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magicianjay · 7 years

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Magic Kaito, chapter 4 commentary.

I love both the anime and the MK special adaptations of this chapter, and overall this chapter is definitely in my top 4 favourite chapters of MK. I would have said top 3, but I really fell in love with the Robo-Kaito chapter last time. (RIP, murderous robot. You're missed.)

Kaito cutting the glass out of the window there reminds me of the scene with him cutting glass out in Nonchalant Lupin (the MK prototype), except that here Kaito is looking so smug. I love it. The art quality is already so much better.

THAT GRIN. Kaito seems to be turning into his own caricatures of Kid. Serious manga illness, very tragic story.

I do like that his watch can double as a bright light to stun people.

I've read various things in fanfics where they mention that Kaito wears a subtle face mask or make-up as Kid to slightly alter the shape of his face so he can't be recognised, but although it would make sense, it's obviously not the reality going by this chapter. MK is a silly manga, and it's operating in the space in-between poking fun at paper thin costumes and then promptly forgetting all about it later on at the author's convenience. In a different series I'm not sure that Nakamori would have recognised Kaito in the first place.

Anyway, Nakamori's skills as a detective would have to be dire indeed if he hadn't recognised Kaito, so thank goodness he could.

The scene added into the 1412 anime featuring Kaito eating dinner with Nakamori family after that heist was a great addition, in my opinion. I loved Nakamori's suspicious staring at him, and the spluttering when Aoko covered the right side of Kaito's face.

Aoko is such a sweetheart. She's so protective of Kaito that she was willing to take the inevitable massive embarrassment of asking him on a date. And she gets straight to the point, making it sound like a demand. Her body language and her tone convey her determination very well.

So Kaito reacts by needing Aoko to repeat what she said at least once, then asking if it's a joke, then by insulting her but blushing intensely...And, although it's clear that he was just spitting that insult out because the situation was awkward, it's just as clear that Aoko believed it.

It's really too bad. The way that Aoko and Kaito interact with each other sometimes involves banter and insults and maximum tsundere, and that is the kind of insult they would fling at each other, but some of it hits Aoko right in the self-esteem issues.

Aoko and Kaito's dynamic varies a lot. They don't always bicker, but when they do, sometimes that's just their own way of playing and having fun together, and I like that they feel comfortable enough with each other to play rough and be a bratty duo with a lot of back and forth.

But some of the time they're quarrelling more seriously, or genuinely being jerks, or they're falling into a pattern of squabbling from force of habit, and although they seem to forget about it or forgive each other pretty quickly (or to get even quickly, as with Aoko and the fish in chapter one) their insults do seem to sting each other, and they also sometimes seem to sting in ways that weren't even intended. For example, Kaito in chapter one was bothered by Aoko's slight to his magic, and by extension to his dad's magic, even though Aoko probably never intended the latter. And in the current scene I don't think for a moment that Kaito would really want Aoko to think she's ugly. Same as Aoko in a later chapter wouldn't want Kaito to really feel like a cockroach of a human being, even though she did compare him to a cockroach.

So Aoko thinks that she's unattractive and that nobody would want to date her. That bites. An alternative interpretation would be that she just thinks that's solely Kaito's view, and she's resigned to that, and this upsets her because of course, who wants their BFF/love interest to think that about them? That makes sense, but I'm not sure if that could explain everything. She's too quick so accept what he said there as the truth, and then there's also some stuff later on in the series, specifically in the skiing chapter, where she definitely has other self-esteem issues too. I'm interested in this, so I'll try to keep an eye out for anything further that points either way.

Kaito starts taking Aoko's request seriously once she gets teary, so there are good odds that he thought she was just messing with him before and her reaction just then finally convinced him of her sincerity. Or could be that she was so cute there he couldn't say no. Though I can't say that tears suit Aoko at all...

Kaito: so flustered about this that he can't even look Aoko in the face as he says yes, and has to look away shyly. At this point that he doesn't know what Aoko's ulterior motive is, so yeah, he's saying yes to being asked on what he thinks is a real date.

Aoko is so pleased that she's achieved victory in her quest, and her reaction is incredibly cute. Also: way to go, Aoko, in getting Kaito to agree BEFORE she set the day so that he couldn't back out. I don't know if she planned that in advance or on the spot, but either way it was crafty.

I'm really impressed by Aoko in this scene, for how hard she went for her target and how she didn't let her embarrassment get in her way. And this is no minor hurdle, because if Aoko and Kaito already had enough nerve and maturity to risk this kind of embarrassment and potential mockery and rejection from each other for just their own sake, they might already have been a couple by now. But Aoko was able to get over it straight away because she was so desperate to prove Kaito's innocence and protect him from the danger of being suspected. Now that's a great and loyal friend.

This whole scene is all pretty weird given that last chapter Robo-Kaito confessed to Aoko, so she shouldn't even be thinking that Kaito would refuse her in the first place, let alone think that he believes nobody would want to date her, but oh well, this manga is not a marvel of coherent continuity.

It's also strange that Keiko is surprised and baffled at the idea of Aoko and Kaito maybe dating, when last chapter she was throwing a party for them with a “congratulations on your wedding!” sign...

Well, either it's a classroom of trolls, or we just need to keep mourning the series' continuity. Maybe both.

Threat to BFF: detected. Aoko looks so apprehensive there, when just a moment or two before she was laughing and playfully elbowing her dad.

Nakamori's reaction to seeing Kaito's face isn't entirely consistent with his behaviour later in the series. Chapter 1, he's overjoyed that the Kaitou Kid he spent so long chasing isn't dead after all. Here, he sees Kaito's face and instantly believes that he must be Kid. But later on when Hakuba's analysis says that the Kid is a high school boy, Nakamori won't believe a word of it because it's impossible for Kid to be that young.

Maybe we could rationalise it and say that the evidence from Nakamori's own eyes was too strong for him to be able to ignore it, and that after Kaito tricking him later on in this chapter, Nakamori was able to resume happily latching on to the idea of Kid being the same person all along. But for someone who's deeply invested in Kid being someone older, Nakamori certainly took the idea of it being Kaito calmly.

One thing I like is that Nakamori never doubts that Kaito's bright enough to pull off being Kid. Seeing his face and knowing Kaito's a magician is enough for him here. I doubt Gosho actually intended to make this kind of point, but I can't help comparing this to Hakuba's initial dismissal of Kaito as just an idiot. Nakamori never thinks Kaito's stupid! Of course, he's had the advantage of knowing Kaito for a long time.

I like the way that Aoko's face was shadowed there, leading into the next panel where...

Aoko actually flips out once she realises Nakamori is serious. She thought quickly, too, with that lie.

If Nakamori were to ever catch Kid and send him to prison, I have no doubts his home life would become an instant living hell. Not that Aoko wouldn't be angry at Kaito too, but Nakamori should not ever be wanting to be the guy responsible for jailing him. It'd wreck their family. I would like to pretend that his stunned expression there is a feeling of impending doom, but he's just shocked by Aoko's vehemence.

The 1412 anime adaptation of this scene is a real disappointment because it doesn't show Aoko dramatically stomping her foot on the table. Aoko got shortchanged there. If you've got a dynamic character who does things like that, why on earth would you swap it out for a scene where she just stands there?

That feeling when a panel or two ago you were passionately defending your friend's innocence and moral fibre, and then they get caught being shifty as hell. And Kaito even admits to those girls that he's the culprit, and has the nerve to blame them...like he did in chapter 1 when he blamed Aoko for falling for his magic trick.

