2:53 FINALLY! You would not believe the loud minority of fans currently complaining that the newer games are bad because they are too goofy and aren’t crime dramas. Like A Dragon games have crime elements but that is not the focal point of the series.
Yeah, I hate when someone adapts something preexisting into a new format, just to throw away everything beloved so they can put forward THEIR "contribution".
we already have a great yakuza adaptation!! We didnt need the amazon show. The stage play is so charming and you can really tell that all the actors really care about the games.
One theory I’ve heard is that someone had a crime drama script but they didn’t think it would sell on its own so they attached Yakuza to it to give it a recognizable name. I wouldn’t be surprised as that is what was done with the RDJ Sherlock movies. The director admitted on Top Gear that they had a 19th century mob movie script but decided to add Sherlock so that it would get more attention.
9:17 I'm glad i wasn't the only one who noticed this. Maybe it's just from my perspective but live action Kiryu and Yumi looked so miserable around each other especially Kiryu lol Their relationship in the game is undercooked and bad but at least you could still tell he cared for her and showed more emotions around her (in the like, 2 cutscenes at Serena before everything went to hell), here it's just...stoic edgy guy and mean girl trying to make something happen. Can't blame Kiryu for showing more emotions over Miho though since she's easily one of the few best parts of the show.
@@DeathCrunch Tbh it was stupid awful. It was bad but I had fun laughing at it. The new show was just boring for the most part. So even if the movie was bad, in my opinion it still was more enjoyable than the new series
@@DeathCrunch as bad as it is it still tries to be yakuza 1. this amazon show is just amazon piggybacking of the yakuza name for their generic crime drama
Delightful! Thank you for the rundown and showing some of the game's key features. I loved seeing the comparisons from the games and show, and it is clear that the games are supreme.
Another thing they did was retcon 0 which i understand but a lot of development and brotherhood is shown in that, i wish they were able to integrate elements of that.
When I first saw the announcement for the show I thought it’d 10-20 episodes long. I’d only realize the show was 6 episodes short way later and I heavily believe that to be the main reason why the show ended up in its current state. I see lot of the weird decisions as causes from a lack of episodes and time restraints. Like them having to constantly shift back and forth from the past to the present to give context and Kiryu having the deal with the Florist that never gets completed. I do believe they could’ve handled it better with instead of constant flashbacks they should’ve had episodes 1-3 go through the past and 4-6 be the present. I believe the story would’ve flowed better and the sequencing wouldn’t be so odd. In a interview before the show dropped, the actor for Kiryu had said that when they were done filming all the scenes in 1998 he was not given enough time to properly bulk up for the scenes in 2005. The setups to scenes that never happen, character’s stories prematurely ending, and the cliffhanger ending heavily implies that they wanted to include more content, but weren’t given the chance to. Likely due to the lack of episodes, lack of time in production, and the uncertainty of whether the show would succeed and have a second season. This is why I believe they couldn’t explore well established characters like Date, The Florist, and Majima. This is also the reason why I believe they chose to spend more time on lesser known characters like Yumi and Miho and changed Yumi’s ending. It’s unfortunate how the show turned out, but I enjoyed watching it. I believe some of the ideas and concepts they had were interesting and I would like for them to be further explored in another season.
Great video . Yeah it's nothing like the games. I have 7 Yakuza/RGG games in my top 10 all time ,I can't put into words how much I love this series. I've played Yakuza 0 six times ,Kiwami 1-2 five times and so on Yakuza took Witcher 3 from nr1,out of my top 10 and I love that game 500h in, bought it twice
For a show about kiryu they really butchered his main relationships. If they go for a season 2 (and assuming they use yakuza 2 as a base) how exactly are they going to rectify haruka and kazzys position? Like I legitimately think the directors had a ego complex hence why it ended up being so different
The series feels like yet another attempt of someone to hijack a property and try to hide their own story by packaging it up in a known IP. Nothing in the entire show makes really sense as an adaption, to the point it comes accross more like a Bizarro version of Yakuza 1 plot. If the names of the characters were changed in the TV series it would look like just another crime drama, nobody would even think about this being an adaption of RGG in any way. And while I appreciate them trying to make Yumi more then just a trophy for the 2 guys to fight over it doesn't work here. Her staying low the entire time is actually plot significant, and she can't just assume Shintaros rposition in the story because that is too unique to transfer to her. This entire project feels missmanaged.
