#it absolutely made nishiki as a character for me

[yarameijer]

Hello it’s me again 🤭

It’s literally 4am for me right now and I was trying to sleep since I have to be up early tomorrow. But like, I can’t sleep without overthinking something, when I thought of this.

I for one absolutely hated how Shindou and Tsurugi didn’t help Tenma with Inazuma Japan, but instead made his life harder by not being willing to at least trying to adapt to what’s happening since it’s out of their control.

And who knows, maybe tenma doesn’t see the issue and doesn’t think there’s anything to forgive, Tenma is after all, a sweetheart.

But I’d like to think that he did see the issue and that he does hold some kind of resentment towards them because of it.

I’d also like to think that he does confront them about it at some point after they’re Back from space and everything calmed down a bit.

I mean, I for one would definitely talk to my friends and make them promise me to support me and have my back if something like that happened again if I was in his position.

So what do you think? Did tenma ever confront them about it? And if so how did they react?

By the way, I love your work and sense of humor and your take on the characters. Good luck with uni!!

Well, to answer simply: yes.

I've been working for quite a while on a one-shot set in the AR universe, one that's part of a larger arc (I posted another part of it before) focusing specifically on this topic, and I think you'd enjoy a preview of it.

Now, important to note is that this is written from Tsurugi's perspective rather than Tenma's, and Tenma has been bottling up a lot of things for a long time. He will likely seem very OOC here because of this - but it will (hopefully) not be as odd once the entire arc is published!

——— Accidental Reverse: Limits I

Kyousuke has never seen Tenma and Shindou like this.

He’d thought it was the worst it would get at the start of the Grand Celesta Galaxy, when they could barely have a conversation without one of them stepping on the other’s toes.

He was wrong.

‘’This isn’t working, Tenma,’’ Shindou moves with a purpose as he follows behind the young captain, his features twisted into a frown. ‘’And I think you know it too.’’

And that’s- that’s what stands out, to Kyousuke. Because this is how they've handled all team-related issues ever since Tenma became captain, it's no different from how it has been for nearly half a year now and yet he’s never seen his two friends behave like this. It seems that the only thing they can do lately is get on each other’s nerves.

What happened to their instinctive teamwork?

It’s Tenma, this time. He’s refusing to look at his strategist, eyes downcast and arms crossed as if he’s shielding himself from something. In response to the words, he just gives a half-hearted shrug.

Kyousuke winces when he sees Shindou’s eyes narrow.

‘’You could answer me, you know.’’

It’s as if he’s watching a movie with the script right in front of him; Kyousuke can see the exact moment where it goes wrong, and it’s with a quiet resignation that he takes note of Tenma’s eyes flashing. The brunet looks ready to speak in his own defense, but then his face falls. He stays silent.

And that, too, has become familiar in a way that leaves a bitter taste in Kyousuke’s mouth.

When has Tenma started feeling like he can’t talk to them?

(Kyousuke doesn't know.

He knows when he first noticed it, though - that odd phone call, all those months ago.)

They’re interrupted by the door sliding open, all three of them looking up at the new arrivals. It’s Kirino, Nishiki and Sangoku, the former two looking relieved when they spot the trio. ‘’There you are!’’ Nishiki says. ‘’We’ve been looking all over for you.’’

It’s no wonder they couldn’t find them. When Tenma stormed off the field, he didn’t go to any of the usual spots like the clubroom, instead navigating through the hallways of the soccer building until they found him in the guest team changing room.

As if he didn’t want to be found.

The thought leaves a sour taste in Kyousuke's mouth.

‘’What’s going on here?’’ Sangoku asks, expression sharp and voice sharper. He’s watching them carefully, taking in Shindou’s obvious frustration and Tenma’s odd hesitance, the younger brunet having turned away from the rest of the room.

When it becomes clear the captain won’t answer, Shindou lets out a sigh. ‘’We were talking about the new training regime for after the holidays,’’ he says, casting a glance at Tenma. At least the strategist seems to have cooled down a bit with the arrival of the others. ‘’Trying to, at least.’’

‘’Shindou-san,’’ Kyousuke interjects sharply.

The game maker sets his jaw and truthfully, at this point, part of Kyousuke could cry. Why are they all so stubborn? It’s one of Raimon’s best qualities as a team, but not if they’re fighting with each other.

‘’I’m only telling it how it is,’’ Shindou retorts, daring Kyousuke to go against him again. ‘’I can’t have a conversation with someone who refuses to even look at me.’’

What really strikes Kyousuke is that the game maker doesn’t sound mad. He sounds frustrated, sure, but it doesn’t seem to be about the training regime – honestly, the striker doubts Shindou even really cares about that.

They both know Tenma.

And it’s clear as day that something is upsetting him.

But getting Tenma to talk about his problems is like pulling teeth; he shuts down and refuses to say a word, covering it up with a smile and a clever distraction instead. And if it’s already driving Kyousuke crazy, he can’t think of how it must be for Shindou.

Because Shindou is Tenma’s go-to person whenever he needs advice, or support, or even just a hug. The two of them have always had their own subtle way of communicating that’s become a bit of a running joke in the team – it always fills them with fond amusement, to see the two brunets who used to disagree simply by being in the same room back when the team first started out, now only needing to glance at each other to know what they have in mind. It’s a great addition during matches, and outside of that it’s just kind of cute to see Tenma following their strategist around like a lost puppy and Shindou trying not to show how much he really depends on the younger’s general cheerfulness.

And now Tenma’s refusing to talk to Shindou.

Because Shindou is the problem, and the strategist is smart enough to realize it too.

‘’I think we all need a break,’’ Kirino interferes, shooting his best friend an encouraging smile. ‘’We don’t have any matches anymore until January, so maybe we should take it easy with training and do something fun.’’ He looks around, trying to find some support.

Nishiki’s nodding along. ‘’Sounds good to me, we’ve been at it for a while already. Let’s go get ramen!’’

For a long minute, Shindou doesn’t back down. He’s silent, gaze flitting between Kirino, Nishiki and Tenma, thinking it over before he finally nods. ‘’Alright. Sounds fun.’’ He doesn’t sound excited at all but that doesn’t matter; at least the situation is defused for now.

Maybe it really is that simple. The winter holidays are just around the corner, and from the moment Earth Eleven returned from space their normal school lives continued. The Winter Road is starting soon as well and they’ve been both training for that and having friendly matches with other teams each week, so maybe it really is just the case of the two brunets needing some time to relax and wind down. They’d been discussing a new training regime for the Winter Road when this disagreement started, after all.

‘’Is everyone coming?’’ Shindou asks, correctly assuming Kirino already planned for this earlier.

‘’Yup, no more practice for today. Coach Endou already agreed to it.’’

And that could’ve been the end of it, would’ve been the end of it – because the tension in Shindou’s expression is fading and Sangoku is starting to smile, and even Tenma, still turned away from them all, seems to slump in relief – if Shindou didn’t say, ‘’let’s hope we’re all more rational about this tomorrow.’’

Admittedly, it’s a poor attempt at a joke and the game maker knows it too, smiling sheepishly.

As it is, no one is prepared for the soft sound that escapes their captain.

Kyousuke doesn’t care about the alarm clear in his voice when he asks, ‘’Tenma?’’ because he can’t see his best friend’s face from here and that sounded suspiciously like he’s about to cry.

He’s seen Tenma cry maybe twice before, but it’s never fun when it happens. He thinks it’s because the brunet doesn’t want to bother them with it, and it leaves him all the more worried, because when it happens it means Tenma’s truly at his limit.

The senpai have frozen, just as taken aback by the sudden change as the forward. Shindou has taken half a step forward, reacting physically before his mind really catches up, but unsure of how to continue now. ‘’Tenma?’’ he asks, and that’s what sets him off.

Tenma whips around at breakneck speed, eyes red but dry. He looks furious. ‘’If all you’re going to do is question my judgement, why did you choose me to be captain?’’ he snaps, words directed at Shindou, but his misery is betrayed by his wavering voice. ‘’I can’t do anything right in your eyes anymore!’’

‘’I-‘’ the older brunet stares at him, lost for words for a few seconds. ‘’Pardon?’’

Kyousuke would flinch if he wasn’t still so stunned by Tenma’s sudden outburst – Shindou resorting to formal language with any of them is never a good sign.

‘’All you’ve been doing is telling me how I’m wrong! Well, I’m sorry for not living up to your standards!’’

‘’Matsukaze Tenma!’’ Sangoku snaps. ‘’You don’t talk to your elders like that!’’

And never, never has Tenma raised his voice against Sangoku – he respects the keeper, possibly more than he respects anyone else on the team, but right now he doesn’t seem to care at all. ‘’But he does get to talk to me like this?’’ he retorts sharply, shoulders drawn so tight it seems physically uncomfortable. ‘’How is that fair!’’

‘’Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,’’ Shindou suddenly interferes, having found his voice again, and Tenma crosses his arms as he looks away, refusing to meet the strategist’s gaze. At that, Kyousuke really does flinch, and for good reason – because it takes their elder friend a mere second to break out of his shock and lash out. ‘’So now you’re going back to ignoring me? Real mature, Matsukaze.’’

