Ai + Conan

[Silverbullet96]

I'm happy that they still have their playful banter and their trust within each other's weaknesses, though. It shows, for me at least, that the unique dynamic of their partnership is still there, no matter how stale it has become.

This

[Atraos]

I'm rather taking issue with the cast bloating even further, leading to even less development for the individual characters

lol. I don't think we will ever get any development to the current main characters. Most of them reached their final states already long time ago, and became very stale and - sometimes - boring. We need new key characters in the story, we need new blood.

As for AiCon moments, it ended after the 345 climax. But we've got some hints about Ai's feelings until ~600. After 600, it completely disappeared

To be honest, if you burn out your whole main cast (and their attached romance arcs too) and the solution of choice is to throw them out and plug in a new set... we're completely in franchise milking territory, with the possible exception, that it's not called Detective Conan: Revelations yet. Don't take me too serious, I can be a tad bit to cynical.

I'd feel different about it, if the character arcs had proper closure, but most of them were simply abandoned, prime example being Haibara's character development and romance with Conan, which we propably can all agree on. But also Shinichi learning some humility from his rather powerless experience as Conan as well as the ShinRan dynamic losing the subtleties of Love from afar/ I wan't my beloved to be happy etc. Sadly all those closures depend on taking down the BO and shinichi turning back/not turning back for good (yeah, I know, shinichi will return and ShinRan will happen, I don't doubt that, but some have entertained those story lines and I think you could bring satisfying resolutions to all those arcs without a happy end)

Ok I'm drifting off topic, so I will just summarize: It's time for Gosho to pull all the stops and bring us one epic final arc that revives and resolves the abandoned main arcs. I don't care if it takes 2 years or 5 as long as we return to more sensible pacing (vermouth arc did it well, at least I can't remember bigger chunks of filler that weren't regularily broken up by significant character or plot development) and actually get closure, not just introducing more permanent characters or yet another Intelligence agency

Spoiler: manga spoiler scarlet showdown

Now that we've got CIA, FBI and PSIA, how about the german BND?

P.S.: Sorry for the rambling, I have spend every waking minute the last two days writing a seminar paper, my brain is mush

[soul_dreamer]

Here's my opinion on Ai and Conan.

I prefer their pairings from Ran and Shinichi. I just find the idea of the detective and the girl who betrayed the evil organization much more interesting than Ran and Shinichi, who knew each other since childhood and developed their feelings over the time and who were in love with each other since vol 1. I still like Shinichi and Ran, but I find Ai and Conan chemistry much better and like I said they are more interesting. I'm not delude that Ai and Conan will end up together. We saw Ai having some sort of feelings to Conan, I personally believe that she has fallen in love with him unlike Conan. He cares about her very much and he would always protect her (I love when he saved her from the bus and ran after her, when he thought she was going to run and more), but he doesn't have any romantic feelings to her.

I was wondering lately, what if Gosho would make Conan to develop romantic feelings to Ai between vol 18 and vol 42. Would Conan choose her over Ran? I guess it would depends, whom he would love more and he probably would choose Ran anyway.

I still like the moments between Conan/Shinichi and Ran, but IMO they don't have this spark/chemistry which Conan and Ai has.

Of course, Ai will still have a happy ending, she must have. Until now, I didn't mind her staying as a child, but after some thinking, I came to the conclusion that staying as Ai would mean running away from who she really is and I think, she can still be happy as Shiho. She could work as a scientist, in the police/fbi, as fashion designer or be even Shinichi's partner in the crime investigation. There are lots of opportunities for Shiho to enjoy her life.

I wonder if Ai/Shiho would end up with someone at the end of manga or have love interest, at least. I personally don't like the idea of

Spoiler:

Okiya aka Akai - I just find weird for Shiho to be with a man, who was in love with her sister and for Akai to date a woman, who is his former lover's sister. I still like Ai and Okiya interactions, but I don't want them to be involved in a romantic way

I also think that Amuro could be good match to her. I know that they had very little interactions but since he

Spoiler:

is memeber of the secret police and I, as some others on this forum, think that he actually tried to help Shiho during the mystery train

, they could be together. I know there are low chances for them to be together but I would prefer them more than Shiho with

Spoiler:

Akai

If Gosho would decide that Ai will stay as child and he paired her with Mitsuhiko, I won't be completely happy with this. Like I said, Ai still can be happy as Shiho and she doesn't need to relive her childhood and honestly, I don't really think if it can count as childhood, since she's not a child, in reality. As for the Ai and Mitsuhiko, I don't mind them, though I still prefer much more Ai/Shiho and Conan/Shinichi, even Shiho and Amuro would better than them. I just hope that we won't get any hint that Ai likes Mitsuhiko in the romantic way, out of blue, this would be horrible.

