The final episode of the popular detective drama "Aibou Season 23" (TV Asahi, Wednesday 9pm) was broadcast on March 12th, and the hashtags "#aibou", "#aibo23" and related keywords were trending one after another. The ending also became a hot topic.
◇The following contains spoilers
Last time, the identity of Ura Kamika (Katsuya Maikuma), an unemployed man who aspires to be a novelist and approached Ukyo (Yutaka Mizutani) asking him to be his friend, was revealed. Ura was a person with more influence than Tokyo Governor Kazuoka (Jin Katagiri), who was on his way to becoming prime minister.
Towards the end of the film, Miyako (Yukie Nakama) of the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office showed Ukyo and Kaoru (Yasufumi Terawaki) documents related to Ura, saying, "I think there are people we should be more wary of than me." Miyako said about Ura, "He's a new generation fixer. He owns a rare metal mine overseas... but I have a bad feeling that there's more to him than that. It's like he's laughing at the world as it falls apart."
Later, when Ukyo and Kaoru are at Kotemari, Ura comes in. While the two are surprised, Ura says, "Madam, I caught a male mallard duck. If you'd like, please let me have it." He seems to have already become close with Kotemari (Moriguchi Yoko). Ura then says to Ukyo, "We're friends now, right? Please play with me a lot from now on!" as he sits next to her and gives her an eerie smile.
In response to this development, viewers have been posting comments on social media such as, "It's such an ominous finale," "I guess the conclusion will have to be postponed until the next episode," "A new enemy has appeared, so Aibou isn't over yet!" "This will continue in the next season," "I'm glad it ended with the feeling that they are fully prepared to continue into next season," and "I can't stop being excited for the next season! It's been a while since we've had an enemy that can engage in a battle of wits with Ukyo."
There were also comments such as, "There are too many candidates for the final boss of 'Aibō'", "It feels like there are more final bosses. What's going on lol", and "If there are as many final bosses as there are partners with Ukyo, then I wish all the previous bosses would appear together, please."