Kyousuke has always been thankful for their former captain’s sharp tongue. This might be the first time he’s anything but.

Why did their smartest member also need to possess such a short fuse?

From the corner of his eye, he sees Nishiki wince, and Kirino roll his eyes – and then sees their expression fall into shock, no doubt mirroring his own, as Tenma suddenly gives a humorless laugh.

‘’You want to talk about maturity, Shindou-san?’’ grey eyes are ablaze with both fury and hurt, the brunet gripping his arms so tightly his tanned skin is drained of blood. None of them have ever heard such venom in his voice before. ‘’At least I don’t bully others because of a childish grudge! Grow up already, senpai.’’

For a second, Shindou’s face falls, although his expression hardens again immediately afterwards.

Instead of the angry shout from before, this time he sounds clipped and cold as he says, ‘’I don’t think I’m the one here who needs to grow up. Why do you think I question your judgement when you behave like this?’’ It seems like he wants to add more, but Kirino’s hand on his arm stops him. The defender mutely shakes his head when angry brown eyes find his own, and after a moment, Shindou sighs.

Kyousuke barely notices that, though. His attention is trained on Tenma, mind racing with questions.

It’s why he sees how Tenma angrily averts his gaze from the interaction between his two senpai, why the young captain suddenly notices his attention. It’s why he sees him waver, for just a moment, before his shoulders draw up defensively again and his face hardens as he stares unwaveringly at the forward. A challenge, if he’d ever seen one.

Kyousuke doesn’t understand why.

And he’s always used his words sparingly, but that doesn’t mean he’s afraid to speak his mind. It’s why he dares to ask, ‘’What’s wrong with you?’’

He tried to make his voice sound a bit softer, because his intention wasn’t to attack – this is his best friend, his first friend, why would he ever want to hurt him? – but Yuuichi has always told him to practice his people skills and suddenly he understands why.

‘’Are you serious?’’ Tenma asks, and then he shakes his head and turns away without saying anything else.

The forward finds himself at a loss for words – just what has made the brunet so upset? And what do he and Shindou have to do with it? Because it’s becoming more and more obvious that Tenma isn’t only shutting their elder friend out.

He’s pushing Kyousuke away too.

‘’Tenma,’’ Sangoku says, and he sounds stern enough that it gets the captain to look at him. ‘’Shindou.’’ He crosses his arms and gives both brunets a sharp look. ‘’I don’t know what’s got the both of you so upset with each other, but you need to talk it out. It’s messing up the team, and,’’ he stresses the last word when he notices their captain averting his gaze again, ‘’it’s hurting you both. Don’t let your stubbornness ruin your friendship.’’

At least it seems Shindou is considering his words, however miffed he may still look.

But, again, it’s Tenma who is frowning, who is refusing to look at any of them. Instead he keeps his eyes trained on the floor and asks, ‘’May I be excused?’’ and despite his polite words, he sounds strained.

Sangoku shares a troubled look with Kirino and Nishiki, but then he sighs and gives the go-ahead. The next second, their young captain is brushing past them all and disappearing through the door, leaving them to stare at his retreating back.

For a few moments, silence falls between the remaining players, no one quite knowing what to say. Sure, Kyousuke has noticed signs of this weeks ago already – maybe even before that – but it’s never been this bad.

He huffs, and shakes his head. Leave it to Tenma to get inside his head like this, to get them all so wound up for some unknown reason.

And yet, even as Kyousuke and the others begin to make their way back to the clubroom, he can’t ignore the dread settling in the back of his throat.

No matter how hard he tries to ignore it, he can’t get the furious look on Tenma’s face out of his mind.

————

I hope you enjoyed it! It doesn't quite answer your questions, sorry for that, but this is only a sneak peek of a larger series of one-shots - titled ''Limits'' - that I will hopefully post one day soon! This is directly related to Tenma's interactions with Shindou (and in part Tsurugi) during Galaxy - and beyond that, to the very start of the anime.

Remember how Raimon wasn't exactly the greatest team in the first few episodes? Yeah, Tenma does too.

Which is interesting because he doesn't seem like the person to hold a grudge, instead bottling it all up - until he's pushed to the limit and, well, the above happens.

I know it's not a complete answer, but I hope you're satisfied with this!

[gamerism]

Kiryu Kazumi is an interesting exercise in fandom, in my opinion. And I wanna talk about that.

[Kazumi is the fan created drag persona for Kiryu. Often Kiryu is genderfluid or exploring identity through her.]

Kazumi places a few tiers down the "non-canon fandom iceberg". She exists in response to Goromi who is already a very minor thing in canon, and was written as a Bit/with the intent to make an offensive joke about drag/ect, the fandom were the ones who made Goromi mean more than that. So Kazumi is a layer down from all of that already.

Despite her existence being entirely fanmade, she's not a vehicle for the fandom to cannibalise the source material into something unrecognisable purely for fanworks' sake. Though she might look it on the surface.

If the fandom decided to make Goromi mean something because she's the most blatant moment of queercoding for Majima in a long history of queercoding for him, then her theme is ultimately masculinity in canon.

Which is absolutely what Kazumi is about. Kiryu sits at the very beating heart of Like A Dragon's themes about masculinity. Be it toxic, be it ideals, be it the kind of appearances you're expected to maintain in the yakuza. Kiryu shoulders the heavy burden of them all.

We see him exhibit both positive and toxic masculinity throughout the series. But what the games have rarely brought up for him, is the rejection of masculinity in any context, or at least, femininity in equal amounts.

This isn't really surprising, if they're unwilling to make Majima say he's gay with his own mouth after using queerness as a means to Other him and make him seem dangerous, untrustworthy and even scary...they're certainly not going to have their shining beacon of Honour, Kiryu, do that. (Majima's queerness and coding has changed role somewhat over time and is generally more neutral or positive in positioning now. But even as recently as Yakuza Kiwami, it was being used in a negative way.)

So Kazumi serves the purpose for fans who wish to delve more deeply into that thorny complex relationship to masculinity.

[Kazumi In Kiwami 2 On NexusMods] By kiryussideburns.

Personally I find the idea of Kiryu exploring Kazumi as a means of escape, as a means of fully free self expression (something Kiryu has never had), really really interesting. I also find the time frame she's generally written in interesting. Most people place her post-2005. Kazama is dead. This is a hugely important factor in Kiryu's willingness to take the risk to explore gender expression. Kazama is not the kind of man who approves of any (perceived) weakness in men. In Kiryu and Nishiki's lives he's who instills a lot of toxic aspects of masculinity in them. I'd also hazard a strong guess that he's homophobic, though we don't actually know that.

The next largest factor is that December 2005 is the point where Kiryu leaves the Tojo Clan permanently. Kiryu definitely still cares a great deal deep down about his image and public perception within the underworld after leaving, but his day-to-day is no longer dictated by the rules of that life.

(Some people, me included, also dabble in Kazumi in 1988. But the same things essentially apply there. Kazama is in prison & as far away as he can functionally be while alive. And Kiryu is out of the Tojo Clan temporarily.)

As someone so enamoured with this exploration of gender expression for the character, I was floored when LAD Gaiden allowed Kiryu to wear makeup. Seriously, I had to go lay down to calm down about it when playing Gaiden day of release.

(Gaiden's lighting is very contrasted, I did my best to find a screenshot where you can actually see the makeup.)

The makeup, nail polish and pearl earrings in the Boutique was kind of unbelievable to me. I know RGG didn't really mean anything by it, that they didn't make those customisation options because they were going to touch on these themes. But even the hint of that in canon, it was so much more than I ever expected....even if it did go nowhere, as I knew it would.

It kind of gives me hope that Goromi might mean something more than just an offensive joke (in canon anyway) in the future. Or if not Goromi than something else, in LAD9 or such. Either way Kazumi will continue to be fandom legacy for gender expression, presentation and what the expectations Kiryu & other characters have resting on them mean.

[yakuzabrainrotlive]

Did start Yakuza 5 yesterday! I played for 6 hours, had a BLAST. Finished chapter 1 and got a good amount of time put into chapter 2. I enjoyed going around town, grinding and doing side content. Had to gather my thoughts so posts had to come later. Yes, this is a two-parter.

My stats at the end of my little session:

Some thoughts below! I made NOTES for myself on characters and such this time around. This post is gonna be more plot and character speculation-focused; the next post will be more about gameplay mechanics, side content, general thoughts etc.!

Small-ish rant/monologue about protagonist numbers in the last section, though. Could have gone into part 2, but wanted it off my chest asap lmao

This title screen is sooooo not ominous!! I did not shiver in fear of what's to come when I saw it!! I'm sure Kiryu will be having a BLAST this game!

