okay just a fun silly question.. who called tanigaki "bear cub" for first time in the manga? was it always ogata? is he the one who gave him this cute nickname? I really think it's so wholesome and endearing of ogata to give people cute names and it's not even humiliating!
Well...
in the manga the first person we hear calling Tanigaki “bear cub” was Ogata, but that was because Tanigaki ended up in a bear cub cage.
We’ve no idea if someone else did it before Ogata as there’s a time skip between the moment Tanigaki was free and the moment he ended up in the cage but later, when Tanigaki will be freed, we’ll hear Kirawus also calling Tanigaki ‘bear cub’ even though he wasn’t around to hear Ogata referring to him as such.
So it’s entirely possible Tanigaki was referred as such when he was put in the cage by someone who wasn’t necessarily Ogata or Kirawus, and they merely continued to refer to him as such.
Now... considering the circumstances in which the nickname is bestowed upon Tanigaki, I don’t think Ogata is using it in an endearing manner.
Since you don’t seem to know about this arc (which isn’t included in the anime but was partially recovered in an OAD, the 4th one) I get the feeling you might be an anime viewer only so I’ll summarize it a bit.
Ogata and Tanigaki’s previous meeting saw them fighting each other when Ogata assumed Tanigaki found out Tamai and Co were rebels and murdered them (the murderer was actually a bear... though the one who triggered the murder was actually Sugimoto).
During the fight Tanigaki managed to get a bear to attack Nikaidou. Ogata decided to save Nikaidou which meant to let Tanigaki know his position. In a scene that resembles the much more famous scene from “Per un pugno di dollari” (A fistful of dollars) although Tanigaki shoots Ogata straight to his heart, the latter comes out unhurt (he was protecting himself with the binoculars) and find out where Tanigaki is. However, as Tsurumi joins the fray, Ogata is forced to escape.
In their new meeting Ogata had all the intentions to murder Tanigaki after finding out if he was sent there by Tsurumi and what stalls him is merely the mention Tanigaki is there so as to try to help Huci, against which Ogata is weak as she reminds him of his own grandmother.
Anyway nothing is done as the Ainu get in between Ogata and Tanigaki. That’s because Tanigaki is suspected of having sexually abused and killed various animals (the culprit was actually a tattooed convict) and the Ainu wants to punish him for this so they capture him and put him on ‘trial’, Ogata just watching the whole thing. Sugimoto and Asirpa gets in between as well, promising they’ll capture the true culprit as they claim Tanigaki is innocent.
As a result the Ainu give them 3 days of time before they’ll punish Tanigaki. In the meantime, so as to hold him captive, they’ll put Tanigaki in a bear cub cage.
Asirpa asks Ogata to protect Tanigaki but Ogata isn’t interested, claiming Tanigaki killed his companions. Sugimoto will counter it wasn’t Tanigaki but a bear who did the deed.
Ultimately Ogata will agree to help and, when it’ll seem Sugimoto and Asirpa were late, will make Tanigaki escape. They’ll be chased by the Ainu and stumble into the true culprit busy sodomizing a bear.
Needless to say Tanigaki is discharged from all the accusations but he won’t be grateful to Ogata for the help and the two will never be in an amicable relation, although they’ll be forced to work together till Abashiri... but this isn’t really surprising as it seems they weren’t in friendly terms not even before the whole gold hunt started, though, since Ogata was higher in ranks, Tanigaki had to obey him.
So that’s the story.
We don’t know if it was Ogata who gave Tanigaki the nick but it was surely not meant to be endearing since it referred to Tanigaki being jailed in a bear cub cage.
Said all this, if you hadn’t done it already, I encourage you and everyone who’s just an anime viewer to read the manga as you’re missing out some really great stuff.
