Nonchalant Lupin

Chronology
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Magic Kaito Chapter 0
Information
Title:	Nonchalant Lupin
Japanese title:	さりげなく ルパン (Sarigenaku Rupan)
Original release:	1987
Volume:	Collected Short Stories of Gosho Aoyama 3rd Base 4th Magic Kaito Volume 5
Pages:	40

Nonchalant Lupin (さりげなく ルパン ,Sarigenaku Rupan) is a short story by Gosho Aoyama from 1987, made with the help of some fellow university students from the Nekketsu Manga Konjō-kai back then (some of whom are his assistants nowadays) and the second professionally released work (after Wait For Me, thus excluding several doujinshis he made as part of the Manga Konjō-kai for a couple of fanzines) and made for a contest by the Shōnen Magazine before switching to the Shōnen Sunday. It was the prototype for Magic Kaito, featuring early versions of Kaito Kuroba and Aoko Nakamori called "Kaito Lupin" and "Aoko Holmes", already combining the names of two of Gosho's favorite characters from literature.

It was rereleased 18 years after its original publication in Collected Short Stories of Gosho Aoyama 3rd Base 4th and 30 years later as a bonus chapter in the "Treasured Edition" of Magic Kaito Volume 5.

Characters

Introduced

In order of introduction:

Picture	Name	Role
	Kaito Lupin	A mischivious high school student who also acts as a mysterious thief.
	Okuzo Tsubura	Headmaster of the high school who wants to get rid of Kaito.
	Aoko Holmes	High school student, friend of Kaito and leader of the detective club at school.
	Doctor Aso	High school physician. Named and modeled after one of Gosho Aoyama's assistants.
	Kenzo Gurikoji	Head of the Gurikoji Financial Group and Ken's father.
	Ken Gurikoji	High school student, Kaito's rival and Kenzo's son.
	Eiichi Yamagishi	Fox-like animal, cameo by one of Gosho Aoyama's assistants.
	Keiji Aso	High school student, cameo by one of Gosho Aoyama's assistants
60px	Yutaka Abe	Mouse/Rat-like animal, cameo by Gosho Aoyama's senpai/later assistant.
60px	Masaki Negishi	Bear/Dog-like animal, cameo by one of Gosho Aoyama's assistants.
	Inspector Holmes	Police inspector and Aoko's father.
	Aoko Holmes' mother	Inspector Holmes's wife and Aoko's mother.
	Priest of Kikuchi Church	Gets tasked with officiating the wedding between Kenzo and Aoko.

Gadgets

Introduced

In order of introduction:

Card Gun
	Kaito Lupin's gun that shoots cards

Settings

Introduced

In order of introduction:

• Tokyo
  • Unknown ward
    • Unnamed high school
    • Momoko Color Lab (Mentioned)
    • Holmes Residence
    • Kikuchi Building
      • Kikuchi Church (24th floor of Kikuchi Building)
  • Shinjuku Ward
    • Nishi-Shinjuku skyscrapers (Background)

Plot

While sneaking around the school late at night searching for the answers to the final exam, Kaito Lupin stumbles across a list for "Illegally Accepted Students" for his school. To prevent a scandal from happening and to put Kaito in his place once and for all, the headmaster Okuzo Tsubura teams up with the Gurikoji Financial Group's Kenzo Gurikoji. Gurikoji is currently being investigated by inspector Holmes, regarding the group's drug trafficking and gun smuggling. Tsubura and Gurikoji intend to trick Kaito's friend and inspector Holmes' daughter, Aoko Holmes, into believing Kaito might be expelled from school and blackmail her into marrying Gurikoji's son, Ken. By doing this, Gurikoji would gain control over police investigations and Tsubura would finally be able to remove Lupin from the school. Aoko reluctantly agrees and it's up to Kaito to crash the wedding and steal her away somehow.

Cameos

• Doctor Aso ist named after one of Gosho Aoyama's assistants, Keiji Aso, and slightly looks like an older version of him. He also appears later on as a student in Kaito Lupin's and Aoko Holmes' class next to a couple of other students and animals, who are cameos of other assistants (see below).
• Eiichi Yamagishi, Yutaka Abe and Masaki Negishi appear as a fox- or kitsune-like being, a mouse/rat and a bear/dog respectively.
• The "Kikuchi Building" (including its "Kikuchi Church" on the 24th floor) and the "Momoko Color Lab" written on the envelope are named after Momoko Kikuchi, Gosho Aoyama's favorite pop idol back then.

• 

  Doctor Aso is named and modeled after Keiji Aso.

• 

  Yamagishi as an animal.

• 

  Aso as a high school student.

• 

  Abe as an animal.

• 

  Negishi as an animal.

Continuity

• The plot takes place over two days, December 23rd and December 24th of an unspecified year.

Real Life Models

Nishi-Shinjuku

Some of the skyscrapers of the Nishi-Shinjuku district in the Shinjuku Ward can be seen in the background, showing that this story is at least set in Tokyo somewhere.

PLAYBACK EPISODE

The Treasured Edition of each Magic Kaito volume contained some short comments by Gosho Aoyama about every chapter. Since Nonchalant Lupin was released as part of the Treasured Edition of Magic Kaito Volume 5, it got featured, too:

"It's a short story I sent to Shōnen Magazine, and I got an award for it. As you can see, it was a prototype for Magic Kaito (laughs) The form is different, but even the Card Gun appears. I drew this because the editor I had at that time told me: "Show me a story you want to write." It's my second work! Now that I look back, I'm embarassed because it looks bad. (laughs) Anyway, the hero's name is Lupin, and the name of the story Nonchalant Lupin, but I don't know where he's nonchalant... (laughs)"
(Translated by Startold (TL Note: Thanks to Yunnie for the help), with a few corrections.)

Trivia

• This short story served as a prototype to Magic Kaito. Elements taken over to it were:
  • Kaito Lupin and Aoko Holmes, who were only slightly redesigned and renamed Kaito Kuroba and Aoko Nakamori.
  • The Arsène Lupin-like costume from the cover of Nonchalant Lupin was taken over as Kaitou Kid's costume, but interestingly never appears in the short story itself. The closest to it is Kaito's suit he wears at the end of the chapter.
  • Kaito Lupin's card gun was taken over into Magic Kaito pretty much unchanged in function, but wholly redesigned.
  • Doctor Aso bears more than a passing resemblance to Konosuke Jii.
  • Ken Gurikoji seemingly served as a prototype to Saguru Hakuba, who was made more handsome and a detective instead of a criminal, but otherwise fulfills the same role of the blond-haired adversary to Kaito who also vies for Aoko's affection.
  • Inspector Holmes was split into the characters of inspector Ginzo Nakamori, who's still Aoko's father, and Toichi Kuroba, who serves as Kaito's father. Aoko Holmes' mother was seemingly repurposed into the role of Chikage Kuroba, Kaito's mother.
  • Childhood flashbacks between Kaito and Aoko similar to the one shown in this story are featured in Magic Kaito a couple of times, too, including right in the first chapter.
• Aoko Nakamori founds a detective club to hunt Kaitou Kid at the end of the last episode of Magic Kaito 1412, Midnight Crow (Part 2): Clash! White or Black!?. This could be a throwback to her prototype, Aoko Holmes, being the leader of her own detective club in this short story.

See also

• Manga
• Gosho Aoyama's Collection of Short Stories
• Magic Kaito