Shirô Ishimoda

Saikano: The Last Love Song on This Little Planet. is a manga, anime, and OVA series by Shin Takahashi, creator of Iihito and Kimi no Kakera. Saikano was originally serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits magazine. A live-action movie adaptation was released in Japan on January 28, 2006 with Aki Maeda starring as Chise. The Saikano manga and anime series has been licensed and is being distributed by Viz Media in English in North America. The anime series is distributed in the UK by Manga Entertainment. Although the city is not mentioned by name in the series, many of the locations used in Saikano can by all probability be found in Otaru-shi, west of Sapporo. The train station, "Hell Hill", the Asahi Observation Hill, the view over the harbor, and the school all have similar looking counterparts in the city of Otaru.

Detective Ukyo Sugishita confronts crime on the basis of his own convictions. He has a partner that works for him in the Special Task Unit. For the first 7 seasons, Ukyo’s first partner is Kaoru Kameyama. He is a good-natured, hot-tempered, straightforward and somewhat scattered detective. Beginning in Season 8, Takeru Kanbe replaces Kameyama. Contrary to his predecessor, Takeru is a lanky, cool, conceited and confident detective. From Season 11 to Season 13, Ukyo’s partner is a young detective Toru Kai. Toru is a son of Deputy Director-General of The National Police Agency. But he became a detective by his own effort. And starting with Season 14, Ukyo’s current partner is Wataru Kaburagi, an elite bureaucrat who came to the Metropolitan Police Department on temporary assignment. As the first partner without any career of a police officer, he will face challenging cases together with Ukyo.