....🥲😭

SO! We're in 2012. Two years, huh. Seems like everything has kinda gone the opposite way from my wishes after the end of Y4, especially in regards to Kiryu.. or should I say, Suzuki's character. I really wanna know what happened in these past years to make him run away like this. He seems MISERABLE!! I feel bad for him😭

Daigo infodumping to Kiryu about Tojo business while Kiryu was just trying to get his paycheck was kind of funny to me, not gonna lie. But also kind of sad. Kiryu seems to be trying even harder to cut off anything Tojo from his life, even as Daigo was trying to reach out. I'm so curious about this time skip era!! Give me the tea!!

Okay. I was kinda assuming Morning Glory was gonna be left behind or kind of in the background (based on Kiryu's outfit), but... Haruka as well, huh. That's. Yeah. And he (debatably) hasn't straight up just abandoned them 100%, he's putting SIGNIFICANT and harsh distance between himself and the people he cares for. Ouch. Feels eerily similar to what he did in Y0 with Nishiki, Kazama, Reina and Kashiwagi.

This is all very... drastic. Changing his name, moving away and leaving EVERYONE behind? Including Haruka? This is exactly the opposite of what Kiryu was vowing to himself, to Daigo and even to Saejima in a way back in Y4. Either the writers changed their minds about his arc or something is off. I'm dreading finding out which one it is. Currently I feel like he's either actively in major danger right now, and hence decided to resort to such measures, OR something happened that he blames himself for.

I love Nakajima. He's so good! In general as a person (at least it seems that way) AND to Kiryu. Which probably means he's gonna die. RIP in advance, King🫡🫡

This dynamic is either gonna be absolutely insufferable, or maybe kind of okay. I have no predictions on how this will turn out, I was completely wrong about Kiryu's possible character arc in this game so... idk. Kiryu has blindsided me. But for now I don't think this will become a romance.

What I find interesting is the tidbit Nakajima gave about the situation where Kiryu saved her, where Nakajima also met him for the first time - Kiryu was getting DESTROYED in a fight. Kiryu, destroyer of whole clans, the one-man army, getting his shit kicked in by random local yakuza? Was he trying to refrain from using any sort of violence (even in self-defence??), or... was he recovering from significant injuries he got before the fight?

Now, I'm just assuming, based on Mayumi's character profile section and Nakajima's description of the woman Kiryu saved (she was very pretty) that Mayumi IS the woman Kiryu was defending when Nakajima first met him. I'm quite sure it was her.

What I wouldn't give to hear his thoughts in this scene... I was very conflicted the whole time; on one hand I wanted to SHAKE Kiryu and side with the Tojo guys. Why abandon Daigo? I understand it's probably just so he doesn't get stuck in another Tojo mess, but... it's Daigo!! Come on!! But I can also see that Kiryu feels... guilty?? Conflicted?? There was a storm of EMOTIONS brewing in his eyes. What a mess. He clearly doesn't like the situation but he also really wants NOTHING to do with it.

Kinda off topic, but massive props to those two for taking Kiryu on so boldly despite knowing who he is (was? I have no idea). They are Tojo men, they've heard the stories. Yet, they still tried. The balls on these guys!!

As for the man of the hour... Daigo. MIA - conveniently right before this alliance (opposed by some important people) gets to fully come to fruition, as the current leader of the Kansai group is dying soon����

I feel as though Daigo knew something would happen. He sought Kiryu out and was quite insistent to talk to him. At the beginning of the game I found the lore dump he dropped on Kiryu's unwilling mind weird and almost amusing, but looking back on it now... it almost feels like he was giving Kiryu information he'd need to solve the case if he happened to go missing. He even named possible suspects.

Why not go to a trusted clan member? They'd probably throw a hissy fit and wanna call everything off, maybe even start a new, very bloody conflict. All just because Daigo suspected something might happen to himself. This whole situation stinks.

Current theory: one, or all three, of the Kansai leader hopefuls are in cahoots with the uhhh *checks notes* Yahata(?) dude. The Yamagasa family captain. Why? To stop the alliance because they all hate the Tojo clan. They probably have Daigo locked up. Or maybe Daigo is dead already.

One final thing: was NOT thrilled to see "Part 1: Kiryu Kazuma" 😬 I was kinda hoping for a single-protag game, tbh 👉🏻👈🏻

Okay, hear me out! IF the other protag(s) is/are the Yakuza 4 lads, I'll be okay! But if there's a new guy (or, god forbid, 2 of them), I don't know if I'm gonna like that. I liked Y4 a lot, but it was also a lot to keep track of, and it felt like everyone got very little time in the spotlight - especially Kiryu and Saejima.

I'm almost suffering from... new protagonist fatigue after 4. I'm okay seeing many new side characters, but new playable characters with their own fighting styles that I have to learn, human relationships, backstories and motivations... Getting to know and to "bond with" another batch of new playable people seems like a very tiring task to get through at this point.

If we have 2+ protagonists, I want them to be from Y4 or earlier, because I already know them in a way and I'm not opposed to seeing more of them because it doesn't seem as overwhelming. I wanna see more of Saejima at least, if we HAVE to have alternating protagonists.

[imustbenuts]

sits down and thinks

Infinite wealth spoilers and half baked analysis and thoughts

Infinite wealth

Ig this comes across easier in Asian culture context but the wealth in infinite wealth doesn't mean money. It means bonds. (EDIT: by which i mean JP and Chinese.)

The short of it, the words used to describe relationships, karma, luck and fate all are rooted in the idea of threads. These words when written in kanji all have the thread 糸 radical in it. 縁 en is the common kanji word here.

And since luck is deeply tied to money, the idea of Infinite Wealth here is absolutely not (strictly) money. Given how the rgg series and their writers or even Japan has been disillusioned with the bubble boom, and ichiban will turn his back on money over bonds, this tracks for me.

And this is constantly reflected in the stories and substories. The "wealth" of a person is reflected in the bonds between people. It's not a coincidence the game throws old characters from previous games and substories along Kiryu's way. That's the wealth he's accumulated, the wealth that actually matters once he's at the end of his life where money can't save him from what sounds like terminal cancer. It's Haruka and Haruto and the orphanage and Four Shine and all the people he's helped who's more than happy to carry him if he asks.

The "payoff" is constantly in the reciprocating of a person's virtues in terms of kindness, compassion and patience.

Fuck it's getting to me again fuckfuckfuck--

Ending scene

Ebina and ichiban not meeting but being set up to mirror Nishiki and Kiryu's brother relationship...

And kiryu going from recognizing the pattern to outright understanding a repeat of something similar and just shutting it down, chefs kiss.

Plus plus the entire ending scene is dripping with symbolism. I'm about to fucking vomit

So, sosososo-

I noticed by late game before the monologue, Ebina is being a hell warden karmic entity by essentially setting up an underground pain prison for a whole group of people deemed trash by society. And then he reveals his irezumi and oooh

I see I see. That's an oni and a pissed off snake. Nele island, the paradise/heaven of the palekanas getting turned into the karmic hell/jigoku is. Holy shit. Who wrote this?? I will kiss them??!

Someone on Reddit also did a more in depth write up on this and wow delicious . check out the top comment which is even more spot on

I also dk if this made it past the tonal barrier but jp kiryu literally begging ebina to let the yakuzas have a second chance is... Ough. as goofy as that scene was with kiryu planking on top of ebina, he was effectively on his hands and knees begging and I'm. Ow. Owowowowowow wow. OW.

Kiryu in that scene seems to be embodying a dragon. Whimsical, powerful fucks who appear whenever they feel like and according to myths are benevolent too. So when kiryu planks above it's signifying a dragon pleading with the hell warden to let a bunch of people go, almost with its last breath... Crying even that his tears falls on ebina's face, and ebina having this look realizing that the dragon is human. It got me. I finished rgg8 days ago and it's still getting me

WAUGH. IT GOT ME GOOD

Then kiryu collapses on top of ebina, almost as if all the weight and regret he's been carrying on his back comes literally crashing into ebina's reality, and ebina is probably so shocked he doesn't do anything for the rest of the ending.

WAUGH!! x2

GOOFY SCENE BUT I UNDERSTOOD THAT, AAAAA

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

Shout-out to Daigo for being the one with the most 'oh shit' expression and legging it to kiryu first. And Majima for legging it 2nd in the background. Man.

In spite of what kiryu says and believes I don't think he could have changed the Yakuza world that much though. One way or another there's just too many factors at play. Hes absolutely right in his speech about walking the grayest road there is.

Ough.

Ichigang

Love them.

Yu Nanba takes the cake for me here for being the most respectful and compassionate about knowing how to handle kiryu as a person with terminal cancer/disability. Ichiban echoes this too, but the way they are all playing support rather than forcing kiryu to do things makes it 11/10 for me

Older folks who lead rough lives and are fiercely independent like kiryu can be ANNOYING reconciling with their health. Bc of a mix of pride and their own lived era/environment, being seen as weak and disabled is deeply shameful psychologically (idk if this is the same in US/UK but I'm speaking from an Asia specific mentality here). In essence many resign themself to death and refuse treatment, medication, or even walking canes. Like they'd rather die than be burdens.

