding off of the ship later, but ultimately had to swim because Conan found him sooner than he’d have liked and got the police searching. If he hadn’t, he probably would have left the room with the others, then slipped away to leave and let them find Ran on their own.
Gliding from the window.
Jumped out of a helicopter to save the person who’d only jumped to help him escape. Otherwise might have thought his disguise had been good enough to fool Hakuba and Conan.
Escape the first night during the Midair Walk was fly/walk away by helicopter.
Second night and actual attempt at stealing the jewel he disguised as Jirokichi and tried to escape by motorcycle.
Not a heist, but after the mansion flooded and Conan found him out, he flew away from the roof using his glider.
Would have gone out the window…
If Conan hadn’t hit him with the soccer ball. So I assume he walked away.
Jirokichi specifically tried to stop him from using his glider (and would check people who tried to leave), so Kaito gets around him and flies off laughing. Until a ball whizzes by his face, that kills the humour or the situation.
Used it again the second night, now with a passenger.
This I noticed in the original post I made commenting on the ‘rooftop meeting and glide away’ observation post. Because the anime had this scene take place outside, with Kid taking off from the roof, here the room happened to have a window he could escape from, so he did. Even the anime seems to think going all the way up to stand on a rooftop looks cooler than the more practical and faster getaway of stepping out the nearest window.
Window.
(Go back to the magic lover’s case for the last echo of the word, the last escapes don’t want to cooperate with me.)
Disguise and run away. (Except with the pain of a not stuck to his back…)
Disguise and walk out the door.
Glide away from the exploding train car, when his original intent had been to stay in disguise and only look over the train before a heist later, by all rights he shouldn’t have had to use this.
Out the skylight and glide off the roof.
So, most of his escape routes on his own vary, but on the whole, going up to the rooftop, especially from the taller buildings, is rarely used. His glider saw more and more appearances later in his career, especially when real danger came to light, and aside from that first confrontation, he never had many rooftop chats and conversations. Those happen wherever he happens to be that police aren’t, and Kaito takes the safest and simplest ways of escaping. He only really used his glider when he had to, in the beginning it was more of a last resort method of getting away, but its use became more and more necessary.
However, he honestly has no reason to go to the roof simply to glide away. Doing so does put him at more risk, it becomes predictable if he does it too often, and if he plans on not being ambushed by guns, jumping out the nearest window really is the better option. If Snake is around and trying to get him, he could be nearby, but he can’t attack unless he wanted to draw attention to himself. Every meeting with Snake has been when the police wouldn’t be around, so stupid as the guy seems, he’s at least smart enough to not draw the eyes of detectives around Kid.
So why do I think people, including myself, jump to rooftop meetings? …Because it’s a nice scene. Usually private and some excuse is made for why the police won’t bust down the door. Great for drama. DC movie 8 didn’t help with the first scene making it look awesome. Movie 19 helps less now. And then I blame DC for the rest, because…
They put a whole heist centered around Kid using his glider, which is funny since that wasn’t his most common method until after this, publicly. Yes, he had the glider, but it wasn’t until Kid showed up in DC that it got constant use. This especially hit people over the head with associating Kid with the glider, and it admittedly looks cool, puts a feeling of freedom on Kaito, much better than the smart ideas of disguises and less noticeable escapes.
…And really DC is to blame for a lot of ideas about Kid’s character that aren’t quite accurate when you compare it to MK. Most notably the ‘no one gets hurt’ and smaller things that like riddle heist notes and that he uses help more often than not for heists. And then the movies add more to the mix of canon, non-canon, and entirely fanon thoughts…
(If you don’t mind headcanons regarding other characters…)
(Still up to rpers/writers what they go with, to mention first, since these are just headcanons, but I get the feeling I could have a lot on most people in the MK world. (Would say DC, but uh…. too many characters :V )
Anyway, as far as Ginzo is concerned, he said he’d been chasing Kid since he was twenty. Which actually might mean Toichi is older than Ginzo? Since Chikage said ‘at a mere twenty years of age, you dominated the Grand Prix at Fism, the magicians’ Olympics… You were a young genius magician’, which more likely means that was past. Don’t know how much time past between the events, but since twenty has passed for him in his first appearance in Paris as Kid, Ginzo was probably younger than him to have started chasing him at that age. And who knows when the Kurobas actually started staying in Ekoda, so highly likely Ginzo and Toichi didn’t know each other before Kid.
