Childhood lovers

[usotsuki]

John Lasseter's been a good friend of Miyazaki's for years.

[ssjup81]

You know, for Japan maybe childhood lovers isn't so uncommon. The kids here do spend loads of time in school and they tend to have the same classmates throughout the entirety of their school lives. Maybe that's why Gosho uses it so much.

[char13happy]

I guess I agree with pretty much most of you in this board. I don't mind childhood lovers. Sometimes, I find them really sweet and adorable. But with DC, that trope is being overused and, well, not "handled" properly. With its massive amount compared to other types of couples, I tend to dislike them more and more.

[Kurunouma]

The only good childhood love story is 5 centimeters per second.

I'm really fond with Childhood Lovers but this movie made me sick till now.

[Silverbullet96]

Hmm, I don't mind childhood couples at all if they have a good connection, interaction etc. Though I have to agree that Kaito X Aoko and ShinRan are a bit dull.

[ssjup81]

Hmm, I don't mind childhood couples at all if they have a good connection, interaction etc. Though I have to agree that Kaito X Aoko and ShinRan are a bit dull.

TBH, I feel that most of the pairings are slightly boring aside from Takagi x Sato.

[TheNextShinichiKudo]

I actually like the concept, especially with Shinichi and Ran. I do not like it, however, when 3 people are almost exactly in the same situation. It's just repetitive at that point, but eh, all the parings are nice.

[Mario2000]

A question I am wondering about recently: why does everyone hate the Chiba x Naeko pairing? I understand if people say there are too many childhood pairings etc, but what's so bad about this specific pairing? It's not worse than Sonoko x Makoto or the almost non-existing Agasa x Fusae for example, in my opinion.

[Wakarimashita]

A question I am wondering about recently: why does everyone hate the Chiba x Naeko pairing? I understand if people say there are too many childhood pairings etc, but what's so bad about this specific pairing? It's not worse than Sonoko x Makoto or the almost non-existing Agasa x Fusae for example, in my opinion.

Simple : it came later.

[kkslider5552000]

A question I am wondering about recently: why does everyone hate the Chiba x Naeko pairing? I understand if people say there are too many childhood pairings etc, but what's so bad about this specific pairing? It's not worse than Sonoko x Makoto or the almost non-existing Agasa x Fusae for example, in my opinion.

Simple : it came later.

terrible opinion

My problem is pretty simple. 1. Forcing every minor character into a relationship is...well...forced. Contrived even. 2. It has no personality as a relationship. The other couples at least have SOMETHING to them, this is just...nothing. If they showed nothing on screen, I'd have an equivalent level of interest in what was going on.

The fact that this has been done so frequently in the past except with something to remember or care about (not even personal preference, just in terms of objectively EXISTING as reasons why people would care about a couple) just highlights how much it is lazy writing.

[Wakarimashita]

A question I am wondering about recently: why does everyone hate the Chiba x Naeko pairing? I understand if people say there are too many childhood pairings etc, but what's so bad about this specific pairing? It's not worse than Sonoko x Makoto or the almost non-existing Agasa x Fusae for example, in my opinion.

Simple : it came later.

terrible opinion

My problem is pretty simple. 1. Forcing every minor character into a relationship is...well...forced. Contrived even. 2. It has no personality as a relationship. The other couples at least have SOMETHING to them, this is just...nothing. If they showed nothing on screen, I'd have an equivalent level of interest in what was going on.

The fact that this has been done so frequently in the past except with something to remember or care about (not even personal preference, just in terms of objectively EXISTING as reasons why people would care about a couple) just highlights how much it is lazy writing.

For Sonoko and Makoto, maybe. But Fusae and Agasa ? That was almost if not just as bad as Chiba and Naeko (except the offense hasn't been repeated since then). There might be other reasons why people dislike this pairing but really Gosho pulling the childhood friend trope for the umptenth time is one of the main reasons imo. He could make a new great pairing full of personality today, if they were childhood friends people would probably reject them (and they would be right).

[Mario2000]

terrible opinion

My problem is pretty simple. 1. Forcing every minor character into a relationship is...well...forced. Contrived even. 2. It has no personality as a relationship. The other couples at least have SOMETHING to them, this is just...nothing. If they showed nothing on screen, I'd have an equivalent level of interest in what was going on.

The fact that this has been done so frequently in the past except with something to remember or care about (not even personal preference, just in terms of objectively EXISTING as reasons why people would care about a couple) just highlights how much it is lazy writing.

I agree with point 1, but not completely with the rest, since this wouldn't be the first time Gosho repeats himself and is lazy, this is just one of the many examples and not the worst one in my opinion. Look at the murder cases: from a certain point it has become quite easy to understand from the beginning who will die, why and who will do it.
But maybe I don't mind the pairing just because my personal opinion is that stories when people remember each other since childhood even after a long separation have a great potential to show a deep kind of love. On the other hand, I agree that Gosho lately is too lazy to develop them well. But, since the ending is nowhere in sight, there is always hope that he will change the style.

if they were childhood friends people would probably reject them (and they would be right).

I don't want to annoy people, but I don't think they would be right if this was the only reason for them to be annoyed. Childhood friend as potential or real romantic interests are quite common in anime, but they usually tend to lose, so to me an anime like DC where there are many of such pairings with a promise by Gosho of a happy ending for most of them is like a breath of fresh air. Again, I agree completely that a good character development is an absolutely necessary requirement for a story to be considered really well-done, but I personally don't mind the repetition of the childhood friend stereotype in DC. It's like making up for all childhood friends losing in other animes, don't know if I explain myself. Sorry if me insisting on the positive sides of this type of stories seems somehow annoying

[Kudo Shinchi]

I don't mind the many childhood lovers in DC. Maybe because DC doesn't focus enough on the majority of them enough to actually bother me? Most of them show up in a few cases, and that's it. Also, because they are not as prevalent as nearly everyone makes them out to be (in DC). They make up about 50% of DC's couples. I mean, that becomes pretty obvious if you just list them (both former and current):

Childhood lovers:
ShinichixRan
HeijixKazuha
ShiratorixKobayashi
ChibaxNaeko
KansukexYui
AgasaxFusae

Look at the above. We barely see Kansuke or Yui, in the end Agasa and Fusae didn't get together, and Shiratori and Kobayahi's story pretty much ended as quickly as it started. That leaves us with only three couples that consist of childhood lovers that actually get focused on, and only one of them is about the two lovers rediscovering each other as adults.


Non-childhood lovers:
SatoxTakagi
YumixHaneda
AkaixAkemi
AkaixJodie
SonokoxMakoto
SatoxMatsuda

Look at the above. Matsuda is dead, so that relationship is expired, Akemi is dead so that's gone, Akai and Jodie broke up...so that leaves us with three non-childhood friends couples that get actively focused on on in the story. If I include the married couples the number of non-childhood friend couples increases, so...

Childhood friends in DC are not as widespread as is commonly claimed. At least, not anymore than other kinds of couples.

[Mario2000]

There is also the Eri x Kogoro story, but Shiratori x Kobayashi aren't really childhood "friends" because they only briefly met once. For non-childhood pairings, there is also Yusaku x Yukiko.

[Jecka]

There is also the Eri x Kogoro story, but Shiratori x Kobayashi aren't really childhood "friends" because they only briefly met once. For non-childhood pairings, there is also Yusaku x Yukiko.

Are Eri and Kogoro childhood friends? I know they were in school together.
I think Shiratori and Kobayashi do count as childhood friends because they met more than once, they just never knew each other's name.