Magic Kaito (Japanese: まじっく快斗, Hepburn: Majikku Kaito) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It began in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday in June 1987. The story tells of a phantom thief named Kaito Kid. Aoyama put the manga on hiatus after the first two tankōbon volumes were published in 1988, and only occasionally draws new chapters; the third volume was published in 1994, the fourth in 2007, and the fifth in 2017. Kaito Kid and other characters from Magic Kaito make occasional appearances in Case Closed, another manga series by Aoyama that has also been adapted into an anime.
Kuroba Kaito is a high school student with an interest in magic. His father was a great magician who had passed away eight years ago after a botched magic trick. One day, Kaito finds the costume of Phantom Thief Kid, the world's greatest thief, hidden behind a secret door in his room. Putting two and two together, Kaito realises that Kid and his deceased father were one and the same! Furthermore, it turns out that his father's death was not the result of an accident, but murder! In order to discover the identity of the perpetrators of this crime, Kaito dons the mantle of Phantom Thief Kid, Junior.
Kuroba Kaito loves to do magic, and he is a good performer. At high school, his childhood friend/girl friend tries to keep the boy inline. Of course Nakamori Aoko isn't gentle with the boy she'd never admit to loving. One morning, the classroom is filled with the talk about "Kaitou Kid," a jewerly thief who uses magic in his robberies. Kaito isn't impressed with this so called legend that reappeared after eight years, and says he could easily take the thief magic to magic. At home, thinking about his dead father who was also a magician, Kaito stumbles upon a hidden doorway in his room. He discovers his father was the original Kaitou Kid. But since he is dead, he wonders who the supposed Kaitou Kid from recent robberies is. Kaito puts on his father's hat and cape, becomes Kaitou Kid to search out the imposter.