However, Aoko and Kaito are the same age. (Meaning Toichi had a child later in his age than Ginzo did, but random information.) Toichi and Chikage had Kaito a year after Kid first appeared, and was likely busy being a Robin Hood at the time to overshadow Phantom Lady. I’d assume they’d already decided to move to Ekoda before then, but…. then Aoko and Kaito actually might have met sooner. So… it’s at least a bit likely Kaito stayed abroad for at least part of his young life before they settled in Ekoda. Ginzo’s ‘chasing Kid’ may have only happened a few times up until then, as Kid being international meant he didn’t only steal in Japan. (And probably not just Paris either.) So… in early life, whatever happened to Aoko’s mom, more likely he did spend time with Aoko, since Kid wouldn’t have been a constant presence.
Also probably didn’t help Kaito lean how to make permanent friends any better, if he’d been moving around a lot, makes sense he’d stick with Aoko when he could. General friendliness from wanting to interact while he could? I get the feeling Ginzo was the type who took Aoko around with him if work wasn’t anything dangerous, so Kid heists he probably did bring her to until he did have to go, if no one could look after her. Which is more likely how the two could meet, Kaito’s dad also involved because heist and both probably having to wait about the same amount of time.
(And just to say, no danger from the org for a very long time, it was safe to think Kaito would be fine being brought. They knew Toichi’s name and occupation, scary to be sure, but they thought Kaito was still Toichi and believed a warning would make him stop? I’ve said before a while back, but I don’t think they saw Toichi as a threat, and got rid of him soon after he started causing trouble, so at most, the last two years of his thieving career. Closer to a year.)
After Kid stopped, Ginzo probably did have time for Aoko, though it probably wasn’t the most peaceful. Kid disappearing all of the sudden, and if he did suspect Toichi by then (possible, he had more suspicious points than Kaito does), he probably put a lot of attention into looking into that ‘accident’. To a point he did transfer to homicide detective for a time, and might have gotten busier there. I don’t think Kid made him obsessed, I think losing Kid made him obsessed. Only when Kid showed up again did it get incredibly worse, either in thinking Toichi was back or trying to catch the one who was just using the name. (More likely the former, with how happy he was.)
Which is why it makes more sense for Aoko to feel victimized by Kid now, rather than in the past. The being left on her own likely didn’t happen until the later years leading up to Kid’s return. If neglect had happened earlier, I doubt Aoko would be so attached to her father to care too much, and could grow to dislike him. (Or her being sweet, loved her father because he’s her only family, despite anything,hat path comes with slightly disturbing thinking of putting up with neglect just for that, so take whichever way. Either way, Kaito did probably make the problem worse in bringing Kid back to life.)
….And I’ll make another post about thoughts regarding Toichi later, on Spider’s blog. Since the way of thinking goes against what Kaito would see, being bias in favour of his father.)
(On the glider thing earlier… still doesn’t make sense for you to check there, Conan. V: Though I’ll agree Kid’s way of disengaging it varies. From…)
(Using the belt to take it off entirely, which is most likely what Conan was attempting.)
(Disconnecting it from the shoulders.)
(Use of a button to make the rig go down.)
(Possibly doing that here, if he has a button in his pocket.)
(Undoing belt and hitting it, though that was more ‘it’s broken, might as well knock it down’. And the cape itself was still taken off at the shoulders here.)
(And then we have the magic cape which apparently needs nothing. :V )
(…Still no excuse to go from checking around here…)
(To there, tantei-kun. Or anywhere inside for that matter, should have just grabbed the belt. Also, you’re very lucky the dork of a thief didn’t let go, with all this tumbling that went on and complete lack of control he had over anything. And you being right in that area, he really couldn’t disengage it himself if it were the belt. Worse if it needed both hands. V: )
(Hmm… I know I don’t talk much about characters other than Kaito, for obvious reasons. Mostly because I can’t actually play them myself and tend to leave things to people who can… But I do have some thoughts on Aoko. Mostly in relation to Kaito, for the same obvious reasons, though some other ways that I saw.)
