(Actually, as I’m doing these screenshots…. yes we want the robot for reasons, but we need the underwater pirate one. Why? Because it kills so many things people assume about Kaito. And gives an idea to how he views enemies in general.)

((Just gon’ keep the images big this time, btw.))

(Yes)

(Kaito is still afraid of fish.)

(But he doesn’t want any danger to happen around him just to get rid of them.)

(And not afraid to go interact with them if they can’t bother him.)

(He’s not helpless in the slightest. Sure, a ton of guys with guns is hard to deal with, or a ton of people in general that he might not want to hurt. But even without his card gun, he can defend himself. Look at him, his hands are in his freakin’ pockets here. And note he didn’t kick Silver in the face. He has the skill to, if he can aim so well as to just disarm him, so he probably could be a bit more violent if he wanted. Not saying he’d be excellent at hand to hand, but he should know enough to be able to fight people off.)

(He doesn’t have a problem aiming a real gun at people to use as a threat. Would he kill? No, most likely not. But his finger is on the trigger, so he’s prepared to shoot. If he had to.)

(I’ll admit, I just love this line, or any translation of. True, he has no option but to trust Silver right now, but that he’s confident enough to say it to the person who just tried to kill him and threaten Aoko says a lot. And means he’s capable of trusting even enemies.)

(And he really does need the help. He could do literally nothing due to not having enough air here. He didn’t save them. Or, you could argue he did, for encouraging Silver and saying he trusted him to begin with. But he himself was actually helpless to save them and needed to rely on the other here. How often do we actually get to see Kid not be able to do something on his own. Not to anything at all?)

(But people still wont always go along with him, even after helping. He doesn’t win everyone he meets over completely.)

(And)

(Similar to Conan)

(He can’t always save everyone. He can’t always help. Granted, Conan’s Moonlight Sonata case hit him harder than Silver sending Kid to safety and going down, but it’s still here. Also not as traumatising to Kid as Nightmare is later, but it’s still a good example that he’s not perfect and he doesn’t always win at everything. He tried to get through to Silver and save him, but failed. That it happened later with Nightmare, with the added hit of knowing Kenta, it was probably bigger because something like this would have happened already. They were similar, and Nightmare was far worse.

And I just really have feelings for the older chapters that the animations seem to try and avoid, really…)

(You know what I find funny? Basically everyone (myself included), likes to have Kaito going up to the rooftop to escape and use his glider, yet in the canon, he’s probably straight up jumped out of windows more often than he’s put in the effort to run up to the roof. :V

Something I noticed in screenshotting the manga, in the Iron Tanuki (opening the safe to get the dog), the anime puts him outside standing on the roof. The manga literally just has Kaito open a window and hop out.

We need to do this more.)

(Okay, one more post before I sleep.)

(Because I never really notice reading the first time that there are flashes of his glider cape setup aside from what we see when he’s in the air. :V (Only gone through DC appearances right now since it was faster.))

(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.)

(Okay… fluffy head ruffling aside… I wanted to get another post off of the ‘want to say about canon MK Kaito’ list. And it’s gonna be about how sucky his career has been. V: )

(Going in chapter order…

Ch 1: Stumbles into his dad’s secret room that’s been locked for eight years and finds the Kaitou Kid stuff. This wouldn’t seem bad, because hey, it’s his start to being Kid, but then you have to remember how high of regard he holds his father. Finding out the man may have been an international thief, a criminal, and never said anything to him would feel as awesome for him as it does us people watching this. And then when he goes to see who this Kid who recently started appearing is, a part of him is wondering if it might be his father… Which is quickly dashed when it turns out to be Jii, so there goes that hope. On top of that, he learns that his dad’s death from eight years ago wasn’t because of an accident, it was because he was murdered, and suddenly, he actually didn’t know his father as well as he thought he had. He does still decide to trust what his father was doing and follow in his footsteps, taking on the title of a well known criminal while he’s still in high school to bring out the same people who killed his father… Yep. Great start… Oh, and Aoko learning his fish weakness and messing with him with it, to add insult to injury.

