YMMV / Magic Kaito

• Awesome Music: In the anime special pretty much the whole thing, but mostly from "I'm no Young Master... I'm Kaitou Kid!" all the way through the escape. Then it takes a short break for the fish scene and kicks back in again for the end credits.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Kaito himself. There are those who really like his rougish rule-breaking for the sake of spiting his father's murderers, but there are also those who feel that Kaito's increasingly slipped morality (the most common examples of which are the huge list of assaults he's racked up and the times he collapsed a department building that likely wasn't empty, beat a policeman with a wrench, and tasered a physical six year old - something that actually could have easily killed Conan, because tasers are easily lethal to children) isn't explored enough to keep him sympathetic, especially since he never faces consequences for his actions. There are also those who feel the story would be more suited to a tragic Protagonist Journey to Villain story, given that these obviously amoral choices and Kaito's desire for "vengeance" may all have been for nothing if Toichi is alive. Some outspoken fans claim to like Kaito in his own manga but greatly dislike his characterization in the Detective Conan films.
  • Conan, introduced in the 2014 animated adaptation. Despite Conan's superstar status from Case Closed and the fact that the character Kaitou KID was launched into stardom largely through KID's cameos in Conan's blockbuster franchise, complaints about Conan being in the irrelevant series are frequent. It doesn't help that his extended presence in the anime came at the cost of removing important screentime for Magic Kaito characters and chapters, such as Hakuba Saguru and the adaptation of chapter 17 when he finds out that Kaito is KID.
• Fanon:
  • KID being targeted by snipers regularly. Usually, he is confronted head on by Snake, with snipers having yet to appear in canon.
  • Saguru always accusing Kaito of being KID. The one time he tells someone Kaito is KID, it's Kaito himself he is saying it to, and while there are members of the taskforce nearby, none of them are shown to be listening to the teenagers. After chapter 17, Saguru never outright says that they are the same person, preferring to let Kaito infer that he's talking to him as KID's civilian alter-ego rather than saying anything. He even stops talking when Aoko and Akako join the conversation in Midnight Crow, and his reaction to Kaito's motorcycle in Sun Halo can be interpreted as getting the idea of KID being able to use a motorcycle in general, not getting that idea specifically because Kaito's KID.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Despite canonically having Ship Tease with Aoko, fans generally like to pair Kaito with rival characters.
  • Kaito X Hakuba is fairly popular.
  • For those who are fans of the extended universe, Kaito X Shinichi is an absolute juggernaut of a ship that far outweighs the few cameos the two characters have in each other's franchises, with fans seeming fascinated with their situational similarities and Friendly Enemy dynamic. According to Archivofourown's tag numbers, the fan works for said pairing outnumber all other ships in both franchises.
• Ho Yay:
  • Hakuba. Kid. Handcuffs. Discuss.
  • In chapter 1122 of Detective Conan, Saguru pulls KID disguised as Shinichi over his shoulder into a fireman's carry, consistently keeping at least one arm on KID's legs. He is even shown holding KID's butt in one panel, delighting the Hakukai shippers.
  • In the Magic Kaito 1412 anime, Kaito's tension with Inspector Nakamori is played up.
  • Aoko blushes a lot around Akako and is always commenting on how pretty she is, to the point she never considers her a rival.
• Nightmare Fuel: The aforementioned Robo-Kaito supplies some of this, as well as Akako's introductory chapter, where she uses a voodoo doll to drag Kaito away mid-heist against his will by sticking needles through his head and heart. It's scarier than necessary because the needles cause blood to erupt from his head and out of his mouth while he looks up with a zombie-like stare.
• Paranoia Fuel: How do we know that it was Robo-Kaito who shot himself? There is no brain splatter which, however, does not rule out that the possibility that the other Kaito is, in fact, Robo-Kaito MkII...
• Ron the Death Eater: Due to a mixture of Magic Kaito being on indefinite hiatus for almost 30 years, the 2010 specials changing the context around his attempt to expose Kaito as KID due to the existence of Spider, and people generally loving Conan as KID's greatest rival (and, for romance, love interest) more, Saguru is often not only put in the role of an antagonist standing in the way of Kaito (and Shinichi), but also mischaracterised as constantly trying to tell everyone that Kaito is KID. In reality, he only tells Kaito about his knowledge of him being KID once, with nobody shown to be listening, and actually helps Kaito out against the other phantom thieves that compete with him. While Saguru claims that he merely wants to catch KID himself, he still seems to have a friendlier relationship with Kaito than some fanfiction would have you believe.
• Ship Mates: Fans who ship the quasi-Official Couple Kaito and Aoko will typically pull a Pair the Spares on Akako and Hakuba, despite the latter two having maybe three lines of interaction in the manga. The makers of the 1412 anime apparently took note of this, and inserted some extra Ship Tease moments between the two.

---