TV Show Review: Like a Dragon: Yakuza - Generic Japanese Crime Caper Doesn't Do SEGA Franchise Justice

If you’re a long-time Yakuza fan like this author, it’s worth remembering just how far the franchise now known as Like a Dragon has come. SEGA had once famously given up on the series outside of Japan, leaving Yakuza 5’s localisation duties to Sony. A little less than a decade later, it finds itself the subject of a high-profile Amazon Prime show, and while there have been movies in the past – like Takashi Miike’s infamous 2007 adaptation – this is clearly aiming for global appeal. It’s just a shame it’s not very good.

While the first three episodes are available now, we were given advance access to all six episodes, and we don’t really feel like it does the franchise justice. Walking the tightrope between the brand’s melodrama and sheer silliness was never going to be easy, of course, and this show starring Ryōma Takeuchi as stoic protagonist Kazuma Kiryu doesn’t even try – it’s a po-faced, generic Japanese crime drama that largely plays things safe from start to finish. It also gets bogged down in its own story, teasing plot threads and then leaving them dangling as it briskly moves on to the next topic or theme.

Takeuchi fails to capture the nuance of SEGA’s Kiryu, lacking the charisma of the video game character and his broad shoulders. The story touches upon events from prequel Yakuza 0 and the PS2 original – or Yakuza Kiwami, for those who played the remake – but it deviates a lot and thus will be mostly unrecognisable to fans of the games. This didn’t need to be a beat-for-beat retelling, of course, but we don’t think it captures the je ne sais quois of the source material, and that’s a shame.

This is perhaps best reflected by the under-utilisation of Goro Majima, played by Munetaka Aoki. His performance is fine as the notoriously zany individual, but it feels like the writers didn’t really know what to do with him; like he’s there just to tick a box. To be fair, Kento Kaku does show tremendous range as Akira Nishikiyama, as the story flip-flops between two time periods, showing his progression from mild-mannered youngster to dead-eyed gangster crime lord.

We will also note, the attention to detail in some of the sets is astounding, down to period appropriate movie posters in 1995 – and even the odd Easter eggs, like the inclusion of some Virtua Fighter 2.1 banners outside an arcade. You see very little of Kamurocho itself, and it looks like some of the shots of real-life Kabukicho have been recreated using CGI, but it does at least capture the time period quite nicely, and it all feels sordid and seedy in the way you’d expect it to.

But the story drags, and even averaging at under 50 minutes, episodes always feel like they’re a little on the long side. There’s a lot to get through here, with the abundance of subplots leading to a lack of overall cohesion, and we suspect casual viewers may quickly tune out. In fact, franchise fans will probably also struggle, as the series lacks the levity and goofiness of the games to counteract the violence and misery. It all becomes a bit of a dreary watch at times, with very little respite.

But perhaps the biggest crime of all here is that we can’t imagine anyone would be paying it much attention without the video game connection. We like the additional exploration of Yumi, an underexplored character in the source material – but this isn’t enough of a reason to tune in. You’re left with a generic, middle-of-the-road Japanese drama that neither stands out from its peers – nor captures any semblance of spirit from the franchise it’s inspired by. And after a string of video game TV and movie wins, that makes this series’ failings stand out even stronger.

Have you been watching Like a Dragon: Yakuza? What do you think of the first three episodes, and will you be showing up for the second half of the series? Get inked in the comments section below.