#when this film first came out i really related to this character

[greengoblinswifey]

Shattered— Nicholas Chavez x Actress!Reader

summary— you’re an actress on the brink of fame and you fall for your co-star Nicholas Chavez. discovering his secret coupled with your unexpected pregnancy changes your entire dynamic.

warnings— cheating, mentions of infertility, mature language, grief and loss, mentions of pregnancy, mentions of unprotected sex, abortion, manipulation.

a/n— kinda long but i’m a slut for angst, also this is all just my imagination and fantasy, it’s not based on nicholas irl <3

Alternative Ending

From the very first time you got an acting role, your manager told you, never engage in relations with your co stars. Looking down at the two positive pregnancy tests on the counter, you wished you had taken heed to her wise words.

You and Nicholas had been thrown into the spotlight together, both relatively new to the fame game. As co-stars, you’d developed a chemistry that felt electric, especially during your lovey-dovey scenes on camera.

As the filming progressed, those on-screen moments started to seep into your off-screen life. You’d find yourselves stealing kisses between takes, getting lost in long conversations about everything from your childhood dreams to your favorite late-night snacks. It was easy to forget that this was just work. You felt like you knew each other inside out.

One evening, after a particularly long day, you were in your trailer, and the laughter just flowed. “I really like this,” Nicholas said, leaning closer, his eyes locked onto yours. “It feels special, you know?”

You nodded, heart racing. “Yeah, it does. I’m just scared of what happens after this season wraps. Will we still have this?”

Nick brushed a thumb across your cheek, his gaze intense. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise I’ll always be here.”

You couldn’t help it; you leaned in and kissed him, the connection between you two crackling like electricity. Everything felt perfect in that moment, but in the back of your mind, you couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

What were you missing? Why did he keep his life back home so close to his chest?

As your days turned into nights filled with mind blowing sex, you tried to enjoy every second, but the nagging doubt wouldn’t disappear. You were falling for him, and you wondered if he felt the same way, or if this was just a fun distraction for him.

As filming continued, he made sure to keep the relationship casual, reassuring you that it was all good between you two. “You know I care about you, right?” he’d say between takes, pulling you close, his lips pressing against your forehead, “But a public relationship? It might restrict me from getting certain roles.” You nodded, wanting to be supportive. After all, you understood the pressure of the industry. But deep down, a nagging thought lingered, was there more to it than that?

Still, you brushed off your doubts. You were wrapped up in the excitement of your new life, enjoying every moment of intimacy with Nicholas, nights spent tangled in sheets, whispering sweet nothings, and experiencing a side of Hollywood that felt like a dream. There were moments when he’d use condoms, and others when he’d pull out, but you never worried about getting pregnant. You knew you were infertile, and that fact brought you a strange sense of comfort.

During one of your casual conversations, you mentioned your part-time passion for photography. Nick lit up at the idea, and you quickly arranged for him to meet a photographer friend of yours who worked for magazines. “I’ll be sure to use them,” he said, his tone light. You didn’t think much of it, just a favor for a friend.

Then came the twist, Nick’s character was off the show for a few episodes. He returned to his hometown, and suddenly, the set felt empty without him. You missed him deeply, especially because you’d been feeling under the weather lately. The sickness hung over you, but you knew he needed a break so you didn’t bother him in staying.

As the days went by, his texts became infrequent. You found yourself wondering if something was wrong. Maybe he was just busy? Maybe he was having fun back home? And then, you noticed your period was late. You weren’t scared per se, you remembered the infertility diagnosis, but something felt off.

In a moment of playful distraction, you called your sister. “I’m late,” you joked, half-laughing. “Maybe I should take a pregnancy test?” She encouraged you, laughter spilling over the phone, making it feel lighthearted.

You picked up two tests from the store, ensuring they weren’t expired. When you took the tests, you expected nothing. But to your shock, both tests came back positive.

The laughter faded, replaced by disbelief. You dropped the phone, feeling a wave of panic crash over you. Pregnant? How could this happen? You were still so new in your career, and Nicholas. How would you even tell him? Would he be happy? He had dreams to chase, and now there was a little life to consider.

Your mind raced with possibilities and worries. You knew you needed to talk to Nicholas but the fear of how he’d react was large. You’d built something beautiful, but this was a twist neither of you had planned.

The days dragged on as you tried to process everything. You took a few days to cool off, completely unsure how to proceed. The set was chaotic, your mind was racing while you were trying to act normal. Multiple takes of one scene felt like torture, especially when you had to run off to throw up in between. The directors were patient, but you could sense their frustration growing. You felt guilty, this pregnancy wasn’t their fault, and yet you were struggling to keep it together.

Just two days before Nicholas was set to return, the chaos hit a new level. You received a message from the photographer you had linked Nicholas with. “Check out how cute your co-star looks with his girlfriend!” it read, accompanied by a series of images. You froze as you opened the photos. There he was, Nicholas, beaming in a pregnancy announcement photoshoot with a woman. A woman who was his girlfriend.

Shock coursed through you as confusion and anger collided. Your heart sank, it felt like a punch to the gut. You hadn’t taken any photos with Nicholas, and now you realized why he had been so secretive about his life outside of filming. He was expecting a baby with her. You wanted to scream, shout, break things, or blow up his phone. But instead, you just sat there, staring blankly at the screen, tears streaming down your face.

You ran to the trailer bathroom, clutching your stomach as nausea washed over you. You felt it to your core, the reality of your situation was devastating. He had been playing you both, living a lie, and now here you were, grappling with the knowledge that your pregnancy was based on deception.

Days passed like a blur. You did your best to get through filming, but every time you returned to your trailer, the reality of the life growing inside you became unbearable. You would throw up and clutch your stomach, feeling the weight of what was supposed to be a beautiful moment turned sour by lies.

Finally, the day arrived when Nicholas returned to set. He burst into your trailer, the energy in the room instantly shifting. “I missed you!” he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around you and planting a gentle kiss on your forehead. But you just sat there, staring blankly at him, the pregnancy tests in hand, proof of the life you were now burdened with.

He pulled back, looking at you with concern. “What’s wrong?”

The words caught in your throat. You were ready to confront him, ready to expose the web of lies. But all you could manage was a shaky breath, your heart racing in your chest as you prepared for the storm ahead.

With shaky hands, you thrust the pregnancy tests into Nicholas’s face, your heart pounding. “Here.”

He looked at the tests, confusion swirling in his eyes. “W-what? What the fuck is this. Is this… are you pregnant?” The realization hit him hard, and you could see the panic creeping in.

“Yeah, I am!” you shot back, your voice rising.

“Fucking hell!” he shouted, “my- my fucking career is just taking off, I’m filming a show, this- this wasn’t supposed to get this far.”

“Are you hearing yourself?” You couldn’t believe the things he was saying. “My career is just taking off, I’m filming a show too Nicholas.”

His expression shifted, the initial panic giving way to something more defensive. “I can’t handle this right now! My career is just starting, and I didn’t want to be tied down like this.”

Anger bubbled up inside you, boiling over like a volcano. You could sense the manipulation in his tone, the way he was shifting the blame onto you. “It’s always about you, isn’t it?” you yelled, pushing him away. “You’re just thinking about yourself!”

He reached for you, attempting to pull you back into his embrace, whispering, “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure this out.” But you shoved him off, your emotions raw and unfiltered.

“Figure this out?” you screamed, your voice echoing in the small trailer. “How can you say that when you’re two-timing? Look at these!” You threw your phone at him, the pregnancy announcement photos landing in his lap. His face twisted with fury.

“Are you serious right now?” he shouted, his anger igniting. “I made a mistake with one of them! It wasn’t supposed to go this far! We’re filming a show together; I can’t just drop everything!”

You stared at him in disbelief. “You’re not the Nicholas I thought I knew. How can you act like this? You’re a fucking two-faced liar, sleeping with two girls and getting both of us pregnant!”

He raked a hand through his hair, his expression a mix of frustration and despair. “I can’t do this. Not now. You need to- you need to get an abortion.”

The words hung heavy in the air, crashing down around you. You looked at him, heart sinking, disbelief coursing through you. “Are you serious? You want me to end this?”

Nicholas looked away, the weight of his own choices crashing down on him. But it was too late, the damage had been done.

Nicholas’s voice was cold and detached. “Yes, I want you to get an abortion. I’ll give you money for it. You need to have it gone by tonight.”

You felt your heart shatter all over again. “How can you refer to our baby as ‘it’?” The bitterness in your voice was undeniable.

He shrugged, pacing the small trailer. “I don’t know what an abortion can do to your body, but you’ll need time to rest. What are you going to tell production?”

You shook your head in disbelief. “I don’t know either! But how can you be so heartless?”

“Listen I can’t deal with this, I have a girlfriend and a baby on the way,” he muttered, lowly.

You couldn't take it anymore. “No! I am your girlfriend! WE have a baby on the way, or at least I thought I was your girlfriend!”

Nicholas stopped pacing, his expression a mixture of guilt and confusion. He ran a hand over his face, clearly overwhelmed.

“This isn’t how it was supposed to be,” he muttered, unsure of what to say next.

Then, as if the weight of the world was pressing down on him, he turned and left the trailer without another word, leaving you alone in the silence.

You hugged yourself tightly, tears streaming down your cheeks. The reality of your situation crashed down on you. You felt utterly lost, your heart aching for the life you once envisioned, now shattered.

That night, you lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, your mind spiraling as you weighed your options. If you kept the baby, everything would change. Your career, just beginning to gain traction, would be stalled indefinitely. You’d be a single mother, left alone to care for a child Nicholas had already written off. And as a man, he’d be fine. Even with two babies on the way, he wouldn’t be the one carrying or caring for them.

On the other hand, if you didn’t keep it, you weren’t even sure if you’d get another chance. The thought tore at you, but you knew what the world would say. They’d call you a homewrecker, maybe even try to destroy your reputation, and all without knowing the truth. It would be you, bearing the weight of his lies.

Finally, with a heavy heart, you booked the appointment for the next morning. You went alone, tears streaming down your face as you went through it, feeling each moment echo in the hollow of your chest. By the time filming started later that day, you were late, your spirit shattered.

Nicholas spotted you as soon as you walked onto set. He approached, his voice low, but his eyes sharp. “Is it done?”

You nodded, feeling a hollow ache that reached all the way down to your bones. You could barely look at him, but when you did, all you felt was disgust. He added, as if it was some minor detail, “Don’t even think of reaching out to my girlfriend.” You couldn’t believe how cold he’d become, as if you were nothing more than a piece of his past.

Then the call for your scene echoed across the set, and you took your place opposite him. It was a romantic moment, a kiss, meant to be tender and full of passion. But when his lips touched yours, it felt like everything was wrong. The kiss was forced, awkward, each movement filled with a desperation neither of you could hide.

When the director called, “Cut,” you pulled away and fled, barely making it to your trailer before the tears began to flow. Just hours ago, you were carrying his child. Now, all that remained was an empty ache and a broken heart. In some twisted way, you felt almost relieved that you no longer had a part of him inside you. And yet, the loss left you feeling like a shell of who you once were.

A few days after the procedure, you felt like you had nothing left of him. Nothing to show for the life you’d once carried, the part of him that had been yours alone. He had been such a huge part of your life just days before, and in mere hours, that illusion had shattered completely.

The filming continued, and soon the news of his pregnancy announcement with his girlfriend went public. You watched as the set was buzzing with congratulatory wishes for him. Everyone beamed at Nicholas, showering him with smiles and words of celebration. Meanwhile, you did your best to hold yourself together, concealing the sadness that now rested in the hollow of your heart.

When the season finally wrapped, the months that followed became a time of rebuilding. You put everything into healing, into rediscovering yourself. By the premiere night, you were the picture of poise and confidence, draped in a red dress that turned heads. When you stepped onto the red carpet, even Nicholas did a double take, momentarily caught off guard by your transformation.

After the red carpet, he approached, offering a hollow smile. “So, how are you feeling? I just need to know, it’s really done, right?” He hesitated, glancing around, and added, “I heard sometimes fetuses survive abortion…”

The audacity of his words made you sick. Anger sparked in you, and you hissed, barely holding back your rage. “Yes, Nicholas. Our baby is dead. Thanks to you.” You were barely a few weeks along so you wouldn’t have considered it a baby but you wanted to say anything to knock him down.

As the night continued, you managed to keep your composure, even when his pregnant girlfriend approached you with a sweet smile, chatting as if you hadn’t unknowingly been fucking her boyfriend raw. All the while, Nicholas hovered nearby, his eyes sharp, ensuring you didn’t let anything slip. You walked away feeling relief. He’d no longer have a hold on you.

The following months brought a fresh start. You threw yourself into work, your career skyrocketing as you landed a massive film role. Meanwhile, Nicholas seemed to fade from the spotlight, mostly at home with his girlfriend, waiting for their baby. Until, finally, karma came for him, an article revealed that the child he thought was his was actually someone else’s, belonging to a rockstar his girlfriend had left him for.

You couldn’t help the satisfaction that spread through you. He’d reaped exactly what he’d sown, and you hadn’t lifted a finger.

The Oscar nomination was the pinnacle of your success, and the night of the awards ceremony arrived. To your surprise, Nicholas showed up, desperate to find you. He cornered you at last, offering a string of apologies and congratulations, asking for another chance now that he was alone. But you saw through him, his desire was only to latch onto your newfound fame. You looked him in the eyes, remembering everything he’d put you through. He had destroyed you, once. But you had risen again, and he was nothing to you now.

Without a word, you turned and walked away, leaving him to watch as you went forward, leaving him in the past for good.

[mywitchyblog]

The Coolest Thing About Reality Shifting: DR Memories

What Are DR Memories ? :

One of the coolest things about reality shifting is that you can get DR memories—these are memories from your desired reality (DR). What’s really cool about these memories is that they fill in the blanks, like adding extra content to the story. But what makes it even better is that these memories often answer questions that the original show or movie never explained. It’s almost like having secret insider knowledge that makes the story and characters make more sense and feel more real. These memories can add extra background information, character motivations, or small details that clear up plot holes. It makes the universe of that show or movie feel more complete and satisfying. That’s why I think DR memories are one of the most interesting parts of reality shifting—they add a lot of depth and detail that you wouldn't get otherwise.

Claircognizance and DR Memories :

In case you didn't know, a DR memory is a type of claircognizance. Claircognizance is a psychic ability where you get knowledge or insights without any logical explanation—it's like the information just pops into your head. It’s not like remembering something you already know or imagining something new; instead, it feels like this information just appears in your mind without any effort.

I can tell the difference between a DR memory and a daydream because with daydreams, I actually create them myself, almost like I’m walking through the daydream and deciding what happens next. Daydreams are like a creative process, where I have control over what happens. With DR memories, it's the opposite—the memory just comes to me, almost like downloading information from somewhere unknown. It’s passive, and I feel like I’m just receiving it instead of making it happen. DR memories usually come with a strong sense of certainty that they’re real, which is very different from daydreams, which feel more like imagination.

How I Recognize DR Memories :

That's how I can tell the difference between the two. I'm currently working on developing my psychic abilities, and from what I've learned, claircognizance is the best way to describe what happens when shifters get DR memories. Claircognizance is like getting information from a place you can't see, almost like an invisible source of knowledge.

One reason I value these memories so much is that they make things suddenly make sense, like putting together puzzle pieces that finally fit. They don’t feel random—they come with a clarity and sense of completeness that I can't ignore. I knew it was a DR memory because it came with a strong sense of certainty, a conviction that I wouldn't normally have if I was just imagining things. It’s that feeling of knowing that tells me it’s not something I made up, but something real and meaningful, which makes the experience even more special.

Example: Teen Wolf Filming Locations :

Here's an example that really stood out to me. It's related to Teen Wolf, specifically where they filmed the show. In the first two seasons, they filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, which gave it that small-town vibe and charm. The setting made it feel like a real close-knit community, with overcast skies, thick woods, and an older, worn-out small-town look. But from season three onward, they moved filming to California, which totally changed things.

The new location made the show look different since the Californian landscapes had more sun, wider streets, new architecture, and brighter natural scenery. This change impacted the show's overall tone and feel. The new brightness made everything look cleaner and less gritty, which affected the mood and atmosphere. What always bugged me was that the show never explained in the story why the high school changed so much between seasons two and three. It felt like a sudden, unexplained shift, and it always stood out to me as something inconsistent when I watched the series again.

The DR Memory That Explained It All :

Then I had this DR memory, and it all made sense. Basically, in my DR memory, there was a big renovation. The old high school from seasons one and two was in an older, run-down part of town with outdated facilities and a dull look. The town council realized that the school was no longer meeting the needs of the community, and it couldn't keep up with modern education standards. So, they decided to build a brand new high school—one that was bigger, more modern, and way more functional, with updated technology and better facilities, like advanced science labs, new computer rooms, and bigger athletic fields.

The construction project took about two to three years, and it involved a lot of community effort, planning, and even some fundraising by the local residents. The town was really proud to build something that would be a central part of the community and give students a much better learning environment. By the time summer break was over (like the one at the very beginning of season 3A), the new high school was ready, with modern classrooms, great sports facilities, an upgraded library with digital resources, and a cool, sleek design. It was a huge improvement compared to the old school. So, by the time season three starts, the high school is completely new and very different from the old one.

Better Than Devenford Prep :

What I found pretty funny in the DR memory was that some of the new facilities at our high school ended up being even better than the ones at Devenford Prep, which is supposed to be this elite school with the best resources. The upgrades were so impressive that even some of the prep school students came over to use our facilities, especially things like the athletic spaces and the new multimedia studio (which is, in a way, canon since I think there are scenes of Brett Talbot training at the BHHS lacrosse field). The swimming pool and gym were way nicer than anything Devenford had, which was surprising because private schools are usually thought to have better stuff than public ones.

Finally, I had an explanation for why the high school changed so much between seasons two and three, which the show never actually explained. It was really satisfying to fill in that missing piece because it made the story feel more realistic, like everything fit together and made sense, almost as if it had always been part of the original story.

@shiftingwithmars i think you have a teen wolf DR ? So maybe this lil storty time of mine will make some sense to you.

[carigm]

DISCUSSION ABOUT EL’S POTENTIAL ENDING

So Millie has been giving a lot of interviews lately promoting her latest film Damsel, and ofc interviewers have been trying to get some ST5 info out of her. (We all saw that clip where Mlvn got mentioned to her and the face she made lol)

Well there are two new interviews in which Millie talks about El and they are making me kind of nervous…for lack of a better word.

The first is this one…

She was asked what song helps her cry, and she said “when it’s cold I’d like to die” Now that song famously plays every time a character dies on ST, so it wouldn’t be weird for an actor in the show to associate it with sentimental emotions. However, what concerns me a bit is that she mentions that this is “El’s theme” uh??? Since when girl??

The other interview I’ve already seen it floating around so I won’t add a clip, but she was basically asked about whether she knows how it ends for her character. She goes on to say that she asked for a meeting with the Duffers and she saw a board with her character’s fate and went “ohhhh” and slowly walked out.

I’m not gonna lie that answer is not inspiring happiness in me.

I don’t think the Duffers will “traditionally” kill El. In the sense that I don’t think they would fully kill her off (that would be too fucked up). I do wonder if her character will be around after Vecna has lost and the supernatural has gone away, though. Will she somehow disappear after the conflict is gone? Was she part of a bigger allegory or metaphor related to the supernatural plot of the show?

In the original pitch, the Duffers described El and Mike’s relationship as an Elliot and ET bond. ET is an alien, therefore at the end of the movie he has to leave Earth. He can’t stay there with the other characters. Are we gonna see something similar regarding El? She won’t die but maybe she has to go/be somewhere else?

I don’t want to alarm anyone it’s just that I feel like I’m putting some pieces together here lol…

The Duffers also admitted after S2 came out that El was originally written to “die”, as in she was gonna disappear when she took out the demogorgon. However, they changed their minds when the show got renewed for more seasons. Nonetheless, the Duffers have said that their ending for S5 draws inspiration from the ending of S1.

What the hell are they referring to with this???

I’m also aware that Millie is an actress and she’s drumming up suspense for the show. I know she has admitted to lying in interviews just for fun too. Can’t really trust an actor ever, but I do wonder if we’re seeing some truth from her here.

What do you guys think? Any theories?

[etrangeres]

The Curious Case of Kaitou Kid

(UPDATED 11/27 JST. Sections with significant new portions will be bracketed with a ☘️)

We love alliteration in this household.

To start with an anecdote, I went to the main Animate store in Ikebukuro some 2-3 weeks after M27 began showing in theaters. I had two reasons to be there: hopefully grab some copies of the Magic Kaito Treasured Editions, and grab what movie-related merch I could. The former I managed, but the latter was a lot harder. Despite them devoting nearly an entire wall on the right side of the first floor to Detective Conan merch, every single piece of non-blind box Kaitou Kid merch had been snatched up already. This trend of Kid’s merch being sold out seemed to continue for at least a couple weeks afterward, at least in and around Tokyo.

This demonstrates something I think we all already know: Kaitou Kid is a crazy popular Detective Conan character.

…Detective Conan character? Yes, but… No. But definitely yes. But… yes?

Kaitou Kid - real name Kaito Kuroba - is such a funny character if you think about him for more than a few seconds. So I chose to think about him for a few, uh. Days.

When I say he’s funny to think about, I don’t necessarily mean in terms of who he is as a character - which is admittedly also fun, because I think Gosho Aoyama is the king of gap moe - but more in terms of his placement in the greater DCMK canon. I mean, the fact that we have the “DCMK” acronym at all signifies the importance of tying these two series together. Even though they technically take place in different worlds. You know. Technically.

So I want to (mostly) chronologically go through Kid’s history in Detective Conan, how it relates to his origin as Kaito Kuroba in Magic Kaito, and amuse myself with the strange relationship he (and his source manga) has with the juggernaut that is Detective Conan.

Before we jump into this, some basic notes:

-I don’t mean for this to come across like some academic thesis. Nor did I actually think this would hit over 18k words. I’m just Like This.

-Any translations you see here are done by me, from the source Japanese.

-There will be concrete mentions of events from M27. They are comparatively trivial in terms of the mystery the film offers, but there will be spoilers for certain major parts of the plot as they relate to Magic Kaito elements. This will be clearly demarcated, should you wish to avoid those spoilers.

The MK to DC Pipeline

So I don’t know how many people actually need this information, but for completion’s sake:

Magic Kaito is Gosho Aoyama’s debut serialization (important distinction), and it began in June 1987. Though roughly the first two volumes’ worth of chapters were published at a fairly consistent monthly rate, it grew more and more irregular after that due to the popularity of both Yaiba and (more importantly for our discussion) Detective Conan. Due to it still technically being an ongoing series, it is currently Weekly Shonen Sunday’s longest running manga. This just so happens to be followed by Detective Conan, and they lead this particular ranking by a fairly wide margin.

The manga as it currently exists came out of the one-shot “Nonchalant Lupin,” which he submitted to Shonen Magazine’s manga contest after his editor told him to “draw the story you most want to draw” (Treasured Ed. V5). The one-shot won an honorable mention. His comment in Treasured Ed V1 also mentions that he “all but became a mangaka because I wanted to write about a high school kaitou,” so he’s clearly attached to the concept. He’s also clearly attached to Magic Kaito itself; a number of excerpts from the Gosho Aoyama 30th Anniversary Book, for example, talk about how a greedy part of him immediately thought of Kaitou Kid on the silver screen when he heard about the first movie being greenlit, or how he thinks Detective Conan will one day end but Magic Kaito may not because that’s what he really wants to be writing.

Back to our timeline: the Kindaichi Case Files were gaining steam in the early 1990s, and Weekly Shonen Sunday wanted its own version of the boom. Gosho himself was approached by the editorial team at Sunday to do a mystery series, and he accepted, not thinking it would last very long - not only because he wasn’t all that interested in the idea, but because he didn’t think there would be enough material to last more than three months.

It has lasted 30 years.

I say all this not to indulge in the depressing truth that Magic Kaito only has just shy of 40 chapters, but to specifically highlight the synergy Magic Kaito has with Detective Conan - despite the existence of magic in the former - due to their shared inspiration of Arsene Lupin. Things like Sherlock Holmes and Kogoro Akechi are pretty obvious inspirations for Detective Conan that I don’t need to go into in much depth, but the idea of a “high school kaitou” still very much bleeds into aspects of Conan’s character. Many of the things Kaito is either capable of naturally or has to deal with due to the inherent nature of his position are things that are also reflected in Shinichi.