Kaito goes around at school unrepentently picking locks, playing magic tricks and pranks, using a card gun, and occasionally laying on charm very thickly and manipulatively, plus he's also placed disguises on people at least once. He might as well go around holding a Hi! I'm the Kaitou Kid! sign.

The prototype Kaito in Nonchalant Lupin actually was well-known at his school for being a master of disguise, but I have to wonder whether MK Kaito ever made a habit of it. On the one hand, it would be ridiculously suspicious. On the other hand, Kaito already is ridiculously suspicious, and early-series MK is nuts. If Gosho ever did intend for Kaito to have a history of going wild with disguises before he was Kid, he's unlikely to ever show it now.

Aoko looks so down while she's waiting for Kaito to arrive and he's late. I wonder if she was running over suspicions in her head? At the least, she had to be wondering if he wasn't going to show up and her plan to clear him would fail.

I'd like to know why Kaito was late. Was he staring at his wardrobe and trying to pick out the best and coolest outfit he could? Because, uh...if he was, it didn't work. Or maybe he was preparing for the heist. Or maybe he was freaking out about the possibility of Aoko working out that he's Kid.

Nakamori would be happy to know that he's being taken this seriously!

Damn, Kaito, those tsundere levels are off the charts. When I got into MK I scoured the internet for everything I could find about the series, and it was so weird how often Aoko got called a tsundere and yet many people didn't say the same about Kaito. And yet just look at this guy.

I wonder how many shipfics with Kaito in just take their ideas from Kaito's characterisation in Detective Conan and play up the whole suave thief angle while forgetting how much of that is an act and what a dorky tsundere he really is?

I'm not saying Aoko isn't tsundere too. She is! Their tsundere levels are feeding off each other in some kind of ouroboros.

Aoko smiling and dragging Kaito off suddenly by the arm is the cutest thing. She looks so happy in those panels.

But the date does not go well. It's interesting because if you look at Aoko and Kaito's respective behaviour on the date so far in isolation, without knowing what the characters are like, you'd think that Aoko was behaving perfectly normally and Kaito was being a jerk. To be fair, Kaito IS being a jerk. But what wouldn't be immediately apparent is that Aoko is being wildly out of character.

Up until this point in the date, she's just been putting up with Kaito being a jerk to her, and responding to that in a subdued way, going "Oh..." looking uncomfortable and embarrassed. That's not the usual Aoko! So why was she acting this way? The most likely interpretation is that she's trying to act the way that she thinks a stereotypical girl on a date "should" act - being all tolerant and forcing positivity and enthusiasm about everything, and going all "kyaaa!" in the haunted house. This was a strange and deeply awkward situation for her, since after all, she did invite Kaito out on a date-date even if it was actually a trick to clear his name. Maybe the fact the date was a trick was even what made her feel she had to act this way. How could she even act like her normal self in this situation? Her motive was to determinedly Be On A Date with Kaito to establish his innocence. So she tried as hard as she could to be the image she had of a girl on a date.

But Kaito was not having any of this. He took the jerk route of dealing with Aoko's out-of-character behaviour, definitely, but credit where credit is due, he was not happy with Aoko acting all fake and stereotypical-girl-on-a-date, and wanted to spend time with an uninhibited Aoko who felt free to be herself. He could have, y'know, just said this straight away without first being as disagreeable as possible in order to make his point, but oh well.

And so then Aoko finally relaxes and they start being brats having fun together and have a great day. It's cute! Their date doesn't look like a stereotypical date, but why should they have to conform to a stereotype which doesn't fit them? Which was probably Kaito's point.

Aoko clocks Kaito here, and it's much the same in the MK specials, but in the 1412 anime it's replaced with a forehead flick, and Kaito doesn't run after her or shake his own fist or anything in response. I wonder why? I would guess that the 1412 anime wanted to take out violence, but then...this is the same anime which changed things in ep 1 so that Kaito actually got hit by the furniture Aoko threw, unlike in the manga. Maybe it was just because the anime ended that scene on a pretty frame with Aoko happily running ahead and Kaito standing still, and you can't have both that and a scene with a grumpy just-punched Kaito running right after Aoko and complaining like the specials did. I'd say the MK specials adapted it better here, but the 1412 scene was so pretty that I like both versions.

Kaito looks so shifty there as he tries to make his exit.

And Aoko has come prepared with handcuffs. Presumably she nicked them from her dad. Theft: it's okay if it's for a good cause. She may have been thinking to herself that she trusts Kaito, but she still brought cuffs to make sure, rather than taking it on faith. Well...given her conflicted expressions earlier and the way he looked suspicious in class, she must have had some level of suspicion of him of her own. But if she didn't keep Kaito with her the whole time, she wouldn't be able to prove to Nakamori that he couldn't be Kid, so it makes perfect sense anyway.

I like the way that she doesn't explain it to him! She apologises and tells him to stay put a while longer, and looks very, very slightly awkward as she does that, but then she moves on to talking about the film and acting as if suddenly handcuffing yourself to your date is totally normal and requires no further comment. It really does seem as if she doesn't expect Kaito to kick up a fuss. Now I want to know about all the pre-canon shenannigans that Aoko's pulled in this friendship. It's hard to look at this scene and think that surprises only go from Kaito to Aoko.

In the manga here, Kaito had a convenient detachable arm that he tricked Aoko into putting the cuff on, and it's the same in the MK specials, but in the 1412 anime, he just frees his arm from the cuff. The inflatable Kaito-doll is made less completely ridiculous-looking in the anime, as compared to the jelly monster lookalike from the manga and specials.

Kaitou Kid: the very image of phantom thievery at its finest, stealthiest and most elegant. Nobody will notice him as he sneaks away to the crime scene!

Jii is not in the manga for this chapter, but he's added in to both of the adaptations. In the specials, he shows up in a car to pick Kaito up from the theme park (and the car breaks down on the way back), and in 1412, he's in the cinema in the seat behind the Kaito-doll and moving it a bit.

Nakamori de-hatting Kid count: #01. Good luck.

I love Kaito for his Aoko disguise there. Great way to put Nakamori off his trail and explain why he saw Kaito before. It's also interesting in retrospect because of a scene later on in the series where another character may or may not have used a similar trick on Kaito.

The MK specials version of this scene messed it up badly, in my opinion, by making the person Kid is shockingly disguised as be Inspector Nakamori himself, then cycling through various other people before reaching the Aoko disguise. Regardless, the Aoko voice actresses in both anime adaptations did a great job of mimicking Kid.

Dear god, Aoko, you were originally created as a detective character but you're fooled by inflatable jelly Kaito.

If we ever needed proof that Kaito's judgement has always been suspect, here we have him deciding to save time by riding on the side of a rollercoaster. And if we ever needed proof that this is a gag manga, here we have him surviving being hit on the head and falling off the coaster from a great height...

(There's always the alternative interpretation that he survives because he's secretly actually Robo-Kaito version 2. I love Magic Kaito so, so much for being a canon where things like that could be plausible.)

Kaito got really jumpy there when he heard Nakamori's voice over the TV, huh. At little moments like this when somebody (or just their voice) is behind him when he wasn't expecting it, he panics. Maybe he usually feels confident he won't be caught, and I'm sure he's not the type to ever lose sleep worrying, but he certainly is nervous when he's surprised.

Aoko's relief there about Kaito being just Kaito after all is interesting and I'll get back to that in a minute.

(I switched to the other scanlations for this one panel, since I think it has the better translation for this bit.)

It's sweet how touched Kaito was by Aoko's attempt to prove his innocence. She really did try her best for him, so it's nice that her effort actually was understood and appreciated. Too bad for her that her trust was misplaced, but still.

