Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii

Episode 4

Before starting this review, I got into a discussion about just what makes Yakuza Fiancé an erotic thriller, even when the main characters aren't having sex and the sex that has happened on-screen is decidedly unsexy. This episode, titled, “Is He Smart or Stupid?” is a perfect encapsulation of the erotically charged dynamic between Yoshino and Kirishima, even if they aren't having sex and maybe never will.

The episode starts with Kirishima running into Shoma… well, maybe “running into” isn't quite the right phrase, since he found them via a clone he made of Yoshino's phone. The two exchange tense words, first about Yoshino and their relationships with her and then about her role in the possible conflict threatening to erupt between the eastern and western families. Her engagement to Kirishima could hold off a war - or it could cause it. This quiet conversation comes to an end when Yoshino crashes out to scold both of them, agreeing to go back home with Kirishima, but not before it looks like the two boys might break into a literal game of tug-of-war with her in the middle.

But they don't, and the next day Yoshino goes to see Shoma off at the station. This episode is great for getting to know Yoshino and just what makes her tick. She may not want to be a yakuza princess, more down-to-earth and pragmatic than you'd expect for a girl of her background, like we saw at the start of the show with her selling her kidney, but her value system and experiences are entirely informed by her childhood. Shoma tells her that her stubborn adherence to her principles may cost her her life, but she insists that without her pride and code of honor, she has nothing. In that moment, her life as the granddaughter of a yakuza boss is clear – the idea of a moral code, alien to our own but powerful in its own right, is a staple of organized crime fiction.

The eroticism of Yakuza Fiancé lies in the constant jockeying for power between Yoshino and Kirishima as the two fight to gain an upper hand over the other. It's in Kirishima's violent possessiveness; up until now it may have been played as more goofy than frightening as he did things like put a tracker in her electronic dictionary, but this episode he is clearly threatened by her relationship with Shoma. He tells her that if she ever cheats, to do it in front of him; not because he's a pervert with a cuckoldry fetish (although that's probably true too), but so he can kill the man afterward. Yoshino, on the other hand, tells him that if he wants to make her fall in love with him, he's not going to manage it by pretending to be a normal, decent guy. Not when she already knows what he is. Instead, he better act like the craziest bastard on the planet. The tension of two hot people playing off one another, constantly trying to make the other fall in love by becoming increasingly unhinged while their lives may be on the line is what makes the story sexy. It's not about seeing two people fall in love in a healthy normal way; it's about the sexual tension inherent in a dangerous situation like this.

Of course, the rare moments of tenderness are important as well. In the latter half of the episode, Yoshino comes down with a summer cold. She refuses to let Kirishima stay home and take care of her, but when her temperature spikes, he swoops in to take her to the hospital. Well, not until after he goes to take care of a situation involving a runaway sex worker, in case you forgot these were bad dudes involved with things like sex trafficking. But that contrast is essential to the story, heightening the sense of gentleness when Kirishima scoops Yoshino up, wrapped in a blanket, and carries her to a car. Those moments don't feel like he's manipulating her, but like a severely fucked-up young man trying his best to take care of the person he's fallen in love with.

This episode feels disjointed in the way that tends to happen with manga adaptations, piecing together the end of a plot arc and the start of a new one in a discontinuous way. With the way anime is paced now, I assume there was no graceful way to make it work better with the TV episode structure. Even with the clunky pacing, though, things end on a hell of a cliffhanger: Kirishima and Yoshino's grandfather are plotting something, and I can't imagine it's anything good.

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Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.