Feats of physicality (Comes naturally to Kaito due to genetics and practice; enhanced for Conan via Agasa’s inventions)

Master of disguise (A practiced skill with makeup and voice changing for Kaito; use of a voice changer and aid from people in his life to deal with disguises)

Secret identity (a flipped perspective version: Kaito has a straightforward secret identity, while Shinichi has to keep his survival a secret)

The “bumbling police” (A good kaitou story will have a morally upstanding but kinda dumb detective that demonstrates the sheer skill of the kaitou in question while putting a contrast to their morals. Nakamori is this to Kaito; though not a one-to-one, characters like Megure or Kogoro serve similar roles to Shinichi to demonstrate his skills as a detective.)

“Why are you like this????” (Admittedly the most Vibes of the list, but there’s a level of gray morality. We root for the main character while knowing that what they’re doing is at times questionable. Kaito goes without saying, but Shinichi is more likely to engage in suspicious behavior like breaking into cars, bugging people’s houses, or even stealing evidence after becoming Conan.)

Motive (The most interesting - and sometimes the funniest - overlap is the fact that they’re both after a shifty organization. It’s a bit surface level at first, but there’s a suspicious level of overlap between not Shinichi and Kaito, but Shinichi and Toichi.)

All of this is to say that pushing DC and MK into DCMK is almost comically easy once you adjust for tone (and, uh. remove Akako, I guess) because Shinichi is BUILT from the kaitou framework and tweaked into a detective. So it’s no wonder Gosho decided to throw in a Kaitou Kid cameo that turned into the character asserting himself as a recurring sub character, as opposed to a quirky crossover character.

Even if he’s still both. And also a secret third thing.

The Last Wizard of the Black Star

So, there’s not much to mention about Magic Kaito’s early run. All chapters in the pre-DC era are stand-alone stories, with the plot starting and concluding within the span of a single chapter. It was a bit of an “anything goes” era, with the genre fluctuating all over the place and a lot of things we consider “standard” in any given Kaitou Kid story not yet being fully codified. Many of these weirder chapters have their own charm if you allow the gag manga energy to take you for a ride, but if gag manga isn’t your thing then it feels like these chapters are where Kaito himself is at his most…incongruous with the character that would eventually show up in Detective Conan. (Let it be known for the record that I personally find these early chapters SO silly and would kill for an animated adaptation of Clockwork Heart, the truly bonkers third chapter.)

The biggest “what do you MEAN that wasn’t there from the start?!” is by far Blue Birthday, which is the chapter of Magic Kaito that was published immediately before Detective Conan began serialization. It took about half of the currently released chapters to introduce Pandora, a now fundamental concept that is likely to be included in ANY one-paragraph summary of Magic Kaito’s plot. It isn’t the only thing, of course; though Kaito’s card gun debuts in the very first chapter, his hang glider doesn’t show up until Chapter 10.

The other major thing worth pointing out in the pre-Black Star era is the general pacing and fundamental makeup of the stories themselves. Very few case-only (or heist-only, as it were) characters show up in these chapters. When they do show up, they tend to be pretty flat, are often ridiculous, and are there to facilitate the hijinks of the day (the gun-crazy detective, the weird robot inventor, the irresponsible prime minister).

This changes with Green Dream, and it’s an immediate change. Detective Conan has been in serialization for over half a year by this point, and already its formula is bleeding into Magic Kaito. There are multiple new characters per heist, and multiple pages with two to three times more text than before are dedicated to setting up a fundamental conflict. Kaito is also more likely to take a stance in this fundamental conflict and use his talents and status as Kaitou Kid to lead it to a conclusion. Behind all of that, though, Kaito himself is still the cheeky little agent of chaos we all know and love throughout these chapters. (As an aside, the Kid mark used on his advanced notices debuted in this chapter!)

The big watershed moment is very obviously Black Star - the Detective Conan version, in this case. In both this and the Magic Lovers case (despite his very little screen time in the latter), readers of Detective Conan are introduced to a FAR more serious version of the Magic Kaito character. This is largely because what we’re seeing in Black Star specifically is a 100% outsider's perspective. Though we’ll very shortly find out this is not Shinichi’s first meeting with Kid chronologically, it is the first time he not only hears his name, but also has any real interactions with him. Kaito wears the mask of his father in his performance as Kid, and you could very much argue his guard is WAY up around probably the weirdest child he’s ever met. So in a story from Conan’s perspective, we have no way of seeing behind that mask.

Personally, I always put a bit of an asterisk next to DC’s Black Star. This is the case that feels the most like a “crossover” than any other Kid case after this, and of course it would. It’s the very first one! It’s the Kaito and Aoko cameos that really bring this vibe for me personally; great care is taken in Detective Conan not to pull much of anything from Kaito Kuroba’s personal life except in a few stand-out cases, and those  almost never involve anyone in our core cast directly. And I don’t even mean in the “he’s only ever shown in his Kid costume” way, because there are plenty of times where he shows up not wearing that. They key for me is that Kaito is always “at work” as a disguised Kaitou Kid as opposed to as Kaito Kuroba - the hat, the darker clothes, the low-effort disguises as police or staff. That kinda thing. But the appearance of Kaito and Aoko in their casual wear or school uniforms here really makes this case stand out in a way that later cases simply don’t joke about.

Detective Conan shows us Kaito at work. It’s why he comes across as so difficult to grasp and almost intimidating in these earliest of appearances. Those vibes obviously continue into The Last Wizard of the Century, the third theatrical release and Kaitou Kid’s very first movie appearance! His grand total screen time is only a fraction of the movie’s full run, but the vibes have a heavy overlap with that first conversation Conan has with Kid on the roof in Black Star. Though there are debates regarding the movie’s canonicity, this also marks the point in at LEAST movie continuity where Kaito figures out Conan’s identity, so there’s that precedent set. (Put a pin in that, by the way.) This also marks the first time Kid disguises himself as Shinichi.

What’s more amusing to me is that Magic Kaito’s Black Star seems to have been published to coincide with the movie’s release. Magic Kaito’s very first chapter after Kaitou Kid’s appearance in Detective Conan brings Shinichi Kudo to Magic Kaito. This is his only appearance in Magic Kaito to date, whether it be as Shinichi or as Conan. Gosho mentioned in his note on the Yaiba vs Kaito chapter that he really likes crossovers (same hat), so I have to think that the limited run of Magic Kaito is likely why we don’t see more DC characters in MK. Though in a Q&A he did toy with the idea of Conan showing up in Magic Kaito one day, so…

All that said, every time I think of MK’s Black Star my brain shoots off in two directions. The first and easier to articulate direction involves Akako’s presence, but we will get to that in the next section. The second direction is the very existence of this chapter at all.

As I mentioned above, this is the first new heist for MK after Kid showed up in DC. It is also the first multi-chapter heist, which indicates even more influence is bleeding over. It was also published alongside the movie, probably as part of a promotional stunt. Something about it feels like a doubling down of sorts on the stapling of these two series together. Kid showing up in Detective Conan is a fun reference; Shinichi showing up in Magic Kaito instead of the more recognizable Conan feels like a statement of shared worlds, largely because of how it makes you think about the timeline. The Akako issue aside, it really feels like he wanted these worlds to collide. If you have your own Lupin analogue AND your own Sherlock analogue, why wouldn’t you want to pit them against each other?

Add More Staples!

It’s at this point that updates to Magic Kaito get… particularly sparse. But there’s a LOT of stuff going on across the DCMK space as a whole in these few years that feels like it’s trying to tie the two series together.

We start off with the Twilight Mansion case, which introduces Hakuba into Detective Conan. Which would be fascinating by itself, but this was also Hakuba’s first appearance in EITHER DC or MK in TEN YEARS if you don’t count his one-panel cameo in MK’s Black Star. The framing of his introduction in Detective Conan is interesting, because the paneling and composition very clearly tell the reader that the character that’s about to be introduced is either 1) important, or 2) already known. In Hakuba’s case it’s clearly the latter, but this would make very little sense to someone that isn’t as aware of his place in Magic Kaito.

Enter The Gathering of the Great Detectives, the animated adaptation of the Twilight Mansion case that was turned into a two hour special and opened with MK’s Black Star. There are ways in which it’s an odd choice, given Hakuba barely appears in Black Star at all. But I think Hakuba’s status as yet another Magic Kaito character being introduced into the narrative provided an opportunity for them to adapt a Magic Kaito heist for TV broadcast, and the chapters featuring Shinichi were the easy choice. The Yaiba vs Kaitou Kid vs Conan OVA had come out shortly before this, so it’s technically not the first time a Magic Kaito chapter had been adapted. But that was more of an altered gaiden OVA compared to this, and this TV adaptation seemed to hit you over the head even harder that there was merit to delving into Magic Kaito if you were a fan of Detective Conan.

☘️Between these two was the first of many OVAs, and the first of a couple of attempts to shove Conan into Magic Kaito material: Conan vs Kid vs Yaiba. This is an adaptation of an August 1993 chapter of Magic Kaito, and is the chapter that broke a roughly three year break in publication (it was then followed a few months later by Blue Birthday). Much of the main plot of the chapter is largely kept intact, with one fairly major (and obvious) difference: Detective Conan’s involvement. Much of the core DC cast has been dragged into the plot, which is at first a little odd considering the explicitly battle shounen-style magical flavor of Yaiba.

This OVA handles that incongruity with the “fever dream” solution. In Conan’s side of the story, things get increasingly more and more ridiculous until the final reveal that Conan had fallen asleep reading Yaiba. Which is to say that, plot wise, the OVA ultimately amounts to nothing. But that’s fine, because what’s more interesting is how early they display Kaito’s carousel of emotions in this OVA as compared to the “mainline” media (manga or movies). What’s also worth noting is that this is the first appearance of Akako in DC media, right before she gets a more mainline debut in EP219. She’s a one-scene wonder, bursting in with an ominous fortune and leaving in a very magical disappearing act.☘️

But the OVA, in the aforementioned fever dream context, excuses her existence. In the manga, though? Oh, Akako. Bane of the DCMK world. Sole reason we must argue that they take place in parallel worlds despite how ridiculous that sounds.

In the manga, Akako gives Kaito her premonition about the Demon of Light coming after the White Sinner. This is also in the episode, if memory serves. But in the episode as aired on TV, Akako features very little after that… because they fully cut the scene of her attempting to use magic at the base of the clock tower. Magic does not exist in Detective Conan, after all. It was eventually put into the episode another ten years later on the bonus DVD that came with certain versions of the Treasured Edition of Magic Kaito Volume 4.

More broadly, Akako is clearly a sticking point for the combining of these two “worlds” into one. Gosho himself takes the easy way out by ignoring Akako’s existence entirely in the Detective Conan canon, just as the TMS adaptation of Black Star did. He’s often brought up the concept of the two taking place in parallel worlds where the only major difference is the presence of magic in one and its lack in the other, as in his comment on Akako’s intro in Treasured Ed. V1: “In truth, the biggest bottleneck when it came to introducing Kaitou Kid into Detective Conan was the inheritor of Red Magic herself! So please just accept the two series as parallel worlds (lol).” He’s much more straightforward in his comment for Sun Halo in Volume 5: “You really gotta have Akako use Red Magic! (Please just assume Akako does not exist in the Conan world…lol)”

Despite this insistence she doesn’t exist, Sky Walk features an almost blink and you’ll miss it reference to her. Nakamori brings up the idea of Kid’s assistant being in play, to which Conan shows surprise at him having an assistant at all. Nakamori replies that there are multiple reports, some of an “old man” and others mentioning a “young woman.” The old man is obviously Jii, but the young woman is very likely meant to be a reference to the stunt Akako pulls in Akako’s Delivery Service, a very early Magic Kaito chapter.

As you’ll notice, Akako is still very much a practitioner of sorcery as of something as recent as Sun Halo, so it’s not as though Gosho has simply opted to phase her or her magic out of Magic Kaito. But considering there are MULTIPLE DC cases that deal with debunking the supernatural, her presence would most certainly complicate things. That being said, Magic Kaito’s world and plot do not seem to hinge on magic in an intrinsic manner (unless Pandora is literally a magic gem, as opposed to the tale of the gem being a metaphor for something), so I personally don’t see too much of an issue with magic being very rare, even in Detective Conan’s setting.

To keep with Magic Kaito for a little while longer, Golden Eye was the single heist released during this period. As far as its significance is concerned, I actually think Gosho said it best in his comment in the Treasured Edition: “Magic Kaito may be a thief story, but it’s also a magic story, so it was incredible to finally be able to mention the actual legend Harry Houdini. Even so, there’s an awful lot of deduction going on, so in this story you can also really feel how it’s been corrupted by Conan (lol).” It was a thought I had about Golden Eye even before reading his comment, so I’m a bit amused to find he actually called it out to be honest.

The following Detective Conan cases - Sky Walk, Three Instruments, and Four Masterpieces - and the movie Magician of the Silver Sky are all more along the lines of Black Star in terms of Conan and Kid’s relationship, but with an extra added pinch of “coming together for a common cause” in the movie. Sky Walk specifically also introduced Jirokichi to the mix, and he becomes the only Detective Conan character whose purpose in the narrative is tied exclusively to Kid. It’s in this way we begin to create a Detective Conan-exclusive environment for Kaitou Kid, which in turn establishes him more and more as simply “a Detective Conan recurring character” as opposed to the main character of another story that’s here for crossover shenanigans.

There’s a Pandora’s Box reference in Three Instruments that makes me want to pull my hair out because don’t say Pandora that word is important, and Four Masterpieces is a lot more “murder mystery involving Kid.” They happen very rarely in Detective Conan, but they happen basically NEVER in Magic Kaito (Dark Knight doesn’t count), so this lowkey feels like another way we’re shoving Kaitou Kid into the rules of Detective Conan.

In Magician of the Silver Sky, Conan expresses a level of shock when “Shinichi” passes the pinch test. This then marks the first time (in movie continuity, at least) that Conan is aware that Kid naturally resembles him.

But the funniest thing about this series of cases (and the movie) for me is the cracks in Kid’s mask, whether that be for Conan himself or for the reader. The final confrontation in Sky Walk ends on an almost comical note with Kaito being blasted off again via gasoline fire, and there’s a stinger at the end of Four Masterpieces showing a pathetic Kaito after Conan has just shot a mecha-powered soccer ball directly at his stomach. And that’s not even getting into the movie, whose entire first act drops us into a tense confrontation with a very suave Kaitou Kid before rewinding back to when he put on the least convincing act ever as a disguised Shinichi Kudo.

Have I mentioned he contains multitudes yet? King of gap moe. 

But we aren’t truly there yet. He’s a little silly for sure, but there are still times where the mask is on about as tight as it can be in Conan’s presence.

☘️The last two OVAs from this era - Conan, Kid, and the Crystal Mother and Follow the Vanished Diamond - have varying levels of significance. The latter matters extremely little to this conversation on the whole except for Kid finally showing up toward the end. Heiji and Kid have only ever had cursory interaction in DC to this point, and this frankly continues that trend. It’s worth noting that its release right before Movie 10 is significant specifically in this regard, though.

No, what’s way more interesting is the extremely forced adaptation of Crystal Mother. The bare bones and much of the meat remains - it’s still very much recognizably Crystal Mother in every way that matters and then some - but we’ve once again stapled Detective Conan to an adaptation of a Magic Kaito chapter. To accomplish this, they find ways to make Magic Kaito fit the world view of Detective Conan, like with OVA 1… But this time, it requires many more changes that wind up feeling a little more forced.

These changes are largely focused on Pandora and MK’s organization. Though Kid still looks at the jewel through the moonlight, all mentions of Pandora are dropped. Snake being recognized by Conan under the code name “Jackal” as an international jewel thief also has some interesting implications. A more generous reading would be that he potentially had another, more general-use, code name before joining his organization and receiving the name Snake; a less generous reading would be that the OVA has recycled Snake into an otherwise original character for the OVA that has taken Snake’s place, thereby removing any implications of a Pandora plot existing at all. Regardless, Jackal seems to have had previous run-ins with Kid. Which of these readings you opt for greatly changes the implications of Kid’s own personal plot in DC. At this point, despite pulling a very real crossover this time around, they apparently aren’t ready to commit to Kid’s motives being the same across both series.

In addition to Jackal, an assassin by the name of Rose is introduced in this OVA. Though she’s working with Jackal, her purpose seems to be to give Conan someone to confront in a more tangible manner, since Conan and Kid’s paths can’t really cross without drastically changing the story. Otherwise, the last major note I have for this OVA is the final scene. Conan hearing Kid saying he’d come after the Jewel of Destiny next is a nod to the at-the-time upcoming movie, Movie 8.☘️

The last two stories mentioned here - Detective Koshien and the movie The Private Eyes’ Requiem - are actually a lot less about Kid and a lot more about Hakuba. So let’s talk about the cosplay detective for a little while.

Hakuba is interesting to me, for a couple different reasons. One is the cadence of his appearances in Magic Kaito. He is introduced late into the pre-Blue Birthday run and is in a total of three chapters. Those three chapters speedrun his discovery of Kid’s identity… and then he’s gone until his first Detective Conan appearance. Golden Eye is his return to Magic Kaito in a short but fairly significant scene that fills out the contours of his relationship with Kaito with regards to that identity, at which point he is in all but one case thereafter.

The other reason is that he seems to slip through the cracks of “significant Kaitou Kid relationships” unless you consider yourself a Magic Kaito fan. But I think this is largely due to the line in the sand we shall not cross: Kaito Kuroba’s personal life is off-limits in Detective Conan. As a result, Hakuba is framed far more often as a detective in his own right that just so happens to have some manner of connection to Kaitou Kid in his few Detective Conan appearances.

This connection is made fairly obvious in Twilight Mansion by both having him introduce Kid’s presence in the case, and having him and Conan highlighted as the two people that are after him at the end of that case. But his next appearance, Detective Koshien, only implies a connection in passing and chooses instead to focus on contrasting him with Heiji in preparation for the movie. In an interesting move, the plot developments of the case actually give Hakuba an excuse to avoid wearing a school uniform like the other students because he ultimately settles into the “foreign detective guest” role. There are, as a result, zero indications that he and Kaitou Kid’s civilian identity are actually classmates - or that he attends a Japanese school at all.

As for the movie itself, Hakuba was Kid in disguise the entire time, so there’s very little we can discuss when it comes to Hakuba himself. But after Kid’s frankly poor performance as Shinichi in M8, his performance as Hakuba in M10 is almost uncanny levels of spot-on (which admittedly turns into a very funny contrast with his Hakuba disguise in Green Dragon).

All in all, this selection of chapters, episodes, and movies pulled more of Magic Kaito into Detective Conan (when those details weren’t flying in the face of it), while Kid himself began to more closely resemble the Kid of Magic Kaito in the small moments. In Magic Kaito, meanwhile, we’re starting to see far more obvious influence from Detective Conan in the writing and pacing of its heists.

But the gates have not yet been thrown wide to truly allow the silly in.

Throw Wide The Gates That We May Sillie

The collection of chapters that start this portion of the list are, in a word, fascinating from a Magic Kaito perspective.

We start with Shinichi’s Childhood Adventure, which does a couple of notable things. First, it confirms that Toichi was the magician that taught Yukiko how to use disguise makeup for her acting career. It was implied to be him in a very “if you know, you know” fashion in the Golden Apple case over 200 chapters prior, but this makes it inarguably clear. The extension of this confirmation is that Toichi also taught Vermouth the art of disguise, which is a particularly interesting connection to think about. As obvious as it sounds to say, this chapter is also the start of confirming that many things we know of Magic Kaito’s plot and backstory remain consistent in Detective Conan as well. The case ensures you don’t need prior Magic Kaito knowledge to pick up on Toichi being the first Kaitou Kid. That he meets Yukiko with Kaito in tow also means (unless my memory is failing me) that this is the first and only time Kaito’s name is spoken within the Detective Conan manga. It also confirms that the author that named Kid was, in fact, Yusaku.

The big part of this case that people tend to bring up in the wake of the M27 reveal is the “I’m your younger brother” conversation from Toichi to a young Shinichi. Now, 2006 is earlier than what meager sources I’ve managed to find that seem to indicate he had the familial relationship in the back of his mind, so I’m personally not sure how much stock I place in this conversation as any form of foreshadowing. The other aspect people bring up with regards to the family terminology - the reversial of younger and older brother - is easily answered by the context the case is set in. Toichi is referring to the order in which Yusaku named them - Shinichi first, as Yusaku is his parent (親, oya), followed by the moniker "KID" for 1412 as Kid's name-giver (名付け親, nazuke oya, a term that can also mean "godparent" in certain contexts that more literally translates to "name-giving parent"). As such, Shinichi is the "older brother" between the two.

What the entire case does seem to indicate regardless, though, is that Toichi and Yusaku are aware of each other on more than a surface level. At the very least, we’re meant to take away a passing of the baton, from father to son, in their relationship as friendly rivals. It has, apparently, always run in the family.

All in all, this case is a far more intentional mixing of Magic Kaito with Detective Conan because it deals with past events. It says “these things were always here, intermingling” and concretely refutes the idea that the modern Kaitou Kid was the first point of contact, retroactively entrenching the character even more into the world of Detective Conan.

We switch back to Magic Kaito for a heist with Dark Knight, which Gosho acknowledges in his Treasured Edition comment is “another story with a strong mystery feel, and a dark conclusion that isn’t very Magic Kaito-esque.” This also happens to be the first Magic Kaito case to feature Superintendent Chaki, a Detective Conan character and Nakamori’s boss as introduced in Black Star.

The following series of four Detective Conan cases all look at slightly different aspects of Kid that haven’t really made themselves known in DC yet. First is Purple Nail, a personal favorite and the case that arguably leans the most into the idea of a magic show. The focus on having an audience and the employing (and challenging) of Thurston’s magic principles give it a slightly different vibe to other cases. In relation to Thurston, Kid actually opts to approach Conan ahead of the heist to personally challenge him. In the manga, it’s the first clear look at Jii in Detective Conan. But the thing that stands out to me is the sheer level of emotional expression on display from Kid. It’s not in a small moment at the end of a case anymore, but in various moments throughout. You see his panic when Conan shows up above the building, or his sense of satisfaction when running through the crowd in the middle of his trick. All of it combined makes it feel much more like, by this point, Conan and Kid are engaged in a game.

After that is Iron Tanuki, an amusing oddball of a case. That Jirokichi used a fake notice to send a secret message to Kid pleading for help is interesting enough, given it displays a level of begrudging trust the former has in the latter. But more amusing is Conan’s choice to facilitate this upon realizing the truth of the situation, as well as his choice to stay behind and ask Kid if there was anything he could do to help to open the titular safe. If Purple Nail was their first real game, then Iron Tanuki is the first time they really came together in anything resembling a cooperative stance.

Kirin’s Horn seems like an outlier at first - and it sort of is, since Kid thought a little shock and awe was in order - but the case also demonstrates a level of familiarity. Conan remains flat on the ground because he knows how Kid works, and knows figuring out why he’s chosen to knock him out this time is the key to the case. There’s also a level of gag to this case via Kid’s choice to disguise as Genta, and the stinger of Conan getting the last laugh via something as silly as a paper taped to his back.

The fourth case, Ryoma’s Gunbelt, is where the real fun starts. Despite the rather nonstandard premise of Kid opting to return stolen goods, the general flow of the case is fairly standard for a Kid case in Detective Conan. The standout of this case, in my opinion, is the final conversation between Conan and Kid. They speak of their respective mothers in a conversation that reveals key details about each other, and do so surprisingly candidly. There’s an argument to be made that Kid knew of Conan’s identity by this point; regardless of that argument, that Conan spoke of his mother with such identifying details once again indicates a level of trust. Kaito implying Phantom Lady is his mom, while not particularly identifying, returns that trust. And that’s not even getting into the fact that a Kid case in Detective Conan is introducing a pretty important fact about Kaito’s mom.

Skipping ahead a bit, what makes this case notable is not the case itself, but rather its pair: Phantom Lady, a Magic Kaito heist published a year later that serves as an immediate prequel to Ryoma’s Gunbelt. This is the first time since Black Star that Magic Kaito picks up on a Detective Conan case in any capacity, and arguably the first time at all it does so with such a direct connection. The mentions of the Black Star served as a vague framing story for the clock tower heist, but Phantom Lady ends with a shot of the three treasures that assumes you know exactly where things go from here.