@@randellpistol_shrimp8888 Yeah, I agree. Judgement is (so far, I'm only on Ch. 6) much more plot driven rather than character driven, and Yagami and Kaito would be a pretty compelling duo for a TV series.
Judgement would make a better show because of the extra focus on story, coupled with the games awesome cinematography and you could basically just make the game but on TV to reach a wider audience Also, a Kaito Files movie would indeed be extremely awesome
Great job! You captured practically everything I thought about the TV show. I frequently hear it said that "remaining authentic" to the source material is one of the keys to a good adaptation, but along the same lines as what you mentioned, I think it's more about retaining the elements of what made people like the original. I absolutely love the Yakuza series, but I also have plenty of issues with it, so I was definitely open to changes, especially regarding the fairly weak story of Y1. But the show constantly made baffling changes for the worse, particularly in regards to the characters. Why change the very basis of the why we liked them? They even did this to side characters like the Florist of Sai. In the games, he's a huge boon to Kiryu, but I wouldn't say he's a fan-favourite character, but he's generally likable. In the show though, they decided to make him into a scheming and gross corrupt ex-cop, with goth secretaries from John Wick. I don't get it. Other than that, the TV show also had a lot of bland or just really poor camera work. I couldn't shake the cheap feeling throughout the show. I find it particularly funny that Yakuza 1 now has three adaptations, and somehow the stage play reigns supreme. I was actually super impressed with the stageplay. The stage play creators managed to retain the main story, much of the exact dialogue, the character behaviours and backgrounds, and made some really clever changes and cuts to condense Y1's story into a 2 1/2 hour show. I honestly think that every change they made improved upon the source material. I think it's absolutely worth a watch, and I recently took the time to fix all the translation issues from the previously available versions: ua-cam.com/video/mrrv2mYLw74/v-deo.html
you know, there's actually a pretty good Yakuza show. It's about a spin-off game that never released in the west for PSP called Kurohyou. The show is fully available on youtube for free with eng subs, although it's very amateur, I'd say it's a much more fun show than this one.
Thank you for pointing me out this exist. Didn't know there is a show for this IP. After watching it i feel almost raped. You made it also clear that it a complete and unterly failure of a production. I agree completely. If the connections between main and secondary Cast is not faithful to the source then there is nothing more then a production with a name as the source material and need to be ingnored by fans and all others. Product value 0/10 cast 0/10 writers -10/10 director just don't make movies/series pack your bag and go back to whatever has nothing to do with show business. Thank you 🙏.
despite what you may have felt , my personal favorite game of all time is actually Yakuza 0 , its simply the best but i can see why not everyone gets into it , especially given it was made after Yakuza 5 that said , i watched this TV Show and it didn't get interesting at all until the very last chapter and even then i am not a fan of how much DISRESPECT Kazama gets in this show.
Great video and I agree with your takes! Just a suggestion but maybe it's best to mute the in game footage as you're doing voice overs? It couldn't always understand what you were saying as the in game characters, you and the bgm were playing simultaneously.
Why bother with adaptation? Because they need the title to sells their show. They don't even care about game's fans. That's why, I forbid myself to watch any game-movie adaptation. Especially from Hollywood.
The most recent Super Mario Brothers movie was actually really good but thats thanks to Nintendo being hands on with scripts and not letting their IPs be ruined. The 93 disaster is probably the reason for that though......
I’ve been playing these games since the god awful dub in the original game and I loved the show. It’s an interesting take on the story. I’m not trying to discount your opinion on it, maybe what worked for me doesn’t work for you and that’s fine. I do think that they really couldn’t have put any of the insane substories in because it would draw away from the urgency of the characters main goals. I mean no disrespect by saying this.
