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AmuAzu is the het ship between Rei Furuya and Azusa Enomoto from the Detective Conan fandom.
Canon[]
Rei Furuya, under his alias Tooru Amuro works at Café Poirot, where he develops a friendly coworkers relationship with Azusa Enomoto, who's been working at the Café for longer than him, making her his senpai at the job despite being younger than him. Whenever there's cases involving the Café, they tend to appear together and collaborate with Conan in solving the mystery at hand.
Many of their interactions are seen in the spin-off manga Detective Conan: Zero's Tea Time, but they have some slight ship-teasing in the main series as well.
In the canon main story, the pairing has had "love comedy" moments that can be interpreted as a nod to a romantic development between them or not. Their most relevant moments like that feature Sonoko teasing them for being on a "date" or Azusa getting angry at Amuro for saying things that may suggest they might be romantically involved, one of them including a confession from Amuro in an attempt to help Conan figure out who's the real Azusa (as Kaito Kid had been disguised as her) by seeing her reaction to it.
In the spin-off manga, Zero's Tea Time, they share some comedic, bittersweet moments during the last chapters, which implies that Azusa cherishes and worries about Amuro and that she would be upset if he decides to quit working at the Café.
The author of the series also seems to be supportive of the pairing, as he goes out of his way to personally write scenes featuring the two's "love comedy" for content such as the Detective Conan movies.
Moments[]
Movies[]
In the 22nd movie, Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer, there is a scene featuring Amuro and Azusa that was written by Aoyama Gosho. He refers to the scene as a "love comedy" moment in the scripts.
While the two are in the middle of buying groceries, Amuro comments that Azusa would be a great wife one day. Rather than reacting bashfully, Azusa tells Amuro about a recent fuss on the internet over how people mistakenly think she's coming on to him, so he shouldn't say such rash things, as you never know who could be listening to their conversation in this time and age.
Amuro looks confused and dumbfounded by her reaction, but agrees.
This is the first instance of a running gag of Azusa worrying about misunderstandings about the two of them dating or being into each other due to Amuro's popularity amidst Café regulars.
Detective Conan: Zero's Tea Time[]
In the Zero's Tea Time spin-off manga there are many moments of the two spending time together. Amuro and Azusa often go to the supermarket together to buy groceries for the Café, or deliver food together.
Despite not knowing about Amuro's other identities there are moments Azusa speaks as if she unintentionally saw through him.
In chapter 7, Amuro stays up late working using his computer and the following day Azusa lightly scolds him while giving him advice not to stay up late playing with his phone, as the light of the screen would keep him awake.
In chapter 54, while talking about a tale of Santa Claus having a hidden side, Azusa ends up comparing Amuro to him, which makes Amuro think she could be suspecting that he has a hidden identity, but Azusa then explains it's because Amuro works at a Café while also being a detective. Amuro is often dumbfounded or "sweat dropping" at how eccentric Azusa can be at times.
Amuro thinking of Azusa
In the spin-off manga, there is a side character who's a regular customer of the Café Poirot, a friendly grandma called Tsuruyama. She seems to secretly support the two becoming a couple, as chapter 13 has a sequence of Amuro and Azusa being jealous and affectionate towards one another during work, only for it to be revealed that it was all a dream of Tsuruyama.
In the last few chapters of Zero's Tea Time, Amuro is seen tending to the Café past closing time in secret. He begins reminiscing of all of his memories of the Café in the past year and Azusa is the one whom he focuses on the most while looking back on everything that happened.
After finishing things up, Amuro leaves, and becomes completely absent from the Café for several days. Some of the regular customers were worried about Azusa no longer having Amuro to help, and assumed he quit Poirot for good. However, Azusa is seemingly doing just fine to them.
At times, she ends up calling his name while forgetting that he's no longer there.
Tsuruyama then reveals she believed Amuro and Azusa would hook up, to which Azusa reacts in a flabbergasted manner and tells her to not say such things because the customers of Poirot would be upset by the misunderstanding (as they are fans of Amuro).
Azusa finishes another day of work while looking satisfied that she mastered how to make the Latte Amuro taught her about.
The following day, Azusa finds Amuro back at the Café and says she was worried about him this whole time, while once again lightly scolding him. Amuro notices that Azusa is crying, and so she attempts to deceive him and says it's because of the onions. He points out she hasn't cut any onions and she explains that she was cutting them in her imagination, since she was planning on preparing lots of curry.
Being the detective that he is, Amuro logically questions if just the mental image of onions can make one cry and Azusa urges him to get to work, embarrassedly.
Detective Conan[]
In File 1076, the first part of Kaitou Kid and the Queen's Bangs, Amuro and Azusa are spotted together by Conan, Ran and Sonoko. The two explain that Café Poirot's AC broke, so they had a day off from work. The owner of Poirot gave them museum tickets. Flustered, Azusa tells them it's not meant to be a date, and Sonoko teases her about it, while Amuro just silently smiles.
Amuro pulls Azusa to safety as they run away from Kid's trap.
Azusa then decides to pretend that she is actually hanging out with Ran and Sonoko, claiming that if she's seen together with Amuro she may get bashed on the internet by the Café's regulars who are his fans. Amuro then says she shouldn't worry that much.
The anime version of the three parter case, Kaitou Kid and the Queen's Bangs, added in a scene of Amuro and Azusa holding hands while running away from a trap set by Kaitou Kid.
In File 1102, Kaitou Kid disguises as Azusa, and Conan can't tell which is the real one after being stuck in the elevator with the two of them. Coincidentally, right as that happened, Azusa had been on the phone with Amuro, so Conan picks it up and asks him if there's a way to figure out which one is the real Azusa. From over the phone, Amuro says he has a method that will make him be able to tell them apart right away.