All of these cases do much more to peel away the mysterious veneer from Kaitou Kid, and give him a more candid and open relationship with Conan.

But the big thing of this stretch, and a turning point as a whole for Kaitou Kid in the franchise in my opinion, is The Lost Ship in the Sky. Now this? THIS is a Sillie Movie. Kid is playing around with goats, smirking like a fool with Conan before jumping out of a helicopter, and making the most inappropriate sounds when Conan’s hand wanders a little too far. He and Conan are actively seeking each other’s help and indulging in silly banter, even as Kaito makes a fool of himself with Ran. Speaking of Ran, this is the movie where she first fully realizes that Kid naturally resembles Shinichi. And as a cherry on top, we also get a shot of Kaito Kuroba himself.

And the movie was far from the only thing happening in April 2010.

☘️First is the OVA that was released just a few days prior: Kid in Trap Island. What starts as a standard Kid heist gets utterly derailed when the Detective Boys shoot Kid out of the sky, and now he has to chaperone them back to safety. Despite Kaito not being named in any capacity, we get to see him out of (most of) his costume and even hear about his fear of fish for the first time in DC media. Heck, Jii is even mentioned by name as well!☘️

Then there’s what aired the very same day the movie came out: Secret Birth of Kaitou Kid, the first episode of TMS’s adaptation of Magic Kaito.  After years of teasing the door open on who Kaitou Kid is behind the mask, TMS adapted the first chapter of Magic Kaito and aired it in the Detective Conan TV time slot. It, too, is an incredibly silly episode of an incredibly silly first chapter of an incredibly silly gag manga. THIS IS KAITO KUROBA, Detective Conan said. OBSERVE HOW SILLIE HE IS.

Testing the Waters

TMS eventually made 12 of these episodes. Based on the air dates, I can only assume Secret Birth of Kaitou Kid was meant to be a one-off, or at the very least it was a testing of the waters. Whatever the case, the remaining episodes got greenlit and were aired over 2011-2012. The most interesting change to the second half of these episodes is the addition of new plot points related to Magic Kaito’s organization, chiefly the new member Spider. They were introduced alongside Hakuba, who I imagine they wished to give a larger role in the episodes he did show up in. Another major takeaway from the TMS adaptation is their decision to animate Akako’s Delivery Service in The Witch, The Detective, and The Phantom Thief, albeit edited and extended to deal with the new anime-only plot points. In terms of Akako’s feelings for Kaito and Hakuba’s discovery of his identity, it’s a fairly significant chapter. Despite that, this is the only animated adaptation. I have some… complicated feelings regarding this, but now is not the time. 

As for the manga, we have a major arc in Mystery Train. This is not, in all technicality, a Kid case. If anything, his presence is pure coincidence, given he was only there to stake out the train ahead of the actual heist. Though this is a purebred Detective Conan plot, with the Black Organization’s involvement, Kid winds up a key part of their plan to convince the Organization that Sherry is well and truly dead.

Though his appearance in this case would be referenced in the future, this would be the first and last time Kid was directly involved in a major Detective Conan plot beat. This chapter was released before I had an active interest in Detective Conan, so much of what I’ve seen are second- or third-hand accounts from Japanese fans who went through the arc’s release. In short, reception was very mixed to Kid being such a major part in the resolution of this conflict. While there are those who enjoy his inclusion, either because they’re fans of Kid or because they accept the manner in which he was dragged into the plot halfway through, there are also those who consider him a “cheat” character who taints the worldview of Detective Conan by his presence alone. Gosho himself has also mentioned that he won’t be involving Kid in Black Organization plots anymore, either, due to the backlash.

My personal view on Kid’s involvement in Mystery Train is that the arc felt very much like a capital-E Event, so I bought it. There was a clear amount of luck involved in his presence there, so I could see how some may think the entire thing contrived, but it’s that coincidence that sells it for me. It’s Conan needing to fly by the seat of his pants to ensure Haibara makes it out alive, and further impresses upon us that they were half a step away from potentially fatal consequences. Nevertheless, this seems to be a case of an attempt to integrate Kid into the greater Detective Conan narrative that ultimately failed, so he returns to being largely divorced from the overall plot.

Despite this, though, there appear to be multiple chapters after this that focus on systematically introducing Kid to members of the extended cast. This starts with Blush Mermaid, Sera’s first presence at a Kid heist. What’s also unique about this chapter is the small but significant scene at the end that actually does continue the overall main plot - in this case, Sera’s misgivings over the death of Akai. Though Kid will not be overly involved in the main plot from here on out, his chapters do start featuring B Plots that touch on said main narrative. It’s… a half victory, of sorts, in terms of integration.

The other major takeaway from this case is a continuation of Conan and Kid apparently keeping a score of sorts. Due to Kid’s assistance during Mystery Train and the lack of a real theft, Conan lets Kid go. We’re in real “friendly rival” hours now.

Twin Bets pits Kid against Kyogoku, a frankly long overdue confrontation considering he’s Sonoko’s boyfriend. There’s a half-argument to be had that this also involves Kid in a major B Plot for the series as a whole, since this is a romance plot with a major recurring character. There’s also a level of intrinsic amusement in a Kid vs Kyogoku confrontation, since it comes down to (to quote my girlfriend) “guy who is literally from another manga but feels like he belongs here vs guy who somehow belongs here but definitely should be in another manga.”

Twin Bets also serves as the very first time Kid looks at the gem of the day under the moonlight in a Detective Conan chapter. It's the first case post-TMS Magic Kaito where it's applicable for him to do so; he's a bit busy with other things in Mystery Train, and he calls out Blush Mermaid for being a fake. This trend would continue in every case afterward where the plot wasn't otherwise preventing him from doing so (like the murder in Azure Throne).

Normally, this particular stretch of chapters would include quite a few more due to how many of them follow this “Kid, meet [Character]” format. But some of you may have noticed that, despite all the ample opportunities I’ve had to speak of it, I’ve avoided mentioning a certain number…

1412

Thousands of words earlier in this retrospective, I mentioned that Detective Conan’s Black Star felt the most like a crossover chapter. What I didn’t mention at the time, however, was that it also feels like one of the most fundamentally necessary Kid cases in Detective Conan. Not because it’s Kid’s first appearance, but because it introduces a piece of information about Kaitou Kid that eventually becomes baked into his identity despite the fact that it was introduced outside of his source series.

1412, the Interpol criminal code assigned to the internationally renowned phantom thief that was subsequently transformed after an author misread a journalist’s hasty scrawl as “KID.”

It feels like no small coincidence that the A1 adaptation of Magic Kaito added “1412” to the end of its title not just to differentiate this adaptation from TMS’s Magic Kaito specials, but to also indicate that this version of Magic Kaito would be the marriage of its namesake manga and Detective Conan.

In this regard and more, Magic Kaito 1412 modernizes aspects of the original story.

Technology, for example, was updated to reflect what a high school student like Kaito would be doing. Instead of reading the news in the papers, he’s scrolling through news sites on his phone. This is the most common kind of update that you see across adaptations of all stripes, so it’s the less interesting change.

The anime also modernizes with regards to itself, looking inward to find out what people associate with Kid in the modern day and adjusting the story - and the order that story is told - to account for that. This is expressed in ways both large and small. Blue Birthday, for example, is pushed way up to episode 2 of 1412 to introduce Pandora to the audience as soon as possible. Given Blue Birthday is also an Aoko-centric episode, it’s equally fitting that she gets the second episode. Jii’s significance is heightened by reworking the scrapped chapter Hustler vs Magician, a chapter that also coincidentally focused on an aspect of Jii’s past, into episode 3. This focus on major characters continues into episodes 4-6, which introduce Hakuba (chapter 15), Akako (chapter 6), and Shinichi (chapter 23), in that order.

There are also minor changes, likely made for pacing or simply content reasons. One small but frankly fairly significant change involves Kaito’s card gun. He’s shown using it in the first chapter of the manga, which also means he’s using it in the first episode of TMS’s adaptation. Since it eventually comes to be a signature weapon for Kaitou Kid, 1412 prevents Kaito from using it while in his civilian identity (like when he’s panicking about the fish with Aoko). Due to moving Blue Birthday up to episode 2, heists that originally weren’t really bothered with holding the target up to the moon include scenes of Kaito doing just that. Jii is suspiciously absent for most chapters until Black Star, so 1412 inserts him into animated adaptations of older heists, such as helping Kaito prepare the fireworks for Blue Birthday or providing an anime-original explanation of magic vs sorcery. There are similar one-offs with other characters as well, like a short scene of Hakuba being inserted into Akako’s introductory episode.

As a proper series in its own right, as opposed to a series of animated specials, 1412 also had to decide on a unified tone. Though TMS’s adaptation fluctuates wildly, 1412’s tone is a bit more even across the board. It’s comedic and dips its toes in gag vibes without taking it to absurd levels. While TMS’s adaptation of the first episode includes an entire apparatus outside the classroom window in episode 1, Kaito simply jumps out the window and makes it to the ground after running around the classroom in 1412. Though it also pulls away from some of the more atmospheric moments of TMS’s adaptation, it pulls back far more from the gag energy.

As a result of the above two points, many chapters are shuffled around or cut entirely. Chapters like Clockwork Heart, Japan’s Most Irresponsible Prime Minister, or I Am The Master are a level of absurdity that doesn’t fit with modern Magic Kaito’s energy, so they were completely cut. The Police Are Everywhere (chapter 2) was pushed back and adapted as The Princess and the Thief’s Improv (episode 15), because the emotional core of Nakamori potentially getting removed from the police force simply doesn’t work that early in the story outside the gag context. Akako’s Delivery Service was also unfortunately cut… Whether it be because of Akako’s appearance as Kid and the subsequent punchline or because of the technology Hakuba used to ascertain Kid’s identity, they apparently determined it was either too outside the tone or too difficult to adapt. Hakuba’s call in Golden Eye truly comes out of nowhere as a result, though, and that’s one fewer episode for a character that already had a bit of a spotty appearance record early in the manga’s run.

When the anime was announced, there were 30 chapters out. Seven of these were ultimately not animated, and many of the two chapter cases could be easily adapted into a single episode. They needed more material to fill out the remaining episodes, so they did this in two main ways.

The first is by reaching into some key Detective Conan cases. Black Star is a bonafide Magic Kaito case, but shifting it and Shinichi’s appearance in this adaptation to episode six - right after a series of core cast introductions - is actually very telling. 1412 was not only concerned with adapting the manga for modern sensibilities, but also with adapting Detective Conan for a Magic Kaito audience and further strengthening the connection between the two. This “adaptation” resulted in anime-original retellings of Ryoma’s Gunbelt, Sky Walk, and Purple Nail from Kaito’s point of view. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a decision early on in the anime’s development, and if it was their existence that necessitated the tone of 1412 be evened out via not adapting the more “out there” chapters of the source manga.

The second thing they did to fill the run time was for Gosho to write an entirely new heist to function as a finale for the anime. This was Midnight Crow, the first heist to really touch on the driving plot of Magic Kaito (outside of Snake showing up to be ineffective) since Blue Birthday. Gosho’s comment on this case in the Treasured Edition is… a lot.

After a standalone anime adaptation was greenlit, the topic of what we should do for the final episode came up at our first meeting, so I said “Why don’t I write the ‘Black Kaitou Kid’ story I have saved as a trump card in Sunday and use that in the final episode?” Thus I wrote Midnight Crow! I’ll never forget how surprised the members of staff looked when I bluntly told them that Toichi is actually still alive (lol). (…) Though Chikage made Kaito work as Kid in Phantom Lady, she tried to get him to quit in Midnight Crow because of everything that happened in Las Vegas… But that’s a story for another time (lol).

The story itself has plenty of hints that Kaitou Corbeau is a Toichi-Chikage tag-team, but actually seeing him spell it out so casually sure is something.

Speaking of spelling things out, though, I also want to take an aside to touch on the Magic Kaito 1412 novelizations. Six volumes were published roughly concurrently with the anime’s run, and though there isn’t anything drastically different from what we already know from either Magic Kaito or Detective Conan, sometimes the narration can be quite enlightening. For the purposes of this, though, I specifically want to touch on that pin from earlier.

In the movie continuity, there is very clearly a moment where Kaito figures out Conan’s identity in The Last Wizard of the Century. There is no concrete equivalent to this in either Detective Conan or Magic Kaito, and 1412 doesn’t really expand on this either. I mentioned the possibility that Ryoma’s Gunbelt would have given Kaito ammo to figure out who Conan might be, but it’s not the most compelling argument. I’ve heard tell that Gosho once implied Kaito may have simply come to this conclusion on his own outside of the movie continuity, and I’ve personally always taken this stance given he seems to recognize Conan as a “high school detective” in Fairy’s Lips - and simply DOES know, no arguments, by Azure Throne.

Taking novelizations like these as fully canon is always a bit of a risk, but there’s a very interesting expansion on this particular issue in Volume 3, during the Ryoma’s Gunbelt adaptation. After Kaito runs into Conan while under disguise at the museum, the novels go into a brief explanation of how Kaitou Kid came to be known as such (aka the 1412 thing), followed by a flashback to Kid and Conan’s first meeting in DC’s Black Star. The narration then turns to what happened after the fact. This is fairly long, but as far as I’m aware these novels aren’t available in English, legally or otherwise. As such…

***

Kaito investigated the child that was on the roof of the Beika hotel - the young boy who called himself a detective, and with whom Kaito fought during the Black Star incident.

His name was Conan Edogawa.

He was a distant relative of Hiroshi Agasa, inventor and scientist, and was currently freeloading at the house of Kogoro Mouri, the famous detective “The Sleeping Kogoro.”

…And that was all he really figured out about him.

Conan Edogawa was full of mysteries.

But there was one thing that bothered Kaito.

Kogoro Mouri had a high school daughter named Ran. And Ran Mouri was the childhood friend of Shinichi Kudo.

That Shinichi Kudo.

The very high school detective that cornered Kaito during the clock tower heist.

Before his run-in with Conan, Kaito had looked into the young man that had aided the Metropolitan Police Department.

At a certain point after that clock tower incident, he had apparently gone missing.

He was not officially registered as missing, nor did it become a massive incident. But he stopped attending Teitan High School and disappeared from his home. He was apparently gone because he was busy chasing after some case a client had requested of him, but…

The elementary schooler Conan Edogawa appeared before both Ran Mouri and Kaitou Kid as if taking his place.

Shinichi Kudo, and Conan Edogawa.

Due to their mysterious nature, the two detectives continued to fascinate Kaito.

By the way…

The certain young novelist who had given Kaitou Kid his name was currently a world-renowned mystery writer.

His name was Yusaku Kudo.

Shinichi Kudo’s father.

Then there’s his mother, Yukiko Kudo, who was an essayist. She was a former actress, and once studied under the magician Toichi Kuroba to prepare for a role. Kaito had even once met her alongside his father in his childhood.

A strange turn of fate connected the Kudo and Kuroba families across multiple generations.

Did Kaito realize…?

Did he know that Conan Edogawa was actually Shinichi Kudo, who turned into a child after being forced to take a strange medicine?!

-

Professor Agasa was aware that Conan Edogawa was actually Shinichi Kudo… and it was likely only a select few others knew this. Not even Ran Mouri, his childhood friend, knew.

If Shinichi Kudo was keeping his identity a secret… then the reason he became a child must be pretty dangerous. Something that involved crime and the underworld. Just knowing the truth could put your life in danger.

It was only obvious that Kaito kept his identity as Kaitou Kid hidden.

But Shinichi Kudo must be living an even more troublesome life.

***

The narration of these novels knocks on the fourth wall fairly often, explaining that middle bit of this particular excerpt. It never confirms for sure whether or not Kaito managed to connect the dots, but the aforementioned questionable canonicity of novelizations like this means that was probably the safe choice. That there’s extra information here at all about Kaito looking into both Shinichi AND Conan is a pleasant surprise, as far as I’m concerned. But it’s also a bit frustrating that we don’t yet have even a hint of how this occurred in the manga when we now have two potential sources of that knowledge in the movies and these novels.

Which you opt to take as the more likely canon is probably up to personal interpretation, but I think I’m personally a bit more willing to go with a version of the novel’s events. I prefer to include the movies as a level of canon unless they outright contradict the manga (like M10 does, tragically), but the novel’s versions of events is probably the safer option.

But it’s the inclusion of extra scenes like these that further connects Magic Kaito - especially this particular iteration - to Detective Conan. They are holding hands so tightly now.

This all eventually culminates in Sunflowers of Inferno. Though M14 is the more obvious turning point with regards to Kid’s general behavior and personality in Detective Conan movies, Sunflowers of Inferno is a slightly more interesting turning point: all three movies after 1412 airs involve aspects of Magic Kaito, whether it be in its story or in its theming.

For this movie, it’s a very obvious example of the former. I think the plot of M19 is… strictly okay, but Kid’s motivation throughout being related to Jii is something I really enjoyed about the film. You know, assuming you don’t think too hard about Jii’s age as it relates to the timing of the flashbacks. Outside of that, Kid’s behavior in the movie almost looks as though it’s walking back from M14, but that’s only because Kid is playing the villain for most of it. Once that facade is dealt with he’s fully cooperative with Conan, to the point that the latter trusts the former with Ran’s safety. The opening scene with Kaito in his dark heist garb is also a nice bonus.

All in all, I think 1412 airing actually has the biggest effect on the movies. I’m not sure if that was intentional - movies 23 and 27 have the same director, so it could just be that her artistic vision includes MK in it - but for Sunflowers of Inferno it was almost certainly intentional as a show of fireworks after the ending of the anime. As for the manga, 1412 airing actually seems to have had very little influence on the Detective Conan chapters featuring him. Though Kid is a lot more likely to resemble the version of the character from Magic Kaito now, the manga seems a bit more concerned with introducing him to the new guard.

Meet The Fam

The Detective Conan cases in this section continue the general trend from after Mystery Train of either 1) introducing Kid to a significant sub character, or 2) running parallel to a B Plot that is concerned with the main narrative.

Luna Memoria does a couple of interesting things. First, this is the first time Conan explicitly asks Kid about investigating the jewel of the heist, since he knows Kid is on the search for a “special jewel.” Kaito is very candid in his response, telling Conan he ran into the deceased owner as the readers get a small flashback to Kaito Kuroba reverse pickpocketing the necklace. It’s an interesting conversation to have in the first Kid case since 1412 aired, especially since this aspect of Kid’s MO hasn’t really been discussed in any concrete way in DC before this point.

The second thing it does is have a small but nonetheless amusing B Plot with Okiya. While taking pictures of potential targets for his disguise, Kaito inadvertently gets a picture of Okiya’s voice changer. So Okiya joins Conan in confronting Kid in the bathroom and Very Nicely requests they get that picture back. Kaito has an “oh shit” moment, gets the heck outta dodge, and the chapter ends on a comical note when Kid can’t escape because Nakamori refuses to stop looking for him.

The next DC chapter, Fairy’s Lips, does a little bit of 1 and a little bit of 2. Surprisingly enough, Heiji has not had a significant confrontation with Kid in the manga before, and now Kid is getting himself involved in his and Kazuha’s romance plot. This chapter is retroactively significant because it’s the key jumping-off point for Heiji and Kid’s relationship in M27. But it’s also surprisingly significant for the MAIN main plot of Detective Conan by bringing in Koumei as a secondary detective that’s working to capture Kid… because he’s in Tokyo to receive a mysterious envelope addressed to him. The truth of the envelope’s contents is an Extremely Big Deal, and though by this point in the manga I was fully aware that plot developments would often happen in otherwise standalone cases now, I was personally not ready for that in a Kid case. So there’s that.

Between these two cases is the Magic Kaito heist Sun Halo, which puts a focus on Aoko for the first time in a while. It’s also very minorly a Magic Kaito version of a suspicion arc - the first one since Kaitou Kid’s Busy Day Off - though it ends with a return to the status quo. This chapter, as mentioned way earlier, also features some magic shenanigans from Akako in a more concrete way than we’d seen in a while. There’s some stuff about these chapters that are more disturbing the longer you think about them (what do you Mean Kaito just carries some blood neutralizing spray around with him so people can’t figure out his identity based on his blood), and the general tone is a lot more somber because Kaito is suffering from both pain and blood loss. It feels like an extension of Midnight Crow’s tone, in that regard.

After these three chapters is our next Kid movie, Fist of Blue Sapphire. This movie features a romance subplot between Sonoko and Kyogoku, and thus brings Kid back into it via certain aspects of the movie plot. As a post-1412 movie, the major feature of this movie is not the plot, but the thematic underpinnings of said plot.

Many post-Blue Birthday Magic Kaito heists tend to overlap aspects of Kaito’s situation with that of the characters introduced in the heist. The feature character of Red Tear is a woman who has grown to hate magic after the untimely death of her parents. The titular Dark Knight lives a double life as a notorious criminal for his son’s sake, and Kaito works to make sure his son never finds out about that double life. The thief in Golden Eye is attempting to salvage her father’s legacy. If they aren’t straight parallels, then they present what-if scenarios or twists on what Kaito is going through.

Fist of Blue Sapphire pulls something similar with Rishi, one of the movie-original characters. He’s torn up enough by his father’s death that he chooses to dirty his hands in order to get his revenge. After Midnight Crow, where Toichi himself wants to ensure that revenge is not Kaito’s only driving force, this presents a what-if scenario - an alternate path that Kaito might have chosen, had his admiration for his father not won out over his grief at his death. It’s interesting to see this particular thematic through line in a Detective Conan movie because it’s never been shown in a Detective Conan manga case before, and it’s one of the reasons I’m particularly fond of Chika Nagaoka’s Kid movies.

Another major aspect of this movie is how the sheer amount of screen presence Kid has gives the movie ample time to show what more involved cooperation between Kid and Conan looks like. The second Kid is framed for the crime, he chooses to go to Conan; if Kid looks to be in genuine danger, Conan begrudgingly comes to his aid. They spend time talking over the aspects of the case, and work seamlessly together during the climax. It’s by far the most actively cooperative they’ve been before or since, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere (and the spirit doesn’t quite go away, either). The clearest indication of this change in relationship is the line spoken by Kaito after he’s dealt with his wounds on the roof: “A magician makes you believe he holds something within his clenched fist, and a detective guesses correctly what they hold before it’s ever revealed.” It’s a stark contrast to probably his most famous line from Black Star about phantom thieves being artists and detectives being no more than critics.

Fist of Blue Sapphire happens to be one of those movies that I personally have any concrete info about via things like guidebooks. I don’t want to bloat this more than it already is, so there’s only two things I read that I want to share. 

The first is Kappei Yamaguchi’s seeming reaction to the script during recording, specifically in regards to his laugh. Normally, Kid in Detective Conan has had a sort of booming, open laugh, but twice during the recording for Fist of Blue Sapphire he opted to go for a version of the laugh as written out in Magic Kaito - an “ahaha” vs a “kekeke” kinda difference. He talks about this in the Kaitou Kid Secret Archives, but an online article on the movie from Movie Walker expands on this from Nagaoka’s point of view:

This time, we have a lot of aspects from “Magic Kaito” and Kaitou Kid’s true face in this movie. The moment I thought “This is just Kaito” was during ADR, when Yamguchi Kappei-san laughed like ‘hihi!’ Kappei-san said to me “I did it even though I thought it’d be struck out.” (lol) I could tell in those words that he met this movie with his own interpretation. I was impressed. We have a very cool Kid as a result.

It’s also in the Secret Archives interview that we get the “His speed may be at 100, but he has zero combat ability at all” comment from Gosho to Nagaoka, which is… extremely funny.

The other major thing from the Secret Archives interview (and elsewhere) is an anecdote about a certain regret. Nagaoka herself seems to be a big fan of Magic Kaito, but after M23 was released to theaters, Gosho lamented that he should have had Kid allude to Aoko. This was brought up again in a more recent Animage article: “Actually, back during Fist of Blue Sapphire, Aoyama-sensei had told me something akin to ‘We should have had Kid say “I have a better sapphire (Aoko) already” when he returns the blue sapphire,’ and I responded ‘You’re going to tell me that now, Sensei?!”

This is all to say that, despite the lack of any obvious elements akin to Jii in M19, they were clearly thinking of Magic Kaito while making M23.