(Aside from the math example showing she’s smart (something I actually have read people forgetting… even saying she’s bad at math, which I had to kind of back up a second when I saw that, no), she really is important to Kaito. Not even romantically, just on the whole. Kaito likes to mess and poke fun at people, and acts out in a group, but when he’s alone, he really doesn’t stand out much. And his pulling pranks can push other people away, so having someone who sticks with him, and even tries to get him to stop is good for him.
But funny thing… Kaito’s associated with being extroverted, life of the party type of person. He’s not. Aoko invited him to hers, made him promise to come. She’s the one who pulled Kaito into helping with the Christmas party. She’s the one who asks Kaito to go places. Aoko is who makes Kaito social.
It might be left over from when Toichi died, say Kaito becoming more withdrawn, but that’s more into pure headcanon territory. Kaito, even as a child, really has only been shown interacting with random people on the street if they caught his interest, whether from suspicion or they seemed sad. Kaito’s friendly, yes, but not social. He hadn’t even heard about Kid before, so he clearly never spoke with other classmates often, when the word was going all throughout school, and the news. Have to wonder if he stopped looking at news when his dad died, to not see the return of a magician thief everywhere.
And for general things I won’t point out every instance of: Trusts and is honest with Kaito about most things. She tends to not say things she feels would do more harm than good for everyone. Fiercely defensive of her dad and worries about him, even when said dad doesn’t always pay attention to important things with her. Is probably one of the few people who don’t fall into being a fan of Kid and will constantly remind people he is a criminal. Most likely because of her dad, but still, nice change from literally everyone else. (Inspector is oftentimes happy to see Kid, Hakuba isn’t as dead set in getting him outside of heists, Akako doesn’t want him caught by anyone but her, and then most everyone else is a Kid fangirl or is decently neutral when dealing with him. Outside of other police and people he’s stealing from.)
Ch 1: Aoko told him about Kid, went to see him at home despite the usual harassment of flipped skirts and revealed underwear colour. Did learn about his weakness and checked it to make sure it worked.
Ch 2: Nothing too important… But she did tell Kaito she was worried about her dad. Don’t know if that would have made a difference in whether Kaito tried to later cheer the inspector up, but…
Ch 3: Minor: Asked if anything was wrong when Kaito hadn’t showed up at school the previous day. (Something she noticed, though it makes me wonder if she checked at his house. If Chikage was there, she probably said Kaito was out because of a Kid heist, so she held onto the question until school the next day? Maybe hadn’t wanted to tell Chikage Kaito hadn’t been at school, since she wouldn’t have seemed concerned. …Robo Kaito makes me question a lot of what must have happened behind the scenes, really…)
Ch 4: Immediately reacted to defend Kaito and went through with a plan to prove his innocence, despite any doubts that came up because his default when interacting with others in a ‘friendly’ way is to poke fun and act kinda jerkish. Started to treat him special, but he actually encouraged her to put him in place because that’s what felt normal. Push back at him.
Ch 5: Was the one who invited him out to scuba dive. To help him get over his fear of fish.
Tried to keep Kaito from fighting with Silver, and showed she was pretty adventurous and curious. She seemed excited at finding the submarine until… y’know, skeletons.
Ch 6: Tried to tell Kaito about Valentines, even if it was embarrassing the heck out of her. V: And regardless of anime cutsyness, she didn’t plan on keeping it and possibly give it to him late, since it wouldn’t have the same meaning.
Ch 7: Despite being seen as popular because he can ski, Kaito actually wasn’t interacting with many people. Just shared skeevy mindedness over mixed bathing information, but he only actively interacted with Aoko when he saw her. Acknowledges Kaito hates looking bad (*cough*putsupanacttolookgoodmostofthetimeandshowoff*cough*), and was willing to leave him alone so she wouldn’t bring him down with how bad she was at skiing. Also tried helping Fujie not feel bad because Akako wouldn’t give him the time of day. Still tried to encourage Kaito even when she thought he was with Akako instead.
Ch 8: Can tell when Kaito’s upset over something, even if she doesn’t know what. She thought it might be from not being able to beat a game, so she looked at a guide for it and told him about where he was stuck.
Ch 9: Again noted Kaito wasn’t in class. Put up with creepy window watching while bathing BS. (Kaito wth?)
