#Goodbye Kiryu

[datastate]

rgg studios give me one chance please. just one chance at rewriting rgg6 please. all you need to do is let us play as haruka again and get rid of the twist that the baby she was protecting was her own and you truly do have a solid story of haruka inadvertently getting involved in the yakuza in a way that makes sense. and this once, this once, kiryu's story is a reflection of hers as he uncovers how far haruka has gone on her own. how resilient she is even without him. that maybe, she's grown up enough now that she doesn't need him anymore... that through his experience, she's had all the warnings she's needed to carve a path through herself in the underworld as an aide to the families she's pledged loyalty to. as an underground doctor, as an informant, as-- *the guards begin to drag me away* THE POSSIBILITIES...!!!

[fujimen]

Good thing i have tumblr bc i wouldve gone on with my life thinking y8 premieres in february

[dirt-str1der]

Yuta is straight up just like kiryu fuck me hes attentive and loving and says all the right things hut hes not exactly invested in haruka he let her just run off he was just like byeeee and it wasnt because he didnt love her its because thats just how he is

[g0deatgod-archive]

So now what should I do? I'm strung out, addicted to you. My body aches, now that you're gone. My supply fell through // When you made me feel joy it made you smile, But now I feel your stress. Love was never meant to be such a crazy affair, no, And who has time for tears? Never thought I'd sit around and cry for your love

You're Not Here

[luminiera-merge]

i'm kinda curious as to how ichiban's story is gonna look like in infinite wealth. as we are in the marketing he is getting overshadowed rn bc his story rn to most people is him fucking around in hawaii after getting lost while kiryu's is gonna be his goodbye. like i really wanna know how they make sure ichiban doesn't just take a backseat in what should be his game

[flyfish1999]

MORE INFO about the Shuji Sogabe ryomina doujinshi !!!

hello ryojihead nation !!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope you're all having a good day ^_^ i'm sure the vast majority of you are aware of the persona 3 manga, it's many ryomina tendencies, and it's author, Shuji Sogabe.

sogabe is also rather well-known for having written a popular ryomina doujin, イチゴちゃん SAY GOOD BYE [pictured], under the penname Kanae Kiryu. SGB was released at Comiket 73 on the 29/12/2007, around 10 months after the persona 3 manga began serialisation in dengeki maoh in february that year.

a few days before comiket, sogabe writes on his blog that he'll be handling books from kanae kiryu's doujin circle, ネコ同然。(like a cat.) on the 28/12/2007, he posts a link to kanae kiryu's blog, http://jlc.jugem.jp/ [pictured]

later, on the 14/5/2008, a post is made to kiryu's blog that he applied to, and then later announced on 22/6/2008 that he was accepted to, the ryomina exclusive event Messiah Recipe ! (webpage being: http://messiah-recipe.com)

alongside his acceptance, he also writes that he's working on a new book for the event. on the 26th, he posts again, saying the book will be called ワルツィング・キャット(Waltzing Cat) [pictured], and it was worked on alongside 蒼麻葵 (i believe their current twitter: @tasotaso_nyoro) !

NOTE: on the kanae kiryu blog it is mentioned that Waltzing Cat's front and back cover join together much like SAY GOOD BYE's does, but since very few scans of the book exist, we only have the front cover (which shows minato's hand, at least ^_^;;)

Waltzing Cat was then released as promised at Messiah Recipe's event on June 28th, 2008. (this exclusivity is probably why it's so much rarer!) SAY GOOD BYE was also reprinted to be sold alongside it. a blog post was made on kiryu's blog two days after, thanking everyone who bought books at the event. he writes:

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all the people who picked up our books at the event. It was the first time for me to participate in an exclusive circle, and I was a little nervous, but there was no big confusion on the day of the event, and the proceedings were very relaxed and peaceful. Thank you to all the staff members! I really wanted to talk to more people, but I'm a chicken at heart and it's hard to build a community.......! Once you get to know each other, you can chat as much as you want. I would like to be a little more proactive next time, since this is a place where people who like the same things can get together.

after a few more posts (mostly about p4), and then a few months of silence, kanae kiryu's blog is closed in March 2009, with a thank-you goodbye message written on 22/03/2009. the only other mention of kanae's circle i found was as part of a persona 3 2009 calendar, presumably made in 2008. link to defunct listing here: https://www.suruga-ya.jp/product/detail/988900972

[pictured below: Messiah Recipe's event information from the website]

i hope everyone had lots of fun at messiah recipe !!!!!!! and i'm glad i could help unearth this information !!!!!!!! let's hope sogabe continues to enjoy persona 3 and ryoji mochizuki for years to come ^_^

[ch3rrry-p1e]

hello and goodbye kiryu nation

[ambigirl]

Why are girls so different!? Part 1

Notice: this is an au for Wind breaker characters

Characters: Haruka Sakura, Tachibana Kotoha, Hajime Umemiya, Hayato Suo, Kiryu Mitsuki, Akihiko Nirei, Kaji Ren, Toma Hiiragi, Taiga Tsugeura, Tsubakino Tstsuku

Ship: Kotoha x Sakura

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Why are girls so different?"

This question has been living in his head rent free for days. It isn't like he had encountered many girls in his life! As a matter of fact, in all his life, girls had been avoiding him. It may be because of his aggressive attitude, or may be because of his heterochromia weird appearance.

But recently, a girl has entered his life. She doesn't seem to be scared of him. In fact, she stared into his eyes, face to face, and said his appearance is awesome! He felt something in his heart that wasn't familiar, so for avoiding it, he snapped and yelled. But she didn't seem scared of his attitude, too! What a weird girl...

