Get ready for another new adventure with Kazuma Kiryu — this time in a live-action TV show. We first learned in June that Amazon intended to adapt the video game franchise Like a Dragon (née Yakuza) into a live-action Japanese series. We knew it would be a six-episode series released in two three-episode chunks — the first batch on Oct.
24 and the rest on Nov. 1 — and that it would follow Kiryu (played by Ryoma Takeuchi of Kamen Rider Drive ) and his friends in what seems like an adaptation of the first game, Yakuza . At San Diego Comic-Con , we learned a bit more — particularly that House of Ninjas ’ Kento Kaku will portray organized crime boss Nishiki, Kiryu’s complicated former childhood friend.
The gangster soap opera Like a Dragon series has been a big success both in Japan and abroad, with nine main games in the series, tons of spin-offs, and plenty of existing adaptations into other media. (Perhaps most significant for this project: Takashi Miike directed Like a Dragon: The Movie , also based on the first game in the series.) The latest entry, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth , is an absolute delight, and one of our favorite games of the year .
The Like a Dragon show comes in the wake of Prime Video’s highly successful adaptation of the Fallout video game series , and broader interest from the entertainment industry in adapting big video game properties . The series is directed by Masaharu Take, with a story by Sean Crouch and Yugo Nakamura, and a Japanes.