I would have liked to include the manga panel for the bit directly after this too, but I think the anime subtitles for this were clearer than either of the two scanlated versions I have available, so I'll just quote from that.

Aoko: Here. I got you your favorite ice cream.

Kaito: Don't do stuff like that. It's not like you!

Aoko: Even if it's unusual, I'm still me.

Doesn't that apply very neatly to Kaito being Kid?

The main themes surrounding Aoko and Kaito's interactions in this chapter seemed to be ones of identity and fear of change. They essentially have similar worries about each other.

Aoko was worried that Kaito was hiding something, and wasn't the Kaito she was used to, and was relieved when she'd "proved" that he was still himself. Kaito wanted Aoko to be herself, but then at the end he took it too far, to the point where he was constraining her instead by insisting on the status quo, and she had to correct him.

This ended up being a chapter about how you should be true to yourself and shouldn't force yourself to be someone you're not just because you feel it's what's expected of you, but how you're still the same person even if you don't always act the same way.

Kaito definitely paid attention to Aoko saying she was still herself. I think he found it reassuring – that they could change or their dynamic could alter without them losing the other one. Regardless, that seems to be what encouraged him to say that ridiculously cheesy "But ice cream is sweet" line after Aoko said he was being as cold as ice cream.

Given what the Robo-Kaito said last chapter about how he had the urge to give Aoko the cold shoulder because he loves her, it's nice to see the real Kaito managing to get over being cold, just for a few seconds.

The 1412 anime did a good thing in having Chikage laughing uproariously and mocking the hell out of Kaito over that ultra-cheesy line! (Since Aoko told her about it.) A line like that should not go unlaughed at.

#magic kaito

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magicianjay · 7 years

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Detective Conan, chapter 15 commentary.

...Okay, I forgive this guy his questionable fashion choices. He had a reason to wear those sunglasses.

Ran's still the only person taking this case seriously. Kogoro and Conan both laughed. Sorry Ran, this series is partly a comedy despite the constant murders.

I can't believe that after deciding that the other detective's client probably murdered Masami, Kogoro eventually derails the conversation into one of schooling him on how to be a great detective. Kogoro, man...

Ran and Kogoro just let 6-year-old Conan wander off anywhere, it seems.

Huh, I hadn't realised properly before that this was so firmly one of Conan's flaws, but it is. Agasa is right. He even explains it, though the way he explains it seems a little inconsistent. At first he's criticising Conan for getting irrational and impatient and acting as if hurrying will lead to better results when it won't. But then he chides him for being reckless, underestimating his opponents and jumping in on his own. Those are a little different from each other, but it seems they're both true.

Seeing those flaws spelt out makes me like Conan/Shinichi more. It’s nice when a character’s got clear potential for growth.

Slightly contrite Conan is adorable.

Nicely done, Agasa, suggesting Conan should try to be like Holmes! Agasa does know how to handle him. And so in other words, Conan is prone to losing his cool and getting sloppy in his work.

Conan gets back, and Kogoro and the other detective are doing detective training...with Kogoro helpfully giving that guy coaching on how to jab his arm out properly...

Looking at this scene, I'm unsure whether I should declare Kogoro the best character in the series, or the worst. Currently leaning towards best! But no wonder Conan thinks they'd be useless. How, indeed, is Conan supposed to rely on Kogoro and use him in order to not rush into danger alone when Kogoro is frequently this useless? And that's what Conan tried to say to Agasa earlier, pretty much.

Going by the content of the series so far, the obvious answer would seem to be that he should be relying on Ran instead. All of the things we've seen Conan getting into trouble with so far have been things where Ran could have prevented things from going wrong if she'd been there. Yet, Conan doesn't even consider Ran as an option. The only one that he considers (and discards) is Kogoro. To me, at this point the series seems to be deliberately, obviously telegraphing that relying more on Ran is what Conan needs to do and that he's going to have character development towards doing that and towards not underestimating her.

But...everything I've heard about later-series Detective Conan suggests that the series does not follow through on this. It's not going to happen, is it? It's baffling. I suppose I'll have to blame that on how long and stretched out the series became, as that's the kind of thing which can sabotage a character arc. Or it's that I'm misreading the author's intentions from the start.

I'm really surprised that Ran, who was so motivated for them to save Masami, has been letting them mess around with this for all the time Conan was out. Perhaps she's just given up on them ever being useful. No wonder she makes them go along with Conan's suggestion.

Not suspicious or anyone we've seen before in this case, nope nope.

One thing I really like about Kogoro in this series is that he rings the police ASAP when a body's found. It's at least a baseline of competence.

#detective conan

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magicianjay · 7 years

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Just going to have a quick ramble about chapter 34 of Magic Kaito, before many more details of chapter 35 come out.

I’m super curious about who exactly just captured Kid. Obviously the chief priest was in on it, whatever it was, because she couldn’t have looked more suspicious if she tried. The “if you want to know the truth, make it out of here” card left in the locked room suggests that things aren’t going to be simple.

It could be:

The unknown enemy organisation finally stepping into the plot properly

Arguments in favour of this: whoever it was wasn’t connected to the police’s plan to catch Kid.

Arguments against this: wouldn’t they rather just kill him? No need for them to set up a room like that. And why leave a card talking about the truth?

Someone connected to Tōichi, testing whether to reveal info to Kaito

Arguments in favour of this: it wouldn’t be a surprise if there’s a lot we still haven’t heard about Tōichi’s history as Kid. Maybe there’s something dangerous. And Tōichi must have known a lot of people. The head priest could easily have been somebody in disguise.

Arguments against this: given that chapters 31-33 were about Corbeau and Chikage testing Kaito during hesits, if it were to turn out to be them again, that would be awfully repetitive.

Someone connected to the Pandora gem

Arguments in favour of this: anybody who knows about Pandora and about Kid’s stealing habits would know exactly what he was doing when he stole gems and checked them. Maybe they would want to test him, share info, or ask for his help.

Arguments against this: ...hmm, not so many that I can think of. If they didn’t know Kaito’s real identity, they would have no choice but to try to contact him during a heist. But the whole set-up is strange anyway.

#magic kaito #magic kaito spoilers

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magicianjay · 7 years

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Back from hiatus

I've been entirely gone from Tumblr for over a year, for a bunch of reasons which started with me going on holiday without internet access for a couple of weeks, then ended up with inertia. ^^; But I'm back from the abyss of non-posting now, and hopefully for the long run, because finding out that there were new chapters of Magic Kaito out really lit a fire under me. I'll have to try to catch up on what's been going on while I've been away, and remember how to use Tumblr again.

I'm so excited about the new chapters! I've never been around for a new chapter of MK before. I'll probably burst if I don't talk as much as I want to about the new content.

So, I'm planning to just resume this blog and my read-throughs of Magic Kaito and Detective Conan right where I left off, but I'm also going to be talking about the new chapters a bit. I'll be tagging every post which includes spoilers for the new chapters (chapters 34+) with "Magic Kaito spoilers".

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magicianjay · 8 years

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Detective Conan, chapters 13 and 14 commentary

Chapter 13:

As if Shinichi wouldn't gleefully investigate those crimes if he had the chance. Looks as if maybe he's thinking of them in the sense of "my work keeps piling up!".

More gadgets, joy. Actually, I prefer the criminal-pursuing glasses to some of the others. It's a decent gadget for the purposes of being sneaky, and as a 6-year-old secret detective, Conan should be trying for that sort of thing.

This from the kid who said "everything you make is utter crap" to Agasa in chapter 2. How quickly his opinion's changed!

