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arysthaeniru · 27 days ago

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I finally watched the Like A Dragon TV show, and man. Woof. Real mixed bag.

Now, I wasn't immediately biased against the show like most Yakuza fans were, when I heard they were deviating from canon a fair bit. I'm not somebody who's slavish to canon or timelines or lore or anything. I don't care if they change details or characters if it leads to a tighter, more coherent show. This is why Elementary is the superior modern-day Sherlock Holmes adaptation, despite deviating heavily from details/lore in the original books. This is pretty much always been my fundamental opinion about any adaptation--different things work for different mediums.

Also, judging by my nearly 200,000 word fixit fic I wrote--I'm not exactly fond of the plot of Yakuza 1. I was pretty excited to see something a bit different, taking the basic elements of Yakuza 1 and updating them to make coherent/thematic sense.

So, let's start with the things I liked. I was so excited about the first scene of the first episode, as a woman lover. Yumi and Miho are characters??? Real characters with personality and agency?? I was so goddamn excited, because that's literally all my Yakuza fanfic has been-me trying to bring women to life (and the gay agenda). It also felt like really good foreshadowing--oh look! Here's Yumi planning and executing a heist perfectly (Nishiki and Kiryu are the ones who fucked up!), cut to 10 years in the future, where she'll do the same thing again, with much bigger stakes. It felt resonant and promising. I feel like throughout the show, Yumi and Miho felt like real women, with real personalities and desires, and the very first scene helps build that up.

I also quite liked the change to Kazama! I liked him as the caretaker of the orphanage, I liked him as the retired Dragon of Dojima. I like that the 'Dragon of Dojima' was the title given to Dojima's best prize fighter in the ring. The moniker 'Dragon of Dojima' NEVER made sense for Kiryu , especially after the backstory of Yakuza 0 kind of fucked up the way that Kiryu's backstory worked when the game first released in 2005. After Yakuza 0 and Kiryu's animosity with Dojima, the moniker was weird and felt shoehorned in. This show's interpretation felt like a much more natural title--and I liked the obvious, immediate, dramatic irony that Kiryu and Nishiki look down upon and resent Kazama their guardian, while also idolizing Kazama's dirty past as a yakuza. It felt resonant to the main theme of the Yakuza series: that family keep making the same mistakes as each other, over and over again. You can try all you like to protect your children and family from harm and from the truth--but they will make all the same mistakes that you did, over and over again, because the Yakuza world is this drainpipe down which lives are ruined. I liked that! I liked how desperate to stop them Kazama is throughout this show, and yet how powerless he is. Kazama in the main game was too powerful and omnipotent, so his inaction in the main game felt cruel, because of how powerful and influential he was within the yakuza world. By recasting him as a civilian who has no influence, it's tragic and absolves him of the complicated role he plays in Kiwami 1.

(It's why I hate Episodes 5/6 where they, without fanfare, undo that status quo with no explanation or reason, but it seemed initially promising!)

I liked the relationship between all four of the Sunflower Kids, it felt easy and natural, the characters all had decent chemistry (except Yumi and Nishiki's actors, who never interact EVER until Episode 5....we'll get back to that.) Miho's actor is DELIGHTFUL, and you really do get the sense that she was the emotional glue of the group that held them together. Her death being the catalyst for everything going wrong is not only well-framed by the narrative, but feels plausible because of just how well they set her up as bubbly and personable.

They removed the politician plotline and Jingu entirely. Neither element ever really fitted into the original game's story well, and although I did my best with it in my fanfic, I agree with the TV show's choice to excise it completely.

Also, as convoluted as it was, I liked the events that lead to Dojima's death. Clearly, the showrunners wanted to avoid the whole 'Yumi-gets-raped-loses-her-memory-from-the-trauma-and-Nishiki-kills-Dojima-on-a-whim'. I think that was a good choice! Yumi's rape is never given real weight within the game's story, so removing it entirely is fine to me. I liked the show writers collapsing the two storylines about Nishiki's murders into one.