All of this fun started from the time he met her, and now, he's in front of the mirror, weirdly caring about his appearance. He had his comb in his hands and was trying some new hairstyle that makes him look better. Suddenly, he snapped out of imagination and found himself with his hair looking like Umemiya Hajime, his senpai in school.

"Huh!?"

He felt weird, why is he trying to change his appearance!? He tried to find the answer from what he remembered from yesterday:

~ He was walking in the street with his hands full. The first year's patrol finished just half an hour ago, so, after saying goodbye to his classmates and a little chit-chat with Suo and Nirei, he met with people he helped during the patrol. For some reason, people has started to call him "captain Sakura". The sound of "captain Sakura, take this" "captain Sakura, take that" was filling the area. Sakura couldn't stop blushing, thinking about how popular he has become. He both like and hate being the centre of attention.

"This town is full of weirdos" he thought.

Suddenly, someone passed by him that caughthis eyes. His eyes widened by the sight of shiny brown threads dancing in the air.

"Ko..."

He stopped himself, remembering how embarrassing it is to call her by her name. It loks like she was in hurry, and her face was sweaty. The weather was kinda chilly, so he couldn't understand why she was sweating this much. He took a big step and caught her hand.

"Oi"

She turned back with a big gasp. But then, her eyes sparkled.

"Sakura! What a relief, you scared me."

He grabbed his things in one hand, then opened his hand in front of her face.

"Let me carry your stuff"

She smiled and said: "are you sure!? Your own stuff seems heavy, but mine aren't"

"J-just give them to me already" he blushed. "A man wouldn't let a woman carry things when he's around."

Mitsuki taught him that. He never thought he'd use this on her, of all people.

Kotoha smiled and handed over all the things that was carrying.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to trouble you."

"It's nothing."

She looked her back real quick, kinda nervously.

"Uhhh, Sakura, I'm happy that I've seen you! You're a life saver." She gave him a big smile.

"Can you... please... go somewhere with me tomorrow!?" She said it while trying to open the cafe.

"Where!?"

"Well, I wanna go shopping, and since I have a lot of things to buy, they're going to be heavy for sure. I wanted to ask Nii... I mean, Umemiya, but he's really busy."

He put all the eggs on the cabinet and said: "well, ok. What time!?"

"How about 10 a.m?"

"it's ok". He sat on the chair. "Can I have omelette rice?"

Kotoha giggled. "Ok ok. Wait a little". ~

Sakura came back to present, suddenly remembering it's 9:45.

"Gah, I wish my hair wasn't 2 coloured. I look weird with any hair style!"

He left the comb on his futon and ran outside. He didn't want to be late for...

He stopped and grabbed his head between his arms. "Stop thinking about date, this isn't a date, you're just gonna help her, that's it". Would someone as mature as her even think about dating someone like him!? This question popped into his mind, causing a pain in his heart. "Well, that hurts."

Kotoha was standing in front of cafe, with a long white and green dress. This was the first time Sakura had seen Kotoha with a dress! "She looks so pretty!" He couldn't resist this idea in his mind. "I should tell her, I think."

"Hi."

Kotoha gave him a smile. "Hello Sakura."

Sakura couldn't open his mouth to say "this dress suits you so much" or "you look pretty". It was so embarrassing that thinking about it made him blush wildly.

"Y-y-you have changed your appearance". He said it while trying to look away.

"Oh, you mean this dress!? Yes. I... like wearing these kind of dresses, but wearing them when I'm alone makes me feel uncomfortable." She blushed saying that, with an uncomfortable face.

"Why? It looks pretty on you!"

Suddenly, he understood that he let that slip his mouth, tried to fix it.

"I-I-I-I mean..."

But Kotoha seemed kinda sad. "Thank you, but when there isn't a man around, other men try to harass, especially when I'm wearing these beautiful dresses."

Sakura couldn't stop himself from feeling sad. She seemed really upset about it. Sakura could remember the first time they met, there were a group of boys surrounding her, trying to drag her with themselves.

"Well, now I'm here, so don't worry about anything and enjoy wearing this dress"

Sakura said it by instinct, with a blushing face. Kotoha looked at him with surprise, but then, she smiled. "Thank you, I really appreciate it." She grabbed his arm as they were entering the mall.

Sakura looked at Kotoha's face, blushing about her grabbing his arm, but saw Kotoha with a shiny face and eyes full of sparkles, with a tiny blush on her chick.

"Let's Go!!!" Her voice was full of excitement.

Sakura never had seen someone being this happy about shopping! "Why are girls always look so happy while shopping!?" Well, according to what he knows, guys mostly think shopping is a pain in the ass, and don't do it till it's completely necessary, but girls!!! He heard that girls love going into shopping malls and not coming out for hours!!!

Sakura took a long breath. "Haaaahhhh, I hope God save me from a long shop!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I wished we could've went back and eat your omelette rice instead of eating ramen here" Sakura said it with a pout. Kotoha gave him a small laugh.

"We're out, so why not enjoying a meal outside of what we usually eat!?"

"I-I like trying new things!!! But... I like food at your cafe more... kinda"

Kotoha gave a very kind smile. "I'm happy to hear that!" (Her face in my mind: 😄)

Sakura put the chopsticks into his mouth angrily. He couldn't help but think Kotoha is angry at him. For 3 or 4 hours straight, she was putting on different kind of dresses and showing them to Sakura.

"Does it look good on me!?"

