The Yakuza TV Show: It's fine I guess, but is it Like a Dragon?

[@keisaka2878]

whats funny is kazama seems to be living a life thats strikingly similar to kiryus life in the later yakuza games

[@Billioncompany786]

If they wanted navie kiryu Yakuza 0 would've been a great adaption.

[@ronaldood4678]

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I’m fine with changes, even big ones. But when you make changes to the entire essence of a character or characters, this isn’t really the same thing anymore. Also the Millennium Tower just looks stupid.

[@wolfzey1846]

Everyone forgets that there was a prequel of yakuza where it mainly focuses on the orphanage and also talks about kiryu's parents as well

[@Dryrey]

The name?

[@aaron.ward.]

Alright, Amazon fixed their thing and after watching episode 3 I'm less optimistic about the show. The way Majima loses his eye is kind of perfunctory. The fight scenes are underwhelming. Kiryu feels like a side character in his own story. I don't know.

[@emceenati1497]

:( Question. My mother in law loves Korean TV. Doesn't matter what kind, romance, comedy, action, sci fi, horror She has no knowledge of yakuza. If I watched this with her you think she could get into it?

[@aaron.ward.]

It's hard to say. Someone who isn't familiar with the series might have an easier time getting into it, or they might be more confused about who everybody is and how they're supposed to relate to one another. BUT, if neither of you have seen it I would highly recommend Kingdom, which is a South Korean zombie show on Netflix.

[@Giovfunny]

I guess that's why the actors thought Nishikiyama should've been the main character

[@blackRXrider]

Kiryu always feels like a side character tbh.

[@lefengsterVLOG]

nishiki is superb in this show. 95 and 2005 acting is completely different, the actor is really good.

[@UNSTABLE111]

I like the show, I feel more invested in this show than I ever was with Takashi Miiikes adaptation..That movie rubbed me the WRONG way..I didn't care how many nods and all important notes it hit, that adaptation felt like it was just going through notes with no weight.. and I even played yakuza 1 2005 before I watched that film

[@purple_1884]

Original Yakuza movie from 2000's was MUCH better, imo. Not letting actors to familiarize themselves with characters they play. Brilliant idea (not)

[@somente1joao]

You said it all really well. I would like to add that the one thing I really miss from the games is the way that characters were written to be like classic shounen tropes. If you read stuff like Fist of the North Star, you'll see how a lot of Yakuza characters mirror certain ones from that manga. This series seems to be trying it's hardest to show how morally bankrupt the Yakuza is (more specifically Dojima), which I understand is realistic, but the way that the games depicted how a lot of morally grey characters were actually good intentioned people made for a colorful cast of charismatic and memorable people. The way they've been throwing characters names around also feels like a misguided attempt at winking at the fans of the games. Shibusawa, Saejima and The Florist of Sai were absolutely gutted in this show. 1. Shibusawa was shown to be ambitious and resourceful, but completely different from how Yakuza 0 showed it. He's then thrown aside, probably never to return. 2. Saejima is a literal who in this show. He was shown to hold Majima back when he lost control, but then Saejima is the one who uses a gun in public. He laughs at his gunshot injury and dies, the end. That is a gut punch to anyone that likes the games. Saejima was a co-protagonist in 2 games and is a recurring character through the mainline games, but his presence in the show isn't even noteworthy. 3. The Florist of Sai was probably one of the most unrealistic characters in the games. An ex-cop who was dirty and is now an information broker for the criminal underworld. He's definitely got skeletons in his closet, but he was never shown to be a sadistic rat desperate to sacrifice the well being of an innocent for his own gain. He still has his principles and won't abide by certain behaviors. On the other hand, the one from the show is a horrible human being, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I could go on and on about how the way the characters are portrayed is nowhere close to how the games do it, but I've made my point. This series wasn't written or directed to reflect the appeal of the games, but rather, of tv crime drama in general, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it completely misses the spirit, the essence of the games writing. The last 3 episodes can't save this show, but if they're fun, I'll be satisfied and move on to enjoy the games that RGG Studios is yet to release.