Dojima is now instrumental to Miho's death, and cons Nishiki out of a great sum of money, instead of that rando subordinate that was introduced in Kiwami 1. I really like that Nishiki didn't shoot Dojima out of recklessness, but out of a desire to see him dead for using Miho as a pawn in his gamble for money. I think it's better characterization for Nishiki, and it's a great springing off point that leads us to Nishiki and Kiryu both despising the yakuza in 2005.

I like Miho and Kiryu's parallels throughout the show, as these people who are committed to overworking and living in the moment. Neither character cares especially much about the future--they're living in the present, and that's something the show both glorifies and makes tragic in a really interesting way. (Also, it really vindicates my own characterization, where I parallel Kiryu/Yuko and Nishiki/Yumi as foil of each other). I also like that Kiryu and Yumi are the ones present at her funeral and in her last moments, while Nishiki is embroiled in the money problems, the yakuza intrigue. Instead of spending his last moments with her, Nishiki goes after revenge. It's good! It's such a compelling flaw to give Nishiki's character.

Nishiki's actor in general is just a delight! Both young goofy Nishiki and cold, adult Nishiki are played so well! Clearly whoever wrote this script was a Nishiki fan, there's so many small little lines and details that aren't from the games, but feel so in-line with the games. I really like that at the beginning of the 2005 segment, while he's not exactly on GOOD terms with Yumi or Kiryu, he's at least paying lipservice to the idea that they're his family. He's Yumi's boss, and he does a sake ceremony with Kiryu to welcome him back to the yakuza. It feels more realistic, rather than the complete betrayal that the games gives him. It's good!

I like the actor for Date! He was truly giving it his all. I also liked the Florist's den looking more realistic-he's still got all his creepy surveillance, but he doesn't have the world's most absurd underground hideout anymore, with the tackiest aquarium I've ever seen. It's a more more plausible little internet cafe set-up. I LOVE his squad of surveillance grannies, its tone fits in with the goofier shit in the video games, and it's one of the only moments of levity in this VERY serious show. I also like them painting the Florist as an exploitative scumbag-it's weird that Yakuza 1 tries to make you Date's best friend, but also is like 'so that guy who fucked over Date and other civilians, the Florist of Sai? he's a good guy, don't worry about it.' Preferred it this way!

And I really liked that they didn't fuck around with 'Yumi-is-pretending-to-be-her-nonexistent-older-sister', and this meant that Kiryu and Yumi got to interact a bit as they tried to solve the plot! It was nice! I liked seeing them try to figure out what it's like to be adults in each others' presence again. The one scene where they're eating in a izakaya together and Kiryu compliments her on being a good eater--there's such a tenderness and fondness to the scene that is so rarely present in any of the 2005 segments, that it genuinely took me by surprise.

I think....that's all I liked about the show. The rest of it was. Hoo boy. My ranting and fury under the cut.

Many people have also pointed this out, but I have to agree: this show's Kiryu is #NotMyKiryu. I got used to the fact his actor looked a bit lankier and more conventionally attractive than I wanted him to be--but this Kiryu is abrasive, aggressive and vainglorious--both in 1995 and at the beginning of 2005. I could maybe justify a story where he starts young, proud and foolish in 1995, and then matured to become the Kiryu we know in the games by 2005. But to start the 2005 segments with Kiryu not even being curious about his old friends, Kamurocho, or the prospect of a yakuza war felt wrong! Kiryu is a man who is kind and who cares so deeply and openly about things! And although this Kiryu is strong and silent, and loves his family, he's lacking that basic decency and kindness towards strangers that makes Kiryu Kazuma a compelling character in the first place!

Which is a shame, because the actor really grew on me, especially after seeing that little karaoke segment he's recorded as a spoof. He's got the sauce, he CAN convince me that he's Kiryu--the script is just so poorly suited for him.

On a solely visual level, I felt like the action scenes were kinda boring? The closest we get to interesting fight choreography is the one time that Kiryu is boxing against this capoeira artist in 1995? But every other fight has no visual panache--which is a shame, for something that's adapting a game with some very cool fight scenes. I wanted to see some visual representations of cool heat actions on screen!!! While I certainly like how no-nonsense all of Kiryu's fights in 2005 are--how he's fully unfazed by any opponent, I do think that just because Kiryu is bored of the fight, doesn't mean we should be. I would have liked to see some more interesting fight choreography, especially for the repetitive underground fighting scenes we constantly see, which are all kind of boring.

