[caption id="attachment_181847" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption="Mizutani Yutaka (l.) and Oikawa Mitsuhiro are partners again for� "Aibou Season 10""][/caption]

TV Asahi finally made an official announcement regarding the 10th season of the popular crime drama "Aibou" which stars Mizutani Yutaka (59) as Japan's most popular TV detective, 'Sugishita Ukyo'.

With the announcement, TV Asahi also denied all the preceding rumors by naming Oikawa Mitsuhiro (41) as Mizutani's new / old partner. It will be his first appearance in a drama since his marriage with actress Dan Rei (40), whom he met and fell in love with during the filming of the New Year's Day special of the drama's 8th season in 2009.

The 10th season will mark the 11th anniversary of the drama that deserves the title of a 'national drama'. Instead of gradually losing viewers, this series still manages to become more popular year after year. The previous season recorded an amazing viewer rating of 23.7% for the 16th episode, and ended with an overall average of 20.3%, the highest in the history of "Aibou".

In the 10th season, the show is going to shine a light on the past of Oikawa's character 'Kanbe Takeru' as the common thread throughout most of the episodes.

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Mizutani, commented, "That we are actually going to film the 10th season of 'Aibou' feels like a dream to me. As usual, I'm going to use all my power to strife towards the solutions to the crimes together with my partner."

Oikawa also is looking forward to the new season. He said, "It's finally announced! I'm already excited about all the new developments and the things we get to learn about Kanbe's past. I'm going to devote all my energy into this drama!!"

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Rumor has it that Dan is going to appear in the new season again, since she played Kanbe's girlfriend during his student days. Fans of the drama are already looking forward to see the married couple appearing together inside the universe of "Aibou" again.

As usual, "Aibou" is going to start with the fall season in October and finish with the end of the winter season in March, airing every Wednesday at 9pm.

Sources + Image: Sanspo, Dogatch, Oricon