And Sakura, while couldn't help his dropped jaw could just say: "Yes! You look absolutely beautiful."

He feels like because he kept saying that, Kotoha is upset with him. She even said: "Are you saying it like this so we can finish our shopping sooner!?"

And Sakura answer it with "No, I mean everything I say."

Sakura wished he could give his vision to Kotoha, so he could see how stunning she is with the dresses she wear!

"Do guys look this different with some outfit change!?" In his opinion, guys don't look beautiful in any clothes, they can just look cooler and cooler. And it's not like if they change their t-shirt with another t-shirt, their appearance look cooler! But when Kotoha changed her t-shirt with another cloth that was strange to Sakura, her appearance went from stunning to absolutely stunning! And Sakura's jaw dropped on the floor by witnessing that!

"I'll pay the bill." Sakura said that with a pout. Kotoha stopped eating and looked at Sakura.

"Really!? How!? Do you have enough money!?"

"O-of course I have! I've been paid for doing some small things in town by elder people."

He - was - lying!

Yesterday, Hiiragi came in front of his home, after some talk they had about things they do in school, Hiiragi said: "Kotoha-chan told me she's taking you with her for shopping, is that right!?"

"Y-yes"

"Then, have this."

He gave Sakura some money. Sakura was blushing surprisingly.

"What is it for!?"

"For tomorrow. If you two went to a restaurant to eat something, or if there were small payments like taking taxi or buying something, do it with this. It's not that much, but it should be ok for the little time you two are going to spend together." Hiiragi looked at Sakura who looked struggled, and smiled. "I'm not doing it for you, I want Kotoha-chan to have a good time, and I know she'll have a good time if you don't get embarrassed in front of her." He sighed and turn his back. "We men have different world view about everything with women, and now, you're going to experience it yourself, and not with anyone, but with someone I consider my little sister, so, just have fun and don't worry about anything, your big brother have both of you guy's back!"

He waved at Sakura and disappeared in the darkness.

"Hiiragi, thank you." Sakura thought that with a smile.

Outside of restaurant, there was a game with some prizes. And the biggest prize was a big pink bear!

"Tch, who is that idiot to give money to get a big bear!?" Sakura thought, then turned around to see if her shopping is finished or not, just to face Kotoha with an excited face of her that sparkles were flying around her!

"Eh!? Eeeeeehhhhhh!? She's excited just for a big bear toy!?"

"Do you want it!?" Sakura said it with surprised face.

Kotoha turned around with puppy eyes. "C-can I please try!?"

Sakura felt his chest was empty for some seconds. "Eh!? Where's my heart!? I feel like I'm about to die!"

What's her deal!? "Ugggghhhhhh"

"It's f-fine, let's try it." HOW COULD HE SAY NO TO THOSE EYES!? DAMN IT!

Kotoha paid for the game. It was a simple game: throw the ball to some kind of animals. If you could take down the lion, you could get the big bear. Kotoha could throw it, but it didn't take it down.

"Aaaawwwwww". She seemed so sad.

"Don't worry, beautiful young girl, you can have one of these smaller items." The man said.

"Hold on, let me try once, too!"

Sakura grabbed the ball and throw it with every strength he had. The ball hit the lion and make a hole in both lion and the decorations behind it.

"What did you do!?" The man seems so angry.

"I'm sorry for that." He gave the remaining money he had to the man. "Can we take the big bear now!?"

The man threw hand angrily. "You can take whatever ... you want!"

Sakura got angry because of the curse he said. "Calm down Sakura, calm down. Remember you promised Kotoha and Hiiragi to not fight."

He picked the bear and went to Kotoha. "Is this the one you wanted!?" He asked.

"Yes! Yes! Can I carry it myself!?"

"Yes, here you go."

Sakura hand the big bear over to Kotoha, and she get it with a happy smile.

"Why are girls so different!? How can a girl smile this bright and suddenly becomes the centre of the world!? How can the world vanish and only she stays with such a beautiful smile!?" Sakura couldn't stop the thoughts popping into his mind.

"Sakura. Thank you for getting me this. Now, I wanna share my happiness with you."

She stands on her toes and gave Sakura a cheek kiss! He got frozen, he couldn't even remember how to breathe! He tried to imprison the shout that was coming from the bottom of his heart, and gulp down all "What was that for" words that were coming up his throat. She was hugging the bear very happily and he didn't want to ruin her mood.

Walking out of mall, they saw Tsubaki on patrol.

"Tsubakiiiiii-chaaaaaaa-"

While Kotoha tried to get Tsubaki's attention, Sakura ran to him while shouting "just a minute, I have to tell something to him".

He grabbed Tsubaki's arm and dragged him a little further.

Note: I'll write a part 2 for it, this one got too long and we're still in the middle of story ;-;

Note 2: according to official English editors of manga, the mangaka announced that Tsubaki's official pronounce is he/him.

Note 3: other characters will show up, too ;-;

[dragon-business]

balcony talk

Thinking about how Tachibana’s 1 billion for Kiryu's life, and all the dinners, and showers are another nuclear hit on Majima's stubborn belief that Kiryu is straight.

But, you know… Talking about that time with Majima can lead Kiryu to realise that Tachibana might have had something for him. And that's all fun and games that open a whole new can of worms, oh boy.

And Kiryu didn't think about it all properly (didn’t think about it at all, really), of course he didn't. No processing of grief and trauma in this house yet. He just sits in a room, and has nightmares about it, our boy.