Because the plot is so breakneck and frenetic, as it transitions back-and-forth and back-and-forth from the past to the present, there were precious few quiet moments in the show. I LOVED what little we got between the Sunflower kids, but there was a real missed opportunity to characterize Kiryu better, because of their insistence on excising the sidequests entirely. The show could have really used some quiet scenes of seeing Kiryu do karaoke, or talk to the okamas in the Champion District, or help kids collect their trading cards, or play racing games--the scenes that establish that Kiryu is an earnest, open, honest man who loves the world, even when the world has been cruel to him. In a world filled with grumpy antiheroes who eventually learn to do this right thing--Kiryu was refreshing! He's a man who already knows what the right thing is--the conflict is his dismay at how much of the new world DOESN'T know what the right thing is. It's frustrating to see the TV show cut out all light-heartedness in order to make it a serious TV drama. Yakuza as a series is distinctive and at its best when tonally dissonant. The games move from great tragedy to great absurdity at breakneck speed--it's a commentary on the absurd nature of Kamurocho and the floating world--something that has been part of literary depictions of Japanese red-light districts for quite some time. It's a fundamental part of the Yakuza series' unique aesthetic, and taking that away leaves us with this generic yakuza soap opera.

And like. I KNOW that by this point, older gruff man has to learn how to parent a small, young girl is a tired trope. It's a tired trope in video games and it's DEFINITELY a tired trope in TV/film. But goddamn it, Yakuza 1 did it back in 2005, it wasn't boring back then, and you didn't need to change it! It is THE central emotional thread of Yakuza 1, and it's one of the only themes in Yakuza 1 that actually meaningfully hits. Kiryu and Haruka's parent-child relationship is the core of this whole series. All of the substories in Kiwami 1 CONSTANTLY underpin that this game is questioning: what does it mean to be a father? Kiryu's relationship to Nishiki and Kazama is premised around the question, 'what does it mean to be a good parent?' AND THEY CUT IT OUT ENTIRELY!? Kiryu rescues her once, and then Haruka literally NEVER talks to him! Ever!

It's not like this is replaced by Haruka interacting with Yumi or Aiko, her actual mother. Haruka is simply written out of the show altogether. Haruka exists to be rescued and then be kidnapped. It's tragic. It's boring. It's sad. They cast a charming little child actress to be Haruka too, it felt like a deeply wasted potential.

Speaking of Aiko. I praised them for getting rid of the Yumi-pretends-to-be-her-nonexistent-sister plotline, because it was bad and stupid. They instead replaced it with Yumi-now-has-a-real-sister-who-keeps-ghosting-her-and-also-is-a-dick. Aiko's bad. Aiko's just sort of shitty and selfish and fucks around the show with no motive for doing anything, and with a seeming omnipotence re: plot points. How does Aiko even know that Yumi is looking for her in order to come up with her initial scam? How does she know enough about Reina to be able to get Reina sent to jail? How does she always know where Yumi is, despite Yumi being seemingly unable to ever find her competently? They never really commit to Aiko being a real villain, giving her just enough sympathetic moments (like her dying to save Yumi, and her attempted suicide) for you to not entirely hate her--but then they refuse to give Aiko enough characterization for that humanization to matter. Aiko's main character trait is that she will do anything for a quick buck, no matter how many relationships in her life she ruins as a result. But she never once has a thesis for why money is so important to her. She never has that speech Nishiki does in canon about how being poor makes him feel powerless and resentful. Aiko is just a disappointing combination of tropes about selfish women. A pointless waste of space and a bad backstory for Yumi. I agree with the show-writers' urge to get rid of the fake-sister plotline, but just make Yumi steal the money! Make Haruka her kid! Don't introduce characters who take up precious screentime and suck the life out of the screen every time they show up.

