The Fable – Finally, a real yakuza anime

The Fable is the yakuza anime that we deserve.

I’ll admit it. When it comes to criminal organizations, I have a tendency to romanticize the yakuza. I know they’re a criminal organization, I know they shake businesses down, I know they traffick and kill people. But compared to the Italian Mafia or the Russian mob, the yakuza always seem to be depicted as operating with more of a code of honor. No harming civilians, no selling drugs, no being needlessly disrespectful.

Before any of my Japanese readers (yes I see you) rush to correct me and tell me that many yakuza still do those things, I’m well aware of that. I’m simply stating how I see them depicted in media. I’m also aware that they’re largely on the decline in Japan.

Here in America, we tend to idolize criminals and criminal organizations in our media. Shows like Peaky Blinders, The Sopranos, The Penguin, and Breaking Bad glamorize the criminal lifestyle, while often portraying the main character in a somewhat sympathetic light. When Walt plants that bomb in Hector’s chair, the scene’s focus is Walt’s victory over Gus and kind of glosses over the harsh reality that Walt planted a bomb in a nursing home to eliminate a rival drug kingpin (though to be fair Hank does bring this up later). Likewise, Tom Shelby, Tony Soprano, and Oz are depicted as guys who aren’t good but not necessarily evil doing bad things to survive.

And this makes sense. After all, you want audiences to like the protagonist so they’ll keep watching.

Japanese sensibilities are a bit different though. In Japan there’s a stigma against having the heroes of the story do bad things, particularly kill people. If you’ve ever played the Yakuza games, you might notice that when you’re playing as Kiryu, he’s not actually in the yakuza most of the time. Whereas American games like Grand Theft Auto have no problem having the main character be an active member of a criminal organization, in Japan it’s looked down upon to glamorize the yakuza or other criminal elements, so protagonists like Kiryu might have some affiliation with the yakuza but they’re still depicted as honorable and upstanding people with a sense of morality and the tendency to do what’s right.

It’s because of this stigma that anime about the yakuza are so rare. Sure, we have series like The Yakuza’s Guide To Babysitting or The Way of the Househusband, but those are more lighthearted takes on the subject. Someone looking for a more serious story about the world of the yakuza might be hard-pressed to find anything in the anime world.

Thankfully, we now have The Fable to scratch that itch for us.

The Fable is a story about a yakuza hitman nicknamed “Fable”. Joined by a young woman who serves as his driver and assistant, Fable is a deadly phantom of the criminal underworld, striking with a calculated precision and efficiency that leaves his targets six feet under in six seconds. His skill is so great that many doubt he actually exists, and those that don’t doubt his existence fear him. In a way, Fable is comparable to John Wick in both skill and reputation, and one could argue that the series is essentially a toned down version of the franchise.

One day their handler tells Fable and his assistant that they have to take a break for a year. The two are given fake identities as brother and sister, Akira and Yoko Sato, and ordered to lay low in Osaka. This means living normal lives, no causing any trouble, and, most importantly, no killing. Easier said than done for someone whose entire purpose in life is killing people. Akira and Yoko move into safe house apartments owned by the Maguro yakuza family, with only a select few knowing who they actually are. Akira gets a job with a company that designs logos, while Yoko resorts to drinking most of her days away, occasionally finding fun in getting men sloppy drunk and watching them stumble around helplessly.

Of course, trouble constantly seems to find Akira. A pervy coworker stalking another coworker, a yakuza freshly released from prison and looking to make a name for himself by blackmailing a woman into being a call girl, and even a former target who got away. Akira finds himself having to handle these situations without resorting to killing and while hiding his true identity and skillset to those around him.

There’s quite a bit of action in this series, and it’s highly entertaining to watch Akira go to work and take down people without killing them, or in some cases even calculate how to take a hit from someone else without getting hurt. This man is a professional, he’s not just good at what he does, he’s fucking great at it. In one scene someone pays a kickboxer to beat up Akira, and Akira intentionally allows him to do it, while maneuvering himself ever so subtly to avoid taking serious damage. In another scene, the pervy coworker, Kainuma, tries to use a hidden camera under a table to get an upskirt shot on their coworker Misaki, a former swimsuit model. Akira catches on and casually flicks a pea under the table, knocking the camera away.

Perhaps the best scene though is when the yakuza Kojima kidnaps Misaki with the intent to blackmail her into being a call girl. Akira clears an entire warehouse full of bad guys without killing a single one, using his insane hand to hand combat skills and a gun with homemade toy bullets that don’t shoot with enough force to break skin, but enough force to incapacitate. This guy is a one-man ass-kicking machine, and The Fable is full of hard-hitting action sequences like this.

The series is intense, but it’s not all business all the time, and does have a small element of comedy. A lot of the humor comes from Akira’s social ineptitude and his generally lighthearted nature. Akira has an obsession with a comedian named Jackal, and absolutely loves anything with him in it, including commercials and a soap opera. He also has a “switch” he activates before going on a job. This “switch” involves him poking himself in the forehead repeatedly, much to the confusion of his partner and others.

Akira is also an aspiring, um, artist:

The owner of the logo design company is actually impressed with the childlike innocence of Akira’s artwork and uses it for a project involving children. Akira is encouraged to pursue his newfound passion for drawing, leading to some interesting results:

These comedic bits aren’t the focus of the story though, and are usually used to drive the main plot forward. This isn’t a comedy with some elements of action, this is action with some elements of comedy.

The best way to describe The Fable is that it’s a combination of John Wick and the Yakuza games. The fast-paced action of John Wick mixed with the storytelling of a Yakuza game. If you’re a fan of either franchise then this action-packed anime is right up your alley. There isn’t a ton of blood, but there’s definitely a ton of ass-kicking, and even though Akira can’t kill anyone the bad guys still end up getting their comeuppance at the hands of others who have no such restrictions.

As far as I can tell, a second season hasn’t been confirmed yet. The manga ran for five years and even spawned a sequel series which ran for another two years, so there’s definitely plenty of material to continue the anime with. It certainly deserves a second season. The series also has two live action movies, which I haven’t watched yet but have heard good things about.

I give The Fable 8/10. Don’t overlook this phenomenal series full of intense fast-paced action and badassery. The series is currently available to stream on Netflix and Hulu. If you don’t have those, it’s also available on Nyaa.