And kiryu def has echoes of this. I wanted to slap him so many times in his bucket list substory. Lmao

Chitose Fujinomiya

Interesting character. She seems to have gone through a "setting-up" arc in this game for future writing if it makes sense.

Her Fujinomiya name sounds like a shout-out to the Fujiwaras, a clan who had total political control of Japan all the way until 1868. These days their descendants have taken on different family names, branched off, and now control some zaibatsu in some of them.

And her family does indeed sound like a zaibatsu. More than likely with what I know above, she will have some political weight as the chairwoman now.

Chitose will be an incredibly valuable key character for future installments of RGG, especially with the political Daidoji faction running about. I'm stoked. The future installments can def go international if they want to. Current geopolitics in Asia has potential as a rgg backdrop especially when it comes to money and gangs.

We have Thailand with localized gangs calling the shots controlling the tourism there. Ie Thailand Tourist Mafias (Also human trafficking and sex tourism. Siam dius/Thai discos are very similar to cabaret clubs too.)

There's also background money laundering going on, where countries and their bank happily take less than clean money for their economy under tax haven schemes. (COUGH SINGAPORE COUGH). There are also lots of trafficking of people looking for jobs into other asian countries and forcing them to work in scam centers...

Basically lots of potential avenues if they wanted to write about these things. So. LETS GO. LETS GO CHITOSE WOOO

ICHIBAN

So much more to say but I'll end with this one. ICHIBAN.

Ichiban has made more progress in terms of emotional and social development, and turning that into proper positive actions, than kiryu has done at that age.

I don't mean this as a diss either but where kiryu was incredibly flawed in his lone wolf ways and unable to leverage his connections with his circumstances, Ichiban keeps pulling through with it. And kiryu to be fair could not have been able to do the same where the Yakuza environment and politics were as fucked as it is in his time.

Both approaches have their pros and cons though, bc Ichigang is now in a position to get sniped if the environment around them turns for the worse.

Idk if it's going there but. Huhu! :3c

I want more but I'm happy and satisfied for now but also if anyone touches me I fear I'm gonna to explode. Waughghhhhhhggr.

Screams

[tg-pilled]

touka for the character thing?

favourite thing about them: I love that she was allowed to be girly while also kicking ass. I feel like in anime and a lot of modern media, people don't allow strong female leads to be girly AND strong, it's always one or the other. I love that she likes pink and fuzzy things and that her mask is still cutesy. Like imagine being killed and the last thing you see is a cute rabbit mask. THAT is badass to me

least favourite thing: Through no fault of her own, it was just the writing Sui Ishida put her through, but I don't like how she became so reliant on Kaneki in :re if that makes sense? I understand that she became pregnant (which is a whole other arc I fucking hate but anyways) and that she really did have a hard time with trust growing up and through Anteiku she learned trust again BUT in the same breath I feel like she was robbed of kicking ass in :re? Idk if that makes ANY sense 🗿

favourite line: "You pretend you care about other people but in the end it's all about you. You're just afraid to be left alone." GET HIS ASS TOUKA ‼️‼️

brOTP: Touka and Hide! I think they would be really good friends after everything goes down and that they's have gossip sessions IDKKKK. Hide would absolutely hype Touka up to ask out Yoriko. I also really love Nishiki and Touka too like they are clearly besties.

OTP: Touka and Yoriko :) They are the lesbians of all time ever. I made a whole little drabble and headcanon post for them and everything. They are SO sun and moon. I don't hate TouKen but I feel like their relationship should have been better developed.

nOTP: Anyone that isn't Kaneki or Yoriko I guess? Nishiki and Touka make me physically recoil so DEFINITELY not them. Plus Nishiki and Kimi are the heterosexuals ever.

random headcanon: She used to draw on herself when she was younger because it helped her calm down. She also drew on Ayato whenever he allowed it and it became a sort of way to bond and take care of each other before everything went to shit. I like to think that the last design Ayato drew on her arm was her first tattoo :)

unpopular opinion: She never needed to marry Kaneki to prove that she had value in his life. I know that it was to wrap the series up in a neat little bow and because she was pregnant BUT I feel like it was forced. She had value to Kaneki outside of just their romantic relations.

song I associate with them: Found Heaven - Conan Gray and Primary - The Cure

favourite picture of them: I have two and both are from the anime (I'm sorry) but her expression when she's called beautiful :( Breaks my heart every damn time bruh. And the second one is her being just,,,normal? She's just studying and calm and her bedroom is SO cute

[koorinokujira]

Yakuza 0 is a SPECTACULAR game and I'll shove my love for it in everyone's faces now - Chapter 2: Screenshot Extravaganza

Alright, now that I have emotionally recovered, I thought I'd share some funny screenshots I took in my first playthrough. I'll write the in-depth rambles about my favorite characters a lot later, as I got pretty sick today and I don't have any braincells left for it.

Spoilers inbound, look at your own risk! Anyway, here goes! The text above a picture is the one describing it (´｡• ᵕ •｡`)

I was wondering what would happen if I took a picture of the heat move with the nails. All I can say about it is HLBPHPHM?!

Truly the best manager we've ever had. I've seen this in a gameplay video before playing, but it still made me cackle.

I think it's just fine, Majima.

The worst best spies in the world!

This man was such a mood. Look, I know most of us probably like to think that we would be able to deck people like Kiryu or Majima if we were in the RGG universe, but most of us would most likely just be Youda-chan. But it's okay. He is best girl.

Guys I think there's something wrong with Kiryu's bro

Justice for my girl! Let her laugh like a cartoon villain!

Apart from this sub-story being ridiculous on its own, it just kills me that he was literally called "Formerly Fallen Guy" once he got up. Peak comedy

This was a great, epic moment, but I somehow managed to take a pic when Nishiki had the exact face I make when I am a guest at someone's house and they give me food that I don't like, and I have to eat it now to not insult anyone

Every single time I thought this game couldn't get funnier, it did. Big boy never got to space (｡╯︵╰｡)

Speaking of Mr.Shakedowns, I love how they just- took naps in the middle of the street. Goodnight, sweet prince

Majima? More like MOODjima.

Look, I know this isn't a funny screenshot, but I just had to flex with how I absolutely destroyed Ms. Isobe. For my Cabaret Club, of course. I absolutely wasn't pissed off because she kept beating me and I wanted revenge, no sir.

And last but not least, I tried to take an epic screenshot of Shibusawa getting decked (haha, get it, because they are on a boa- *gets shot*) but I forgot to press the button in time and it just ended up looking absolutely stupid, enjoy

That's all the funny pictures I have! I also took a lot of cool/serious ones too, but I'll use those in other posts. And like always...

Have a great day!

[kenzan-kiwami]

been hunting for excuses to write about him again before rgg8 and i finally found one

i didn't think much of this scene when i played through it initially, but going back to it i suddenly remember that scene from the start of yakuza 1 where he tells kiryu that kazama used to be the tojo clan's top assassin. being as close to kazama as he is, i have no doubt he already knows the true nature of sunflower and the deaths of kiryu and nishiki's parents at this point.

a big part of the reason i like to lowball kashiwagi's age (29 or 30 in Y0; mid-sixties in IW) is because i don't think he'd have had such an idealised view of kazama had he been any closer in age to him when they first met. i don't know if they'll ever tell us how long kashiwagi was in the family before he made captain, or why he swore up in the first place, and frankly i don't ever feel informed enough to make those kinds of decisions for my own headcanon. but if he was, say, in his late teens or early 20s, i don't think it would be a stretch to say he might still take some influence from kazama's mentality. absolutely not as much as if he was a sunflower kid (...could he have been a sunflower kid??), but enough to inform decisions he makes later in his life.

to wander further down the path of non-canon, i'm not sure kashiwagi would have decided on his own not to say anything to the boys for thirty-odd years. kazama clearly harbours a lot of guilt around the fact he murdered enough parents to fill an orphanage, and keeping it from the kids means he doesn't have to confront that fact every day he sees them. they miss their parents, but they look up to kazama for offering them a new life. they enjoy his company. they're happy. why risk demoralising them, kashiwagi, after all that?

on the other hand, he could have just kept himself out of it on purpose like he does here. it's an interesting parallel to how he's described in yakuza 3 - staying out of ichiban's drama because he trusts him to sort it himself, vs staying out of clan drama to not bring anything down on his head as clan captain (which obviously doesn't work). still, he refuses to relay daigo's whereabouts to kiryu, because he thinks it best kiryu doesn't know. for valid reasons, but it's there.

i want to say something profound here but i don't think i can. i just really like him in this game. it's nice to be able to see how he's grown and changed as a person since the 80s; since kazama's death; since he got gunned down in his office and died in the arms of his last remaining family figure. but it's also nice to see the ways in which he's stayed the same. this scene from 7 is one of the things that makes me long for a more kazama-centric game, or at least more exploration of kazama's character, because if that gaiden substory is anything to go on he's been informing kiryu's decisions for basically his entire life. it'd be cool to get a more direct peek into kazama's story.

[cowboymantis]

(Spoiler free for the Yakuza amazon series, just vague thoughts! HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT WETHER YOU'VE PLAYED YAKUZA BEFORE OR NOT!!)

