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Aibou rewatch and observations
I'm taking a break since I'm too busy right now, but I've been rewatching the Aibou series from the beginning, starting with the three pre-season tv movies and Season 1. I thought I'd record my observations here on the off chance that anyone's interested, plus it will be good reference if I ever get around to writing the Aibou Itami/Kanbe plotbunny I had in mind. (Btw, I've taken care not to mention anything spoilery below; it's mostly just my general impressions about the characters and the mood of the show.)
I apparently mis-remembered that Kaoru and Ukyo met in the first episode of Season 1; they are already a team by then. They met in the first pre-season movie, and interestingly enough, had an adversarial relationship at first, not unlike Ukyo's relationship with Kanbe in Season 8. Ukyo seems to regard Kaoru as a nuisance, and goes off on investigations by himself, leaving his new partner behind. Although in this case, it seems that he prefers working alone rather than resenting a replacement partner. By the end of the movie, he discovers that they actually do make a good team in spite of Kaoru's impulsive hot-headedness, and from then on they are pretty much the Aibou team that fans know and love.
Itami, Kaoru's frenemy and former partner from Investigations Division 1 is also there from the first movie, as is Miura, an older dectective who is usually calmer and more reasonable than the hotheaded Itami. The movies also featured a third detective named Saito, although he doesn't make much of an impression, or have much to do other than to provide a sounding board for Itami's complaints. He doesn't appear in the tv series; in Season 1, Itami and Miura are the main Division 1 detectives. In Season 2, Serizawa becomes their new partner--the actor has good chemistry with the other two, and provides some comic relief as the rookie detective who is always blurting out information to the Special Mission pair, much to Itami's annoyance (and often earning himself a smack to the back of the head from Itami as punishment). I still think he does it (the blurting out, that is) accidentally-on-purpose because he knows Special Mission often comes in helpful, and he doesn't seem as hostile to them as Itami is, although he does make a show of echoing Itami's insults towards them. I've also noticed that Miura grumbles more about Special Mission's interference than I thought he did, although it's still much less than Itami does.
There's one kind of cute scene in Season 1, ep. 1 where Miura is looking out the window of the police station and noticing a commotion going on outside, and he calls out something like, "Itami-chan, come look!" I was surprised because I couldn't ever remember Miura calling Itami "chan" before, and I haven't heard him use it in since then. It wouldn't be so funny except that the grumpy, sarcastic Itami is hardly the type of person that usually gets addressed as "chan".
We don't get to see much of the trio's personal lives in the show, though Serizawa occasionally mentions having a girlfiend in later seasons, and we finally learn in Season 10 that Miura has a wife. I hadn't remembered any references at all to Itami's love life (or lack thereof), which actually worked for me since I planned to write him as gay. However, in Season 1, ep. 9, it turns out that he has been taking English lessons because he has a crush on the attractive female instructor, who unfortunately for him, turns out to be the murder suspect. Oh well, it's not like I expected him to canonically be gay, and nothing happened between him and the woman anyway. It's easily ignored or handwaved if I ever get around to writing the fic.
I've also noticed a difference in tone between Seasons 1-7 with Kaoru as Ukyo's "aibou" (partner), and Seasons 8-10 with Kanbe as the partner. While there are occasional disagreements and somber moments, Kaoru hardly ever seriously argues with Ukyo, and the mood is mostly light and humorous. It's not surprising that the relationship between Kanbe and Ukyo is more adversarial, at least at first, given that he's replaced a longtime trusted partner. However, I think it's interesting that even after they learn to trust and respect each other, Kanbe and Ukyo often clash on moral or ethical issues, with Ukyo adhering to the path of exposing the truth no matter what, even if that might hurt an innocent person. In contrast, Kanbe sometimes leans more towards bending the law for the sake of compassion. The nice thing, though, is that they respect each other's beliefs (mostly, anyway) even when they disagree on such issues.
