Wataru Date
| Wataru Date | |
|
| |
| Japanese name: | 伊達 航 (Date Wataru) |
|---|---|
| Age: | 28[1] (a year ago) |
| Gender: | Male |
| Relatives: | Mr. Date (father) |
| Occupation: | Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Detective |
| Status: | Dead |
| First appearance: | Manga: File 804 Anime: Episode 681 |
| Appearances: | Chapters: 10 Chapters: 3 Chapters: 13 Episodes: 10 Episodes: 2 Movies: 1 OVAs: 0 Specials: 1 Openings: 1 Closings: 1 |
| Keyhole number: | Volume 77 |
| Japanese voice: | Keiji Fujiwara (Episodes 681-683) Hiroki Tochi (Wild Police Story and Movie 25) |
Wataru Date (伊達 航 Date Wataru) is a character in the manga and anime franchise Detective Conan. He is also one of the main characters in Wild Police Story manga.
Contents
Background
Wataru Date was an officer from Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department under the Criminal Investigation First Division. He was later assigned to be the mentor of Wataru Takagi,[2] and together they became known as the "Wataru Brothers."[3] He was dating an English teacher, Natalie Kuruma. Unfortunately, he got caught up in a car accident after one of his stakeouts with Takagi and died one year ago.[2] A year later after his death, it was discovered that Date was an acquaintance of Rei Furuya, whom he had met while attending a police academy.[4] He also knew Jinpei Matsuda, Hagiwara and Hiromitsu Morofushi from the academy. Before his death, he received a package meant to be passed on to Hiromitsu's older brother Taka'aki, but it was left untouched in his locker for over a year.
His father was a policeman and always had a toothpick in his mouth. One day when his father was off-duty, he and his father enters a store only to find a thug demanding money. His father noticed that the thug had friends and begged the robber to spare them, but the thug hit him numerous times before they got away. In the end, his father quit the police force. Wataru didn't know the truth and thought his father begged for his life for no necessary reason, so he decided to become a police officer. At the police academy, he learned the truth and decided to become like his father. Since then, he started to put a toothpick in his mouth.
He attended police academy with Rei Furuya, Jinpei Matsuda, Hiromitsu Morofushi, and Kenji Hagiwara. He was the leader of the squad and held second place at the academy. All five friends graduated together.
Personality
Date was considered to be a "carnivore"-type of a man compared to Takagi, by Sato[3], and could be described as an aggressive person.[5] In addition to these, he was also a kind and caring person as attested by his interactions with Takagi and his text message to Rei.[5][4] He was also very serious in his relationship with Natalie and was planning on proposing to her.
Date was described as very old fashion by Takagi.
Abilities
He has great leadership skills as stated in Wild Police Story. He was also skilled at fighting as he could beat ten people in a row with the use of martial arts at the police academy.
Appellations
Plot overview
Overnight Deadline (Manga: 804-808, Anime: 681-683)
Kaitou Kid and the Fairy's Lips (Manga: 1021, Anime: 984)
Date appears in a flashback along with Jinpei Matsuda, Kenji Hagiwara, Hiromitsu Morofushi, and Rei Furuya.
Wataru Date's Notebook (Manga: 1079-1081, Anime: 1109-1110)
He and Takagi were involved in a kidnapping case which got unsolved when Date died and one of the culprits died. The case went unsolved until a year later which was solve thanks to the Detective Boys, Miwako Sato and Rei Furuya help. It also revealed that after Jinpei death that he got transferred to Metropolitan Police Department.
Non-canon plot overview
The Bride of Halloween (Movie: 25)
Relationships analysis
Wataru Takagi
Date was Takagi's mentor and close friend. He passed away in a traffic accident. As the pronunciation of his name was the same as Wataru Takagi's, Date said they were "Wataru brothers" (ワタル・ブラザーズ Wataru Burazāzu). Just before his death, he entrusted Takagi a ring for Natalie Kuruma, but Takagi never got to give the ring to Natalie, because he was still affected by Date's death and Natalie committed suicide soon after. When Takagi realized that Date's girlfriend was Natalie he took contact with the one, who claimed her personal things to inform them the truth, most likely out of duty to his late friend.