I didn't want to finish it yet (because that means it's over), but I have now finished the Yakuza show, and BOY did I already love the first episodes, but it was even more peak in the last ones 😭😭😭😭

I was so excited for it, although the fandom showed its annoying side again, but I didn't let that influence my happiness for it, and I just enjoyed it to the fullest 🙏 Of course I had some worries before watching, but it was just really good. Perfect? No, but let's not act like Yakuza 1 is perfect either (I'm saying this as someone who had Yakuzer brainrot for many years now and is never escaping it), and the fandom now all of a sudden wants to act like Yakuza 1 is the greatest masterpiece ever and how everything that changes it is BAD

Anyywayy...

Definitely really loved the focus being more on the Sunflower kids and how they grew up and eventually got tangled into the Yakuza business! It made one scene in particular WAAY more emotional and sad than in the games 🥺

And wow. They really bamboozled us with hiding a certain character from us, huh...

Loved how many actors I recognised :'D Some were definitely a surprise, because we didn't know much of the cast beforehand!

I remember when they first showed a photo of Indy, and I thought, huh. He kinda looks like Namioka Kazuki (Sid's actor from Kamen Rider Gaim). But I might imagine things because I've been watching some dramas with him in it (I absolutely love his roles they're so embarrassing but funny but also kinda adorable (like Sid for example 😭)). BUT THEN HE APPEARED AND IT TOTALLY WAS HIM . AND HE WAS WEARING A COWBOY HAT HELLO???

Another thing I enjoyed was the mystery around the demons! Something completely new that leaves you speculating from the start. I was guessing who they might be other than that they're working with a certain character, for the longest time I thought maybe they could be the Jingweon, because of the masks. Of course not saying anything to that, but yeah. I cannot really tell how much I liked the resolution to that, since uh. I have questions left ldjdkf

The finale was just great too, and this one scene that looked a lot like the Yakuza 7 finale...

And so so many beautiful and aesthetic scenes with Nishiki 🥲 He's truly the goat in every version... And a poor little meow meow 😭

At first, I was unsure if I could take him seriously because I knew his actor from the drama Super Salaryman and . Well. Let's just say he's unbearable (in a funny way).. But his actor really did SUCH a perfect job in portraying him, and sometimes his voice reminded me so much of game Nishiki 🥺

Speaking of Nishiki, a Yakuza stageplay Nishiki and Amazon series Kiryu collab would be funny. It would be like a Kamen Rider Gaim X Kamen Rider Drive collab, but Yakuza 💀 Kamen Rider and Yakuzer are always weirdly connected...

Oh!! And another thing, the soundtrack fr sounded like straight out of the games sometimes, it was really cool! And the music during the finale was so hype it probably could be a cool final boss theme in the games :) Or at least a final long battle theme!

Majima was fun too, although I feel like if you know absolutely nothing about Yakuza and Majima, you'd be a bit confused about him. He really feels like you have to know him to be excited about him, if that makes sense?

But then, on the other hand, there's a big "plot twist" at the end of the show, and it almost even feels like a dramatic cliffhanger. But it's something everyone who played the game knew, and I kinda assumed it a bit to be canon to the show too. So yeah, I feel like this is a bit of a problem with this show: It can't decide whether it is purely for fans of the games, or newcomers. Or maybe they just added a mix of game canon and new canon to make it more exiting for both sides? I always try to see criticism I give in another light, aka "why did they do it this way?", so I'm a bit conflicted in certain choices!

[bookdragonofsomekind]

*****Manga Monday 02*****

Tokyo Ghoul volume 2

Summary:

Meet Kaneki who finally has found a job and a position in life that does not make him miserable anymore. After taking his first new steps in ghoul world he comes around new challenges. 

Because ladies and gentlemen it gets spicy. 

Kaneki has his first encounters with ghouls who aren’t bad at all and human hunting ghouls who are totally evil. So now Kaneki is more confused then ever and has to sort out on which side he will stand from now on… will he keep to himself or will he stand up for him and others and fight?

That might me a bit much for an 18 year old.

Poor Kaneki. 

New characters you will meet in this volume:

Yomo 

Ryouko Fueguchi 

Hinami  Fueguchi

Koutarou Amon 

Kureo Mado 

Uta 

Quotes I particularly liked:

"For us to blend into human society, it’s basically like walking on an endless tight rope.“ - Uta

"I was about to scream. The only thing I could do was to keep her from seeing it.“ - Kaneki

"What’s tragic isn’t that we can’t retaliate. What’s truly tragic is being consumed with vengeance and not being able to live your life anymore“ - Mr. Yoshimura

My thoughts:

As I said… it gets spicier. The plot I mean. I liked this volume way more than the first one. That might be because the first volume came with little surprises (again my partner is to blame) but the second one has me more intrigued.

First and foremost Kaneki. He has survived the fight with Nishiki and won. Even better, he now learns to make coffee. The job gives him stability and the owner of the "Anteiku" Mr. Yoshimura is his new role model when it comes to the survival in the human world. Because eating like a normal human being is still Kaneki's biggest nemesis. But not for very much longer. Now being a part of the ghoul world he quickly has to learn that ghouls can be as good as humans and humans as bad as ghouls. And that’s why I say it finally gets complicated! And I loved this by the way. Kaneki can not see black and white anymore. Ghouls bad. Humans good. Oh boy was he wrong. 

For example as good as a flower… Hinami Fueguchi. A little ghoula just existing beside her mother Ryouko Fueguchi. Hinami recently lost her father and is now fighting with her mother for survival. When I first saw Hinami with the book in her hands I almost instantly knew that Kaneki and Hinami will have a connection. And I am glad to say that I was not wrong. The interaction between him and Hinami was very cute. It showed Kaneki furthermore that ghouls can be as sweet and innocent as one can be. No monsters in sight. I also think that this was the first time that Kaneki bonded with a ghoul that is not Mr. Yoshimura. Having a good time and even smiling.

So… it was even more heartbreaking for him to see Hinami in such pain when her mother was brutally murdered. But a bit later more to that. 

Moving on to new characters! Uta. I have to say he is my new favourite so far. From his character design to his way to interact with poor, scared Kaneki. Uta not being afraid of physical touch and a creative mind Kaneki is in good hands with his future mask. 

A mask that Kaneki doesn’t know the usage of. He does not want to have trouble with anyone and he definitely does not want to hunt humans. I still don’t know exactly how Uta got the idea for Kaneki’s mask and I also don’t know if I like the mask or not. But hey it looks professionally made. Soo good job Uta. 

Someone who should visit the mask maker is Yomo. He is giving me spy vibes. I also think that you don’t want to mess with him. Knowing absolutely nothing of him… I don’t know… I like him. He cares for his people. He "shops" for Mr. Yoshimura and is kinda acting like the security for the 20th ward. He is clever and strategic. He doesn’t let his feelings overcome him. Unlike Touka. 

Touka is a troubled soul. In this volume she seems even angrier to me than in the one before. She is overcome with grief and therefore revenge. I can’t blame her. She seemed more then shook about the execution of Ryouko. I kinda got the theory that something like this tragedy happened to her when she was growing up. I mean where are her parents? (I hope to get an answer next volume or so). Also… who hurt her?! When she trains Kaneki to get control over his kagune, she mentions that she will train him like she was trained. Who in the ever loving fuck trains someone like this. I highly doubt that it was Mr. Yoshimura. But breaking someone’s finger just to get him riled up is something else. But I have to say, the girl can fight. And she is not afraid of cold blooded murder. It was awesome to see her fight those doves. And we even got a new fun fact: like Ryouko, Toukas type of kagune is an ukaku. Very pretty! Ryoukos I mean. Another fact about Touka. She is stubborn. Not listening to "orders" she attacks the doves anyway and deals with the consequences alone (if Kaneki would let her).

But now taking a closer look at the new trouble maker. Mr. Koutarou Amon and Mr. Kureo Mado. Aka bad cop and worse cop. You don’t want to stand on opposite sides of these two. I’m pretty sure that Amon has some glorified reasons why he wanted to be a hunter but for Mado I can’t say the same. He is just crazy and at first sight he is Igors brother from "Frankensteins monster". The way that he openly enjoyed the cold cruel murder of Ryouko or the fight with masked Touka… it gives me shivers. On the other hand Amon is not giving me that much safety either. For him the world is still black and white. And he is ruthless. Oh and even better… he’s ambitious. I’m telling you: best combination ever! Together they are like bloodhounds and they now have a new prey. Touka. And they just smelled blood!

The element of the doves is very nice.  It adds so much depths for Kaneki now living in both worlds. New conflict with his own morals. I have to say that I didn’t really expect to find out that the food source for ghouls would be corpses from successful suicide attempts. But it’s clever on the no killing part… even though I’m pretty sure that it is not ideal. I mean if a person who killed themselves isn’t found… there will be others searching for them. But hey… you win some you loose some. 

