Like a Dragon: Yakuza Taps House of Ninjas Star to Play Tragic Villain

A live-action television series based on Sega’s Yakuza and Like a Dragon video games will air on October 25. Further details on the series’ casting were revealed at San Diego Comic-Con. The casting of Japanese actor and model Ryoma Takeuchi to play Kazuma Kiryu, the legendary dragon of Dojima, was first revealed in June. He will be joined by Kento Kaku as Akira Nishikiyama.

In the Like a Dragon series of games, Nishikiyama grew up with Kazuma in an orphanage and was one of his greatest allies before the events of the first Yakuza game. A complex character, Nishikiyama murders the patriarch of the Dojima family, Sohei Dojima, to prevent him from sexually assaulting his close friend Yumi Sawamura in Yakuza. Kazuma would willingly accept the blame for Dojima’s murder and serve a 10-year prison sentence in his place. Upon his release, he would discover that his sworn brother had changed drastically over the past decade, putting the two on a collision course.

Kaku made his acting debut in 2007 and has since landed a string of roles in television and film projects. His latest starring role is in Netflix’s House of Ninjas, a series about a family of ninjas who worked for the government and are descended from Hattori Hanzo, a legendary shinobi.

The Like a Dragon: Yakuza Prime Video series will span two time periods, 1995 and 2005, and will follow not only Kazuma Kiryu, but also his childhood friends and the repercussions of his decisions. Like the games, the series aims to balance intense action scenes with drama, and will be set in the fictional district of Kamurocho, which has been the series’ primary stomping ground since its debut in the early 2000s.

“Like a Dragon: Yakuza showcases modern Japan and the dramatic stories of intense characters, such as the legendary Kazuma Kiryu, that past games have failed to explore,” reads the series’ official synopsis.