☘️The next case on our list isn’t really a Kid case at all, but I consider it significant in the way it illustrates Kid and Conan’s developing relationship. Yusaku Kudo’s TV Show Case’s big twist is that Vermouth had been in disguise as Yusaku the entire time, but what’s important is that instead of being suspicious of his dad’s double showing up, Conan immediately assumes and trusts the double as being Kaitou Kid. “Kid” claims he’s here to help after Yusaku stated on the news that Kid wasn’t the culprit, and the following events snowball into interesting events and implications.

The first and most obvious is Conan’s implicit trust and expectations for Kid. He is visibly disappointed when “Kid” doesn’t respond to his deductions the way he assumed he would or didn’t pick up on details he was convinced Kid would immediately notice. It’s actually a staggering amount of trust, despite everything.

Then we have the fact that Vermouth was able to use this tactic at all. Her visiting the Kudo residence was a failsafe to ensure Yusaku really was out of the picture, so she needed a way in. Personally, I think it’s safe to assume she didn’t adjust after Conan thought it was Kid - she knew this would work from the start. Yusaku absolving Kid in the news is a perfect in for someone who was already fully aware that Kid had teamed up with her Silver Bullet before in Mystery Train. And she was right. Conan’s immediate assumption and subsequent display of trust blinded him to the possibility of the other infamous master of disguise on his list.

(What this does - or doesn't - say about Vermouth's knowledge of Kid, aka Kaito Kuroba, to the point that she so successfully tricked Conan in the first place is another matter entirely.)

That this particular case works as a prologue of sorts to the minor Black Organization arc that follows is also interesting to consider. Kid didn’t appear in the arc at all, but he certainly was used as a tool for it.☘️

The subsequent DC chapters continue the “Kid, meet [Character]” trend with Amuro (and Kazami) in Queen’s Bang. He’s a fairly active part of the process, not the least of which because Kid belittled his card trick skills as they were lining up to enter the museum. Though this chapter doesn’t have a relevant B Plot, it is the first reference to Kid’s presence in Mystery Train since Blush Mermaid - and a pretty significant one at that, since Amuro was the one that actually had to deal with ��Sherry.” It's also one of the first real references to Magic Kaito itself, albeit still somewhat vague: Kazami mentions Queen Selizabeth from Ingram, a fake country in a series that does not normally deal with fake countries. (Selizabeth was also the name of the ship from Black Star, as it turns out, but that's less a hard reference and more of a reference with a wink.)

Siren Splash’s main character introduction is actually Azusa, which feels a bit like a follow up on the minor role she had in Queen’s Bang. This case has a couple of fun things that sort of cover the entire spectrum of ways in which a Kid case could be fun for our purposes. The least significant of these is Kid’s skates, which (if memory serves) haven’t been seen since chapter 10 of Magic Kaito. Gosho mentions wanting to use them again in his Treasured Edition comment on that case, so it’s a lot of fun to finally see them show up again.

Going up to slightly more significant, there’s a Very Ominous Comment from Kanenori about his left eye, which serves as foreshadowing to information we find out about him about a volume later. And then we have the end of the case, which is a little difficult to talk about because we don’t have any elucidating information yet. Regardless, I’ve always been amused that, despite Conan being the talk of the various police departments, he’s largely avoided being in the news… except where Kid is involved. It seems that’s finally coming to a head with the older gentleman that is none too pleased about the news story covering Conan’s victory. We don’t know what role this man has yet, but if this has ties to the main plot, then this is a very amusing way in which Kid has affected the main plot.

There’s not much else of note to say about this series of chapters, because it’s largely continuing the trends of the era that led to 1412’s release and codifying a less mysterious Kid, and an (at times) more cooperative Conan. But it’s also a comparatively sparse number of chapters; in the over seven years since 1412, Kid had only featured in four chapters here. You probably wouldn’t expect any major developments from a precedent like that, right?

…Right?

Erasing the Line in the Sand

We have now entered the modern era - specifically, the immediate lead-up to M27. Recency means some of these things are going to be a little bit harder to extrapolate on, largely because we have no idea if this is the start of something new, or perhaps just an outlier in the general trend. Regardless, some of this stuff fully makes my brain spin. Never mind brainworms - I have brain bees, and they will not stop buzzing.

We start with the most-recent Kid case in Detective Conan as of this writing, Azure Throne. This particular case is significant for multiple reasons, besides just being a good time. First, it’s Hakuba’s first appearance in Detective Conan since Detective Koshien, which means it’s been a whole seventeen years. Help. It’s arguably also the closest it comes to a proper Hakuba vs Kid case in Detective Conan, since Twilight Mansion is a little too busy with other aspects of its plot to spend much (if any) time on Hakuba’s relationship with Kid. Hakuba is also just a little insane, given his plan was to airlift the entire observation deck and sink it into a pool to trap Kid… There’s some minor Magic Kaito gag energy in that idea, and Hakuba’s never done things by halves.

Next, we have yet another reference to Kid’s presence in Mystery Train. Queen’s bang was only a couple years ago, and in Conan Publishing Time that’s no time at all considering Mystery Train was back in 2012. It’s interesting to get two references to that particular case so close together. 

And speaking of references, my third point of interest for this case is that it straight up references Golden Eye. There’s even an illustration of Cartier, the security company manager that Nakamori is thinking about when he responds to Jirokichi’s comment. Magic Kaito has certainly referenced Detective Conan before, and 1412 itself pulls heists whole-sale from it to fill out its runtime. But this is the first time it’s gone the other way around in such a specific manner.

It’s also, somehow, the very first time Kid has assumed the Shinichi Kudo disguise in the manga. And even more surprisingly, it’s done so at Conan’s request. Sure, Kid was the one begging Conan to free him of suspicion for the murder that just happened, but “disguise yourself as me and make sure Ran doesn’t find out” was the condition Conan put forward for his cooperation.

This connects to the fifth and sixth points that I’m concerned with. The fifth point is Ran herself; she has a comment toward the end about how she can’t forgive Kid for “disguising as Shinichi every single time.” Which is, you know. Kinda weird, if all we’re considering is manga continuity. This is his very first time assuming this disguise in the manga! So in Gosho’s mind, at least, the movies aren’t not canon. Considering more recent movies are more likely to require “homework” to fully enjoy them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were more carefully written to slot into canon more easily than early movies were.

The sixth and most hilarious point is a single aside in a conversation Kid and Conan have.

Actually, why do you look so similar to me?

Why would I know?! Maybe we have a shared ancestor or something. (To be honest… I’m not even changing my voice much, either…)

Now, the addition of that voice comment makes the whole thing sound like a gag - they do have the same seiyuu, after all - but their similarity has always been a bit of a gag… In the movies. Thinking back on it, I’m not sure it’s ever really been brought up in the manga, so this is a joke that feels almost necessary after Conan requested Kid to disguise himself as “Shinichi,” which Kid managed to do despite being not at all prepared for it.

And, you know. It’s also foreshadowing now. Not by much, considering the movie was only a few months out, but still.

tl;dr: There’s a lot going on in Azure Throne. It is probably the densest of the Kid cases in terms of its relationship to itself and its relationship to Magic Kaito. As a result of that, there’s something about this case that feels like the purest mix of Magic Kaito and Detective Conan. It also feels pretty clearly written with the movie in mind, considering it not only had the aforementioned foreshadowing, but also brought in ideas from previous movies into the manga to create synergy between them.

After that we have Green Dragon, a Magic Kaito heist that ran through M27’s theater release. Meeting Aoko’s mother is certainly a standout of this particular heist, but what I personally find more interesting is the tone. It eschews the steady creep of drama into the narrative by pulling back to something more comedic, and in some ways feels a little like a return to form. Kaito’s fear of fish is brought up again for the first time in ages, and Midoriko gets a whole host of muscle men to corner Kid.

The chapter also opens with a reference to the crimes (as Midoriko would prosecute them) Kid committed in Queen’s Bang. In terms of time, it’s been over ten years since the last MK heist referenced DC in any meaningful way. But in terms of heist count, Phantom Lady was only three heists ago.

It is at this point I must discuss the movie, The Million-dollar Pentagram. As the movie is not yet out on Blu-ray as of this writing and the international offerings were a bit spotty (especially outside of Asia), I want to give another spoiler warning for the information I’m about to go into. I mentioned earlier that later movies require a bit of “homework” for full enjoyment, and M27 is no exception. It has also turned into one of the more common complaints I see from casual DC movie enjoyers, at least on the Japanese side of things - because yes, there is a whole audience of people whose only exposure to the franchise is the yearly movie. While the most easily recognizable pieces of “homework” for this particular movie are clearly cases like Fairy’s Lips or even M21 for familiarity with Momiji and Heiji’s attempts to confess to Kazuha, it is also very much arguable that the second major pillar of this movie requires a working knowledge of Magic Kaito. Like, not just knowing who Kaitou Kid is, but knowing who Kaito Kuroba is.

Which means I’m going to be talking about a lot of this movie in concrete detail. The main thrust of the movie is, to put it very simply, a treasure hunt. What I discuss will give you very few clues as to how or why that mystery is solved, but it will end up touching on key events, motives, and emotional beats. If you’d rather keep yourself unspoiled so as to enjoy those aspects as well, please skip to my discussion on FILE.0. You can find that by scrolling to below the second horizontal line, or doing a Ctrl+F search on “FILE.0.” That being said, there will also be more concrete references to the post-credits scene everyone knows about by this point in the final section of this retrospective as well.

——

There’s a lot I want to discuss with regards to M27, but it’s frankly hard to conceive of how I’d go about it. Going through the movie chronologically would take far too long, so I think I largely just want to list up a few interesting elements and then dive into what significance I think those elements hold. For the curious, I saw this movie twice in theaters: once about a week after premier, and again when they were running English subtitles at certain locations.

Let’s start at the beginning, with the most amusing thing this movie did before it was even released: the lack of a pre-screening. Movies like these usually have a seiyuu event of some kind attached to an early screening of the movie that fans can attend via lottery a little while before the official release, but they used the framing device of Kid “stealing the pre-screening” to avoid holding one at all. This isn’t strictly related to anything I’ll discuss further, but it is amusing to think that they believed the information presented in this movie was important and significant enough that they didn’t want to risk people talking ahead of the official release. And, you know, it WAS, but we’re not getting into that just yet.

Also somewhat minorly was the cover of an-an being Shinichi and Kaito, as opposed to Conan and Kid or even Shinichi and Kid. There’s also been a handful of DC merch that includes both Kaito and Kid in the lineup, and I don’t think stuff like this has happened since 1412 aired. It’s clear in hindsight they were focusing on his civilian identity because of his motive in the film and the reveal in the stinger.

As for the movie itself, I want to start REALLY basic, and actually talk about the score of the movie. The Million-dollar Pentagram is the first Kid film since Yugo Kanno took over from Katsuo Ohno for the movie soundtracks. This normally wouldn’t matter too much, except for the fact that Kaitou Kid has utilized a variation on the same two themes since The Last Wizard of the Century. There was apparently quite a bit of back and forth as to how to handle this aspect of the soundtrack, but in the end they went with a completely new theme: The Grand Circus (華麗なるサーカス). If you’re reading this and somehow haven’t heard it before, I highly recommend you give it a listen. It serves as his calling card throughout the movie and is a much more playful tune. I can’t help thinking about Toichi’s conversation with Kaito in Hustler vs Magician about how the pierrot is the most important member of the circus (yet another reason I’m glad this chapter got salvaged in the 1412 adaptation). I definitely don’t dislike his old themes, but I do enjoy that the vibe of this one expresses a side of Kid in Detective Conan that has seen more screen time lately, but has until now had no musical motif to express it.

Another amusing part of this soundtrack is a certain melody, only a couple bars long, that repeats throughout the entire score. This melody just so happens to play during the final major reveal of the movie: that Toichi had been disguised as Yoshihisa Kawazoe the entire time. Kawazoe is a local detective that is in and out of the movie for almost its entire runtime. Toichi was, in essence, with us the entire time. Just like this melody was, weaved in and out of the soundtrack. It’s a nice touch. Kanno mentions in the Toho Cinemas guidebook that there’s very little impact to a melody introduced in the final moments, and that he wanted to inspire a sense of deja vu alongside surprise by accompanying that final reveal alongside a melody that had played the entire time. It’s kinda neat.

As for Kid’s behavior in this movie, it’s informed entirely by his desire to discover why his dad apparently went after this “potentially world-destroying” treasure, found it, and then left it alone. There’s an overlap between this and his motive in M19, considering both are more personal in nature, but M27’s motive is also far more fundamental to Magic Kaito. Kid is mentioned multiple times to have an assistant of some kind in Detective Conan chapters, but the only mention of his dad is that 1) he exists, and 2) he was the previous Kid. He’s not at all connected to Kid’s search for Pandora or his reason to be the second Kid in the first place, so bringing his dad into things as a motive feels more poignant if you know Kaito’s always been chasing him. Which is to say, it relies a bit more on knowing Kaito’s personal story from Magic Kaito.

The plot leans into this “if you know, you know” vibe by having Kaito only ever indirectly refer to his dad. When he explains why he’s searching for these swords to Conan and Heiji, he only refers to “a certain thief.” In a moment of respite, he only just barely gets to say the first sounds of “dad” before he’s interrupted by one of our culprits. It’s not said in any capacity until the very end of the movie, when the treasure is found alongside Toichi’s glove and a notice from Kid the first: “Wake not a sleeping lion.”

Going back to Heiji and Conan, he’s not openly cooperative with them until they save him from near death. It’s at that point they share info and Kid ropes them into solving this puzzle because it’s what they do best. The rest of their cooperation in the movie usually takes the shape of a “2+1” format. Conan and Heiji are obviously working together while Kid comes in and out via a number of disguises. There’s a comedy to his disguises in this film, since they’re almost too easy to see through. It’s likely in part so Heiji and Conan can be aware of his presence, since they’re technically working together. Minami Takayama also picks up on this in her movie pamphlet interview, adding that he “seems more open and honest this time, probably because that’s just how badly he wants to solve this mystery” and that it feels more like “Kaito Kuroba and Shinichi Kudo have taken a step closer” as opposed to it just being Kid and Conan this time around. Kappei Yamaguchi in the same set of interviews says he’s “basically Kaito” with Conan, even if he still mostly behaves as Kid with Heiji.

To summarize, Kid’s behavior in this movie is far more open due to the goal being tied to his dad, and with Conan specifically the mask is basically off. Add this to the comedic touch of his disguises throughout, and you’ve got some good Magic Kaito vibes despite his reduced screen time compared to M23.

But that only lays the foundation for those vibes. There are plenty of other reasons why it feels more Magic Kaito-y, given key aspects of this movie bring in more aspects of Kaito’s civilian life - and certain emotional beats rely on your knowledge of that.

To start with a more minor beat that wraps up things mentioned above: Toichi’s glove. Kaito takes it with him after discovering the treasure, and there’s a short scene while he’s flying through the sky (after a more significant moment we’ll discuss later) that sees him looking at the glove with a frankly mixed expression. The novelization of the movie mentions him smiling happily as he soars through the sky, but that is not the expression we actually see in the movie. He has Thoughts about finding his dad’s glove there, but the audience is left to guess what they may be. It’s a hole that’s nearly impossible to fill without knowing Kaito’s backstory (and, arguably, without knowing about Midnight Crow).

And we’ll get to Midnight Crow’s significance, just you wait.

The second beat I want to talk about is Nakamori. First (and more minorly) is his engagement in some true gag Magic Kaito energy. A short scene with a disguised Kaito at a hotel alongside Conan and Heiji ends with Nakamori up against the window, looking in with multiple police officers behind him, as he realizes he’s found Kid. Kid then runs, and Nakamori and his officers run across the screen as Conan and Heiji continue their conversation. Real goofy hours.

But the actual most important story beat with Nakamori is him getting shot by one of our antagonists. He’s shot while on duty and escorting another principle character, and the framing of the movie puts us in Kid’s shoes as he discovers a gun aimed at the both of them just a little too late. This decision carries with it a couple of interesting tidbits, whether they be for our purposes or for how it seemed to affect the people that worked on it.

I want to do the latter first, since the snowballing is less extreme. Yamaguchi has talked about this scene a number of times, whether it be in interviews or during seiyuu events. As a voice actor, he was surprised at his own performance as Kid yells out Nakamori’s name. It was desperate and loud in a way he’d never been before, but it still felt natural to him; he thought it was indicative of just how important Nakamori is to Kaito, and that this was less Detective Conan’s Kid and more Magic Kaito’s Kaito Kuroba.

Related to this is a comment he made at a stage event that in his heart, he’d wanted to say “ojisan” instead of “Inspector Nakamori.” But he felt that it would be too difficult to display their relationship that way, so he went with the latter. There’s a lot of character interpretation you can do with regards to what Kaito chose to say in the moment, but I also can’t deny the possibility that it simply comes down to the “Kaito and Nakamori” dynamic not appearing in Detective Conan at all. Well, at least in part.

The other major ramification of this narrative decision is actually Aoko’s appearance in the movie. Nagaoka recounts in multiple interviews, such as in Febri or Animage, that she originally felt the tension in the movie was a little too slow-going, so she suggested someone get shot. The original plan suggested shooting Nishimura, the Hokkaido police detective, but Gosho said Kid wouldn’t save him if that was the case. It was here Nagaoka suggested Nakamori, to which Gosho agreed. He then added, though, that if he was in the hospital, then Aoko would likely show up.

Thus we have Aoko’s first theatrical appearance, and her first appearance in Detective Conan at all since Black Star. Her appearance in this movie grounds Kid’s emotional narrative in Magic Kaito; it implies the existence of Kaito Kuroba in ways Hakuba or Nakamori never could, because her significance rests entirely in his civilian identity. There are scenes dedicated to Kaito watching over her in disguise as she waits for her father to wake up, only leaving once she seems to be okay. He’s on the phone with her in one of the last scenes in the movie, and his smile when he ends the call is the softest it’s ever been in Detective Conan.

That’s not all, though. In a cute example of the movie affecting the manga, Gosho told Nagaoka later on that a gesture Aoko performs - a two-handed clap to the face that helps her psych herself up - was brought back into Magic Kaito for his April serialization. We see Midoriko do the very same gesture when she wakes up after her quick nap, as it turns out.

There’s something else I want to mention about Aoko, but that fits better elsewhere. So before we talk about the elephant in the room, I want to mention the theme of the movie. Both Nagaoka and Takahiro Okura, the script writer, have described the movie as dealing with “parent-child relationships” and “inheritance.” All of the antagonists follow after their forefathers in some way, but it’s an idea most obviously expressed by Hijiri Fukushiro, the main movie-original character. The complicated feelings he has about following in his father’s footsteps, and the things he does as a result, can all too easily be compared to Kaito’s own struggles. As I mentioned earlier, Nagaoka does something similar with M23, but it’s even more powerful here because Kaito is just as determined to chase after his dad as the many other characters in the narrative are to deal with the legacies their forefathers left them.

So. 

Elephant in the room. 

The ship-breaking shot heard round the world.

Shinichi Kudo and Kaito Kuroba are cousins, and their fathers are twins.

I want to just trace this thread throughout the movie, in as brief a form as possible.

It starts with the very first confrontation between Kid and Heiji. When Heiji gets the upper hand and knocks Kid’s monocle off, cutting through the brim of his hat in the process, the moon peeks through the clouds and gives Heiji a clear view of Kid’s face. He’s immediately shocked to discover he resembles Shinichi.

Heiji has a couple of moments following that clearly illustrates he’s ruminating on this. When he first sees Conan, he crouches down and takes Conan’s face by the chin, examining him. When Kid and Conan banter on the train, Heiji sits behind them, a confused but thoughtful look on his face.

Shortly after the above, Heiji confronts Conan: “Do you have any siblings?” He brings up the physical and vocal resemblance Kid has to Shinichi, but Conan brushes it off. “It’s a coincidental resemblance. It happened by chance.” Heiji drops the subject, but there’s an argument to be had that the way Conan says that last line sure is suspicious.

The movie follows the main plot until Aoko’s introduction. In one scene with her, Heiji, and Conan, she watches the latter two talk with interest. She crouches to the ground and stares at Conan, telling him that she’s reminded of her childhood friend’s younger years when she sees him. This is the first time their resemblance has ever been phrased as “You look like Kid/Kaito,” as opposed to the more common reverse. Nagaoka remarks in an interview that Aoko’s presence in this movie presented the perfect chance to further thread the foreshadowing of their resemblance throughout the film, and personally I rather enjoy that one aspect of this foreshadowing comes from the Magic Kaito angle.

Post-credits. Yukiko is surprised to discover Yusaku has an older twin brother. Yusaku is a little…cagey, in my opinion. He expresses mild surprise he hasn’t mentioned it before, says they keep in regular contact despite not seeing each other in over 20 years, mentions he receives gifts every once in a while (including the extremely plot-relevant missing sword) and hints to Yukiko that she’s likely met him before. As she continues to guess who it might be, Yusaku attempts to change the subject to his new book; he wants her opinions on it. This is when he receives a text praising his most recent novel, signed by “TK,” and Yusaku smiles. The scene cuts to a skyline view and Kawasoe standing atop a tower of some kind. He looks at his phone: “Thank you, Nii-san! YK.” He laughs, and the disguise comes off, revealing a smiling Kaitou Corbeau.

Now, I mentioned Midnight Crow earlier, so I want to recover that pin now. Midnight Crow is a Magic Kaito case. It is the case that very strongly implies Toichi’s survival. Absolutely none of this is brought up in Detective Conan in any capacity whatsoever. Not even a REFERENCE to a “Kaitou Kid in black.” I’ve seen multiple stories, whether they be about themselves or about others they went with or saw in the theater, about people that were simply confused as to why THIS was the stinger in this film. I even have a personal anecdote myself, given I dragged my roommate with me to the movie and what surface knowledge she had did not do anything to help her understand what the heck was going on in the post-credits scene.

Within the film, in the vacuum of this one movie, the connection between Kawazoe and “the guy that wears a monocle like Kid who seems vaguely threatening” is actually really well foreshadowed! It’s even BETTER foreshadowed if you know Magic Kaito, because the relationship between Hijiri and his dad has parallels to Kaito and his dad. Because Kaito’s first disguise in the movie and Toichi’s disguise throughout used the exact same method: taking advantage of someone’s vacation, and thus their absence. Because you know this man is Kaito’s dad, the thief who found this treasure before and chose not to steal it, and is now taking advantage of Kawazoe’s klutzy nature to give Heiji and Conan information so they can find and protect it.

As far as Kaito and Shinichi’s resemblance is concerned, it was always used as a joke in previous films. Considering how long this running joke went, I imagine that made their blood relationship that much harder to accept. It was clear they were doing something different with it from the very start of this movie, though, when Heiji’s reaction to the resemblance isn’t played for laughs and it just kept coming up.

This also doesn’t necessarily come out of nowhere. The earliest piece of info that I can personally confirm is from a six-page interview with Gosho in a 2011 issue of Hayakawa Mystery Magazine celebrating the release of M15. After the interviewer implies that the similarity between Kid and Shinichi may be due to Kid being written first as a protagonist (further implying it’s a stylistic “protagonist” thing), Gosho replied, “Their resemblance is not just because of the order they were written in, but because there’s a secret backstory. There’s no way someone that looks so similar exists, you know? (lol) As for why, look forward to it, I suppose.” In the No. 22-23 2024 issue of Shonen Sunday, Gosho also has a little cheeky comment saying he’s relieved he was finally able to talk about Kid’s secret…

The other comment complicating the timing of when Gosho would have first considered this is a comment from Yamaguchi during a later screening of M27 alongside the seiyuu. According to fan reports, he mentioned being told that Kid had a “secret backstory” when he was given the offer to voice him. Combined with the fact that Gosho had apparently specifically chosen Yamaguchi despite the latter already being onboard as Shinichi, and Gosho choosing to go with a Kid cameo in DC in the first place because he wanted to introduce a regular rival… Maybe the idea of them being related existed well before that 2011 interview.