Ch 2: One the one hand, easy heist to kick off his personal career (or at the very least, it’s one of his first one) with a fangirl who will just hand it over. One the other hand: First experience with getting shot at. By someone who’s supposed to be a cop, no less. And more clarification, the guy actually says: “I want to see you suffer” in the manga translation… And this chapter likely gives him that habit of keeping the jewels over the place people tend to shoot at most. Also has to start dealing with the fact that ‘Kid’ is the person who Aoko’s dad’s focused on the most and how much the man actually needs to be the one to catch the thief after so many years of failing. He clearly can’t actually let himself be caught, but Kaito is at least aware of how Kid is an integral part of Nakamori’s career, for better or worse. Go best friend’s dad needing to keep being the one to chase after and try to arrest you for him to keep his job?

Ch 3: *will have to refer you to here for full story, because dear lord* But for short: Robo Kaito. ‘Nuff said. And plus one gunshot to the shoulder.

Ch 4: Now he’s slipped up and Nakamori suspects him. One hit for being a supposed ‘master thief’. And then Aoko tries to defend him and prove his innocence… when he’s really not innocent. And then he has to lie and deceive both of these people, and while Kaito’s relation to Nakamori specifically isn’t really seen in the manga outside of ‘Aoko’s dad’, Aoko is the person we see who’s closest to Kaito. Add: Trouble and ton of guilt. And a dash of failing to do too well as a thief, since he messed up like that and put his identity in danger. Also, he should have definitely died when he bumped his head while being pulled by a rolled coaster. And then falling from who knows how high into the tent where Aoko was watching the movie. Dear lord, Kaito, comic or no, that looked like it hurt…

Ch 5: One: FIIIIIIIIIIISH. Everywhere. How the heck did Aoko talk you into scuba diving, Kaito? Fear aside, there’s also the fact they happen to get stuck with a pirate who tries to kill Kaito thrice. And Aoko once, because she found the underwater ship. It doesn’t even have to do with Kid, and yet his life still gets put in danger. They go underwater, he has to go in too because not wanting to get blown up by the bomb on the boat, finny things everywhere, gets threatened by Silver when he gets to the ship, Aoko gets threatened by Silver to keep Kaito from doing anything (And she’s unconscious, which is good, since he’s in the Kid outfit now so he can get down to business), trapped in the ship with the guy trying to kill them by a shark, decides to trust the guy and they get out only to have Silver actually try throwing the knife at him when his back was turned, and then he still tries to save Silver and instead is forced to leave when he boat starts going down, and having to watch Silver go down with it because he wouldn’t come with them. Conan has Moonlight Sonata, which is more psychologically hitting, but Kaito’s had someone he tried to save go and basically commit suicide by drowning themselves. And he was sent off too, to be saved, just to say. Only small glimmer of hope would be that the ship was a submarine, there’s a tiny chance- …Yeah, still probably not.

Ch 6: Witch classmate uses voodoo on him and tries to trap him into becoming her love slave via chocolate. And it all looked quite painful, I have to say. Blood coming from his mouth after being voodoo hit in the stomach and then from his head didn’t help much to make it look any better… Basically: Magic troubles and pain. And crazy witch, but that goes under magic troubles. And messing up and actually getting caught by police, but they were kinda freaked out by the sudden blood running down his face…

Ch 7: Crazy witch is now trying to get him using magic in a nicer way, at least… but is still creepy about it. Not actually too bad an experience for Kaito as a whole, just Akako trying to keep him and Aoko separate and failing, so just very fluffy. Nothing bad. Only pertinent thing would be Kaito learning about Aoko actually caring about him via hot spring eavesdropping.

