Childhood friend romance in DC

[Hobgoblin2012 49]

I noticed many people on internet hate romances between childhood friends, especially in Detective Conan where there are many of them. What's sad is that they don't just dislike specific pairings like Shinichi x Ran or Heiji x Kazuha, but hate this type of pairings in general, only because it's love between childhood friends. People often get so mad that they even write fanfictions where childhood friends are evil and selfish individuals while the "other woman" (or man) is a kind and gold-hearted person. For example, people are constantly bashing Akira from the "Ufo Baby" anime (don't know if you watched it) and that kind of behavior makes me extremely sad and depressed.

I would like to ask: what do people on this forum think about this kind of romance? I personally like it much more than love stories between people who met as adults because if the bond is established in an innocent period such as childhood, there is a guarantee it's really love and not just lust. I think the love formed between two children that last throughout their lives is one of the best things ever, even though it's so rare...

That's the main reason I prefer Shinichi x Ran over Conan x Ai.

[CarpetCrawler 280]

I think it's just because it gets freakin' old. Gosho is starting to border on self-parody at this point. Especially when he even has one for Chiba? Like, seriously?

 

My long-standing theory is that Gosho Aoyama had a traumatic incident featuring a love from his childhood and this is how he expresses himself. Sadly, I'm only half-joking.

[Hobgoblin2012 49]

My long-standing theory is that Gosho Aoyama had a traumatic incident featuring a love from his childhood and this is how he expresses himself. Sadly, I'm only half-joking.

If you are right, then I can only hope he won't make bad endings for most of the pairings, just to reflect his own tragedy.

[Black Demon 466]

I personally don't care much about the romance aspect of the story in general, though I do have an idea of why so many people dislike the "childhood friend" formula, at least in Detective Conan. And unfortunately, I think that I have to agree with them on most parts. While some just simply don't like it because they hate one certain character (more commonly Ran), I do believe that the basic problem of the matter mostly comes from the way Gosho depicts these childhood love stories themselves over the course of time; and not other factors such as the characters, nor the fact that they're childhood friends. (Some people even told me that they do like childhood-couples in other series, just not in Conan).
 
Just like CarpetCrawler said, this pattern is too repetitive and applies for too many (if not most) couples: The man and the woman have known each other since they were very little, they either grew up together and developed a strong bond, or had an unforgettable memory. What makes it worse is that the moment of their first meeting all occurred when they were extremely young (kindergarten/elementary school). Therefore, many couples' backgrounds are basically the same, and if we refer to the large number of couples in DC, it's not necessarily a good writing. Even if Gosho insists to create a childhood-friends love story, I wonder why he never tried making them knowing each other at a later point in time, like in junior high school, at least that would make it different and the story would be less one-colored a bit... Therefore, I believe that when some people say they'd prefer the next couple not being childhood friends, it's more like they're just getting tired of it and want something new, rather than disliking the childhood kind of love story itself. Also, like you said, this kind of love is usually very pure and rare (both in fiction and real life), but that's what makes it so special in the first place. One or two can do the work, but a universe where the majority of couples are childhood friends just seems too unrealistic to many people, especially when most of them will probably receive a happy ending at this rate.
 
Another thing is that, even if we just ignore Shinichi x Ran and Heiji x Kazuha as they're the central couples and need some levels of focusing, the romance aspect in DC are quite unbalanced between the other couples in term of development and pacing.
 
For childhood friends couples, comparing to the original characters, some of the later ones' love stories are much more forced, two fine examples would be Shiratori x Kobayashi and Chiba x Naeko. They're forced not only because of Gosho's attempt to pair as many characters as possible (Kobayashi is an immediate solution for Shiratori and Naeko's creation is just random), but also because their circumstances don't really require them to be childhood friends in order to get together at all. It wouldn't make any difference if Gosho arranged Shiratori to randomly meet up with Kobayashi when she came to pick the DB without this whole "sakura flower memory" thing and the fact that she looks like Sato. Unlike Shinichi and Ran who have grown up together and developed an unbreakable bond, they didn't even know who the other was, so what's the point anyway? The same thing could apply for Chiba and Naeko as well, while they were close at some points in the past, the bond was still fragile, which makes their childhood relationship unnecessary and loses its basic meaning. 