You might be able to tell, given how much I have written about M27 alone, that I think it’s a very interesting movie from a Magic Kaito perspective. It borrows from it the most by far, and I have to agree with the Febri interviewer when they said this movie has the biggest crossover between the worlds of Magic Kaito and Detective Conan by far. Because aspects of the theme, Kid’s motivations, and the entire post-credits scene are frankly lost on you if you’ve never bothered to read Magic Kaito. It’s a very funny thing for the “yearly event movie” to do, if I’m being honest, but this movie relies on the strengthening ties the two stories have made over the years. It sure did break box office records, though, so it seemingly worked out for them.

My only question at this point is whether further media, manga or movie, will pick up on the movie’s main revelation.

——

Since merch releases and promotion for M28 are ramping up, I wasn’t expecting much out of the Magic Kaito or Kaitou Kid mines for a while. Imagine my surprise, then, when FILE.0 was finally released as part of the special rerelease of Volume 1. At a mere four pages, one could barely call it an extra chapter; if it could be called anything at all, it’s more like an omake of sorts. Here we have Shinichi taking a trip to Tropical Land to plan out his date with Ran - and with Fate, of course.

It’s honestly pretty cute, the way he’s likely taking way too many notes on what he could do there. But what ends up happening is Shinichi stumbles upon a scene from Magic Kaito (Kaitou Kid’s Busy Day Off, to be exact), right as Kaito says his embarrassing line about ice cream being as sweet as it is cold. Shinichi is taken aback at how cringe this guy’s being, but he likes the idea of ending his date here by the fountain, so he takes notes regardless.

Did we really just put Shinichi in a scene from Magic Kaito for a rerelease of Detective Conan’s inaugural volume? With Kaito and Aoko, right there? It feels so small and so silly, but I still can’t get it out of my brain. The last time Kaito and Aoko showed up just as normal people in front of our main cast in any capacity was in Black Star, and I’ve already mentioned that this appearance makes the chapter feel even more like a crossover. But now, after everything that’s happened, they show up again. Maybe the line in the sand is still there, but I think it’s moved.

Final Thoughts & Hot Takes

The very nature of Kid originally being from another older series means I have no idea where we actually go from here with all of this. I have no major expectations at all for when or how or IF Shinichi and Kaito being related will be brought into the manga in any capacity, largely because there’s very little precedent for it. You have things like Ran already knowing Momiji in the manga even though they only ever had a “first meeting” in M21, or James Black knowing about Akai’s survival first being confirmed in M18, but stuff like that that’s a pretty rare occurrence. Even so, Takayama and Yamaguchi discuss the idea themselves in an Animage interview. She mentions that the movies seem more connected to the manga nowadays, while he muses at the idea of Fairy’s Lip leading into M27, which may very well then lead back into the manga.

Regardless, I don’t think anyone would argue if you said Magic Kaito felt more integrated into Detective Conan now than it did 20+ years ago, when Kid was first appearing in the manga and movies.

So to cap everything off, I think some Hot Takes are in order.

The cousin reveal isn’t actually all that bad. I’ve admittedly been on this particular train for a decade, so this was like every national holiday and then some rolled into one. I definitely have some questions about things like Shinichi’s Childhood Adventure or Yukiko’s relationship with Toichi, but for me personally none of them really snap this reveal in two. Nor do I think it dampens the way they were brought together as detective and thief, especially since I think you could reasonably argue that Toichi and Yusaku maintained their distance not only due to the divorce, but because of Toichi’s new profession. “Over 20 years ago” puts them at probably no more than a couple years before Toichi became Kid, when he was likely traveling for his magic show, as opposed to the young age they apparently were when their parents divorced. It’s also made fairly clear in DC that Yusaku knew who Kid’s civilian identity was… or at the very least, that’s how I read that interaction. If they intentionally kept their halves of the family from meeting, then it’s pretty incredible Shinichi and Kaito met at all. If the manga touches on them being related in any capacity - and again, I have no clue how likely that actually is - then it’s not going to suddenly supersede the relationship they have now. It’ll just add to it, assuming they chose to entertain it at all, and that complexity could be fun. This is all admittedly personal, of course; my shipping preference leans very heavily into “weird platonic relationships,” so that informs this particular take by quite a wide margin.

1412 is the ideal way to consume Magic Kaito. I don’t know how much I even like this hot take, but I can’t help thinking it’s true regardless. It more closely resembles Detective Conan in tone and vibes than it resembles its own source manga in a couple of key ways, so I do actually think this - over either the manga or the TMS adaptation - is the way they want people new to Magic Kaito to consume it, especially if they’re coming in from Detective Conan. That Gosho created a new finale for it, and did so by pulling out the “Toichi is actually alive” card, is also fairly telling. And if people like it enough and want more, the manga is still plenty available.

Magic Kaito has become a Detective Conan spin-off. I think I also hate this take, but I also believe it to be true in any way that functionally matters. We must respect that Magic Kaito came first - that Kaito and Aoko and Hakuba came first - but Kid’s modern popularity can be almost entirely attributed to Detective Conan. And honestly, I have to wonder if it’s still running, albeit irregularly, because of that. Phantom Lady jumps off of Ryoma’s Gunbelt, Green Dragon references Queen’s Bang and takes a quirk from the movie for both Aoko and Midoriko. The tone does a clear shift after DC begins serialization as well, and goes even further into mystery solving after Kid makes his first appearance in DC. If you didn’t know any better, you might think it was similar to something like Zero’s Tea Time: a spin-off for a crazy popular character. It’s not, and it never actually will be, because Magic Kaito came first. But I think it sort of has become one.

The line in the sand is not bad, until it is. I don’t actually mind the parallel worlds argument, largely because I can understand what kind of slippery slope Akako is for the logic-driven Detective Conan. There’s also a part of me that doesn’t really mind Kid plots being largely stand-alone, with little to no involvement with the main plot. I could even also buy the two shady organizations actually being different, if and when we ever get information about MK’s organization. But after coming this far, and developing Conan and Kid’s relationship to the level that you have, I think not delving into who Kid is when he takes off the costume becomes the more contrived option. Gosho’s said before that solving the DC plot will not simultaneously solve the MK plot due to those organizations being different; I don’t think that means Kid should be verboten from Black Organization plots entirely. I don’t think it means Kid shouldn’t maybe suffer a consequence or two for being so open and casual with Conan, or that we can’t have a running side plot involving him. But then you run into the problem of Magic Kaito being its own series, and if you erase the line in the sand - if you let Kaito Kuroba be in Detective Conan - what do you do with Magic Kaito? The two worlds have overlapped so heavily with M27 that I almost wonder if we’re at a breaking point. Maybe this is the real Pandora’s box.

Kaitou Kid is a Detective Conan character, but Kaito Kuroba might not be… yet. I think DC has claimed Kid for its own. Especially the performance of Kid as displayed by the man behind the mask. But that mask has been chipping away, and Kaito himself is usually the one speaking to Conan at this point in both the manga and the movies. Even so, to so many people, that’s still just Kaitou Kid. I’ve seen disappointment expressed at that suave gentleman thief from the Black Star and M3 era being nowhere in sight in modern times, and it’s because it was always an act. You can’t keep up that act when you choose to trust someone, and they trust you back. You just… start becoming yourself. But he’s not truly himself in DC yet, despite the few scant appearances of Kaito himself we’ve received. For some reason, Kaito Kuroba still feels like a crossover character, and his appearance some special event, compared to Kaitou Kid. FILE.0 was a surprise in this regard, but in relation to the above, I have to wonder: Should Kaito himself ever feel as entrenched in DC as Kid is?

Kaito Kuroba - who many and more know as Kaitou Kid - is such a funny character if you think about him for more than a few seconds. His popularity in the Detective Conan vacuum is more than warranted, given his back and forth with Conan, but I really do want to believe that it’s the duality of his appearances in Magic Kaito and Detective Conan that contributes to this popularity. If M27 and some of the recent trends in both DC and MK are anything to go by, maybe I’m not so far off the mark.

We’ll likely get more stuff to enjoy in the meantime, but I’m currently looking ahead to Magic Kaito’s 40th anniversary in 2027 and hoping we get another movie… Or maybe another major manga arc. If you’ve managed to read all of this, you have my deepest gratitude! I hope this adventure was as enlightening for you to read as it was for me to write.

[brian-kinney-apologist]

random qaf thought i wanted to share

brian kinney was always a very special character for me personally and one particular thing about his writing still feels very dear to me to this day. brian was an openly gay man who always knew who he was, he didn't feel shame about his sexuality, and basically was living his best life as an out and proud queer man (no excuses, no apologies, no regrets etc etc). AND YET he wasn't out to his parents. it was never his intention to come out to them because he knew the exact reaction they would have. brian wasn't scared of their reaction though, he never needed their approval or waited for them to understand him (at least when we meet him in the show (young!brian is a a topic for another discussion though)). brian knew that his coming out would only resolve in useless drama. he didn't owe his parents anything just because they were related by blood. they didn't deserve to have an explanation or to know his truth. that's the point that the show makes with his character: you don't owe people your coming out. (yes, brian did come out to his parents at some point but with his mother it was purely coincidental and imo he wouldn't have came out to his father if debbie hadn't pressured him into doing so)

usually in tv/films we only see closeted queer people (usually teenagers) whos whole story revolves around them being ashamed of their sexuality, being scared about other people finding out their secret, and they also often behave like bullies themselves (chris hobbs moment). they also often outed by someone/forced to come out and end up having to deal with the consequences of them being gay. and yes, storylines like this have a right to exist and there're probably enough people who resonate with these types of stories. but there're other life scenarios too. and brian imo is a great example for people who had/still have to survive in our homophobic world but who know exactly who they are, who don't really struggle with their identity and who are at peace with their sexuality. off the top of my head i can name a number of characters that fit the first description but brian kinney is the only one who fits the second one. (maybe you know other characters with the same attitude but I doubt that anyone has ever openly said the actual words on tv/in films. brian was the blueprint for sure)

to be honest, it was a revelation for a 16 year old me when I first watched the show that you may be confident, out and proud and at the same time you not explaining your sexuality (or gender identity) to random (or not so random) people (proving to cishet people that you are a normal queer™️ OR on the contrary visibly queer enough) doesn't make you any less valid or a liar or a coward. brian being allowed to chose who to share his identity with not out of fear or shame but out of his own free will was and still a very important message to send to queer people everywhere. so many things that were illustrated through brian's character were so true and were ahead of their time imo. there is no one yet to match his level of queer wisdom on tv (and i doubt ther ever will)

I hope this makes sense because idk how to put it more eloquently. I've been thinking about all of this for some time now and wanted to put it somewhere so here you go

[rockybloo]

im sure youve answered this SOMEWHERE but how has jack and nana changed personality wise over the years? specifically i was wondering if nana was always this (head?)strong in your first iterations of her, or if it came naturally over time of you figuring out her character!

I know I've answered for Jack and Nana AGES ago, and a more recent answer for Jack here BUT I don't think I've ever truly gone in depth for Nana's development (which is crazy because she was the one out of the two who changed the most).

This is gonna be a WEE bit long so I'mma put my Nana blabbering under cut (bc she is my fav OC right next to her boyfriend)

SO THE VERY FIRST NANA was not head strong at all. She wasn't even a Lupine or had any special powers, save for having a Marchen like everyone else. But since she wasn't part of the main team back when I made her, you rarely saw it in action since she wasn't a fighter.

Girl was small, timid, had a crush on Jack, and...that was really it. That was her whole personality. Which was a big issue because I realized "Oh wow this fuckin' sucks" since there just wasn't any creative chemistry going on. It was just another "Male protagonist and his love interest". No seasoning or side dishes. Plain as hell.

And then I one day realized it'd be fun to make her part Lupine because I loved when people twisted Little Red Riding Hood and made her a wolf.

At this point, she was starting to get more bite to her (no pun intended) because there was the element of her being half human and half Lupine and how that impacted her life and relation to the world around her. She wasn't shy or timid anymore, but she was def quiet. More assertive than her first iteration but not fully at her "Fuck around and find out" present self.

I can't really remember the exact point in time I decided I wanted to give her her "Damn being a Damsel" mindset but I think it was when I was realizing I really liked Cats Don't Dance and Hercules and how much I still very much enjoy Sawyer and Meg's personalities in both films that I started to lean more into Nana being more independent. Plus Danny and Herc have some influence on Jack so it just made sense to take inspiration.

Of course, I didn't want to make her a complete copy and paste of the two so I sprinkled in some of my own experiences as an introvert. I think this was the secret ingredient to fully making her the Nana we know now. She got more "mean", though it was really her just not having time for anybody's foolishness, not even Jack's (initially). Boy had to work hard to get where he is now.

I would def say that Nana has the most complex personality out of all my OCs because she has so many different sides she shows and they all depend on who she is around and what the situation is.

She can be an utter introvert to the point of avoiding interactions, to being a merciless and relentless opponent when in battle, to a mildly awkward (bc she is new to this friend thing) yet endearing and loyal friend, to a mischief maker and enabler when hanging out with Ashe, to the flirt and seductress when alone with Jack because she loves hearing how quick his hear thumps and how cute his stuttering is.

She can also be a goofball. Half of the goofiness is from her regaining it from her childhood when her dad was still alive, and the other half is from her boyfriend rubbing off on her.

BUT YEAH

Nana's present day personality has been a 10 year development basically. VERY HAPPY with where it is now because it adds so much more to Beanstalked than her original "Shy village girl" schtick.

[deweyduck]

@pscentral​​ event 21: growth

↳ HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY FROZEN ❄️ 27 November, 2013

The PSCentral event theme being growth the month of the Frozen 10th Anniversary is so fitting for me in so many ways. (I know the theme this month was literally my idea but I promise I didn't even think of giffing Frozen until after I suggested it)

There's the obvious growth of the characters and their relationships in the movie itself, which I highlighted in this gifset. But there's also the growth I experienced myself in the 10 years since the film's release.

I was 15 when Frozen came out. Honestly before I even watched the movie I knew I would love it. I was so hyped the moment Disney announced it, and when I did see it the weekend it came out in the cinemas, it was everything I needed. A story that focused on two unique women and the complexities both of their individual characters and their relationship with each other. A story where the message was non-romantic love can be just as important and powerful as romantic love.

When I first watched the movie as a teenager, I always related to Anna but now as an adult, I related more to Elsa. Over the 10 years since Frozen's release, I have changed but my unwavering love for it has not. I am just able to connect to and see parts of myself in different aspects.

Something else very appropriate with this month's theme is that Frozen is actually the reason I got into gifmaking. Yes, extremely low quality gifs that I made on GIMP (not even Photoshop!) as a teenager in the early 2010s is my gifmaker origin story. I've come so far as a gifmaker since those days. But I'm not linking any of those early gifsets I've moved blogs twice since then for a reason just trust me when I say I've improved. I love making gifs and the community of people I've formed through this hobby. I've learned so many techniques and skills over the years and Frozen really is the biggest reason for that.

I am so grateful to have been able to grow up with Anna and Elsa this past decade. Thank you, Anna and Elsa. Thank you, Frozen, for being my favourite movie.

[picturejasper20]

One of the earliest episodes from A New Wish that got my attention was "Fearless" because it explored both Jasmine and Hazel's relationship and their characters.

The episode starts with Hazel telling Cosmo and Wanda how Jasmine is coming to her house after school. Hazel comments that she wants for both of them to watch a horror movie the same way she used to with her brother Anthony. Cosmo and Wanda question this a bit as the movie may be too scary for Jasmine but Hazel says that it would be fine.

Here we see that Hazel is in a way trying to project what she used to do with Anthony to her new friendship with Jasmine. She assumes that Jasmine is going to like watching horror movies without having considered if she likes that first. Note that she is doing unintentionally, she isn't being pushy nor anything but it is worth of pointing it out since it what in part drives the plot of the episode.

So Hazel goes to school and tells Jasmine about the film. Jasmine tells her that she doesn't like horror movies and begins to name a number of things that she is really scared of. She is someone who is a bit of scaredy cat, even being scared of things that would be harmless like cheese. She also adds that her family often makes fun of her for getting scared so easily and it is something that bothers her.

This makes Hazel asking for a wish that makes Jasmine ¨fearless¨, as it takes her main big fears out of her. Hazel does this in a way to ¨help¨ Jasmine but is also so they can watch the horror movie together. When Cosmo and Wanda grant the wish, this seems to work, however, they quickly notice that there is another Jasmine outside the classroom and Hazel goes out to figure out what it is.

It turns out that Jasmine's fears weren't sent anywhere after they got taken out from Jasmine, meaning they came to life and now they are going all around the school causing chaos. This is a interesting twist to the premise of what you would expect from these episodes which usually are about the ¨fearless¨ character acts super reckless without their fear as part of them. In this episode the fears manifest themselves in the real world and Hazel has to find a way to defeat them.

Eventually Hazel realizes that she can only defeat the fears if Jasmine faces them herself. She goes to Jasmine and talks to her about this (without revealing the magic part) and highlights how she was able to speak to Hazel without any problem when they first met or how she doesn't have any issues with singing in public. It is a cool scene because it shows how people can fear different things. While some fears can be more social, others can be related to things that look dangerous like spiders or snakes. Hazel tells Jasmine that she is able to overcome her fears, her family could stop bothering about her. Finally Jasmine goes along with the idea and then a sequence of her facing each of her fear plays.

Suddenly Jasmine gets possesed by ¨fear itself¨ and grows a lot in size. The being provokes Hazel, telling her that she tried making the relationship she has Jasmine the same she has with her brother. ¨Fear¨ says that Hazel is afraid of change and she is scared of trying out new things. This aspect is something that a huge part of Hazel's character, as she deals with how things changed so abruptly in her life and she wants for things to stay the same. She wants to repeat things she used to do because that's what she is comfortable with and she gets anxious when she has to step out from that comfort zone.

Hazel admits that she is scared but she is going to try new things with her new friends from now on. This makes the fear disappear and for Jasmine to return to her normal size back. Jasmine asks Hazel if she still wants to watch scary movies, to which she replies by saying that they should do something they both like, showing that she is trying out new things in a way. The episode ends with the two laughing while leaving the gym.

In all, i think this episode does a good job at showing better how Jasmine is as character and how she has different sides to her. She can be energetic and sociable but she also gets scared of a lot of things easily. Some aspects from her family get revealed as well, which adds more to her character. The episode explores well how Hazel is still struggling with moving to a new city and how she misses her Anthony, something that was established in the first episode ¨Fly¨. In a way she tries to make Jasmine something that she is not in an attempt to repeat what she used to do with her brother.

It is an episode that is quite creative in the execution of its premise and it develops both characters really well, making it one of my favourites episodes from the Season 1 A.

[synergysilhouette]

Is Disney Animation in it's "Lost Identity" era?

For a few years, Disney has seemed strangely off for the most part with their creative output. I wanted to open the floor for this discussion, opining that after the HUGE success they achieved in the early to mid-2010s, if executive interference and other factors started to encroach upon creative freedom with their storytelling. I was gonna start with "Raya and the Last Dragon," but I opted to start with "Frozen 2" due to the eye-opening documentary on it. This post will include both information about the production of some of Disney's recent films as well as my own theories.

Frozen 2--The sequel to the highest-grossing Disney film ever (not adjusted for inflation), "Frozen 2" was an even bigger phenomenon than it's predecessor. That said, it didn't have as much staying power, with criticism towards the clunky and confusing story. It was revealed during the documentary "Into the Unknown: The Making of Frozen 2" that while wanting to write a more mature, darker story, screenwriter Jennifer Lee was thrown a curve ball when an early screening of the film included families with kids of as young as four years old. She commented that they wouldn't understand what they were seeing, and this proved to be somewhat true, as the kids left feedback for more Olaf. Lee then rewrote the script to be simplified, and included more of Olaf. There was also shown to be a bit of disarray in their studio; other creatives at Disney mentioned the film's confusing nature, and even those in charge of the story were still trying to figure out the kinks. Scrapped concepts (though I'm not sure if they were related to the early screenings) include an alternate prologue with more detail into Agnarr and Iduna's pasts, a scene where Anna and Elsa uncover Iduna's secret room with books and notes on magic, a scene where Iduna and Agnarr discuss telling Anna about Elsa's powers, and a deleted song where Kristoff struggles to propose to Anna (though IDK if this is just for the scene or if it carries on like in the final product). Overall, the desire to come up with something epic as well as Disney's feedback seems to have made this film trip over it's own feet.

Raya and the Last Dragon--First reported in 2018, RATLD is Disney's forray into a fantasy story inspired by Southeast Asian culture. While the diversity was praised, the way it was implemented was not, with East Asians voicing many of the characters, and the film coming off as an amalgam of the region rather than a specific SEA country/countries. While there aren't really notes that suggest too much exec influence, the film did have it's own unique production experience. For one, the film underwent heavy changes seven months before the film was released, including Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins being replaced as directors by Don Hall and Carlos Lopez Estrada, with the former two becoming co-directors, though John Ripa later replaced Wellins as co-director, Qui Nguyen joined Adele Lim as a co-writer, Peter Del Veccho joining Osnat Shurer as co-producer, and Cassie Steele was replaced by with Kelly Marie Tran as Raya (due to changing Raya from a loner to giving her more swagger). That's...a LOT of changes in the crew less than a year before the film is supposed to be released. I do also want to note that they chose NOT to make the film a musical because it took away from the seriousness of the film, yet the film features a good amount of comedy, meaning that there's some kind of dissonance here. It also sounds surprising that Disney wasn't interested in doing another musical given the success their musicals have had throughout their tenure, especially at the time RATLD was set to come out. And the directors even told "Empire" when the film was close to release that there was a cut of the film with broken bones. While they might have been joking (at least the source I saw thought they may have been joking), it wouldn't be surprising if the film came off as too violent to Disney or their test audiences, and they had the story softened. Another thing I find odd is the ending; it's been commented that Namaari's redemption arc isn't really solid, and the message of trusting others ends up being muddled. A personal theory of mine is that the story had better execution of the message originally, or perhaps Namaari was never planned to be redeemed, but Disney wanted a happier ending and either pressed for Namaari to be redeemable or wanted her to be fully forgiven by the end of the film. If that was the case, it may have been a last-minute choice, given that she doesn't really show this in the final product.

Encanto--Given that this film was a critical and commercially successful film (at least for COVID) with staying power, there isn't much for me to note/theorize on the film, since it doesn't seem to suffer from the same issues the prior two films do. After Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Lin-Manuel Miranda discussed having extended families, they opted to focus on a musical surrounding one. Disney resisted the idea of focusing on 12 characters at first (and Miranda wasn't surprised since they removed Moana's 8 brothers, reasoning that she had other priorities to focus on), and like many films, went through variations. Co-director and Co-writer Jared Bush mentioned that it was difficult to contend with, and seeing how condensed Luisa, Isabela, and Dolores' storylines were in the film, I do wonder if Disney continued to pressure them to remove characters and/or shorten the storylines. Given that the Madrigal family was originally much larger and there was a deleted fistfight between Isabela and Mirabel, I wouldn't be surprised.

Strange World--Okay, for this one, I REALLY don't have much to say. The film comes off as very generic, and the concept art and deleted scenes (that I've seen, anyway) don't seem to suggest why Disney greenlit this film, though the generational themes does seem right up their alley, and the environmentalism message is timely. I'd blame it on the massive change done with Raya, as Hall and Nguyen were brought onto that team, and then once that was done, only had about a year left to work on "Strange World," which...well, as "Moana 2" will tell you, having only a year to do things--even with a cool idea--is not going to amount to much success.

Wish--It's all been said before, and there's no defense for why this shouldn't have been spectacular besides exec influence for whatever reason. Deleted concepts here include Amaya as the sole villain, an Amaya/Magnifico villain couple, a removed member of The Teens, Star having a human form and being Asha's soulmate (though what that means is anyone's guess; we were all hoping it was romantic), and Star actually having a model, meaning him being removed was probably a last-minute thing. Add to that the fact that character designs changed, personalities were simplified, and Julia Michaels said that she and Benjamin Rice were only given a storyboard to go off of each time they did the songs, despite meeting with execs every Tuesday. Seeing how bland "Wish" was, exec interference shouldn't be ruled out. Such a shame that Disney did this for their anniversary film.

Moana 2--Originally planned as a TV show announced in 2020, it was revealed on February of this year that it was planned to be reworked into a film, with the crew behind the show only being alerted of this in January. They literally had ten months to refit the series into a film, and I'm sure they still had to deal with pushback. The only reason they were able to do this is because animation usually happens roughly a year before the film is released. As such, they had to deal with technically being behind schedule with their animation, leaving little--if anything--to rewrite and fix.