I won't hate the ending, where Ai will stay as a child, even though I don't agree with it. However, it would still be a nice ending for Ai and I believe she would be happy as Ai, but like I said, I beleive she should return to being Shiho.

[Silverbullet96]

^I really don't think the BO members will pair well with Ai. I think all these Akai-Ai/Amuro-Ai pairings were just brought up by mostly ShinRan fans for the heck of it (no offense, honestly), by saying stuff like for eg- In a ShinRan Vs. AiCon discussion, "Noooooooo ! Ran should be the one ♥♥♥ !! (etc. etc.) BUT I want Haibara to be happy too, maybe she can be with Akai or Amuro since they're both BO members xP"
My point is that it was just casually brought out of thin air without any kind of analysis. For me I don't think Haibara matches up that well with anybody not named Conan, everything falls just perfectly in place with those two.

[AICHAN]

I was an aicon fan but I do like Okiya(Akai)/Ai so it's not something made up by shinran fan,it's just that because of the way the story goes,I really do enjoy Okiya/Ai.They had a past within the BO so their interactions would be great to see,in a romantic way or not(the idea isn't disgusting for me since Akemi is dead).And Akai is one of the coolest character and looks like Conan in a way,so why not?

As long as she doesn't stays as a child with mitsuhiko I'm ok with all kind of happy ending for her(Mitsu/Ai is way more disgusting for me than Ai/akai if you ask me)
And Bourbon well I'll wait for the next files to have an opinion about these two.

@soul-dreamer:I'm just happy that someone else thinks that Ai staying as a child would ruin her character development...she really should come back to Shiho just to prove she's not afraid to face her destiny and her responsibilities^^ Even if she isn't paired with someone in the end she could be happy as shiho,because she's such an amazing character,she doesn't need some man to exist^^

@Silverbullet:Gosho said in an interview that ConanxAi will never happens,so maybe you should open your mind to other possibilities XDXD

[Silverbullet96]

I was an aicon fan but I do like Okiya(Akai)/Ai so it's not something made up by shinran fan,it's just that because of the way the story goes,I really do enjoy Okiya/Ai.They had a past within the BO so their interactions would be great to see,in a romantic way or not(the idea isn't disgusting for me since Akemi is dead).And Akai is one of the coolest character and looks like Conan in a way,so why not?

Any way I look at it, I honestly can't imagine Haibara and Akai Shuichi having better interactions than AiCon. Them being in BO together doesn't mean anything An extreme cool guy like Akai is better with a more open and less cold woman like Akemi or better yet, Jodie. I agree Ai and Okiya they had an exciting scene in the car, but if you think that's going to translate romantically you're kidding yourself. Okiya/Ai.... just NO. And I'm not even being biased either.

By the way is there any link showing Gosho saying AiCon is not happening ?

[soul_dreamer]

Just to be clear, I'm not so ShinRan fan, who wants to pair Ai with anyone, I simply like the idea of Shiho and Amuro together, even if Shiho and Okiya/Akai have better chances.

I don't find the idea of Shiho and Akai, disgusting, just... weird, but if they end up together, then I guess I will okay with that, even if I prefer Akai and Jodie pairing.

As for Ai and Mitsuhiko, I'm not against this pairing. I know that there's ten years difference, but Mitsuhiko will matures, at some point, right? The problem, I would have with this pairing, is that Shiho would have to pretend to be someone else. She would need to tell Mitsuhiko the truth about herself, unless she wants to lie to him, which wouldn't be good. I guess, I would okay with this pairing as long as Ai won't become housewife, cooking for Mitsuhiko.

But like @AICHAN said, Shiho is amazing and she doesn't need a man.

If I would have to choose the best ending for Ai, it would be either Ai returning to Shiho and becoming Shinichi's partner in crime investigations or she could join Interpol or work as scientist (pair with Amuro or without) or Shiho joining FBI and becoming Akai's and Jodie's partner (pair with Akai or without).

The ending that I would enjoy the least, would be Ai staying in her child form.

[Mario2000]

I got already used to Ai in her child form. I would be sad if at the end she decided to "face her destiny" and got transformed back into that "Shiho" form I know nothing about, as we barely saw her in that form.

[AICHAN]

I'm not saying they had romantic moments,not at all,and I'm not saying either that they will become a couple,I just said I like their interactions since they seems to have a past in the BO together.And Ai isn't cold,she has changed a lot so for me it's not an horrible possibility contrary to what you are impliying.She became close to Okiya only because he reminds her of Dai,so I guess she kinda appreciated him back then.But as I said it doesn't mean they're going to be together in the end.It's just nice to get someone who know her as Shiho and can actually talk about her sister.I do think their interaction would be nice to see^^
I just imagine Ai with a more mature guy than Conan,it would be good for her.
And again Ai alone is great,even without a man...