Speaking of things that sucked the life out of the screen--let's talk about the dumb serial killer Demon plot. I don't know what it is with Amazon shows where they are desperate to have some sort of big twist about who their mystery villain is? First there was Rings of Power, where the screenwriters dart around going 'is THIS Sauron?' every five seconds. Now here, where the question of who the Demon was kept being brought up constantly, and without any real stakes or tension. They kept using all the Noh imagery with the masks and the Demons all using knives--clearly to make fans think it was Majima, but like. Of course it fucking wasn't. Of course it was Nishiki. Nishiki is the villain of the game.

But because they want you to think that the Demon is Majima, MAJIMA ISN'T ACTUALLY IN THIS FUCKING TV SHOW. He shows up for like ten minutes in the flashbacks, and he literally NEVER matters to the story. He's in the show purely because the writers didn't want to leave him out. Majima and Kiryu don't even MEET in the 2005 timeline, and in the 1995 timeline KIRYU IS THE ONE WHO ANTAGONIZES MAJIMA. What a weird read of their dynamic! I have no idea who made this decision, but it is reprehensible. Great actor, but what a fucking waste of space and time. Leave him out altogether, rather than have this pisspoor showing where he is entirely irrelevant and also doesn't even make an impression. At least Takeshi Miike's Majima, for all the sins of that movie, was both relevant to the plot and was a fucking riot on screen. you couldn't take your eyes away from the performance. But this interpretation of Majima commits the worst crime--he was boring. And if there's one thing Majima shouldn't be, it's boring.

The Demon is stupid and does stupid things. I loved that part in Episode 5 where the yakuza are meeting up in a Chinese kitchen, clearly speaking to the actor they intend to be Lau Ka Long. He accepts money to go and assassinate Nishikiyama--then instantly everybody involved is killed by the Demon and his people. It's such a pointless scene, done solely to reference Lau Ka Long for people who've played the games, and then the plot does absolutely fuck all with him, killing him immediately. Lau Ka Long has none of the menace and fear he inspires in the regular game (which...maybe for the best, since the game leans into some REAL racist stereotypes about Chinese people), but it doesn't replace it with anything. The scene is empty and hollow.

In general, the Demon is a silent antagonist--so every time the Demon is on-screen, you have the same fight scene plays out. Yakuza characters try to target Nishikiyama or Kiryu, the demons show up and do some violence, the yakuza character for that scene asks the Demon to take off the mask, the Demon refuses, brutally murders them, carves the weird pentagon into their chests, and leaves.

What the fuck is up with that? Why did Nishiki pretend to be an occult killer at all? Why didn't he just....you know...kill people? With a gun? I'm not saying I couldn't have been sold on this idea. But they didn't try selling it to me at all.

They could have had Nishiki complain about how he needed to create a boogeyman against whom he could prove his own wit (so he could reach a position where he can destroy the Tojo Clan). You could have had Nishiki slyly boast about how, in order to avoid suspicion in his blatant targeting of all his political enemies, he made up a fake serial killer with an occult symbol, so people would think a crazy cult killed them, instead of putting-two-and-two together about why these yakuza died. We instead get a big fat....nothing.

All of the Yakuza characters figure out Nishiki is the Demon in Episode 5, WITHOUT ANY OF THEM ACTUALLY HAVING TO DISCUSS THE PATTERN OF DEATHS OR THINK ABOUT IT AT ALL. EVERYBODY JUST SUDDENLY HAS THIS REALIZATION, ALL AT ONCE, INCLUDING KIRYU AND YUMI WHO ARE NOT TUNED INTO THE DEMON SHIT AT ALL, AND EVERYBODY JUST INSTANTLY TURNS ON NISHIKI AT ONCE. FOR VIBES ALONE. I'm not kidding. It's insane. It feels like they cut out a huge chunk of show here, because this feels like it might have been a out-of-place but competently written murder story in a previous draft, for when they had eight episodes. I bet their budget got cut though, and they had to cut all of that out. The result is unfinished, choppy, and dumb.

