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| “ | In that case... We can resume testing on you. And when you're dead, you can join the others... With your eyes gouged out! | „ |
| ~ Kuroiwa threatening Yagami before their battle. |
Mitsuru Kuroiwa is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Yoji Shono) and final boss of the 2018 action-adventure game Judgment, a spin-off of the Like a Dragon franchise.
He is a detective for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Organized Crime Division, but is later revealed to be the true identity of The Mole: a hired assassin responsible for multiple murders investigated by the main protagonist Takayuki Yagami, that are all related to the Advanced Drug Development Center's conspiracy involving the development of an experimental drug named AD-9 that can possibly cure Alzheimer's Disease.
He was voiced by and modeled after Shosuke Tanihara in Japanese, who also voiced Reshiram. He was voiced by Matthew Mercer in English, who also voiced Goro Majima, Ganondorf, Zato-1, Kiritsugu Emiya and Prince Demande.
Personality[]
On the outside, Kuroiwa is portrayed and treated as a highly respectable detective who is extremely professional with his work. He's described to be a "rising star" of the Kamurocho police, with his increasingly high number of arrests only contributing to that statement. It is said that he prefers a more interactive and "hands-on" approach when dealing with his cases. Kuroiwa is very delusional when it comes to serving justice; such as insisting upon Yagami being the one behind Shintani's murder, nobly acting as if he is doing the right thing by constantly pursuing him, despite carrying out the planned assassination of Shintani himself. Whenever interacting with Yagami or other people, he has a consistent stoic-like personality that almost never slips, making it hard to see the truly demented personality he really has.
On the inside, Kuroiwa is a cold and ruthless psychopath. He is willing to do anything to make sure nothing stands in his way, or comes close to finding out his true identity. Even when he seems to want the ADDC develop the AD-9 drug, it's only to keep his own identity safe, rather than actual care for trying to cure Alzheimer's Disease like Shono. Kuroiwa is only interested in the power and money he gets from being both an incredibly deadly assassin and an incredibly professional detective. He shows absolutely care to his murder victims, or in general anybody around him, even Hamura, his long-time business partner. To Kuroiwa, everybody is a disposable pawn and the only person that matters is himself. Kuroiwa is also a very deadly man, being able to dispatch groups of people carelessly and without breaking a sweat. He is expertly trained in many fields involving weapons and fighting, and seemingly enjoys hurting or potentially killing others as shown by his cruel smile when beating up Yagami in their first battle.
Biography[]
Past[]
Kuroiwa was under the wing of an unnamed mentor who was a police informant for the Tojo Clan. Under his mentor, Kuroiwa rose through the ranks, quickly becoming a prodigy in the force. However, his mentor was eventually apprehended, as a snitch in the police had reported him to the higher-ups. In order to escape the prison sentence, the mentor committed suicide. In retaliation, Kuroiwa murdered the snitch and framed the death as a suicide, his first documented murder. Kuroiwa later took his mentor's role as an informant, and traded police information with the Tojo Clan to get information on cases in order to continue rising the ranks of the police force.
Sometime during 1998, Kuroiwa had met the captain of the Tojo Clan's Matsugane Family, Kyohei Hamura. Hamura quickly became one of Kuroiwa's biggest clients, and employed him for jobs such as the disposal of dead bodies and cleaning up crime scenes. After a period a time, Kuroiwa eventually set his sights on doing assassination jobs, which Hamura agreed to as long as he could get a portion of the reward. The first assassination job they had received was from the lead researcher of the Advanced Drug Development Center, Yoji Shono, though initially contacted by a middle-man named Ishimatsu. Shono wanted Kuroiwa to assassinate the vice director of the ADDC, Toru Hashiki, for being close to discovering the secret drug that was being developed behind his back, AD-9. Kuroiwa willingly agreed and went on to kill Hashiki, in which the murder was incredibly well done to the point where the death was identified as an accident rather than an assassination.
