Important Characters - Yakuza 6: The Song of Life ...

Since Yakuza 3, I had my eye out for any mention of Joji Kazama. With the option to say "Beautiful Eyes" to a hostess in 6, I got my hopes up. Then there's the scene at the end where Date tells Akiyama about Kiryu's death and that he "doesn't have any living relatives." Immediately we cut to Kiryu in the hospital bed, a briefcase of money beside him, and a man in a suit where we can only see his back. For one glorious moment, I thought Joji Kazama had returned and was going to use his CIA connections to help Kiryu fake his death.
Anyway, any Joji fans in here?

I'm really sorry about this guys. I don't usually rant when it comes to polls but I just have to for this particular one so humor me. If I'm going to get hate from the community I love, so be it.
So someone created a poll pitting Gun vs Kiryu Kazuma (the protagonist of the Yakuza games). What surprised me was that Gun won and what surprised me even more was it was overwhelmingly in his favor. As a massive fan of the games, I have to wholeheartedly disagree. I get that this is a subreddit for Lookism and not Yakuza but characters from different universes have won these polls before so I couldn't let it slide.
For those who don't know Kiryu Kazuma's feats.
- He knocked out 2 grown tigers with his fists
- He beat up 100 guys who had swords, guns, grenades, and BAZOOKAS and he won that fight unscathed and just a bit tired (he was 48 years old by the way).
- He was able to fight to a draw against a character who can create mini earthquakes just from punching the ground.
- He's a master of multiple styles. He can expertly use a variety of weapons like nunchakus, swords, tonfas, kali sticks, staff, spears. You name it, he knows it.
- Was shot twice in the chest and belly area but still shrugged it off and kept fighting
- Survived an explosion
- He pushed a shark back underwater by punching it in the face. He didn't have an oxygen respirator either so he was fighting a shark while holding his breath the entire time.
I love Gun. He's crazy strong and he could probably do some of these when he gets older but right now, Kiryu's on a whole different stratosphere.
Sorry this was long but as a passionate fan of both Lookism and Yakuza, I just had to.

What happened to Nakahara and Mikio after Yakuza 3. I just finished the Kiryu saga and just realized that they were never mentioned or seen again, which is strange since Kiryu became Nakaharas oath brother.

So I'll admit I haven't played it yet but today I ran through the cutscenes on YouTube (all but Akiyama's chapter bc that apparently got a copyright strike) and I honestly loved it, what a great idea for a spinoff.
They went absolutely nuts and gave us some of Majima's best moments, gave Ryuji the Revengeance treatment, and still hyped Kiryu up as the badass he is. Seeing him strut past the barricade and through a horde of zombies without flinching, and towards the finale lift and toss that gigantic Nemesis looking monster off of him and Haruka was fanservice at it's best.
And, of course, Majima causing a fucking pipe explosion at the sauna was a great comic relief ending. It's pretty obvious too that RGG regrets killing off Ryuji, had they left his fate more ambiguous I have to wonder if he would have canonically wound up working at that takoyaki stand- gatling gun arm optional. I actually watched these after hearing about Kuze appearing in a Yakuza Online storyline where he fights Ryuji, then looking up a video of that, and after reading a bunch of jokes in the comments about takoyaki and gatling guns my curiosity peaked.
It makes me want to see a similar scenario with the Yakuza 7 characters, like maybe an Undead Nightmare type of DLC. I haven't played 7 yet but the RPG mechanics and seemingly over-the-top weirdness compared to Kiryu's games would lend itself easier to that, in my opinion, as opposed to adapting the OG real-time combat system into a shooter like Dead Souls did. The Prototypes look so much like they belong in a JRPG, plus...zombie Amon. Shit, bring in gatling Ryuji as a summon for that mode, and then they could even reward you with a zombified version of him as an employee in the main game for beating it...maybe. I'm just spitballing.
What would you think of that? I know that Dead Souls isn't viewed very fondly here, and for good reason (just watching clips I can tell the gunplay is a bit of a slog) but I really enjoy these spinoffs for exploring character interactions we never got to see in the main titles, and just showcasing certain traits that similarly would never come up otherwise. You know, like Kiryu nonchalantly walking into a quarantine zone to fight flesh-eating monsters with his bare hands because he loves Haruka that much. I cannot get enough of that apocalyptic dad energy, and I hope that Y7's success encourages RGG to experiment more.