Also...the Omi Clan play a MUCH bigger role here than they do in Yakuza 1, and I think it's a bad and stupid role. For one, the Omi Clan are now saddled with being the ones stupid enough to have 10 BILLION FUCKING YEN STASHED IN CASH. But wait--it gets worse! They don't even have the excuse of Yumi and Kazama working together to defraud the Tojo from their influential positions within the organization. No! The Omi Clan is stupid enough to send 10 billion yen onto the road with only FOUR MEN AS GUARDS. Four men who are stupid enough to be defeated by Aiko and her stupid boyfriend. I know that TECHNICALLY, Nishiki's behind this, but that's glossed over so quickly that it turns to farce. It's ludicrous. What the fuck???

The Omi Clan don't even really seem to want their money back, instead deciding for...no reason at all, that regardless of if they get their money back or not, they're going to start a clan war with the Tojo and kill them all. In broad daylight. ???? Why? They just decided to attack Tojo in their home territory, without any money or resources? Are they STUPID?

This show is clearly angling to get a sequel, judging by the final shot of the show and the suspense they're trying to build up there, but now they've gotten rid of the main antagonist of Yakuza 2, The Omi Clan! They all get arrested/beaten up by Majima at the conclusion of the stupid clan war in Episode 6. What the fuck do you do in your shitty sequel now?

They included the Omi Clan, just to have a familiar name. It bears no resemblance to the actual yakuza organization we see in the games. They're just antagonists, for the sake of having a big epic fight at the end of the show. And this proclivity to include something by name, because it references the games, but then to fully squander or waste them in these two-bit shitty roles, happens CONSTANTLY throughout the show.

It happens with Shibusawa, it happens with Shimano, it happens with Shindo, it happens with Sagawa, it happens even with fucking REINA! Just these namedrops because they're important names--but just doing nothing with them at all! Shibusawa is a smarmy little two-bit yakuza mentor who exists to die in front of Kiryu and Nishiki. Shimano is this smarmy, douchey low-level yakuza who seems to be fighting against Nishikiyama entirely AND SIDES WITH KAZAMA IN ORDER TO DISMANTLE THE TOJO CLAN IN THE LAST EPISODE. Which is something that Shimano would rather commit suicide than do. Shindo is a random thug who exists to get punched and then killed. Sagawa is just a random namedrop of an Omi patriarch who briefly kidnaps Kiryu/Yumi, and doesn't really matter at all to the story at all. Reina is Yumi's boss--but that's it! She doesn't matter, she doesn't do anything interesting or say anything to the girls about what a woman's role in the yakuza world ought to be.

I don't hate it when adaptations change the story and characters. I'm usually pretty positive about it! But this isn't a thoughtful reinvention of characters. It's a lazy reference for reference's sake, because the scriptwriters thought it would be too difficult to incorporate these large personalities/storylines into the script, so they decided to just namedrop them. That'll make the fans excited, right? Just hearing the name of a Yakuza character means they'll have a Pavlovian response and that'll make them forget that this is a bad show with horrible pacing, right?

And the new characters they add are just...weird? What's with the random white people? What the purpose of that white businessman that Kazama knows but Dojima doesn't? Why does his white sister have so much fucking weight in 1995? They take up so much fucking room in the flashback sequence--only to not matter at all to the main storyline? I briefly thought that the white lady was the Demon, because they keep zooming in on her face. After all, hannya in noh plays are representative of scorned/wronged women--and she's brutally assaulted and her brother is murdered horribly, so I wondered if that was maybe where they were going? But nope. It never matters. All that matters is that they owned the land for the Millennium Tower, and then they're dead and never matter again. It's edited SO weirdly.

Speaking of women--as much as I was happy about the way the show tries desperately to flesh out Yumi and Miho as real people, it's not quite successful at it. In the 1995 timeline, there's a brief scene where we see that everything about hostess life makes Yumi uncomfortable--the drinking, the flattering men's egos, the pretense of being sexually available. Unlike Miho, in the show, Yumi is not a natural hostess. This is in direct contrast to the games, where Yumi is depicted over and over again as the PERFECT hostess. I was intrigued by this change at first, especially since Miho is shown to be the natural instead, despite only being 15-16. I thought it might say something about performance, about women's roles within the misogynistic structure of the yakuza? Or if they didn't want to have too much of a take, that this characterization might lead to some sort of tension between Yumi and Miho, that Yumi might be jealous of Miho's natural ability, or angry that circumstances have put them in a situation that exploits Miho's youth. But nothing comes of it! Yumi and Miho's differing opinions about hostessing never boil up into something significant. And in 2005, Yumi's a successful hostess, who works/owns a prestigious bar at the top of the Millennium Tower, and she works for Nishiki's sector of the yakuza, and everything's fine. She never talks about hostessing in the 2005 timeline, despite that being her main job. It never once matters to her character. It's BIZARRE. I just keep thinking--why include that scene of her discomfort then? This show's editing is so ODD.