Judgment[]
Months after Hashiki's assassination, Ishimatsu approached Kuroiwa once again, contracting him to kidnap Kyorei Clan members and give them to both Shono and the vice minister of the Ministry of Health, Kaoru Ichinose, serving as human test subjects for AD-9. Kuroiwa kidnapped 3 Kyorei Clan members throughout the span of a few months, who would later wind up dead with their eyes gouged out. Kuroiwa, as a detective, investigated these murders himself and arrested Hamura, who was a major suspect in the murders, to presumably try and clear himself from suspicion and to make sure that Hamura doesn't reveal the secret behind the AD-9 scheme to the public. This attracted the attention of Takayuki Yagami, a detective acquainted with the Matsugane Family, who would later acquit Hamura after finding evidence to conclude that he was not the one to murder the Kyorei Clan members. Putting a permanent mark on Kuroiwa's otherwise perfect track record, and possibly getting involved in the ADDC conspiracy, Kuroiwa would then set his sights on Yagami.
Kuroiwa is later informed that Hamura was leaking minor but important information about the ADDC and Kyorei Clan murders to his lawyer, Masamichi Shintani. With this information, Shintani attempted to take the case into his own hands, but Kuroiwa is able to assassinate Shintani before his secrets are unveiled, in which he succeeds. Although, he had framed the death as if his co-worker and partner Kazuya Ayabe had done the murder; because Ayabe was an informant for Yagami, and was leading the latter on the path to discover the truth behind the ADDC and "The Mole", Yagami's nickname for Kuroiwa. To frame Ayabe, Kuroiwa knocked him out, stole his gun and used it to kill Shintani, and then placing it back into his holster. In an attempt to potentially intimidate Yagami in stopping his search for the truth, Kuroiwa gouged out the eyes from Shintani's dead body and placed the corpse inside a closet in Yagami's office. Kuroiwa had left Shintani's phone in his pocket, most likely to toy around with Yagami and make his discovery of the body even more frightening. This backfired, however, as Yagami himself was able to see that Shintani was trying to contact the ADDC, leading Yagami and his partners to investigate the facility.
Hamura would then go into hiding, but Yagami eventually captures him for interrogation at a cabaret club. Kuroiwa is informed about this, so he puts on the disguise he uses as The Mole and arrives at the cabaret club to silence Hamura before he lets the truth out. However, the Matsugane Family had unleashed a terrorist attack on the building, in an attempt to save Hamura. After battling and brutally murdering many of the Matsugane Family himself, Kuroiwa tried to shoot and eliminate Hamura, but the patriarch of the Matsugane Family sacrificed himself and was the one that took the bullet instead. Kuroiwa had no choice but to leave the building; which gave Hamura the opportunity to reveal to Yagami that the true identity of The Mole was Kuroiwa.
Now that Yagami and his associates are fully aware that Kuroiwa and the ADDC need to be taken down, tensions begin to rise as the investigation nears its end. Kuroiwa learns that Yagami had captured the ADDC's director Ryusuke Kido hostage for interrogation to an arcade named Charles, ran by Toru Higashi. Kuroiwa arrives and brutally beats Higashi and Masaharu Kaito, both partnered with Yagami, and saves Kido. Shortly after this, Kuroiwa visits an underground casino Yagami and Ayabe used as a hideout during a raid lead by Kunihiko Morita, a chief prosecutor. He finds Yagami, trying to convince Morita to switch sides, as he had joined the AD-9 conspiracy as well. Kuroiwa tells Morita to look away, and starts fighting Yagami alone. After the fight, an injured Kuroiwa pulls out a gun and threatens to kill Yagami before the chief prosecutor defused the situation. Kuroiwa knows that Yagami has no evidence to provide during Ayabe's upcoming court trial, so he obliges and spares Yagami.