Ch 10: (Not much, just noting that, if Aoko was trying to keep with the charm, did she want to become a little more mature?)
Ch 11: Another that’s more of a note, since she was really only shown walking with Kaito, but she did try to convince a boy Kid was a bad guy. While we, as Magic Kaito readers, know he’s not, it does still stand in universe that he’s only known as a thief. All the crimes Kid has done aren’t balanced out by known reasons or knowing Kaito’s character, so she’s in the right, trying to say someone shouldn’t call a thief an ally of justice. Same as: You can like a villain, but don’t erase the fact they are one for a reason.
Ch 12: Wanted to find out the truth behind a monster at the school to get justice for Keiko, who’d gotten so shocked she didn’t come to school. Immediately brightened up seeing the bathroom, and going to assume that’s because she knew she could stall for time. (Pun not intended, but kept anyway.) And even after being terrified, still woke up not going to allow Kaito to get away with anything.
Ch 13: Still holds knowledge of Kaito’s weakness, but really doesn’t actively use it. Instead, it’s her protection against skirt flips, and a very good one. V: And Aoko shows more knowledge about general local knowledge than Kaito does again, since she was the one who had heard of the place the Legendary cue was kept, and rules for getting in. And she did want to help Jii get it back and showed up. (And while she’s ignorant on some things, like what a martini is, she still showed quick and polite social skills to keep her dad and the other he was with from suspecting too much.) And supporting Kaito and trusting even when drunk. Also, openly showing her dislike of the guys who had just pulled guns out on them.
Ch 14: Worried that Kaito had a cold. But still asking him to help set up for a Christmas party, which she does every year from what Kaito said. And he called her a party animal, kinda implying he’s not one himself. :V
Ch 15: Again, showing more knowledge of common information in knowing about Hakuba before Kaito. (Funny, Kaito did the inviting this time, but only to have a better excuse for going to the rink and spying on where the heist would be held… ‘undercover’. She did still come with him, though. Bet she was relived to know Kaito couldn’t skate, because doubt it was much fun to be invited someone by him for once and he just stays on the side.)
Ch 16: Again more social, as excited as she was to get band tickets, hanging out with her other friend aside from Kaito, and not bothered much when Hakuba offered to go to the concert with her. (Secret showing of preferring to go to the concert with Kaito in her sudden turn to supporting Kid winning at the heist Kaito and Hakuba made a bet on.)
Ch 17: Hmm mostly just showing more concern, when Kaito was sleeping in class and wandering off at the heist.
Ch 18: -Yaiba crossover, nothing much here-
Ch 19: Dad worries, shown questioning why Kid does what he does, was inviting Kaito to her birthday party and trusted he would up until it became very clear he wouldn’t. And the first time it’s really shown how much Kid and her dad’s absence affects her. (And still almost brutally honest with Kaito, when she called him out on not coming like he’d promised.)
Ch 20: (Kaito stop using her) She got tickets to the show from her dad, again because Kaito wanted to see it, and seemed excited to be there. Actually does tend to catch on to people with bad personalities. (Happened with the department store owner in Star War, though unnoted.) And we see a sourse of her great information skills: Reading magazines. :V
– (Really, have to make a side note now, she does this a lot. How rare had it been for Kaito to express interest in going somewhere before having reasons as Kid to tell Aoko about it so she would make it possible and go with him? Without questioning it? Just… ‘oh, Kaito actually wants to go somewhere, then yeah, let’s go’. Happens in the next chapter as well, for Crystal Mother, just to say here.)
Ch 21: Aside from the above, she went the extra step in getting them access to see the Queen and be in the dining car. So adding here that seems to know pretty well how to use connections. More friendly with Phillip than Kaito was until Kaito wanted to see something and try and collect information. Kaito was going to send him away, Aoko was the one who asked about how he felt and what brought out the story of his dad and feelings towards his mom. (And I know if it’s brought back against me, I’ll defend him, but gdi Kaito, she shouldn’t have to put up with you drugging her after all she does for you.)