For sure! And there are a lot of things they did that were praiseworthy. Last I checked, IMBD has it at 5.7 stars, and Amazon at 3, so clearly at least some people like it. Mostly, I just felt like it was missing the sense of delight that the insane substories give, and while they definitely couldn't have put in Mr. Libido or the leopard print granny, it was the vibe of those things that seemed completely missing from the show. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Where are all the silly mini games that are a lot of the time infuriating idk man could be that gamey things like that just dont fit into a show format very well
@@Fives1234 For sure, spending a lot of time on them wouldn't work well, but there aren't even easter eggs or background references to any of these things (or, if they are, they're in written in Japanese). They could have met up at some point in a bar where someone in the background was singing Baka Mitai, and that'd be perfect, but it seems they wanted to cut the silly out of the show entirely.
Thanks for reminding me that Haruka's first exposure to Kiryu was some dude who started a fight at a funeral
Very good video analyizing the faults of the show when i saw kiryu hate kazuma i was like “WHO ARE YOU AND WHERES BEST BOY”
I dropped it when Kazama shows his pinky-less hand... that was beyond stupid
Least they were faithful to the source material of the games and gave Majima barely any screen time
😢
2:53 FINALLY! You would not believe the loud minority of fans currently complaining that the newer games are bad because they are too goofy and aren’t crime dramas. Like A Dragon games have crime elements but that is not the focal point of the series.
I suspect that Amazon might be the reason why this show turned out the way it did.
The newer “fans” complaining about the lack of “seriousness” in the new LaD games would have an absolute fit if they discovered Dead Souls 💀
@@dragonspear570they’d go insane if they actually played any of the games!
Its the fun that balances the darkness that makes yakuza a great series and its sad that these people forget it.
Those fans never played 0-7 😂
It comes down to ego. Creators want to say, "I made this without copying this guy." Damn shame because we fans lose and they stroke their ego's.
Yeah, I hate when someone adapts something preexisting into a new format, just to throw away everything beloved so they can put forward THEIR "contribution".
we already have a great yakuza adaptation!! We didnt need the amazon show. The stage play is so charming and you can really tell that all the actors really care about the games.
No pocket circuit. -100/10
This
One theory I’ve heard is that someone had a crime drama script but they didn’t think it would sell on its own so they attached Yakuza to it to give it a recognizable name. I wouldn’t be surprised as that is what was done with the RDJ Sherlock movies. The director admitted on Top Gear that they had a 19th century mob movie script but decided to add Sherlock so that it would get more attention.
9:17 I'm glad i wasn't the only one who noticed this. Maybe it's just from my perspective but live action Kiryu and Yumi looked so miserable around each other especially Kiryu lol
Their relationship in the game is undercooked and bad but at least you could still tell he cared for her and showed more emotions around her (in the like, 2 cutscenes at Serena before everything went to hell), here it's just...stoic edgy guy and mean girl trying to make something happen. Can't blame Kiryu for showing more emotions over Miho though since she's easily one of the few best parts of the show.
After all these years...
The original movie wasn't that bad
I was an awful movie and I loved approximately half of it. You don't have to sugar coat yoyr opinion it for everyone elses validation.
@@DeathCrunch Tbh it was stupid awful. It was bad but I had fun laughing at it. The new show was just boring for the most part. So even if the movie was bad, in my opinion it still was more enjoyable than the new series
@@DeathCrunch as bad as it is it still tries to be yakuza 1.
this amazon show is just amazon piggybacking of the yakuza name for their generic crime drama
How dare you not track down a copy of the original Ishin or Kenzan fake fan hand me your yakuza fan club card
I have both😊
Delightful! Thank you for the rundown and showing some of the game's key features. I loved seeing the comparisons from the games and show, and it is clear that the games are supreme.
Another thing they did was retcon 0 which i understand but a lot of development and brotherhood is shown in that, i wish they were able to integrate elements of that.
Very well made video! Great editing and interesting! Keep it up!
