I finally got around to watching Like a Dragon: Yakuza.
Apparently Amazon made a miniseries based off of the Yakuza video game franchise.
I honestly had no idea they were working on this. I discovered it completely out of the blue one morning when I was browsing the TV section of 1337x Torrents and saw Like a Dragon in the list. Figuring that someone simply screwed up and listed a video game as a TV show, I clicked it to see what was up.
Holy shit, it was a real TV series.
After doing a little more research, I discovered that Like a Dragon: Yakuza was a six episode miniseries, with each episode averaging 40 minutes give or take. The first three episodes debuted on October 24th, and the other three released on October 31st. The timing of this was impeccable, as I’d just finished beating Yakuza Kiwami 1. I’ve also been looking for another TV series to do a WIT article on since Riverdale is finished, and something with only six episodes is perfect.
So naturally, I jumped on this live action adaptation of the franchise that I’m just starting to get into. Would it be any good, or would it fall victim to the usual flaws of live action adaptations made by big streaming services, like arbitrary plot changes, ignoring the source material, and changing the races of established characters in the name of diversity?
It was better than I thought it would be, but it still had quite a few flaws. This is what I thought about Like a Dragon: Yakuza.
1. Majima Nowhere
How can you have a Yakuza show and barely include the franchise’s best character, Goro Majima?
The Mad Dog of Shimano barely got to do anything during the series. He chases Kiryu and Nishiki for like five minutes, gets his eye cut out for firing a gun in a crowd, and then shows up at the end to join the brawl outside the Millennium Tower dual-wielding baseball bats. We get none of Majima’s trademark shenanigans. No hiding under giant traffic cones or in the trunks of random cars, no popping out from manholes, nothing. The best we get is him laughing while he goes to town with his bats, then when the brawl is over yelling “Let’s do this again soon!”.
We got none of Majima’s dynamic with Kiryu that made him such a great character. The two barely interact save for the chase scene and them trading barbs in the hallway for five seconds. Majima’s whole point was to be Kiryu’s rival and friend.
Seriously, not even one lousy “KIRYU-CHAN!”. Which reminds me…
2. Kiryu’s Name
I’m an idiot.
This entire time I’ve always thought Kiryu’s first name was “Kiryu”. The Japanese (and most Asiatic cultures in general) place an emphasis on the last name, with only close friends and family using the first name. As such, names are usually formatted in Japan as “Last Name First Name”.
Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza 0 have his close friends and associates refer to him as Kiryu. Everywhere I looked online, his name was written as “Kazuma Kiryu”. So naturally, I assumed his first name was Kiryu. Little did I know that his name was being westernized the entire time. Little did I also know that the original Yakuza games called him Kazuma, and the later remakes switched it to Kiryu during translation.
This section was going to originally be about them changing his name around, but then I found out it was actually me who was the idiot. Feel free to mock me, idgaf.
He’ll always be Kiryu to me though.
3. The guy who plays Kiryu Kazuma is too scrawny
The actor who played Kiryu had some of the character’s traits down pretty good, like his sense of justice and his compassion. But the one thing he didn’t have was Kiryu’s build.
Kiryu isn’t built like Arnold Schwarzenegger or anything, but he’s still a pretty imposing guy in terms of size and demeanor. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to piss the guy off. Kiryu’s official height and weight are placed at around 6′ and 194 lbs, which might not seem like much (in fact, I have a similar height and weight), but the series takes place in Japan so Kiryu is still pretty big compared to everyone else around him. He was also designed with a stern face and a stoic personality, adding to his intimidation factor.
Ryoma Takeuchi, the man who plays Kiryu in Like a Dragon: Yakuza, just doesn’t capture Kiryu’s intimidating presence. Takeuchi is 6’1, and while I couldn’t find a concrete weight for him I saw a few things that put it at around 150 lbs. He has the height but not the weight. Takeuchi could have stood to put on another 50 or so pounds in my opinion, but I understand that the Japanese tend to like their celebrities on the skinnier side so I don’t blame him for not wanting to hurt his career. He also would have probably needed to juice to put on the required muscle, and I guess I can’t fault anyone for not wanting to take steroids.
Good actor, bad build.
4. Why weren’t the actors allowed to play the games?
The actors weren’t allowed to play the games to study for their roles.
What?
How the fuck can you do an adaptation of a video game and tell the actors that they can’t play the game? Even if they wanted to do their own thing with the series, viewing the source material of an adaptation is Acting 101. What a stupid decision on Amazon’s part.
5. Most of the changes from the original story were completely unnecessary.
I wasn’t expecting a shot-for-shot remake of the game, but most of the major deviations from the source material were completely unnecessary. Yakuza 1 already had a good story, you didn’t need to change any of the key elements. I get that they were going for a loose adaptation of the first game, but they went too loose, and as a result the story wasn’t as good as it could have been.
We didn’t need Nishiki as some masked killer. Completely unnecessary and added absolutely nothing meaningful to the story.
Kiryu saying “I want to be the Dragon of Dojima” was the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Who the fuck wrote this, and why do they still have a job?
The plot constantly flip-flopping between 1995 and 2005 was highly annoying. Why not just have the first three episodes take place in 1995 then have the last three take place in 2005?
Kazama being ex-Yakuza and running the orphanage was one of the few changes that I liked, since him being a father figure to Kiryu made more sense this way. It also made the twist about Kazama and Kiryu’s parents a little more impactful.
6. Final Thoughts
Like a Dragon: Yakuza wasn’t as bad as I expected, but it could have been way better if they actually stuck to the source material. While the games are known for being silly, they also do have serious plots with decent stories that don’t really need to be changed all that much. There was just no need to deviate as much as they did.
This series did have some strong points though. The actors weren’t bad at their roles, and even if Kiryu’s actor is a little too skinny for the role he still put heart into his performance and successfully captured that sense of justice and honor that Kiryu is known for. The actor for Majima also seemed promising from the few bits we got to see.
I also liked how they handled the fight scenes, especially having Kiryu go up against multiple opponents several times. A staple of the games is Kiryu constantly having to fight crowds of enemies, sometimes to the point of silliness (the funeral in Yakuza 1 comes to mind), and I’m glad they included this, since it gives the audience an idea of just how badass Kiryu really is.
As of right now there doesn’t seem to be any indication of a second season, but if there is then hopefully the show runners will take note and do a better job. Yes, that means more Majima. I want that motherfucker to appear in every single scene, even if it’s just him walking by in the background.
Overall, I can’t hate this series too much. If you’re a casual fan of the games then you might enjoy it enough, but diehard fans will probably feel disappointed. Those not familiar with the Yakuza game franchise at all will most likely enjoy it though.
Like a Dragon: Yakuza gets a 5/10 from me. It shows promise, but it still has a ways to go if it wants to be good. The series is streaming on Amazon Prime, but you can also find it on EZTV.