Kaito Kuroba

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Kaito Kuroba
Profile
Japanese name:	黒羽 快斗 (Kuroba Kaito)
English name:	Kaito Kuroba
Age:	17
Gender:	Male
Height:	174 cm
Weight:	58 kg
Date of birth:	June 21
Relatives:	Toichi Kuroba (father, deceased?) Chikage Kuroba (mother) Aoko Nakamori (girlfriend) Yusaku Kudo (uncle) Yukiko Kudo (aunt) Shinichi Kudo (cousin)
Occupation:	Ekoda High School Student Magician Phantom Thief (secretly)
Status:	Alive
Nicknames:	Kaito Bakaito
Aliases:	Kaitou Kid Phantom Thief Kid 1412 Kaitou 1412
Statistics
First appearance:	Magic Kaito Chapter 1 Manga: File 159 Anime: Episode 76
Appearances:	Chapters: 39 Episodes: 24 Chapters: 1 Chapters: 2 Chapters: 78 Chapters: 34 Episodes: 44 Movies: 8 OVAs: 4 Specials: 16 Openings: 22 Closings: 6 Magic Kaito Manga: 32 Magic Kaito 1412: 24
Keyhole number:	Volume 16 (as Kaitou Kid)
Actors
Japanese voice:	Kappei Yamaguchi
English voice:	Jerry Jewell (FUNimation) Griffin Burns (Bang Zoom!, Macias Group)

Kaito Kuroba (黒羽 快斗 ,Kuroba Kaito) is the main character in the manga franchise Magic Kaito, and a recurring character in the manga and anime franchise Detective Conan. He is the current Kaitou Kid, the childhood friend and the romantic interest of Aoko Nakamori.

Background

Kaito is a second-year student at Ekoda High School Class 2-B alongside his childhood friend Aoko Nakamori, the witch Akako Koizumi, and transfer student detective Saguru Hakuba. Kaito discovers his father's identity as the original Kaitou Kid after eight years following his death thanks to a secret room inside his house as well as talking with his father's attendant and friend, Konosuke Jii. Picking up where his father left off, Kaito takes up the mantle of Kaitou Kid in an effort to lure out his father's murderers by making Kid a world-famous thief once again.

Personality

Kaito rejects Akako because of her arrogance.

According to Saguru's analysis during his search for Kaitou Kid's identity, Kaito is 174 cm (5' 8.5") tall, weighs 58 kg (128 lbs), has an IQ of 400, and is blood type 'B'. Kaito as his normal self seems to be rather popular in school although he tends to get in trouble with the ladies, particularly Aoko, for flipping up their skirts or peeking on them in the locker room. He is a compulsive trickster who loves to demonstrate his magic tricks and share them with others and hates to see people upset. Although he hasn't demonstrated it while in full costume, Kaito has an extreme fear of fish (ichthyophobia) to the point where he freaks out upon seeing Aoko wear fish-print underwear one day. In OVA 10, while escaping Trap Island, a fish flops into his escape rowboat and he panics. However, in the manga, he is not afraid of a shark when it is asleep.

Skills

Intelligence

Kaito is a highly intelligent young man. Repeatedly, he has shown a remarkable talent for methodically planning out his entire scheme and is likewise able to improvise when things fall apart. He is a very good researcher, as when preparing to become someone else, he is very thorough. He inherits photographic memory from his late father, able to seamlessly remember details about people or things that he saw. He also has a talent for seeing through deception, as he became one of the first people to realize that Conan Edogawa was not a normal child. He has repeatedly been shown to be a master manipulator. Able to see through a person's general pattern of thinking, he can give various misdirections to trick people into moving as he desires.

Disguise

Arguably, Kaito's most remarkable trait is his prowess for disguise. With little time and preparation, he can perfectly take on the likeness of virtually anyone. He can improvise to make a believable impersonation, even those that are shorter than him. More than just mimicking their frame and face, Kaito excels in perfectly imitating their voice, including accent and dialect. Also thorough is his performance, that he can effectively act like the person, copying their mannerisms, demeanor, speech patterns, ideology, and so on. Ultimately, he can fool even the people closest to his chosen imitation for hours without failing in the deception.

Stage magic

Like his father, Kaito is an accomplished magician, excelling in sleight-of-hand various other forms of misdirection. Commonly using smokescreens to obscure him from others' sight, Kaito leaves little time for people to figure his next move. He is also a proficient escapist, able to seamlessly slip out of handcuffs. Likewise, he is remarkable in stealth, able to move about unnoticed and seemingly disappear from sight.

