[ZaidH]

Oh no....at first I thought that article was satire..

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

Surely they could utilize karaoke to drive forward the narrative? The games already use the sub stories for Kiryu's character development, so they already have a solid template 🫠

I fear that the "wacky" aspect of the story will be fully forced upon Majima, which will probably take away the nuance from his character 😓

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH They seem to want to make the story, at least in the first season, more emotional, and wackiness does not help that, they say. I can see the point in that, but I do not entirely agree: there were substories that touched on emotional elements in addition or instead of wackiness.

But all is not lost, sometimes series creators listen to what the public is saying. Like how Witcher changed that Nilfgaadian armour (wish they also fixed other problems like, I dunno, vibe and plot and not replacing the lead, but oh well 😅). So if the fans demand those stories after the first season, we may get them.

Still, what it hints to me is that the creators either may not fully understand what makes Yakuza work or will only use the setting and known brand as a basis for their own story. The first option is worse, and the second is not necessarily bad, but if this is what you want to do (and Fallout managed to do it quite well, too), then drop Kiryu and just tell a story. Yakuza is moving away from Kiryu anyway with Ichiban, so it would not be entirely unusual.

[ZaidH]

I ain't liking what I'm reading chief 😭

But yeah you're right about the public feedback. A six ep season seems like a good place to stop and rethink the true essence of Yakuza.

This reminds me of the conversations we had before of video game adaptations. With such a tight six ep window, like you said, they could've dropped Kiryu and focused on a new POV. Such a good opportunity to expand the Yakuza universe. But there's probably more money to be made using Kiryu and Majima 😔

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH True, but then again, six episodes is short but not that little either, it is a standard miniseries format. If you know what you're doing you can fit a lot in there. Look at Good Omens, for example.

Here it seems more of an artistic vision choice and a wish to ride on a popular character name than actual time constraints.

[ZaidH]

"and a wish to ride on a popular character name than actual time constraints."

On point! Expectations are now at the very bottom 😐

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH To be fair, I do not think Yakuza really needs a live adaptation, one of its allure points is that you are part of the process, you get to "touch" that universe, and live in it. Which is all the more exciting because it is, on one hand very realistic visually, and on the other hand, very whacky vibe-wise.

The series format makes you an observer only, and now we know they also cut on the wackiness stuff. I mean, it was exactly this (among other things though) that doomed Cowboy Bebop live series.

Everyone is looking at Fallout and say "I want me one of those!" these days...

[ZaidH]

I'm of two minds about this. If we just look at the main story in the games, I think the cut scenes are already following a movie/show like format. Imo, this aspect can be executed well in a series.

There were parts in that teaser trailer where the vibes were immaculate and seemed as engrossing as playing the game (minus that Millennium tower shot what the heck was that 😆)

The rest though, yeah I fully agree with you.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH I agree about the cinematic construction of Yakuza, but the danger here is that they are planning for the series to take place before the games. So probably somewhere in the period between Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 1. That is, if the Millenium Tower is indeed there, in Yakuza 0 there was no tower there.

Though, I want to check, which tower shot are you talking about? The only teaser I know so far is this one with the big tattoo:

Maybe that is a Millennium Tower there, certainly does not look like that. The "what the heck" moment for me in this one was that supersized tear. I mean, what does that guy have in his eye sockets, a waterfall?