Patrick E. Abe
I first saw "Aibo/Aibou" (Partners) somewhere about 2002 or 2003 on KIKU TV. Unlike the "horde of detectives" approach seen in other Japanese "Cop shows," this one featured just two. Broadcast in Japan starting in 2000, it began with an air of mystery at Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department headquarters building. Who was "Inspector Sugishita" and why was he assigned to a tiny office/former storage closet of the Financial Crimes department (Section 3) of Tokyo's MPD? Enter a roughneck, "Sgt. Kameyama," kicked out of his precinct to "Special Missions," a two-man office. Anglophile Sugishita served his rough-around-the-edges partner English tea and described "Special Missions" as a dumping ground for MPD misfits. They had no duties and no cases to investigate, which had led other junior Police officers to quit the MPD, as expected. However, Sugishita was in the habit of peeking into Cold and Inactive cases via the head of Forensics, "Yonezawa Mamoru." Sugishita went on to say that it was "his bad habit" to scrutinize the details of such cases instead of "doing nothing." In time, the "odd Police couple" begin to investigate stalled cases, dragging Section Two detectives, "Itami," Miura," and "Serizawa," kicking and screaming, to cases they take credit for solving. The cases and suspects ran the gamut from ordinary to significant, with housewives to company presidents and university researchers "hung out to dry." It's been a long, interesting journey, through interesting cases worthy of a first class TV movie. 7/10, with 8/10 episodes. Currently on KIKU TV, Season 13 of "Partners' is ambling along through a three part case.