Maybe they were casually chatting, Majima was teasing Kiryu about the hot guy kinda courting him, but this, and just- the fact of talking about this part of his past overwhelmed Kiryu with the new thoughts, and he ran to the balcony to cool off and breathe. Majima followed, and brought the cigarettes. 

He didn't expect his light teasing to turn into something so serious, and so he nuked both Kiryu and himself with the topic. Cheers.

But at least this can make Kiryu talk about those events, probably for the first time since it all happened. It was easy to brush away, since he passed all the stages of grief like a champ, really manly.

But the new perspective on how Tachibana might've felt makes thinking back inevitable and harder at the same time. It's so layered, complex. And Kiryu having this epiphany and talking about it tugs at Mama's insecurities and fears, but also… these are the Tachibana siblings.

This is that whole period of time, that story that Majima also never discussed with anyone. Because he, rightfully, knew nobody could understand it. But here Kiryu is. Here they both are. Starting the second shared pack of cigarettes, and not looking at the Millennium Tower.

And Kiryu casually says that he probably can still find the empty lot spot in the building, because to this day he sometimes dreams of running through the alleyways towards it. He can find it blindfolded, by this point (he's late every time in his dreams, too).

Kiryu can't really go there anymore, the place is gone. And it's weird, because it's not like he ever came back to that spot before, when it was there. Before prison, before everything. 

But back then he always knew that he, at least, could. You know?

And Kiryu didn't even say goodbye? Or said much of anything? He just held dying Tachibana in the middle of the empty lot, while Makoto talked to him, and cried over him, because she had more rights to do all that than Kiryu did.

Because it was unfair, because they both did so much to get to this moment, and now it was slipping away, and Kiryu was too late, he couldn't stop the world grinding down on this, on something good that might've been.

At least Makoto is out there. Majima kept her safe, didn't he, Kiryu says (oh, g-d). He did. She can be out there, and find something good to have in her life again (Majima kept his Tachibana safe).

I bet it’s weird for Majima to think about Kiryu sitting there with Tachibanas dead body in his arms, while Makoto cried.

He was there for her, when Majima couldn’t be. She was not alone.

Majima is drowning in new context. After hearing that, after swallowing against the vertigo of the new perspective, he can even tell Kiryu about how Makoto is doing now, because. All of this is unpresidential. Reality shifting. The two of them aligned on this experience so long ago… And also, well. Kiryu deserves to know more.

He deserves to know that Makoto is safe, and that… even with that, it's still not the same. Everything.

I doubt that before this moment Majima really considered that Kiryu got hurt in that story as well. He knew it was very messy, and Dojima hunted Kiryu for sport, but he got out of it like a champ because of Kazama's help, didn't he?

This whole Tachibana connection is Kiryu's only, only Kiryu himself knows the extent of it. Like the whole Makoto connection is Majima's only. Only Nishiki and some real estate guys saw bits and pieces of their story. And Nishiki had his own arc, he barely even met Tachibana. Kiryu and Majima are both alone in knowing their own stories (Nishiki was really important to Kiryu in a different way, and for keeping his humanity in the end).

After that whole incident Kiryu went and dived head first in the yakuza life. He abandoned his hobbies and lots of his casual friends. All to become a strong and powerful yakuza. To not fail in protecting people he cares about anymore. 

- It's very sad in retrospect, when in kiwami we learn what Kiryu did in the next 7 years after 0. He went into compensation even harder than it seemed. And then went to prison to do nothing but staring at the wall for 10 years.

And all that after he learned to live a civilian life! We saw that he grew up watching lieutenants, but then told Avano and Kuzoa he's not like them. It was such a contrast from the boy who screamed at dad that he wants to be respected, to be a part of dad's world.

He explicitly said it disgusts him now. And after that watching him rejoin was like the kick in the gut. "You can never escape this world".

Did Kiryu think being in the family will help him be on time next time something terrible happens? Because the thing is, he still didn't make it. He was late. Again. Yumi got hurt. Nishiki had to take the killing shot. But, see, Kiryu can still make it right, he can take penance. Because of course it's All His Fault.

– It all comes back to that fucking empty lot, to Tachibana. Who, as it turns out, maybe even loved him. 

And Kiryu feels guilty and not guilty both, because despite everything he's still glad that throughout it all he met Majima.

Kiryu doesn't know what could've happened if he was there on time, if Tachibana survived, if everything was different and hurt less. But he does know that he likes that they are standing on the balcony now, smoking gazillion cigarettes in a row. Kiryu still likes being there with Majima.

(Yes, Majima. Kiryu is forreals. Majima's denial horse is getting obliterated, nearly complete defeat.)

Majima will need a solid moment to himself after this. Maybe a couple of days off, away. They both will need them, actually. It was a trip of a talk for both of them. Also they both smoked too much, and probably secretly cried, too, while looking pointedly away into the dark night (they leaned on the balcony railing facing in different directions, because of course).

– Honestly, I get watery eyes, thinking about Kiryu's Tachibana realisation, too. After Kiryu dived head first in queer culture, and started to realise how much he missed out on, didn't get to experience in life? It hits as hard as the news that Kazama killed his parents.

Tachibana taking him to dinners, counfinding his worries to Kiryu, trusting him with the most treasured parts of his life…

"So… did you care for him back?" – asks Majima, because he can't bring himself to say what he means directly. And Kiryu makes an incomprehensible noise, and asks "Did you care for her, too? Makoto." Majima inhales the smoke and holds it in until his lungs start to hurt before answering: “More than anything in the world.”

And it is true. She became the centre of his universe for some time.

“Never again,” he probably told himself, while continuing to wholeheartedly live for others only, neglecting himself.

