| Kaito Kuroba | |
| Profile | |
| Japanese name: | 黒羽 快斗 (Kuroba Kaito) |
|---|---|
| Age: | 17 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Date of birth: | June 21 |
| Relatives: | Toichi Kuroba (father)
Chikage Kuroba (mother) |
| Aliases: | Kaitou Kid Phantom Thief Kid 1412 Kaitou 1412 |
| Statistics | |
| First appearance: | Magic Kaito Chapter 1 Manga: File 156 Anime: Episode 76 |
| Appearances: | Chapters: 4
Episodes: 4 OVAs: 2 |
| Actors | |
| 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.
Background
Kaito is the current Kaitou Kid. 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.
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 shatter it into pieces.
Personality
According to Hakuba's analysis during his search for Kaitou Kid's identity, Kaito is 174 cm (5'8") tall, weighs 58 kg (128 lbs), his IQ 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 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, but (much to Aoko's amusement) cannot ice skate or play snooker.
Although he hasn't demonstrated it while dressed as Kaitou Kid, Kaito has an extreme fear of fish (ichthyophobia) to the point where he freaks out seeing Aoko wearing fish-print underwear one day.
Relationship
Aoko Nakamori
Similar to Shinichi and Ran, Kaito and Aoko are childhood friends who met each other at a young age. Personality
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. 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
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. 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.
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.
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'.
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.
Gallery
Trivia
- The name 'Kaito' means 'kite.' It is written differently (i.e. is a different kanji) than the word 'kaitou,' which means 'phantom thief.'
- 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 Kudou. 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 third movie, he appears disguised as Shinichi at Ran and Kogoro's home and fools Ran, as Conan was about to reveal himself as Shinchi, but Kaito intervenes. He leaves almost immediately after making an appearance, so whether or not Ran would have realized it was Kid is unknown. 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.
- His favorite food is chocolate ice cream.
- Kaito is also the son of the thief Phantom Lady.
- He can't skate on ice.
- He is utterly terrified of fish. His childhood friend, Aoko Nakamori, learns this secret from his mother and then terrorizes him with it afterward, in retaliation for pranks he plays on her.
- Kaito and Shinichi look alike, while Aoko bears some resemblance to Ran or Kazuha.