When I first saw the announcement for the show I thought it’d 10-20 episodes long. I’d only realize the show was 6 episodes short way later and I heavily believe that to be the main reason why the show ended up in its current state. I see lot of the weird decisions as causes from a lack of episodes and time restraints. Like them having to constantly shift back and forth from the past to the present to give context and Kiryu having the deal with the Florist that never gets completed. I do believe they could’ve handled it better with instead of constant flashbacks they should’ve had episodes 1-3 go through the past and 4-6 be the present. I believe the story would’ve flowed better and the sequencing wouldn’t be so odd. In a interview before the show dropped, the actor for Kiryu had said that when they were done filming all the scenes in 1998 he was not given enough time to properly bulk up for the scenes in 2005. The setups to scenes that never happen, character’s stories prematurely ending, and the cliffhanger ending heavily implies that they wanted to include more content, but weren’t given the chance to. Likely due to the lack of episodes, lack of time in production, and the uncertainty of whether the show would succeed and have a second season. This is why I believe they couldn’t explore well established characters like Date, The Florist, and Majima. This is also the reason why I believe they chose to spend more time on lesser known characters like Yumi and Miho and changed Yumi’s ending. It’s unfortunate how the show turned out, but I enjoyed watching it. I believe some of the ideas and concepts they had were interesting and I would like for them to be further explored in another season.
Preach
This video is fantastic great job
Great video . Yeah it's nothing like the games.
I have 7 Yakuza/RGG games in my top 10 all time ,I can't put into words how much I love this series. I've played Yakuza 0 six times ,Kiwami 1-2 five times and so on
Yakuza took Witcher 3 from nr1,out of my top 10 and I love that game 500h in, bought it twice
This was a great video
For a show about kiryu they really butchered his main relationships.
If they go for a season 2 (and assuming they use yakuza 2 as a base) how exactly are they going to rectify haruka and kazzys position?
Like I legitimately think the directors had a ego complex hence why it ended up being so different
The series feels like yet another attempt of someone to hijack a property and try to hide their own story by packaging it up in a known IP.
Nothing in the entire show makes really sense as an adaption, to the point it comes accross more like a Bizarro version of Yakuza 1 plot. If the names of the characters were changed in the TV series it would look like just another crime drama, nobody would even think about this being an adaption of RGG in any way.
And while I appreciate them trying to make Yumi more then just a trophy for the 2 guys to fight over it doesn't work here. Her staying low the entire time is actually plot significant, and she can't just assume Shintaros rposition in the story because that is too unique to transfer to her.
This entire project feels missmanaged.
they probably could do judgement somewhat better than yakuza with this formula then again still not to the grand level it should be
@@randellpistol_shrimp8888 Yeah, I agree. Judgement is (so far, I'm only on Ch. 6) much more plot driven rather than character driven, and Yagami and Kaito would be a pretty compelling duo for a TV series.
I finish the Amazon show but it really doesn't feel like like a dragon yakuza Series the amazon show Suck Asss
I finish the Amazon show but it really doesn't feel like like a dragon yakuza Series the amazon show Suck Asss
Judgement would make a better show because of the extra focus on story, coupled with the games awesome cinematography and you could basically just make the game but on TV to reach a wider audience
Also, a Kaito Files movie would indeed be extremely awesome
10 years in the joint
(I do love the video, it acknowledges my frustrations with the show, I just had to say the Nishiki iconic line cause no one did)
Great job! You captured practically everything I thought about the TV show. I frequently hear it said that "remaining authentic" to the source material is one of the keys to a good adaptation, but along the same lines as what you mentioned, I think it's more about retaining the elements of what made people like the original.
I absolutely love the Yakuza series, but I also have plenty of issues with it, so I was definitely open to changes, especially regarding the fairly weak story of Y1. But the show constantly made baffling changes for the worse, particularly in regards to the characters. Why change the very basis of the why we liked them?
They even did this to side characters like the Florist of Sai. In the games, he's a huge boon to Kiryu, but I wouldn't say he's a fan-favourite character, but he's generally likable. In the show though, they decided to make him into a scheming and gross corrupt ex-cop, with goth secretaries from John Wick. I don't get it.
Other than that, the TV show also had a lot of bland or just really poor camera work. I couldn't shake the cheap feeling throughout the show.