I do find it interesting as a possible sign of Shinichi adapting to his situation. I wonder if maybe Shinichi used to look down on the idea of relying on gadgets in his detective work? It could fit in with his attitude towards Ran saving him in chapter 5 ("it's not supposed to go like that"), where he seemed to object to being saved from a narrative point of view. His idea of being a detective was a very glorious, idealised and dramatic one, so perhaps relying on sneaky gadgets or upon other people would be a detriment to the kind of image he wanted to project?

Bet that now I've said this that later on there'll be a flashback case and Shinichi will be all gadgetsgadgetsgadgets yay! How I love to regularly use gadgets! there. It IS entirely plausible that he really did only not want to use Agasa's gadgets because they sucked, and the reason he's using them now is because as Conan he's sufficiently desperate that he'll take anything that might help. And it does seem to be that Agasa mysteriously and suddenly started making useful things the very second that Shinichi began to truly need them.

And now Kogoro's got a new case. I can remember the plot of this one, so oh well, no guessing for me.

So he's not good at that side of detective work, huh. I suppose he is into the flashier side of things which requires deductions rather than hard slog. At least he realises that his new gadget could be useful for searches.

That reminds me that the detective Aoko Holmes in the oneshot manga which Magic Kaito was based on seemed to be especially good at searching for things, or at least especially willing to spend time on that as long as it helped people, even if it wasn't glorious. Really a different attitude to being a detective from Shinichi's. I'd like to see Shinichi meet MK Aoko, but given that she was originally based on Sherlock Holmes, I'd be a little worried that he'd detect this somehow and they'd elope together or something!

Ran looks really cute getting tea for Kogoro and his client. She won't have had to bring tea for clients like this often, given how slow their business has been until Conan came along.

But good grief, Conan's clumsy. Still not used to his size?

Awww, such faith in Kogoro. Possibly undeserved faith, but faith nonethless! I hope Kogoro realises how lucky he is to have a daughter like Ran. If Detective Conan does not deliver on father-daughter bonding at some point during the series, I'll be grumpy. It has over 900 chapters: there's no excuse for failing to include some.

As the next page shows, Ran's faith ISN'T really undeserved. Kogoro is an ex-policeman, after all, and he puts in the hard yard to check everywhere he can think of to find the man the client's looking for. He seems to be doing thorough work, and by the looks of it he's also utilising police connections. And last story arc, he showed that he does have some aptitude as a detective. He's not a genius, but he ought to have the capcity to be at least a decent private detective. Why has he been so unsuccessful until now? It has to be either a string of bad luck, or his drinking habit, or both. I'd like to know if the drinking habit was a symptom or a cause.

Yes, yes you are, apparently! Much laughter at Ran picking up the correct hypothesis from the ones that Conan had discarded. And then, after that, she manages to pick the target out of the huge crowd. Kogoro and Conan deserve to be looking shocked like this, after going around mentally badmouthing Ran's idea.

Ran is supposed to have only normal levels of detective ability, but she does also have invincible luck, right? Or so the fandom's told me. Maybe this time was a fluke, but if Ran ever really wanted to be a detective (which admtitedly I doubt she ever will) then there would have to be some way of harnessing that luck to work for her. If she resorted to putting all suspects' names in hats and pulling one out, she probably would get the culprit's name every time. She could drive all of the other detectives utterly mad.

Is there some sort of unwritten rule in Beika that shifty people have to dress this way? Do they all buy their clothes from a Scheming Fashion shop?

Chapter 14:

Ran's conscientious, to be trying so hard to make a follow-through call to the former client.

And here we have another example of Ran following her intuition and dashing off to check on someone. She's right again, too, just...too late.

Ran is an utter failure as a death god detective, running off to crime scenes the night AFTER a murder rather than just casually visiting somewhere and walking into a room with a fresh corpse by chance.

Speaking of detectives - tsk, tsk, Conan. So slack during this case. He does make up for it somewhat with running around all over the place trying to find Masami with the new glasses.

I thought that Ran was supposed to only have normal reasoning abilities. How come she's doing all the work in this case while the actual detectives have done pretty much nothing? She even has to point out that someone's hanging around outside looking suspicious. I suppose it’s a matter of motivation. At least Kogoro recognises him as the same guy who was around the dead man's apartment.

Worried angry Ran does not stop to ask questions! Worried angry Ran jumps out of windows! Lands in action-packed crouches. Makes demands. Doesn't let her target run away.

Kicks innocent people through the windows of their cars!

...Um...

Well, I'm very impressed by how fierce she was and how great all the jumping out of windows stuff looked, and how powerful her karate was, but okay, Ran is legitmately scary for doing all that to someone who turned out to be an innocent private detective. It's fairly reasonable to try to run away from a terrifying athletic girl who jumped down from a second floor window to menace you.

She's so direct and willing to take action. It's not exactly that she was being thoughtless here; there was reason to believe that this guy was suspicious and could have kidnapped or killed Masami, and she wasn't beating him up, just trying to stop him from getting away. But she just does not prevaricate at all when she thinks someone is in danger. It's really a miracle that she didn't call the police about Shinichi's disappearance and that Agasa was able to dissuade her. I like seeing that one of her greatest strengths as a character also doubles as a flaw in some circumstances.

It also seems to be the case that Ran gets easily attached to people, given how distressed she is about Masami. Conan doesn't really count, since he was never really a stranger and he must have been familiar to Ran even without her consciously realising it. Or, perhaps it's just that stories about re-uniting a parent and child resonate with her?

Ran has got what it takes to be a REALLY GOOD phantom thief, at least in the jumping out of windows and breaking glass category. She'd have to work on subtlety, but she looks cool and dramatic and that's the most important thing. True, it would probably be better for her to go the straightforward route and just be an action heroine. (And now I want Ran and Kaito buddy cop style adventures.)

Even Kogoro knows better than to shop at Scheming Fashions. For shame, Mr Shifty-looking detective. So, this detective is in the same role as Kogoro, just with a different client.

Ran just looks very slightly perturbed about the situation there, as if all that drama was no big deal and she didn’t go all action heroine on that guy. Kogoro had better pay for that car window. Nobody's going to want to refer clients to Kogoro's detective agency if it gets around that it's guarded by a superhuman avenging angel who sometimes makes mistakes about who's dangerous.

This chapter had a really nice balance between the characters. It showed that Ran absolutely can play an active role in the investigations even without any interest in being a detective.

#detective conan

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magicianjay · 8 years

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[Incident in Conan Exhibit]

There is literally a hallway in the exhibition dedicated to Mouri Ran’s Kickassery.

#reblogs #Mouri Ran #This is glorious

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magicianjay · 8 years

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Detective Conan, chapters 10, 11 and 12 commentary

Chapter 10:

That's cute, I like that Agasa is willing to step in for any events like parents' day. I suppose that since Agasa's known Shinichi since he was little anyway, Shinichi's transformation is easy enough for him to get used to. It's probably not such a big deal for someone in an uncle or granddad type of role to have their kid just 10 years younger. I know he’s technically just a next door neighbour but it’s plain that he and Shinichi and Ran have been close for a long time.

Poor Shinichi. Will this learning 1+1 stuff will be the start of the apparent perma-exasperated expression from later on?

Nope, he bounces back quickly as soon as he's playing football and has a cheering audience. He seems to love being the centre of attention so much that it is sort of a pity that he quit the football team he was in before. He said he only ever did football in order to get the reflexes a detective needs, but I wonder if that's true. He WAS getting loads of adoration as a detective, and even a lot of fan mail, so I suppose he could afford to be picky and just choose the type of attention he preferred.