Athletic ability

Kaito is highly athletic. He excels in various sports such as skiing, scootering, rollerblading, and hang-gliding. In his various schemes, he is shown to be very agile and perform various acrobatics. Although, (much to Aoko's amusement) cannot ice skate or play billiards. He is a remarkable shot with his gun, and has shown himself to be ambidextrous.

Other skills

He is a talented artist, able to perfectly recreate marks he has seen once. He is also capable of driving a car and a motorcycle. He is a capable hacker, plus an exceptional lockpicker and safecracker.

Appellations

Picture	Name	What they call Kaito	What Kaito calls them
	Toichi Kuroba	Kaito	Dad (Oyaji)
	Chikage Kuroba	Kaito	Mom (Kāsan) Former Phantom Lady (Moto Phantom Lady)
	Aoko Nakamori	Kaito Bakaito (insult)	Aoko Ahoko (insult)
	Ginzo Nakamori	Kaito-kun	Inspector Nakamori (Nakamori-keibu) Inspector (Keibu)
	Akako Koizumi	Kuroba-kun Kuroba Kaito (inner thoughts) Kaito (opening, once)	Akako-chan (first time) Akako
	Saguru Hakuba	Kuroba-kun	Hakuba Bastard Hakuba (Hakuba-no-yarō)
	Konosuke Jii	Young Master Kaito (Kaito-botchama) Young Master (Botchama)	Jii-chan
	Keiko Momoi	Kaito-kun	Keiko

Picture	Name	What they call Kaito	What Kaito calls them
	Conan Edogawa	Kaitou Kid Kid Magician-san Under the Moonlight (Gekka no Kijutsushi-san)	Boy (Bōzu) Detective-kun (Tantei-kun) Great Detective (Meitantei) Mr. Heisei Sherlock Holmes (Heisei no Sherlock Holmes-san)
	Ran Mouri	Shinichi	-
	Sonoko Suzuki	That high school student (Ano kōkōsei)	-
	Yukiko Kudo	Little boy (Boku, formerly)	Old lady (Obasan, childhood)
	Jirokichi Suzuki	-	Old man Suzuki (Suzuki-no-jiisan)

Plot overview

Magic Kaito

The day after the Kaitou Kid makes his return after an eight-year hiatus, Kaito stumbles through a trap door in his room and discovers that his father, Toichi Kuroba, was the original Kaitou Kid. Kaito dons his father's costume to discover the identity of the new Kaitou Kid, revealed to be his father's old assistant Konosuke Jii. Jii tells Kaito that Toichi had been murdered eight years ago and that he had dressed as the Kid and staged the heist in order to lure Toichi's killers.

So Kaito adopts the mantle of the Kid, having proven that he is more skilled than the aging and serious Jii. As the Kaitou Kid, Kaito stages several high-profile jewel heists to smoke out his father's killers, although he seems to be enjoying himself in the process. It isn't until the Blue Birthday heist that the murderers appear and reveals that they are searching for the double red-coloured gem Pandora, said to shed tears of immortality during the passing of a particular comet. Upon realizing the organization's aim and that his father was killed for his refusal to aid them in retrieving Pandora, Kaito vows as Kaitou Kid to find the Pandora gem first and destroy it.

Detective Conan

A young Kaito Kuroba offers Yukiko Kudo a flower.

Since then, he has appeared in several Detective Conan cases. If his target is a gem, he always holds it up to the moonlight, presumably to check if it's the Pandora gem, before returning it, even if Conan seemingly has him cornered.

In other instances, Kid has staged heists when people such as Jirokichi Suzuki have called him out, or when criminals have used the Kaitou Kid's name to deflect blame from themselves, as in the Sunset Mansion case or the Seiran case. He also appeared in the Ryoma case to expose several counterfeiters who were pretending to possess items that another thief called the Phantom Lady had stolen years ago. At that time, Kid implied that he may be a family relation of the 'Phantom Lady'.

A young Kaito also appeared in a flashback during which Conan recalled a riddle that he and Ran had tried to solve when they were in first grade. It turned out that the 'riddler' had been the original Kaitou Kid, Toichi Kuroba, who seemed to be a friend of Yusaku Kudo.

In chapter 824, Kid had played a significant role in the main Detective Conan plot by disguising as Sherry under Conan's request. Their plan successfully tricked the Black Organization into believing she is dead.

