Interviews in 2020

This page lists interviews in 2020.

Da Vinci Magazine 2020 Interview

Date: May 7, 2020
Published in: Da Vinci magazine, June 2020 issue

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Wild Police Story Volume 1 Interview

Date: November 18, 2020
Published in: Wild Police Story Volume 1

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56 Questions for Gosho Aoyama

Translated by: Manaphy

About Matsuda Jinpei
Q1: At the very beginning of the story, what was the trigger that started his fight with Furuya?
A: Something probably got on Matsuda’s nerves (laughs)

Q2: Around how long ago did he get a false tooth? Did his tooth come off during a fight?
A: I guess it snapped during a fight in his high school years...

Q3: At around what age did he first meet Hagiwara?
A: Elementary school.

Q4: He appears to be a different type of person than Hagiwara-san, so how did they get along?
A: Since Hagiwara’s house was a car repair shop, I guess he thought he had to get along with him.

Q5: When he doesn’t say “Hagi”, but “Hagiwara”, is there a difference in his state of mind?
A: When he’s slightly serious (laughs)

Q6: He was eating curry a lot at the cafeteria, was that your influence, Aoyama-sensei?
A: That’s right.

Q7: What is the first thing he dismantled?
A: An electric fan.

Q8: What is the thing Matsuda tore apart and got the most scolded for doing that ?
A: Hagiwara's big sister's cell phone (laughs)

Q9: Does he usually walk around while carrying tools?
A: That’s right.

Q10: Is he ambidextrous?
A: He’s right-handed.

Q11: If he has nimble fingers, does that mean sewing is his specialty?
A: If I were to tell you, I think he’s extremely skilled at that.

Q12: He was lying down on a risky spot on the roof, does he like tall places?
A: He likes them.

Q13: Is his hair naturally curly? Or does he have a perm?
A: It’s naturally curly.

Q14: He’s yawning often, does he lack sleep?
A: It’s because Matsuda Yuusaku, who appeared in “Taiyou ni hoero!”, was yawning a lot. (TN: “Taiyou ni Hoero” is one of the most iconic detective series that aired on Japanese television. It helped launch several actors’ careers, including Matsuda Yuusaku and Hagiwara Kenichi, probably inspirations for the two homonym characters.)

Q15 : When did he first fall in love?
A : Around Elementary school, Hagiwara’s sister, love at first sight (laughs)

Q16 : Did the police officer who made a false arrest on Matsuda’s father and the one who proved his innocence appear in the main manga?
A : I don’t think they did.

Q17 : Did he actually punch hard the Superintendent General ?
A : "Read the last chapter (laughs)"

About Date Wataru
Q18 : Please tell me about his meeting with Natalie and the start of their love ♡
A : He caught the guy who snatched Natalie’s bag when he was a college student.

Q19: Date-san always has good leadership, but how was it in front of Natalie-san?
A: I think Date was blushing like mad, and Natalie took the lead, perhaps.

Q20: On his first date with Natalie-san, where did they go?
A: Well, of course, Tropical Land (laughs)

Q21: Please explain to what part of Natalie-san was he drawn to♡
A: I guess, the fact that he feels relieved when he talks to her, perhaps (laughs)

Q22: Does he make a phone call to his girlfriend everyday?
A: Not everyday, but something close to that (laughs)

Q23 : Did heget to introduce his girlfriend to the other 4?
A : I think he showed them a photo of her.

Q24: He’s always chewing on a toothpick, but does he have other habits?
A: He hangs his MPD admission card around his neck, without putting it in his breast pocket.

Q25: It looks like he hasn’t met with his dad for a long time, did he start living alone early on?
A: He started living alone after becoming a college student.

Q26: I think he has a slightly old-looking face, does he get told that a lot?
A: I guess he does.

Q27: Did Date ever get mad and fight with someone in the squad?
A: I don’t think so.

Q28 : Does Date’s height exceed 2 meters?
A : It might (laughs)

Q29: Before joining the Police Academy, was he practicing some kind of martial art?
A: He looks strong in both Kendo and Judo.

