‘Yakuza: Like a Dragon’ Prime Series Trailer Looks GOOD

Like a Dragon: Yakuza is coming to … Amazon Prime Video? You’re reading that right. The Yakuza games are getting the TV adaptation treatment

2024’s (amazing) entry in the series, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, may have moved on from the series’ classic protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu. But if you’re already missing Kiryu-centric stories, he’s coming back in a new Japanese live-action series directed by Take Masaharu and Takemoto Kengo.

Note that this upcoming series shares a similar name to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the English name of a later game in the series. The title’s just flipped. But it’s not going to be about Ichiban Kasuga. Instead, YAKUZA: LIKE A DRAGON will retell the tale of Kiyru Kazuma like we’ve never seen it before.

The first trailer looks good

The first teaser for LIKE A DRAGON: YAKUZA dropped as part of San Diego Comic Con on July 26, 2024. And it’s hype as hell.

When the series was announced in June 2024, we also learned who would play Kazuma Kiryu. The role went to Ryoma Takeuchi, a beloved actor known for his roles in the live-action adaptations of Kamen Rider and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Nearly two months later, the SDCC panel gave us our first insight into the series’ villain. Kento Kaku, the star of the highly excellent Netflix show House of Ninjas from earlier this year (watch it!), will play Akira Nishikiyama. While Nishikiyama plays a role in Yakuza 0, he’s the outright antagonist in the first Yakuza game.

Will Six Episodes be Enough?

LIKE A DRAGON: YAKUZA will retell the story of the first game, Yakuza, which originally came out in 2005 for the PlayStation 2. Yakuza features a split timeline, jumping between 1995 and 2005, when formerly ascendent yakuza member Kazuma Kiryu is released from a ten-year prison sentence.

Expect drama, betrayal, and maybe less of the lighthearted and silly stuff we’ve grown used to in the later games of the series. Because despite the dark and seedy backdrop of the Yakuza series, the sub-stories are usually full of humor. We now associate the Yakuza series with silly dancing mini-games.

Will six episodes be enough to cover such a timeless classic of a game? The first half of the series will be exclusively coming to Amazon Prime Video on Thursday, October 24, 2024. The second batch of episodes will arrive later, on November 1. The series will be in Japanese, with subtitles and 30 different dubs available. Hopefully, the localization of these dubs will be just as good as the game’s.