Ooookay. On just the medium setting, the kick-enhancing shoes can rip through goal nets and snap trees in two. What does the high setting do, smash through concrete or something?

I had somehow assumed that the kicking shoes would just raise Conan's kicking ability back up to the level of power he had in his older body, but no, no way, I don't think that Shinichi could do all that no matter what a great kicker he was and how strong his legs were.

When Shinichi gets back to normal, perhaps he's going to miss those shoes and want some bigger ones. I can't imagine how ridiculous the kicking strength would be then.

Kogoro trying to tail a guy is a disaster, and I'm beginning to wonder how he ever even managed in the police force.

I feel a bit bad for the Mori family, thinking that Kogoro was amazing during the last case and that things are looking up, when really it was all Conan. But maybe it's not a bad thing? It could be going to give Kogoro an opportunity to lift himself up from his slump. It seems likely that he's been depressed for a long time. I don't want to get my hopes up about Kogoro's chances of getting any really good character development over the course of the series, but there is potential there which the author could work with if he so chooses.

Noooo, Ran, don't be so quick to step into surrogate single parenthood! You're going to be stuck with a six year old child for twenty plus years! He looks cute on the face of it, but he'll bring in at least a corpse a week.

Okay, the head-patting is adorable even if Kogoro did just disclaim all responsibility for the kid a moment ago and shove it all on his sixteen year old daughter. At least he's enough of a parent to be critical of the abandonment that Agasa claims Conan is facing. You know you've messed up when Mori Kogoro is disapproving of your parenting to the extent of wanting a stern word with you about your kid.

And...wait. Didn't Shinichi's actual parents ditch him a few years ago to go overseas? Though certainly he was older than six. I'm curious now about whether Kogoro disapproved of the way they left Shinichi. I know he never liked Shinichi, so I don't know if he would mention it if he did.

I admit it, I've underestimated Kogoro. I did NOT expect him to be the first person to start connecting the dots about Conan and Shinichi, even if he got interrupted from that line of thought forevermore by the corpse of the week hitting the TV news and turning out to be the guy he'd been paid to follow before. Seems he has some good detective instincts buried away, to be able to place exactly when he'd seen Conan before even though that was before a "real" Conan could ever have been born.

That's the end of vol.2 of the manga, and the pic at the end of this chapter shows the cover art. I am rolling my eyes very hard at Gosho's choice of keyhole picture for Ran. Shinichi got to look normal on the back cover of vol.1. Checking the full page of keyhole pictures , every other character who ever got a keyhole picture got to look normal and wear clothes. It's only Ran who gets caught in a state of embarrassed undress. Bah. And what a waste, when she could have looked normal or even been in a cool karate pose.

Chapter 11:

0____________o

THIS CHILD IS A DEMON. Look how happy he is that someone got murdered.

Ran, reconsider your choices about who to date/who to be a surrogate mother to! Run! Or at least find someone to conduct an exorcism. Admittedly, there would be a high likelihood of murder happening at any temple they might try to go to, so it would not necessarily work out. I’ve heard that such a thing may actually happen later in the manga, and I cannot wait to see it.

I thought maybe Shinichi would learn some more restraint after being turned into a kid, but no, compared to chapter 1 he's got worse. His life may have gone downhill, but the welcoming arms of gruesome murder are always waiting for him to run into them and solve mysteries.

(In the visual novel Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru, the character Furudo Erika functions as a villainous parody/deconstruction of ace detectives, and I’m sure that Conan must have been one of the ones the author had in mind. I’d like to see those two characters meet in fanfic and get creepily cheerful about murder together.)

A fishy insurance case, huh...

"I know for certain I'll be killed, because I'm a minor character in Detective Conan who's unrelated to any continuing storylines."

"Take heart, friend. Maybe you'll be the one to commit the murder? There seem to only be the two of us in this case, so unless someone else is introduced, our odds are 50-50."

I have an idea what might have happened, but I think that's from vaguely remembering this one from watching the anime, so I won't even bother trying to solve the case.

I like how absolutely galling Kogoro finds it to have been used to establish the murderer's alibi. He's got his pride as a detective, and the apparent murderer was practically taunting him during that interview.

Megure and Kogoro seemed to be on decent terms with each other in this chapter, and Megure let Kogoro take home the schedule and photos, so it doesn't look as if Megure dislikes Kogoro despite having had some trouble working with him in the past.

Well, I've misjudged him again. Kogoro is NOT stupid, and he's not a completely useless detective. I don't think it's possible, given how sharp he's been in regard to Conan in this chapter and the last. Last chapter, we had him realising he'd seen Conan before when Ran was a little girl, and this one he realises that Conan isn't what he seems and is feeding him hints. And the next bit after that panel is just him thinking to himself, "This ain't no normal kid. Who are you? What are you?!" and his instincts are spot on. He's the very first person to work these things out, and he hasn't even spent much time with Conan yet.

But I just can't see how this can continue. It's not possible for Kogoro to be constantly wondering what's up with Conan and getting interrupted every time. Doesn't the narrative require him to stop this? He's needed for the role of being comically wrong and taking the credit.

I suppose that part of it could just be that Conan is a hopelessly bad actor and isn't used to playing at being six yet.

Chapter 12:

I know this is meant to be comedic violence, but Kogoro's been doing this sort of thing to Conan so much throughout the series so far, and it's only been twelve chapters! I'm getting more and more sick of it. Ran clearly doesn't approve of it, but it's not as if she's physically intervening to stop it either. I really hope that there'll be less Kogoro hitting six year olds as the series goes on.

The things the old lady at the booth there by the phone has seen...By the end of the series she's going to be completely immune to the sight of little boys impersonating adults on the phone.

Speaking of which, isn't impersonating a police officer a crime, o great Heisei Holmes? This kid is not very law abiding. I suspect he's going to be piling up such a long list of crimes over the course of DC that he's going to begin to look like a hypocrite when dealing with non-murderous criminals like the Kaitou Kid...

Zooom! This panel is just the cutest thing.

Conan's plan for trapping the culprit wasn't bad. I respect his ability to set the scene dramatically, with shadowed expressions with glinting glasses and then posing cheerily on a car. And manipulating the culprit into being caught on tape worked nicely. However...

Putting himself into a situation of directly confronting the culprit with evidence when the culprit could decide to just murder him was not a sensible move, and the culprit even states it outright. This starts out looking like that earlier case where Ran had to arrive to save the day because Conan was getting walloped.

Okay, I hate this development. I understand that other people may like what the kick enhancing shoes bring to the series, and perhaps it’s not a bad move for the series in many ways, but it doesn't work with what I would ideally want from it at all. What this is doing is removing one of the hugest obstacles in Conan's way: his lack of combat capability and his utter vulnerability.

This is running as a direct parallel to the case with the kidnapping of the little girl where Conan needed to be rescued because he was too weak. It starts off looking the same, and then Conan confidently grins and overwhelms the villain with his shoes and football. I can see some of the appeal in it. A plucky apparently helpless child detective hero being able to knock out villains with amazing gadgets and force and football skills equals a fun fantasy for kids, and a way for him to be able to turn the tables without being physically strong.

In fact, it means that Conan can have cool scenarios where he can confront a culprit and weird them out by him being a strange adult-minded mastermind but then NOT immediately get mashed by them. And I can't say that's always going to be a bad thing. Conan scaring culprits dramatically is going to be fun.

But I don't like the kicking shoes, for several reasons.

(1) It gives greater scope for excluding Ran from action scenes. In that earlier case, Ran HAD to save the day. She had to be the action person. Conan couldn't do both the detective work and the action hero work, so that gave potential for sharing the spotlight. With the shoes giving Conan combat strength, it doesn't mean Ran can't be in on the action, but it doesn't force the series into making her a central part of the case-solving dynamic. The kidnapping case provided an excellent set-up for that dynamic, but it looks as if it's going to be squandered.

