Wild Police Story Analysis - Timeline, References and Theories

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Snowo

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Wild Police Story Analysis - Timeline, References and Theories

Post by Snowo »

Since there hasn't been much discussion about "Wild Police Story", the most recent spinoff manga, I figured I'd try to compile a list of things I've gathered while reading past and recent chapters surrounding the members of the police academy squad into a timeline, references and other small details in WPS as well as theories about future chapters.

Timeline

First I tried to give a rough timeline of events about each member (leaving out Rei's entire story from DC). As there hasn't been much new background information revealed yet, most of the timeline refers to events mentioned in DC but I'll try keep updating it once more is revealed in WPS.

Hiromitsu & Rei

After Hiro's parents were murdered when he was a child, he was taken in by relatives in Tokyo while his brother Taka'aki (Komei) grew up in Nagano. They stayed in contact and Hiro told him about a new friend he had made in Tokyo which was Rei, nicknamed Zero. Sometime during high school he met up with Komei at a café and introduced him to Rei. He continued to keep in touch with Komei and wrote him another letter after graduating from police academy and officially becoming a police officer.
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Sometime later he said he quit being a police officer but was instead transferred to the PSB and infiltrated the Black Organization. 4 years ago he was seen again at the station with Akai and Bourbon as they were on a BO mission and came across Sera. At some point after this roughly 3-4 years ago, he commited suicide next to Akai on a rooftop because he feared his identity would be found out so he killed himself and destroyed his smartphone in the process to ensure no info about him or his family and friends could be retrieved afterwards.
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Rei later passed this phone on to Komei by leaving it in Date's locker where it lay for a year (due to Date's death a year ago) until he received it and correctly deduced the death of his younger brother.

Matsuda & Hagiwara

When Matsuda was still a child, his father had once been falsely arrested which was his initial reason for wanting to become a police officer and joining the academy later on.

After graduating from police academy (supposedly in the same year they enrolled) he and Hagiwara were quickly assigned to the Tokyo Police bomb disposal squad. Shortly after, Hagi then passed away in the first series of bombings on November 7, seven years ago due to the bomb's countdown starting again after it had been stopped by the culprit seconds before detonating.

Matsuda, who had managed to disarm the other bomb that same day, was then transferred to the Robbery-Homicide Department 1st Division 4 years later with Sato as his superior. Just 6 days after transferring, he sacrificed himself to reveal another bomb location in the second series of bombings by the same culprit who had placed the bombs 4 years prior on the same day, November 7.
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Date

Unlike the other members who stayed together in pairs after graduating, Date became a regular police officer in the MPD Criminal Investigation 1st Division and seemingly lost contact to them for a while. Instead he was later assigned mentor of Takagi with whom he became good friends. One year ago, he then died in a traffic accident after a stakeout with Takagi on the day he was going to visit his girlfriend Natalie's parents and propose to her. After hearing of his death, she ended up committing suicide as well.

References & Details

Below I tried to include a list of references and other small details in WPS which have been shown or mentioned in DC before.

Rei being the #1 student of the academy. (WPS#1 and mentioned in DC#807 by Date)
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Rei's tendency to get into fights because of being bullied for his foreign appearance particularly his blonde hair and answering every challenge he's given. (WPS#1 and shown in DC#1011 in his Elena flashback.)
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Matsuda's lack of teamwork and respect for his superiors. (WPS#1 and shown in DC#369)
His lack of teamwork in DC can be seen throughout the chapter as he likes to do things his own way, refuses help and guidance from superiors like Sato and ultimately decides to deal with the bomb on his own.
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Matsuda's proficiency at disarming bombs (WPS#1 and shown in DC#369)
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Matsuda's gathering of witness statements. (WPS#1 and shown in DC#369)
This is an interesting one which many people might not have picked up on. Because his father was falsely arrested as a result of improperly gathered witness statements he makes a remark on it in WPS#1 and, more importantly, he proceeds to interview the witnesses very thoroughly in DC#369 which caught the attention of Sato.
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Hagiwara being the best of them with girls. (WPS#1 and mentioned before in interviews with Gosho)
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Kogoro being the best shooter in the academy. (WPS#2 and mentioned in DC#102)
His exceptional shooting skills were also a major point in Movie 2 and were later confirmed to be canon.
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Rei fighting Matsuda to reconcile with him. (WPS#1 and DC#1011) [Credit to Zerozaki]
Another more subtle reference is Rei fighting Matsuda here to find out why he hates him for being infatuated with the police which is further explored in the following chapters. While Rei doesn't admit it saying it was just answering a challenge, he fought him because Matsuda actually sparked his interest and he wanted to reconcile with him which they later do. Additionally, Hiro is like Elena here treating Rei with band-aids and wanting them to get along.
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Theories

For theories regarding future chapters of WPS I've looked at unresolved subplots and undeveloped character traits to find potential areas which could or should be expanded upon in the future.