[@aaron.ward.]

The show version of Florist of Sai was a weird one. The other guy was just like, "I'll call you the Florist of Sai now." No mystery, no nothing. I don't think Saejima is dead, but you're right there doesn't seem to be much to him in the show. I'm also wondering where Daigo is in all this.

[@thehwguy4293]

Surprised you didn't mention Shimano. Dude was quite literally turned into an NPC.

[@blackRXrider]

I honestly can't believe that the CEO of RGG said this show is better than the video games.

[@RyderFlo]

You've said it all, it's a good tv show about yakuzas but not a good Yakuza adaptation to me, what I could add is that they specifically mashup the 1995 flashbacks from Yakuza 1 and scenes of Yakuza 0 from 1989 and Majima's treatment is also weird, like i mean his personnality didn't change between before and after the loss of his eye, it's like he was born mad where in 0 you actually see his transformation after the event, like Kiryu's transformation before and after prison.

[@nofillergamingknight7319]

Yumi Does Have a sister in the Games but was killed off pretty quick. Nishiki Actually Rampages and kills a couple of people because of that. Overall I like the show and some of the fight scenes like the prison fight. And I think it balances the humor fine. Think about the Majima fight. My only complaint being the character changes.

[@FunTomAsh]

Nope she doesn't. It wasnt her sister but a restaraunt worker. There is a substory where you investigate who was killed. The rest owner heard that girl with flower tatoo is super popular so he made 1 of his workers to make this tatoo. So yakuzas thought she was Umi's sister because of tatoo and killed her (when Umi's sister was just Umi herself)

[@thehwguy4293]

Iirc tho, her "sister" was an alias she created for herself so she could safely visit Haruka at the orphanage.

[@edgar4ic150]

we are yakuza fans, we don't play our own games

[@Giovfunny]

Never had a sister, that was just her fake identity. The one that got killed was another woman unrelated to her

[@anxiousshinobi3655]

hopefully they film a sega cut of it. where it's more faithful to the series to satisfy the fans more, the amazon cut for people who like a nice little action flick and the sega cut to be a true adaptation for the fans

[@The_Stoned_Wanderer]

First time?

[@smug_slime]

Yeah the tv/film adaptation has always been not faithful like takashi miike's yakuza adaptation and even kurohyou adaptation.

[@A.c.e2.0]

The ryu ga gotoku movie is good it keeps the main parts of the games and does good not faithful much but it has the same feel and it was made for marketing i think

[@UNSTABLE111]

I dont like that movie..even when I have played the games..the movie doesnt hit those important parts with the same impact as the games

[@bebrasmachnayq5691]

U cant capture the essence of Like A Dragon in a show, u can only capture the essence of Yakuza

[@THaB4DGuY]

just tried to start watching it now and saw its rated 13+ which is alrdy a bad start ill still watch it but no rated m game turned into a teen rated tv show/movie has ever been good for instance, bordlernads and assassin creed movies

[@sbhh9577]

The whole show isn’t 13+ that just the first episode rating. The same thing happens with The Boys when there isn’t a sex scene, it goes down from 18+ to 16+.

[@THaB4DGuY]

@@sbhh9577 in my 40 yrs of living, I never heard of a tv show that has seperate ratings per episode. thats like a music album cd having parental advisory explicit lyrics on some songs but not others

[@blackRXrider]

I'm going to be that guy. It's a good drama, but a terrible adaptation.

[@zacharynyberg7007]

As a yakuza or like a dragon adaption. It’s total dog shit, it is NOTHING like the games. They devoid sooooo far from the successful story of the games to make some gritty drama which sucks dick. Hey as a stand alone? It’s your basic Asian drama. Take it as you will. It blows as a fan of the franchise. Really? no karaoke?

[@aaron.ward.]

Not having karaoke was a real missed opportunity. It could have helped the characters bond more.