Q30: How many kilograms is his grip strength? Among the five of them, is it the strongest?
A: It’s the strongest.

Q31: Matsuda-san said he would win if it was just a fist fight, but what if it really happened?
A: I think he would be a good match.

Q32: Did Date’s last name come from the official Date Masamune?
A: I wanted to give him a strong-looking name, so it might come from the official Date Masamune. (T/N: Date Masamune was a daimyo that ruled the Tohoku region in Japan, contemporary of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.)

Q33: Does Date-san love Datemaki?
A: Huh? (T/N: Datemaki is a rolled omelet mixed with fish, but does also have a vulgar connotation, hence the blank.)

Q34: Did he volunteer himself for the position of “squad leader”?
A: It was an order from the instructor.

Q35 : Date is called “ Squad leader “ “ Date squad leader “ by everyone, but do they still call him that even after they graduated? A : In fact, that’s right. (Lol)

About Furuya Rei
Q36: What impetus led him to start boxing?
A: I don’t really know much, but it was in order to protect Elena.

Q37: When did Zero and Hiro meet? Again, I would like you to draw a warm episode about their childhood...!
A: Read the Hiro arc.

Q38: When were born Rei-kun and Hiromitsu-kun’s strong bonds, which draw near to unshakeable trust in each other?
A: I’m serious, read it!

Q39: Did he often get his injuries treated by Hiromitsu-kun?
A: Seems he did.

Q40 : Did he fight with Hiro-san too?
A : Well, we say "they are good friends enough to quarrel", right (laughs)

Q41: Did he solve troubles with other students with his fists? Or with words?
A: Fists were Matsuda only (laughs)

Q42: He said his reason for becoming a police officer was to search for Elena-san, but did his patriotism strong enough to call Japan his girlfriend sprout after that?
A: Exactly.

Q43: If Furuya-san didn’t have to search for Elena-sensei’s whereabouts, what kind of profession do you think he would’ve assumed?
A: He looks like he could’ve become a detective. (laughs)

Q44: He gave a harsh rating of 2 points to Matsuda-kun’s pun, but he actually liked it, right? (laughs)
A: Right (laughs)

Q45: Were his shooting skills excellent because he learned that from someone else since the beginning? Or is it because he seems like a genius?
A: Because he seems like a genius.

Q46: During the arrest techniques lesson, he lost to Date-san after being concerned by his injury, but did he win every match after?
A: He did.

Q47: The fact that he can manage correctly in English is because of his familial environment? Or is that the result of him studying seriously?
A : Because of his familial environment.

About everyone
Q48 : When did the idea of making these five a police academy squad get decided?
A: In “The Darkest Nightmare”, when I decided to make Furuya Matsuda’s classmate.

Q49 : Why are the titles yojijukugo (Four characters compound) ?
A: Because it's cool.

Q50: I want you to tell me their blood-type! I beg you!
A: Please put which one you’d like for each of them.

Q51: I wanna know those five’s deduction skill ranking.
A : It’s hard to tell who is better than whom.

Q52: They seem to start early in the morning, do they all wake up well? Did someone oversleep once?
A: Some way or another, everyone looks like they are punctual.

Q53 : Date-san has a girlfriend, Hagiwara-kun seems to have experience in love as well seeing how he’s good with ladies, but do the other 3 have experience in love?
A : I’ll leave that to your imagination (laughs).

Q54: When Hagiwara, Matsuda, and Morofushi enter the convenience store while saying “Wassuup”, are each of their clothes their personal belongings? Or did they borrow them from someone else?
A: They borrowed all of them from Hagiwara.

