Why Like A Dragon: Yakuza may be another great video game TV adaptation

After a string of refreshingly great video game-to-TV adaptations — namely HBO’s The Last of Us and Prime Video’s Fallout — the bar set for Sega and Amazon’s upcoming series based on the Like A Dragon (née Yakuza) games is high. The producers and stars of this October’s Like A Dragon: Yakuza believe their show will meet that high bar, in part because it’s locally grown and has global appeal as a story about family.

The producer of the video games is on board, too. Like A Dragon game series producer and head of Ryu Ga Gotoku studio Masayoshi Yokoyama gave his blessing to the TV show’s script, and serves as executive producer on Like A Dragon: Yakuza. He told Polygon in an interview over Zoom that he had “in-depth conversations with the director and cast” to discuss the series’ mythology and “the rules they needed to follow.”

“I was ready to turn down or really tear apart the script,” Yokoyama said through a translator, “but it turned out it was really, really impressive what I read through. So beyond that point, I was very light touch after that, and let the film crew take full control of the production.”

Like A Dragon: Yakuza, a six-episode live-action crime drama series, is based on the events of the first game in the franchise — and not the similarly named Yakuza: Like A Dragon.

Yokoyama said that the linear storytelling format of Like A Dragon: Yakuza will give viewers a point of view of the story that the games cannot, since they’re not seeing the narrative by playing from Kiryu’s perspective.

“When you adapt it into a [TV] story, you can stick with Kiryu and then [Akira] Nishikiyama, and then Yumi [Sawamura]. You can jump through POVs and tell things from a more rounded, bird’s eye point of view, which was quite liberating. I think that’s one of the strengths of the adaptation that’s different from the game,” he said.

One area where the Prime Video series might outdo the games, Yokoyama said, is its representation of the fictional nightlife district of Kamurocho in Tokyo. “In all the iterations [of Kamurocho] we’ve been pouring so much energy into to realize this fictional city, [the adaptation is] almost besting us in doing that, making it feel really alive. So we’re kind of feeling a little jealous about it and feeling that we need to do a better job in the games again.”

Erik Barmack, executive producer on Like A Dragon: Yakuza, always felt it was important to keep the show not only set in Japan, but made in Japan.

“You’ve seen Hollywood take Japanese IP and bring it to the U.S. and not always do it successfully or authentically,” Barmack said. “You’ve seen great video game adaptations in the U.S. for the world, but there aren’t many examples of a great Japanese video game that are done locally and authentically to the material, which is really a tribute to the games. You could really only do it authentically in Japan, and the fact that Amazon took the chance to do something that’s a pretty big show in Japan, for a global audience, is really interesting and unique.”

The man tasked with playing the lead in Like A Dragon: Yakuza, Ryoma Takeuchi, believes the show’s potential global appeal comes down to its human relationships and the patchwork family that surrounds Kiryu.

“What drew me into the story that I feel has a global sensibility, is the orphans who don’t have family, craving and desperate to form a human relationship,” Takeuchi said through a translator. “That’s the core essence of it all, and the element that makes it most relatable.”

Takeuchi’s co-star, Kento Kaku, who plays Kiryu’s friend-turned-rival Akira Nishikiyama, said he appreciates the responsibility of embodying these characters in live-action and the expectations that come with it.

“I had a lot of experience doing famous manga adaptations in Japan, and I know by experience how difficult it is to successfully make them into live action,” Kaku said. “So actually I was going to turn down [the part], but when I read the script, it was the first time I really could see the depths of the characters and [their] backgrounds, and understand the relationship between Kazuma and Nishiki.”

Takeuchi echoed that statement, but expressed that he’s not trying to simply cater to longtime Yakuza game fans. He wants his Kiryu to embody the masculine toughness and the delicate vulnerability of Sega’s beloved protagonist, he said, and to portray him in a way specific to live-action.

“I think it’s not the right approach to just try to please the fans,” Takeuchi said. “It’s more about coming from the inside and being authentic. So it’s a big challenge, and it’s pressure, but I think that’s the place that we all need to come from.

“It is terrifying,” he said with a laugh.

Image: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega

Takeuchi, at the very least, has Yokoyama’s approval in how he portrays Kiryu onscreen.

“It’s very freeing to have a chance to work with a very talented cast and have [Takeuchi] embody the character in his own way is just so refreshing,” Yokoyama said. “It’s not an imitation or mimicking the game character. It’s more embodying the spirit of him and making him live again as a new character. So there’s no comparison. It’s just something completely different — and it’s cool.”

And while Like A Dragon: Yakuza, is a decade-spanning crime drama that tells the start of a sprawling story, it can also be intimate and emotional, Barmack said.

“This isn’t a show that needs $20 million spaceships blowing up for it to work,” he said. “You have to believe these three characters [Kiryu, Akira, and Yumi] care about each other and are in conflict with each other. If you were to go back in time as little as 15 years ago, you would say that there would be no opportunity to take a Japanese-language show and put it with the scope that this show has in front of a global audience that matches up with the millions of people who played the games. So you needed a platform like Amazon and and and the game to travel around the world the way it has. It’s scary, but it’s also amazing that a show like this can happen.”

Like A Dragon: Yakuza premieres on Prime Video worldwide on Oct. 24.