Drama Review- Kurosagi

Kurosagi stars NEWS member Yamashita Tomoshisa and actress Maki Horikita. It is mainly a crime, suspense drama which boasts of some romance but lacks it for most of the drama. It is adapted from a seinen manga of the same name that won the Shogakukan Manga Award.

Kurosagi means 'black swindler'. Each episodes starts with an introduction on swindlers. There are three types of swindlers- Shirosagi (white swindler) who swindle people's money by deceiving them, much like a con artist; Akasagi (red swindler) who swindle people by manipulating their feelings and the most powerful swindler in history, Kurosagi (black swindler)who feeds on the above kinds of swindlers and wants to wipe them out from the face of the earth.

This is the second drama I have seen that has borth Yamapi and Maki Horikita (the previous one was Nobuta wo produce).
Maki Horikita is a law student whose uncle is swindled in the first episode. Kurosaki helps her uncle get money back from the swindler by swindling the money back. He is a kind of Robin Hood who helps people who have been swindled by swindling the money back for them. His aim is not to help them but to wipe out shirosagis from the face of the earth.
When he was young, his father was swindled and not knowing what to do, his father killed his whole family but luckily Kurosaki escaped. He became a swindler while still in high school in order to get revenge. He spends most of his time hunting for swindlers at a restaurant that Katsuragi owns, the man who deceived his father indirectly. He sold the swindling plan to the swindler who swindled his father. Kurosaki keeps him close so that he can get revenge from him. Katsuragi mostly talkis about pickes and coffee and is very old with lots of health problems. He sells information to swindlers and knows most of them.

Later Maki Horikita moves in next to Kurosaki and romance starts developing. However, her friend falls in love with Kurosaki too and they become rivals. Even though Kurosaki cries whenever she lectures, the effect of the love is rarely seen when he works. He remains unaffected which leads to the feeling that their love is not true or not developing. He never quits swindling until the very end. He even lands up in jail in the last episode. The ending scene was good when Maki Horikita promises to catch him.


The settings are pretty good especially Katsuragi's place. The plot was well done and the drama excelled in being a good crime, mystery drama but as far as romance is concerned, it was not given any importance and was like an add on.

Yamashita Tomoshisa did well at acting. He looked cool and acted okay. Maki Horikita was good too but I thought Yampi was better even though Maki Horkita won the award. The side characters did okay but nothing great at acting.

The plot was probably the best part of the drama. I don't know how the manga's plot was since I have never read it. 'Daite senorita'(embrace senorita) was the theme of the drama. It fitted the theme well but many themes were better than this one.

Overall, a good crime/mystery drama. The overall atmosphere was good and plot was done well. A drama to watch when you're getting bored with nothing else to do.

Acting- 4/5
Plot- 4.6/5
Setting- 4.3/5
Overall- 4.2/5

Pros

Plot
Setting

Cons

Lack of romance/ development