I don't even want to watch this movie right now but it affected me enough that I want it in my collection so I figured I'll try and find it. I saw it once on TV probably on Film 4 (UK channel). It has that feel of late night Film 4 programming.
It's a tale of woman's life who had been shunned by her family in her teens and since leaving home she repeat the cycle of abusive relationships. As well as regular physical violence from her partner, she is also forced in to sex work by him and I think he might be low level yakuza type character. She lives in cheap Japanese apartment like this one.
It chronicles her life until her death which is end of the movie at which point she is an elderly woman, living by herself in squalor in the apartment, looking dishelved and unkept like homeless person, and she just randomly gets killed by group of youth in the evening while she is out for walk minding her own business. Possibly by baseball bat.
I remember it being super depressing making Requiem for a Dream feel like Hallmark movie.
Thanks in advance guys. I'll check back in few hours.

Hey this is a long shot but I have been looking for a specific trade for YEARS. I read it in my library when I was like 10. The story was set in Tokyo and Batman had come to chase down bad guys and stuff as per usual. But there was a Japanese character who was inspired by him to make his own costume to battle the Yakuza. This character wore a costume with a samurai style to it and a dragon mask and called himself the Jade dragon or the golden dragon or something like that.
The art style was way cool with the action lines and capes snaking off in unexpected directions. Please please help a fan out!

Get ready for a massive fucking wall of text built with my feels. I just finished Yakuza 0--so far, the only Yakuza game I've played--and promptly spoiled myself on the rest of Goro Majima's anti-hero arc throughout the series due to a combination of a quarantine situation and my unhealthy obsession with his lore, which I'm purging by writing this. While somewhat inconsistently written over the years, his transformation between Y0 and Y1/Kiwami 1 and ensuing characterization carries undiscussed literary depth within the context of details like his tattoo. It goes without saying that spoilers follow in the discussion, though I've blacked out some character reveals or deaths in the main post.
Biography/Character Development As series fans are aware, at some point between the end of Yakuza 0 (1988) and the start of the first Yakuza game/Yakuza Kiwami (1995/2005), our favorite one-eyed boi's personality does a 180 from a calm, collected gentleman to the Joker counterpart to Kiryu's Batman--at least, from the point of view of someone who started with Yakuza 0. Hell, Mark Hamill even voiced him in the English dub.
Fan discussion varies on whether Majima's crazy side (shown in most of the series and around the other yakuza post-Y0, and particularly in Kiwami 1) is an exaggerated defense mechanism for him to operate efficiently in the yakuza underworld, if his sane side (shown around civilians and occasionally Kiryu/Saejima, particularly in Y0 when he's imprisoned in his 'gilded cage' in Sotenbori) is a repressed/depressed act, or if both represent him accurately (à la Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde) and he's not acting. The only consistencies in his character seem to be his loyalty and his respect for people who display courage, honor, and independence. Out-of-universe, he debuted as an insane character who was later given backstory and depth; in-universe/in-game, chronologically, his seemingly gentle nature gives way to a maniac with touches of sanity. It is worth noting that the lead English translator for the game, Scott Strichart, has said that Majima "makes a conscious choice to... let loose," though this is never alluded to in-game.
To recount the rest of Majima's history: 1985 - We are unaware of how he acted pre-Yakuza 0, but know that he endured a year of isolated torture for insubordination to his superiors out of concern for his oath brother. 1988 - Yakuza 0 takes place. Even in Y0, Majima acts a little crazy at times in karaoke and in his Breaker Style, more so than Kiryu would. Additionally, during Y0, we see the loss of people he admires or who died to defend him, including Lee, Awano, Sagawa, and especially Nishitani--all of who contribute to his later personality. His wild persona is partially inspired by how he's treated while he's acting like a gentleman, including him being used by Sagawa and Shimano throughout the game--hence the 'dog' part of his 'mad dog' title--and giving up Makoto so she can have a happy life, both of which could have their own textposts. 1992 - As revealed in Yakuza 5 in 2012 anecdotally by his pop idol/superstar ex-wife Mirei Park: sometime between Y0 and Y1/Kiwami 1, he goes through an ill-fated marriage at 28 with a then-18-year-old, hits her after finding out she aborted their child without telling him, and divorces her in part to save her career. 2005 - The original Yakuza game/Kiwami 1 takes place. Majima stalks Kiryu every chance he gets. 2006 - After the events of Kiwami 2, Majima also temporarily leaves the yakuza to begin a construction company--a venture that recalls his business acumen and many dualities (civilian/criminal, destruction/construction, and the ultimate duality of the Yakuza series itself: strategic management minigame set against a lighthearted story/cartoonishly violent beat-em-up set against a serious story). (Majima continues to show up in future Yakuza games, but I haven't seen any character development easter eggs in his reactions to major game events like his oath brother Saejima being released from prison. Every biographer is biased, though--I believe I've underplayed Saejima's role in Majima's motivations simply because I've only played Y0, a game in which Saejima was barely mentioned. See character analysis by Scott Strichart in an AMA here) (contains major Y5 spoilers).
I argue that Majima's tattoo, which existed pre-1985, foretells his arc and represents the conscious dualities of his nature.
The Tattoo Concept art of Majima's tattoo Y0 Majima wearing the tattoo on his front Y0 Majima wearing the tattoo on his back
Every Yakuza (game) character's tattoo has an animal or figure that symbolizes them to some extent, but I believe Majima's has a deeper connection to his story arc as opposed to just his personality. (The same could be argued for Nishikiyama's koi in relation to Kiryu's dragon and Japanese folklore, or how four of the protagonists' tattoos from later games represent the four Eastern Guardians, but those are their own walls of text.)
According to the Yakuza fandom wiki (emphasis mine):