– And Majima will spill his side of the story too. Right in the moment, after he heard everything. He understands now that Kiryu deserves to know it. It’s hard to get the words out, but Mfjima got to see this whole story clearer, got to know it in full with Kiryu’s perspective. Kiryu has the right to it too.

Kiryu put so much heart and effort into trying to bring Makoto to Tachibana, he deserves to know more about her.

Also with whom Majima will ever talk about all this? Again, there’s literally no one else who can get this, besides the two of them.

So Majima talks. Leaving out most of the details and awkwardly laughing when his own pov sounds a bit too pitiful. It is not about him, after all (it is). But the story itself makes things quite obvious.

Majima’s actions, what he actually did at any given moment is way more telling than what he was saying in the moment, or how he describes what happens years later.

– And yes, this is where Majima's "he's straight" horse in a hard hat got a major hit, and was taken down a notch. And Kiryu's stubborn attempts of going out on a limb and flirt suddenly became harder to ignore.

– Imagine, after the couple days Kiryu and Majima spent resting and re-evaluating things in the aftermath of the balcony talk, Kiryu is back again at Majima Construction. He's on a smoke break, still a bit distracted and absent minded, and he's patting himself looking for a lighter, a cigarette in his lips.

And Majima comes up to him and lights it. And they proceed to not talk at all, just stand there smoking together.

And Nishida, who was weary all these days, because boss was uncharacteristically quiet, and Kiryu was gone, is all "!!!!!!!"

Finally Nishida sees some progress. He needs a smoke too, now. Even though he doesn't smoke. Before this he saw them only standing near each other at a polite distance at best. There was at least 1 meter of suffering and consideration between them at all times. So Nishida is observing like a hawk. They're on 30 sm allowed distance now! That's a big step.

Musketeer: 30 sm isn't a very big step, isn't it? Nishida: 😑

– before / navigation / next

[kurokeip]

Happy birthday to my girlwifeguy. Kiryu.

In all seriousness though, I did go on a rambling analysis of his character arc through the years, that you can read down here.

I hope people can appreciate the surprising nuance that he holds, since he's not often discussed!

I wanted to talk a bit about Kuro's character growth through the years, as it is his birthday, since I feel like it goes unnoticed by people most of the time!

Kuro, as we know, is a character that is a reformed Delinquent. One of the running themes of his Character is his self-worth, his regret, and his complex feelings surrounding how people perceive him.

(I also want to pen down my thoughts on the gender aspect of this later)

His 'atonement' arc begins with him applying to Yumenosaki, a place where he could hopefully become An idol that would make his little sister smile. At the time of his enrollment, however, Yumenosaki was not a place of serious study and passion.

Already we can see his core character traits emergent in this decision: His love for his family, His rash decision making and, Most importantly, his desperate desire to change, something, anything.

(In the interest of keeping this brief I will not prattle on too much about Keito Hasumi's involvement. Another time.)

Kuro was, and kind of still is, grappling with grief. Not just for his mother, but Also for himself. He lost himself, in a way. He missed out that normal life, on being a normal brother for his sister, on being a good son to his Mother and a good friend to Shu.

All of his mistakes overwhelm him, he's paralyzed by how badly he's screwed up, and thus resorts to Passive self harm, in an attempt to tip the scales, somehow. If he lets enough people punch him, he might feel like he deserves to have anything.

I cannot stress enough how bad his self-worth issues are. They are arguably the worst in Akatsuki, and that is Saying Something.

Now, after he joins Akatsuki and the war reaches his conclusion, he's decided to swing in the complete opposite way.

This is what I feel is less discussed, his tendency to mask his discomfort and extreme adaptability. He consistently lowers himself, and by consequence, his Own preferences and needs in order to compensate for a variety of things, like:

- His appearance

- His natural temperament and behavior

- His masculinity (again, thoughts to chew on another time)

This is why I really like Kuro's FS1. It marks his growth in !! Era. In ! Era he was extremely ashamed of his past and actively swallowed down most of his irritation, because he was afraid of what would happen if he got angry. He channels that energy into sewing and Karate instead.

He's trying so hard, to be a perfect Senpai, to live up to his Own view of what a 'good person' is: Someone who is unconditionally loving, forgiving and kind, someone who is... Mother-like. I think about that time he said that a Mother is a transcendent being, quite a bit. It reveals so much.

In Unification By Force, we see him finally snap, lash out at Keito, someone who he had repeatedly reassured that he'd listen to, be obedient to. He immediately regrets it, but it also causes him to contemplate their relationship, and more importantly his relationship with his past.

Kuro is coming to terms with the fact he will never be A good, perfect, shiny person. That people like Keito, Souma, Chiaki and Nazuna, that he idolized in a way, are not good people.

You can never become a 'good person', because the only one that can truly evaluate that is yourself, and if you are predisposed to dislike yourself, You can pretty much kiss that title goodbye.

He... Isn't endlessly kind, or tolerant, or polished. His designs that got rejected, came from a suppression of himself, and it showed in his work. He's rash, stubborn at times, airheaded, speaks crudely and brute forces his way Through things frequently. Even though he hates them, these things are what make him Kuro, Even his delinquent past.

And the Kuro he is today, is loved by so many people, who remind him daily, and they wouldn't love him if he wasn't himself in the first place, blood on his hands and all.

He knows as much, when he acknowledges Keito and Souma's patience in response to his ugly side. The fact that both of them are easily able to forgive and remedy their relationship speaks volumes for how much Kuro means to them, and it finally clicks for Kuro.