Q55: Did they usually hang out all together on their holidays? Like going to Tropical Land for instance... (laughs)
A: Those 5? On their holidays? (laughs)

Q56: Did the five of them meet after graduating?
A: You will know that at some point, maybe... (laughs)

"This mystery is amazing!" Interview

Date: December 4, 2020
Published in: "This mystery is amazing" magazine, 2021 edition

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Wild Police Story Volume 2 Interview

Date: December 18, 2020
Published in: Wild Police Story Volume 2

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55 Questions for Gosho Aoyama

Translated by: Manaphy

About Hagiwara Kenji
Q1: I want to know the origin of his name!
A: Matsuda’s name came from the character “G pan” from “Taiyou ni hoero!”, so I took it from Macaroni’s actor, Hagiwara Kenichi, who died on duty before Matsuda. (T/N: “G Pan” was played by Yuusaku Matsuda.)

Q2: Does he have a model character?
A: It’s Hagiwara Kenichi.

Q3: What led him to start calling Matsuda “Jinpei-chan”?
A: Well, he’s been doing it since his childhood, so... (laughs)

Q4: Did he really not know Matsuda’s reason for wanting to become a police officer?
A: Yeah, since he didn’t tell anyone else.

Q5: Is Hagiwara & Matsuda’s hometown close to Date’s?
A: Aaah, I see. They might be.

Q6: In the car action scene, he understood just with Matsuda saying “Think you can do that?”, but was he regularly driving this naughtily?
A: He was.

Q7: Did he learn his driving technique from his father?
A: I’d say he taught himself.

Q8: Did he ever go to Gunma’s pass?
A: I think he did?

Q9: Was Hagiwara-san also the one to hammer his driving technique into Furuya-san?
A: Furuya was inspired by Hagiwara-san’s driving and became good on his own.

Q10: Is his cheerful personality something natural?
A: Of course it’s natural!

Q11: In exchange for all the time he’s been easygoing, it looks so much like he still has some heavy backstory that hasn’t been revealed, to the point it scares me... He doesn’t, right? (cry)
A: You want him to have one?

Q12: He sticks a lot of “-chan”s to people’s name, why is that?
A: Because he’s gaudy.

Q13: Did he have a girlfriend?
A: Wahahaha, should I really tell you that? (laughs)

Q14: He apparently even monopolized the karaoke session, but was his forte a love song as expected?
A: I think anything is likely.

Q15: Did Hagiwara-san also get yelled at for dismantling and remodelling stuff as he pleased?
A: I don’t think so. The one who got yelled at was always Matsuda.

Q16: Among all the professions that never go bankrupt, what’s his reason for choosing the police?
A: Since Matsuda said he wanted to go, I guess that’s another reason.

Q17: Was he doing something like a part-time job to cover for his tuition?
A: He probably did, didn’t he?

Q18: I want to know more about Hagiwara-san whom I love deeply! Could you please tell me one story that hasn’t been drawn in the manga?
A: He has a beautiful older sister.

Q19: Is there a reason why he lets the hair on the nape of his neck grow? Nobody tells him to cut them?
A: His sister told him to cut them.

Q20: From Hagiwara’s own point of view, does he think that his front hair tickles, or is bothersome?
A: I think he deals with it.

About Morofushi Hiromitsu
Q21: What is the origin of Hiromitsu’s name? I have the feeling that reading the “kage” kanji as “hiro” is unusual.
A: During the “Zero the Enforcer” cast party, Furuya Tooru-san asked me to put “Hiiro Yui” and Midorikawa Hikaru-san’s* name somewhere in Scotch’s real name, so I put them. Since the name “Morofushi” was already decided (laughs) (T/N: Furuya Tooru and Midorikawa Hikaru are respectively Amuro and Scotch’s voice actors. “Hiiro Yui” is a Gundam character.)

Q22: Why did he choose the Metropolitan Police, and not the Nagano prefectural police?
A: Because the house of the relative who took care of him was in Tokyo

Q23: I have the feeling his language is courteous, does this mean he was well-bred?
A: He was.

Q24: If the culprit gets caught, will he slightly recover from his trauma? It’s painful to look at him being hateful and afraid...!
A: Please go ahead and enjoy the Hiro arc♪

Q25: Was Hiro the one to choose the nickname “Zero” ?
A: Hiro and Zero sound good, don’t they?