However, since Gosho did make them childhood friends, their love stories seem pretty flat and awkward. Shiratori x Kobayashi received the fastest development ever seen while Chiba's romance pretty much revolves around "when will he be able to recognize her?" It has some negative effects on the characters of course, as Shiratori and Chiba became unnecessarily silly. The former has been blindly chasing after Sato all these years thinking she's his childhood interest despite the differences in their personalities, he should've just asked her to confirm. The latter recognizes *spoiler*Naeko's friend instead of her.*end spoiler*
On the other hand, couples with more potentials (like Agasa x Fusae) never had any development over the years. I'm quite glad that Kogoro x Eri still has some once in a while.
 
At the same time though, the non-childhood couples are also unbalanced. Takagi x Sato received most of the focusing while we don't really know what would happen to Sonoko x Makoto.

[75aichan 49]

Gosho said he likes childhood friend pairings because it's easy to write.I can understand that.But I have to say they are not really entertaining in my opinion,in the way Gosho develops them.Moreover they aren't realistic,seriously I don't know many lovers who were childhood friends.

Anyway,I also agree with everything The Black Demon said^^

[Hobgoblin2012 49]

Moreover they aren't realistic,seriously I don't know many lovers who were childhood friends.

I don't really see why people think fiction should necessarily be realistic. When I read or watch fiction, I do it to immerse myself in a world which gives a sense of hope unlike real life and where rare but good things are more common.

[Rukia Kurosaki 357]

...... Where? xP

[Hobgoblin2012 49]

...... Where? xP

What?

[Rukia Kurosaki 357]

What?

  Childhood romance? In Gosho?

   The sarcasm is lost in the interwebz. 

[CarpetCrawler 280]

I don't really see why people think fiction should necessarily be realistic. When I read or watch fiction, I do it to immerse myself in a world which gives a sense of hope unlike real life and where rare but good things are more common.

 

Absolutely. But we have every right to find repetitive nonsense boring as hell. It was cute when it was Aoko and Kaito as well as Shinichi and Ran. Then when we had Heiji and Kazuha it was a little expected and their cuteness kinda made up for it. Then it was Eri and Kogoro. Then Agasa and Fuase. Then Shiratori and Kobayashi, and by now it's starting to border on parody. And then it becomes Chiba and Naeko, fully completing the self-parody. And let's not forget the bunches of times that Gosho has inserted characters who have been in love in each other since childhood into his cases, the minor characters meant for that case and nothing more. Let's be real here, that's a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. And hell, even in Yaiba, that counts as a childhood love story.

 

And it's funny because with Haibara you'd think that the other stereotype would be prevalent (bringing up my semi-quoted main point: "a tsundere who warms their heart for the main protagonist is more stereotypical than a childhood love story") but he actually shuts that stereotype down, tenfold no less, with an overabundance of childhood love stories. I'm a fan of childhood love pairings as much as most folks but it's like, good lord, where do you draw the line?

 

I don't read comic books to have an accurate portrayal of life either, but it sure did get boring in The Secret Invasion story-arc where it was nothing but Skrulls over at Marvel a few years back, didn't it?

 

RE: The Black Demon:

 

 

At the same time though, the non-childhood couples are also unbalanced. Takagi x Sato received most of the focusing while we don't really know what would happen to Sonoko x Makoto.

 

Yeah, but I feel like this is kinda the point. Sonoko and Makoto are a long distance relationship due to his tournaments overseas, hence Gosho is trying to make it so that when Makoto does do something for Sonoko, it's a little more special. The problem here is that the series is just so long that it feels like the gaps for Makoto and Sonoko are a lot longer than you'd think. And it makes it a lot less special.