As for the relationship problems between Nishiki and Yumi--well. It's pretty weird. In the 1995 timeline, we get touching moments between Nishiki and Kiryu, Nishiki and Miho, Miho and Yumi, Yumi and Kiryu, and Miho and Kiryu. Nishiki barely has a relationship with Yumi. It doesn't really matter that much in the first 4 episodes, they all like each other as a group, and you buy it. Which is why it's so weird that after Miho's death, he gets mad at Yumi for not doing enough to stop her illness and THEN gets mad at her for liking Kiryu and then tries to forcefully kiss her. Unlike other Nishiki stans, I'm not the sort of person that denies Nishiki's incel behaviour--I do think it's a fundamental aspect of his character and inferiority complex. He loves Yumi and Kiryu equally, and it is more socially appropriate for him to go after Yumi, and it infuriates him that when it comes down to it, Kiryu and Yumi like each other a bit better, shutting him out of the equation altogether. But there is like NO setup for this dynamic in the show.

Even though I HATE that tutorial sequence in Yakuza 1 with a burning passion for how fucking boring it is--it does set up the emotional stakes of why Nishiki's so MAD about Kiryu and Yumi. It's Yumi's birthday, something that Nishiki has been planning for for months. He's staked out an expensive jewellery present, he's saved up his salary for it, and he's certain it's going to be a slam-dunk gift! However, Nishiki being a cis man obsessed with wealth, hasn't actually paid attention to Yumi's taste--it's flashy and bright, because that's what Nishiki himself values, and thinks all women will value. Yumi isn't a person with tastes to him, he;s bought into her hostess persona. Kiryu, on the other hand, doesn't even know it's Yumi's birthday until Nishiki starts bragging about the present. He has to go get a last minute present, and the only reason Kiryu even gets her anything even vaguely close to her taste is because Reina (who actually pays attention to Yumi as a person) tells him what to buy. Nishiki, not knowing what Reina did for Kiryu, KNOWS that Kiryu's present is a last-minute purchase, one without any thought behind it, and yet, despite it all, Yumi likes it more--something that baffles him. Boring as it is, this scene is crucial characterization that shows us that Nishiki does put in effort to woo Yumi, but doesn't really understand her, and it breeds resentment and jealousy that Kiryu effortlessly obtains both women and yakuza status without trying, two things that Nishiki has to sweat and bleed to get anywhere close to. It's the crux of who he is.

The show doesn't do ANYTHING close to that. Nishiki barely pays attention to her in 1995, and then kisses her while crazy with grief about Miho, and gets mad when she doesn't reciprocate his sup-until-that-point non-existent feelings. It is not this burning underlying resentment that stokes his entire character anymore, and as such, it feels pointless. It exists solely to make the relationship between Nishiki and Yumi tense in 2005--but not in a way that's actually compelling. It just means Yumi has a reason for telling Kiryu to not trust Nishiki (even though he's not actually done a SINGLE thing to betray them yet.) It's weird. Why not cut the more useless scenes I highlighted before to build this up instead, if it was going to matter? But it also DOESN'T matter in 2005! In 2005, Nishiki's NOT actually angry about Kiryu and Yumi's relationship, he's mad about Miho! He wants to destroy the Tojo Clan for their role in her death and he wants Kiryu to die because he blames him still, for not losing that fight. Yumi doesn't thematically matter in 2005, despite her increased screentime, and it feels so pointless.