Gotta say… this volume really got me intrigued. I could say that I was missing something last time when I finished the first volume. But now… oh Boy I’m excited to start the next one. The characters Uta and Yomo really made it for me. Not to mention Quasimodo and his companion. Still, questions are there and no answers to be found!

Please leave your thoughts and be kind and don’t spoiler anything!

Thank you for taking your time!

Please feel free to discuss your thoughts, I would like to hear them!

I will see you in a week with a new volume!

[woundedheartwithin]

1, 4, 9, 16, 21 and 25 for Nishiki and Ryuzo (the one from GoT. I just learnt there's another Ryuzo in the Judgment series)

No worries, I knew who you meant!

Nishiki

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

I like him cuz he’s this pathetic wet cat of a man who locked himself into a hell of his own making. We talk about Kazama being a horrible dad, and Yuko’s death pushing him over the edge, but at the end of the day he made a series of bad decisions because he was jealous of Kiryu and I love that. In Y0 and in the flashbacks in YK1 he’s so fucking pathetic and sad, and you just wanna sit him down and go listen, you’re an idiot, let me help you. All of this is terribly affectionate btw, I love Nishiki. He’s a loser and a try hard and Kiryu loves him with his whole heart and so do I (I have a lot to say about the parallels between nishiki and kiryu, masato and ichiban, and mabuchi and zhao too, but I’ll stop here lol)

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Well he’s been in a movie, but I’d love to see a novelization of the yakuza series tbh

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Absolutely fucking not lmfao

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

Mmmmm, I don’t really care one way or another. I guess if I had to pick one it would be nishikiri (I’m so sorry, I know you like them!) but I’m not particularly adverse to it. I just like other ships better

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

I haven’t written anything for him

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

My first impression was Y0 and it was omg bestie. I called him all the time to do the mini games with him. Now it’s basically the first answer. He’s a pathetic wet cat of a man and I love him

Ryuzo

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

I like him because a) he’s hot, and b) he’s also a pathetic wet cat of a man trapped in a hell he made himself. He and Jin are actually quite similar to Nishiki and Kiryu huh? I like him for a lot of the same reasons I like Nishiki.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

MOVIE MOVIE MOVIE AS LONG AS HES PLAYED BY LEONARD WU

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Lmao probably not. I feel like he’d be an absolute slob

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

Uuuuuuh… huh. I don’t have a least favorite. I guess if you held a gun to my head I’d say Ryuzo/Khotun, but again it’s just because I like other ships better

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

I’ve written extensively for this character (as you know ❤️), and my favorite thing about writing him is having him make catastrophically bad decisions and having them backfire almost immediately lol. Just like in canon!

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

Then? Hot. Now? Lmao what a loser hot

[captain-astors]

Hii! Can I please have 12, 28, 26 and 20 for my baby boy Tsukiyama? :D

SHUU SHUU SHUU SHUU- pardon my joy I’m very fond of this flamboyant man. Of course!

12. Sexuality hc

Bi! It’s basically canon, additionally I saw him headcanoned as Quiromantic once, and though I can’t for the life of me remember by who or where, it made quite a lot of sense.

20. A weird headcanon (I’ve been given this number for him before but I can do it again.) 

I like the thought from the Shuu-does-top-surgery discussion that 1. He has extremely precise control over his Kagune actually, both for culinary reasons and because he’s not not nearly as durable as the average Kokaku, so the strategy he’s been taught when he’s forced to fight other ghouls himself is mainly “Stab for all you’re worth and run until Matsumae or Kanae can come help”, so he has to be able to aim for specific spots to attempt to disarm them. 

2. This second one isn’t one I take seriously, but it’s a funny crack hc. The headcanon itself because the thought of Kaneki going “We’ve heard rumors that our adversary was associated with the restaurant, do you recognize him Tsukiyama?” to be replied with “Oh yes I performed his gender reassignment operation” (because we all know he wouldn’t just say it normally) to everyone’s confusion and shock is golden. 

26. When do you think they were being "themselves" the most?

Shuu goes through a lot of growth throughout the manga, but he actually remains fairly consistent until the Tsukiyama Extermination and even then he isn’t necessarily out of character, so much as he acts as if that event never even happened. Probably not up until the restaurant, nor during it as that’s all kind of just a collection of flimsy luring facades, and though there’s an argument that said acts of performance are who he is, but their existence in of themselves deters me from saying that a little. When he’s a part of Kaneki’s team he’s still lying to them and himself, so I’d say his most vulnerable moment is also the most “him”, aka when he begs Kaneki not to sacrifice himself but still can’t bring himself to actually try to fully kill the guy because he’s faintly aware he can’t change his mind, so he just cries on a roof while Nishiki gives him a coffee. 

28. The most unnecessary thing they ever did?

Is everything an option? He’s such an excessive idiot I love him dearly. But really, it’s difficult to pick just one event because that unneeded and impractical thinking is what makes Shuu himself, many moments come to mind but I’ll just go with tearing apart Madame A’s scrapper with his bare hands to save Kaneki. Come on man, you have enough social influence to just scream “Stop!” In that beautiful accent and the people will listen to you. But go ahead, guess it was important to sniff him and whisper in his ear or something. Also side note that came to mind as a result of that ask, I would've loved if we got to see Tsukiyama go absolutely feral on that guy and actually rip him into shreds with his teeth and hands alone but sure, just liquify him illogically because manga's got to manga. I want to draw something like that eventually, yes Shuu’s very fancy and I love that about him but I think he deserves to be a rabid creature once. As a treat.

[tokyoheiku]

Week 3: Osaka, Kyoto & Hiroshima

It's possible I packed too much into this week, already being absolutely exhausted from the previous two, but hindsight and all that.. I was subdued enough during week 2 that it was doable, which is good because this was an amazing week!!

Activities:

USJ - I was only really here for Super Nintendo World, let's be real, and it delivered. The way it felt like you were stepping right into a video game; the colours, the attention to detail, the characters everywhere... just a shame about the amount of people lol. so many. We got there early to ensure we got a decent SNW timeslot, because you can be waiting for easily hours to get in otherwise.

Fun aside, me and M were staying in different parts of Osaka, but somehow ended up on exactly the same carriage of exactly the same very delayed train??? So weird.

We got there with more than enough time to get an early timeslot, and I got myself one of the wristbands. It cost... like...£25... but without it you can't experience half of what SNW has to offer (bit of a rip off I know) - you can play minigames, collect coins, etc. Since it was likely the only time I'd be here and have this much time to explore I made the most of it though.

We beelined for the Mario Kart ride and only ended up queuing for about.. an hour..? Which for that ride is not bad at all. They made the queue as immersive as possible with lots of scenery, and the ride itself was worth it. I don't really know how to describe it so here's a video from Hollywood's iteration (which looks exactly the same internally!) to give you an idea. It was so much fuuuunnnn.

Rest of the day was food (another hour long queue lol and the food was .. fine), mini games and shopping. Overall I spent about 6 hours there :D

Fushimi Inari (at night!) - I've been before but it was a different experience going at night with only a small handful of other people around. I didn't climb too far! But far enough to take in the atmosphere and see a few stray Fushimi Inari cats :D A much more calm way to experience it, compared to being surrounded by hundreds of other climbers during the day!

Nishiki Market - a long hallway of various food & shopping stalls/shops. Not much to say about it but definitely worth the visit if you're going to Kyoto

Arashiyama - I didn't really know what to expect with this. I wanted to take a day trip away from central Kyoto and was torn between this and a few others, but in the end I'm glad I chose Arashiyama! The bamboo forest is a little contentious since it can get so busy, and yeah, there were quite a few tourists around but it was nothing compared to what I'm sure it gets like during peak periods.

The shopping opportunities were great, I ended up coming back with sooo much lol

The monkey park! Again I was a bit hesitant but google reviews told me it was worth it. Halfway up the mountain I was starting to doubt them - the climb was not fun. I met an Australian family who were also having trouble and we made friends climbing to the top lol. But once we made it up there, it proved itself; the views were amazing and the monkeys were a lot of fun to be around!

Peace Memorial Park - as sobering as you would expect. It was a very quiet evening, just around sunset, making for an even more atmospheric experience. Hiroshima is really lovely, and it's so sad that this is the reason it's famous. But it's worth seeing in real life.

Miyajima - a popular location to visit just off the coast of Hiroshima, Miyajima is famous for Itsukushima Shrine. Sometimes you can walk up to it but when I went it was still high tide, and to be honest, I think that was better. Nicer to look at it afar without tourists crowding round it. It was a gorgeous 22 degree day which made for beautiful scenery.

Miyajima also has wild deer wandering around trying to steal everyone's food lol, although unlike in Nara you're definitely not encouraged to feed them.