He doesn't have to overcompensate. He can't pretend that he never made a mistake, but he can't let it control him. He has to come to terms with his past, and his own self and appearance.

The people that care about him are able to immediately identify when his Outfit concept is Forced looking. His final outfit design is him coming to terms with this. It wouldn't have been the same, had they decided to go with the cute stuff that most people wanted. It wouldn't have been Kuro.

In conclusion, I love Kuro Kiryu and his unending drive to be a better person and his care for other people and his journey through grief and self-love and think people should love him for more than just how wife-material he is! He is so compelling!

[lethesomething]

Yakuza and coping mechanisms

Yakuza has been my on and off hyperfocus for years now but also in particular the past month, so let's talk about it. And particularly, how many friggin coping mechanisms are in this game.

Disclaimer: I do literary analysis, not psycho analysis, don't come for me.

For all its silliness about fighting roomba's and disco minigames, the world that the Yakuza games is set in, is fucking brutal. They are, at their very core, crime drama's. People get murdered a lot, lives are ruined in various ways, a good third of protags spend large amounts of time in jail, usually for a crime they didn't commit. Most politicians and police are corrupt, racism is blatant and if you don't have a place in the very strict hierarchy of society, it's hard to get back on your feet (hence all the crime). I tend to read a lot of indictments of Japanese society in these games, partly because they are so clearly based on old school yakuza crime drama's.

This means that the characters go through some shit. And what's fascinating, is how they deal with this.

Spoiler warning for, uhh, almost all yakuza games except Song Of Life (since i never played that)

Pretending it's not real

Kasuga Ichiban

The direct reason I'm even making this blog post because he's the most blatant about it. Kasuga is Peak Himbo in that he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he manages to take being beaten down Repeatedly and overcomes that with a sense of genuine good nature and optimism that is… honestly kind of hard to believe. The way he deals with any of this, is that he's a nerd who pretends to be in a video game. It's the whole premise of Yakuza Like a Dragon.

And to be fair, Kasuga suffers from an amount of mistreatment that makes me Very Angry in his stead. He has every right to be upset! He is literally homeless in the beginning of the game. If he requires the escapism of going around pretending to be in a jrpg to survive, more power to him. Especially since it works. Dude goes around helping people and making friends. Which is a good thing, because there's no way he'd make it out of Yokohama alive if he didn't have some back-up.

Side note: something similar happens to at the very least Majima, i think, in the admittedly non-canonical events of Yakuza Dead Souls. (yes i played it solely for Majima, no i do not recommend it, the game is garbage and you get more Majima in Zero anyway). In Dead Souls, Kamurocho is overrun by zombies. As a lover of all things Horror, Majima decides he may as well have a good time mowing them down like he's in an FPS while he trudges through the wreckage of society.

Self sacrifice

Mostly Kazuma Kiryu and  Saejima Taiga

If you hate yourself, at least try to be of use to someone. Let's be honest, a lot of the plot of Yakuza games is driven by self sacrifice or at least following some code of honor to its ludicrous ends.

Kiryu is the main example here. The game kinda glosses over this a lot, but he is, at least in Zero, a criminal. He goes around extorting money from businesses. He consistently solves problems through violence. It's kinda the point of the games. But he's also borderline a saint and 80% of the shit he gets into is because of his need to throw himself to the wolves for any person he cares about. He voluntarily does hard time for Nishikiyama, for one. He picks up a stray kid that he will now protect with his life. And it just goes on from there. See, Kiryu may be the famous Dragon of Dojima and the Fifth Chairman of the Tojo Clan and all that, but he would very much prefer not to be? Dude wants to live a quiet life and raise some kids, it's just that he's the protag of a game series about how hard it is to say goodbye to the yakuza life. So the plot keeps finding ways to bring him back, usually as a reluctant warrior to save the Tojo clan or Haruka  or whatever. If he was a little less honorable, he could still be chilling as a taxi driver with an unreasonably hot girlfriend, I'm just saying.

Saejima is very similar, but somehow even worse? Much as I love the guy, he's an idiot. He suffers from the same loyalty and selflessness as Kiryu, but he doesn't even get a cute daughter out of it. He spends Twenty Five years in prison for a crime he (we later find out) didn't commit. He escapes months before his parole to solve the convoluted plot of Y4. Then Goes Back to Jail to atone for (again) a crime he only thought he'd committed, only to escape (again) when he thinks Majima, his sworn brother, got murdered in Y5. As far as i can tell he goes back to jail one last time to finish his actual sentence, and to like, protect the name of the Tojo clan or some shit. My dude. My friend. Come on.

As a side note, acts of selflessness are kind of a big deal in the Yakuza games and one of the main ways to tell if someone is a good criminal or a villain. Kasuga and his crew are pretty big on the whole 'acts of selfless kindness' thing. It also seems to be one of the traits of Daigo Dojima, whose whole being screams 'I don't want to be here but who else is gonna fucking do it'. But in the case of Kiryu and Saejima it's very much verging on reckless self-endangerment.

Fabricated identities

Majima Goro, baby!

The Yakuza games really love this one, but I'll start with the big guy, everyone's favourite character: Majima. This dude has seen some shit. We see him throughout several flashbacks and the span of the games, but most tellingly we see him in Zero, at his rock bottom hero stage. And he's intriguingly unlike the other times he shows up. This is a Majima that's recovering from torture and backstabbing, and forced to do some dude's bidding for scraps. He's a chained dog (pun very much intended) and he's about to lose it.