Ch 8: First time his name is used for a crime he didn’t commit. In this case, kidnapping the Prime Minister of Japan. Perfect crime to be falsely accused of …Yeah, he not be happy with that sort of crime going on in his/his father’s name in the slightest, but everything gets resolved fairly easily. Hopefully. …Did the guy ever actually clarify to everyone that Kid never did anything? Also, that faith Nakamori has in Kid in DC doesn’t exist here, where he seems perfectly willing to accept, if not all that happily, that the thief has stolen a person. Jeeze…

Ch 9: Aside from almost falling straight down thirty or so floors up because the police cutting off his escape routes for random… Annoying robots chasing him and bringing the police to him without giving him any rest. Up all night and into the next day after holding a heist, having to stay in his Kid uniform because the cameras on the things would give away his identity if he took it off, he can’t go home, and he’s exhausted. Extended chase through a while night without sleep or even time to stop moving for more than a few minutes… Also: Never got to eat throughout this while chase. Filler chapter though it may be, and apparently not good enough to be animated, it sucks to be Kaito so, so bad in this one. And he had to resort to slightly more violent means through threatening, even if it was just small robots and he never actually went through with it. “Tremble in fear as your mind is mercilessly broken to bits” indeed… Damn you insane robot makers. This was basically torture.

Ch 10: Another Akako one, and this time, if he’s not going to be a slave, just try and kill him. Yeah. That’ll work… She sets Nakamori into trigger happy mode and she herself was almost prepared to cut Kid down herself. And even after she realised she did have a conscience, they both almost fell and he had to think quickly to save her. And he got a little scrapped up because of it, trying to fly through a metal tower, but eh. Not the worst that could have happened that heist.

Ch 11: All the fluff, minor hit to his name, but it disappears in all the fluff and good feelings. Nothing bad.

Ch 12: …Having rats swarming him because of some creepy guy? Yeah, not a really bad one here either. I mean, can’t have been fun, but it was far from actually affecting him much.

Ch 13: ~~Fish underwear.~~ But really. Again, being threatened with guns because he stumbled upon shady guys while trying to get Jii’s pool cue back and they didn’t actually want to hand it over. Really guys? Don’t want to give it to the teenager, so we’ll threaten to shoot everyone in the room. Great logic. And before that, he was about to lose the Blue Parrot for Jii, if he hadn’t already been set to cheat. But mostly the whole getting smacked in the back of the head with a pool cue and then having a gun aimed at him and being told he’d have to die because he found the secret weapons. ~~Selfish people being idiots and pulling the guns out in the first place because some kid beat them, I mean really Kai, do you have good luck or bad luck, I don’t even know…~~

Ch 14: He has a cold, finals, and his name is being used to cover for a crime he wasn’t doing yet again. On Christmas. Oh well, he got his revenge for that… More was sucking for Nakamori overall, but it’s all good in the end.

Ch 15: Hakuba~ Seriously though: Ice skating fails, and as the title goes ‘Enter the Great Detective’. Hakuba is the first major threat at catching him at a heist that’s happened in a while, because he’s actually been doing better dodging cops. And then the Brit comes in, sees through his tricks, cuts off all escape routes thus making him barely get away, and joy, the guy’s in his class… An actual enemy of Kid very close at hand that he does not want.

Ch 16: …Thus leading to ‘Nearby Enemy’. :V Hakuba seems interested in Aoko, Kaito doesn’t like it, they have a bet for the outcome of the heist, and he beats Hakuba one way, Hakuba one ups him in another, and end result is he does not get Aoko, end up being sent careening via balloon into a building, and ends up with at least a broken leg that can be seen in the manga. And a bandage around the head. Ow.

Ch 17: And for the last of the Hakuba intro triad of chapters, the detective… finds out he’s Kid. Has no completely definitive proof, but very much finds him out and cannot be dissuaded like Nakamori had been. Causes trouble, big threat to his career, almost going to be arrested… Thankfully Akako helped out, but still. For all intents and purposes, Hakuba’s fully convinced he’s Kid, and that alone isn’t good. It makes the first time (aside from Akako and witchcraft) that someone who has stuck around knows his identity. Added: Keep in mind he’s sleep deprived during this from doing consecutive heists. Reckless thief…. no wonder you did get caught like that…

Ch 18: Eh. Knocked out of the sky and scraped up and sore without actually getting his target. Not really bad, just not fun.