In terms of unresolved subplots we have the "Nagano Family Bloodbath Case" regarding the murder of Hiro and Komei's parents. To me this seems like the most likely story to be explored in future chapters as it has shown to deeply affect him and him researching the case to gather more information points towards it as well.
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Another point that was briefly mentioned was Date being troubled by his father's resignation from the force and I believe this might be connected to his notebook he later passed on to Takagi. I think a tragic incident lead to his father resigning and Date inherited his father's notebook afterwards which meant as much to him as it now does to Takagi. Alternatively it could also be connected to his trademark toothpick I feel like but we'll see. In any case I hope there will be something about this in the upcoming Date Arc.
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There also seems to be a common trend of tragic family backgrounds within the members.
Hiro's parents were murdered.
Matsuda's father was falsely arrested.
Date's father resigning from the force still troubling Date to this day.
This is either just a coincidence or Hagiwara and Rei might have a tragic family background too that we don't know about yet.

This is more of a neat detail but Rei and Matsuda also both specialize in boxing so perhaps Matsuda could have taught Rei a thing or two he learned from his pro boxer dad.

Finally, a couple of minor things mentioned or shown in DC that have yet to be touched on include...

Matsuda teaching Rei how to defuse a bomb. (Mentioned in Movie 20)
Hagiwara also becoming very proficient at defusing bombs.
Date's trademark toothpick he's always seen with in DC.
Matsuda and Hagiwara starting to smoke either during or shortly after academy. (Shown in Episode 304)


That's all I was able to gather from the three chapters mixed in with stuff we knew from DC for now. Feel free to point out anything noteworthy I might have missed or share your feelings on the series as a whole. I've been thoroughly enjoying this spinoff manga and since we'll most likely have a little three-part arc about each member I'm excited to see where it'll go!
Last edited by Snowo on January 30th, 2020, 11:52 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Spimer
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Re: Wild Police Story Analysis - Timeline, References and Theories

Post by Spimer »

Wow. Now that's a very detailed analysis indeed! You're right, I hadn't picked up some of the connections / implications, like the one about how Matsuda interrogates suspects.

Excellent work!
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Re: Wild Police Story Analysis - Timeline, References and Theories

Post by MeiTanteixX »

Splendid work!
this served as the perfect recap and reminder for potential developments.
Got me even more excited and ready for next week's Date Arc ;D
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Mary/Gin:''It's like encountering a demon in the darkness...''
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Akai Shuichi:''Fear of death is worse than death itself''
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Shinichi Kudo:''following the smell of blood to arrive upon a crime scene, using every one of your senses to hunt the culprit, then once you've seized hold of him, sinking your sharp teeth(your evidence) until your opponent gives up the ghost, That's a detective''
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Re: Wild Police Story Analysis - Timeline, References and Theories

Post by Zerozaki4869 »

Splendid work. I just want to add a little thing which You might have missed.

Thanks for the add-on and the mention.

On a funnier note, "Treat Rei, then die." both for Elena and Hiro.
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k11chi

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Re: Wild Police Story Analysis - Timeline, References and Theories

Post by k11chi »

Finally they putting some respect on Kogoro's name!
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Re: Wild Police Story Analysis - Timeline, References and Theories

Post by Vinnie »

For me, since Date I was always waiting for further development. Aint no way Gosho would leave us just that!
Even with Matsuda actually, but Date seemed more interesting to me.

Now, with all these connections (possible, very likely) I believe they are all related somehow to Black Org.
What saddens me the most is that Rei has lost almost everyone that was on his side... and I believe he's trying to make justice on his own (as we can see by his actions lately).

Saving this thread for later not only because its very good but also because we're gonna get more stuff about all of this!