What's fun about Majima is that he has So Many of the traits in this list. He has a lot of the reckless endangerment and self sacrifice that his buddies Kiryu and Saejima have. He gave himself up a few times for Haruka, he keeps trundling back to save Tojo and Dojima, but there's also a whole other layer of … Flamboyance to him.

And while Majima probably started out as comic relief, the games make clear that it's not all he is, and we get several glimpses of 'old Majima' throughout the series. He'll be in the middle of a self inflicted fight and drop some wisdom, for instance. He acts erratically, he is blunt, violent, exuberant in his dressing up. When given a task his first thought seems to be 'how can i make this Extra', but that doesn't mean the guy is unstable. You don't become a successful businessman with a building company, or a patriarch of your own family, without being smart and strategic. A lot of classic Majima behaviour, i feel, is a case of a mask he constructed to hide the severe depression, that became more of a second nature to him. Majima is one of the clearest examples of 'do what you need to do'. He's a survivor, through and through. Somewhere in there is a decent human being, but Majima will kill people to survive in a harsh world. It just seems like he constructed an extra layer to shield himself from all that.

Joon-gi Han (Like a Dragon): This is more a case of stolen (inherited??) identity, but again, if you don't want to be you, just be someone else. In this case someone he admires. Again: super tragic backstory, questionable life choices. As an aside, Joon-gi is fun because he is both a deadly assassin with someone else's name and face, but also  a Knight stereotype who would do everything for his queen and I think that's neat.

Zhao Tianyou (Like a Dragon): Somewhat more subtle, but Zhao is also a dude that was at one point confronted with a Situation, namely 'oh shit my dad died and now I'm in charge of a violent gang'. And to deal with that he decided to construct a persona that gives exactly zero fucks. He is very joking and very avoidant but we do learn that a fair amount of his laid back attitude is just veneer. Dude in fact gives several fucks. You don't decide to give up the throne and become a homeless sidekick to Himbo Supreme because you don't care. You do it to stop him from getting ultra-murdered by the parade of heavily armored gangsters he keeps storming into.

Akiyama Shun (Yakuza 4-5): I debated putting him here, because part of me believes Akiyama is just kind of a dick. A dick I love as a character, but still, ya know. At least some of the dickish persona is a front, though. Akiyama is another one that just saw his life's work destroyed at some point, and decided that emotional detachment was the way to go. Akiyama is different because he was never actually a proper criminal. He was homeless for a bit, and then came into some money (through Extremely Convoluted Plot Means) and now he's a moneylender. And like Zhao, he mostly pretends to be completely devoid of feelings, while having a fair amount of feelings. Enough to get into like… fist fights. With actual gangsters. Who have guns.

Vice

Sex, drugs and everything in between

The preferred way for noir drama's to show someone is Going Through It, is by giving them a classic addiction and Yakuza isn't any different. It's why several characters are shown mournfully smoking, in particular Kiryu and Majima. Yes I know it's because it looks cool and harks back to old crime movie atmosphere. That doesn't make it a healthy coping mechanism.

Another obvious one, considering the setting of the games in several red lights districts, is erotica. Both Adachi, the ex-cop from Like a Dragon and Shinada, the ex-baseball player from Y5 and also my least fave protag ever, are both in various stages of obsession about porn, sex work and the likes.

Tanimura, the cop from Y4 has a pretty severe gambling problem in the actual canon, though gambling games and casino's are a general mainstay of the Yakuza series. It's just that when Kiryu interrupts his busy day of solving the convoluted intrigue du jour to gamble in an illegal underground casino, it's not a character flaw.

Also: almost everyone drinks ludicrous amounts of heavy alcohol in these games. Both in canon and as part of the gameplay. 100% ing the games usually involves drinking tons of whiskey, but the whole Ichiban crew, sans I think Eri, is shown drowning their troubles at various times.

Violence: I mean, that's kind of the game, but an unhealthy amount of characters consider fist fights to be a good way to resolve conflict, bond with people and generally reinvigorate themselves. Particularly Majima is shown to get a real kick out of doing damage and being beaten up. There's just a lot of reckless behaviour, which is what makes the games good.

Karaoke: fake it till you make it, man.

Extra note:

You'll notice there's no women on this list, and that's because honestly the game is kinda sexist. So while there's already Very Few women in the game, the ones that are present don't exactly have super complex characters.

Mukoda Saeko, the hostess from Like a Dragon, drinks like a fish but that's about her main flaw.

Other notable female characters are Kiryu's kid Haruka, Kiryu's love interest Sawamura Yumi (Kiwami) and Kamataki Eri, the business lady from Like a Dragon. They're all stereotypical Good Girls who have no flaws apart from indecisiveness and an unhealthy tendency for selflessness.

Saejima Yasuko is ever so slightly more complex: her main trait is self sacrifice. The story promptly fridges her for it.

[violetreminder]

Finally beat Infinite Wealth, and BOY do I have some Plot Opinions under the cut

Jesus Fucking Christ that story completely shit itself. Just a full course meal of nothingburgers for a finale eh?

