Konosuke Jii

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.

## Biography

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.

## Personality

Jii seems to have loyal and concern personality.

## 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.

## Plot

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.
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 and in the Teleportation Heist was Jii himself.

## Etymology

Like other characters in Magic Kaito 1412, his name contains a color. The kanji "黄" in Kōnosuke means "yellow". "Jii" also shares the same sound as "gramps" in Japanese.

## 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.