Non-canon Detective Conan overview

In The Lost Ship in the Sky, it's revealed that Kaito knew Conan's real identity as Shinichi Kudo. He helped Conan who was thrown out of the airship and they worked together to get back. Kaito has disguised himself as Shinichi five times, in The Last Wizard of the Century, Magician of the Silver Sky, The Lost Ship in the Sky, Sunflowers of Inferno, and The Fist of Blue Sapphire, in which led Sato and Takagi to suspect that Shinichi was Kaitou Kid. The two later share their suspicion with Heiji to which he responded with an 'Are you kidding me?' face.

Relationships analysis

Family and friends

Kaito and Aoko.

Aoko Nakamori

Kaito and Aoko Nakamori have been best friends since they were little and first met at the clock tower. They are portrayed as a similar pairing to Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mouri (including how the characters are drawn) and Heiji Hattori and Kazuha Toyama, except much sillier. Kaito often teases Aoko by flipping her skirt. However, it has been seen that Kaito is quite protective of Aoko and doesn't appear to want her to go on a date with Saguru Hakuba. Aoko was somewhat suspicious that Kaito was Kaitou Kid, and in order to prove his innocence, she brought him along to a movie when a heist had been scheduled. She handcuffed him to the seat, but Kaito managed to escape and pull off the heist, thus veering Aoko's suspicions away from him. The two have feelings for one each other, but neither has admitted it as of yet.

In the last chapter of Yaiba a scene set after a three years time skip has Keiko Momoi telling Sayaka Mine that Kuroba and Nakamori are a couple now, while Keiko's friend confirms having seen them together.

Akako Koizumi

Kaito wishes he was with Aoko instead.

Since Akako's first appearance in Volume 1, she's attempted to get Kaito to fall head over heels for her using whatever means necessary, including using a voodoo doll and hurting him in the process. Akako's obsession with Kaito comes from Kaitou Kid, whom she realizes is Kaito, being the only man on Earth able to resist her. Despite Akako injuring Kaito during their first confrontation, Kaito as Kid behaves like a complete gentleman and encourages Akako to be herself in order to get someone to like her instead of forcing them through witchcraft. Akako grows to have great concern for Kaito as evidenced by her warning Kaito against going to a heist and later assisting Kaitou Kid to escape safely from the heist that she had foreseen him being captured at. In Volume 2, Akako openly states she likes Kaito in front of Aoko.

Saguru Hakuba

Kaito Kuroba and Saguru Hakuba

The relationship between Saguru and Kaito is a rather tense one; since Saguru convinced himself early on that Kaito was instead Kid, and during the first few volumes he's constantly throwing out offhand comments that show his suspicion. However, later on in the manga, we have a small scene where Saguru calls Kaito from Paris in order to give him some information on 'Chat Noir', a dangerous, fellow gem thief trying to outshine Kid. Though Kaito continues to vehemently deny being Kid, Saguru gives him the information anyways, ending the conversation with, "Do your best at least. I don't want to see you lose to anyone before I capture you myself". Whether or not that was his actual motive, or if he was merely concerned for Kaito's well being, is unknown.

Others

Conan Edogawa

In the manga, Kid and Conan are rivals. Ever since Kaito met Conan, Kaito always seems to be anticipating Conan's appearance at his heists. Conan makes the heists more interesting for Kaito, while Conan views Kaito's heists as entertainment.

Before being shrunk, Shinichi had encountered Kaitou Kid once during the Clock Tower heist, though they did not meet face-to-face. In their next encounter, however, after Shinichi had become Conan, Kid disguised himself as Ran to steal the Suzuki Black Star pearl. When Conan cornered him on the Suzuki cruise ship, Kid suggested that he'd stolen all of Ran's clothes to impersonate her, and left her naked on the deck. While this ended up being a bluff, Conan was shocked and infuriated. In subsequent encounters between Kid and Conan, Conan displays a much more intense desire to capture Kid.

Since then, Conan is usually a serious threat to Kid's plans and stops Kid often enough from escaping with the jewel that Conan has gained a reputation in the press as Kid's "natural enemy". In several instances Conan appears to be able to 'sense' Kid's presence; knowing Kid is close by often causes Conan to behave far more frenetically. Appropriately, Kid seems to find Conan dangerous enough to warrant specific measures to keep the boy distracted. Conan does not seem to like Kid, saying once "He's only a thief that uses magic". However, if necessary, the two can put their rivalry aside (for a little while) and work together. Conan has something of a gentleman's agreement with Kaitou Kid that he won't look for the thief outside of heists. In several instances, beginning with the "Big Adventure in the Eccentric Residence" case, when Kid does Conan/Shinichi a favor, such as saving Genta's life in the aforementioned case, Conan reciprocates by halting his investigation just shy of capturing Kid, thereby allowing him to escape mostly unhindered. This exchange of favors can sometimes become a bit unbalanced; Conan was perfectly willing to force Kaitou Kid against his will into facing a member of the Black Organization at gunpoint in a carriage filled with explosives.