[Hobgoblin2012 49]

Absolutely. But we have every right to find repetitive nonsense boring as hell. It was cute when it was Aoko and Kaito as well as Shinichi and Ran. Then when we had Heiji and Kazuha it was a little expected and their cuteness kinda made up for it. Then it was Eri and Kogoro. Then Agasa and Fuase. Then Shiratori and Kobayashi, and by now it's starting to border on parody. And then it becomes Chiba and Naeko, fully completing the self-parody. And let's not forget the bunches of times that Gosho has inserted characters who have been in love in each other since childhood into his cases, the minor characters meant for that case and nothing more. Let's be real here, that's a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. And hell, even in Yaiba, that counts as a childhood love story.

 

And it's funny because with Haibara you'd think that the other stereotype would be prevalent (bringing up my semi-quoted main point: "a tsundere who warms their heart for the main protagonist is more stereotypical than a childhood love story") but he actually shuts that stereotype down, tenfold no less, with an overabundance of childhood love stories. I'm a fan of childhood love pairings as much as most folks but it's like, good lord, where do you draw the line?

 

I don't read comic books to have an accurate portrayal of life either, but it sure did get boring in The Secret Invasion story-arc where it was nothing but Skrulls over at Marvel a few years back, didn't it?

I understand what you are saying, but I think it has to be noticed that Gosho never said he will give each of those stories a happy ending. I think he probably will give one to Shinichi x Ran, unless the Haibara fans pressure him, but I am sure (unfortunately) that he will give open endings to most of the rest (Eri and Kogoro 100%), as most viewers would start spitting on the TV and saying they are tired of "sugar-coated happy endings that stink". There are many people have no problems in their lives and want to feel negative emotions (especially sadness) when they are watching something.

What I mean is that I think that, as long as there is no guarantee all those childhood friend stories have happy endings, there is still hope for those who hate them that the author will make "bad" endings for them, therefore arranging things in such a way as if the stories never existed (I am not trying to force this point of view on anybody, it's just that to me a story has a point only if it has a happy ending, unless it is a representation of a real-life tragedy that cannot be changed. Maybe it's too extreme, but I have read too much sad fiction already, so I am fed up for the rest of my life)

[CarpetCrawler 280]

No, it's pretty much a given that everyone will have their happy ending. Gosho doesn't do sad, depressing endings. Even in Conan, any sad and depressing "ending" is later proven to be not the ending. Kogoro and Eri is the only couple where there's any doubt, since it seems like Gosho Aoyama likes to keep them bickering and never getting anywhere with their reconciliation. I can totally see them still bickering at Shinichi and Ran's wedding.

[Hobgoblin2012 49]

No, it's pretty much a given that everyone will have their happy ending. Gosho doesn't do sad, depressing endings. Even in Conan, any sad and depressing "ending" is later proven to be not the ending. Kogoro and Eri is the only couple where there's any doubt, since it seems like Gosho Aoyama likes to keep them bickering and never getting anywhere with their reconciliation. I can totally see them still bickering at Shinichi and Ran's wedding.

I really hope you are right. However, looking at how the things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if Gosho died of old age before finishing the manga, and who knows what his successors might put there instead of the originally intended ending.

Just to make an example: there was this manga author Osamu Tezuka who wrote a series known in English as "Kimba the white lion" and made an anime out of it. The original ending was a sad one: the lion main character dies to save his human friend. However, in the anime he did change the ending to a happy one, probably to give the viewers a break considering how dark and full of deaths the 2 season of the anime was. Then he died, and other anime makers made another anime full-length movie where they put the original tragic ending (probably they just wanted to have the last word). What's the worst thing, is that the lion not just died to save his friend, but the friend actually survived by EATING the lion with his permission and making a tent out of his hide. I don't know, maybe some Japanese viewers who eat even dolphins can handle such an ending, but I definitely can't (before somebody starts an argument accusing me to be disrespectful to the Japanese, I repeat that I said SOME viewers, I am not labeling all Japanese as dolphin-eaters).

By the way, why can't I post smileys? I click on the button, but nothing happens.