(2) It gives scope for becoming lazy and formulaic. Conan defeats culprit with a kick. The end.

To criticise my own arguments there, it could be argued that making Ran's combat strength so central could provide less variety to the series, because Ran is just too versatile and strong. Conan could in theory be prevented from using his football some of the time, depending on the circumstances. The terrain could be unfavourable for using the football, or something, and then what could he do? But Ran would be harder to stop.

Also, as long as Ran doesn’t know who Conan is, it’s hard to fit her into every case conclusion which requires fighting. It would require her showing up constantly at just the right moment to not overhear something which would make her suspicious of Conan.

(3) There's less danger. Conan does not have to deal with all the drawbacks of being six years old any more. He doesn't have to adjust his expectations of being able to overpower an adult in combat – he's got enough power to be able to kick the living daylights out of people just the way he used to in the first few pages of the series. To kick them harder than he used to, even. If this is how it's going to be, it feels like a waste of the premise. I’d rather for Conan to have to learn to rely more on other people and co-operate with them in order to win the day.

But then, it's hardly as if the only physical drawback Conan is dealing with is just the ability to kick crooks, so maybe it's not so bad.

All that said, that is mostly speculation on all counts, because I never did get far enough into the series before to know for certain myself which of these possible flaws have been realised by the series or to what extent. But I’ve just seen some posts with people complaining that Ran doesn’t get to fight much later on in the manga, so I have a horrible feeling that that one is going to be true...

Japanese prisons are going to be FULL of people freaking out about small children. There are going to have to be support groups. Prisoners will look at each other, bleary-eyed, and bond over their shared trauma. (”The other prisoners...the ones who were caught by adults rather than evil children...they don’t understand!” *sob*) Researchers are going to be baffled by the strange phenomenon sweeping the new inmates.

I do believe that this case was a fair play mystery, as was the previous one, and that's nice. Here's hoping it will continue in that vein.

#detective conan

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magicianjay · 8 years

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There are some Detective Conan Super Digest Books which have sections where Gosho answers some fan questions, and there’s this particular Q&A from SDB 80+:

Q87: While solving all the problems in Conan, will the mystery on Kaito’s father getting killed get solved in the mean time as well? A: They won’t be solved at the same time! Moreover, he didn’t get killed!

So...yeah, if Gosho is not pulling our legs there in some way (which is possible), Toichi is quite probably alive, unless something else killed him later or there is some mistake in the translation of the line.

So like was Toichi ever confirmed to be alive????? Chikace hints that it was her as Kaitou Corbeau but that doesn’t really make sense to her character, and in 1412 they builded Kaitou Corbeau up to make you assume, but it’s still never confirmed. :/

#reblogs #magic kaito #kuroba toichi

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magicianjay · 8 years

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Magic Kaito, chapter 3 commentary

Hell yes, the robot chapter! This one is extra fun to look at because it never had an anime adaptation, so it's fresher to me. Although it absolutely should have had an adaptation. I love early MK. Robots, pirates, witches! It's all over the place. And this chapter dips into what Gosho calls the "science-fiction-thriller" genre in his notes. Though from the first page actually having a guy getting his heart ripped out in silhouette and blood splattering everywhere, maybe he just should've said sci-fi-horror.

In Detective Conan, Professor Agasa is out of place in Beika because Ekoda is clearly the hub for true mad scientists. You can get an isolated hilltop lab there which gets regularly struck by lightning. What more could anyone want? And chapter 9 has another shifty scientist too. They probably hold conventions. There are probably dozens of them. "Yeah, Ogami from Ogami Electronics Laboratory didn't show up this time. I guess he must've got murdered by his own creation. These things happen, que sera sera."

Something did happen and it was "kidnapped by a mad scientist and replaced with a robot". I'm laughing.

Aoko and Kaito may argue and tease each other a lot, and they delight in being jerks, but it's not as if it's all of the time. Aoko's just looking friendly and cheerful here as she says hello, and there doesn't seem to be anything at all unusual about it. As I mentioned a while back, I adore the things that the anime did with making Aoko and Kaito neighbours and having Kaito eating regularly at the Nakamori house, but much as I want it retconned in, it's not manga canon at all. If it had been, amongst other things, Aoko wouldn't need to ask a question like the one above.

Gimme a T, S, U, N, D, E, R, E, what does that spell?

That poor robot. Look at it sweating. It's having to get to grips with the lack of logic inherent in a massive tsundere like Kaito. This stuff is not easy when you're one day old!

Good work, Robo-Kaito! You did it, you worked it out.

Kaito being in love with Aoko must be incredibly, incredibly obvious when viewed through the direct lens of his own memories. I want to know what happened after this chapter and if Kaito ever found out about what the robot said. ("It wasn't me, it was a robot with an exact copy of my memories pretending to be me!")

The way that the Robo-Kaito talks about feeling the need to give Aoko the cold shoulder suggests that it is not merely acting, it's also genuinely absorbed some of Kaito's feelings and personality traits. Well, I suppose that was already clear enough from the way that it said "no" to Ogami earlier in the chapter. Just that it didn't...quite...realise that people are squishy and can die.

And that is a mighty blush from Aoko.

Yeah, now, Kaito is pretty great here. Knocked out by a mad scientist, tied up helplessly on his own for a whole day, a robot doppelganger running around, and when someone arrives he's all confident and grumpy with an "I've been waiting!" as if he’s got this under control.

So the answer to "How easy is it to take out the great and illustrious Kaitou Kid?" is "very easy", at least as long as he's casually walking to school in the morning.

Perhaps that's selling Ogami short. Maybe he's been working for years on his mad scientist knocking-out technique. That economical, casual swing! That aim! That tiny hammer, all he needs in order to get the job done.

(Or maybe what the anime did with having Kaito as absolutely Not a Morning Person and super groggy in the mornings is actually the truth.)

Robo-Kaito's simple "He broke..." with a blank expression is probably the most chilling thing in the manga, really.

He's just had 16 years of memories dumped on him in the past day or so. That's rough. I don't know from this chapter how Robo-Kaito would have turned out in the long run, had he survived. Might he genuinely have turned out to be just like Kaito, given enough time? I think it's a possibility. Although it's also a possibility that he would have remained deficient in empathy anyway. Depends on whether Ogami succeeded in creating a human equivalent. The Robo-Kaito definitely thinks it's a human during the time we get to see it, or at least strongly wants to think of itself as one.

But, well, regardless of how well Kaito seemed to be dealing with the situation before, it's not really a surprise that he's getting upset now that he knows the Robo-Kaito murdered a guy. And right at that moment he's getting his memories copied by that robot.

The shift between the Robo-Kaito going around being confused as hell and waffling on about having insufficient data and and it getting the rest of the data from Kaito is quite pronounced. Suddenly, he's acting all smooth and confident and plotting murder, and he wants to be the real Kuroba Kaito. He isn't going around pleading with Kaito to know why he has to impersonate him any more. Obviously it's safe to assume that his personality is more like Kaito's after he gains all of the memories, BUT even with this shift, that doesn't mean he actually has a better level of understanding of absolutely everything.

What has Robo-Kaito definitely learned? Well, murderous intent. Better planning skills. He's enthusiastic and delighting in things which were just perplexing him before. He's more confident and decisive, and sure that being Kaito is what he wants. And certainly, being confident and recklessly decisive and getting easily carried away are Kaito traits.