Palekana had a lot of wind up only to just be completely undone in 5 minutes. What was up with the straight up supernatural elements surrounding the cult like the Gun Miracle and Big Shark?? Tossed in the same "woo-woo" hole as Tachibana's blackout gesture from 0 I guess. Not a mention of how we're going to deprogram a literal island full of murder-cultists with Child Soldiers btw just "We put the little girl in charge and Everything Will Be Fine Now"

Ebina is just such a boring and pointless villain too, his entire character feels like SEGA/RGG studio *strongly regret* killing off Ryo Aoki/Masato Arakawa so they just drafted up a dollar store-ass replacement and BOY does it show. "Oh look! Another calculated and power-hungry asshole who hates his yakuza heritage and wants to cruelly dispose of all criminal elements! And he's also LITERALLY Ichiban's brother this time!" Even though this new plot wrinkle kinda makes Old Arakawa look like a complete asshole. and HE gets this big teary-eyed "Im sorry about the sins of my past" spiel from Kiryu??? This angsty-nihilist-fuckwit-nobody saddled with mommy issues who the plot itself seems bored with is really the final antagonist Kiryu faces off against?? This is the best they could come up with?? Come On. They even bring back the name Bleach Japan for the antagonist faction but just like every other plot point in this game that goes absolutely nowhere. Also why the hell was Sawashiro in this story...at all... other than some half-assed attempt at going "No No guys, Sawashiro was actually cool the whole time! He's just working with the villain now because....uh.... he's just that dedicated to Arakawas memory and the wellbeing of all Yakuza! Which is completely consistent with his character up to this point! We promise!"

Like sure I get that a big theme in the Like A Dragon series is "Anyone Can Be Redeemed" but the thing is that they also say there needs to be *work* put in to have that redemption. Sawashiro shows up, says "I'm a good guy now" works for a guy he *knows* is probably a villain, and then just spends the game being his bitch anyways. I knew that Like A Dragon's incredible story was going to be a tough act to follow, but it feels like RGG didnt even try to outdo it so much as they retreaded familiar ground without adding anything of substance. Part of this is Ichiban's Story being hijacked midway to get a similarly halfassed goodbye plot for Kiryu (which is ruined emotionally by a horrible Eng VA)

Fuck man I think I'm gonna tap out of the series for now, at least for any future installments. The plot was actually *that bad*. I know Yakuza isnt a series that is known for its amazing plotlines but It was *THAT BAD*

[dirt-str1der]

Idk anything about Yakuza but your posts seem imply Kiryu is a faggot. Can you confirm?

He likes both girls and boys but has a finicky nature about when and where he likes them because sometimes he cant get enough and other times he doesnt even realise that people are real but he is in fact a gigantic slobbering faggot thank you so much for asking

[alinktoana]

new yakuza game, new reasons to be upset at rgg ✨

im not even gonna consider kiwami 1 or 2 bc i havent played them and i dont think they should matter to the point i want to make

but youre telling that guy

and this guy

are the same person?

did that coma erase kiryu's memories of majima or is this yokoyama talking out of his ass bc he doesnt see why majima should even exist?

at this point im blaming everything thats upsetting to me about yakuza on yokoyama lmao the guy has given us many great things but the direction rgg is going with kiryu is so weird. specially given theyre bringing him back basically for marketing purposes, it amazes me how *he* doesnt understand how majima is a marketing darling.

dont get me wrong, i dont mind majima not being on Y8. i *wish* kiryu wasnt there, bc it's time for ichiban&gang to shine. i love the idea of gaiden, ishin and other spin offs, so we can go on playing with kiryu in other bits of his story, and other characters, but *ive said it once and ill say it again, the torch has been passed on, kiryu has been saying goodbye on as many games as he's been in*. even though yokoyama has been there from the beginning, and rgg really didnt give us much interaction, Y3 gave us so much emotion and told us about their bond rather than showed (i mean, for the most part - again, i wouldve loved to have seem more, and im guessing that's what the kiwamis are for). and now you're telling me Y6 kiryu doesnt understand him. wow. date talks about understanding kiryu bc theyve known each other for ages. and kiryu doesnt *get* majima. sure. one of the things that really stuck to me playing ps2 Y1 is that kiryu and majima really are batman and joker, and it's baffling good how they actually got mark hamill to voice majima. and im not here for batman at all, but it's the trope. it's hamilton and burr, it's edward teach and izzy hands (lol), heck, it's jesus and judas (not all my musical theater references showing lol hey taika 😉) . it's not about villany or anything, it's about them being equal power houses on their town, it's about ying and yang, it's even reminiscent of nishiki and kiryu. and i got that just by playing the games. so if the person writing them doesnt see it, that's concernin lol whats good? lmao whats even real? the gaslighting yokoyama lmao

sometimes i forget why i say Y3 is my favorite but that kind of thing reminds me why.

also bless ugaki, a character he's played for years being dissed by his own creator to his face and he's smiling. never change ugaki, never change. (btw credit to the awesome people who uploaded the game footage on yt) also bless ugaki, a character he's played for years being dissed by his own creator to his face and he's smiling. never change ugaki, never change. (btw credit to the awesome people who uploaded the game footage on yt) edit: yeah i didnt bother looking at credits but apparently yokoyama was pretty hands off on Y6, im just being blindly biased :v i should stop lmao *but my concerns about rgg's direction with kiryu remain, regardless who is actually penned anything*

[randomthefox]

>curb your enthusiasm theme starts playing

Man that's such a good expression. Honestly I prefer the simplicity of the PS2 graphics over the new models in Kiwami. You can really feel the hopelessness in Kiryu's look here. That everything he's done in the entire game has been for nothing now, because Yumi is dying.

Not quite a redemption moment for Nishiki, but at least he's getting the last laugh. He has nothing left to live for, he threw it all away and ended up with nothing to show for it. The least he can do is take revenge on the man who manipulated him, killed the woman he loved, and set all of this in motion in the first place. There's also no walking away with that gutshot either, so all the man has now is going out on his own terms. With a bang.

Goodbye, Nishikiyama....