Kurosagi (2022)

Better than the previous one

Okay don’t eat me up but I’m from Yama-pi era where everyone was knocked off by his good looks and monotonous acting. The reason I’m giving so many stars are due to the following reasons. (I’m comparing it with the previous one).

Hirano Sho has done a better job at portraying Kurosaki. From the surface you might feel he is less “serious and dark” compared to monotonous Yama-pi, but he has shown the deep emotions every where required. For a high schooler to go through so much pain and trauma, he is trying to move on and get revenge and get people in their right place. Act out fine in front of the world but he has the emotions bottled up somewhere.

The story was written well this time and flowed perfectly and honestly the casting was done way better than the previous one. Miura Tomokazu just did the best job. All the characters were more likeable this time. In 2006 only Horikita Maki was doing a good job trying to be the character and likeable at the same time. And the ending was definitely better than that from 2006. It has a proper closure in a way, that wasn’t there in 2006.

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"I will devour them for you"

Every once in a while, I need a wish fulfillment drama like Kurosagi aka The Black Swindler. Where much like in Leverage, capable people punish and stop swindlers and criminals who often evade prosecution. Kurosaki Koshiro had a strong need for revenge after the deaths of his family members due to a swindler and worked with a powerful man who may or may not have been his enemy to accomplish his goals.

Kurosaki goes by many alias all beginning with Kuro. He is a Black Swindler who devours White Swindlers who prey on the vulnerable and fleece them of their money. He shares his take with Katsuragi, a sweet shop owner and launderer of illicit money. Katsuragi sells Kuro information on swindlers who are drawing the wrong kind of attention. In going after one white swindler, he meets a man much like his father who has lost everything. The man’s daughter, Tsurara, is vehemently against Kuro helping her dad. She is studying to become a lawyer so that one day she can be a prosecutor. Another fly in Kuro’s anointment is detective Kashina, who much like Tsurara is overly enthusiastic, judgmental, and living in a black and white world. Each time Kuro thinks he’s taken down the person who helped destroy his father, he finds a deeper level of swindling deceit.

I like to visit a world where there is someone who gives criminals their comeuppance. Not everyone in The Black Swindler felt the same way. Tsurara and Kashina seemed far more offended by Kuro who brought down swindlers than the actual swindlers themselves. Kashina who banged on about the need for law-and-order beat Kuro just for the heck of it at one time. Pretty sure assault on a citizen was a crime. Then he followed Kuro to Shanghai to prevent him from taking down a Big Bad and somehow managed to find Kuro on a remote street in a city of 25 million people. I have trouble finding my husband when we get separated in the grocery store! Also guessing China would frown on a foreign officer doing business clandestinely on their soil. Kashina and Tusrara with their shouting and breathless earnestness came close to spoiling my viewing experience. What made up for them were the more well written characters. Hirano Sho gave Kuro the emotional depth this single-minded character needed. Miura Tomokazu as the world weary and creative dessert chef Katsuragi was the perfect reluctant father figure and foe. I enjoyed every time Yamamoto Koji came on screen as the enigmatic and humorous Shiraishi. Nakamura Yuri’s character didn’t have much depth as Katsuragi’s assistant, but was skilled enough to take down the bad guys quietly and efficiently.

There were stand alone cases Kuro faced and those that tied back to the swindlers he was hunting. The cases were interesting and Kuro always got his man, even when he was a woman. The solutions may have been over simplified but I didn’t care, it was nice to see the schemers give Kuro a good meal as he devoured them and their ill-gotten gains.

8 January 2025

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