Kaito Kid

The Kaito Kid is a magician-thief from Gosho Aoyama's previous series, Magic Kaito. However, he has appeared in Detective Conan often enough that he is considered a recurring character, and is one of the most popular. Shinichi Kudo was actually based off of him originally, and without any disguises, they look similar enough to fool Ran Mouri, Shinichi's girlfriend.

His story is a long one, but pretty simple: Kaito Kuroba's father, Toichi Kuroba, was a magician, and taught him many tricks. One day, his father died in an accident. Eight years later, he discovered that his father had been the notorious Kaito Kid, a famous thief, who used magic tricks to steal large gems, though he always returned them. His goal was to find a certain gem before a mysterious organization could, because it was rumoured that a large gem named Pandora might hold the secret to immortality if held in the light of a full moon. The 'accident' that killed him was no accident, it was rigged by the organization. When Kaito learned all this, he decided to take up his father's mantle- or cape, as the case may be. He began to do just as his father had: he stole large gems, kept them until the next full moon, then returned the gem when he knew it wasn't the right one. Due to his father's murder, he has a peculiar aversion to violence, and will not kill or even injure anyone, no matter what the risk to himself.

All the characters in Magic Kaito have color-themed names. Kuroba means 'black feather', referring to the powers of flight he often appears to have, due to his illusions and tricks. Kuroba is also the Japanese spelling of the word 'clover', and the Kid's monocle has a clover on it. Kaito sounds similar to 'kite', referring to the hang-glider he often uses to escape the police.