Ch 22: Went to bringing up Toichi with a famous magician, and Kaito was his son. Probably would have been a nice point of conversation to bring up and chat about that would have made Kaito feel nice, proud about his father as he is, but Jody not having the highest opinion on magic brought that down.. And Aoko seemed to try to bring it back, mentioning that Jody did magic. Just felt like she was trying to give Kaito a chance to talk about what he likes with someone who was the same and understood. (Also, had brought him out to go to the movies.) And she’d originally wanted Kaito to come to the magic show, and only brought her dad instead because Kaito said no. And was the one to actually ask about Jody, why she wasn’t performing and took interest in hearing her story. (Happy to see that Kaito may have actually seen the show at the end. From her perspective, Kaito must seem like a loner magician, criticizing other ones and mostly holding to what his father taught him. Seeing professional ones would have been good for him, even if he’s on a professional level already himself.)
Ch 23-24: Still trying to remind people Kid’s a criminal, and very protective of the place that holds sentimental value of when she first met Kaito. First time she’s shown actively protesting Kid in the middle of the Kid fans, when the thief was saying he’d take the clock tower than means a lot to her. (First Kid takes her dad, and Kaito’s admiration, now he wants to take more from her? (…Sorry Kaito, very easy to see why she despises your alter ego…))
Ch 25-26: First time shown supporting her dad by taking his lunch to him (at Kaito’s suggestion… >> Though pertty sure later times are on her own.). And who would root for either of the thieves, she’s rooting for the police, like any lawful person should. Didn’t hesitate to take the coin pouch to Jii as asked
Ch 27-28: I swear she does a better job actually chatting and making kids happy and can convince them to do things better than Kaito sometimes… Or they’re both just as good in different ways, that works. Perfect with Kenta. Convincing him to leave to eat, but listening to him to let him follow a car thought to be his dad’s so he could tell him something important. (And… I can’t actually tell for sure from this, weird as the translation is worded… Is Hakuba using her too? Did he set up her being there to interfere with Kaito or such, because she was looking for him in the task force uniform and only brought it up again later, but said the email had been from Kaito? Is that supposed to be ‘for’ Kaito? Either way, did Hakuba set up for Aoko to stay there?? Or at least get a message to Kaito through her? Or was he trying to throw Nightmare off with her being there too, as Kaito picked up later?)
Ch 29-30: (Whole lot of: She’s been far too good to you to have to put up with all this shit, Kaito. Disguising as her and getting her put in danger by people who then thought ‘her’ returning jewels and connection to the Inspector led to them being Kid. *forehead flick to the thief*) Excited to have been invited to something special, too… (Yeah, when you look at things from Aoko’s perspective, Kaito, ilu, but you’re a total jerk even when it doesn’t seem like it. Neither of you two have it nice, but you’re not helping yourself with her.) Oh, and she referred to Akako as a friend, enough that she invited her somewhere. (Really Kaito, she’s better at making friends than you. You just win hearts.)
Ch 31-33: Information again, knowing about the magic critic. Deus ex Aoko for when Kaito needs information on people currently talked about, really (and later the hint to the trick only known because it affected her dad and she decided to share as well as pointing out the smudge Kaito got touching his face). (…And same applies to Kaito using her connection to her father for the tie pin camera, dammit Kaito. >:V )
And after going through them all, I do have to wonder how much Aoko is aware of. Or highly suspects. Her trust in Kaito might be letting her ignore signs, but sometimes it feels like she should know… And if she does, she’s a far better actress than Kaito is when it comes to not acting suspicious. (That Green Dream heist, when Kaito had to leave… there wasn’t a dummy there in the manga that I saw. It was just an empty seat. ??? Everything that went on at the Golden Eye heist, with Kaito suggesting the bento, suddenly ‘leaving’, ‘give this to Jii’, did she check inside that before just handing it over, or did she keep trust to not look?) Some things just scream ‘something’s up’, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she’s looked into things. Like people suspecting Ran might know, I honestly have to wonder about Aoko, and if what she says about Kid nowadays might be trying to guilt Kaito into saying something…)
(Something about Toichi’s hidden room I never noticed before, since my image is still the one from the specials, for the most part.)
(The specials have it well lit, shiny steel and white, a workbench, the hidden closet behind the large mirror (without the lights around it, though another with), and overall looks clean and organised, if a little that it’s more like an office space you’d rarely come to except to work. Despite the jukebox and game.)
