And now, here's some Takaya Kuroda trivia that no one asked for
As far as I know, no one has mentioned/posted about these, so I figured I would.
There's a Japanese Youtube channel called Meta Taxi, in which a cab driving around Tokyo will take on 2 passengers, and we get to listen in on their casual conversations. The passengers include musicians, actors, seiyus, streamers/Vtubers, manga artists, etc. Each episode features 3 different pairs of people.
Episode 33, 34, 36, and 38 have Kuroda in them, and his partner for all 4 is Mafia Kajita, writer, radio personality, and a huge game/anime nerd. He, along with Yuichi Nakamura (Joongi Han) and Bkub Okawa (creator of Pop Team Epic) have a Youtube channel, Washagana TV, where they just talk about/play games, show off their favourite game merch, etc. Akio Otsuka (Adachi), Kenta Miyake (Yuya), Tomokazu Sugita (Shinji), and Hiroki Yasumoto (Aizawa) have all made guest appearances in the past.
Anyway, details from episode 33 is as follows:
#33「職質されがちな二人」(Two People Who Keep Getting Questioned By Police) 0:00 to 27:16
- Apparently, just before they started recording/got into the taxi, Kuroda was being questioned by police (and this is AFTER that incident that he posted about on Twitter a while back, so it happens to him a lot). In fact, he says he's been questioned by police 250 times so far???
- What really bothers him about getting stopped by police is that your average passer-by may just see him, automatically assume he's a bad guy, and give him scared/disgusted looks. "I don't care if hundreds of people gather around, but I wish they'd stick around until the end to see who was right before going home!"
- Mafia Kajita (who also gets stopped/suspected a lot due to his appearance) just happened to be in the area and stopped to say hi--which resulted in HIM also getting questioned and extending the whole process.
- Again, owing to his appearance, police are usually rude and unpleasant towards Kuroda. It especially annoys him when the cops (who are almost always younger people) behave arrogantly and assume the worst about him, so he'll still speak politely, but glare back at them, refusing to back down. So whenever police are courteous to him, he does greatly appreciate it.
Kajita: One time I discovered that my face was being used in fake ID photos that were used for scams.
Kuroda: (laughing) I can see that happening. If I were running a scam ring, I'd do the same.
Kajita: The police called me and asked, "Is this Mafia-san?" and it was so ridiculous I had to laugh.
Kuroda: But, I mean... That's kind of on you, right?
- When Kuroda, a big mafia movie fan, first heard about Mafia Kajita, he admits he was envious of that name. "I should have become Mafia Kuroda first and make sure you couldn't use it!" But then he also flips that around and says that in the end it's better that Kajita has that name because he's (Kuroda) more refined-looking, and "Mafia Kuroda" would be a bit too much.
- Kajita jokes that Kuroda's fashion sense makes him way closer to looking like a criminal, but Kuroda insists that if Kajita ditched his typical look (sunglasses, leather vest/jacket, jeans, tons of silver accessories) and switched to suits and gold jewelry, he'd be swarmed by police 24/7. Kajita acknowleges that whenever he does have to wear a suit for formal occasions, he gathers a lot of negative attention.
- Kuroda's taste in fashion has been consistent for most of his life (he started wearing hats since middle school). His family was poor, but his mother did some sewing as a side job, so she would often make Western-style clothes for him. In elementary school, all of his classmates wore plain shorts while he wore bell bottoms. He reflects that since they didn't have money, and for school you have to stick to uniforms, his desire for self-expression through fashion was that much stronger.
- His father was extremely violent and would regularly beat his kids and wife, to the point that "if it happened today, we'd be on TV for sure." Obviously, this left a huge impact on Kuroda, so from before he was 10 years old, he firmly decided he wanted to become stronger to protect his mother and sibling(s). By the time he was in high school, he was stronger than his father, but he made a point to not be able to beat his father back, but rather be able just to stop him.
- Because of his experiences, he came to deeply despise bullies and those who abuse their position for personal gain, which is why he never became a delinquent or joined any gangs (despite loving mafia movies).
- In a way (by his own admission) he was a quintessential shonen protagonist, choosing a certain path for himself and following it for the rest of his life. But like a shonen protagonist he was also stupid, so he pushed himself too hard in training, which led his spinal injury and other problems at the age of 16 which have followed him since.