One month later, Ayabe is taken to court for the suspected killing of Shintani. Yagami and his associates plan on exposing the whole AD-9 conspiracy during the court session, as a guilty Hamura had approached Yagami and Kaito behind the scenes and gave them all the information and evidence they needed to win the case. While Kuroiwa was walking around Theater Square in Kamurocho, three homeless men had rushed to attack him, but he quickly shot them all to death. He was quick to find out that Shono had sent assassins after him to be safe, so Kuroiwa headed to the ADDC to enact revenge for the attempted assassination and to kill Shono.
Yagami confronts Kuroiwa at the ADDC, who was holding a frightened Shono at gun point. The two share an argument together; Yagami tells Kuroiwa to give up and surrender, as he and his friends have all the evidence they need to put a stop to the AD-9 conspiracy. Kuroiwa denies, stating that if the drug is released to the public he will be seen as a hero and will avoid jailtime. Both knowing that each others minds cannot be changed, Yagami and Kuroiwa charge at each other and begin fighting. Despite injecting himself with adrenaline after a brief loss, Yagami is able to defeat Kuroiwa once and for all. Police officers then arrive at the scene, alongside Kaito and Higashi. However, Kuroiwa used all of his remaining energy to try and kill Shono before he gets arrested. The police officers shoot Kuroiwa multiple times, leaving him on the floor bleeding out. After Shono injected himself with AD-9, Kuroiwa laughs to himself as he finds out that the drug itself was never going to work, despite Shono's delusions; and the gouging out of the Kyorei Clan member's eyes was in order to hide the side effects AD-9 had. While watching Shono slowly suffer from AD-9, Kuroiwa then dies due to his fatal injuries.
Trivia[]
- Throughout the game, Kuroiwa is hinted to be The Mole multiple times.
- The opening song of the game features a scene in where Ayabe is looking suspiciously at an unknown person, in which Kuroiwa shows up in the next frame smiling. Afterwards, he turns around and walks away with a serious face, before turning black and white and fading away.
- Kuroiwa's first scene involves him inspecting a dead body without it's eyes. Rather than being disgusted or even reacting to the corpse, Kuroiwa doesn't seem phased, and if anything shows interest, relating to him not knowing why Shono had gouged out the eyes of his victims.
- Kuroiwa usually brings up The Mole/Shintani's killer whenever talking to Yagami prior to his reveal, and the camera is always facing his direction when he says something relating to his true identity.
- During a scene in Chapter 4, Yagami is leaving a bar and Kuroiwa says "And here we are, another killer you've let off the leash", while the camera was directly pointed at his face.
- In Chapter 5, Kuroiwa meets Yagami after he finds Shintani's dead body. Kuroiwa says "Got too popular for you, so you offed him?" representing Kuroiwa eliminating Shintani because he was getting close to the truth.
- A scene in Chapter 7 shows Ayabe and Kuroiwa questioning Yagami. Kuroiwa says "What kind of lowlife would sell police secrets?" and the camera is pointed towards Ayabe and Kuroiwa during this moment.
- This scene also contains a moment where Kuroiwa mentions "Shintani's Killer". The camera is once again pointed at his face when he mentions them.
- The final ingame foreshadow before The Mole's reveal is in Chapter 9, where Yagami meets Kuroiwa out in the streets. Yet again, he mentions Ayabe being Shintani's murderer, and the camera is facing his direction.
- Kuroiwa is one of the few final bosses in the franchise (including Like a Dragon) to be completely evil, alongside Seishiro Munakata, Tsuneo Iwami (and, for the Hawaii Arc in Infinite Wealth, Bryce Fairchild).
- Kuroiwa utilizes Taido and Kung Fu while fighting Yagami, mirroring him. He's also a skilled shooter, capable of shooting accurately at various opponents without missing.
- Kuroiwa's theme, Penumbra, is one of the only few final boss soundtracks in the Like a Dragon series to have multiple versions (alongside For Faith and Impersonation), although the differences are minor and simply change the beginning of the track, like Impersonation.
External Links[]
- Mitsuru Kuroiwa on the Pure Evil Wiki
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