(The newer anime feels emptier, though still clean and orderly, with everything in shelves, but also more comfortable and a place to relax. Like, ‘I’m just going to chill here for a while before I need to grab my things and leave’.)
(Even Kaito is fine sitting there (listening to his father’s words).)
(Which is why I find it hilarious, looking back, to see the room is a mess of stuff everywhere. Very little space, miscellaneous items eveywhere, mice having set up a home, cracks in the wall. Very much a basement work area, and more busy and used. Not just Kid stuff, I can see Toichi practicing his magic in general down here, as well as researching various things. And the heck is up with that instrument (Cello? Did he play that, maybe?) behind the stairs in the top picture? Side note, stairs. And not ones that take him back to the painting room like in the anime, no, those go somewhere else, where, we’ll never know. The bottom one is a little messier, with things on the ground and toolbox open, since Kaito’s been there a while, doing the job himself, things were moved around.
…But something else I find interesting in the top picture, when the room was how Toichi left it… This will be delving more into headcanon right now, but there’s what looks to be a wine bottle and a cup on the small tale in the lower left. Might not mean anything, but I have to wonder why they’d be left out, if he even thought he might die. So… I don’t think he expected it at all. Most of the room looks lived in, as if he expected to come back to it. But he did leave a message, and the lock was set… My theory says Chikage took care of that. Toichi knew he could die at any time, but wanted to wait until Kaito was old enough to say anything, so he made a recording at some point in the event he did die. Chikage, after the murder, set the time on the lock and cassette and shut the room off. Because she was also aware when the room was opened, and didn’t go to check on Kaito after she knew it was, not because Toichi had set that into place, but because she had and knew Toichi wanted to tell Kaito the truth himself.)
List of Kaito’s crimes (canonically and in pictures) as per a certain assassin’s irritation.
In no particular order and not all serious…
Accomplice to theft.
Lying
Identity Theft (Multiple accounts on disguises, but since he used an ID this time, using this as the rep)
Destruction of property
Failure to follow safety rules/misuse of a roller coaster
Kidnapping (since it was never said if the PM explained Kid hadn’t taken him.)
Creating a panic
Driving a car (and motorcycle), and a plane without licenses.
Use of a ‘weapon’ on a person (Aimed directly, not just to the side for intimidation, though that’s another thing he does)
Sexual Harassment (And with that…)
Invasion of privacy
Robbery (with breaking and entering)
Cheating (Or more specifically for the cue, swindling)
Dognapping
Grand Larceny (And to any who say ‘but he returns what he steals…’, not everything. We have no idea what happened to most of the targets from before the Blue Birthday heist, including this painting shown here. Kaito has stolen things, if only to draw the people who killed his father in)
Multiple accounts of assault and battery
And last, but arguably the most important…
Illegal amounts of cute
(Was going through icons (big surprise, I know) and I came to one I had to stop on. And get the full image.
I know this has very likely been compared before, often as the two are compared in general, but still.
I get the feeling if Kaito didn’t have to worry about his identity there, he’d be just as bad as Shinichi. Even then, Kaito’s pride is more in amusement, knowing he’s Kid when no one else does and being able to hide it. (Not very well if you keep that up, Kai. V: ), while Shinichi is very much pride in detective skill. Deceiving others vs being better than them… I find you both really interesting, considering you both regret those prides later. Kaito hates that he has to hide it from people who trust him and he cares about and he gets in serious trouble when he can’t trick people, Shinichi learns in a more direct and harsher way that he can’t just go showing off how he’s right all the time and wanting more attention bringing people down like that.
If both saw themselves on the news now (as they are like that, famous high school detective and mysterious phantom thief), Shinichi/Conan might have a panic attack because oh shi-. And Kaito might still have some pride, smile a bit, snicker if he’s alone, but you know it’d hurt if he were with Aoko then and she started saying how horrible Kid was again.)