@k11chi, hell yeah! Kogoro is awesome ;D
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Snowo

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Re: Wild Police Story Analysis - Timeline, References and Theories

Post by Snowo »

Update - Date Arc
Here's what I gathered so far from the three chapters of Date Arc to add onto this list. There wasn't nearly as much as in Matsuda Arc but I figured I'll share what I found anyways.

References & Details

Date's strength (WPS#4 and DC#807)
Strength was the theme of the Date Arc which was also mentioned in his introductory case by Takagi and the title of File 807. Coincidentally there's a kid talking about his father's strength in one of the panels too but I doubt that's a to reference to Date's relationship to his father.
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Date's girlfriend Natalie (WPS#4 and DC#808)
Natalie played a big part in Date's intro appears here once again. It's absolutely crazy if you consider they were dating for atleast 5 years before they arranged a date to meet and introduce each other to their parents.
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Date of death
This is more of a theory than a clear-cut reference but I believe Date died on Friday, February 4th. This day was one of the marked days on the calendar shown in the panel below and Date was going to visit Natalie in Hokkaido and introduce each other to their parents there. As we know, they didn't get to because Date died in a traffic accident after a stakeout with Takagi that day and the case surrounding him one year later was also on the same date.

Now this could be mere coincidence but WPS#4 was released on February 4th so I think that's a reference to his date of death.
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Hagiwara's driving skills (WPS#4 and Gosho Let's Talk 2020)
This was teased by Gosho saying he was even "better than Amuro" and his interest in cars is mentioned a couple of times here.
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Outlook for future chapters
First of all I was happy to see one of my theories regarding Date's toothpick beeing connected to his dad and playing a role in his Arc did end up happening.

As for the Hagiwara Arc which was confirmed, Gosho already mentioned it'll feature Hagi's driving skills and show what led to Amuro buying the Mazda RX-7 he still drives to this day.
My theory for case is that there'll be a police chase by car and Hagi then gets to show off his skills. In the spirit of causing trouble (using the gun outside of practice in Matsuda Arc and apprehending the robbers in Date Arc), it would have to obviously be an unauthorized use of the police cars which gets excused because they're apprehending another set of criminals.

Beyond that the Morofushi Murder case is probably going be investigated further and will be resolved in Hiro's Arc as a finale of some sort, that's my guess atleast.

Finally it was also revealed in Gosho's Let's Talk 2020 that next year's Movie 25 will feature Takagi, Sato and the Wild Police Squad! I'm very excited to see how they're going to be integrated in the movie since it'll obviously have to be through flashbacks but the chapters of WPS are a good starting point to get to know them better and maybe what to expect.

That's all I could gather for now, let me know if I missed something noteworthy in Date Arc and I'm looking forward to the upcoming chapters!
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k11chi

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Re: Wild Police Story Analysis - Timeline, References and Theories

Post by k11chi »

So I've checked out Arai's other works. He's created the following as an artist/mangaka:

Les Misérables,
Darren Shan,
Arago,
Tenshou no Quadrable,
Zero's Tea Time,
Wild Police Story.

All of these works are very different from each other, and he's the author of only Tenshou no Quadrable and Arago. Darren Shan and Les Misérables are his adaptations of novels and Zero's Tea Time he mostly worked on but obviously had Gosho on it as well. For Wild Police Story Gosho's the one doing the storyboards. So it's fair to say this guy does almost anything in many different ways, he's the perfect type to work on a side story like WPS. But I must say, check out his adaptation on Les Misérables - it's fantastic. He's able to showcase raw emotion in his paneling in a way only the greatest mangaka are able to.

However from what I can tell, Arai's works are all decent in length and he has no experience telling short stories, which is where his biggest downfall with ZTT came from (large panels, nothing going on in the backgrounds, lack of substance in pages character and plot-wise). It doesn't help that he also went for a simple fanservice-route rather than something more worthwhile, but I did notice just how much of an Amuro fanboy he is as he knows a lot about the guy. I guess Gosho saw enough potential in Arai and decided to show him with WPS how to do this type of stuff. Anyway, Arai is great at his own game and he can be a fantastic mangaka for DC-related content if he wants to put in more effort from script side of things as well.

I hope WPS gets an anime adaptation after we have volumes out as that would also boost the sales of the volumes. Or at least special episodes.
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