Kaito Kuroba
| Kaito Kuroba | |
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| |
| Japanese name: | 黒羽 快斗 (Kuroba Kaito) |
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| Age: | 16-17 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Date of birth: | June 21 |
| Relatives: | Toichi Kuroba (father, deceased) Chikage Kuroba (mother) |
| Aliases: | Kaitou Kid Phantom Thief Kid 1412 Kaitou 1412 |
| First appearance: | Magic Kaito Chapter 1 Manga: File 156 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: 30 |
| Japanese voice: | Kappei Yamaguchi |
| English voice: | Jerry Jewell |
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.
Contents
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. Wanting to pick up where Jii left off, Kaito continues to be Kaitou Kid in an effort to lure out his father's murderers by making Kid a world-famous thief once again.
Personality and Skills
According to Hakuba's analysis during his search for Kaitou Kid's identity, Kaito is 174 cm (5'8.5") tall, weighs 58 kg (128 lbs), and is blood type 'B'.[1]
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. Kaito seems to be quite good at many things, including skiing,[2] but (much to Aoko's amusement) cannot ice skate or play snooker.[3][4]
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.[5] In OVA 10, while in the process of escaping Trap Island, a fish flops into his escape rowboat and he panics.[6]
Relationships analysis
Family & Friends
Aoko Nakamori
Akako Koizumi
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.[7] Akako grows to have great concern for Kaito as evidenced by her warning Kaito[8] against going to a heist and later assisting Kaitou Kid to escape safely from the heist that she had foreseen him being captured at.[9] In Volume 2, Akako openly states she likes Kaito in front of Aoko.[10]
Saguru Hakuba
The relationship between Hakuba and Kaito is a rather tense one; since Hakuba 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 Hakuba calls Kaito from Paris in order to give him some information on 'Chat Noir', a dangerous, fellow gem thief trying to outshine Kid.[11] Though Kaito continues to vehemently deny being Kid, Hakuba 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.
People who know Kaitou Kid's real identity
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 with the intention of smoking 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 reveal that they are searching for the doublet 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.[12]
Detective Conan
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'.[13]
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.
However, no cases in Detective Conan have connected the Kaitou Kid to the main plot concerning the Black Organization. However, 'first-grader' Conan Edogawa has become rather famous in his own right for foiling several Kid heists. Presumably, if the Black Organization recognized "Conan" from the papers, both he and the Kid would be in serious trouble.
In The Lost Ship in the Sky, it's revealed that Kaito knew Conan's real identity of 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 three times, in The Last Wizard of the Century, in Magician of the Silver Sky, and in The Lost Ship in the Sky 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.
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.[14]
Fan Theories
- The organization that killed Toichi and searching for Pandora is the Black Organization in Detective Conan
It has been suggested that the organization in question may actually be the Black Organization in Detective Conan, but this theory has yet to be proven. The member of the organization that claimed responsibility for killing Toichi eight years ago is referred to as "Snake"[15], a nickname that doesn't fit in with the codenames of the Black Organization, suggesting they are two separate groups. This though may not be the case if Snake refers to Snake Wine, but because Kaitou Kid's origins have yet to be reexplained within the Detective Conan story, this is only speculation. Though it is possible that the "upper ranks" have liquor-based code names while "lower ranks" have animal or other based codenames.
Trivia
- 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.
- Kaito, along with Shinichi Kudo, Heiji Hattori and Saguru Hakuba, are sometimes referred to as 'The Four Geniuses' or 'The Gosho Boys' by fans.
- In both the Japanese and English dub, Kid/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 the eighth movie, Kaito disguises himself as Shinichi and without the use of a mask succeeds in completely fooling everyone except for Ran.
- Although Kaito's and Shinichi's teenaged-selves share the same seiyuu, Kappei Yamaguchi, two different seiyuu voice them when they are portrayed as children (or Conan, in Shinichi's case). A young Kaito was seen in flashbacks in episode 473, "The Adventure of Young Kudo Shinichi," and in the first episode of the Magic Kaito anime adaptation.
- 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.
See also
- Characters
- Kaitou Kid
- Kaito Kuroba Appearances
- Kaitou Kid Appearances
- Kuroba Family
- This fan-made Kaitou Kid reference page.
References
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1994-10-15). "Akako's Delivery Service" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 3. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 86-87. ISBN 4-09-122093-5.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1988-11-15). "Let Go of Him" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 2. Tokyo: Shogakukan. ISBN 4-09-122082-7.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1994-10-15). "The Great Detective Appears!!" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 3. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 36. ISBN 4-09-122093-5.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1988-11-15). "Hustler vs. Magician" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 2. Tokyo: Shogakukan. ISBN 4-09-122082-7.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1988-11-15). "Hustler vs. Magician" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 2. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 158. ISBN 4-09-122082-7.
- ^ OVA 10: Kid in Trap Island
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1988-05-15). "The Scarlet Temptress" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 1. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 180. ISBN 4-09-122081-9.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1994-10-15). "Akako's Delivery Service" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 3. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 93-95. ISBN 4-09-122083-5.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1994-10-15). "Akako's Delivery Service" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 3. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 100-103. ISBN 4-09-122083-5.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1988-11-15). "Let Go of Him" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 2. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 11. ISBN 4-09-122082-7.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2007-03-15). "Golden Eye Part 1" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 4. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 18. ISBN 4-09-121005-0.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1994-10-15). "Blue Birthday" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 3. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 144. ISBN 4-09-122093-5.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho. "74" (in Japanese). Detective Conan. 70. Tokyo.
- ^ "名探偵コナン「キャラクター人気投票」". www.conan-movie.jp. 2011. http://www.conan-movie.jp/camp_chara/camp15th_res.html. Retrieved on 2011-08-12.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1994-10-15). "Blue Birthday" (in Japanese). Magic Kaito. 3. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 140. ISBN 4-09-122093-5.
