heir-conditioning:

the best thing about the phantom thief genre imo is that no matter the series or context, all of these thieves are essentially local criminally involved cryptids. you can take any cryptid hunting scenario and replace the entire thing with a police investigation of a phantom thief and everything stays exactly the same. inspector zenigata pours himself over case file after case file in order to learn the tricks lupin the third uses to blend in with society at large. charlie supplies her father with multiple blurry photos of phantom r spotted coming to and from the duchess’ manse, only to have inspector vergier shoot her down with the claim that all those photos are just of that ginger kid who lives down by simon’s. there are still fansites dedicated to the conspiracy that shinichi kudo might actually be kaito kid. goro akechi goes on police record and says that not only are the phantom thieves of hearts REAL, but their leader ALSO sucked his dick behind a 7-11.