Like a Dragon: Yakuza, an Amazon Originals live-action drama series based on Sega’s long-running game franchise, will begin streaming on Prime Video on October 25. Directed by Masaharu Take (The Naked Director), the show partially follows the story of the first game, 2005’s Yakuza, while telling an original story. The show follows series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu on his misadventures in Japan’s underworld, set in Tokyo’s fictional Kamurocho red light district between the mid-1990s and 2005.
Starring as the stoic antihero Kiryu is actor Ryoma Takeuchi. Takeuchi played the title role in Kamen Rider Drive in 2014, quickly reaching a wide audience in Japan, before going on to appear in numerous prestigious drama series and films. He voiced Justice Smith’s character Tim Goodman in the Japanese dub of the 2019 film adaptation of Detective Pikachu, in which he also had an on-screen appearance as a Pokémon trainer. A very physical actor with a football background, Takeuchi is also a sensitive performer who has won acclaim for his theater roles. Like a Dragon: Yakuza will be the actor’s first leading role in a global drama series.
“I was surprised to be offered this role,” Takeuchi tells IGN Japan shortly after the series was announced, at the historic Gajoen Tokyo Hotel in Tokyo’s Meguro district. “I knew about the series and had played the first game at my uncle’s house. It’s a real challenge to play a character from an existing work, and I considered very carefully whether I was suitable to portray Kiryu and whether it was right for me. From the beginning, I knew I was going to have to give it everything I had, or I would never pull it back.”
Takeuchi explains that he saw Kiryu as a “strong, well-built, heroic character,” but he admitted that simply copying those qualities wouldn’t be enough—not least because the story of Like a Dragon: Yakuza is part of adaptation and partly original. history. He says his mission was to portray the character with great respect for the original game, but essentially create his own take on Kazuma Kiryu. “Instead of becoming Kiryu, I had to create Kiryu from scratch – that’s when he and I started to bond together and become one,” he says.
Takeuchi saw Kiryu as a man who is “hungry for love.” Just like in the games, Kiryu in the show grew up in the Sunflower Orphanage after his parents died.
“I think we all subconsciously pursue what’s missing in our lives, and we all want to be loved,” Takeuchi says. “With that in mind, I thought about what Kiryu might be looking for in Kamurocho as he strives to become the Dragon of Dojima. He wants a family, he wants love, and he doesn’t even realize how much it pushes him. He is a hero who lives his life honestly, but fights when he has to fight and sometimes makes mistakes.”
Despite Kiryu’s popularity among Like a Dragon fans around the world, Takeuchi says he has shied away from the pressure to live up to the expectations of gaming fans.
“I have great respect for the fans’ feelings,” he says. “But when I play a character, I have to express it in my own way, so I can’t pay attention to other people’s prejudices. I researched the games for myself, to identify Kiryu’s qualities and embody them in my own way. Of course, I hope the fans are satisfied with my portrayal – but I can confidently say that I did my best to play Kiryu. There’s no point in trying to beat the original game; instead I wanted to pay respect to games by doing something new as an artist.”
Standing at 6’1, Takeuchi has an impressive frame, which he perfected for the role through rigorous training and a carefully controlled diet that he devised himself.
In the show, we see Kiryu in 2005 as the Dragon of Dojima, a ferocious warrior who has sculpted his body over a decade working in prison, while scenes set in the mid-1990s show him in his late teens as he’s just getting started. out. Takeuchi was conscious of showing the contrast between these two eras, partly through clothing and makeup (the 1990s Kiryu has bleached spots and smoother skin), but also through his physique, altering his training accordingly , so that the newer version of Kiryu looks less built.
“If we had more time between shooting the 1990s and 2005s, I would have gone further to have a different physique in each era, but I worked hard in the time we had,” he says. “For scenes where I was going to show skin, I adjusted my training to suit that scene.”
Beyond his appearance, Takeuchi aimed to portray the change in Kiryu’s behavior before and after his ascent within the underworld. In the 1990s, when Kiryu and his friends are young and green, Takeuchi thinks their emotions are more intense, their desires felt more strongly.
