kaitoushinichi wrote:I have no intention of starting a major, heated up argument here. What you want to believe is your choice.
But that's what this thread is for isn't it?
kaitoushinichi wrote:
#1 Conan is just way too close to catching Kaito, and it would be strange if Kaito didn't suspect Conan's identity and didn't start investigating.
Because he knows Conan's identity, Kaito Kid in the movies acts noticeably different around Conan versus their interactions in the manga. Additionally, I would think it's strange for Kaitou
to suspect something was amiss with Conan's identity, although I wouldn't be surprised if he is wondering what is up with Conan.
If we are going to be rigorous, all the evidence that Kaitou can use to deduce Conan's identity must have come from the cases that occurred before the third movie chronologically when it was first shown that Kaitou Kid knows. Movie three came out into theaters April 17, 1999. The plot of the movie was probably decided a year before. Only three (I assume) cases with Kaitou had appeared in the manga before the screen time: Kaito Kid on a boat (156-159), The Meeting of Magicians in the snowy cabin (192-196), and I am going to guess the Magic Kaito Clocktower meeting. That's not much interaction time with Conan for Kid to base deductions off of.
For Kaitou Kid to realize Conan and Shinichi are the same person he needs to make four observations and connect the dots.
#1:
Conan is not like a normal Kid - I believe Kaitou figured this out the first time he met Conan on the roof of the Haido City hotel. By the end of the meeting of the magicians, I'm sure he is impressed with Conan's deductive abilities.
#2:
Kudo Shinichi went missing the same time Conan appeared. - First off, does Kaitou Kid even care that much about Shinichi? Shinichi only showed up at one of Kaitou's heists, so it's not like Shinichi was ever a regular concern like Hakuba or Inspector Nakamori. In other words, Shinichi should be low on Kaitou's interest list; would Kid even notice that Shinichi has been out of the papers recently and if so, does he care since they only met once previously? Also, even if he noticed that Shinichi disappeared around the same time Kogoro began to hit the papers, it's not like Conan's presence was published along with it. Kid would have to hammer down that Conan didn't appear before or after Kogoro started hitting the stands. Eisuke managed to figure this out so it isn't impossible, however Eisuke had an extremely strong motivating interest to closely examine the goings on of the detective agency that Kaitou Kid does not have: Rena's disappearance after Kogoro met with her.
Additionally, Shinichi has appeared at least once in person at a case before the third movie and has tricked Ran into believing Shinichi and Conan are two separate people as well. Since then, Conan has constructed even more elaborate tricks to solidify the identity alibi. In effect, every other character acts like Shinichi is out on a tough case, so if Kaitou probed and discovered this, why would he suspect that it is not the truth when it is the most obvious thing to assume when Kaito did not witness any of the events and thus has no clues about how Conan managed to create the illusion that Conan and Shinichi exist simultaneously? Even if Kaitou began to suspect that a case was not the thing holding up Shinichi, the next most logical thing would be that Kudo got into some trouble and is in hiding. In short, there isn't a good reason for Kaitou to conclude Shinichi is gone when there are more reasonable hypotheses.
#3:
Conan and Shinichi are a lot alike. - This is going to be difficult for Kaitou who had never met Shinichi personally and thus will not have anyone to compare Conan to. On the personality side, Kaitou Kid didn't even get the chance to acquaint himself with Shinichi's deduction style at the clocktower heist because he wasn't listening directly to Shinichi making deductions or giving orders, only watching how the police seemed to do a very good job of tracking him. As for physical details, he may notice how Conan and Shinichi look alike if he remembers Shinichi's face from older papers (if he cared enough about Shinichi to notice in the first place), but Conan is supposed to be related to Shinichi so it is also reasonable to assume they are coincidentally similar looking.
#4:
Shinichi somehow de-aged and turned into Conan - It definitely requires some imagination to even suspect something like this happened. Eisuke came to this conclusion but decided not to puzzle out how it happened but assumed it did based on his strong convictions about 1-3 above. I suppose if Kaitou Kid believes in the Pandora thing which probably isn't canon to DC, then he might accept that Shinichi shrank into Conan, but it would have to be a least preferred logical conclusion.
kaitoushinichi wrote:
#2 The manga is ongoing and is published on a weekly basis, while the movies only come out once a year. There are people who only watch the movies (like my friend <<shame...), and they don't have the chance to build up the fact that Kaito (probably) knows about Conan like Aoyama-sensei does in the manga.
This is not really an argument for why Kaitou would know about Conan's identity in the manga so moving on....
kaitoushinichi wrote:
#3 If Aoyama-sensei has no intention of Kaito learning about Conan's identity, then he probably would have spoken against putting that bit into the third movie.
I'm sure Aoyama would have said something about the anime completely making plotholes by having Akemi not die the first time around and Gin and Vodka lookalikes instead of the real deal appearing on the bullet train case. True, those errors were only made at the beginning of the anime's run, but the movies are a step removed from the anime which is a step removed form the manga. Also, I will point out again that Gosho didn't write the screenplays either.
Basically to sum everything up, there isn't any solid evidence in the manga that Kaitou Kid knows Conan is Shinichi, although Kaito Kid is definitely capable of figuring it out if he intended to make a serious investigation into Conan's background with suspicions in mind. Similarly, I can't rule out that Kaito already has it figured out in the manga, only that Kid would have had several difficult hurdles to jump and only three cases to base deductions on. Finally, if he has discovered Conan's true identity, Kid is hiding his hand carefully unlike how it is portrayed in the movies.
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