Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4698889-20170224092621/@comment-67.66.92.202-20170324175416

...I lied, she said more that I missed. I guess there's a very small chance it's not romantic because language is tricksy but I think any native speaker's eyebrows would go way way way up at someone saying they "ai suru" a friend, ohhhhhh reeeeally /cough/. It's really not a "friendly" word at all. Taisetsu is the standard adjective for devotion, it can be used for family or friends or sweethearts. "Taisetsu na hito" basically translates to "loved one" in the general English sense. As a fluent speaker it is hard to imagine a nonromantic interpretation of a line like that. There are a lot of phrases in Japanese to describe devotion to a friend, it's a huge cultural thing, and "ai suru" is not one.

Also koi wouldn't be used here regardless because it has mutual implications according to the same person. And since this would be hella one-sided, koi would appear nowhere near this (and he probably wouldn't be saying it to the guy's daughter, regardless of if Gallerian knew Nemesis was his own child or not). Also, that there are a number of different words unless homoerotic subext at the very least is what was wanted as it could have been easily avoided.

We can wait for the stream for confirmation, but the word used with cultural context applied is leaning romantic.