If the "a copy is just a copy" stuff is not meant to in some way touch upon Kaito's feelings of being a copy of Toichi, it’s a wasted opportunity. I’d like to think it was meant to be a parallel on at least some level, however shallow. Robo-Kaito isn't happy with being a copy, and isn't prepared to accept it. Kaito, on the other hand...well, he's adamant about how a copy can't replace him while he's still around. But he's also someone who's taken on the task of impersonating the original Kaitou Kid (who isn't around!), and at this point in the series he's resigned to being perpetually in second place to his father in terms of magic tricks. I don't think he's at all bitter about that, but he is locked into thinking that he couldn't ever surpass or equal his father. It's not surprising. Toichi's skill was amazing, Kaito loved and idolised him, and Toichi's death happened at a time when Kaito would still have been very much in a student role in terms of magic. I think that Kaito's ambitions were frozen at that point for a long time.

The Midnight Crow arc later on really informs the attitudes of early series Kaito, because although there have been signs of this throughout the series, it confirms that the direction Kaito's character development was building towards was always one of moving past Toichi's death via deciding that he does want to surpass Toichi and he is going to grow to do that. And deciding that being the Kaitou Kid isn't just about revenge the way it was at first. (At least, from Kaito's perspective. It's not as if the audience can't see him having a grand old time playing at being Kid in addition to the revenge motive.)

So in a way, maybe Robo-Kaito is jumping the gun with showing his desire to be the "real" version. Who's happy with being only a copy? Not Robo-Kaito, nope! He's not taking this lying down. But he doesn't seem to fully understand what he's doing. It's arguably a more unhealthy, emotionally stunted and delusional version of Kaito's drive towards character development. Which is not exactly surprising given that Robo-Kaito's two days old. Let’s just murder the real Kaito and have him out of the way, yes, great idea.

Kaito's expression there says that he really is scared that the robot might get away with it. Knocked out, tied up for over a day, murderous robot impersonating him, stealing his memories, and trying to murder him too. Not good times. He may be an optimist, but there are limits. Even if he says that there's no chance of the robot replacing him, yeah, he's doubting that.

And really, world domination? (Give a two-day-old robot Kaito's personality and memories, and this is what you end up with...) The other scanlation available doesn't use that wording, just says that he'll descend upon the earth as Kid.

His expression and cackling as he leaves the building is so very Kaito, if we can just forget for a moment that he's planning to blow the building up to murder someone.

What is it with Robo-Kaito and his massive failure to keep his head on properly? And his failure to, oh, not use his arm as an extendable grappling hook. Wonder if any of the guards are going to walk away after the heist thinking Kid was a robot all along.

I can see that I was remembering this chapter wrong. I'd expected that Robo-Kaito would attack the cops, but he didn't. The only person he tried to kill or hurt once he had any idea what he was doing was Kaito. It's possible that he actually wouldn't want to kill anyone else.

The encounter here is interesting to me here because of how very much like Kaito the Robo-Kaito is. The point of difference is that Robo-Kaito seems to be delighting in the new experience of being Kid, like a little boy opening a birthday present, and as if he's confirming to himself that it's real. But other than that, this scene reminds me a lot of a later one in Detective Conan. To compare:

It's the same thing of getting confident and giddy and laughing in triumph but being unaware that he's in for a surprise.

If Robo-Kaito was really going to take over Kaito's life, the habit of extending his neck and exposing the metal parts inside when he's surprised would have to be sorted out pretty damn quickly. It's a miracle that he managed to not get found out by anyone after being at school a whole day.

So, Robo-Kaito gets taken off-guard and even looks a bit angry, but he soon gets his composure back, and, quick-thinking, he attacks. I like seeing the two of them having a bit of a composed face-off. The real Kaito definitely has more of a laid-back and smiling look at the start there. It's a good fight, and probably the only time that we're going to see Kaito fighting to kill, if we’re counting a robot. This could have looked so good animated, and I wish it had been...but as it is, I'm impressed by the detail Gosho put into the robot as he gets more cut up and Terminator-esque.

Where Robo-Kaito begins to mess up is by starting to gloat and to go on about his superior abilities. Don't ever say "You lose" so early! Especially when this chapter's more or less in the horror genre.

There's info elsewhere to this effect too, but from what Robo-Kaito says in this scene, it’s confirmed that Kaito's right-handed and faster with his right hand.

This is a nice piece of clear thinking from Kaito, using his own position of relative weakness as a weapon. It shows that he's capable of analysing and countering his own flaws, even from someone who's technically stronger than him. Robo-Kaito was a newbie at being Kaito: he was overconfident; he thought that he was dealing with a straight-up contest of strength and speed without taking into account brains; and more importantly, he desperately wanted to prove himself. Robo-Kaito should have known better than anyone else that Kaito shouldn't be under-estimated and that he might think of a strategy, but he got too carried away in assuming that he could predict and defeat Kaito’s every move. And for someone who didn't want to be just a copy, he certainly was copying Kaito very intently there...

(This all reminds me of the various lines about two queens in a hive from Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett.)

Kaito and Robo-Kaito don’t seem to have had any doubts whatsoever that the other one just had to go. Co-existing or having the other one leave the area was never an option for them. Of course, Kaito knew that Robo-Kaito was going to murder him given the chance. Defeating the robot was self-defence. But Kaito even seems clinical about it...

Kaito's "Yes...or so it seems." (or in the other version just “Yes, you will die”) after the Robo-Kaito asks if he's going to die gives the impression that he does recognise the robot as a person to some extent. Not that he seems to care all that much about Robo-Kaito dying.

Still. Must be pretty freaky to have just effectively killed a robot-you with a fixation on being a real human and replacing you. From what we can see of Kaito’s face after the last explosion, his expression is looking serious, maybe sombre. Kaito’s got some problems of his own but wanting to be a real human being isn’t one of them, and he just got to see an example of this is you as a robot. Maybe he even drew some parallels between their respective statuses as copies of someone else, who knows.

After writing all this post so far I actually feel bad for Robo-Kaito and for how desperately he probably wanted to be a human. Not that him winning would have been a good outcome either. But he started out fairly innocent and could’ve turned out differently if only his mad scientist had raised him properly! (What am I saying. He murdered the mad scientist.)

I’m sure I read a few good horror fanfics involving the robot, and I definitely want more. There’s so much potential for random cast members to get replaced by a robot, since that scientist could potentially have picked anyone to kidnap. (When I finally get around to writing some MK fic of my own I’d rather like to try a Robo-Aoko AU fic, maybe.)

ROMANCE. "My beloved Inspector Nakamori." A heart symbol. A rose. The contented look on Nakamori's face. Kaito, stop flirting with your best friend's dad.

I want to know, did Toichi as Kid pay this much attention to Nakamori, or is it just Kaito who does that because he knows Nakamori better and knows that it makes him happy?

So this was Kaito's very first of many experiences of someone impersonating him, fwahahahaha. After that I don't think anyone could blame him for being tetchy about Kaitou Kid impersonations in future. When’s the next one? Ah, the prime minister in chapter 8 pretending that Kid kidnapped him. If that counts.

Now, aside from the jokes and shippiness and all, I really, really like this scene because, similarly to the panel with Aoko greeting Kaito earlier in the chapter, it shows Kaito greeting Aoko in a really happy, friendly way which is probably not at all uncommon for them. Too bad that she’s still dying of blushes because of the previous day. XD She’s so cute about it.

It’s a pity this particular scanlation version leaves out so many heart symbols when Gosho seems to love littering them around. The other version retains, say, the one that would’ve been in Kaito’s speech bubble above and the one in Aoko’s greeting on the previous day, and the one from Kaito sneaking up on the laughing robot.

