you spend one (1) second thinking too hard about Kaito's life and you realize how insanely fucked up it is and how his entire personality is a trauma response and how he's actually incredibly lonely, with barely anyone who understands him, and
and you look at Kaito himself
and he's having a GRAND old time
little shit rubbing his hands together giggling like a cartoon villain reading news about himself on the newspaper to boost his ego
I just realized that, even though I have Wolf as my icon, I never really explained who he is outside of one post that was just 'look, furry version of Kaito'. (And making icons of him on the icon blog.)
Kaitou Wolf is from the... Well, this one is from his first appearance in the Japanese History manga series. Which had 2.5 separate series. Which expanded into World History for 2 series. Which has now become more generalized into whatever topics the authors want to highlight, not labelled as History anymore, but still involving time travel most of the time. Not real time travel, of course, but it's a big learning program game Agasa made for the kids where the majority of the story we read as the manga is from the perspective of the various main characters within that program trying to accomplish some task. The Detective Boys are watching everything from a big computer screen and can communicate with these main characters to help them with knowledge or direct them on what information to gather.
(Spoilers I guess for Wolf's role in the series that barely got one book translated before it got nuked.)
I do not know if it's all programed, if real people are involved, or if Agasa invented a lot of sentient AI. (I think it's the latter.) I haven't fully read through everything to see if it was ever clearly clarified at some point, but I will say there are zero normal game elements most of the time, and reads like normal people are thrown around the timeline where the DB can just happen to see what's going on.
Wolf wasn't made by Agasa. He's a rogue element that Kaito inserted into the game to make it more interesting. With the first series, Kaito was definitely paying attention, so it was hard to tell when Wolf was acting on his own or if he was directed, but at this point he's basically a sentient AI.
For Japanese History pt 2, he's playing an antagonistic role again...
...But it's because he was left in the machine. Conan assumes Wolf is just acting out on his own, now that there's a new adventure and Kaito's not there, but in at least the last volume, he's being forced to play his role. (And it goes way further than he's comfortable with and some self sacrificing may have happened, but he's a program so it's fine. Maybe some tears earned, but. Fine.)
((And the .5 of 2.5 Japanese History is just four books following up on events from the first series. Wolf was with Kaito in that one and was just a mild nuisance, mostly just there to pass along a message to Conan.))
Then we get to World History. With a new antagonist!
Cat Thief Carat!
Mostly the same shtick, causing problems for the adventurers using the same general phantom thief skillset. (Mostly disguises, but also random tools.) But! She does have more motive than just 'be annoying'.
She wants Kid's attention. And this is a point I start getting unsure who did this. It'd make sense if Agasa made a new character to act as an antagonist in his game... But that's a weird character trait for him to come up with. But it'd be weirder if another outside party came and added their own character because Kid had done it before. ...Anyway.
She brings Wolf back into this, once again mostly against his will, but doesn't have as much control over his actions as the creator of the game itself. He wasn't happy about the control before, but he's more chill about the situation he's in. Probably because he can go against her with just mild punishment, and it's more antics than pure evil. They end on a good note, all said, on pretty good terms. (No attention from Kid, though, to Carat's disappointment.)
World pt 2... decided to make him help the adventurers.
Dressed like this instead of. Y'know. His Kid outfit that he's always been in. And since he's not causing problems, Carat steps in again to fill that role, and is pretty upset that he's nice now. And his eyes always look glazed over with no pupil.
...Yeah, he's being controlled again. (You can probably guess who might have gotten involved in building this plot just by looking at Wolf.) He's back to normal by the end, Carat snaps him out of this role once the story is done, he's mostly just embarrassed.
On to the new (current) adventure!
Oh look, new-new animal themed antagonist! Not even a thief this time, though she does do a lot of the same disguise and messing around, this time with added agility. We don't know where she came from or why she want to get in the way, but this time, that's a plot point for the players. Aka everyone who is only interacting with the virtual world by looking at a screen. Which is just the DB 95% of the time, but we do have an extra person interested in who's involved with the game now.
That's right, Kaitou! ...Probably Wolf, since it's within the virtual world for the first time he appears in this adventure, but!
Bam! The Kaitou Kid is in on the game again! He hasn't really been involved with other adventures, and this one isn't quite finished, so we don't know why he got interested in this one yet. He says he's curious about who's behind the mouse girl, but did someone tell him about it to begin with? Did he get challenged? Who knows, I just like the current goings on because it gave this image that makes Wolf flat out being AI stronger and I like the idea of Kaito's own AI asking for help with another AI.
(The girl moves around too much for the usual card gun confrontation to be effective, so Kaito had to come up with a talisman (program) to stop the girl from moving completely. It's worked twice so far, but I have a feeling it won't work in the future books. Has Wolf always been able to access Kaito in some way, since Kaito is his creator? Or is it something that needed to be allowed, or hacked into by Kaito himself? -shrug-)
Carat hasn't shown up at all so far, and I wonder if she'll either pop in at random or if her absence is part of the new girl's mystery. I'd feel a little bad for her if she completely missed Kid actually getting involved again.
