Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii

Episodes 6-8

Friends, readers, community members, I have a confession to make. When I had only watched the first episode of the multi-episode arc “I'd Rather You Hate Me than Not Care,” I had plans to open the review with the question, “What that dick do?” I asked that because the episode marked the first appearance of Nao Shiota, Kirishima's ex-girlfriend, who apparently banged him every night for four months when he was in his first year of high school, and she was in her third. And, based on the fact that she dove right into bed with him again, it seemed like it was a pretty satisfying experience for her, if you catch my drift.

But then, while on an outing to Kobe's Suma Aqualife Park (which I am now kicking myself for never going to when I lived in Kansai), he casually drops to Yoshino that he's a CSA survivor. He doesn't use those words, but he does reveal that after his parents kicked him out to live with his yakuza great-uncle, he only got a small allowance to cover his food. So, he sold his body to older women to get the money he needed to live. Neither he nor Yoshino exactly drops to their knees weeping and wailing over the tragedy of it all, since they both grew up in an environment where sexual exploitation is normalized, but that doesn't mean I can't be sad enough about it for both of them!

While the full details of The Incident still have yet to unfold, I've worked with children who were so emotionally dysregulated and lacking in problem-solving skills that they turned to aggression quickly. Kids who, on top of those struggles, were bigger and stronger than others their age and found themselves trapped in a cycle where they were friendless because the other children were scared of them, and the isolation made them even angrier and more prone to physical violence. Am I projecting them onto Kirishima? You absolutely bet I am!

It also goes a long way toward explaining why Kirishima is… you know… like that. Why he's into cruel women who treat him like trash. Why he's so good at sex despite preferring to be left out while his girlfriends have sex with other men. Why his understanding of boundaries is so completely broken. Why he's never really had anything resembling a friend before Yoshino. That, and the fact that he's the child of celebrities who pushed him off onto their uncle instead of finding him the support he needed. And it's really to the show's credit that they're able to handle this in a way where it comes across that the characters feel like it's normal, while abundantly clear to the audience that it very much shouldn't be.

As fascinating as the character work is, though, this is the most plot-heavy we've seen Yakuza Fiancé get thus far. Also, my life has been hell for the last two weeks, including an ER visit and a flood that forced us to vacate our apartment, so please forgive me if there are plot threads that I miss or events that get in the way. I'm currently living in a hotel room that just barely clears semi-decent. And the shift key on my keyboard is broken for reasons that elude me and every tech support person I've spoken to.

My life may be a struggle right now, but at least I don't have to deal with a scumbag like Kento Ozu. He and Nao make for interesting comparisons to Kirishima and Yoshino. While Kirishima may be dangerously violent, with the part of his brain that allows for a moral compass to be broken or missing, Ozu is well aware of the difference between right and wrong, and he just doesn't care. He's been using his good looks and charm to lure in girls looking to start a career in the entertainment industry, blackmailing them, and pushing them into porn, where they end up being trafficked and disappear. Since Kirishima is known to be feral, Ozu's been using him as a scapegoat, which allows him to further earn girls' trust when he tells them to stay away from this dude.

Meanwhile, let's take a look at Yoshino and Nao. Yoshino, for all her talk about making Kirishima fall in love with her, hasn't really been putting in a lot of effort. Yeah, she's been driving him wild just by being herself because she's actually kind of unhinged, just not in a way that's as obvious as he wanted. She navigates the world based on instinct and, having grown up in that ecosystem, does so with an assurance that just can't be learned. Nao, on the other hand, fancies herself a master manipulator. She lives her life like she's a character in Death Note; every relationship and social interaction is calculated and meant to gain her something. Yet, she ends up being the one backed into the corner, as Ozu threatens to blackmail her and demands that she bring Kirishima and Yoshino to a certain place at a certain time. But he has no beef with those two… who could possibly wish them ill?

Why, the guy who Yoshino took down with her hairdryer (rest in peace, poor soul) and his buddy, of course. Those two want revenge for the beating they took, and they've enlisted Ozu to make it happen. However, they're not really smart enough for all the plotting it requires, and it looks like they themselves are being manipulated in this situation. The masterminds are a guy with permed red hair and a heavily tattooed man in a mask, who I am about 90% sure is the scarred man in the opening.

Sadly, the circumstances conspired against me, so I have to cram three episodes' worth of review into one, which means I'm running out of space to talk about a lot of things that happened. We see Yoshino's old room in Osaka! Some middle-aged Osakan women give Kirishima 500 yen just for being handsome! Shoma is there, and I think, at this point, he's my favorite character. He snack, he attack, but most of all, he watch Yoshino's back.

Rating:

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