Anime || Manga

#Yakuza’s Fiancé Addicts You With Its Toxic Romance

Season aired: Fall 2024

Number of episodes: 12

Watched on: Crunchyroll

Translated by: ?

Genres: Drama, Romance

Thoughts: Yakuza’s Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii came out swinging with an electrifying first episode. Yoshino, granddaughter of one of Osaka’s most powerful yakuza groups, is sent to Tokyo where she is preliminarily engaged (in news media) to Kirishima, an upcoming yakuza member of the Tokyo yakuza group. After initially starting with a classic nice-girl-out-of-water meets bad-boy-who’s-misunderstood, the first episode takes a sharp turn at the end where neither the “nice girl” nor the “bad boy” is who they seem.

This romance is toxic, but in a way that’s actually fun and addictive. The key to this success lies not with Kirishima but with Yoshino. It’s incredibly important for a toxic romantic relationship to be portrayed from both sides and not just from one character. Oftentimes, the female characters get the short end of the stick in the toxic relationship equation as the one who “loses” to the male character more, but Yoshino breaks that curse through her gritty personality, her daredevil attitude, and her self-confidence. She’s not as strong as the men around her, and she’s not as experienced with violence, nor is she as accepting of it. Still, Yoshino is not scared to cause a few concussions through less scrupulous means in a battle where she is woefully disadvantaged in biological strength. What results is a female character who is very aware of what she likes, what she wants, and isn’t scared to use the dirtiest and pettiest methods to get both.

Love Yoshino

Her relationship with Kirishima stems not from love but instead from stubbornness and wounded pride, which in turn fascinates the violent man who is used to manipulating and discarding people in his life like playing cards. Their hot and cold relationship is the star of the show, and even now, I can’t say for sure if I ship them or if I just enjoy watching them go at each other’s throats.

This series is a romance anime, but with the inclusion of yakuza, there are other issues on the table. That is one of my few critiques of the show: less yakuza drama than I expected. The show opens and concludes with several episodes featuring the subtle territorial drama and war between the various yakuza groups, but a chunk in the middle lacks this tension entirely. This doesn’t mean the middle episodes are uneventful. We meet new characters, and Yoshino and Kirishima’s relationship slowly develops, but I kept wondering if we would return to the yakuza violence and drama that the show promised at the beginning.

This has to do with my enjoyment of the fights. To my delight, the brawls are actually choreographed — at one point, Kirishima uses a fork as a weapon to deal serious damage – and the characters have distinct enough fighting styles in animation that make the brawls also visually interesting compared to blindly throwing punches like I had originally expected. The intense fight scenes also remind viewers of the danger Yoshino throws herself into. The girl will go down screaming and biting, but at the end of the day, it is clear that she is vastly weaker the second the men start going at each other without hesitation. This power imbalance forces Yoshino to use a combination of ingenious strategies, both emotional and physical, to win her fights. As a result, her clever strategies to win become a highlight of the series.

Kirishima using a fork to fight

The second reason I wanted the yakuza conflict to remain integrated throughout the series is because without it, Yoshino and Kirishima are just violent weirdos in high school. Our two MCs are teenagers, and their personalities, paired with studying for college exams, worrying about school supplies, and fussing over final grades feel incredibly unrealistic without reminders of the yakuza drama happening behind the scenes. It also quickly becomes boring – we’ve seen thousands of high school romances with varying flavors, and without the direct inclusion of yakuza conflicts, it threatens to slip into another formula with “quirky” leads.

The high school setting can also throw viewers off because of the character design. Yoshino and Kirishima are purposefully drawn like adults, and an actual plot point is Yoshino using her more mature appearance to her advantage. However, it’s still understandably jarring to some when seeing her in mature clothes only to randomly remember she’s still a highschooler. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the tattoos. Kirishima, Shoma, and an antagonist we meet at the very end have distinct back tattoos that spill over onto their arms, and I love how they represent each character. Shoma, straightlaced and straightforward, is represented by the powerhouse dragon, while Kirishima, sneaky and strong, is represented by the silent hunter tiger. We don’t see the whole back tattoo of the antagonist, but from the tentacles crawling on his arm, I can only assume he is represented by an octopus, an animal famous for its intelligence.

Back tattoos

The scenery and background art are, unfortunately, uninspiring. With all the work put into the characters and the fight choreography, I imagine that the team decided to sacrifice the other aspects. Luckily, that did not extend to the soundtrack, which was one of the best this season. Each yakuza group has a distinct theme, similar to the tattoos of the important male characters, and hearing any of them instantly fills the scene with tension. What’s especially creative is the use of string instruments playing high-pitched dissonant notes in uneven intervals, resembling people screaming and capable of raising my anxiety no matter the scene.

The voice cast also didn’t hold back in performing as their characters. My favorite undoubtedly goes to Hitomi Ueda for her portrayal of Yoshino. Her growls make Yoshino feel genuinely dangerous, and I love how the voice actress switches between Yoshino’s Osaka accent and her forced, non-accented Japanese when she arrives in Tokyo. She had great chemistry with Akira Ishida, her counterpart as Kirishima, who also does a great job at the titillating sliminess Kirishima embodies in his romantic pursuits.

Yakuza Fiancé offers a different flavor of romance that we don’t typically see in anime. With two incredibly strange leads who aren’t scared to dirty their hands to get what they want, they are simultaneously perfect for each other and horrible for each other. I completely understand if some might find their cat-and-mouse games of stalking, manipulating, and pushing each other’s boundaries overwhelming. However, for me, it strikes the perfect balance of entertainment without being boring.

Rating

Plot: 7 (Multiplier 3)

Characters: 8 (Multiplier 3)

Art/Animation: 6 (Multiplier 2)

Voice acting: 7

Soundtrack: 8

FINAL SCORE: 72

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