The contrast between the Detective Conan/Magic Kaito friendgroups is incredible. Conan has several childhood friends, some newer friends, his BFF, allies, a few trusted adults, etc. Kaito has his childhood bestie and two highschoolers that are hunting him for sport.
i see your fics where kaito finally gets to move on after pandora, most often filled with satisfaction or relief but where are the fics that go into the emptiness of revenge?
imagine with me, if you will:
your entire life for years has revolved around a single purpose and now it is gone. you have created the perfect cover for yourself, the perfect personality to keep people from looking too closely at your actions or your alibi and now you're not sure whether it is a lie or the truth. where does the fake you end and the true self begin?
you have neglected to grow dreams that do not shine under the light of the moon, and you may be a great thief but where do you even begin when stealing dreams, when stealing a new purpose for yourself after your previous quest of revenge burned away all the parts of yourself that you once deemed too soft to survive the task.
where are all the fics that delve into the psychological horror of having once been a teen subsumed with rage and hate and self-imposed loneliness, now struggling to carve a way out into a better self?
I've read fics that always had Shinichi being aroused if Kaito wears the 'night-time uniform' in bed or when Kid just briefly appears, especially when Kid is long retired and just living as Kuroba Kaito.
I get the appeal, seriously and I can say I'm not immune to the man in a uniform.
But but, just think about it. What if it was the opposite? Instead of Shinichi blushing over Kid, what if he was so used to being around Kid and his suave gentlemanly flirty behaviour that when he finally met Kaito he was so blindsided and needed a second to reboot? Meeting the bundle of mischievous joy with boyish natural charm that says his feelings STRAIGHT and ACTUALLY DIRECT AS HELL as he just naturally throws flirts and compliments in a SINCERE WAY to Shinichi and Shinichi? He just breaks down.
It's so funny how he probably understood that this guy was a PBS agent undercover in a dangerous organisation. Kaito learning lore of stuff that he didn't even care or know about, all of it outside of his control
i was remember playing a Conan 3DS game and there was this party and Kid happened to eavesdrop on all sorta of shady conversations and going „huh, that sounds concerning.“ all serious before going „WELP NOT MY PROBLEM, MOVING ON“
The interesting thing about KID and Shinichi’s dynamic is that Kaito/KID knows more about Shinichi, and is more invested in their friendship, but does not trust him. Meanwhile Shinichi trusts KID very implicitly and to a startling degree, but doesn’t know much about him and isn’t super invested in their friendship. KID goes out of his way to mess with Conan/Shinichi and enjoys reaffirming their friendship/rivalry, while Shinichi doesn’t take initiative to chase KID. But KID won’t let Shinichi close to him or let down his guard, while Shinichi is content to let KID get close to him and you can see that he sometimes even relaxes around KID. Personally, I find that dynamic really interesting and worth exploring
First off, the cousins thing. I'll be honest, I fully thought the movie was going to go with a common ancestor route instead of the more direct dad's being brothers. Obviously that didn't turn out, but considering they also brought in Okita and his face, it would have made a lot more sense to just go further back and also leave explanation for the other same-face Gosho boys that are scattered around. But I guess that wouldn't have been dramatic enough, so oh well.
I'd still probably ship KaiShin. The cousins thing really doesn't bother me when they don't even know (because nobody in this series talks about any family until it has maximum audience whammy). I see some people who are lamenting, because it makes things uncomfortable for them, and that's fair. I don't see it quite as bad as like. Leia and Luke from Star Wars, or the more personal Layton and Descole from PL, both pairs being direct siblings instead of first cousins, but plenty of people still probably view it as too close. Also, if anyone is familiar with the hiimdaisy Ace Attorney comic with Apollo and Trucy and Phoenix is supposed to tell them they're related and Does Not time it well. -finger guns- It would make a great parody comic idea for this KaiShin situation. (I might do it myself if no one else does, but would Not be soon.)
Other people bring up that Gosho mentioned much, much earlier that there was a reason Kaito and Shinichi look alike. Which I did remember, but the thing about that is. That I don't trust Gosho in the slightest. Like, did he actually plan out Yuusaku and Toichi's separated twins backstory at that time, or did he have a general idea that he'd be making them familial related somewhere in their tree? Some people truly thought Kaito and Shinichi could be the brothers, with the Kuroba's adopting for some various fandom-created reasons. Or other, far more dramatic direct relation. Could Gosho's comment have just been him making a joke that the 'reason' was him thinking about them having the same inspiration? How serious was he meant to be taken 20 years ago?
Many people saying 'of course they're related, they look exactly alike':
1) Sameface syndrome with characters goes well beyond Kaito and Shinichi. There were so many protoypes of characters, or just matching looks to character types, of course not everyone is gonna hop on the 'well duh, they must be related' train. It's nice to feel vindication for headcanoning them as family, but don't make it sound like people are stupid for being upset. There's very little to tell what's lampshading and teasing vs 'no, really, they're gonna be related to each other'.