Overall, it seemed the past half-decade has been turmoil for Disney struggling to give their creatives time and room to breath when storytelling, more concerned with their brand than long-lasting success. Really hope "Zootopia 2," "Frozen 3," and their 2026 original film don't suffer from these issues. Kinda hopeful since Z2 test screenings went well and F3 was pushed from 2026 to 2027.

(Oh, and some shameless promotion for my account: check out how I'd rewrite the revival era, as well as individual posts that go into the specifics on my guide page: https://www.tumblr.com/synergysilhouette/741045631364235264/my-alternate-takes-on-disney-films?source=share)

[ducktoonsfanart]

Mickey and friends celebrate Christmas - Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas - Mickey and Minnie Mouse with their children - Donald and Daisy Duck with their children - Goofy as Santa Claus with his son - Happy 25th Anniversary of Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas - Mouseverse, Duckverse and Goofyverse - Classic Disney - Merry Christmas!

Finally, I have a collection of drawings from three aspects of one of my favorite Christmas specials, the 25th anniversary of Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas, since the film was shown at the end of 1999. I'm uploading these drawings that I drew throughout the year again, but this time all together since today is December 25th, or Christmas, one of the greatest Christian holidays.

The first drawing I drew was redraw of my favorite scenes from Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas from “Stuck on Christmas” (that story was inspired from “Christmas Every Day” by William Dean Howells) where Donald, Daisy and Donald’s nephews hug like a real family and it’s really a nice family scene for me. So I drew this as a redraw scene, just with Donald Duck, his girlfriend, future wife Daisy and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie celebrating their holidays.

The second drawing is also a redraw of Mickey and Minnie Mouse based on Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas movie where they really looked like a loving couple. Still, it’s nothing without children, so I added Mickey’s nephews Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse (Morty is in a red hoodie jacket, while Ferdie is in a blue hoodie jacket) as well as Minnie’s nieces Millie and Melody (Millie is in a purple outfit, while Melody is in some green - blue clothes). Yes, Milie and Melody appeared in Minnie’s Bow Toons (although I personally don’t like such baby series, it’s still good that Minnie got her nieces, otherwise she has them, but only one in the comics), while Morty (Mortie) and Ferdie appeared in the classic shorts and in comics, though not as often. I wish somehow they appeared a little more often with Mickey and Minnie Mouse and more people knew about the Mickey Mouse comics where he has more personality than he does in the cartoons. Especially since Steamboat Willie came out as public domain.

Of course, I drew in my own ways, using inspiration from other drawings. Yes, and I drew both Mickey’s nephews and Minnie’s nieces as preteens and based on the comics, as if they were wearing a modern version of the clothes. 

And the third drawing I did recently is related to Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas and this is my third part from the special and one of my favorite Disney Christmas specials. Of course, I can’t ignore this, because in my opinion, next to the special with Donald and his nephews, this is my favorite part because it’s about Goofy and his son Max from the segment “A Very Goofy Christmas”. Max, as a little boy, sent a letter to Santa Claus and expects a gift from him, but Pete still assures him that Santa Claus doesn’t exist, so Max loses faith in him and in his father. In the end, when they stop the burglar, Santa Claus (Goofy to be exact) appears and assures Max that Santa Claus really does exist, and then Max disguises himself as Santa Claus. So, in connection with this, I drew Goofy as Santa Claus approaching his son Max and giving him a teddy bear, and Max, all happy, expects a big gift that he can’t resist, which is to have the best father in the world, even though he’s very clumsy.

And everyone celebrates Christmas together!

If you are a fan of these characters and if you like these drawings, feel free to like and reblog this! Just don't copy my ideas without mentioning me, thanks! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone and a happy 25th anniversary of Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas!

[districtxii]

Thoughts upon finishing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Spoilers unmarked ahead as it's been out for a while and the title of the post warns for them.

As I've mentioned in my other few posts about it so far, I came into TBOSAS as a movie-only watcher despite having been a book-first person back when the original Hunger Games films came out.

I've got to say that when I heard the idea of a prequel about President Snow which included a love story, my tumblr-raised self wasn't particularly interested. I remember seeing the book display at Walmart when it first came out and not really having time or interest at the time.

However, the movie trailer caught my attention, and I'm really glad that it did.

I am happy that TBOSAS, while having a single POV character in Snow, switched from first person narration to third person. I remember reading meta years ago that I wholeheartedly agree with. While one can make the argument that the "blindspots" one gets in the original trilogy themselves make a point, having a slightly more zoomed out, third person point of view just feels better for the scope of the story. As an English teacher, I can't help but feel like it's a little more mature, too.

But without the movie, I still don't know if I would have ever picked up this book in audio or visual format.

Funnily enough, looking back on the first four Hunger Games movies, I actually don't like them as much as I like the books for the most part. The visuals are good in parts, but I do not like the casting philosophy that was used. I sort of hope that we are around long enough to see remakes as a prestige miniseries or something like that.

Back to thoughts on TBOSAS: I remember seeing a few kind of poorly produced (sorry lol) thinkpieces on websites like ScreenRant that were insisting that you weren't getting the full picture from the movie, that the movie made Snow too sympathetic, that you have to understand he's a monster because he views Lucy Gray in an objectifying manner or because he gets Sejanus killed.

I think that those takes have a point. However, I think that they also miss the nuance of the narrative, and I am not even suggesting that the prose is particularly deep or esoteric. Just that people love to be reactionary.

What I saw in Snow's character throughout the book was someone who was warring with various philosophical and personal dilemmas without having anyone he ever really trusted to talk through it.

There are moments with Lucy Gray and with Sejanus when Coryo almost opens up completely. When he has real conversations with them. But, like Katniss, he is a traumatized person who has a lot of baggage which makes him strategize and behave defensively with every decision he makes.

If anything, Coryo is LESS closed off than Katniss is at first throughout most of the story.

I couldn't source it, but I distinctly remember reading someone suggest that they believed that Coriolanus became irredeemable when he got Sejanus killed. However, reading through his internal conflict about the decision to snitch on him was one of the times when I found Coriolanus the most human and relatable. He was torn in every direction. He is someone who is deeply propagandized into a fascist regime whose family has a personal narrative of power and meaning within that regime. He also believes that the Capitol is necessary and better than the alternative. He wants Sejanus to survive and to change his mind. He wants him to stop putting himself in danger. He wants him to stop implicating Coriolanus by association. And yet, Coriolanus does feel responsible and tied to him, however much he hates it.

Coriolanus defends himself from emotional attachment and the cost of loving anyone, romantically or platonically, as a defense mechanism.

It isn't until he works himself into a frenzy and narrates what Lucy Gray must be thinking out at the lake in the end that he finds himself so utterly alone in his own head that he has no choice in his mind except to give into his colder side that he associates with his father, the Capitol, and ruthlessness.

Interestingly, a running theme throughout the book - without ever being explicitly stated in these exact words - is that Coriolanus is irreligious and doesn't believe in gods, rituals, or an afterlife. Every time someone brings up the stars or fate or performs some kind of ritual associated with passing on an even in the scene where Lucy Gray sings about the hereafter and therebefore, he can't help but internally scoff at the idea. He holds himself as more enlightened than those who believe in such superstitions.

But then, when he is all alone and trying to navigate his way back to District 12 with his father's compass, he starts to believe that there is some kind of spiritual guidance and blessing from his father, whom he never even felt close to except as an idea.

I think that Coriolanus's internal journey is an exploration of opposites and the divide that Lucy Gray describes and how evil is rarely even a boundary over which one cannot cross back into good from. It's just that, at a certain point, Coriolanus cannot bear the weight of his own guilt and misgivings if he ever turns back to a "better" path.

On the subject of Lucy Gray: I've got to say that I thought the book was effective in showing Lucy Gray as someone with dimension and depth that Coriolanus saw glimpses of but never really fully understood. Had he stayed with her and not needed "civilization" so much, I believe he would have learned to see her as more and more of a full person. However, the way she is written in the book, it is really hard for me to get a mental image of her at all.

Again, I think that this is perhaps intentional as a part of this format of the story. However, I find that I appreciate Rachel Ziegler's portrayal of Lucy Gray so much because without it, I'm not sure I would find that much to emotionally invest in. This is actually quite the opposite, as I like my mental image of Katniss far more than JLaw's portrayal lol.

Anyway, those are my wrap-up thoughts.

[happypotato48]

List of Thai BL dramas i've watched with short opinions about them i guess :P

Thai BLs that i finished:

A Boss and a Babe. It's cute for what it is, i loved the gaming friendships and i'm a sucker for forcebook. 7/10 need more unhinged energy from book.

A Tale of Thousand Stars/Our Skyy 2 : Bad Buddy x A Tale Of Thousand stars. this show reminds me a lot of early to mid 2000s lakorns. it's a beautiful by the book love story, i appreciated that a bl got to take a spin on this kind of quiet thai story. 8/10 loved it but still too vanilla for my taste.

Bake Me Please. Guide Kantapon is the cutest man alive and CAKES! that it, that all i have for this show. 6/10 it's a show that exist.

Be My Favorite. damn fluke gawin is so pretty what was this show about again? :P i'm kidding, i actually really liked this show. i watched it when i had zero knowledge about bl industry, i was oblivious about krist's controversy and i find krist acting to be charming and think kawee is very relatable as a cringe fail human myself. 8.5/10 this show made me want to collected weird thingies.

Cherry Magic (Thailand). oh boy this show. it's was everything to me also the only show so far that i've written extensively on this site. here is my personal feeling about this show. 9.5/10 would kill for taynew.

Cooking Crush. what! the fuc$! look look, i just learned that both offgun are older than me. when i first saw the show i thought they were some rookie actors with how young they looks. watching cute bl is gonna be the death of me. anywho this show is supercute don't have a lot of thought about it though. 7.5/10 cutting half a point cause of no samsee x metha.

Cutie Pie/Naughty Babe. what a fuckin legend of a series. all the characters have zero braincells and somehow all the rich pretty boys are engaged to each other and by arranged marriages nonetheless. wtf is this fanfic version of thailand and where can i get hit by a truck and get isekai to it. 7.5/10 still haven't watch Cutie Pie 2 U, i hope it get dumber.

Enchanté. this show is so dummmb it should've go full camp reverse harem yaoi nonsense but it didn't and ended up being kinda boring. 6.5/10. meh, i'm still a sucker for forcebook.

Last Twilight. UGHHH!! i'm still so mad. this show was going to be THE SHOW for me then ep 11-12 happened i legit mentally check out halfway through ep 12 and i basically blocked the ending from my mind. this show came out at the right place and the right time for me, the first 9 episodes helped me through a very tough time in my life. the story of two people helping each other finding their way out of the dark was very compelling to me. ughh. 5.5/10 (9/10 for ep 1-9) P'Aof why are you like this!!

Laws Of Attraction. yassssssss this show slay(literally :P) the show is a breath of fresh air for me despite how very lakorn of it is. i'm glad that there is a bl that feel this soapy and campy cause like i do love my angsty and innocent school bls but the industry really need show like laws of attraction. jamfilm also were very great in their roles espically film, charn is the most babygirl corrupted cute evil lawyer of all time. 9/10 no note headempty only charn's evil smirks in my mind

La Pluie. now, this is a romance. this show is one of the most romanctic media that i personally have experience. i loved that the show took the cheesy premise of soulmates and work it so well to do both deconstruction and exploration of the trope. i think using rain, thing that isolated people as a narrative tool for love connection is absolutely brilliant. last but not least pat is just the perfect bl love interest, he's an very idealized character but he do feels like an actual person. i want to give a shout out to Pee Peerawich the way he said "มันหนาวอ่ะ" in ep 8 sent me, the raspy voice, the eye twich and combo those with a back cuddle, sir! you just commited a mass murders with that move. 9/10 plz i need season two with my baby boy tien.

Love in Translation. the unhingendness of that first meeting is probably my favorite bl meet cute. look if you don't get into a fistfight with the guy you destined to be with then what is the point of life. this show fake date is very well done it's doesn't feel forced like in a lot of other bls and it make the growing attraction feels very genuine and it pay off in one of the best sex scenes in all of bl, yang is such a freak and i loved him for it. 8/10 the last two episodes did got slightly off the rail for me but i still enjoyed the show.

Moonlight Chicken. one of the most beautiful shows i ever watched. when watching this show i can feels, smells and tastes everything it depicted. from the comfort khao man gai to jim's loneliness, from alan's heartbreak to liming and heart's midnight motorcycle ride. this show gave me all the feels and i still can't completely shake it off. 9.9/10 this show is a healing.

My School President. These boys!!!! i can't, i loved these boys so much, all the boys, YES ALL OF THEM! this show is on the opposite spectrum of Moonlight Chicken for me. while MC give me the good heartaches this show give me unbridled joy it's like heartstopper on cracks. i absolutely adored tinn and gun and the show relentless optimism about thier first love. love is awesome no matter the romantic, familial or platonic kind and i think this show hit the marks with all three. 10/10(i'm super bias but fuck it idc i even liked the singing) this show made me started watching thai bl and it always will have a place in my heart.

My Ride. this show is lacking in intimacy but making up by being all heart. could this show be better if they fleshed out and explore more of tawan and his cheating bf's relationship, maybe but i'm happy for what we got. 8/10 mork and tawan were very cutie patootie, i don't remember much about the het and the side couple were just st ok.

Step by Step. man trisanu is exactly the same height at me and i want everyone to know that is the only reason i started this show🤣 . i feels like this show have a lot to say about stuff but i kinda got lost staring at man trisanu while watching. one thing i really loved is the very fem *ตุ๊ด coworker who got to be a real character not just a jokey sidekick and having a loving relationship with a hottie. 7.5/10 can i get more man trisanu in bl plz.

Triage. asshole doctor stuck in a timeloop for him to find the meaning of life, yes plz give it to me. i loved stories about assholes who need to better themself for love and other junk. tinn and tol are both grumpy bitches and i just loved that the show use the timeloop to soften these nerds. at the end i just want to wrap them in blanket and let's them cuddle each other forever. 8.5/10 the last ep is bit convoluted but i forgave the show for that cute clocktower kiss.

You're My Sky. i started this show for my boy suar and he did not disappointed. the pining and the longing for an older boy who been there for you most you life, chef kiss. this show also very beautiful to look at. 8/10 i'm kinda meh about the side couples, i do think they all got the "good ending" for their stories.

Thai BLs that i didn't finish or gave up and skipped to the ending:

Bad Buddy. Oh boy, am i gonna get murder for this??? sorry but idk why i didn't wholeheartedly love and give this show my undivided attention. i watched this show very weird and out of order, i started with the last ep than just watch other episodes in bit and peice. i think i've seen 70% of this show. plz forgive me this is the first thai bl i tried to get into but can't. maybe i need to give this show another chance and watch it properly. or idk maybe cause the way i watched it, it's ruined for me forever. 6.5/10 i loved the rooftop kiss plz don't kill me.

Dangerous Romance. this show is trash and not the good kind, how this show depicted relationship between a rich asshole and a poor boy feels very gross to me. i fast forward a bunch and gave up after the not just dumb but very cruel breakup. 4/10 it's watchable if you ignore the plot and the chatacters.

Hidden Agenda. wow this is the most nothing show that ever nothing for me. it's a perfected white noise while playing chill video games. i stopped watching after ep 8 cause look like there going to be a dumb break up, i have no desire to revisit this show. 5/10 joongdunk were kinda cutes.

The Miracle of Teddy Bear. this show is too god damn long with too many side plots the one and a half hour per episode killed the momentum for me. i liked the show and do think i want to revisit and finish it one day. 6/10 for now.

Vice Versa. why are they giving jimmysea this show. this show is so boring for me, i gave up in episode 6. 4/10 gmmtv give my babies better shows!!

Thai BLs that i've watched all the sex scenes and have no intention of watching the actual show:

Kinnporsche: heheehehhehehe everyone were so hot, too bad i don't like rich mafia story. mile being a nepobaby also significantly killed the mood for me. 55555/dead bodyguards (idk how many there are but i don't care) the ost are bangers though.

Venus in the Sky and Love in the Air. cringe gay sex for the wins. 69/420.

ok, whoo that was a lot. gonna pin this cause i don't think anyone want to read all that in one sitting. i think i'm gonna make another post for non thai BLs in the near future. thanks for reading my unhinged opinions hope i'm not gonna get moider for it 55555555.

[yujeong]

Okk. I don't want to compare or anything but I don't get the people who's getting mad on Korn Tonkla scenes saying they had more screen time? Or shit. I mean tbh, I am understanding the plot of the series better because of the two of them because they are somehow related to all of the events. And Tonkla's situation is...... he somehow senses the other timeline which I think is an important role. And also, Korn! Like what you've said he knows Dome is dead, and at the same time he's with his brother who ’saved’ Dome. Both of the characters are pivotal in the series.

Also, I think that they are more talked about because a Bas and Fuaiz couple was not expected in the series, and at the same time their plot line is really good as well as the build up of their characters. And I've seen more & more people are falling in love with Fuaiz & Bas (as an actor) in this series.

But somehow, I get them because the main couple is GreatTyme but why does it feel like they are becoming more of a side couple. Also saw people saying that their ’plot line’ or how they were introduced to eo /wasn't it./

Thank you for giving me the incentive to speak about this issue, anon. I'm going to do it now because the new episode will come out in a few hours and hopefully I won't have to do this ever again - which I honestly doubt but anyway. Since I haven't seen this type of discourse pop up on Tumblr (thank GOD), I'd like to inform everyone that over on Twitter, there have been massive complaints about Tonkla, aka Fuaiz, getting more screentime than the main characters, aka JesBible, to the point of people tagging BOC in posts and demanding they give them more scenes with TymeGreat - as if BOC can just pull footage they haven't filmed out of their ass or something. It got so bad that Sammon herself saw them and AGREED with these people, further explaining how it was important for some plot elements to be explored now, in order for the rest of the series to make sense. Now, with all due respect to her position as a screenwriter: she's factually wrong here. Someone on Twitter actually sat down and counted the minutes each character is on screen and came out with these results:

It's not in English, but I believe the results are clear: Tonkla doesn't even come close to Great's screentime. He's a little closer to Tyme's, but the main character is Great, so he's the one we should be looking at. Also, in case it hasn't been fucking obvious, Tonkla is an essential character in 4 Minutes, which is why we're getting many scenes with him. The reason I mentioned the actors is pretty self-explanatory - people are mad their favourite actors are shown a specific amount of time, giving space to other plot lines and characters, instead of being there for the whole episode, as if the point of 4 Minutes is the romance between Tyme and Great and nothing else. Meanwhile, Bible himself was laughing and clapping and enjoying the flashback scene between Korn and Tonkla when they had their first time, because Bible wanted to be part of a good production, which he is and he recognizes it. But no, God forbid we get more context over KornTonkla, which is one of the most important relationships in the show, which guides Tonkla's actions, which moves the fucking PLOT of the SHOW. I could give the benefit of the doubt to people being upset Tonkla was shown for not even half of episode 4, but I won't, and the reason for that is because I'm sick and fucking tired of people getting their panties in a twist because a character who loves getting fucked is actually getting fucked in almost every episode. Good for him honestly, even if it's making him worse. (I've already ranted about this whole thing here, I'm not going to repeat myself) I don't know how your social media feeds are like anon, but mine are flooded with BibleJes + GreatTyme content and I rarely see anything about KornTonkla or Bas and Fuaiz or anything of the sort, so I can't agree with you that they're more talked about than the main actors/characters. (That's not the case on Tumblr though: I have a very varied feed + my lovely anon asks which give me the chance to talk about my boys and I'm thankful for that.) And I'm sorry, anon, but I'm going to have to disagree with you in the end: Great and Tyme do NOT feel like the side couple at all. They are and they feel very much like the main couple and they've had multiple scenes together in every single episode so far (at the hospital, in Great's garage, at the park, at the university, at the arcade, inside Great's car, at the rooftop of the hospital, at the warehouse, inside the tent etc). We've gotten plenty of fucking content for them AND also BOC has made sure to give Bible and Jes the chance to do a million interviews together + magazine photoshoots, with only half of the show being done, so fans have zero fucking reason to complain about anything. That's all. Rant over.

[pikatrainer99]

Branch from Trolls has PTSD, paranoia, depression, and anxiety and you can't change my mind! (Part 1: Trolls) (SPOILERS FOR A MOVIE THAT CAME OUT 8 YEARS AGO BUT JUST IN CASE 😅)

(This entire three-part analysis was SUPPOSED to be completed in its entirety by the end of May since it's for mental health awareness month, buuuut...I couldn't finish it in time (had to take a break and take care of myself because my PTSD has relapsed lately...AGAIN... I've been getting triggered really easily by just about anything and I hate it so much 😑), but at least the FIRST part is ready in time...so here we go!

Branch is my favorite character in DreamWorks' Trolls franchise, and for many reasons. One of them being that he is very relatable. As someone with PTSD, paranoia, depression, and anxiety myself, I find it easy to put myself in Branch's tiny Troll feet and feel how he feels. (I also headcanon him as autistic, which I also am, but that's a post for another day). With this series of posts I will be analyzing his character journey and how his mental struggles affect him and his life. I will only be going over the three theatrical films in the franchise in these analysis posts, because, while his mental struggles are ABSOLUTELY present in the TV shows, I haven't seen every episode of the TV shows and I have a lot to discuss with just the three movies because I love Branch and relate to him so much.

So, to start this analysis, let's take a look at the first Trolls film. When Branch is first introduced, he is a grumpy, depressed, pessimistic gray Troll, and the only Troll in the village who doesn't sing, dance, hug, or party.

He instead chooses to spend all his time working on gathering supplies and rations for his, as he says "highly camouflaged, heavily fortified, Bergen-proof survival bunker." He lives in the bunker and has enough provisions to last him ten years…eleven if he's willing to store and drink his own sweat…which he is (gross).

Branch always feels the need to be crazy over-prepared for everything (so do I), no matter how crazy it drives the others (same here). The other Trolls all say that he ruins everything by interrupting their fun and panicking that "The Bergens are coming!" when in reality there's no Bergen in sight and there hasn't been for 20 years by that point and he's just paranoid. To them, he's basically like the boy who cried wolf…or in this case, the Troll who cried Bergen.

When Poppy invites Branch to her party, Branch immediately declines, saying that he "wouldn't be caught dead at her party" before adding that all the others "will be caught and dead" because of how big, loud, and crazy it's going to be. Branch frustratedly declares that Poppy's party is just gonna lead the Bergens right to the Trolls, and they all just brush his warning off because they haven't had to worry about Bergens in 20 years. That night, during the party, Branch is out collecting more provisions and he looks at the party from afar, scoffing at the others and their carefree attitudes before retreating back to his bunker. Before he knows it though, Poppy is banging on his door because a Bergen attacked the party and took all her friends. Branch, in his paranoia and anxiety, drags Poppy inside the bunker with him and sets up all his traps as they sit and wait in silence before Poppy tells him the Bergen is gone.

Branch, still paranoid, doesn't believe her and says that it could still be out there "watching…waiting…listening…" He clearly feels like he can never let his guard down, always on hyper-alert, checking for any danger. This is a common symptom of PTSD - hyper-vigilance (I have this symptom myself), and it can contribute to paranoia, making it even worse (it definitely does for me, and it looks like it's the same for Branch).

When Poppy asks him to go to Bergen Town with her to save everyone, Branch, with no hesitation, says no, that they're not his friends, they're Poppy's friends, and that he's staying in his bunker because his bunker is safe. He takes her down to the lower levels of the bunker, and this is where we see some obvious evidence of his mental state. There is frantic fear writing ALL OVER THE WALLS, and it says things like, "Run", "Danger", "Bergens eat us", "Teeth in the night", among many other things that are hastily scribbled and illegible (though Branch has bad writing in general, so it's already hard to read, but my point stands). He's even got multiple papers with horrifying drawings of the Bergens hung up on that wall as well. I have never really seen anyone else in this fandom talk about the writing all over Branch's walls, so I'm gonna talk about it myself. It makes it look like the poor guy spiraled, lost control, and had a manic episode…or eleven.

(Seriously, just LOOK at all this!!! This man is NOT okay!!!)