I find it particularly funny that Yakuza 1 now has three adaptations, and somehow the stage play reigns supreme. I was actually super impressed with the stageplay. The stage play creators managed to retain the main story, much of the exact dialogue, the character behaviours and backgrounds, and made some really clever changes and cuts to condense Y1's story into a 2 1/2 hour show. I honestly think that every change they made improved upon the source material. I think it's absolutely worth a watch, and I recently took the time to fix all the translation issues from the previously available versions: ua-cam.com/video/mrrv2mYLw74/v-deo.html
the show was pretty weird but i really liked the intro with the dragon that was awesome imo
Bruh, i suggest that you review on another Yakuza adaptation Movie that was done in 2007. That movie is insane fun
I've heard rumors of this movie, I'll see if I can find a place to watch it!
Holy shit the baseball scene
you know, there's actually a pretty good Yakuza show. It's about a spin-off game that never released in the west for PSP called Kurohyou. The show is fully available on youtube for free with eng subs, although it's very amateur, I'd say it's a much more fun show than this one.
To be honest with the exception of 0 Majima also had like 10 minutes of screen time in most games lmao
Thank you for pointing me out this exist. Didn't know there is a show for this IP. After watching it i feel almost raped. You made it also clear that it a complete and unterly failure of a production. I agree completely. If the connections between main and secondary Cast is not faithful to the source then there is nothing more then a production with a name as the source material and need to be ingnored by fans and all others. Product value 0/10 cast 0/10 writers -10/10 director just don't make movies/series pack your bag and go back to whatever has nothing to do with show business. Thank you 🙏.
despite what you may have felt , my personal favorite game of all time is actually Yakuza 0 , its simply the best but i can see why not everyone gets into it , especially given it was made after Yakuza 5
that said , i watched this TV Show and it didn't get interesting at all until the very last chapter and even then i am not a fan of how much DISRESPECT Kazama gets in this show.
Great video and I agree with your takes!
Just a suggestion but maybe it's best to mute the in game footage as you're doing voice overs? It couldn't always understand what you were saying as the in game characters, you and the bgm were playing simultaneously.
You're not the only one who thinks that, so I'll probably do that in the future. XD Thanks for your input!
Why bother with adaptation?
Because they need the title to sells their show. They don't even care about game's fans.
That's why, I forbid myself to watch any game-movie adaptation. Especially from Hollywood.
The most recent Super Mario Brothers movie was actually really good but thats thanks to Nintendo being hands on with scripts and not letting their IPs be ruined. The 93 disaster is probably the reason for that though......
Honestly i wont at ya. Because i started with Yakuza 3 4 then 5 then kiwami and kiwami 2 then 0 and 6
Also how are u gonna retcon arguably the most popular game in the whole franchise
I’ve been playing these games since the god awful dub in the original game and I loved the show. It’s an interesting take on the story.
I’m not trying to discount your opinion on it, maybe what worked for me doesn’t work for you and that’s fine.
I do think that they really couldn’t have put any of the insane substories in because it would draw away from the urgency of the characters main goals.
I mean no disrespect by saying this.
For sure! And there are a lot of things they did that were praiseworthy. Last I checked, IMBD has it at 5.7 stars, and Amazon at 3, so clearly at least some people like it. Mostly, I just felt like it was missing the sense of delight that the insane substories give, and while they definitely couldn't have put in Mr. Libido or the leopard print granny, it was the vibe of those things that seemed completely missing from the show. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing video! But please mute your visuals! I can hardly focus when I hear muttible people talking over overlapping music.
Where are all the silly mini games that are a lot of the time infuriating idk man could be that gamey things like that just dont fit into a show format very well
@@Fives1234 For sure, spending a lot of time on them wouldn't work well, but there aren't even easter eggs or background references to any of these things (or, if they are, they're in written in Japanese). They could have met up at some point in a bar where someone in the background was singing Baka Mitai, and that'd be perfect, but it seems they wanted to cut the silly out of the show entirely.
Yeah or just set a scene with people leaving a whacky establishment and we see the advertisements for it on the storefront.
if they can't fit them, why even bother making a live action series?
Ok, but they can't refrain from making at least one reference to Pocket Circuit. That's just unacceptable