Rei Furuya
Date and Rei Furuya were friends in the police academy; Rei was the top-ranked student, while Date held second place. He protected Rei whenever Rei was mistaken as biracial or a foreigner. While Date went on to become an officer, Rei went somewhere else and fell out of contact with Date for unknown reasons. Date's last text to Rei asked him where he was and chided Rei to communicate once in a while. Rei was shown visiting Date's grave, and likely left a toothpick out of respect for Date; Date used them habitually.
Natalie Kuruma
Natalie was his girlfriend. After hearing Date died in a car accident, Natalie committed suicide out of despair. Due to Date's surname could be mistaken for the English word 'Date', since her mother was American, she would call him 'Wataru' when she told her parents about him. Date probably intended to propose to her after they had met each other's parents. A year later, her death was misunderstood as Wataru Date was the cause of her choice to suicide. It resulted in a trap, where Takagi almost got killed by Ryusaku Fuemoto, her ex-English teacher, mistaken as the 'Wataru' Natalie always told about.
Jinpei Matsuda
Jinpei Matsuda attended the same police academy as Date. They also graduated together.
Kenji Hagiwara
Kenji Hagiwara attended the same police academy as Date. They also graduated together.
Hiromitsu Morofushi
Date was well acquainted with Hiromitsu Morofushi since they were good friends along with the three others and attended the academy together.
Name origin
Wataru Date shares his first name with police sergeant Wataru Takagi, which prompted him to make a nickname for the both of them: "Wataru Brothers." However, the kanji that represented his first name was different to that of Takagi's. His name is written with the kanji 航, which has the ON-reading of kō (コウ ). Meanwhile, Takagi's is written with the kanji 渉, which has the ON-reading of shō (ショウ ).[3] This similarity in first name became an important factor in the Overnight Deadline case. Date's last name played an important role in the said case as well.[6].
Similarly to the other suspects in his introductory case, his first name also comes from transports, as the "航" is similar to ships (船 funa)[7]. As the case he appears first in happens in Hokkaido, his last name "Date" is also that of a city with the same name in the prefecture.
Trivia
- Gosho Aoyama revealed in a postcard response to a fan that Wataru Date is not Scotch.[8]
- According to Gosho in JUSTICE PLUS Super Digest Book, the reason why Hiromitsu's smartphone ended up being left in Date's locker was because Date had that car accident just as he thought about sending it.
See also
References
- ^ In file 805, page 16, Sato pointed out that Date was a year older than her. In Conan Drill page 29, Sato is assumed to be about 28, which is her present age. Wataru Date died one year ago (file 804, page 4), when Sato was only 27 years old, which means that Date's estimated age at the time he died was 28.
- ^ a b File 804: The Present from Detective Takagi
- ^ a b c File 805: Wataru Brothers
- ^ a b File 808: Late Grave Visiting
- ^ a b File 807: The Strongest Senior
- ^ File 806: The Inherited Shadow of the Dawn
- ^ http://mysteriouscolors.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-18.html
- ^ File:Scotch not Date postcard.jpg
| Wild Police Story | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characters | Rei Furuya • Hiromitsu Morofushi • Wataru Date • Jinpei Matsuda • Kenji Hagiwara • Hachizo Onizuka • List of Wild Police Story characters | |
| Key People | Takahiro Arai • Gosho Aoyama | |
| Volumes | Volume 1 • 2 | |
| Anime Adaptation | Episode 1029 • 1038 • 1042 • 1061 • R133 | |
| Related Articles | Detective Conan (Manga, Anime) • Zero's Tea Time (Anime) • Hanzawa the Criminal (Anime) • Movie 25: The Bride of Halloween | |