(…After the Movie 3 post about Kaito landing on the building he flew over, and seeing the DC Rewatch question about the circumstance, I feel the need to explain more of why I came up with that as the explanation. Though I’ll say right off that I can’t defend Kaito’s not getting injured by the bullet entirely, much like Conan really shouldn’t have been able to take the force of one up close at all later. Kid at least got affected by that force, but unless it just managed to hit the rim of his monocle to break it, but put the bullet off enough not to actually hit him… yeah, he should have at least gotten a scratch to his cheek there from a glancing hit. Maybe he covered it up, though, we don’t know. Kaito’s luck and Conan defying physics aren’t easy to even try and explain.
How and where he fell, however, is a different story.
First off: Why I believe he fell in the building (which looks to be an aquarium).
Main point: He did fly over it. And because of that, most likely had to land there.
He’s heading for it in this picture.
And it’s where Scorpion is aiming.
Scorpion holds the gun directly in front.
And is facing parallel to the bridge. Which goes directly to that building. If Kid had been anywhere but over it, either to Scorpion’s left, closer to the water, or beyond the building to Kid’s right as he approaches, Scorpion wouldn’t have been able to get a shot. And we know that’s the bridge Conan runs under while chasing Kid. Which leads to another thing.
After passing under the bridge, Conan made a turn and down another way to get to the water. Right beside it. And while I don’t have another screenshot handy, you can see he’s near enough to a building to see the steps. Very likely the same building that’s the center of all of this.
So, via bad paint skills, this is likely Conan’s path. Now, since the shot was taken parallel to the bridge, Kid’s position was not one that would have allowed him to make it to the water. It doesn’t look that far on here, but it’s enough to cause a problem, and remember, at the time, his glider was of absolutely no use. The frame had broken, and wouldn’t be able to glide at all. He’d not be able to go vertical enough to reach the water from there in a freefall, he’d hit the pavement. Hence why it’s more likely he landed on the building he was shot above. It’s closer, being high up. And he may have gotten a bit of vertical distance, but not enough to carry him to the water.
So I personally believe he just landed close enough for things to be thrown over, out of sight of the shooter, and to where people would think he wasn’t where he was. Police and Conan thought he landed in the water, and maybe Scorpion as well. I doubt anyone actually checked the building, or, if they did, Kaito would have had time to get out while the police mobilised from ‘Kid heist prep mode’ to ‘search for the possibly drowned thief’ mode.
Again, can’t speak for the bullet, but I really, really don’t think he ever made it to that water at all.)
What I really want to know is what happened in the twenty four hours after this scene.
Because I went through this frame by frame and the glider was nearly completely torn off his body. He was spinning, tumbling and free-falling. This was not a safe landing.
“Aha..ha… That was not fun… But if you don’t mind a theory, I can try to give an explanation that makes sense.”
First off, there are inconsistencies in the scene anyway. I’m nowhere near the water at that point, and yet dropped the box with the egg in it. Soo…”
“How could it end up here closer to the water for tantei-kun to see? With only the lid smashed and the egg perfectly fine laying up nice and pretty? You’re right, the frame of my glider was broken from the force of the bullet throwing the balance off, so I couldn’t have made it that far. Also”
“You see here that my monocle completely breaks in two. The frame and glass.”
“But just the glass is broken here. Hmm…”
“And this is what tantei-kun saw after the shot had been fired and my glider destroyed. And the figure moves perfectly steady here.”
“To actually try and explain all of this, I’m just going to use one picture.”
“This. That building there that I’m heading towards is right across from where Scorpion was aiming. You can see the bridge in this shot as well. …Can’t actually see the shooter, but I did later. It’s fairly obvious when there’s a lone figure standing in a completely empty area with no cars or people.
Anyway, that’s what I was gliding over when I was shot. And that’s where I landed. Not nearly as high of a fall, and very easy to survive with minimal damage. Luck? Perhaps, though getting shot at in the first place is never lucky… But from there, everything would have landed fairly close together. The dummy was sent off without anything, to make people think I had fallen somewhere else, and I had my dove take the egg and monocle down. I wish I’d had another method, since she had gotten injured slightly in the fall, but she could glide down safely enough.
So, not nearly as bad as you may think. Basically just got a sprained wrist, which wasn’t the most fun. Better than what could have happened. Most of the time was spent looking into how to get close to the egg again and make sure everyone else could be kept safe. Which led to research into Shiratori-keiji as well. Basically, everything was set up to make Scorpion believe I was dead/missing/injured and not be suspicious.”
Moonlight Archive 