(Also, I hate the whole long extended sequence of Yumi and Kiryu talking about nothing for like a whole FIVE MINUTES after Nishiki runs off to go and kill Dojima in Episode 5. It's pointless, it's boring and the actress for Yumi is not quite good enough to pull off any of these complicated emotions. I dislike how impotent they make her, she just sits around and cries and blames them both for not doing enough. It drags so much and contributes nothing).

Speaking of Kiryu's role in Miho's death--small nitpick here, but I do wish they'd made Nishiki's unwillingness to drug Kiryu his own choice, instead of making Yumi/Kazama call him out after he fails to drug Kiryu subtly enough? I wish Nishiki had been torn between drugging Kiryu or saving his sister's life--and had organically chosen to trust Kiryu to throw the match on his own. I hate that it highlights Nishiki's incompetence as the only reason why he resorts to asking Kiryu anything. I think it's MUCH more devastating if Nishiki begs Kiryu to lose of his own volition, and Kiryu still can't convincingly throw the match, even though he wants to. I think it would be more tragic, it would have more sauce. As is, the scene paints Nishiki as more pathetic than morally compromised/ruthless, which is what I think they were going for instead.

Finally, I think I'm just a bit confused by the ending? It feels...odd? The ending of Yakuza 1 is DEVASTATING, that's kind of the point. This pointless, stupid yakuza war takes away every member of Kiryu's family: Kazama, Yumi and Nishiki, leaving him to pick up the pieces with Haruka. It's a condemnation of greed--the Millennium Tower exploding and the money spreading across all of Kamurocho is the literal culmination of how pointless this entire battle was. The narrative is attempting to show Kiryu that he cannot return the yakuza to a golden age of glory--all he can do is find his own peace and protect those he loves. It's a lesson that Kiryu refuses to learn, of course, but then, that's the tragedy of the Yakuza series. But everybody's alive at the end of this show. Kazama, Yumi AND Nishiki all still live. It's....weird.

Especially with the sequel baiting--with Kiryu relaizing in the last shot of the show that Kazama was the former Dragon of Dojima--what does the show expect to do with that? Have some dumb thing where Kiryu, Nishiki and Yumi team up against their dad? I just don't understand how the showrunners thought the rest of the story would progress in a reality where Kiryu doesn't have any sort of relationship with Haruka, in a world where all of his family is still alive and well, and in a world without an Omi Clan? Like...what do they plan on doing? Something stupid, no doubt.

Also Kazama's actions in 2005 are dumb. I hate how he's like 'we must pacify the Omi by selling out Nishiki,' but it's NOT EVEN A CLEVER OR USEFUL PLAN. The one thing the games try to establish about Kazama is that he's a mastermind, he's clever and he's manipulating things. Kazama double-dealing with the Omi Clan in the original game is not out-of-character, even if it is a surprise. But here, where he's retired and has no influence anymore, the fact that he can suggest something like this AND GET HIS WAY, is absurd???? I thought his animosity towards Nishiki, while certainly cold in the games, made sense, considering Nishiki's open resentment of both Kiryu and Kazama. But Kazama and Nishiki barely interact AT ALL in this show. So his whole 'Nishiki is the Demon and I have to rally everybody else to oppose him' feels weird. He clearly feels paternal things for Yumi and Kiryu still--why did he not even TRY to talk to Nishiki in this version? It's just....cold? Empty? Which is such a shame, because by making Kazama the orphanage director, there's a lot to say about power and happiness being diametric opposites, and how Kazama chose happiness, and how he's trying to convince his kids to do the same. But he doesn't really ever try to convince Nishiki of anything, he jumps straight to wielding power that Episode 1 shows us he DOESN'T have. It's bizarre.

It really contributes to my theory that there were supposed to be two more episodes to this show, because the pacing and the plot points are just so all over the place. Whoever tried to edit around the patches made a valiant effort, but you really can't edit around lengthy plotlines without things being thrown off.

Ultimately, the yakuza tv series is just not very good--and is honestly the worst possible thing an adaptation can be--Boring.

#yakuza #yakuza tv series #like a dragon tv show #like a dragon #kiryu #nishikiyama #sawamura yumi #all the people who say this show has nothing of merit whatsoever are exaggerating #but it's still not very good sadly

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