Matori to Kyoken - A young washed up actor becomes a spy for 2 Mad Dogs (spoiler alert!)
Drama title : Matori to Kyoken
No. of episodes : 9
Duration of watching: 13/4/2026 - 14/4/2026 (got pretty busy with work or I would have been able to complete the whole series on the same day)
I ended up watching this series just to pick my mood up to watch dramas again. My mood for watching dramas and gaming has been pretty low for the past week and it kind of sucks when that happens because it makes me feel rather conflicted at times because I know I really want to watch a certain drama or continue my progress in Genshin but I just feel like I don't have the energy for it. Hence, I spent the past week doing Linnea's story quest bit by bit (and only managed to complete it yesterday) and watched some movies (Inspector Zende and Mercy).
It was only yesterday that I finally had the urge to watch a drama again. I was actually contemplating on watching The Epoch of Miyu while it's ongoing (which would be a first for me as I usually wait for a drama to be completed before I start watching it) but I figured that maybe I'll wait until a good number of episodes are out. Besides, I don't think my mind is ready for a drama of that genre. Thus, I picked Matori no Kyoken for its short episode length, straightforward storyline and fast-moving plot and I'd say that this drama does a good job of sparking my interest in dramas back up again.
What's the drama about?
When Umezawa Kyonosuke, a former child star turned drug dealer, gets caught by narcotics agent Kurosaki Toru, he is suddenly offered an unexpected proposition by Kurosaki — become his spy for the Narcotics Control Department (NCD) or get arrested by the NCD for his crimes if he refuses.
Umezawa reluctantly accepts the offer to ensure his survival only to get caught by Katsuragi Akito from the MPD's Narcotics and Firearm Division while carrying out a mission for Kurosaki shortly after their first meeting. During the interrogation, Umezawa faces yet another startling offer, this time from Katsuragi — to become his spy for the police and leak all of NCD's intel to them, essentially making him a double agent, or get arrested for his crimes.
Hence, in order to increase his chances of survival in his already messed up life, Umezawa, an underling drug dealer, becomes a spy for both the Mad Dogs of the NCD (Kurosaki) and the police (Katsuragi) — both of whom want to take down a drug organization for their own personal reasons.
Who should watch this drama?
— Fans of Nishihata Daigo/Hosoda Yoshihiko/Mukai Osamu
— Fans of action-packed dramas with a fast-moving plot
— Someone who wants to watch a short drama with a good plot and morally gray characters
Characters
— Umezawa Kyonosuke, played by Nishihata Daigo :
Umezawa is a former child actor whose life spirals downwards after he got suspended from acting for causing an incident while drunk, leading him to do illegal gambling before eventually getting blackmailed to become a meth dealer in order to pay off his debts from gambling. Despite his bad choices in life which led him to the path of drug dealing and smuggling, he still has a rather decent personality as he doesn't do drugs himself and even warned off young customers about the consequences of taking drugs. In order to survive his current life that's embroiled with crimes involving mainly drugs, Umezawa is shown to be pretty adept at street-fighting, quick-witted and resourceful, though he does have his fair share of his plans failing.
When he first met Kurosaki, he is only offered to become Kurosaki's spy because Kurosaki wants to use Umezawa's connection to Matsubara, Umezawa's direct boss. Umezawa carries out every single one of Kurosaki's orders as best as he could mostly out of necessity for his survival but seems to have a closer bond with Kurosaki by the end of the series as they went through a life and death situation together as opposed to his relationship with Katsuragi, which started off a bit more friendly in the beginning but grew more distant by the end of the series as Umezawa saw him for who he really is.
This is my first drama of Nishihata Daigo. He actually looked familiar to me when I first saw his face in the poster until I found out that he's a member of the boy band Naniwa Danshi, which explains why he looks familiar to me. Now, I'm not a fan of his boy band but I do remember watching one of the recordings of their live shows, where the members performed a song, all dressed in pink. So, I was pleasantly impressed with his performance as Umezawa, whose personality is quite rough around the edges despite his somewhat petite size (he looks pretty small when standing in between Kurosaki and Katsuragi) and soft facial features.
