drowning instead of fish, bcz Toichi died attempting an escape ala Houdini’s water torture cell, Black Org spiked the water with a prototype APTX4869. End result is the world remembers Toichi as an over-achiever who failed, and kaito’s self confidence is shattered by the fear his dad wasn’t as great as he thought he was…Until he found out it wasn’t Toichi’s fault that he died, and that changes everything for Kaito.

Ah, I probably should have just waited a bit longer, then. ^^;

A lot would probably make more sense to entirely change if the tone were never allowed to get silly like in the beginning. I personally don’t like to change the story much, but I do pass off the gag to serious as time passing for Kaito. His pervy and jerkish behaviour died down later as well, so I always take it as half a year or more passing since he started going out at night as Kid. It actually wouldn’t be that hard to pass off in an actual anime, the manga itself has him taking a break for three months because he had tests and a cold to deal with, and that was just between two of his heists. (Of course, when Hakuba came in, they also said he’d done three heists in a row before the one the chapter focused on. His schedule as Kid is pretty lax, so long as everything is set before Pandora. After Pandora, both of those would be problems with how much danger he could possibly get in at any heist.)

There doesn’t need to be many plot changes to account for everything, really, just the anime really shouldn’t have sped up the plot process. Even if it’s for gag comedy purposes, the early Kid chapters were him taking up the costume with no idea of what he’s doing. He only has the vague knowledge that his dad was killed for being Kid, so having Kid come back might bring them out. There wasn’t any plan before that, so the random shenanigans that happened make sense, even in a plot perspective. It’s him getting used to the job, and sometimes using it outside of purely stealing and dodging police. Yeah, from a anime perspective it might be risky, depending on what people expect from the series, or the possibility of it not drawing interest without the central plot, but from a plot perspective, it’s really not a problem.

I don’t know, I feel like it’d work perfectly fine for an anime as is, if it were updated slightly to match the times. Like they adapted the most unneeded chapter, Ghost Game, in the newest anime as the first half of Akako’s second major appearance. It was a silly, generic, ‘check out the rumours of ghosts in the school after closing but it turns out to be nothing’ high school chapter, but they still kept it over the other more interesting chapter that actually had more material to work with.

Hakuba’s whole deal with being brought against Kid was because his father thinks his head is getting too big from all the cases he did solve. He wasn’t brought to help because they needed him, he was brought over because his father wanted him to get brought down, and Kid gives the police trouble, so if Hakuba did catch him, good, if he doesn’t, well, lesson is being taught, then. He’s supposed to be arrogant, until he has to plan more on how to deal with Kid. Kaito needed to up his skills as more and more trouble for him started coming up, and it makes perfectly decent character development for everyone in the series. (Except Aoko, because with her, it’s more like we see more about her, but she hasn’t changed at all compared to the rest of the main cast.)

…So it’s mostly that fish phobia that’s strange and never explained, never used for any real reason, the rest of the story isn’t too bad. …Except the org looking for Pandora never checking on the Kuroba house, that really doesn’t make sense when they knew the original was Toichi. At the very least, ask people around the family for information that might lead them to who Kid might be.

Re: “Things just for laughs” in MK. Trust me as a long-time DCMK fan I know your pain! I just take everything about MK with a grain of salt, and remember at all times that Gosho obviously prefers his current style (serious Detective Conan) over his cartoony, gag-based style that he used when he first wrote Magic Kaitou. Personally I’ve always completely ignored the fish thing because of how little impact it’s ever had on the actual narrative lmao. (1/2)

(Since it says ½, I was waiting a while to see if anything else was sent, but since this doesn’t seem entirely left off, hope you don’t mind if I reply to it now.)

As someone who writes Kaito, I unfortunately can’t forget that little quirk of his… Too distinct of a detail to push out of mind. I mean, it would have an impact if Gosho ever decided to actually bring it out. It doesn’t have to be used for a gag, that sort of problem could make for an interesting heist or any situation where he has to push that discomfort aside so he can do whatever is needed at the time. Really… originally, Kaito didn’t want to step foot in the ocean until his life was at stake, then Kid’s first appearance in DC he has to hop off a boat to not get caught, and all that’s mentioned then is that he caught a cold afterward.

And it really is too bad the gag-based parts are pretty much gone. I’d be willing to bet that it’s because of the shift in style and tone that earlier manga chapters are still glossed over when it comes to adaptations. Keep the ones that an be fun and comedic, but still in line with the more dramatic and serious tone of the plot. ~~Robot, pirate, prime minister being ‘kidnapped’ might have other issues in putting it on TV, but still…~~ Both adaptations decided to get to the org quicker than the manga did, and I do feel like it’s because they feel the plot was needed to keep interest in the series, instead of the more episodic adventures of a teenage kaitou in general.

Re: Fish phobia. I always forget that Arsene Lupin is a vegetarian until I start reading a Lupin story again. It hit me the other day out of the blue– Wouldn’t it be funny if Gosho making Kaito hate fish was a joking reference to Lupin not eating meat? Fish is the main source of meat in the Japanese diet, and apparently if you don’t eat fish you’re considered pretty weird. “No fish” vegetarianism is associated with monks who want to eat without “taking life”, IIRC.

I had no idea Lupin was a vegetarian, but that could be! Depends on how much credit you want to give to Gosho for keeping that in mind. (Granted,he probably did look into Lupin in his ideas to make Kaito a phantom thief, so it’s not a bad theory. I just tend to be skeptical if it’s a level of detail thing vs happy coincidence.)

Only thing about Kaito’s phobia is it’s not diet related, and it really does seem to be played up for laughs, which is… okay? But it’d be nicer if it were brought up more seriously from time to time, else it really does give the impression of a throwaway gag, rather than something meaningful to the character. Even as a joke parody sort of thing for the habit, it doesn’t work too well. (Though lord knows how many stories/theories/headanons there are for why Kaito does hate fish enough to where even a picture of them can give him a shock.)