Hokuto Matsumura of the popular group SixTONES appeared at a pre-release event for the Netflix series "Kujo no Taizai" held in Tokyo on March 23rd.
Based on the manga of the same name by Shohei Manabe, known for the popular manga "Ushijima the Loan Shark," this series depicts the life of lawyer Kaneto Kujo, who takes on only difficult cases involving gangsters, yakuza, and ex-convicts, and solves them by setting aside moral considerations. Produced by TBS, it will be available on Netflix from April 2nd.
Actor Yuya Yagira plays Kenji Kujo, a lawyer who takes on troublesome and morally ambiguous cases, while Matsumura plays Shinji Karasuma, a young and talented elite lawyer who graduated from the University of Tokyo and suddenly finds himself working as a "live-in lawyer" at Kujo's law firm.
The two were working together for the first time. Matsumura revealed, "Yanagira made time to share things with me as a buddy. We always had time to do sumo stomps together in the morning." Since Yanagira had studied martial arts and Matsumura had studied karate, they both knew the importance of sumo stomps, and Yanagira introduced Matsumura as his "sumo stomping master." Matsumura smiled shyly and said, "There were a lot of sumo stances in karate," and added, "We wanted to get our muscles moving, get the blood flowing, and be in top gear from the morning."
The staff members also started participating in the sumo wrestling, but co-star Elaiza Ikeda revealed, "I was running around trying to avoid being caught."
Yanagira said of Matsumura, "I really love him," and added, "The filming lasted about six months, and I was so happy to be able to team up with Hokuto-kun as my partner, and to get through the filming with the kind of relationship between the characters that Kujo and Karasuma-sensei have. I love his personality, and I love everything about him."
Takuma Otoo, Tsuyoshi Muro, and director Hiroyasu Doi also attended the event.
