There's a new trailer for the Yakuza TV show, but I already know how it ends

"I always wanted to be Like A Dragon: Yakuza"

Image credit: Amazon Prime Video

There's a new trailer out for that there Like A Dragon: Yakuza TV show that Amazon's spinning up. And being one of RPS' foremost Yakuza sickos, I can say that I remain cautious about it, with perhaps a hint of optimism. It doesn't look like it's going for goofy, but instead opting for largely gritty and serious and almost entirely unrelated to the Yakuza games. Still, though, I do know how the show ends. It's really obvious, actually, when you think about it.

Here's the new trailer, which starts with a flashback, as kid Kiryu watches a dragon-tattooed Yakuza uppercut some guy in an arena:

Watch on YouTube

I almost wanted to put "the Colosseum??", after "in an arena" just now. But going off the trailer, it really doesn't look like it'll hone in on Yakuza's legendary daftness. I doubt there's going to be an informant called The Florist Of Tsai, who then leads Kiryu into an underground pleasure city called Purgatory. He's not going to meet a young man who's really into racing little cars around a little track. And no, there is no point in the trailer where he picks up a bike and cracks a man around the head with its spokes.

And I suppose that's to be expected. If the show zeroed in on all of Kiryu's extracurricular activities, it would probably come off as a bit naff. Sure, it works through the video game medium, but through TV, eh, probably not.

Amazon's official blurb gives us some deets on the show's plotline:

"In 1995, eager to escape their restrictive lives, Kiryu and his friends, Nishiki, Yumi, and Miho plan a heist at a local arcade. However, the arcade is under the control of the Dojima Family, a powerful yakuza organization that rules Kamurocho. They dive into the yakuza-controlled underworld of 1995 Kamurocho. Meanwhile, in 2005, Kiryu is set to be released from prison. He learns from Detective Date that his friends are in danger and decides to return to Kamurocho to protect them. However, their friendship has deteriorated, as tensions between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance are at a boiling point."

It will be interesting to see how and if the show will capture Yakuza's true spirit, or whether it's even capable of doing so given its focus. And that's whether it'll touch on human stories: of helping folks in need, whatever their problem, and it spiralling into some moral learning. Like when you help Mr. Masochist finally understand why he can't feel pain, having been whipped by a dominatrix countless times.

Anyway yeah, I know how the Yakuza TV show ends. It will involve Kiryu going to a Poppo, buying 20 Staminan Xs, climbing several stories of the Millenium Tower, and fighting aan ever-escalating series of thugs. Thugs who start with fists, then graduate to knives and bats and sledgehammers. There will be some larger thugs who hold sofas and block doorways. Kiryu will cradle a rival in his arms as he's shot by someone else. The Millenium Tower will explode and rain money on Kamurocho. Kiryu will wake up in jail and thus, the (bi)cycle will be reset.

If you're keen to give the show a watch, it arrives on Prime Video on October 24th.