Q26: When Date-san and Furuya-san were locked in the convenience store, it looked like he noticed that Furuya-san was the one who sent the Morse code signals. I wonder if they did something in the past using Morse code.
A: They might have, yeah.

Q27: Apart from music (and cooking ?), is there any other special skill he taught Zero?
A: Eh? It’s still not enough?

Q28: Since when did you think of establishing him as Inspector Morofushi’s brother?
A: When I first designed his face, I thought “Hey, he looks like Taka’aki. Let’s make them brothers♪”.

Q29: Did he regularly exchange letters with Taka’aki-san?
A: I feel like he sends them once in a while.

Q30: Apart from Zero, did he introduce any of his friends to Taka’aki-san?
A: He might’ve at least talked about them.

Q31: What triggered him to start cooking?
A: When he was a child, his mother taught him.

Q32: What dish is his specialty? Did he ever treat the 4 others to something?
A: Stew. Maybe.

Q33: During the joint party, he took a fighting pose and made everyone laugh, but I wonder what kind of talk they were having?
A: They were talking in a fun and weird way about when Matsuda and Furuya fought with each other.

Q34: Following Furuya-san, did he have good shooting grades?
A: Furuya was the very best, and I think the others are more or less the same.

Q35: Is there a reason why Hiromitsu’s first person is the only one to be “ore” with katakana and not with kanji?
A: Well, because I somehow just felt like doing that.

Q36: I like Hiromitsu-kun a lot. Please tell me one super valuable information about him, Aoyama-sensei!
A: I drew it in the Hiro arc.

Q37: Do you have any plans to draw what led him to grow a beard?
A: Y-You really bring up a good point... (laughs) (The Q&A survey was held before the final chapter got published.)

About Furuya Rei
Q38: Did Furuya-san become talented at cooking because Hiro taught him?
A: That’s right.

Q39: Was he just not cooking? Or was he not cooking because he was too bad?
A: He wasn’t interested.

Q40: At the time he wasn’t cooking, what was he doing about his meals?
A: Wasn’t he just buying and eating stuff?

Q41: He was focused on cooking during the joint party, but doesn’t he have any other interests than Elena-sensei?
A: For now, that is...

Q42: Did Rei-kun also get scouted or something?
A: He did.

Q43: The present Furuya-san’s strong points and special skills are greatly influenced by the 4 others, but conversely, is there something Furuya-san taught them?
A: I think there is, I don’t know though (laughs)

Q44: Furuya-san had the best results, but did he ever help the other 4 with their studies?
A: They’re all smart, so he didn’t.

Q45: Is Amuro’s sociability inspired from someone among the other 4?
A: Hagiwara and Hiro, I guess.

Q46: I want to know the actions taken by Furuya-san after seeing the other 4 sleeping in the middle of cleaning the bath in the teaser visual!
A: Didn’t he wake them up? (laughs)

Q47: Is there someone he became friends with apart from the other 4 at the police academy?
A: I think he befriended various people, without any issues.

Q48: I want to know about his upbringing. Will you draw it in the near future?
A: If I feel like it...

About everyone
Q49: I wonder what happened to everyone after the RX-7 got worn-out and the instructor found out...?
A: They got told off a lot.

Q50: Which of them gets drunk the easiest and who’s the heaviest drinker? Also, if you know their alcohol tastes, I’d like to know them!
A: Don’t they all say that beer is tasty?

Q51: They went to a karaoke, but which person is the best at singing? Is someone tone-deaf?
A: Hagiwara is the best. Matsuda does look tone-deaf, huh...

Q52: Did they take pictures with the 5 of them? (Looks like so...)
A: Well, of course they did.

Q53: Was Morofushi-kun the one who took the picture on the Sunday cover from Issue #29 2020?
A: That’s right. That was my idea.

Q54: Are there any scenes you wanted to put in Wild Police Story, but ended up not being able to?
A: Hagiwara’s sister.

Q55: My dream for the future is becoming a police officer. How can I become a cool police officer like those five?
A: Hey, you mustn’t imitate them, right? (laughs)