[Majima's tattoo] covers his biceps, upper chest, and stretches from his neck to the back of his thighs. It consists of a floral motif (similar to Shimano's), with a Hannya on his back, and twin snakes wrapped around his arms and chest.

I'm going to analyze Majima's tattoo in two parts: the symbology of the twin snakes in relation to his arc and the symbology of the Hannya.
Snakes - Analysis Why the snake, of all animals, to represent Majima? Why not the dog, given that his nickname is 'The Mad Dog of Shimano'? While Majima matches the energy and loyalty of a dog, a dog would represent only the acted, artificial facets of his personality: him being 'leashed' in Sotenbori or 'barking' at thugs. Even this nickname is a red herring; if he were called 'The Serpent of Shimano,' that'd ruin the point of his entire façade(s). The serpent, in addition to a plethora of more specific cultural and historical symbologies associated with it, is hidden, agile, flexible, cunning, and deadly. This suits both of Majima's personalities more completely--even as his 'Lord of the Night' persona, in his Y0 introduction, he uses calculated, indirect methods to deal with a disruptive customer as the manager of The Grand. (In my opinion, all of the Youtube video clips of this introduction leave out the best part: the end of the night, when the player controlling him returns to a tiny, bare apartment on the trashy side of town after having just made 100 million yen managing his lavish cabaret, and collapses sleeplessly on a bare mat on the floor for another night of PTSD flashbacks.) In battle, especially in Y1/Kiwami onwards, Majima's style is quick and knife-like, relying on his speed and agility rather than brute physical force. We also see in multiple cutscenes, especially in Y0 (if you don't already believe he's acting most of the time either way), that he's capable of deception and guarding secrets when needed.
This begs the second question--why twin snakes? As you can see in the concept art linked above, one of the snakes--the one prominently displayed on his chest--has its mouth open as if to strike, whereas the other--less visible and hanging off his shoulder--does not. They may represent the series' recurring theme of the Yakuza way of life being a dichotomy between criminality and civility. The snake alone represents the infinite cycle of death and rebirth in the classic symbol of the ouroboros, where it eats its own tail, and also has been portrayed for the dual contrasts of medicine/poison and good/evil. Whenever Majima embodies one of his personas, he 'sheds' the skin of the other, because much like pedestrian life (blood/married family, legitimate business, honesty, civility, tuxedo used for work, and long hair tied back) and Yakuza life (crime/sworn family, illicit business, manipulation, violence, snakeskin jacket that he chose, and loose short hair), the two are incompatible. His eyes are also symbolic in this way: one eye sees normally, while the other is mutilated and covered with a black eyepatch. This duality is displayed in Majima's many "snake skins," for (minor Kiwami 1 spoilers ahead) Majima is neither female (Goromi), lawful (Officer Majima), dead (Zombie Majima), a beloved celebrity (in-universe, anyway--Everyone's Idol Goro), nor a domestic service worker (at least in Kiwami 1--Taxi Driver Majima). We'll cover his last persona, Hannya-man, in the next section. The reason for Majima's duality existing is that psychologically, Majima needs both in order to be healthy and true to what he is: he needs to ground himself on occasion so he doesn't totally fly off the handle, and inversely, he needs to let his 'crazy' out in order to stay sane.
Hannya - Analysis According to the Wikipedia article for Hannya:

The Hannya mask is said to be demonic and dangerous but also sorrowful and tormented, displaying the complexity of human emotions. When the actor looks straight ahead, the mask appears frightening and angry; when tilted slightly down, the face of the demon appears to be sorrowful, as though crying.

The original Japanese legend of the Hannya tells the story of a jealous, hideous she-demon-slash-beautiful woman twisted by betrayal. The 'frightening' side of the Hannya is Majima's crazy side that he shows in battle and when dealing with other yakuza, whereas the 'sorrowful' side is Majima's life outside of the yakuza. In real-world Japanese culture, the face of the Hannya is a mask used in kabuki theatre; Majima is wearing a mask at all times (both figuratively, and also on the tattoo on his back). There is no one in the world whom Majima can show both his sensitive/caring side without being hurt or manipulated, and his bloodthirsty/criminal side (he joined the yakuza of his own free will multiple times and seems to enjoy the thrill of a fight) without being feared or putting others in danger, to except for possibly the powerful but righteous and emotionally-balanced Kiryu, which helps explain why Majima's so drawn to him.
We now focus our attention on Hannya-man, one of Majima's masks that he literally wears in a battle against Kiryu. In Kiwami 1, the main reason he fights Kiryu, despite threatening to kill him, is conversely to make Kiryu stronger after Kiryu gets out of ten years of prison. At the end of Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 2 (this entire section is gonna be one big spoiler about Majima's personal life through Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 5 - I wouldn't click past the next spoiler if you haven't played Kiwami 2), Majima goes out of his way to avoid revealing who he is to Makoto in-person, even though he loves her; his ignorance of her in order to shield her from the yakuza life is his greatest act of love. It's interesting how much Makoto and Mirei compare and contrast in their personalities and relationship with Majima. This addresses the question of why the Hannya mask appears "sorrowful, as though crying" from a different angle. Majima never fully got over Makoto, the only character who understood what his year of torture and losing an eye was like; when Makoto gives him a massage and some closure by chance at the end of Kiwami 2 after she reveals that she ended up having a son with the doctor who saved her, Majima mutters to himself that by thanking him and telling him that she's been happy, she's untied some loose knots he's had "for 18 years." He's kept count of this in his head. The game executes the 'show-not-tell' rule of storytelling masterfully here--Majima never directly shows her nor tells anyone that he's in love with her. We only get this impression by his body language, actions, and dialogue from other characters like Shimano. Majima doesn't discuss his civilian life, at least in-game. We wouldn't even know about (major Y5 spoiler) his failed marriage and dead baby from 1992 if it weren't for another character's dialogue in Yakuza 5. For all we know, Majima could really want to become a father, but can't--in addition to his actions (again, Y5) towards Mirei upon finding out what she did, he displays fatherly instincts multiple times during Y0's civilian substories/hostess training, especially towards Yuki, and throwaway lines of dialogue during those trainings indicate he's not completely averse to having a kid. Unlike the Hannya in her jealous fury, Majima accepts that he would never receive a 'happy ending' from his relationship with Makoto, only a bittersweet one. Yes, that was a symbolic massage pun. His civilian life is, in some ways, ironically more tragic than his yakuza one.
To conclude, Majima's tattoos tell their own lore--that of the multiple dualities of his story and character arc.
I'll wrap up with a quote from Kurt Vonnegut, a 20th century writer who turned to the absurd to sculpt the effects of PTSD:

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

Additional miscellaneous credit for this writeup goes to commenters on Youtube, Tumblr, Reddit, and various gaming forums.

Kiryu-CHAAANN

I'm an avid fanfiction reader and lately, TROTSH has been something of an obsession for me.
Unfortunately, the number of actually good crossover fics that are written with a good level of English and contain an interesting plot is pretty low...
I'm also a HUGE Jojo fan so I just thought of a scenario where Naofumi himself would be a Stand User.
There are many ways to go about this:
- He could be part of the Morioh Duwang and could have been transported here years later in a similar way to the anime.
- He could take Kakyoin's place and have the same stand.
- He could be a kid who was born with the stand and chose to use it to protect his brother and family.
- He could take the Buccielatti route and become a Gangste Yakuza in this case.
In any case, here are some Stand Ideas, some of them were inspired by other media:
​
[FIGHT LIKE THE DEVIL] (from the song by Onlap): A Power-type offensive stand that looks like the iconic depiction of the devil (plus whatever arrangement of ornaments Jojo Stands seem to have), red soulless eyes and a Jack-O-Lantern smile. It's main ability is to enhance it's own power through the user's emotions, the more negative emotions the user has, the stronger it is (i.e the perfect Stand for Naofumi post-episode 1).
It's main way of attacking is melee Claws, punches, horned headbutts, etc...
Power: E A
Speed: E A
Range: D
Durability: A
Precision: D
Development: D
​
[ ROCK THE CASBAH] (from the song by The Clash): A Power-type defensive stand that looks similar to Capone Bege's (from One Piece) "Big Father" form. It's basically a humanoid castle. The stand's ability relies upon its durability capabilities It can "store" people and objects into it through a drawbridge door it has on its belly. It can even take in the stand user themselves.
The people then can operate from within the stand and attack the enemy see Capone Bege's ability.
It has the potential to be "upgraded" by adding various weapons onto it.
Power: D
Speed: D
Range: D
Durability: A+
Precision: D
Development: B
​
[PAC MAN FEVER]: A Colony stand that looks like a cluster of Balloon Monsters and has the same ability as Pac Man Eat, Eat, Eat. The stand could theoretically eat through any material and even space itself (similarly to how Okuyasu's [THE HAND] erases space).
Power: A
Speed: A
Range: B
Durability: D
Precision: D
Development: B
​
In any case, I would love to see a fic like that.
The author can even take a little liberty with the plot given that Naofumi is a Stand user, he has more "resolve" than other people, this can lead to him basically telling the King to F off after episode 1 and set himself on his own journey.
He could have a Joestar-like character (stand against Evil) or a Yakuza-like character wherein he does not give a shit about the people and only protects those he cares about.

I don't think saying what's not in the game is a spoiler but I've marked it anyway.
I thought it was weird that two characters made no appearance: Komaki and Kage The Florist. Komaki, I guess, was always just a side character and Kiryu can't learn any big new moves, so that's fine. I thought it was really weird that neither The Florist nor Purgatory made an appearance though. Especially early on, when Kiryu is looking for information, and he looks for Akiyama rather than The Florist. In fact, a bunch of Kiryu's problems would be solved if The Florist was in the game. I guess that's the problem when you introduce a character whose job it is to know everything.

Kage the florist. I don't recall anything happening to him in Y5. Purgatory seemed to be doing fine. Was there an in game explanation of why he and Purgatory weren't there (other than "construction") ? He would have been a really useful character to find out all the stuff on Haruka and the triads.
I have finished the game so no need to go soft on the spoilers.