While there's still plenty of humor in the seasons featuring Kanbe, I noticed that the mood of the episodes gets a little darker in Seasons 9 and 10, with more of these moral/ethical quandries that didn't seem to come up so much when Kaoru was Ukyo's partner. I haven't yet seen Seasons 11-13 with Ukyo's current partner Kai Tooru (played by Narimiya Hiroki), so I am curious to see what kind of partnership they have and what their relationship is like compared to the previous two.
I apparently mis-remembered that Kaoru and Ukyo met in the first episode of Season 1; they are already a team by then. They met in the first pre-season movie, and interestingly enough, had an adversarial relationship at first, not unlike Ukyo's relationship with Kanbe in Season 8. Ukyo seems to regard Kaoru as a nuisance, and goes off on investigations by himself, leaving his new partner behind. Although in this case, it seems that he prefers working alone rather than resenting a replacement partner. By the end of the movie, he discovers that they actually do make a good team in spite of Kaoru's impulsive hot-headedness, and from then on they are pretty much the Aibou team that fans know and love.
Itami, Kaoru's frenemy and former partner from Investigations Division 1 is also there from the first movie, as is Miura, an older dectective who is usually calmer and more reasonable than the hotheaded Itami. The movies also featured a third detective named Saito, although he doesn't make much of an impression, or have much to do other than to provide a sounding board for Itami's complaints. He doesn't appear in the tv series; in Season 1, Itami and Miura are the main Division 1 detectives. In Season 2, Serizawa becomes their new partner--the actor has good chemistry with the other two, and provides some comic relief as the rookie detective who is always blurting out information to the Special Mission pair, much to Itami's annoyance (and often earning himself a smack to the back of the head from Itami as punishment). I still think he does it (the blurting out, that is) accidentally-on-purpose because he knows Special Mission often comes in helpful, and he doesn't seem as hostile to them as Itami is, although he does make a show of echoing Itami's insults towards them. I've also noticed that Miura grumbles more about Special Mission's interference than I thought he did, although it's still much less than Itami does.
There's one kind of cute scene in Season 1, ep. 1 where Miura is looking out the window of the police station and noticing a commotion going on outside, and he calls out something like, "Itami-chan, come look!" I was surprised because I couldn't ever remember Miura calling Itami "chan" before, and I haven't heard him use it in since then. It wouldn't be so funny except that the grumpy, sarcastic Itami is hardly the type of person that usually gets addressed as "chan".
We don't get to see much of the trio's personal lives in the show, though Serizawa occasionally mentions having a girlfiend in later seasons, and we finally learn in Season 10 that Miura has a wife. I hadn't remembered any references at all to Itami's love life (or lack thereof), which actually worked for me since I planned to write him as gay. However, in Season 1, ep. 9, it turns out that he has been taking English lessons because he has a crush on the attractive female instructor, who unfortunately for him, turns out to be the murder suspect. Oh well, it's not like I expected him to canonically be gay, and nothing happened between him and the woman anyway. It's easily ignored or handwaved if I ever get around to writing the fic.
I've also noticed a difference in tone between Seasons 1-7 with Kaoru as Ukyo's "aibou" (partner), and Seasons 8-10 with Kanbe as the partner. While there are occasional disagreements and somber moments, Kaoru hardly ever seriously argues with Ukyo, and the mood is mostly light and humorous. It's not surprising that the relationship between Kanbe and Ukyo is more adversarial, at least at first, given that he's replaced a longtime trusted partner. However, I think it's interesting that even after they learn to trust and respect each other, Kanbe and Ukyo often clash on moral or ethical issues, with Ukyo adhering to the path of exposing the truth no matter what, even if that might hurt an innocent person. In contrast, Kanbe sometimes leans more towards bending the law for the sake of compassion. The nice thing, though, is that they respect each other's beliefs (mostly, anyway) even when they disagree on such issues.
While there's still plenty of humor in the seasons featuring Kanbe, I noticed that the mood of the episodes gets a little darker in Seasons 9 and 10, with more of these moral/ethical quandries that didn't seem to come up so much when Kaoru was Ukyo's partner. I haven't yet seen Seasons 11-13 with Ukyo's current partner Kai Tooru (played by Narimiya Hiroki), so I am curious to see what kind of partnership they have and what their relationship is like compared to the previous two.