Okay, next try.F@ck, where was i?I agree with everyone about Gosho trying out the love triangle and then letting it fall after noticing it wasn´t his thing. He tested the water with Ai, found it too distracting and then pretty much ignored it expect for a few moments thrown here and there. Maybe he wanted to try something new, but got cold feets and did´t felt too comfortable with it like he did when it was only Shinichi/Conan and Ran. I wrote such a long text here and now this... ;_;
I think he might retry that once we get a Shiho and Shinichi case, you know, to keep the fire up in Ranichi. Nothing better than a *new rival* to keep the interest burning. Though i fear Sera will be the next fire up. <_<
You have to know that Ai/Shiho is not the usual woman Gosho can write a romance with/feels comfortable to make a romance with the main protagonist. The usual women who gets their romance in Gosho´s works are always *good*, very cute, warm, is a justice type, supports the main protagonist alot, share his ideals/motivation, often has a respected job like police officer/agent/lawyer/other respected jobs, also they all have a depending on personality bigger or smaller *love-concentration*. A murder/other case happend? Whatever, as long as the guy you love is near you and you can blush/smile at him.
Ai/Shiho on the other hand, being an ex-criminal of an evil organisation is hardly *good*, she´s not cute in a matter of personality, she´s cold, doesn´t believe in justice like the other DC-charas, often tries to stop Conan in BO-arcs or to calm him down to be more careful (which could count as support, but Conan doesn´t see it that way), her motivations and ideals are also different than with them (more to that later), being a mad scientist who invented a poison which killed unknown number of people is not a respected job (or what would you say?), she´s more *case-orientated* than others. A person she cares for is near? Who cares, the only one she truly loved is dead, the others she deeply cares for could die anytime with the slightest fault, better concentrate on the case, for feelings is later time.
Its interesting that Conan shares the POV that feelings can come after a case is solved, he has a similar point of view about cases and feelings. Though he wants to spend time with Ran, when there´s a case he has to solve it, even when it means that afterwards he might not have any time left for Ran. And though Ran understands that/accepts it, she´s sad and hurt whenever he does so and don´t return from a case. Ran shares Shinichi´s ideals/motivation and has all the aspects Gosho likes to give the heroine for a love positon with the hero.
As you see Ai/Shiho is anything but the woman Gosho is used to to write a romance for, especially given the protagonist.
Ai/Shiho is similar but differs alot of Conan/Shinichi, how often have you read that sentence?
I have wrote how much Ai/Shiho differs from the other girls/women in DC, but that just one thing. The other one i with Conan/Shinichi. Their relationship was discussed so often, that we all knew what i want to speak off. Though i had another long text here. ;_;
Anyway, its important to get it why i think i get it why i like Aicon so much. Ai´s character is a *broken* one, if left alone she would destroy herself and maybe even everything around her even if she doesn´t want to. Her dark past, her dangerous present and the unsure future makes her one as well as her personalitiy. However, she sticks out with it too.
As above said, she´s not your typical DC woman. She´s distrusting, afraid, pessimistic, self-hated, unsure, her motivation is revenge, atonement for her crimes, protection for the ones she has feelings for, she´s overly careful, hesitating, she doesn´t open her heart easily to others, is cold, introverted and some more words i forgot to write down.
Conan isn´t like that, he´s straight-forward where she´s waiting, optimistic where she´s pessimistic, sure what to, trusts far easier than her, is confident and overconfident, believes in justice and his work as detective., protects with no hesitation and so on. They are similar in quite some points that´s for sure, both are very snarky, protective of others, are ready to risk their lives for a cause, for example.
But right now that´s not important, maybe i´ll add that later... ;_;
If i had to chose an animal to compare them then Conan is a dog who runs directly for his prey, underestimating the risk while Ai is a cat, always waiting for the right time to jump at the prey, but is so overcautious she never moves in fear the prey notices her.
Ai´s chara is destructive, she´s like a hurricane, Conan´s one is constructive, he´s like a deep, calm sea. Same goes for almost all good characters in DC. Theres where we get some math. A deep sea + a deep sea is always a deep sea, no matter how many stuff is hidden under the calm sea. But with a hurrican a sea turns into something else; it becomes dark and rough, waves are coming up and down in different sizes and the hidden things gets spoiled at the beach or disappear somewhere else to be more hidden.
Ai was strong in beginning, very good during the story and as of lately has become still okay, but the storm from the beginning is gone. Which is actually nothing bad, it shows the character developpment spend in her, besides she changed Conan/Shinichi herslef quite a bit as well, he´s no longer a calm sea, he got some faster and slower streams now.
Given some new mangas, like Beelzebub and TWGOK, i tried to think about why i happen to like certain pairings and not others like here Ranichi for DC. First i thought its a dislike for first girl wins, but in Beelzebub Hilda is clearly the first girl. Then i thought its childhood-friends, but in TWGOK where Elsi is first girl (which ship i dont support at all) i ship the only childhood-couple Keima and Tenri. So i believed it´s something different i´m looking for in couples to cheer for an happy ending:
It´s dynamique.
I want a relationship to move, to differ, to change. I dislike when its set in stone, is similar and feels overall *safe*.
