Yakuza (now known as Like a Dragon) is getting a live-action Prime Video series, debuting October 24. I love what Amazon did with Fallout, and outside of Borderlands, video game adaptations are on the up and up. But I’m not sure why anyone would want a prestige Yakuza show when that’s what the games are anyway.
It’s a running joke that Like a Dragon is 90 percent cutscenes, ten percent fist fights—Yakuza 0 even ends with a 42 minute cutscene. But these moments are brilliant because they dig deep into the minds of each character, unravelling who they are beneath the macho bravado as their vulnerability pools out at the climax of exhilarating brawls. They’re tender, methodical, and lending to the longer JRPG runtimes, plentiful.
Big story moments feel like watching an episode of TV. It’s not for everyone—hence the running joke—but because of the sheer amount of time you spend with characters in the quiet moments and larger spectacles, you bond with them like in no other game. So much of the time in each 80 hour story is spent intimately following Kiryu, Nishiki, Majima, Ichiban, and plenty of other iconic characters, giving them ample room to flourish into fully formed people that feel so real you find yourself wanting to grab them through the screen to shake sense into them.
But what Yakuza does so well is something that many TV shows are unfortunately abandoning—filler. Even the new Amazon series is cutting out side quests and karaoke to tell a more streamlined, serious prestige drama. These moments build character, they let you see who these people are when they’re not caught up in the conflicts of their yakuza lives. Kiryu winding down in the bar to sing with his friend Nishiki in the midst of being hunted down by every clan in Kamurocho is as much a breath of fresh air as it is a great way of showing their brotherly bond.
Kiryu sobbing after a fight on the rooftops, begging his enemies to change their ways, or ripping his shirt off beside his friends to save those he loves are all incredible moments that define Yakuza, but the silly antics he gets up to show us another side to him that’s vital to understanding who he is. TV used to understand that with its longer episode counts, but as we shrivel everything down to eight hour ‘featured events’ that are essentially dragged out movies, we lose that.
I wouldn’t be surprised then if the new Amazon series is a worse TV show than the actual Yakuza games, because their length mixed with the filler gives you far more time to connect with its cast, something the modern streaming era doesn’t permit. A big part of good filler is stepping away from the lead characters to make the story feel that much bigger.
Throughout Yakuza’s history, we’ve seen Haruka Sawamura become a pop idol, followed Majima’s oath brother Taiga Saejima through his prison escape, spent time with former baseball player turned adult entertainment journalist Tatsuo Shinada, and witnessed the aftermath of the very first game through Shun Akiyama’s eyes as he forms his own money lending company called Sky Finance. These are all interconnected subplots that tie into the grander Yakuza story, but as the Like a Dragon series has a mere six episodes in its first season, I can’t see it ever making time for anyone but Kiryu.
Some of the best episodes of TV in history are quiet and understated, often completely unrelated to the lead. Breaking Bad’s “Fly” sees Walter White and Jesse Pinkman trying to catch a fly in their lab to prevent contamination, and it this sounds like nonsense, it’s a brilliant deep dive into the pair’s relationship and Whitet’s perfectionism. More recently, and to draw on a video game adaptation in particular, “Long, Long Time” in The Last of Us sidesteps Joel and Ellie completely and delves into the past to weave a beautiful queer love story between Bill and Frank. It doesn’t push the narrative along, but it gives us an insight into how much the world has changed and how humanity prevails even in the harshest of circ*mstances. It only makes Joel’s downfall all the more painful.
Daredevil’s third season is often remembered for the thrilling clash between its titular superhero and Bullseye/Kingpin, but my favourite episode to this day is the quieter detour “Karen”.
Like any good TV, the Yakuza games embrace the minor details and the unrelated stories because they only embellish their world. So, even if the new Amazon show is good, I’m not sure it matters, because the games already perfectly capture what makes the small screen so uniquely special.
Yakuza
Yakuza, also known as Like a Dragon, is a series of action-adventure games developed by Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Taking place largely in the fictional Tokyo district of Kamurochō, the games are often crime dramas featuring characters such as Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima, and Ichiban Kasuga, and are known for their host of fun minigames such as karaoke.
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