And their classmates are so invested in Aoko/Kaito that they evidently dashed out to make preparations to celebrate in style. I’ve seen some good fanfics which feature mentions of the class even running bets on when those two would become a proper couple, and clearly this in no way contradicts the class’s canon characterisation. Look at them, they’re so into this ship that they’re literally anticipating a wedding just from witnessing an apparent confession. They’re not just teasing Aoko and Kaito, they look genuinely happy for them.

Watch out, next thing they know, the classmates will have organised an actual wedding on pain of torture.

(So will Kaito ever find out what happened, or is he just going to think that his classmates are wedding fiends?)

I liked this chapter a lot, and what it leaves me wanting is to read a ton of robot fanfic and a ton of Detective Conan crossovers where the DC cast from Beika visit Ekoda for a while and have to deal with things like robots and witches. Heck, Conan could even go and try solving the mystery of the mad scientist’s death. A robot Kaitou Kid did it.

#magic kaito

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magicianjay · 8 years

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I love that last idea! Kaito usually seems really supportive of anyone (let alone his actual BFF) who’s trying to perform for an audience and is having some trouble, so that’s something I could really imagine him doing. And I bet that this tune really is one that Kaito likes, regardless of whether he liked it before Aoko started trying to learn it.

The Flea Waltz/I Stepped on the Cat/Chopsticks/etc is a tune which is a likely possible choice to be the first that someone starting to play the piano will ever learn. So it’s very likely that Kaito was around whenever Aoko first started to learn the piano, even if we don’t know whether she continued much further.

(And it’s super cute that Nakamori is there going “Ooh, you’re good!” in the background too. Wonder how many times he’s heard Aoko play this one and if he’s used to praising it, or if it’s just that he’s too drunk to know how simple it is.)

Magic Kaito 13

I wonder what Aoko’s skill level on the piano actually is? I mean, she’s playing what’s apparently a very simple tune here (according to the translator’s notes) but she’s claiming to be picking one Kaito likes so

is she just too smashed to play anything better or is this really one that Kaito likes?

Whatever you do don’t imagine baby Aoko struggling to learn the piano and getting frustrated and Kaito telling her that he really likes that one simple tune that she has mastered and paying rapt attention whenever she plays it so she feels good about her ability level

#reblogs #magic kaito

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magicianjay · 9 years

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In a translation of the volume notes from the Treasured Edition of the manga, for chapter 7 it mentions “By the way, Kaito Kuroba is written on the handkerchief, this probably was a prank done by his mom”. At first I was only remembering the handkerchief from the anime where it says K.K. and nothing else, so I thought for a while it was meant to be a Kaitou Kid joke, but nope, in the manga it’s actually got his full name and school class stitched on it instead. It’s probably a joke based on it being more appropriate to have those things stitched on a much younger person’s handkerchief.

In any case, Chikage’s constant dedication to trolling her son is impressive! She’s probably pulling pranks on him the whole time: hasn’t she done something trolly every single chapter that she’s appeared in? (Granted, she hasn’t been in many chapters, but still...) That’s an achievement. No wonder she raised a prankster.

#magic kaito #kuroba chikage #kaito was trained by a master troll

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magicianjay · 9 years

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Detective Conan, chapters 8 and 9 commentary

Chapter 8:

The title of this file is "A Person Who Looks Like You" and Conan is deep in thought on the splash page. He must've worked out the secret of Gosho's art's epic sameface levels.

You know, if Yuuko really is the killer, she's doing nicely at keeping her cool. Still pretty stupid for being so snippy towards Yoko and showing off her grudge. And she's going into the bathroom...could it be some sort of cover-up, maybe wanting to go around the flat so that she could have an excuse for her fingerprints to be present?

I'm not sure yet that this is even a murder case, though. It could have been an elaborate suicide, if only the guy had a way of stabbing himself in the back using the chair as an aid.

Oh, well. The mystery of Gosho samefaces remains before him.

Ran is such a good babysitter, aside from her inability to stop comedy violence. She does treat Conan kindly.

It isn't going to be very long before she first realises that something's weird about this kid, is it? I'm sure I remember a suspicion arc pretty early on.

I remember this panel from one of the anime openings! It's a classic panel, I suppose. But the mystery I'd like to have Shinichi investigate right now is the mystery of why Ran's hair has one of those weird little Conan-style tails on it. It's just like his.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, maybe? Ran could be compensating for the perceived lack of Shinichi in her life now by copying his hair. :P Next thing you know, she'll cut her hair short and start droning about Holmes, crawling over crime scenes, kicking footballs, and nabbing crooks. I'm sure she's far too stable to actually do this, but now I sort of want to see it anyway...

Oh Shinichi, you adorable little brat. You're finally trying to start working with what you've got as Conan. The gosh, I'm just a cute kid who doesn't know anything but hey isn't it weird that [suspicious thing]? strategy is go.

So the reason Yuuko went to the bathroom was so that the author could show the characters finding out that she'd been there before because she already knew where it was. Okay. But she's probably not the culprit, because she snapped and admitted that she was going in to try to dig up dirt on Yoko when the guy arrived and attacked her, but she said she didn't stab him. Of course, he must have thought she was Yoko.

It explains a lot if he was her crazy ex. Maybe the suicide disguised as murder theory really is plausible? If he had some of her hair in his hand, that could be to frame her. There's a mark on the floor, and water marks...Presumably the knife was propped up on some ice in order for the guy to fall on it, and the temperature was raised so high in order to have it melt.

But too late, too late, Conan. Kogoro's got this.

The more I see Kogoro in that pale suit, the more I want to just edit the whole chapter so he's in a Kaitou Kid costume throughout.

Chapter 9:

Wow, Kogoro looks evil there. Anyway, I don't think that managers usually murder their stars' unfortunate exes just because they fear a scandal. Someone remind me of how wrong I am when I inevitably reach a case in DC where the murderer really does have such a shaky motive.

*not actual text

This would be Conan's Wrong on the Internet face, if only he had the 'net at the start of DC's 20-year-long time-bending year.

Conan is suddenly able to knock Kogoro out by kicking an ash tray really hard at the back of his head, when a couple of chapters ago he couldn't do this with the random criminal and a football. I suppose he's still got accuracy and some power.

How are you three people falling for this? How?

Welp, that's the case wrapped up. It really was a suicide disguised as murder using an ice block trick. And it's the heartbreak hotel for poor Yoko, since the manager did do the believable jerk manager thing of asking her boyfriend to break up with her. Nothing about the misunderstandings justifies trying to pin a murder on Yoko, mind.

So in other words, Shinichi's thinking of himself as a detective idol and Ran as his fan who's giving him strength to keep going in tough times...which would be in line with her praise for his ability as a detective in the previous chapter. Or is it the other way around, with Shinichi remembering chapter 6 and how well Ran's been covering up her distress about him going missing?

And it seems that the poor girl can't even sleep because she's so worried about Shinichi. :(

It bites how little support Ran has here. Kogoro (drunkenly?) asleep on a desk with beer cans around his head, and Agasa having talked her out of going to the police earlier. I really want Sonoko to get introduced soon, since I don't think Ran is going to be so isolated any time she's around. Sonoko wouldn’t let it happen.

At this time, Shinichi ringing up and talking through the voice changing bow-tie is the kindest and most supportive thing he could have done, save for realising that what Agasa told him about keeping her in the dark is claptrap. He definitely felt like hell about how tough the situation was for her. And I think it could be inferred from this chapter that it's hard for him to have to use his real voice via the bow tie.

#detective conan

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