“I was aware of the passion and excitement that only young people have,” he says. “It’s the kind of energy you only get in your twenties. I wanted to show warmer emotions when Kiryu is young and then tone it down for the 2005 part to contrast.”
As you’d expect from the Like a Dragon game series, the Amazon Original series promises plenty of action – and Takeuchi pulls off the fight scenes himself. He says that in learning martial arts for the role, he started by focusing on Kiryu after prison, the Dragon of Dojima who has become an experienced fighter, and then worked backwards from there.
“When the story begins in 1995, Kiryu’s fighting style is still rough and not very effective because he hasn’t formally learned martial arts and is just using his instincts,” says Takeuchi. “I wanted to portray him growing up as a warrior, as he gradually becomes capable of defeating his opponents. So his fighting style in each of the two eras is very different.”
Rather than any specific reference, Kiryu’s fighting style in 2005 is partly based on the game and partly created from scratch.
Like a Dragon: Yakuza is actually not Takeuchi’s first time working with Masaharu Take, having appeared as a background extra in the director’s 2014 action-comedy In the Hero . “I was on screen for about two seconds,” he laughs. He describes Take as a director who is able to imbue his scenes with passion and positivity. “Sometimes he gives us a complicated direction, and sometimes he lets us go for it, which has created a satisfying environment for us actors,” he says.
“I don’t think anyone else could have done a show like this,” he continues. “Take was able to portray the flavor of Kamurocho, a city with a vibrant population. He was very particular about casting background actors through a series of auditions as the inhabitants of Kamurocho so that we could simply enter the world he had brought to life. It was a luxury.”
Kamurocho in the games is truly alive, almost a character in his own right, and Takeuchi says a lot of care went into recreating him for the screen. Kamurocho was originally based in a Tokyo nightlife district; the version we see in the show was shot mostly on production sets, portraying the area slightly differently in each of the show’s two eras.
“Kamurocho in 1995 is a lively, warm and glowing place full of energy,” says Takeuchi. “The set was so detailed, from every passerby in every corner of its streets, that I felt like I had traveled back in time. It didn’t feel like a set at all. Yes, there is a CG upgrade, but I think it was the people who brought it to life. You can’t fake it.
“On the other hand, after Kiryu leaves prison and returns to Kamurocho in 2005, there have been various changes in the law, and the atmosphere is colder than it was when he left in 1995. While 1995 Kamurocho features warm colors like orange . , 2005 has cooler grays and blues. It reflects Kiryu’s loneliness, feeling out of step with the people around him.”
When Like a Dragon: Yakuza hits Prime Video globally in October, it will follow in the footsteps of global hit shows set in Japan such as Shogun and Tokyo Vice, along with game adaptations such as Amazon’s incredible Fallout series. The Like a Dragon gaming franchise is already highly acclaimed and selling well around the world, but the drama series is sure to reach an even wider and more diverse audience. While the production itself involves collaboration from Amazon’s global teams, the series is written, filmed and produced in Japan. As such, Takeuchi is cautiously curious about the show’s reception overseas.
“I’m excited to see what happens,” he says. “The games are popular overseas, but the show includes elements that may be uniquely Japanese, and Kiryu is a very Japanese character. The show also has a specific flavor that may be different from other successful game adaptations, so I’m curious to see how it will be received.
“The show is set in the underworld of Kamurocho and features stories about the yakuza, but it’s also alive. It’s dark, but it’s also bright. Her story is driven by hope, and while there are strong depictions of violence, it also raises questions about the meaning of family, parenting, love, and more. These are universal themes that anyone can relate to.”
While the show’s story won’t exactly recreate that of the games, Takeuchi says that even when making the show from scratch, the connections to the game were inevitable. “I think that’s the appeal of the original series of games – it’s impossible to stray too far from the original story,” he says. “The game developers at Sega told me that the show is faithful to the games and that my performance was faithful to Kiryu, so that’s good enough for me!”
Daniel Robson is the editor-in-chief of IGN Japan. Find him on Twitter here.