The Dragon of Dojima has graced San Diego Comic-Con with his presence. Prime Video‘s live-action adaptation of SEGA‘s smash hit Yakuza series, titled Like a Dragon: Yakuza, pulled back the curtain with help from star Ryoma Takeuchi and the show’s producers during a panel on Friday, featuring behind-the-scenes insights and the first teaser trailer. The footage centers around Kiryu, the iconic protagonist of the franchise and legendary former high-ranking Dojima family member, and showcases the world he lives that’s at times bright and bombastic, but also dark and dramatic.
Little of the actual action from the action crime drama is shown in the teaser, but it does feature one of Kiryu’s defining physical traits – his tattoo. In the games, Kiryu’s accomplishments in the Japanese criminal underworld have earned him the nickname “The Dragon of Dojima,” a name that strikes fear into the hearts of even the most hardened gangsters. The footage shows close-ups of him receiving his iconic back tattoo of a dragon with flashes of the gritty Yakuza life punctuating the process. While some shots show seedy nightclubs and vicious training sessions, others capture the lively nature of the franchise, showing the bright lights and lavish parties of the fictional Kamurocho district. Especially prevalent are tense scenes that build up battles between rival Yakuza members in the streets or the ring.
In addition to the new footage, Like a Dragon: Yakuza came to SDCC with more details about its cast. We’ve known for some time that Takeuchi would take up the daunting mantle of Kiryu, but it’s now confirmed that House of Ninjas star and co-writer Kento Kaku will appear opposite him as his sworn brother turned enemy Akira Nishikiyama. Introduced in the original Yakuza game, Nishikiyama was one of Kiryu’s dearest friends since they grew up in the same orphanage, with the latter even taking the fall for him after he murdered the Dojima family patriarch. Ten years later, when Kiryu was released from prison, however, Nishikiyama changed radically and ended up on the opposing side of his old friend. With the show flashing between 1995 and 2005, it’ll likely pull heavily from the first game’s events and its prequel, Yakuza 0, while also sharing some unexplored elements of Kiryu and Nishikiyama’s stories.
Who Is Working on ‘Like a Dragon: Yakuza’?
Take Masaharu and Takimoto Kengo directed Like a Dragon: Yakuza with Sean Crouch and Nakamura Yugo handling the screenplay and story while Yoshida Yasuhiro and Yamada Kana worked on the Japanese screenplay. The show comes at a perfect time as the Yakuza, now known as Like a Dragon, franchise continues to reach new heights of popularity following the release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth earlier this year. Prime Video may be the best candidate to handle such a series right now, as the platform is coming off the smash-hit live-action adaptation of Fallout in April.
Like a Dragon: Yakuza will premiere on Prime Video on October 24 with subtitled and dubbed versions of all six episodes in up to thirty languages.
via Collider