#chikamiya reiko

[bisexualain]

takato yoichi lives in my head rent free, huh

[kindani-case-files]

Takatoo Youichi’s Timeline

After his spin-off was released, I was confused as hell because some of the events didn’t match (according to my theory at that time). Now I’ve compiled my interpretation of his known timeline, which hopefully can be used to predict the identity of his real father (edit: added pics for references). Here it is:

Age 7: aspiring magician (England)

We first caught a glimpse of his childhood during his flashback in Magical Express Murder Case, which showed us how he was brought to see Reiko’s magic show along with his “step” father in London. He was so impressed with her tricks that he devoted himself to study magic, which is the basic of his murder tricks in adulthood.

Though not confirmed yet, in Rosenkreuz Mansion Murder Case Takatoo’s “step” father revealed that he has a younger sister from different mother - I think it was when he was about this age too.

Age 10: met Reiko (England)

We later saw him again when he was 10, learning magic alone in a park (later he developed a habit to perform magic to children in parks). There he finally met Reiko face-to-face, and based on her reaction, she knew that Takatoo was her son. She then taught him some basic magic, and promised him to share all her magic tricks when he became an adult and capable magician. He was such a fanboy to Reiko and I can’t help seeing how enthusiastic he was when he was a child - whether it was only to Reiko or not. 

Age 15: entered high school (Japan)

This is from his spin-off, Takatoo Shounen no Jikenbo. We saw him as a freshman in high school, scoring perfect score at the entrance exam (coincidentally getting the same record as Akechi). Himeno-sensei confirmed that he had previously lived in England, like we have known (thus his perfect English). At this point he was closer to the current Takatoo we all know and love instead of the excited boy he was when he was young - I’m really curious on what the hell happened during this 5 years gap. We can also see how he wasn’t getting along well with his “step” father, and how little his “step” father trusted him (accusing him to be the one who created problems when an incident happened, yelling at him whenever he came home late, saying he’s not similar to Reiko at all and that he took after someone he called “demon”). This also marked his debut as a killer, when he killed his classmates after he tried to provoke and frame him as a serial murderer. 

Age 17: death of “step father” and revelation (Japan)

Takatoo revealed in Magical Express Murder case that his “step” father died when he was 17. In the 1997 anime, the funeral scene depicted him being buried (Christian-style) so at first I assumed he died in England, but then we got his spin-off and he was supposedly still a student in Japan - we even got to see his “step” father alive at that time (thus confused me to no end). However, since the manga didn’t show us anything from the funeral, I assumed it would make more sense if his “step” father died in Japan*, thus allowing Takatoo to keep living in Japan and graduate from high school.

After his “step” father died, he found a diary that showed how he was the son of Reiko, which he wasn’t all surprised. At first I didn’t find any problem, but since Takatoo revealed that he wasn’t his real father, I wonder what exactly written in that diary? Was it his “step” father’s, or was it his real father’s? If it had detailed information about his real parentage, wouldn’t it be strange for Takatoo’s “step” father to own it? Or did it only contain information about his mother?

* Since this was released years after the original Magical Express Murder Case was revealed tho, there are some inconsistencies: like I mentioned before, the funeral scene looked like it happened in England.The diary ownership is also left unclear. Another one is that in the original, Takatoo was implied to return to Japan after he finished his study in Italy, so he should have stayed in England all the time before that. Also, when he went back to England and found Reika’s trick note, he said “going back to England after three years”. It means when he was 17, he was still living in England, thus his “step” father also died there. However these are simply minor inconsistencies so one could ignore them just fine.

Age 18: Reiko died and start of magic studies (Italy)

In Magical Express Murder Case, Takatoo said that he heard about his mother’s death when he was studying magic with a professional magician in Italy. Assuming my previous interpretation as correct, he must have started studying after he finished high school. At around this time, Reiko sent her trick note to him on his birthday, and not long after that she was killed by her students.

Curiously, Akechi said he met Reiko at the airport a few weeks before Reiko’s death - the time when he learned about Reiko’s notebook. That time, Reiko said that she just arrived from England - half for job, and half for personal reason. I think the personal reason was related to Takatoo. Maybe she found out about the “step” father’s death and him not living in England anymore?

Age 20: finished his studies and received Reiko’s note (England)

Takatoo said that he returned to England after finishing his magic studies (3 years later), and among the letters sent to his house in England, one of them contained Reiko’s trick note (which was sent to him on his birthday two years ago). He was so impressed by it, and when he heard about a Japanese magic troupe that performed really well, he went back to Japan a few months later to see it. Needless to say it didn’t go well.

That would be the start of his revenge plan against those who killed his mother. I think he applied to be the manager at this point. Edit: Takatoo said at Magical Express that he already worked as manager for 2 years, so it’s more likely he applied to be the manager at age 21.

Age 21: found the truth (Japan)

In Magical Express Murder Case, Takatoo said that he found out the truth much faster than he thought. In the original manga, the four students who killed Reiko said “three years ago we were still Reiko’s student”, and it was consistent with my timeline since Reiko was killed three years ago and Takatoo was 18.

I think he started to devise his plan at this point, though I don’t know why he only performed it two years later.

Age 23: main timeline, met Giselle, journey for real father (Japan)

According to Satomi in Magical Express Murder Case, Reiko’s death was five years ago, meaning Takatoo’s revenge happened when he was 23 (consistent). Assuming the whole Kindaichi main timeline happened in one year, Takatoo would still be 23 when he performed all his murder plans. It also means he found out about Giselle and started to seek the truth about his real father at age 23 too.

This is also consistent with Akechi’s age (28), because Akechi had already graduated at least for one year (Akechi Kengo’s Student Murder Case) when Takatoo became a freshman (15 year old) and that Takatoo was the first student to get perfect score at entrance exam after four years (Akechi) meaning their age difference would be around 4-5 years.

So far that’s all known about Takatoo’s timeline, not counting 37 Year Old series (he hasn’t confirmed to appear yet). If he does, he would be 43 right now. I’m certain he would appear again because Returns series’ ending hasn’t concluded his arc yet, so I’m optimist he would create problem for our protagonist again.

Until next time.