— Kurosaki Toru, played by Hosoda Yoshihiko :
An agent of the Narcotics Control Department (NCD), Kurosaki Toru is known as the NCD's Mad Dog for his single-minded obsession on eradicating all drug and drug-related organization from his country. His fixation on his goal makes him take any means necessary to make sure that his targets are arrested by his team, causing him to often take actions on his own — all of which are risky most of the time and sometimes ignoring existing rules altogether.
His deep hatred for drugs originated from his childhood, when meth essentially laid waste to his family. His mother was fed meth by the yakuza, causing her to become an addict, and was eventually forced into prostitution by them after she got knee-deep in debt and could no longer pay for her meth supply. As a consequence, Kurosaki's parents often argued and they became a broken family. An incident happened one day when Kurosaki's mother violently stabbed one of the yakuza member's lover out of rage, where she later committed suicide because of this and Kurosaki, who was still in middle school, came back to find her corpse hanging from a noose. His father, overcome with despair, drowned himself in the sea half a year later.
His personality actually reminds me a lot of Kageyama from Haikyu! due to how single-minded both of them are and how they prefer to act alone most of the time as they believe that they have the means necessary to achieve their personal goals. They also like to deliver deadpan humour. The way Kurosaki treated Umezawa for the most part is also a lot like how Kageyama treated Hinata with their little banter and wrestling moments. However, beneath his aloof personality, Kurosaki does show that he cares for Umezawa in his own way. A lot of his actions, though risky and sometimes rule-breaking bordering on madness, are well-intentioned and righteous, which are proof that he shows a lot of heart into his work.
This is actually my second drama of Hosoda Yoshihiko. I only noticed that I saw him in The Promise : The Truth From 16 Years Ago as Fuwa Sho after checking out his list of works just now. I think his performance in here is great.
— Katsuragi Akito, played by Mukai Osamu :
Katsuragi Akito is a detective of the MPD from the Narcotics and Firearms Division. He acts as a foil to Kurosaki's character in which he cares more about the optics of the situation and achieving accomplishments from his work, unlike Kurosaki who's driven by his personal vendetta against drugs and wants to eradicate them once and for all. This stems from his single-minded obsession in upstaging his father and brother, who were both Tokyo University graduates, by bringing his career to greater heights through meritorious accomplishments. Much like Kurosaki, he would use any means necessary to achieve his goal, earning him the title of the Mad Dog of the MPD.
His personality is vastly different from Kurosaki where he seems a lot friendlier towards Umezawa (despite all the nasty stuff that he says), often sharing intel and giving orders to Umezawa over dinner at their usual okonomiyaki place, and actually utilizes his subordinates for their operation (in contrast to Kurosaki who mostly works alone). Despite his friendly facade, Katsuragi is actually a cold-hearted and ruthless person, who only uses Umezawa as a pawn to get to his goal of capturing the organization first.
Mukai Osamu is the reason why I knew about this drama in the first place. While he is listed as one of the main characters, his character feels more like an important support role since I feel like both Umezawa and Kurosaki got a lot more focus compared to him.
Things that bothered me/I don't like/feel that there's room for improvement
I don't think there's much to scrutinize since the story is pretty straightforward and the episodes are very short. The story is fine with the way it was told. I'm thinking that maybe there are some mistakes regarding the drugs part and the way the NCD and police work but I'm not familiar with them and the drama itself doesn't really focus deeply on the inner working of these two organizations. So, there's not much for me to comment here.
Things that this drama made me think about
— Drugs ruin lives :
When people rely on something as toxic as drugs, their lives will become toxic as well be it physically, mentally or emotionally. This in turn makes their lives spiral downwards until it becomes hard to go back to when things were normal. So, moral of the story, never, ever take drugs or even get involved with them unless you want your life to become a living hell.
Things that I absolutely love!
— Those funny moments between Umezawa and Kurosaki
— Everyone's acting
— The straightforward and fast-moving plot
All in all, this drama is a good drama to watch as a filler or when you just want something simple and straightforward to watch. I'm giving it a score of 8/10 since the story is just decent with nothing too remarkable that makes it stand out from other dramas. Now I'm trying to decide if I should watch Lose My Heart to You or The Epoch of Miyu after this.
That's all I want to write for this entry this time. See you in the next entry!