He's clearly TERRIFIED of Bergens, and wants to do everything in his power to avoid ever encountering one (which, fair, they do wanna EAT the Trolls, so that's a valid fear). Branch's fear of Bergens though, is not a normal fear, it seems to be a phobia, which would explain the paranoia. Obviously there's something going on inside his head involving Bergens that will definitely be revealed later. (foreshadowing)

Poppy completely disrespects Branch's needs, wishes, and privacy by letting all the other Trolls into the bunker while she goes to save her friends that got taken. This kinda made me upset because Branch clearly didn't give her permission to invade his personal space like that and make his own home suddenly feel unsafe with everyone there going through his stuff all at once. He freaks out when it's "Hug Time" because he doesn't want to be touched, especially not by all these Trolls he doesn't trust, so he packs a backpack and goes after Poppy, saving her from some spiders.

(This is honestly really upsetting to watch, she totally disrespects and ignores his boundaries here and it hurts to see him freak out over Hug Time because I also hate being touched, which means I also dislike hugs as a result of that...I only willingly hug my grandparents, that's it, no one else, not even my own parents.)

The whole way to Bergen Town, Branch is gloomy, brooding, and irritable. He tells Poppy that the world isn't all "cupcakes and rainbows" when she asks what happened to him to make him the way he is.

Poppy and her constant singing get on his nerves, the worst instance of this being when she starts singing at night when he's trying to sleep, making him angry enough to throw her ukulele into the campfire, burning it.

(This scene always gets a laugh out of me, the way it's animated is just perfect comedy XD)

Singing is clearly triggering for him, which we find out why later on when he adamantly refuses to sing with the others when they're trying to help Bridget get a date with King Gristle by giving her a makeover. Poppy asks him why he won't sing and he responds with (probably) the most iconic line in the entire film (and not one that people seem to be able to take seriously…but I take it as seriously as can be): "BECAUSE SINGING KILLED MY GRANDMA, OKAY?!"

(His facial expressions here as he tells the story of what happened to his grandma are just...DreamWorks nailed it, and also the knee hugging pose...he's just like me for real 🥺)

We then see a flashback of a young Branch, happy and colorful, singing his heart out, but the Chef Bergen comes for him and he's so lost in song he doesn't notice, or hear his grandma warning him.

This causes his grandma to push him out of the way, and get taken instead.

Branch is so distraught by his grandma's sacrifice, that he loses all his happiness and becomes depressed, turning gray in the process, and vowing to never sing again.

(This poor child had to witness his grandma meet her untimely demise...and he blames himself for it...that's really depressing in my opinion, I seriously don't understand why people find this scene funny, it triggered my own PTSD really BAD the first time I watched it...I'm used to it now so I don't have my PTSD triggered by it anymore but it still hurts to watch.)

Now the bigger picture is clear. He's got PTSD and paranoia involving the Bergens because of what happened with his grandma as a child. His grandma's sacrifice also started his severe depressive state, as evidenced by him turning gray immediately after she got taken. When the flashback ends, Branch is staring silently and sadly out the window, looking like he's trying not to cry, his depression getting a hold of him once again.

(Again, DreamWorks really nailed the facial expressions here...he looks so broken 🥺)

I understand how he's feeling in that scene, my grandma is my LIFELINE, the person I feel the safest with…seriously I confide in her and tell her more things than I tell my own mom because I trust my grandma more…I even stayed at her house for a while a few years back during my worst mental crisis ever just so I could have the feeling of constant safety and less nightmares…so if something ever happened to her I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Singing is a trigger for him, and so are Bergens in general…which makes me upset at the others, AGAIN, when they sing the song that Branch was singing during that time…my thoughts were like, "Come ON guys, that song is probably the most triggering song for him…" As you can probably tell, I get upset with the others quite a few times whenever I watch this film, because of how they treat Branch. Eventually the entirety of Troll Village is thrown in a pot, ready to be served for Trollstice, and it's here where Branch's character development really becomes apparent. Poppy turns gray, quickly followed by all the other Trolls, and Branch looks around at everyone turning gray, like him, and, desperate to do something about it and help the girl he's now grown to love, he finally breaks his 20-year-long "no singing" vow as he begins to sing "True Colors" in what is probably the most beautiful scene in the entire film (I know it's my personal favorite scene).

(There they all go...turning gray...and Branch is just looking around at everyone, clearly upset by this.)

(His expressions here...you can tell he's thinking, "I've gotta do something!" And he does, and it's beautiful 🥺)

Thanks to Branch, Poppy and the other Trolls are able to regain their colors, and thanks to Poppy, Branch FINALLY regains his colors after 20 years!

(He's getting his colors back! I always feel so happy when I watch the True Colors scene, it's just so beautiful and satisfying 😌👍)

(They're so cute, look at them dance together 🥺! Broppy is best Trolls ship and no one can convince me otherwise, these two are PERFECT for each other 😌)

He thanks Poppy for showing him how to be happy, stating that "happiness is inside of all of us, sometimes you just need someone to help you find it", quoting one of Poppy's lines from earlier in the film. Branch now feels comfortable singing and dancing with Poppy and the other Trolls as they teach the Bergens that same lesson by singing "Can't Stop The Feeling", which helps the Trolls finally make peace with the Bergens after many many years of fearing being eaten by them.

Poppy is crowned queen, Branch finally asks for (and gets) a hug from her even though it's not Hug Time, and the movie ends.

(They are so adorable I can't take it!)

This is not the end of Branch's journey though, there's still two more movies to cover! I'll be covering the second movie hopefully soon, so I hope you look forward to that, and I hope you enjoyed this character analysis on Branch in the first movie! If I missed anything please feel free to let me know in the comments! I sometimes miss things especially with relatable characters because sometimes there are aspects that trigger me so I try to forget about those aspects, and sometimes the character as a whole just hits too close to home and writing analyses on them is too overwhelming because of that (Branch is one of those characters, so it took me ages to write this and gather all the GIFs and images...and also this entire analysis was written ENTIRELY from my memory of the events in the first movie, so there's that part too). Also please excuse the potato quality images and GIFs...I tried my best to find good ones but most of them I found are just REALLY bad quality so...sorry about that 😅

Okay, that's about it for this post! I'll see you guys next time for another Branch analysis, this time for Trolls World Tour! Catch ya later! 👋

[miyagi-hokarate]

The basic premise of The Karate Kid (1984) — down on his luck new kid learns how to defend himself and ultimately triumphs over his bullies with the help of a wise, old mentor — is far from unique. But since its release, a wave of movies in the 80s and even as far as into the 90s, clearly inspired by Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, came in with fists raised, ready to dominate late night television and home media.

There's No Retreat, No Surrender (1985), The Power Within (1995) (whose villain is played by none other than William Zabka), and my personal favorite of this niche genre: Showdown (1993), directed by Robert Radler

Also known as American Karate Tiger, for a reason that I could only assume has to do with the fact No Retreat, No Surrender is also known as Karate Tiger (no relation to these films however, besides in genre and story)

Anyway, make no mistake: this is not a good movie. I say it's my favorite, not because of its quality, but because there's just So Much About It that wouldn't leave my mind. This is besides the fact it's transparently derivative of The Karate Kid (hell, the main character in the movie references it in a scene! I was so mad!) — the way it's different (and worse) delights me to no end that the others hadn't achieved somehow.

tldr; a LONG assortment of words with some analysis because I need to tell people about this movie ahfkakfaf. NOT a coherent essay (or an essay at all really)

Part 1: Boring stuff like BACKGROUND or THEMES

First thing to know: there's another movie with the same name that was released in 1933 too, but that one's directed by Leo Fong. In case one Showdown wasn't enough.

Now, Showdown never calls it karate, and I'm not going to pretend and say I could easily tell from one type of martial arts to another by glance, so I'm going to refrain from calling this movie strictly any certain type. Anyway, Its fighting content is more reminiscent of another film that came out in the same year and that'd be familiar to Karate Kid fans and lovers of William Zabka's filmography: Shootfighter (1993).

Like Shootfighter, an underground, illegal fighting ring plays a significant role in Showdown, albeit being less fatal and a local scene. A group of teens and young (?) adults, led by their bloodthirsty criminal sensei, in a dojo make up some of its participants, which naturally incentivizes the high schoolers in the dojo to be aggressive in school — bullying, intimidation, cultish significance in aggression and domination blah blah blah blah we all know the type. Regardless, the high school the new kid moves to certainly doesn't need any help throwing him into the deep end of trouble. By the first five minutes of introduction, his new schoolmates are seen stealing, driving motorcycles on school campus, and contributing to these amazing shots of cinematography:

I'm sure they've all got their reasons and such for their misbehavior, or not because they're nothing more than dressing for the background when they aren't the Cobra Kai lookalikes. One thing I can assume is true for all students is a distinct sense of parental neglect, considering the only parents we see is five minutes of the main character's mom, who's job hunting is never quite resolved by the end of the movie and whom I could only guess decided to fit in to the new place by also abandoning her son to travel to the next state or two for a job.

In addition to this, the members of the school staff are either struggling to do their best or instead doing the bare minimum. The most effort disciplining and guidance we see is a pack of cigarettes taken away by the vice principal... before he's smoking it himself behind a building. Honestly, I don't blame him.

Including those involved with the illegal fighting ring, the only barely respectable adult figure around is the janitor, who is — you've guessed it — the "Mr. Miyagi" character of the movie. But considering we've first been introduced to him as a former cop who quit after having accidentally killed a teen (apparently? Everybody looks at least 24 years old) during the job, it's hard pickings around here.

Why am I introducing this all firstly? Well, it's not a deep movie at all, and yet the first thing Showdown introduces to the audience is this oddly grim mood that makes up a major theme of the film: the inevitability of violence. Even when the main character learns how to defend himself, it is with the sense of precaution to be prepared to fight, not for finding a way to end them. The aura of aggression never truly leaves the scenes to let the main character be in peace for long, and he eventually falls into the illegal fighting ring himself out of his own volition — only, it's the Mega Ultra Battle in the end so it's badass and not treated as bleak at all. Hell, the main tagline of the movie is literally "There is no other way."

It's interesting that the main character learns to defend himself because of the efforts from the former cop turned janitor. And while he busts the operation in the end, the janitor ultimately returns to the force, as well as takes up a job to teach the (now arrested) sensei's former students as his own. Sure, they wouldn't be strung into illegal fighting rings anymore, but I question how much the inevitability of violence is enforced because of the expectation of its existence in the first place. Even in the finale, when the main character and his mentor get their happy ending and defeat their respective rivals, it's not with a new future promising radical change for nonviolence and reconstruction, but a grim determination that they could rise to the challenge of the eventual call to aggression.

There is some effort to try and answer the question: "Why do people commit violence?" For example, the main character learns that many teens involved in the fighting ring are trying to pay for college. He himself empathizes, with his mother expressing frustration about being unable to find a good job. Nevertheless, both the main character and his mentor ultimately condemn the practice as exploitment and bust the fighting ring. While this frees the participants from any more physical harm, the question of how the teens fighting for money could support themselves (the reason that got them into illegal fighting in the first place) is never asked again.

This is not even to mention the actual physical — and even psychological — consequences of illegal tournament fighting that are barely portrayed, if at all. Most attitudes surrounding involvement by the teens are blasé, if content with the gigs they got. It's not hard to imagine that they've been manipulated by an intimidating sensei into what is essentially a cult of violence, but Showdown does not dwell on that. This is not the only thing it does not dwell on.

I'm not necessarily saying a former cop janitor and a high schooler in his midtwenties could singlehandedly rid their society of the deeper, insidious causes that breed the cycle of violence in communities. And frankly, this is a lot to ask for a movie that was never made to answer such questions, and it knows itself. I can recognize that. However, Showdown's fatalistic attitude towards violence feels particularly dooming in an otherwise stupid movie.

As a conclusion to this point, here are the opening words to Showdown as the first thing the audience learns about the film, with a sense of finality in its belief:

Part 2: You would think I'd introduce the characters first

Like the premise, the characters of Showdown share many of the same archetypes as the ones in The Karate Kid. The 1984 film however has a more nuanced and colorful cast, and I will be the asshole comparing the two films and their respective characters shamelessly. Admittedly, this section is the most like a summary, so I won't go through every single person but those I find interesting enough to talk about. I do promise to share whatever cool trivia I learned of the actors however, because nobody else sure will.

Firstly, let's take a look at the main character. Unlike Daniel LaRusso, who looks 12 but was played by a 22 year old at the time, Ken Marx looked as old as he did portrayed by someone who definitely was too old to be in high school.

'"I get it. When this is all over, I'm gonna know how to do all kinds of karate blocks, right? It's like, uh, wax on wax off, paint the fence, sand the floor..."

Ken Marx/Marks is a fine protagonist. New kid from Kansas, he's nice enough (especially compared to his new schoolmates) and has a strong sense of justice, but Ken seems to lack the same young, vulnerable angst as his predecessor Daniel about loneliness in someplace completely new. He, like any other supposed ordinary kid in high school, is embarrassed by the slight coddling of his single mother (who moved with him so she could find a job eventually), yet is understanding and wants to help her with money. Unlike Daniel, I could say with absolute certainty that Ken was trying to steal the girlfriend of the very guy who'd make it his mission to beat Ken up at every opportunity the minute he set foot in school. Arguably deserved some of the shit he got. Dick move, Marx (or Marks? Different sources say one or the other, but there's something funny imagining this All American guy with a name that's a little reminiscent of something... revolutionary).

One of the most notable differences between Daniel and Ken is in their state of origin: New Jersey versus Kansas. Not to profile, but I absolutely think it makes for more than just a minor change in their characters. Ken certainly doesn't have that "East Coast swagger" (as Ralph Macchio himself amazingly puts it) as Daniel does. His Midwest origins reflect through his easy kindness and endearing naïvete, but I've gotta admit that it doesn't do much to help him stand out as a protagonist. Still, even if I'm not especially invested in him, Ken's easygoing personality and humble origins are only boring and forgettable at worst, and I can admire his dedication to learn how to defend himself. That being said, Ken certainly could not be confused for Daniel and his Jersey Fire. The best example of this is Daniel versus Ken's reaction when their request to learn self-defense is first denied; while Daniel is openly upset and petulant, Ken is quiet but aquiesces with understanding. Ken is a nice kid sure, a little more mature and respectful than his predecessor, but that also makes him quite average. To further steal analogies from Macchio himself, it's like the difference between a cannoli and an apple pie.

Ken is played by Kenn Scott, an experienced martial artist. It's incredibly funny watching him throughout the movie be swamped in big jackets and whatnot to hide the guy's ripped abs, pecs, and biceps until it pays off at the end when he takes off his shirt in the big fight. Funnily enough, Scott is also in Shootfighter as Eddie, aka that guy who didn't want to go back in the ring and got killed for it.

RIP Eddie. We hardly knew ye.

Honorable mention goes to Ken's mom, whose name is only seen briefly on her shirt tag from work: Shirley. I can still hear her sighing about a job in her giant coat and 1989 Ford Probe to this day.

Ken doesn't feel as lonely as a character as Daniel does in The Karate Kid. While he is like Daniel in that they both quickly latch onto an older man who displays them a little bit of kindness, Ken finds himself another friend at school to keeps his company from feeling too lonely.

"Well listen, I just remembered I left my cat in the microwave."

Mike (played by John Asher) is meant to be funny and awkward, the wimpy but harmless guide to introduce Ken (and the audience) to his new setting. Mike even has a lackluster Clique Tour Moment à la Mean Girls of a couple distinct students or student groups to demonstrate his knowledge of the school populace to the new kid. He wears clashing patterns, says something funny for a moment or does something silly in the background, throws a few flimsy kicks and punches during a training montage, breaks the fourth wall, and walks away with the hero and his love interest in the most throuple-coded way ever.

Unfortunately, this is the most boy best friend Mike gets with Ken in the movie.

Mike has subtle growth throughout Showdown admittedly — from a cowardly goofball who shrinks away at the barest glare from the bullies and lets the new kid eat dirt on his own, to Ken's best friend that joins him in training a little, stays by his side til the end when he needs the most support, and even helps subsue one of the bad guys.

Of course, the real duo in Showdown — their rendition of the Daniel and Mr. Miyagi relationship — is between Ken and the janitor at school, who saves kids getting beaten up to make up for the fact he accidentally murdered one seven years ago.

"No, this is called toilet cleaning. It teaches humility. Then, I want you to startover here on those urinals."

Billy Grant is riddled with guilt for killing someone on the job, so much that he voluntarily quit the force afterwards — except, Billy expresses thoughts about coming back after being told by Ken of the illegal fighting ring, and eventually does return, so here's hoping Billy learned something in the seven years he "fell off the Earth" (according to his old partner at least, which I find highly doubtful. Guy's only left the force seven years ago, stayed in the area, and found a job as a janitor, but apparently disappeared?? Come on). Nevertheless, he's a Good Guy™ who saves Ken's ass at least three times — just as many times as Mr. Miyagi does Daniel's. This version of Wax On, Wax Off is just making Ken clean toilets, wash off graffiti, throw away trash, etc. — janitorial stuff — to help build his endurance. Let's be honest here though, this is infinitely more like child labor than whatever Mr. Miyagi had ever done.

One moment in the movie I find odd, because they never touch on it again after introducing it, is when Billy saves Ken from two of his bullies. In the end, he puts one of them in a headlock, which lasts for several seconds. It's strongly implied Billy would have continued holding it, if it weren't for Ken's cry for him to stop. The bully drops to the ground as he coughs for breath, and Billy literally runs off in horror.

Ken: Stop! Billy, don't.

It makes it seem like Billy could have some reason to lose control, like unresolved anger issues, his trauma, or perhaps a dark and hidden inclination to cruelty (if the movie wanted to go there). However, Ken never brings this up to Billy, and this lapse in judgement never occurs again in the movie. There isn't even a moment for him to reflect in solitude of what he almost did to those teenage boys to imply there is something more to his internal conflicts. And this loss of control is also absent in Billy's big fight against the criminal sensei.

I'm not even sure it makes sense at all with the trauma Billy actually has that influences his actions? He accidentally killed a kid by tossing him aside onto the floor, which had led to his head making contact with some stairs and killed him upon impact. This was a poorly decided action, but a quick one made in the heat of the moment nonetheless. How on Earth does this translate paychologically to losing control while holding someone in a chokehold? If the implication is that his trauma causes Billy to lose control when caught in a fight, not only does it not make sense, but it also never shows up again in the movie and thus makes the moment where he almost chokes a teenager too hard irrelevant. It sticks out, especially when Billy for the rest of the movie is otherwise unmistakenly altruistic and heroic.

Unfortunately, Billy just doesn't get to have the same room for depth as Mr. Miyagi does. Billy is kind, brave, strong, and wise, but there just aren't enough scenes in Showdown that reveal much of his human, vulnerable qualities to complement the heroic ones.

Billy may be the first major character introduced in the movie, alongside his guilt and regret, but Showdown doesn't dwell on how it's weighed Billy for long; his anger and efforts to bust the illegal fighting ring are all but stated outright to be fueled by a desire to make up for accidentally causing someone else's death years ago and wants to make sure no more young people are senselessly hurt, but the film does not let Billy open up about it. At Ken's question asking if that's the reason, Billy is silent before stoically taking a moral stance on the issue. He spins the topic back to Ken's training, and that's the end of Billy being allowed to be more than an archetype, instead a flawed human being who's been personally affected because of his mistakes:

Ken: Billy, I knew you always weren't a janitor. And I want you to tell the truth. Billy: Ken, I used to be a cop. Then I killed a kid. It was a mistake. Ken Did you have to quit? Billy: No, I couldn't handle it anymore. But I'm thinking about getting back into it. Ken: You want to bust the guys that are running the fights? Billy: ...They're hurting kids to make money, and that's not right. These people are dangerous. If you refuse to fight for them, it could be real trouble for you. Ken: Well, we'll just keep training, right? Billy: Yeah, go warm up.

Following this scene, Billy calls his old partner in the force to help him investigate a way to bust the illegal fighting ring. He's ultimately driven to action by his guilt, but do we as the audience get to see Billy afterwards emotionally open up about his choices, both in the past and the ones in the present made to rectify his mistakes? Nope.

It never feels like Billy's character could be anything else but Ken's mentor, or the big ultimate hero. For all we know, he's been dealing with the guilt of his wrongdoings all on his own for seven years, and he jumps into action the moment he thinks he could do some real, good change. But Billy's internal shift gets streamlined in order to prioritize training montages or cool cop shit. He is kind, brave, strong, and wise, but he does not get to be three-dimensional.

Of course, I have to acknowledge that no one in Showdown is. This isn't a movie that's meant to be beholden of dimensions. As I continue to compare it to The Karate Kid or lament about flatness or whatever, it's imperative to remember that Showdown is a stupid movie.

That being said, I nevertheless cannot help but feel especially disappointed by the flatness of Billy's character — not only because he is one of the most major characters of the movie, if not the most important, but also because Billy the most prominent person of color in the movie, and a Black character at that. Billy's role does not soley revolve around the White male protagonist, and he does have his own drives and motivation, but Showdown falls short in depicting Billy as a nuanced Black character with depth and vulnerability.

He's played by another actor who shares the same first name as him, Billy Blanks, whom I'm actually not that familiar with even though he is arguably the biggest name involved with Showdown. He's been in a bunch of other martial arts films, so that's cool.

Shoutout to his former partner Officer Spinelli, who gets a special shower scene in the beginning of the movie. Amazing.

Here's the crazy thing about Billy's accidental murder that haunts him: that kid was none other than the younger brother of the main villain, the "Kreese" character, who soon is driven to revenge upon laying his eyes on Billy again after seven years.

"I woooon..."

Lee is batshit insane. First of all, he's the ringleader, or at least the main attraction, of the local illegal fighting ring that occurs somehow secretly in his dojo with huge crowds of people. Second of all, he has his own version of the Cobra Kai mantra to drill into his child soldiers: "Success is control, control is success." Third of all, he hires his goons to, not only try and kill Billy, but also to make sure it's done on school campus so everyone could see the body, because this guy evades authorities so easily already. What the fuck is wrong with this man. The only trait Lee has that doesn't make him into even more of an aspiring supervillain is the protective love he has for his brother Max, and even that soon enough becomes revenge fodder for Lee when he witnesses his brother die in the prologue.

Max (left) and Lee (right), ready to take world together by storm...

Lee is played by Patrick Kilpatrick, who I can tell is having the time of his goddamn life playing such a Ham and Cheese PLATTER of a character. His performance plays jump rope with the line that splits between 'menacing' and 'ridiculous', and I love that for him. Kilpatrick was also on an episode of The Equalizer (though not an episode with William Zabka haha)! Patrick Kilpatrick wasn't the only choice to play Lee, however. Another was Bolo Yeung, but he would later turn out to have a role in another 1993 martial arts movie: Shootfighter (a William Zabka project again).

And he shares the same name as the villain of Shootfighter, Mr. Lee haha (played by Martin Kove, aka Kreese in The Karate Kid)

The greatest thing about Lee is that he has a right hand woman running the operation alongside him — almost like the "Silver" to his "Kreese".

"Relax! I don't bite — not unless you want me to..."

Kate is undeniably the brains of the of the two. While Lee uses his physical prowess, skill, and intimidation to dominate others into following, Kate smoothtalks and negotiates it all out to work in their favor with intellect, charm, and often times sex appeal. Kate is the most stylish of the cast, and probably the one with the most money, as she's seen reguarly with styled hair, classy jewelry, sleek dresses, and is in possession of a Mercedes Benz (as well as a Chysler Lebaron convertible, but who am I to judge).

Kate and Lee's relationship is professional, for the most part. He lashes out at her once, but she easily snaps at him back, and it's never clear if one is working for the other. Regardless, Kate and Lee have got their respective strengths they use to their advantage, so they each play a different role in their collective business. There are hints to some affection between the two business partners, but it's not a major focus at all.

Kate is also creepy as fuck. I'll cover more of her in the next part.

She's played by Linda Dona, whose role was initially invented when Bolo Yeung was set to be Lee. Since Yeung could not speak English, Kate was to be his translator. Of course, this was no longer needed once Kilpatrick took on the role of Lee, but Dona stuck anyway when the writers rewrote her role.

In these type of movies, it's uncommon to see more than one significant female character as part of the story, and so Kate stands out, especially compared to the love interest of Ken.

"You know, I thought you were on the track team or something. But you're not, you're working out with the janitor."