Food:

Okonomiyaki - Japanese cabbage/pancake/meat dish. Probably has to be experiened to be understood lol

Japanese crepes - the only time I had one, worth it

Flippers take 2 - this time lemon flavoured, and accidentally timed perfectly on pancake day! So, so good

Hanami Dango Frappucino - A Starbucks cherry blossom season speciality that I had like 3 times cuz it was so, so good. Hanami is 'cherry blossom viewing' and 'hanami dango' are the tricoloured sphere-on-a-stick desserts I've posted a couple of photos of, which have been turned into mini-dango for this drink. The drink itself is flavoured with cherry blossom and some other stuff... again difficult to explain if you don't know much about Japanese food/desserts but it was sooooooooooo good

Nakau - a chain restaurant I grew to adore. Hearty, delicious rice bowls for like, £3.50. yes please.

Momiji manju - Miyajima's speciality - maple leaf shaped dough filled with various different fillings. The cherry blossom filling was probably my favourite

By this point I was about ready to sleep for a week but I still had a few days to go - back to Tokyo for shopping!!!!

[peemanne]

Yakuza (PS2) Review: The Dragon's First Roar

oh hey look this one isn't a repost from my backloggd this time

original plan for this one was actually gonna be a video for a ranking of the whole series (to get some editing practice in) before i decided to scrap the idea so i thought "hey might as well repurpose it into a review review". so here we are!! yippee!!

This review contains major spoilers (and obviously also for Yakuza Kiwami, its remake)

Reviewed on September 23, 2023

Completed on PC (via emulator)

Rating: 7/10 (3.5 Stars)

(additionally, for reference, feel free to check out the patented Pee-Man's Jank Ass Play Order Graphic)

The spark that started a fire. I have a lot of respect for this game, even if it is sitting here at the bottom of the list. And I just want to say: I truly believe I haven’t played a single bad RGG game. And something tells me that’s gonna stay the same as I play the rest of them. I’m sure you’ve heard about it by now. This was Nagoshi’s passion project. He put his whole career on the line for this game, and, well, the series is still around today, isn’t it? Before I can even begin talking about it though, I have to get something very important out of the way. I played the English dub. Willingly, actually. I decided to play through the VERY infamous dub where the fandom’s one (1) joke would come from willingly. Now, was this a mistake? Yeah, probably. Should I have played the restoration patch? Yeah, probably. Would I recommend the dub to someone who would want to experience Yakuza 1? Probably not, no. But do I regret this decision overall? Oh, absolutely not. 

I’m sorry, the dub is just so, so good. Not in an actually well-made way, of course, but it’s still so good. This is textbook “so bad it’s good”. It added so much more memorability to this game, and I’m not even kidding. Kiryu shouts "FUCK YOU" very loudly at whatever poor soul he’s beating down whenever he uses a heat action. I don’t know how something can be so stupid, funny, and somehow still badass at the same time. Most of the casting wasn’t even that bad, honestly. It’s just the fact that the direction is awful. I cannot believe that “YOU WERE… MY REAL FATHER!” made it through. Still though: Kiryu was actually pretty decent for most of his runtime, Nishiki was surprisingly rather consistently good and even great in some cutscenes ("SHE WAS YUMI'S SISTER! WHO TOLD YOU TO KILL HER?!"), Goofy shows up as Date which is awesome, and Mark Hamil Majima. No, seriously, I’m still surprised they managed to bag him. It’s even funnier that he has absolutely no recollection of his character, too. 

There are moments in Yakuza 1 that I would not AT ALL remember if not for the dub. “I suggest you blow me” guy has the best vocal delivery I’ve ever heard in my life. The character where Kiryu beats up a bunch of color-themed gangs would not at all mean anything to me if it weren’t for “KILL THIS …………………………………. DUMB MOTHERFUCKER”. And my biggest example: Hayashi. One of the most famous lines from this mess of a dub, “Go! Kill this arrogant moth-er-fack-ar!”, naturally came from this clown. And because of that, I’d completely unironically have this guy on in my mind, which then made his appearance and subsequent unnaturally really good boss fight in Y2 much more meaningful to me. 

So TL;DR for the dub: it’s awful and that’s why it’s awesome. I would absolutely recommend playing the patch if you’re interested in picking this game up, but at the same time, I’m just saying, y’know, playing through the dub WOULD be pretty funny, man. 

Onto the actual game, and I’m just not the biggest fan of Yakuza 1’s combat. To give it credit, it was actually a lot better than I was expecting from the first ever entry of the franchise, but it’s still not the best for me. Kiryu feels pretty stiff at times, and you’re often fighting the camera more than the enemies. There is one thing the combat in this game just nails, though, and that’s IMPACT. The sound design here (and by extension the direct sequel) is just immaculate. You can really FEEL that damage. The heat actions all feel rough, brutal, and HEAVY, in a way that just hasn’t really been replicated since. Which is funny to think about, because they’re STILL reusing the heat actions from the PS2 games. 

I got a rush whenever Kiryu started the low health heat action and mercilessly pummeled through his opponent. I’d wince just a little whenever he’d smash a goon’s head against the wall. Your punches, your kicks, your tiger drops, they all have that “oomph” to them. Every hit just feels so naturally MEATY. I really appreciate that aspect, even if I found the combat itself to be mediocre. 

Now onto the story… Yeah, admittedly not a fan either. Again, dub, but even disregarding that, the plot’s pretty whatever. Cause take a look at something like Y4, right? Yeah, the story just took the biggest nosedive when the second half started, but everything in it was still unapologetically cool in that video-gamey kind of way that made you overlook some of that. And while Yakuza 1 undoubtedly does have some really sick scenes and setpieces, I just… don’t care about Yakuza 1’s plot. Nishiki and Kiryu’s relationship is like the one anchor that actually got me going, and even then you could argue pretty easily that even that was a little paper thin in some aspects. In retrospect, 0 just does so much heavy lifting for the fish boy, and I’m sure Kiwami adds even more to that. Still though, I do like the dynamic the two had in this game. Nishiki’s a pretty damn respectable villain. Maybe a little two-dimensional, but still solid. The confrontation with him in Serena is one of my favorite scenes in the game because of it. Sure, Nishiki in this game can kind of feel like “i used to be your buddy but suddenly i'm super evil and messed up now grahhhh” in some aspects, but you can still feel that bond he and Kiryu have, and the heartbreak that comes with seeing just how much those 10 years had drifted the two apart. The other aspects of Y1’s story were just kinda… alright, I guess. Jingu is an asspull and a half, and him being Haruka’s dad is honestly something I just forget most of the time. Shimano and the Triad are decent secondary threats, and now that I look back on it, their two long battles were really fun and memorable. And just about everything in between, I just didn’t really care for. The deaths were well-handled and mostly hit pretty hard, though. Reina and Shinji both kicking it back to back was effective, and made that rooftop showdown with Arase such a special encounter, added with the amazing Turning Point. Oh, and Kazama, I guess. He's there too, I suppose.

One thing I appreciate a lot though is how justifiably broken Kiryu is at the end of the game. In the span of like, a week, his entire world was flipped on its head, he lost his sworn brother, his father figure, love interest, and two close friends. The tough guy facade is long gone by then. By the end of it all, he’s obviously just broken. Practically suicidal, actually. And the only thing that manages to get him back on his feet is Haruka. It just makes Amazing Grace playing during the credits hit so much more. Overall, while there certainly are some strong points, I just found Yakuza 1’s story pretty weak. Again, dub, but still.

But if there’s one thing Yakuza 1 just nails perfectly, it's the atmosphere. The PS2 games have this really unique feel that hasn’t been replicated in the franchise since. It’s definitely the grimest and seediest Kamurocho’s ever felt. I know it’s a hardware limitation and all, and free-roam is strictly better, but the restrictiveness of the map adds so much. It’s almost claustrophobic, and makes those moments of panic where you need to rush to somewhere for the story really tense. 

It even reflects in the substories. Yakuza 1’s substory selection, on average, isn’t really strong. It’s filled with a lot of empty space substories and certain scam ones just kinda mesh into each other, but the ones that work, work REALLY well. 1-4 all have full-blown cutscenes for certain substories, and that does a lot for the feel and the memorability for each one. There are some great standout substories like The Truth About the Fake Yumi, The Yakuza’s Wife, and Man on a Ledge, which introduced us to Akimoto and Mizuki, and uh… alright I might wanna take that last one back… 

Still though, even with the whole annoyance of missable substories, (which for the record i am so so glad they got rid of) Yakuza 1 has some well-crafted substories worth lending an ear to, even if there’s not really any goofy haha silly ones. 

One experience I’d like to share is this substory where you have to find medicine for a guy on the streets. Naturally I just found him while playing through the story, so I just talked to him, said sure, I’d help, and I just continued whatever I was doing in the main story. I come back a few chapters later, only to find out someone completely different talking about how a guy who needed help died there. That’s how I found out you had failable, missable substories: I failed to help this guy, and the city sure didn’t care, and he just died unfairly because of that, on the cold, unfeeling streets of Kamurocho. That told me so much about both the tone of the game and of the city. 

