The Fall 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii

Yoshino grew up as the yakuza princess of the Osaka Somei crime family. Everyone left her alone due to her sharp gaze and mobster ties. But when her grandfather signs a truce with the Tokyo-based Miyama crime family, she's offered for betrothal to the Miyama leader's grandson, Kirishima. At first, Kirishima seems amiable and polite--but when he shows his dark side, he proves to be more disturbing than any gangster Yoshino has ever met. This engagement is sure to be a wild ride for a tough yakuza princess and her twisted yakuza prince.

Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii is based on the manga series by Asuka Konishi. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

So, wait. Did Yoshino really sell a kidney just to give Kirishima money? Just as some odd-ass power play to give both her grandfather and fiance the finger? Or is she at least smart enough to not permanently maim herself (and give away a ton of money) over a matter of stubborn pride and is just scamming Kirishima? The fact that I don't know the answer to this question is the weakest point of this first episode.

While watching, we get a pretty firm view of the kind of guy Kirishima is: a thrill junkie who finds even his job as a violent yakuza thug boring. What he craves is stimulation—anything that could shake up his hum-drum (by his twisted standard) life. But even after these twenty-some-odd minutes following Yoshino around, I don't have a clear read on her.

In this whole episode, all she does is move around in a kind of daze. Things happen to her, and she is surprised by them—but is she really so innocent? I kept waiting for the whole episode for it to reveal that she was secretly a badass—that she was every inch the yakuza Kirishima is and is ready to physically kick his ass at any time. Rather than being sheltered, she was trying to hide her more violent aspects to both follow her grandfather's wishes and get a chance at love. Or maybe she's actually a calculating genius, wanting to be a normal girl but able to manipulate anyone and everyone if the situation calls for it.

But what we get is a final scene that makes her look idiotic (if what she is saying is true) and still leaves things up in the air as to her true personality. Maybe that's the point. Maybe I'm supposed to be so interested in what is happening with her that I come back next week for more. However, at the moment, that storytelling choice has left me with no characters I care about—no one I empathize with enough to tune in again. All this, plus the oddly static directing (the framing often makes it feel like we're watching a stage play rather than an anime), combines to make a show I couldn't care less about.

I was getting a little antsy with the premiere of Yakuza Fiancé because the previews told me to expect some gloriously trashy yakuza romance. Instead, I got to spend twenty minutes with poor Yoshino as she realized that her new city, her new school, and her new Yakuza Fiancé all suck shit. Thankfully, Yoshino herself has a lot of natural sparks and verve, so following her rough transition into a terrible new life that she didn't even ask for wasn't completely miserable, but man, I was desperate for just a little bit of fun.

Thankfully, the end of the premiere shows us a brief flash of the appeal that I can only hope will drive the rest of the series going forward. You see, it was clear from the get-go that Kirishima is a Dang-Ass Freak who is happy to get his life “ruined” by a woman whom he sees more as a challenge to be conquered than a real human being; the problem is that his attitude towards Yoshino is nothing but utter contempt for the first 90% of the episode, which doesn't exactly help turn his dangerous and violent tendencies into “sexy bad boy” qualities. It is only when Yoshino finally pushes back against his and her bullies' bullshit and proves that she can give as good as she gets that Kirishima becomes a giddy little simp over his new bride-to-be, and you know what? I can see the appeal there, especially if the show develops some actual chemistry between its two leads.

The only other major downside going against Yakuza Fiancé is that its visuals are nothing to write home about. The animation, in general, is fairly weak and lifeless, and I also am not personally a fan of the slightly walleyed character designs. A good story can overcome mediocre production values, of course, but this is an anime that is going to have to work a little harder to prove to me that it has the necessary talents to create the kind of trashy, problematic love story that will be worth getting invested in despite all of the other elements that come up short.

Much of the first episode of Yakuza Fiancé gave me a distinct sense of unease. Yoshino had all the appearances of being an everygirl heroine – sure, she was raised by a yakuza leader, but she's plain-spoken and blunt. Her relationship with her grandfather seems warm and comfortable as the two speak casually to each other, barely hinting at the dangerous world they live in or the despicable deeds their lifestyle involves. Despite being raised in an environment like that, Kirishima also seemed to be a perfectly nice boy.

Besides, yakuza anime lately have been perpetuating a softer, cuddlier image of organized criminals. Sure, they run drugs and commit murder sometimes, but that sheltered yakuza princess is an ordinary girl at heart who wants a normal life. The men, at their most dangerous, have been devoted watchdogs who turn into berserkers if a single hair on their princess' head is harmed; often, they're just lovable goofballs who speak a bit roughly. Yakuza Fiancé plays on these assumptions, slow-rolling the true nature of the story up until the very last minute. It's a neat bit of storytelling craft that you don't often see in anime, a bit different in nature from the jaw-dropping twist that quite a few writers and producers are fond of and much harder to pull off.

Despite wincing my way through the premiere, I really only have one complaint: I do not, for one instant, buy Yoshino or Kirishima as high school students. They navigate the world with the assurance and swagger of people outside of their teens, and Akira Ishida is an industry treasure who should never play anyone under the age of 20. While I suppose that can be the effect of growing up in the underworld, I feel like nothing would have been lost if they were in their early 20s. The opening also makes it abundantly clear that there will be humping. While I don't clutch my pearls about teenagers having sex in real life or fiction, I would feel better about enjoying a sexy, risky romance if the characters involved were adults. Not that this will stop me…

Yakuza Fiancé will absolutely not be everyone. Hell, it's barely for me – I probably wouldn't touch a story like this in novel form. But I appreciate it when an anime stands out, and “erotic thriller” certainly isn't a genre the medium sees a lot of.

I'll say this for Kirishima – he knows what he likes. Unfortunately, rather than making him a paragon of honesty, it makes him scum, and if anything, this episode made him even less likable to me than the first volume of the manga because the addition of voice and movement just drove home what an absolute twerp he is. (Yes, “twerp” isn't a strong enough word, but my grandmother will return from the grave to haunt me if I use the appropriate one in Yiddish.) In his defense, he is a member of the yakuza, and despite what cute yakuza manga may have told you, organized crime is neither adorable nor sweet. Kirishima embodies that, and maybe I'm just squeamish, but I can't get behind a series that appears all set to cast a boy who told his potential fiancé to go prostitute herself as the romantic lead.

That's a shame because while I don't agree with her decisions, Yoshino's a much better character. Her response to his taunt about selling her body to make money is to sell one of her kidneys and then present him with the cash; if that's not a badass reply to his disgusting suggestion, I don't know what is. But on the other hand, this is a sixteen-year-old girl who just sold one of her organs to get revenge on a boy who is emphatically not worth it. Yes, her grandfather told her to make the twit fall in love with her and then dump him, which she has now effectively done, but the extreme she went to is a bit distasteful. It's clearly meant to be funny, but it's just not landing the joke for me.

This episode also has some of the most blatant “main character coloring” I've seen in a while. While most of the characters are drawn with bland shades of brown for their hair and eyes, Yoshino's are vibrant magenta, and Kirishima's wolfish, yellow eyes and extra-thick outlines make it clear who we're supposed to be paying attention to. Again, there's a joke that's just not working for me inherent in this; Yoshino's looks often lead people to mistake her for a sex worker. Her coloring is also shorthand for her blazing personality and stubbornness, while Kirishima's eyes are likely intended to make him look like a predator. The message is conveyed, but they look so jarringly bright compared to the other characters that it feels a bit awkward.

I daresay I'm in the minority with this series. I know the manga is very popular, but it just feels too mean to me. While I love the dancing in the ending theme, I can't see myself coming back for more of this.