(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.)