Lastly: the OST. It’s a good ass soundtrack. Of course it is, it’s a Yakuza game. The first two games have a uniquely rough, edged feel to their soundtracks. It’s got an almost grunge-like rock to it, and I’m a fan of the tracks that came out of that. Some I’d just like to highlight are: 

son of a gun

Scarlet Scar

Pray Me

My personal favorite from the game, Turning Point

And of course, the iconic Receive You

Even if I do have some gripes with it, Yakuza 1 is still a pretty solid game. There’s a reason this series is still around today. I’d recommend a play for anyone interested; it’s a very unique experience and it’s cool seeing how much the series has grown, while at the same time seeing just how much they already had figured out on that first step. Just, play the patch. But also watch the dub. It’s very funny. 

Ten... Ten years in... I can't do this anymore, man. I can't. I- I'm done. I'm done, man.

[badboyportrait]

THE YAKUZA ASKS. (A) 1,2,8,9,13. (B) 1,4,5. (C) 2,3,9,11,12. any you want for D or E. (F) 1,3,5. hopefully this is comprehensible lol

ryu ga gotoku questionnaire!

A1: Favorite character(s)?

Kuwanya by far. Otherwise, I'm also fond of: Sugiura, Crow, Tanimura and Nishiki.

A2: Favorite game(s)?

LJ is my favourite story, but YK1 is dear to me for sentimental reasons. Plus, I really like the "fight this guy to level up your friendship" mechanic.

A8: Favorite song(s)?

Machine Gun Kiss! I spent a month or two trying to learn it by heart. Honourable mentions are Pure Love in Kamurocho and Akiyama's version of Baka Mitai.

A9: Favorite game location(s)?

Purgatory in Kamurocho, easily.

A13: Favorite minigame(s)?

Hostess clubs and Cabaret Club Czar. I like the chats!

---

B1: Which character do you relate to most and why?

u are evil for asking this (affectionate). There actually isn't a RGG character that makes me feel absolutely insane Relating To Them, but much like Sugiura, I too am a pretty boy who gets swept up in his emotions and sense of justice. I agree with Kuwana on a lot, too.

B4: Who would you like to post more about but you don’t? Why don’t you?

Answered here!

B5: Which character do you think you would bump heads with most if you knew them in real life?

Most of them. My first thought are the Dojima lieutenants tho. and Dojima himself ofc.

---

C2: Which game had the worst plotline?

Out of the ones i've played, YK2. Secret Koreans as a plot twist is. certainly a twist.

C3: Which character(s) deserved better?

And speaking of YK2, Ryuji and Kaoru!

C9: What was the most emotional scene in the series?

Y0 spoilers /////// Nishiki trying to mercy kill Kiryu and breaking down into tears. That was good. That made me feel insane.

C11: Which character has the best taste in clothing? Who has the worst?

YK2 daigo is my fav. I don't think anyone has bad bad fashion taste because the character designers would have given them all some kind of flair, but Murase in JE is not my kinda thing.

tis daigo, then murase. i feel like u know my fashion sense enough to infer this tho

C12: Whose voice do you enjoy hearing the most?

Akiyama, babyyy.

---

D2: Who is the most underrated character?

Arai and Kido!! I like them!!

E3: Return: Shinada or Tanimura?

Please, I'm dying and you have to water me with Tanimura.

---

F1: Who would you buy a drink? At which bar?

Akiyama, at Vincent. He just seems like the character most down to chill with. I'd want to buy Kuwana a drink at Survive too, but I don't know if I'd be brave enough to go through with it. tfw u are gay...

F3: Who are you inviting to karaoke?

I think the whole YKM99/YDA + Higashi crew would be fun. I can always duck in the nerd corner with Tsukumo/Sugiura when I get tired, and just watch Yagami/Kaito/Higashi be rowdy. If possible, I'd want Kuwana to be part of it too ;__;

F5: What would the first 5 pictures in your camera roll be of?

All the stray cats around Kamurocho. The giant crab fixture in Sotenbori. I feel bad photographing people without their consent, so I'd just tweet about all the weird shit that goes on, text only.

[todayisafridaynight]

beat yakuza 7 last night *muffled screaming*

[kingzephy]

I have to drag this to a text post cuz my reply is getting way too long and I wanna put these together!!

@slothfuljeremiah @nowhere302

A8 - Favorite song(s)?

Ohhhhh strap in I have a lot of songs to talk about. Gonna break this down by game. I decided against doing any of the karaoke tracks cuz that would be its own big list by itself!

0 - ‘Pledge of Demon’ (Kuze’s theme from the sewer tunnel fight) is sooooo good I think most people would say thats probably the best track from 0

I also absolutely ADORE ‘For Buddy’ (Nishikiama’s ‘For Who’s Sake’ remix from the Nishiki Majima fight) it has a completely different vibe from ‘For Who’s Sake’ and the significance of it is so good. It somehow makes ‘For Who’s Sake’ even sadder.

Honorable mention to ‘Receive You the Subtype’ remix (Majima’s mad dog style battle theme)! And the Telephone Club minigame tracks also slap

1/k1 - Is it cheating if I say ‘Receive You the Prototype’? Although I have to say, the k1 remix of ‘For Who’s Sake’ (Nishikiama’s theme from the final battle) is SO GOOD. So good...

Also… how could you not love 'Funk Goes On'?? Get Fuuuunky

2/k2 - HUUUGE FAN of ‘A Scattered Moment’ (Ryuji’s theme that plays during the final battle of 2. Its absolutely amazing, not at all what I was expecting his theme to sound like but it *perfectly* encapsulates him and the desperation and pain and sadness of the final battle in 2. One of my favorite tracks just overall.

3 - ‘Fly’ (Mine’s theme) is. Really good! I think just about everyone would say this one, I can’t really think of anything else from 3 that I would note soundtrack wise

4 - ‘Receive and Bite You’!! Majima’s receive you remix in this game is really good. So much tension leading up to the Majima Saejima batting cage fight. It hypes me up Every Time and its just very Him

5 - I thiiink im gonna have to go with ‘So Much More’ (Haruka’s…. Theme? I guess) it was stuck in my head the whole time I was playing her stuff in 5. Her other songs are good too ofc but if I had to pick one it would be that one. I know, loophole. Whatever 5 is different

6 - I really really like ‘Theory of Beauty’ (Joongi’s theme). Idk it just gets me so pumped up every time. Songs to get naked and fight to the death in the underground bdsm fight ring underneath Stardust to. Iconic. 10/10

I also really love ‘Destiny’ (Someya’s theme) its similar to how I feel with ‘A Scattered Moment’. It encaptures him and his struggle so well.

7 - Big BIG fan of both Majima and Kiryu’s receive you remixes from 7, ‘Receive You the Hyperactive’/‘Receive and Turn You’, and ‘Rolling Eyes Fall Down the Dragon Wall’ of course. Both of them are just incredible.

I also really LOVE ‘Confrontation/Brutality’, (Sawashiro’s theme) it just perfectly captures what he’s about as a character so nicely, I love him a lot. Plus it slaps incredibly hard. I think overall 7 has my favorite tracks. All the battle themes are also very good

C9 - What was the most emotional scene in the series?

This is TOUGH. Theres sooo many gut wrenching emotional scenes and these games are really REALLY good at them sometimes. Im gonna have to say something from 0 probably, that game made me cry several times on my first playthrough. So many memorable emotional scenes, but I think im gonna go with the ending. Without spoiling too much I think anyone whos seen it knows exactly what im talking about. This or the scene in the empty lot after a certain characters death (you know the one)

Honorable mention to y3 and the thing w Rikiya. yeah

D1 - Who’s the most overrated character?

First off before I say this, I really dont think ANY of the characters in this game are overrated. I stewed on this for a while, I just cant think of anyone id call truly overrated. But. Listen. Okay I cant believe im gonna say this everyone knows I love him so dearly he is my everything- but it’s Majima? I guess? I really don’t wanna call him *overrated* per se thats not the right word because he deserves all the love he gets, but he is just. so. He's Inescapable. I almost feel bad for anyone who likes these games but doesnt like him because hes quite literally everywhere- and. hes not even in the games that much!!! I quite literally cant think of any other character I could possibly say here

And its not that hes overrated, hes a fantastic character and hes SO fun to think about and analyze I love him dearly more than anything but he just blows everyone else out of the water? No contest. Its amazing. Theres just no other character quite as beloved as him in this fandom. For better or worse.

E4 - Ramen or Takoyaki?

Literally go fuck yourself. Dont pit two bad bitches against each other like this. An impossible question. Id rather die than answer this for real

F3 - Who are you inviting to karaoke?

Majima! Duh!! No question, he’s just TOO much fun- no other character has even half as much of a blast as him at karaoke. Irl I would be WAY too shy to do something like that around anyone but I think doing karaoke w him would be SO much fun and it would make me laugh like. A Lot

A5 - Favorite final boss(es)?

Im gonna be boring and say Ryuji because I love him, and he deserved so much better and that fight is so devastating. But I also really enjoy the final battle in 7, not because its particularly tough or entertaining its just the story significance of it is really cool. I wont spoil anything about it but I enjoy it!

Also. Honorable mention to Nishiki of course. I have to say him as well Rook brings up a good point tho…. final battle w Majima in y5 also..

Feel free to ask some more!