In the movies, Kid becomes aware that Conan is Shinichi after he once overheard Conan talking to Professor Agasa and displaying too much criminal knowledge for a 7-year-old. As a result, he ends up using Shinichi's identity to either further his own goals and challenge Conan at the same time, or to pay back a favor Conan has done him. Since movies cannot be considered canon, it was once unclear whether Kid knows Conan is Shinichi in the official manga. However, since "Kaitou Kid and the Trick Box" case, it is clear that Kid does not know Conan's true identity because he called him "Conan-kun" and not "Shinichi" while they were alone. There are also some speculations on Conan figuring out that Kid isn't just stealing randomly. At the end of the OVA 4: Conan, Kid, and the Crystal Mother, Conan had turned with a serious face when he remembered a phrase that Kid had said, "Next time, I'll help myself to the Jewel of Destiny." In movie 14, Conan asked for Kid to disguise himself as him for a while.

In chapter 1018 of the manga Kid is shown thinking "What's this? Two high school detectives..." while the only high school detectives that appeared, in that case, were Heiji and Conan, making it very likely that Kid is aware of Conan's identity but nothing has been officially stated or confirmed. When Kaito was disguise as Shinichi in the Azure Throne heist, he was surprised he looked similar to Shinichi Kudo but didn’t realised Conan and Shinichi are one and the same individual.

Ran Mouri

Ran has always been suspicious of Kaito Kid, assuming that Kaito is Kudo Shinichi in disguise, despite Kaito Kid disguised Shinichi on many occasions. Therefore, Kaito Kid tricked Ran by seducing her with his romantic charms to believe that he is Shinichi. However, Ran already knows that Kaito Kid is not Shinichi. In Detective Conan's The Lost Ship in the Sky, Kaito Kid pretends to be Shinichi to convince Ran not to turn him in. At the end of the film, Ran and Kid almost kiss, until she told him, "you are not Shinichi." Conan shows up after seeing what Kaito did to Ran and immediately got jealous. Conan asked Ran, "How do you know that Kaito Kid is not Shinichi?" Ran responded that Kaito Kid "did something that Shinichi does not do." That is when Kaito Kid has his hands on her butt.

Heiji Hattori

Kaito and Heiji Hattori have never canonically met, although Heiji faced up against the Kid in Movie 3, and interacted with a disguised Kaito during Movie 10. They were also involved in the same cases in OVA 6 and Movie 14, but never directly interacted. Also in Movie 10, there is a scene that we see Saguru, but at the end, it turns out that was Kaito so he has met Heiji as Saguru. But Heiji didn't seem to notice it.

Lupin III

In Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: The Movie, while they never directly meet face-to-face with each other, Kaitou Kid and Lupin III had made their first encounter at the beginning of the film. Kaito Kuroba, while being in his citizen guise, was among the many people present to see the heists of Lupin, who was masquerading as Kaitou Kid, with a valuable diamond. Fujiko Mine claimed if Lupin was unable to save her, by stealing the Cherry Sapphire, she can always ask Kaitou Kid for help. By the end of the film where Lupin was in Japan, in contrary to how Conan had thought he had left, Lupin had tried to steal another valuable jewel only to find it already to be stolen and replaced by a small note left by Kaitou Kid; the act was most likely to return the favor for Lupin’s temporary identity theft, for using Kid’s identity, with the diamond heist. As Lupin was being chased, by Inspector Zenigata who didn’t believe Lupin didn’t steal the jewel, he had declared his rivalry with Kaitou Kid.

Name origin

The characters in Kuroba (黒羽) mean "black feather". Kaito's given name (快斗) has different kanji than the word 'kaitou' (怪盗), which means 'phantom thief,' although they intentionally sound alike.

Character popularity

• In honor of the release of the 15th movie, Quarter of Silence, the official Conan movie website held a popularity poll for the top 10 Detective Conan characters. Kaito/Kaitou Kid placed 2nd out of 10 with 18.99% of the votes cast.
• In honor of the release of the 800th manga chapter, Shonen Sunday held a popularity poll/contest containing 91 Detective Conan characters to choose from. Kaitou Kid/Kaito Kuroba placed 2nd overall with 1,696 votes.