Ch 19: Oh, hey. Up close meeting with the guys who killed his dad finally. …And their guns… So there’s that mess, being shot at, knocked from the building only to survive, making them his enemy and vowing his more specific revenge personally now. He gains a more directed goal, but in the process, hurts Aoko because his job got in the way of being able to be there for her birthday party that he promised he’d be at. Kaito makes a recovery with quick thinking, but still. And plus more guilt from Aoko because this is when she said she outright cannot forgive Kid for what he does, especially making a fool of her father.

Ch 20: Nothing bad to see here, carry on. Just Kaito being a sweetie. Another person fairly sure of who he is, though doesn’t know his name and wouldn’t tell on him if she did, so… again, carry on.

Ch 21: Hmm… Snake. Really, nothing too bad happens directly to Kaito here, though someone does get dragged into his Pandora mess briefly with Phillip being used as a hostage. Card gun destroyed and he’s lucky there was a tunnel to help him out, though. And another person knowing his identity, though won’t tell people.

Ch 22: Eh, I count this as not too bad. More being threatened by Snake, a glancing gunshot wound to the arm, but overall, the guy was more easily dealt with this time, since Kaito had prepared for him. Maybe more hits to his name from the fake Kid, though.

Ch 23 & 24: Shinichi giving him trouble, but really, is all good in this one. Fun and fluff. Yesh.

Ch 25 & 26: Again, all good. Small reminder that Hakuba knows who he is, first challenge from another thief. By now, he’s doing a lot better than he was early in his career anyway, police are easier to deal with, most of his trouble is relatively minor and more worries about getting caught or losing than being injured or killed…

Ch 27 & 28: …Until Nightmare. Enter someone who comes in and traps Kid by threatening Jii right off the bat, making him do a crime he otherwise might not have attempted. Then he’s threatened at gunpoint later when he figures out who Nightmare is. But of course, the biggest hit is when he confronts Nightmare about the planner’s own career, because he’s seeing connections between himself and his father and the man and his son. …And when Nightmare slips, Kid tried to save him, only to have the guy quite literally slip through his fingers and fall to his death, and his son coming in soon after. Father child relationship broken, a death, because of him, and enter what should be huge guilt and psychological mess of having caused that. Might not have been by choice, but still.

Ch 29 & 30: He gets dragged into his mother’s mess this time. And he gets Aoko pulled into it too, because he disguised as her so much that the people being threatening this time think Nakamori is Kid because of how shamelessly often Kaito actually uses her as a disguise. More threatening at gunpoint, Aoko in danger, quick thinking to escape, mild panic when he’s falling from 250 M up and he’s got no lockpicks for the handcuffs…

Ch 31-33: Another challenge from a thief, one who seems to be heavily based on Kid, though they claim to be superior, and that they knew Toichi was killed. Most of this is… decently light. Some… minor things? Maybe… Hakuba still actually being trouble when he does show up, cold and ice still suck, Corbeau being a jerk overall, this, Kaito’s mom possibly having a boyfriend… Mostly that one thing and possible implications of Corbeau’s appearance in general. …Oh yeah, more being threatened by Snake as well. Almost wrote him off there. …Still pissed off with Corbeau, by the way…

Mostly: Sucks to be a newbie thief, he got better later, but then he got more challenging people to deal with as well. Mostly, it suprises me how much he actually does manage to keep under the mask of Kid and not let show. At least, for canon Kaito. Of course the rp Kaito’s are more aware of how much their lives have sucked in general.

Also, the timeframe pulls a lot into how bad it is for him as well. Conan has I-won’t-even-guess-how-many cases in between all his big danger and trauma. Conan’s biggest problem is keeping his secret from Ran and everyone, really. Kaito also has to try (and fail many times) to keep his identity hidden, lest he and everyone he knows gets put in danger, but he has to walk into that danger directly every time he does a heist. And deal with a ton of extra problems on top of that. And he’s still able to be kind and cheerful and help people when he can and I love this ~~very likely broken~~ child too much. *hugs the thief*)

(Yeah, wasn’t kidding when I said I would talk about the robo-Kaito incident. In all honesty, if thought about enough, it could be more traumatising that Nightmare. (And I’ll explain why I say that as well.))

