Konosuke Jii
? (episode 356)
Koji Yada (Magic Kaito Special)
Michio Hazama (Magic Kaito 1412)
Akio Suyama (Youth)
Konosuke Jii (寺井 黄之助 Jii Kōnosuke) is a character in the manga franchise Magic Kaito, as well as the manga and anime franchise Detective Conan.
Background
Jii worked as the famous magician Toichi Kuroba's assistant. He also knew of Toichi's alter ego as the Kaitou Kid, and presumably assisted him in his heists. According to Jii, Toichi made him swear never to tell his son Kaito about his father's secret identity. Because Kaito did not immediately recognize Jii, it seems that he may not have been close to the entire Kuroba family, or perhaps Toichi wanted to protect Kaito from his Kaitou Kid identity, and thus kept him away from Jii.
Jii currently runs a a billiards parlor called the Blue Parrot. He lost a legendary pool cue to a rival billiards parlor 13 years ago, prior to when he met Toichi, but it is not clear whether Jii owned the Blue Parrot at that time or if he opened it only after Toichi's death.[2]
Personality
Jii appears to be deeply loyal to the Kuroba family, always willing to assist both Toichi and Kaito's activities as Kaitou Kid. Though he is not as outgoing as either of his employers, he is brave enough to take on many high-risk assignments with little hesitation.
When not assisting on heists, Jii's interests seem to include billiards and classic art (as evidenced by his interest in the Paris Collection).
Skills
A former magician's assistant, Jii is quite knowledgeable about magic. Jii currently assists Kaito Kuroba on heists, and likely assisted Toichi Kuroba in the past. Jii does at least some of the scouting and preparation needed to develop tricks for heists, and occasionally helps in the tricks themselves during the main event. He is also a swift and skilled but reckless driver who weaves in and out of traffic.
Appellations
| Picture | Name | What they call Jii | What Jii calls them |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Kaito Kuroba | Jii-chan | Young Master Kaito (Kaito-botchama) Young Master (Botchama) |
 |
Toichi Kuroba | - | Master Toichi (Toichi-sama) |
 |
Chikage Kuroba | Madam (Okusama) |
| Picture | Name | What they call Jii | What Jii calls them |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Aoko Nakamori | Jii-san | - |
 |
Jirokichi Suzuki | - | Advisor Suzuki (Suzuki-sodan-yaku) |
 |
Conan Edogawa | Fellow (Nakama; talking to Kaitou Kid)[3] | - |
 |
Kiyosuke Azuma | - | Azuma-san |
 |
Umeno | - | Lady (Ojōsama) |
 |
Koji Azuma | - | A servant |
Plot overview
Jii first appears in the opening file of Magic Kaito, where he dresses as the Kaitou Kid and steals a diamond using a magic trick that makes most of his body disappear. After Kaito stumbles through the trap door to his father's Kaitou Kid room and realizes that his father was the original Kid who disappeared eight years ago, he decides to dress as the Kid and discover the identity of the current Kaitou Kid.
Kaito confronts Jii on the top of a building and manages to see through Jii's disappearing trick. Jii mistakes Kaito for his father, then Kaito recognizes Jii from tapes of his father's magic shows. Jii tells Kaito that Toichi was murdered eight years ago, and that he, Jii, had donned the costume in an attempt to lure out the murderers. Kaito immediately decides to become the Kid, to Jii's seeming dismay, but Jii's advanced age make it clear that Kaito has a better chance of successfully pulling off heists than Jii does.[4]
Since then, Jii has appeared to offer Kaito advice and sometimes assist him in his heists. It was implied that the Kid's 'assistant' in the Magical Midair Walk[5] and in the Teleportation Heist[6] was Jii himself.
Non-Canon Plot Overview
Movie 19: Sunflowers of Inferno
Movie 19, Sunflowers of Inferno, revealed information about his youth during the last year of World War II. Koyata Yamamoto, a real life wealthy businessman, hired him as a servant of his residence on the south coast of Ashiya, and even then he wore glasses. His first love was Umeno, the young housekeeper of that house, but she was secretly in love with Kiyosuke Azuma, the owner's carpenter, although he was married and had a son. Even though has not been reciprocated, he had never hated Azuma, indeed they had always been great friends. In 1945, Ashiya was bombed by US planes, making a hell of fire and flames. When the building began to burn, it was Azuma himself groped to save Still Life: Vase with Five Sunflowers, the second picture of Vincent Van Gogh painting of sunflowers in Arles, who was attached to the wall for protect it from thieves, before it was destroyed. Enveloped in the flames of that bombing, before finishing charred in its place, Azuma gave the masterpiece to Umeno, trusting that one day the desire of the master Saneatsu Mushanokoji, about a museum in Japan to show it to the whole world, will become reality. Jii witnessed the whole scene, and he was himself to rescue both Umeno and the painting.
To protect it from the Allied Forces, the painting was passed off as an imitation and then transported in Europe, to be hidden in an old cottage right in Arles, in southern France. Thanks to his story, a year earlier, Koichi and Koji Azuma, Kiyosuke's two twin grandsons, found it after a long search. During the exhibition organized by Jirokichi Suzuki, disguised as Zengo Goto, he cries happy seeing on the monitor Umeno moved when reviewing the painting. Now that Sunflowers of Ashiya returned to Japan, Azuma can finally rest in peace.
Relationships analysis
Family & Friends
Toichi Kuroba
Jii is Toichi's loyal friend and assistant.
Kaito Kuroba
Name origin
Like other characters in Magic Kaito, his name contains a color. The kanji "黄" in Kōnosuke means "yellow". The kanji "助" in Kōnosuke means "assistant". "Jī" also shares the same sound as "gramps" in Japanese.
Different looks
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Trivia
- In the Teleportation Magic case, Conan catches a glimpse of Kid's assistant. In the manga, this is clearly Jii himself, judging from his hairstyle and body shape. In the anime depiction, however, Kid's assistant is depicted as a figure identical to Kaito himself, albeit with a shadowed face.
- In the Kogoro in the Bar case, his billiards parlor the Blue Parrot is featured as a murder location. However, neither Jii nor any other Magic Kaito characters appear.
- Jii's first love was the young housekeeper in the house of a rich Japanese man who owned one of Gogh's Sunflowers painting.
- Jii cameos in Episode 704.
See also
- Characters
- Kaitou Kid
- Kaitou Kid reference page (fan-made).
References
- ^ Episode 219
- ^ Magic Kaito Vol. 2, Ch. 7 (Hustler vs Magician)
- ^ File 634 (Volume 61)
- ^ Magic Kaito Manga Volume 1: Chapter 1, Magic Kaito Special Episode 1 (The ResurrectedKaitou)
- ^ Detective Conan Volume 44: Chapters 7-10. Episode 356 (Kaitou Kid's Magical Midair Walk)
- ^ Detective Conan Volume 61: Chapters 1-4, Episode 515 (Kaitou Kid's Teleportation Magic)