2) The common ancestor explanation would have worked perfectly fine, and honestly, the fact that Toichi and Yuusaku are twin brothers separated through divorce who happen to both have stayed in the Tokyo area (mostly) while both being internationally famous and maintaining contact with each other and sending gifts even when one of them is publicly dead. Sounds goddamn stupid. (The brothers idea would probably have been fine and plausible, it was all that Extra that pushed it into 'okay just stop, this sounds like a load of contrived bullshit'. How did no one during the 'reveal' of that go 'um, I know this is how you want this connection to go, but can we make it sound more plausible/real?')
Because, Gosho clearly didn't plan on them being related all along. That's probably what actually bothers be about the contrived connection (since the real impact to KaiShin is relatively small). It's very obvious that he just drew his male protags for quite a few stories looking very similar. (Usually in his image, to an extent, though that's usually just mentioned for Kaito, specifically.) It was also clear that when he had Kid make a surprise appearance in DC, there really wasn't supposed to be a connection. Did he come up with it on his own? Only after people asked about it? Did he go 'you know, I might could connect the two for fun'? I don't know. I don't trust a man who created Sera's concept based on a cool female detective and wrapped her up with Akai and made the whole stupid family thing, and who changed Amuro's planned role as a bad guy on a whim because he was too cool to be bad, to have actually planned out this family connection all along.
And even with all that, there's also the issue of revealing this information in a movie. People have had arguments about movie canonicity for years, and yet this all gets mentioned for cinema shock value. I don't mind the using extra characters, or making things more action packed than the manga would allow, or even stupid things like Kidnichi 200 times. But this? This is asking for chaos. It feels like a big clusterfuck of yes, no, maybe, for how important this is going to be going forward, because we don't even know if Gosho means to make use of this info for the mangas at all, or if it's going to remain background information from a movie that may or may not even be relevant to know. Except as a wink to the audience and a middle finger to shippers, I guess.
(There are pluses to this, which is general thinking about the implications of this family dynamic and how chaotic things could actually get or how things got to be how they are already. I'd like to know what exactly Yuusaku knows about his brother's status and if his 'friend from interpol' could be used to connect to Toichi's whole. Legally died but is still alive and being an a-hole to his son by letting him go into the profession that was trying to kill him.) ((Yes, we're still gonna murder Toi, especially since his amnesia out is clearly off the table. We don't know enough about what Yuusaku knows, but I can't even say he's on thin ice because the chances of him knowing a lot about Kaito's situation is too damn high to let him off the hook.))
...Anyway, that's obviously the main drama, but side note that I'm also mad because movie being canon or not aside (I adopt movies as canon, especially newer ones, but people can also ignore them without loosing manga compliance really), the issue I have is the further blurring of MK and DC connection. At this point, it literally is just Akako being the crux of the 'are they the same universe or aren't they' argument, and it's literally never gonna get answered because Gosho refuses to even let her show up in DC for anything. You truly can argue either way when she's just not shown. And even though it won't happen, it's to a point where they feel so obviously the same universe that I hope Gosho just let's Akako do a cameo at the end of DC just to mess with people. But regardless, making MK only characters directly related to DC characters is. Maddening for that whole argument. (Sure, Toichi has appeared in DC before, however, the movie goes out of the way to add that extra 'fuck you' to the audience by revealing not just Toichi being alive and texting Yuusaku casually, but the reveal is in his fucking. Corbeau outfit. Which. Corbeau is 1000% MK only knowledge, so there's not getting around that no one would know that character unless they've read MK.)
And last note, the one other spoiler I've seen mentioned is the failed Heizuha confession and just. The reasons for failing get dumber and dumber and just add to the mess of spoilers coming from this movie. Oh no, Iori, the former government agent dude working for the rich girl love rival for Heiji's affection, dropped a flashbomb at the exact time Heiji confessed, so Kazuha never heard it. I don't think the spoilers I saw ever clarified if he was doing something and it was coincidence, or if it was intentional, but. God the fails being turned into elaborate jokes is getting. Ridiculous. I don't even care if they get together in canon, I'm not super invested in the ship, but I feel like even if I did want them to get together, there's. Literally zero hope for any build ups at this point. You can't keep leading up to it and pulling it away, people are gonna stop caring. At this point, half the people invested are just going to give an exasperated 'finally' when it happens, instead of actually being excited at this point, it's just tiring.
I hope the rest of the movie is at least entertaining. Fun action packed eye-candy fluff to help numb the stupid 'important' scenes. Spoilers might feel ick, but it's in a vacuum of reading words about scenes on their own. (Which probably won't change the Yuusaku scene at all, but Heiji's confession is. Probably an 'okay, here we go, what happens this time' thing that's better if you're already just there for entertainment.)
Edit: Someone has now basically confirmed with their own watch that the movie is fun, and the bombshell of lore is at the very end.