As for Aicon not happening,i don't have any link,it was an interview from some DC super digest book,I saw that in a french forum(a french member who lives in Japan bought all the DC books),so maybe if someone could find it it would be nice.I remember Gosho said "conan and Ai...impossible" and that crushed all my hopes about them.



@Soul-dreamer:I get what you mean,I agree with most of it(except that I'm not into Jodie/Akai,I don't see a good chemistry between them,and I don't like how Jodie forgives eveything he does to her,like nothing happened).And really I would love to see Shiho in the end working for the FBI,it would be a good proof that she has changed for the better

[Mario2000]

Soul_dreamer, why don't you want her to stay as a child? I agree that an Ai x Mitsuhiko pairing won't be a good idea, but why return to that adult form we are not even familiar with? It would destroy the character we are already used to. Also, I can't imagine somebody not wanting to experience the most innocent period of life (childhood) for another time.

[AICHAN]

don't forget that DC isn't ending soon,so we might have some Shiho moments.And I really think she could stay with Agasa in her adult form,he would be fine.I don't think it would be a good ending for her to stay as a child because she had a criminal past and she can't just run away like that...She is experiencing childhood right now but that doesn't mean she want to restart everything as if her past identity never existed.If the BO is destroyed she could live a nice life,in her real identity too.It's just unrealistic for her to stay as a kid like nothing happened.Shiho is just Ai with an adult body so I guess readers will be fine with that idea.

[soul_dreamer]

I discussed Ai's situation with my friend, recently. She doesn't watch or read Detective Conan, though I've told her the whole plot and showed the episode, where Kazuha was introduced (she likes it, but she's not into detective stories, which is the reason why she won't watch it) I know that my friend's opinion doesn't really matter, since she doesn't watch/read Detective Conan, but I agree with her opinion.

Basically she said that even though Ai would stay as a child, she would not have this child innocence that detective boys have.

Yes, she would be happy as Ai, but it wouldn't be real. She's adult in reality and thus she perceives things in different way from the detective boys. She thinks like an adult, when they think like kids, so in the end it wouldn't be truly reliving her childhood again, since she's not a child.

I like her interactions with detective boys, of course she would interact with them less as Shiho than Ai. I actually really like her friendship with Ayumi. Shiho could be like older sister to her and giving her advices.

I disagree that returning to Shiho, would destroy Ai's character. It wouldn't, it would show that Shiho as a strong character, who is not afraid of facing her demons. Also, staying as Ai would be just the easy way and it would be running away from who she really is. Shiho still would have the same traits of personality that Ai has, the difference would be that Shiho wouldn't need to pretend anything, where Ai would have to act her role of a child.

@Mario2000: You saying that you can't imagine anyone not wanting to be a child again, but tell me if you would get the opportunity to become a child again, however, you would have your adult's mentality, would you take it? I wouldn't for many reasons and the biggest reason would be that I wouldn't be a child in reality and also what's the point of being a child, when you're mentally not.

[AICHAN]

@Soul-dreamer:exaclty what I think,thanks for making that clearer^^

[char13happy]

Just thought of throwing my two cents in, too:

I think the reason some of the people dislike the Akai/Ai pairing is that a huge factor comes from Akemi. Sure, Akemi's dead. We're fine with that. What I'll see happening first though is Shiho not engaging herself romantically right away with Akai due to respect for her sister. Plus, there'd all be that angst and drama they'd have to face before they can fully trust one another. Also, this one's nitpicky though, I can't imagine Shiho going with a person that reminds her a lot of Conan. She's so similar with Reyna from HoH right now. >.>

With Ai's, I'd see her sticking with them for a little while. Give or take a few years, just to put in a little more closure for her childhood experience (the kids do teach her a few things every once and a while). After that, she takes the antidote and then tells them the truth. It's a bit of a hassling ending, I know, but I'd like to think that Ai would gradually slip away from the kids to gradually let them see the truth about herself. After all, the DB are still kids and they'd need time to process their emotions once the truth hits them.

Shiho with Bourbon, though, I've yet to consider since we rarely saw any interaction between them. They look really good together though, artwise.

[Mario2000]

@Mario2000: You saying that you can't imagine anyone not wanting to be a child again, but tell me if you would get the opportunity to become a child again, however, you would have your adult's mentality, would you take it? I wouldn't for many reasons and the biggest reason would be that I wouldn't be a child in reality and also what's the point of being a child, when you're mentally not.

I get the point, but for me it depends on the circumstances. If I had lived through such tragedies as Ai, maybe I would like to start everything all over again. However, I agree that the already developed mentality would create a problem though, unless Agasa created some machine that helps to "wash" the memories. On the other hand, in this case I would forget about the former family as well, which wouldn't be good.