He clears his throat and says "I love you, Azusa-san!" Conan is surprised at the sudden confession of love, and Amuro follows up by telling Conan the Azusa who's in a bitter mood after hearing that is the real one.
Just as he said, Azusa was not pleased by Amuro's words, meanwhile Kid mistakenly reacted happily to the confession.
In an anime-original episode, episode 1039, which serves as a preview episode for Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween, Azusa tells Conan that Amuro is absent and that she wishes she could put a collar on Amuro and keep him at Poirot. Right after saying so, she seems to be about to ask something about Amuro to Conan with a serious expression on her face, only to be interrupted by regular Poirot customers arriving to ask for her help.
Fanon[]
AmuAzu has a mixed reception amidst fans, however, it is extremely popular and surpasses the existing two main pairings of the Detective Conan series (ShinRan and CoAi) in terms of fan content on pixiv, despite being a far more recent and minor pairing in comparison. Some of their ship art on twitter has +40k likes, showing that a fair amount of people support the pairing.
Fans enjoy the pairing for multiple reasons. The main ones being that:
• To Amuro, who's lost his closest friends and is often way too focused on work and keeps putting himself in danger, someone like Azusa who's cheery and seems to worry about him, and even cries for him, as seen in Zero's Tea Time, would be someone appropriate to bring some comfort and peace to his life, reminding him to not be reckless.
• Azusa's reactions to Amuro's flirtatious sounding comments are comedic to fans and they love to explore that aspect of theirs. Moreover, for Azusa, who's always cheerful and has a smile on her face, the way she frowns or acts a little bit tsundere towards Amuro is something fans find endearing.
• Despite Azusa warning him multiple times of how she doesn't wants people to misunderstand their relationship as a romantic one (as Amuro's fans would be upset by that) Amuro continues to make risky comments, telling her to not worry about such things or even not denying that they are dating when someone asks him about it, which often confuses fans and makes them wonder if there is a meaning behind it all.
• The angst potential: fans love to imagine scenarios of Amuro suddenly disappearing from Poirot one day and how would both react to that. Funnily, after many fan contents with "Amuro leaves Poirot" as a theme, Zero's Tea Time featured a glimpse of how Azusa would potentially react to Amuro leaving and it was slightly similar to how she reacts in the fanworks released previously to that. It's not clear how would Amuro react as in ZTT he was just absent for a while, but he is seen thinking of Azusa and tending to the Café before he leaves for a while, which implies he cherishes her and the place.
• Contents featuring Amuro leaving Poirot are called "SayoAmu" by Japanese fans (an abbreviation of "Sayonara, Amuro" aka "Goodbye Amuro" and contents that feature his return with him introducing himself as "Rei Furuya", his real self, to Azusa are called "HajiFuru" (abbreviation of "Hajimemashite, Furuya" aka "Nice to meet you, Furuya").
• They had a fan event called AMAZing Cafe Time. "AMAZ" is an abbreviation of "AmuAzu".
• Currently, their content on pixiv is over 11,000 works.
• In 2023, fans held a event on X (previously Twitter) for Golden Week at which people could create fanart or fanfiction for the pairing. It had a specific hashtag for it and it entered in the top trending hashtags in Japan.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Rei Furuya/Azusa Enomoto tag on AO3
- Rei Furuya & Azusa Enomoto tag on AO3
Trivia[]
- When fans asked the series creator Aoyama Gosho why Amuro said "I love you, Azusa-san!" to figure out which one is the real Azusa, when there were many other methods he could've used, he replied with "Well, I wonder why~ (laughs)".
- The running gag of Azusa worrying about being bashed on the internet due to being seen as Amuro's romantic partner actually may be the author poking fun at the real incident of Amuro's fans reacting negatively to previews of Chapter 13 of Zero's Tea Time, which features moments of Amuro and Azusa being a couple (which was later on revealed to be nothing but a dream of a regular customer of Café Poirot).
- Aoyama Gosho has referred to them by the ship name "AmuAzu" two times in his Animal Crossing text previews.
- Despite the controversy, Aoyama seems to enjoy the pairing. The ending of Zero's Tea Time was entirely written by him (who was just supervising the manga), added in a "love comedy" moment between the two in one of the movies and spoke proudly of Amuro's "confession", saying "That was great, wasn't it?". Whenever fans ask if the pairing will have any future developments he says "Who knows~?” in a teasing manner, thus giving fans hope that they might see more future developments between the two.
- A synopsis of Zero's Tea Time in a 2022 issue of Animage magazine says “Azusa’s cheerful and natural personality is a source of comfort during Amuro’s daily life, as he’s involved in a brutal underworld.”
- In JUSTICE PLUS SDB, released in 2021, Aoyama mentions Amuro and Azusa while citing canon (or semi-canon) "love comedy" couples in the series that involve the policemen or the members of FBI.
- In one of the commemorative voice lines for the 100th volume, Subaru Okiya says "I had no idea you were dating the waitress from Poirot." (Referring to Azusa), to which Amuro replies with "Y-Yeah, well..." instead of denying the misunderstanding and keeps going along with Okiya's questioning.
- In a 2018 issue of Animedia magazine, Conan, Ran, Amuro and Azusa are featured together in an official art for the cover, the four of them in Amuro's car and seemingly about to go on a picnic together.
Gallery[]
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| Detective Conan Ships • Detective Conan Characters | |||
| SHIPS | het | AmuAzu • CoAi • ShinRan | |
| slash | AKAM • HeiShin | ||
| family | KaiShin | ||