(Okay, so, to start this off… the fact it wasn’t even Kid related. (Yeah, yeah, ‘Kid’ shows up literally right at the beginning of the chapter, but that’s not what I mean. I mean the premise for why the whole chapter is taking place to begin with.) The Ticking Heart, the Underwater Pirate Ship, Ghost Game. That’s it. The ones that didn’t start out with the main problem at a heist, someone suspecting him, or someone using the thief’s name with Kaito finding out.

But the Ticking Heart is the only one from those that, while it did start without Kid, used Kaito having a secret job to drive the story afterward. However… even then, I’d argue that it isn’t about the job itself so much as how Kaito viewed the situation.)

(Actual first off: he got friggin’ kidnapped. This is why I say it didn’t really have anything to do with Kid. Jeeze, he was walking to school (Not from school, only a day goes by and Aoko later says he hadn’t been at school the previous day, so…). No thief, no one out to get him, Kaito, as himself, just up and got taken away by some random and probably insane man. (And side notes, in the manga he doesn’t live alone. Chikage is still at the house and I do have to give a thought to how the robot acted at home… anyway.)

Also have to wonder if he was given food or anything, but for a day, I won’t worry too much over that. What should be noted is the fact that he didn’t even know why he’d been kidnapped up until that point, when the robot came in. Literally left there, tied up, for a day without any idea what was going on other than that the man had taken him and he was hooked up to some kind of machine. And for all the current day for the robot talking to him, no one would have seen him at all, since the robot maker had been killed the night before.

And the first thing he hears after something else comes in is that the robot that looks like him and has his memories killed the guy. Without batting an eye. This is the main thing I’m interested in, and something Kai doesn’t like thinking about when it comes to the robot. Even if you argue that a robot doesn’t have a soul and cannot feel, and doesn’t know right from wrong or full consequences… this one isn’t quite like most robots that have that happen. He has memories. A mind that should know about death and morals, or at the very least, the reason Kid exists.

Granted, at this point, it didn’t feel like it knew everything and was confused…

…But Kaito’s emotions and thoughts clearly came out before, though Kaito didn’t know that. It honestly believed, or wanted to believe it was human, but clearly missed the mark on morality and self restraint. Hmm…

After hearing about the other casually killing someone, the next thing he’s met with is this. The robot came in questioning why he has to be Kaito, but wanted more answers, and did this. …And it wasn’t until he had the rest of Kaito’s memories, that…

It decided it wanted to take Kaito’s place. Also, I’ve used that quote out of context before. The ‘a copy is just a copy’ one. …Well, mostly out of context. Yes, it was said here, but I used it with regards to Kid and Toichi, the previous Kid… And trust me, I’m looking into this, but it is something I believe Kaito has thought before. And the robot, immediately after getting more of Kaito’s mind, says no. He’ll surpass Kaito. That he’s not just a copy. And he’s proving it by becoming Kaito… Please say I’m not alone in the thinking it’s eerily similar to how Kaito is taking his dad’s place as Kid. Questioning it, looking for answers… But he got stuck on not thinking he was as good as his father. The robot has no restricting thoughts like inadequacy, just knows what it wants and how it thinks, and it knows it wants to be better than Kaito. Also, personality change there. After getting Kaito’s mind, it’s… not quite as innocent. Yeah it had killed someone, but it was quiet, thinking, questioning, confused… then to having a goal and jeeze he got confident quickly. He didn’t start acting with purposefully ill intentions until then. Would he have if he hadn’t? Would he have started acting out if he’d been out longer than a day? Who knows. What we do see is a definite change now, though.