Different looks

Detective Conan (episode 76).

Detective Conan (episode 219).

Detective Conan (movie 14).

Detective Conan (episode 704).

Detective Conan (episode 888).

Magic Kaito Special (episode 1).

Magic Kaito Special (episode 12).

Magic Kaito 1412 (episode 5).

Quotes

General

“	I'm Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you!	„
— To Aoko Nakamori in File 24

“	That's not it, Aoko. It's not like I want to make fun of the inspector nor do I enjoy stealing. I just want to find the truth, the culprits who murdered my father eight years ago and take revenge for him. In order to do that, I need to become Kaitou Kid and I cannot afford to give up!	„

“	I see you still have no sense of humor.	„
— To Conan Edogawa in Kaitou Kid's Teleportation Magic

Specific

“	Aoko: You're so cold... Like ice cream. Kaito: But ice cream is, sweet too.	„
— File 4

“	Besides, I'm not here tonight as the son of Kuroba Touichi, your mentor in magic, nor the second-year high-school student you call Young Master. Right now, I'm the one they're all talking about. A pompous villain...	„
— Talking to Jii in File 23

About Kaito

“	Ginzo: Kaito-kun is... Kaitou Kid. Aoko: Don't be silly! Ginzo: No, I'm sure of it. I saw his face! And Kaito-kun performs magic too... All the more suspicious. Kaitou Kid's next notice is set for this Sunday. You'll know for sure then. Aoko: Shut up! There's no way Kaito is Kaitou Kid! He promised to take me on a date this Sunday!	„
— File 4

Trivia

Kaito Lupin

• A prototype version of Kaito appears in Aoyama's "Nonchalant Lupin (さりげなくルパン ,Sarigenaku Rupan)" short story. In this version, Kaito is named Kaito Lupin (流犯 快斗 ,Rupan Kaito).
• The name 'Kuroba' is a transliteration of 'clover.' A four-leaf clover also appears on the tag of Kid's monocle. Additionally, in the manga's second chapter Kaito disguises himself as an old man named Count Clover.
• Gosho Aoyama gave Kaito the same height and weight measurements that he had in 1990, as well as his own blood type.
• Kaito and Gosho Aoyama also have the same birthday, June 21.
• Gosho Aoyama stated in the comments of the Magic Kaito chapters in the Treasured Edition releases of the manga, that he considers Kaito's ice cream line from Magic Kaito Chapter 4 to be the most embarrassing line of dialogue he has ever written.
• In both the Japanese and English dub, Kaito shares the same voice actor as that of Shinichi Kudo. Kaito and Shinichi already resemble each other so closely that in the Black Star case, Ran sees Kaito in the street and mistakes him for Shinichi. In Movie 8 and again in Movie 19, Kaito disguises himself as Shinichi and without the use of a mask succeeds in completely fooling everyone except for Ran.
• In Spanish, he doesn't share his voice with Shinichi, but with Hattori. However, this isn't much of a problem since he can perfectly mimic voices.
• Although Kaito's and Shinichi's teenaged-selves share the same voice actor, Kappei Yamaguchi, two different voice actors portray them as children: young Kaito is still voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi, while Conan and young Shinichi are voiced by Minami Takayama.
• His favorite class is physical education. For example, he practices kendo and in sword fights, he even manages to stand up to Yaiba Kurogane.

In other languages

Language	Given Name	Family Name
Japanese	快斗 Kaito	黒羽 Kuroba
Arabic	كايتو Kāito كاتيو Kātyo
Bahasa Indonesia	Kaito	Kuroba
Chinese (Simplified)	快斗 Kuàidòu	黑羽 Hēiyǔ
English	Kaito	Kuroba
Filipino	Kaito	Kuroba
French	Kaito	Kuroba
Italian	Kaito	Kuroba
Catalan	Kaito	Kuroba
Spanish	Kaito	Kuroba
Spanish (Latin America)	Kaito	Kuroba
Korean	희도 HuiDo	고 Ko
Russian	Кайто Kaito	Куроба Kuroba

Gallery

• 

  Kaito uses a simple dark clothing scheme before heists to avoid calling attention to himself. Pursuers expecting the dramatic white of Kid's uniform are thrown off when Kaito switches to black.

• 

  Kaito 10 years ago.

See also

• Characters
• Kaitou Kid
• Kaito Kuroba and Aoko Nakamori