Phantom thief
9The Closing · 63Also written: kaitō, kaito, gentleman thief
The stylish master thief who announces his crimes in advance, a favourite character in Japanese fiction.
9The letters of this term total 63, a 9 — the number of endings, compassion, and the closing of cycles.
What it means
A phantom thief, kaitō in Japanese, is a stylish, almost magical criminal who steals for the challenge, often sends a notice before the theft, and outwits the police with disguises and tricks. He or she is usually honourable in a way the law is not.
Where it came from
The type comes from European fiction, above all Maurice Leblanc's gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, and was taken up in Japan by Edogawa Ranpo, whose Kaijin Nijū Mensō, the Fiend with Twenty Faces, fought the detective Akechi. Monkey Punch's Lupin III made the type central to manga.
In manga
Gosho Aoyama's Kaitō Kid, from Magic Kaito, is a recurring rival in Detective Conan. Tsukasa Hōjō's Cat's Eye follows three sisters who steal art, and the phantom thieves of later games and anime continue the tradition.
Why it matters
The phantom thief lets a story enjoy crime as performance: the challenge, the elegant plan and the escape. It is the perfect opponent for a great detective, and the two types often appear together.
The term by its numbers
Set against the Pythagorean table, the term totals 63. Reduced, that is 9. The weight sits in “Phantom”, which carries 33 on its own and reduces to 33.
The 9 governs endings, compassion, and the closing of cycles. The reference files it as a completion. It is a lens rather than a verdict, but it is a consistent one: the 9's sense of a cycle closing and something being released is the pressure under this entry.
Beneath the 9 sit two smaller figures: 3 in the vowels, 6 in the consonants. Expression underneath, responsibility on the surface. The gap between them is where the subject is most interesting.
The Closing asks one thing of everything on it: work out what survived the ending. The 9 sentimentalises. An ending is not automatically a meaning, and the reference tries not to pretend otherwise. The other entries that reduce to 9 are collected on The Closing.
Seen in
- Lupin IIIThe grandson of the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin steals whatever he likes, with his gunman, his swordsman, the woman who always double-crosses him and the inspector who never gives up.
- Detective ConanA teenage detective is poisoned and shrunk into a child's body, and solves murder after murder while hunting the organisation that did it.