…So can I hazard this theory that the robot showed Kaito’s darker side that he normally doesn’t show? Because it really seems like that to me, and I think Kaito himself was aware of that, to a degree. Kaito just has a ton of self control in that area. Not that it wouldn’t ever come out… But he has a lot of good to balance it out. He’s more caring, and has sentimentality that he pays attention to. When people talk about dreams, or promises, or he learns something that makes him feel for them in any way (usually involving family, this), he helps. The robot seemed to have missed that part. It focused on the ‘Kid’ part more, really, which probably skewed its way of thinking. Mentioning that he became Kid, immediately planning another heist, and making special mention that he would not only be Kaito, but Kid. The robot liked being Kid. It had a will to live, and no one to command it anymore, and honestly, it hadn’t taken command all that well in the first place…

…Like, at all… I… don’t think it liked that restriction… Just like normal Kaito wouldn’t.

Just… robo Kaito is Kaito… without anything holding him back. The psycho Kaito people are so afraid to see, but want to see. We’ve seen him. The manga readers, anyway.

Seriously, it’s this robot.

Doing…

…anything…

…to get…

…what he wants. Without a care for morality.

And if that idea wasn’t bad enough…

What ultimately brought the robot down wasn’t really Kaito outsmarting it. …Not entirely…

It more… Kaito had to consider his own weaknesses that the robot would have gotten. In this case…

That overconfidence. I can shoot faster, and first, wherever you aim.

And sticking to that cockiness ultimately is what killed him. Yes, some outsmarting, either that or a ton of luck for that to have worked without Kaito getting a card in his own head… because he did pull that trigger. If the robot had caught on, managed to stop from shooting himself… I’m fully confident it would have killed Kaito. Shooting himself was his last resort…

…And then after all of that…

After it had thought it had taken over Kaito’s life up until Kid showed up… had it not felt human until just then? When it was about to die? …“Once a human is dead, he can’t be repaired.” Continuously saying it was Kaito, calling Kaito himself the false one, the robot, fighting to take over someone else’s life… but it didn’t feel alive until it was broken beyond repair and it lost everything. And just to point out, that last little bit over the eye is the last part of it that looks like Kaito. Everything else was the endoskeleton. When it was itself more than someone else…

Am I looking too far into it? Probably. But I do think the robot screwed up Kaito’s mind more because it had his mind than most of the other experiences he’s had. Yes, Nightmare probably hurt him as well, hitting so close to home with Kenta’s and Jack’s relationship and having someone’s life literally slip though his fingers… But I think he’d be more scared of what he could become over another life he failed to save. That death was closer to one he could have successfully stopped, but… the robot is a unique, disturbing, and terrifying experience. Even if you don’t go into mental implications: He was kidnapped, had something that shared his face outright murder someone, hear the thing saying it would become him, then almost killed him in an explosion, and nearly killed him again when he went to stop it at the heist.

And probably shouldn’t forget that, even with its face being torn off, it’s still saying Kaito is the fake one. I’m sure that’s a lovely image for Kaito to have…

…In short, overthink it, or just look at what was given, it’s still a very potentially traumatising event for Kaito, and it deserves to be seen, dammit animators. >:V (All chapters deserve it, and heck, they even did a version of Ghost Game, which I doubt anyone expected. Give us this robot!) )

Hi! I was reading your post earlier about Kaito’s motive being revenge, and while I agree, I’m almost certain he said at some point his motive was a little different nowadays and more widespread. I can’t for the life of me remember since I re-watched a lot yesterday, but does anything come to mind? It’s been bugging me all day! ;;

(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.)

(Hmm… Was looking through MK chapters, and I did notice this in the anime, but always fail to mention it. So while I’m in a rambly mood, might as well do it now.

I love how the anime sorta dances over why Kaito choose to stay as Kid. Yes, yes, they have him say he wants to know who killed his dad. May just be the translation, but I mean…

Honestly, yes, the quality of this leaves a lot to be desired in general, but… I could see Kaito being genuinely angry enough to think this.

~~And does this look like the face of mercy to you?~~ I mean… *cough* That could just be a determined face… but it honestly feels a bit darker than that to me.