I guess that´s why i was so excitied to see Ai first introduced in the DC universe. It was like a sudden hurrican after many calm days on sea. A criminal of the BO? Working together with Conan, a victim of them? Have the same goal, but different motivations and ideals? Awesome sauce!
Whereas Ai and Conan were thrown into cold water with their relationship and started from zero (or -10 in this case, lol), Ranichi always build on a huge fundament called childhood-past and unknown crush already back then. That´s not bad, but its bad when overused. I don´t mean the theme aka why the hell suddenly everyone in the manga got a childhood friend who´s in love with him/her and vice versa. I mean, nostalgic memories and use of flashbacks. We had more moments of Ranichi flashbacks as children or teens then present Ranichi moments. I don´t count the amount of pages or panels shown but the oocasions it happend. For example for one time Ranichi with about 1-2 chapters, we got over 3-5 flashbacks, sometimes one page and sometimes even only one panel. Yes, the few present Ranichi occasions may have more pages/panels (though i think the flashbacks/memories beats them here too) but the flashbacks/memories clearly are shown more often.
So while Ran and Shinichi have something safe to build a house on so to say, Ai and Conan don´t. It´s interesting how a broken chara gets *repaired* by another one (and the other side charas ofc) and how that *broken* one can still in its brokeness change the one who´s supposed to be already *good*. At least more interesting than two teens who all need to say is *i love u* and they would life happily ever after but don´t cause of stuff aka Gosho doesn´t want them yet.
We had seen alot of stuff with Ai and Conan during the DC story: Tears, hateful spits, distrust, contempt, self-hatred, helplessness, fear, guilt, scheming, coldness and much more words i have forgotten to write down.
We saw how tears became smiles, hateful spits witty but good meant comments, how trust were formed, given and accepted, respect was learned, self-hatred disappeared, helplessness got replaces with partner-and friendship, fear was exchanged for courage, while forgiveness took place for guilt, scheming got erased for promises and coldness for warmth. Over time both influced each other, started to understand each other better, Conan could understand Ai´s motivation more though he doesn´t approve of it and Ai understand his ideals better though she finds it still childish/naiv.
Ranichi is nothing like this for me. Yes, people can say that they had tears turned to smiles as well and lots of developpement, but its not the same as with Aicon, cause those were already there. Ai is colored by the mystery past of Shiho and Conan is colored by the known (ego) past of Shinichi, yet now they´re not the same anymore. Ran and Shinichi relationship is based on a past we get bit for bit but in Aicon´s case we see it per se every day in the present.
Best example is still Ran who feels like Conan is just like Shinichi, but then believes he cannot be, not only cause of age/size, but also cause he´s a *different person*, he´s not like the Shinichi she knew. His developpment happens without her noticing it cause she´s no part in it. She can tell that something changed, but she doesn´t know when and why Shinichi becomes more and more someone else. He´s still the same ofc, but at the same time isn´t. Hard to explain. I bet though Gin would think the same if the new Shiho would stand before hi, so similar to the one he knew yet so different.
Aicon is for me pure dynamique, it had no starting point and no known ending unlike Ranichi with we both know, first chapters, crush and confession, zack baam, at the end of the manga happy ending for both of them. (one of the reasons why i fear that Ai will die, Gosho had killed a similar chara in an older work as well. It could happen who knows.). Ranichi is *safe*,so safe its almost boring (there´s not even another guy Ran would consider to fall for) everything considered Aicon isn´t. Aicon got partnership and friendship going with a probably one-sided love (as Yukio pointed out) but under different motivations/ideals and thoughts. Ranichi got the loveship going and that´s it, cause expect for Shinichi Sherlock Holmes Otakuness for which Ran has a great deal of understanding or better accpetion too they share same beliefs and thoughts.
Aicon seems to grow while Ranichi even with the confessions stays stale. While Aicon feels like a unique experiment in DC (a detective and criminal in children bodies, both similar in some pointes, different in others yet influcenting both, working together to bring a common enemy down) , Ranichi feels after nostalgic and over-used teen love drama over misunderstandings.
Or otherwise said, while i get the feeling that Aicon heals someone (Ai) and change someone for the better (Conan), i get the feeling that the relationship of Ranichi is destroying themselves (something Ai was actual fearing/thinking in some chapter). I think they were better at being friends with secret crushs before. Now as Lovers, they´re still unsure, more sad/guilty, and so much greater far away from each other as before, now with (good intention) lies between them. I´m not sure if all that can be changed with Conan simply becoming Shinichi permanent. Or otherwise said, Ran was happier to spend time with an oblivious egocentric Shinichi than with a Shinichi she doesn´t see anymore but who knows of her feelings cause she told them herself being unaware of the fact that Conan = Shinichi.
And just for the info, no i don´t believe that Aicon will happen. Gosho doesn´t have the balls nor the ideas to change the story into that path. XP
Also i´m sorry that you have to read this seven-foot-long-text. The other one was better, but oh well. Maybe next time my comp won´t break.
) is that Gosho had been wondering if a love triangle would be a good idea and up until that point he decided to try it. Then, he probably decided "...NAH. ShinRan forever!"
