What I Mean Is - Blog Posts

I totally agree with all that and also.. yeah

Toto's character is kinda blank in some aspects and it has a lot of "empty spaces". And I think that is why he is so popular in fandom. He is not only the "eyes" of the reader, he is also a great headcanon material. Like you can imagine him smoking weed or killing ppl before and that wouldn't change the canon at all.

As for his improvement in deduction and etc.. I don't think that he would reach Ron's or Kawasemi level and I really believe that he shouldn't. He obviously gets better but his main goal is to help people and protect them and he doesn't need to be a genius to do so (and also Ron can do it now which means that Toto kinda fulfilled his mission👀)

Anywaaay I still haven't read the latest chapters of the manga so I'm probably not the one to speak😅

When I first read new chapter, I was glad that Toto's character has a development and now not afraid to look at corpses like Ron. Plus I thought he become smarter.

However, once I re-read the chapter, I realized something. Toto hasn't grown at all as a character.

His observation skills for important details have really improved, no doubt about it. But the ability to solve riddles and deduction haven't improved at all. Toto couldn’t do it and still can’t do it. After running around with Ron for over a year, I expected to see at least some kind of thought process.

And that's Toto's problem as a character in the story. He's just... boring.

No matter how much I love Toto, (he is the best in my heart) as a character he is NOT interesting to watch. He is not growing, he is as he was in the beginning “for everything good and fluffy. I value every human life” he remained that way. And it's not a bad thing i think, but compared to others it's boring.

Maybe I'm wrong but tell me how Toto has changed throughout history? And no, there’s no mention of self-confidence here because he still has self-destructive tendencies.

Now let's take others.Ron has obviously changed a lot and that's a good thing. Kawasemi changed and stopped being so strict. Chiori stopped being so a rabid fan of detective. Even Spitz and Amamiya changed somehow. I can't say anything about Toto.

No matter how paradoxical it may sound, the only thing that makes Toto stand out from the rest is his lack of personality and mysteries around him. He literally feels like a piece of cardboard but not as living person.

Most of his actions are literally told but not shown. It's like Toto himself was left out of the picture.

So yea , I think Toto is the character who suffers most at the hands of the author in manga

Heya! Thank you for waiting.

I thought about this long and hard. Like you, I love Toto, seeing that I am a Watsonian first of all. And at times, biased.

It is not easy to give you answers, bc I might change my opinion in the coming days. But for now, I can say that your concerns are valid, that Toto as a character remains somehow stagnant. On the other hand, if you change him, just a little bit, like he has reached Ron’s level in deduction we would lose him as a stand-in for the audience. Seeing that the titular character isn’t Toto, his role is more like Jiminy Cricket. He gives advices, scolds Ron, he can’t arse finding out the solution bc he isn’t the genius character. This is Ron’s place.

Once Akira changes him to something like equal to Ron then in the grand scheme of her storytelling, his role as the receiver of wonderful deduction would be gone.

And in all honesty, it is a bit mind-boggling how will Akira direct Toto’s characterisation in a new direction without involving him as someone who is part of the antagonists or giving us hints of his familial background, if she considers him as a deuteragonist of the story. Bc so far, like any Watson-esque character, he’s become a character in the background, it is the downside of having a genius and eccentric friend.

True, it is frustrating sometimes, and he’s maybe boring bc of it. In truth we applaud him when he shows signs of improvement. But I don’t think he’ll reach Kawasemi’s excellence nor Ron’s genius bc he’s none of these things. Kawasemi changed emotionally and has become a disciple of Toto.

And yet, and yet, Akira seems to be content in status quo.

He is changing but gradually. Maybe, the moment Ron will receive his license is the moment we’ll see Toto can hold his own. Cross my fingers.

PS: that’s why i am counting on the anime crew hoping that they can remedy some issues on Toto’s characterisation, which they did during the first season.