Either way, I do think he’s out for revenge. Was, is, just went from ‘make them pay’ to ‘destroy the thing they’re looking for’ specifically.

Which makes me think about the nature of the two Kids.

On the one hand, we have Toichi. A skilled magician who became a thief to take the spotlight from Phantom Lady and give her a chance to retire (and marry him). It’s never said exactly how he came to be involved in the whole Pandora business, but Snake said they’d warned him away once. So I imagine it to be similar to how Kaito came across them. Whether Toichi knew what he was getting into when he stole a jewel that caught their attention or not… *shrugs*

And honestly, the fact that the organisation is warning Kid (Kaito) again, completely thinking he’s still Toichi, makes me think they really didn’t encounter Toichi all that often, or at the very least, not to where they actually believed him to be a threat. Possibly learning his identity somehow the first time they saw him, even, to feel confident enough that just a warning would be necessary to get him to stop. If Toichi had caused them a lot of trouble, I doubt they’d be so nice as to caution him.

Anyway, we don’t know too much about Toichi as Kid, aside from his first appearance as a thief in France and the story from Shinichi’s childhood. But they do act differently. Toichi was older when he started, and knew some of what he was getting into, and was just as quick at thinking on his feet as his son. The biggest difference between the two really is just experience and, yes, Poker Face. What little we see of him as Kid, his confident smile never budges an inch. Aside from maybe one panel where he looked serious.

And then there’s Kaito, who, much as he tries otherwise, doesn’t have as steady of confidence. He got thrown into it by his curiosity, because of finding the secret room his father had kept locked for eight years. Then stayed because he wanted revenge, on an enemy he didn’t even know. Everything about how the second Kid started his job was filled with questions and uncertainty. And it probably made his faith in his father waver a bit as well.

Kaito obviously loved and respected his father. So, to consider that the man he looked up to might be an international thief….

Very high chance the image of Toichi was shaken quite a bit.

Though he did still stand by his dad in the end… it couldn’t have been the easiest decision he ever made. Getting a ton of information dropped on him, shaking one of his foundations, stepping into the world of a phantom thief… There’s a reason this Kid isn’t quite as sure, makes mistakes, has to build the poker face, and loses it far more easily than he might like.

And on a more off-canon note, this is why my Kaito is actually fairly unstable and borderline split-personality. Regardless of how well a job he does manage to do, and how easily he passes it off, this is too much for a high schooler whose only possible means of support is the assistant to his father who pulled him into this whole thing to begin with, and his mother who, even if he accepts the fact that she used to be a thief as well, is hardly ever actually around. Calls can only go so far. It’s a lot of pressure, evading both the oraganisation, the police, other random people out to harm Kid and hide his secrets from those around him, his best friend, her father, and the detective who is in his class who already suspects him of being Kid entirely.

I… just… I think a bit too much about how Toichi’s base for Kid was full of confidence, experience, and love, while Kaito’s was full of uncertainty and hate for the ones who killed his father.

So… I guess what I’m trying to say is… it annoys me just a tad when the anime tries to keep more with Kaito’s more loved image, the one that started the ‘no one gets hurt’ fandom policy and, though he makes a lot of mistakes, is still not as dark as Magic Kaito actually feels in the manga.)

(Oh dear lord. I glanced through the Star War chapter of Magic Kaito again and… I definitely need to refresh myself on the manga. I thought I had a pretty good memory for the chapters that haven’t been animated yet, but…

Kaito, what?

What are you even??

What?? Why didn’t I remember him blowing up the tree and making fall and crush the building owned by the person trying to misuse Kid’s name to profit? I know he doesn’t actually have a no one gets hurt policy and that he was more reckless in the earlier chapters, and that store may have been empty, but… damn… Kai there were people very close to the tree… And while I could be convinced no one was in the building (possibly, because Christmas), doesn’t mean people weren’t in front of the store…

…As it is MK, I assume no one was severely injured or killed, but…

Not so strange he’d be dangerous as a psycho now, is it? This is what he does without actively trying to harm people…)