Julie doesn't have a lot to work with, besides being an object of affection for Ken and part of the source of the conflict between him and her boyfriend (the "Johnny" character, obviously). She's blonde and innocently pretty like Ali (unlike Kate's mature seductiveness), but Julie lacks the same assertiveness as the Karate Kid character. While Ali plays a pivotal role in helping Daniel and Mr. Miyagi understand the rules of the All Valley Tournament, Julie is reduced to the typical helplessness her type of character is often confined to, being pushed to the side as a spectator of the big fight in the end.

Julie does what she can in the plot — she tries to speak up against her boyfriend's actions several times, and she even stops (or at least delays) one of his attacks on Ken— but Julie, like Ali, is pacified by the narrative to do much of anything else besides express disapproval and side with the heroes. Julie also has a bit of a mean streak, but I don't think the movie knows that lmao.

Now, I am not the greatest with differentiating people, especially those with the same general look. So upon first watch, I had accidentally thought Julie and Kate were the same character, especially since Kate's introduction offered no close ups to differentiate her as someone new. AND IF THAT HAD BEEN TRUE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN CRAAAAAZY; sweet and innocent high school girl secretly a greedy, manipulative, femme fatale in charge of an illegal fighting ring? IT BLEW MY MIND.

I WAS SEEING JULIE IN A WHOLE, DIFFERENT LIGHT. Her introduction for one thing made sense to me why it was so strange! Ken first lays eyes on her when he jumped onto the ground at the sound of firecrackers he thought were gunshots, which made the crowd of students around Ken to laugh at him. Julie is among the students shamelessly laughing at this kid, and it isn't until when they lock eyes does she stop laughing and walks away.

The scene cements to the audience that Ken's new peers are cruel, delinquent, and indifferent to his confusion — but Julie is part of that crowd! It's incredibly strange to frame Julie as the love interest by the language of cinematography, someone the audience is meant to invest in to pair off with the main character, when her behavior is indistinguishable from the callous mob, besides being pretty. She doesn't apologize for this in the scenes talking to Ken for the first time either.

Another moment that made me look back was how Julie was smart enough to calm her boyfriend down the first time he confronted Ken for trying to talk to her by alluring his attention away.

Julie: Leave him alone... Please...[...]He didn't know about you...! He's new here...

While Julie had good intentions, this demonstrates a level of manipulation towards people that she'd readily use if it meant getting what she wanted. As Kate is later introduced, this shared quality between them made me further convinced in my confusion that they were the same character — only, I thought Kate being manipulative was Julie's true colors being as sinister as they actually were.

Now, a teen girl laughing at some guy for jumping to conclusions (pun intended) and thinking gunshots in the middle of the hallway and using her attractiveness to turn her boyfriend's attention away from someone he intended to hurt are aren't glaring signs of evil or criminal behavior. But that is EXACTLY why I confused Kate for Julie and thought these actions in retrospect were subtle clues to her being more than just the bland love interest that the protagonist wins in the end.

In addition to this, Mike's first words to Ken about Julie would have been almost perfect foreshadowing:

Mike: I see, you have a death wish. Ken: ...Excuse me? Mike: The blonde, Julie... She's beautiful. She's elegant...! I mean– just forget about it. She's trouble.

Mike afterwards explains to Ken that Julie's boyfriend is dangerous and that's why she would be trouble, but if it would have been almost genius writing if she turned out to be a secret villain. The audience wouldn't think twice about that comment, especially since Mike himself only believes Julie would cause trouble for Ken because of her boyfriend specifically. There'd be no reason to think deeper about his warning!

Julie's grimacing apology the following day to Ken for her boyfriend's behavior transformed into being SLIMY, IT WAS AMAZING. I was so excited to watch him fall for someone who wasn't at all like what he thought she was — and then I figured out Julie and Kate were two, separate female characters. Damn.

You may recognize Julie's actress, Christine Taylor, because she was involved with another film William Zabka was in: To the Ends of Time. He just keeps being relevant somehow.

But speaking of William Zabka, what about his character's equivalent in this movie? I talked about the protagonists, the love interest, the villains — but who's the guy in the story that's actually the most prominent threat to Ken? Who's the third player next to Ken and Julie in their teenage love drama? Who's the student trained the hardest by Lee and treated as the best of the best, his strongest fighter, who falls at the end and almost dies at the hands of his sensei for it?

Part 3: We need to talk about Tom

warning for discussions of abusive relationships, as well as physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, unhealthy power dynamics, and grooming

I'm dedicating a whole section to talk about the "Johnny" equivalent, because I've got so much to say about Tom, the others around him, and parts of the film around his character.

"It's payback time, needledick."

So, Tom. I had briefly shown his character earlier when covering Billy, as well as Julie — kind of hard to talk around him when he's causing so many of the issues for others, little shit. Like Johnny, Tom is tall, blond, aggressive, and does not take kindly to the new guy being too friendly to his girlfriend (ex girlfriend in Johnny's case, but still). Like Johnny, Tom is the most formidable fighter training under his sensei, and his sensei also punishes Tom ruthlessly after losing in the ending fight, before being saved by the protagonist's mentor. Unlike Johnny, Tom looks well into his adulthood — but hey, so does everybody else in this goddamn high school.

He's played by Ken McLeod, who is a real life martial artist with a black belt in karate. Honestly, he's probably doing the best job acting in this film — that, or he's just so entertaining that his performance stands out by that alone. In general, the antagonists are just much more fun to watch than the protagonists. In McLeod's case, he gets the honor of spitting in people's faces with a mean smile or scowl, huffing and puffing when anything pisses his character off, and having his momenta to act with vulnerability to show some versatility in his performance.

White the picture may imply differently, Tom has his own group of loyal friends, Showdown's version of the Cobras.

If Rob on the left is familiar, that's because he's played by Michael Cavalieri, who would soon later play Ned Randall in The Next Karate Kid (1994). I don't know how much of it was in the script, but Cavalieri adds these small, humorous quirks to his character if you pay attention, and it's great. He's the most prominent of Tom's friend, who joins in on much of the bullying, but shows an surprising honorable side near the end. Rob is seemingly Tom's closest friend, as he is almost always by his side and encourages him the most of the group. However, even Rob has his limits, as Tom's worsening behavior almost drives him away. Nevertheless, Rob can't help himself but still support his buddy in his final fight when he fights against Ken. When Lee starts to beat on Tom for losing, the other characters have to hold Rob back from jumping in to defend him (which, is so weird??? Like, HELLO THAT GROWN ASS MAN IS TRYING TO KILL THAT GUY???? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE GONNA HOLD BACK SOMEONE TRYING TO HELP HIM?????)

Gina (played by Seidy Lopez) is the second/third most prominent female character in the movie, so that means she has to have at least one scene alluring a male character to get him to do what she wants, joy. Gina seems to be the calmest and most levelheaded one of the group — she reminds others that the best place to pick a fight is anywhere but the classroom — but even she coldly revels in terrorizing like the rest of those training under Lee. Gina may be the least troubled by his hyperaggressive leadership in fact, as she is the least visibly disturbed when Lee attacks Tom, and she is the only (former) student not to join in on the others when they start cheering for Billy after he defeats Lee at the end (she does however cheer when Billy accepts Rob's offer to teach them, so maybe Gina just ain't picky with who teaches them how to fight). We never see Gina do any fighting, unfortunately. It's clear she's not a girlfriend who hangs around the boys, as Gina not only attends the class but is seen practicing with a punching bag. Feminism win! This violent dojo is for all genders! So where's Gina's moment to give someone a shiner?

The Bill Skarsgård lookalike's name is unfortunately never said in the movie, but I'm preeeeetty sure it's Bob (credited as being played by Jeremy Duddleston)? It's the only male name in the credits I cannot easily attribute to another character, so I'll just call him Bob. It's hard listing another characteristic of his besides Loves To Fight, since he never utters a single line. While Rob may be Tom's closest friend, Bob is seemingly less significant to Tom, as there's a moment when Tom tosses his book/folder behind himself dismissively, before Bob catches it to carry it for him. But besides that uhhhh. Not a lot with this guy.

It should come to no surprise that Tom is an asshole and a bully. His introduction makes sure the audience knows that when he threatens a class monitor for daring to remind Tom that bells are a thing, before treating his girlfriend Julie with the big ol' triple three of Terrible Boyfriend Qualities: Neglectful, Controlling, and Uncooperative. And this is all before he even sees Ken! But don't worry, his behavior is just as terrible once they do meet.

I may have given Ken shit for his actions, however that does not justify the full extent of Tom's vigilance in making sure he gets violently targetted at every corner. While it gets hard to take the high school drama seriously because of how grown everybody looks, thus making their actions more comical than intended, there are times when Ken gets overpowered or made to feel smaller by Tom that could genuinely get you feeling bad for him — call me a softie, but even when Tom has his funny moments, he sure can make the audience feel as miserable as Ken does.

Tom: It's not about money Kenny. It's about respect.

Tom treats people badly when he doesn't respect them, and this includes a lot of people. In fact, he's consistently shown to be the least respectful towards his girlfriend.

It's undeniable that Tom is a godawful boyfriend to Julie. As you already know, he is infamously possessive and jealous; in addition to saying in her face that he owns her — word-for-word and in public — Mike makes it a point to warn Ken about Julie because of Tom specifically. The warning is justified too, because we know Tom spends the rest of the movie utterly despising Ken for "encroaching" on his "territory" (literally just talking to Julie). In addition to all this, Tom ignores plans he has with Julie because of his own minor reasons, and even forgets to talk to her for weeks, and yet has the gall to insist Julie must compromise and listen to his desires when she has an iota of a backbone.

Tom's behavior runs deeper than being an asshole, though. Because of him, I can confidently categorize their unhealthy relationship as being abusive, without exaggeration. The extreme control he expects to exert over Julie, her actions, and whom she interacts with taints every interaction they have together. Julie does what she can to assert herself, but it's difficult for those times to feel cathartic when Tom looks like he wants to beat or bully her into submission afterwards. Tom contantly uses his natural height against her, looming over Julie like he could intimidate her into listening, and even grabs her if he feels like it. If his treatment towards Ken is tough, it's nothing compared to how Tom abuses Julie.

Tom: I don't want you to ever talk to [Ken] again. In fact, if I catch you hanging around him, I'm gonna beat the– Julie: You can't control my life! Tom: Yes I can. You are my girl, and you'll do exactly what I say.

Besides feeling entitled to Julie as a possession than as an equal, Tom's mistreatment hits its peak when, after he approaches her like she didn't dump him the last time they spoke, Tom's rage overpowers him when Julie says Ken could beat him in a fight — Tom grabs Julie by her hair, calls her a slut, commands her to stay away from Ken, and slaps Julie. In the middle of campus. Ken soon comes to defend her, so it's not clear how far Tom would have gone to hurt Julie. However, several characters (including Julie) note Tom's worsening mental state since the their first interaction on-screen, which had been worsening before the events of the movie, and it's not impossible to imagine him sinking even worse towards Julie — in addition to the emotional abuse Tom was already subjecting her to.

While Julie ultimately finds the courage within herself to ends things with Tom, it wasn't without any conflicts, internal and otherwise — not only was Tom in denial, but Julie had her own reasons to stay with him. When Ken asks her why, she gives an explanation, and had given more:

Julie: It's just that I've been dating Tom for a long time, and... I just think he's a little confused right now... He kind of got involved with some– Ken: Look, pardon me, I'm not sympathetic where Tom is concerned, okay? Julie: No, I don't expect you to be! It's... Sometimes, I think about calling it off. But it's like I feel trapped... kind of like I have to stay with him for now. Ken: But you don't have to if you don't want to...! Julie: No, I do.

Julie's attitude insisting she has to stay because of a sense of duty towards her abuser is a common experience among many abuse victims, and so are her thoughts of feeling trapped. However, Julie recognizes that Tom's awful behavior is new. That does not excuse the abuse, but it does offer important context to his and Julie's relationship. According to her, they've been together long enough that she knows Tom's normal isn't as violent and controlling as it is now. Julie is hoping Tom reverts back, that she will see him get his sense back, and that she has a good idea who's been influencing Tom.

Julie: God. I swear, every day you sound more and more like that jerk, Lee. Tom: Listen, Lee's my sensei, don't talk about him that way.

We never see any of these kid's parents, and so they're next to nonexistent, thus Tom's most present role model and parental figure in Showdown is his sensei, Lee.

The respect Tom has for his sensei is only matched by his fear. The movie builds suspense for his reveal by having Tom be insistent in being on time for class, lest he angers Lee, a character the audience at that point could only assume is a little bit of a bad influence. They'd soon be affirmed by that when watching Lee's blaringly evil (re)introduction, giving a lesson that's half drill sargeant, half cult indoctrination. It's unclear for how long Tom has been around him, but it's been enough that it's started to affect his behavior and life in harmful ways. Tom however doesn't see it like that. While Julie makes excuses about him to Ken, Tom doesn't even consider that what Lee does is anything wrong. In fact, he takes pride in having "learned a few tricks" from him, and always defends the man whenever someone (Julie) so much as criticizes him. And of course Tom would, since Lee openly considers him to be his best fighter in the dojo, ruthlessly training him to be the undefeated champion in his illegal fighting ring. Tom is 17, 18 at most, and his involvement in crime is reinforced by the hand Lee has on his life.

Lee may care about Tom deeper than just as teacher-student, even calling him "my boy" during the final fight, but it is a relationship built on ruthlessness, domination, and abuse that easily turns violent the moment Lee is dissatisfied with Tom. He thinks of Tom as the best among his students, but Lee never hesitates to tear him down mentally, nor to physically beat him as punishment, going so far as to threaten Tom's life:

Lee: What have I told you about weakness? It's disgraceful. And when you disgrace yourself, you disgrace me. You do not have control, you have brought shame upon yourself and my dojo. Humiliation. The pain I give your outside should be nothing compared to the pain you feel inside. We are winners at my dojo. We do not let others control us, ever. If you fail again, you will be lucky if I decide to let you live.

Lee wants Tom to believe that his life is literally at the hands of his sensei, that he deserves any beating (psychological or physical) that Lee delivers because Tom's failure is justification enough, according to himself. He believes so strongly of this dominance over Tom's life that Lee does try to kill him after losing to Ken, in front of a giant crowd of people. He's a madman with full conviction that he could make a teenager his killing machine and murder him afterwards if that kid does not live up to his standards — his boy or not.

Even in the rare moments of tenderness, they're never soft. Lee always performs them in the shadow of violence; if he calls Tom "my boy", it's when Lee commands him to kill Ken. When he cradles Tom's jaw, it's so Lee can strike square in his face. The paternal role Lee has in Tom's life is poisoned with cruelty, and it's corrupted Tom into manifesting the same abuse onto others.

Tom becomes more and more like Lee, an aggressor losing his humanity in his descent towards fighting and crime, because of his sensei's own abusive influence. Lee makes Tom feel powerful, but like a tool to be used and sharpened — and inversely, Lee makes Tom feel powerless even more. And he isn't the only one that makes Tom feel powerless.

Lee and Kate are a team, so they're both invested in the careers of the former's students for the illegal fighting ring. Kate's whole business depends on them, making sure there's an abundant money flow as long as there are good fighters. She, like Lee, has a special interest in Tom — his best fighter.

Kate's mistreatment towards Tom is rather distinct from her partner's. For one, Kate never resorts to threatening his life. She does physically disclipine Tom, but it's with harsh slaps across the face, like a stern mother to her son. What she does threaten in his future in the fighting ring. Considering Tom is completely dedicated to his involvement, certainly encouraged if not groomed by Lee for it like a fighting dog, it's an easy method of controlling Tom. While Kate doesn't entertain the thought of killing him like Lee does, it doesn't make her behavior okay, because it still sends Tom the same message: Kate is the one in control of him, he isn't.

What stands out most about Kate's abuse towards Tom though is that she better manipulates him by other, insidious ways. Kate's age is never specified, but it's clear she's older, more confident, and capable of inflicting certain harm in ways teenagers can't. Kate has no qualms using her sexuality to get what she wants, and that includes preying on teenage boys. With Tom, she doesn't just disclipine him like a mother, but Kate coerces him into a sexual relationship as well. This, in addition to times when she treats him like more of a mother back-to-back, contribute to something truly appalling to watch.

To best explain the scene, here's a video of Kate's introduction, where she pulls Tom aside in the middle of instruction to take him to a dark room alone with her:

Just seconds after Kate hits Tom, she pulls him into a deep kiss, practically forceful. Note how limp Tom's arms and hands are as he's made to kiss her. Later scenes in Showdown depict Tom as more "consensual" in their relationship, but this is notably different in their first moment together on-dcreen. This is not to say that it would have been a healthier relationship if Tom enthusiastically kissed Kate back, but his passiveness as she assaults him only highlights the uneven power dynamics at play — in their first scene introducing their relationship at that.

(Remember when I thought Kate and Julie were the same person? Yeah, Kate stands in the back the whole time, only getting a little closer to the camera but not enough that it would distinguish her as someone new. In addition to them shrouded in darkness and the intimacy on-screen after, that's why I thought Julie was secretly evil and was abusive to Tom back. I became so quickly convinced that they were Evil4Evil, that it took me until several scenes later to realize that they were two different people and that something worse was going on.)

What concerns me as well is how easily Kate was able to pull Tom away from sparring, without much of a second glance from Lee or his students. How much did the other students question whenever she pulled him aside alone? Were they allowed to question? Or even worse, how much were they led to believe it was okay? Is Kate coercing more several teenagers, or is this a way to have more power over Tom to ensure he'd stay her and Lee's cash cow?

Powerlessness defines Tom's most prominent relationships with the two adults with abusive control of his life. With that in mind, it explains why Tom has gotten worse, lashing out and losing control of himself. It doesn't excuse his wrongdoings, but there is a direct, blatant connection to Tom's worsening mental health and the authority figures around him either encouraging his violent attitude or are the main causes of distress in Tom's life.

In addition to that, Tom's bullying and abusive behavior is an unfortunate expression of what he's internalized from Lee and Kate; he only treats a person well if he respects them. Due to Lee's influence, that simply means if they have power. Otherwise, Tom feels he can intimidate, belittle, and hurt them all he wants. In Julie's case, Tom mirrors the same mistreatment that plagues him and causes him to treat her badly, because Tom views Julie something he owns. Tom ultimately believes that he is allowed to abuse those that are less powerful, because those that are more powerful than Tom are allowed to abuse him.

The most alarming thing about Tom's sexual abuse is that... Showdown seems to be unaware of its gravity? Female-on-male sexual abuse and uneven power dynamics aren't often treated with the same severity as the opposite, if it is portrayed. Like I said, the later scenes with Tom and Kate show him receptive to her attraction. But even if Tom played along, Kate would have always had an uneven power dynamic over him. In the end, Kate never receives punishment for her abuse — she's presumably arrested for her involvement running the illegal fighting ring, but Kate's strongly implied sexual relationship is a total nonissue by the time the credits roll.

This is the same with Lee's own physical and psychological abusive behavior. He gets arrested for running the illegal fighting ring, and I suppose Tom could press charges afterwards, but he's oddly okay by the end of the movie, without any meltdown over losing or being almost killed by his sensei. It's not cathartic at all to see Tom calmly congratulate Ken and Billy in the end, as well as say a nice goodbye to Julie. Seriously? He's still got issues — we're just supposed to believe that Tom reverted back to being a normal kid just like that, without any psychological damage to work though?

And in the end, I suppose we are meant to believe that. Showdown is a stupid movie. Of course they weren't going to dwell on all that with sensitivity and nuance. But what if I wanted Tom to get therapy? I don't think he should date Julie anymore, when she shouldn't have been saddled with the responsibility and burden of having to stay with him. Tom should absolutely have some support system though, alongside professional help to guide Tom in processing how to live his life past Lee and Kate's abuse. I dedicated a whole section on him, dear god!! Why did Showdown do this. I hate this movie.

Conclusion: This movie is a hundred minutes long and none of it was worth it, and yet I keep coming back

Showdown is not a good movie. It's highly entertaining, completely laugh-worthy, and full of little pieces that I keep rotating in my mind to complete the puzzle, but it's held together by shoestring and duct tape. I don't recommend this movie to anybody, not Karate Kid fans, and certainly not cinephiles, except for those who want to have a quick laugh, preferably with friends to mock together — or inversely, want to be driven to madness like me. There are a lot of things I didn't mention about the movie, none of it interesting; Brion James plays the vice principal, they repeat the same song over and over again in the movie, there's a sick ass chase and fight in a theater set (because Lee hired hitmen to kill Billy at the school, remember), and so much more.

The Blu-ray Special Edition disk is like under $30, basically half off during the holidays, and contains a "Making Of..." documentary, alongside supplementary videos of the fight featurette and interviewed of various people from the cast and crew (including the director Robert Radler and Billy Blanks)! I need it.

Don't watch the movie. But if you do, tell me about it

[justzawe]

Zawe Ashton Covers AMAZING Magazine | Issue 4

Actor, author, playwright and new mum Zawe Ashton adds another string to her bow: supervillain. As she joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she tells AMAZING about her love of poetry, getting physical on the set of The Marvels and the unwavering support of her own parents.

Zawe Ashton is no stranger to playing the antagonist. From her very first film role as rude schoolgirl Bianca in 2009’s St Trinian's 2: The Legend Of Fritton's Gold, to playing the intimidatingly cool Violet “Vod” Nordstrom in four seasons of student sitcom Fresh Meat and – more recently - as the rejected Julia Thistlewaite in 2022 period drama, Mr. Malcolm’s List, Ashton has a knack for taking on characters who appear unlikeable on paper… and making audiences fall in love with them. However, for her latest role as Dar-Benn in The Marvels, she had to go full villain.

“Very little can prepare you to have to embody an antagonist at this level, in a Universe that is literally not known to anyone – like our Space - and to make it real and impactful,” says the London-born actor, a new recruit to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “There's something deeply humbling about having to return to the sandbox; you have to go back to the playground and that was something I was not expecting. You have to indulge in adult play and it’s surprisingly vulnerable. I know that there are gamers out there, there are cosplayers out there, there are adults who have managed to keep that level of childlike play going and I respect it so much. There's a self-consciousness that can take over if you are not careful. Trying to react realistically to a laser coming towards you is not something I’d done since I was seven years old, and I had to get to that level of childlike confidence to just delve into the imagination. Once that was all clearer, the villainous elements came so much from the physical world, with costume and hair.”

For 39-year-old Ashton, adult play will likely become a more frequent fixture in her life, thanks to her most exciting new role – as a mother. She welcomed her first child in 2022 with fiancé Tom Hiddleston, her co-star in the 2019 revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal on London’s West End, later transferred to Broadway. “What has genuinely surprised me about motherhood is how much I don't feel ready to talk about it,” she laughs. “And this isn’t to shut down the conversation. I have gained so much insight from public people who have this incredible candour and this disarming, relatable dialogue about it very early on, but it's something that I am just dedicating time to absorbing. I’m listening rather than expelling energy. That genuinely has surprised me, because it's something you want to shout from the rooftops about; it's the most unparalleled, most important role in my life. The surprise has been how quiet I want to be about it. Maybe that's also me as a writer and this is something that will come through the pen at some point.”

Ashton attended London’s Anna Scher Theatre School from the age of six and was a member of the National Youth Theatre, before getting her degree in acting at Manchester Metropolitan University, but writing has always been significant in her life. She won the London Poetry Slam Championship in 2000, becoming the event’s youngest winner, at 17. “I may have been knocked off that pillar long ago, but in my head I'm still the youngest,” she laughs. “I love poetry. I had not written for a really long time; during the pandemic I lost a huge chunk of my creative soul when it came to putting pen to paper, which was really scary and was clearly the fallout of being in survival mode and feeling quite fearful. People's attention spans just went all sorts of different ways, didn't they? It was very hard for me to read, and it was very hard for me to write, which is very strange for me.

“More recently, a friend of mine from drama school who I used to do open mic nights with in Manchester – I used to perform poetry and she used to sing - asked me to write a poem for her wedding. I had a few moments where it was really tough, but I did it. I love her and I'm so happy for her, and being inspired enough to get a poem out and read it aloud really opened the floodgates. So, weirdly enough, I've been writing a lot of poetry recently and found a new love for it. I will always continue to use poetry as a way to understand the world. It's just so much part of who I am.”

For Zawe's full interview and shoot, order your copy of AMAZING issue 4 now. The Marvels is out now.