Kiryu and Yagami Should be a Model for Good Male Protagonists

Male characters in video games tend to fall into a few categories these days. You have the macho type, the shy type, the reluctant protagonist type, and then you have the womanizer type. The Yakuza franchise, however, breaks convention in a lot of ways, particularly with Kazuma Kiryu. This also extends to the Judgment franchise as well.

Kiryu is not the typical male protagonist. Despite having a life that involved Japanese organized crime, he isn’t a rough, angry guy. Though he might have a slight alcohol problem, most of your time with Kiryu showcases that he is actually a pretty decent guy. During your time with him in Yakuza Kiwami, Kiryu stops muggings, helps a struggling girl sell matches, grows a friendship with a lesbian hostess, and does good things for people out of the kindness of his heart.

Even when someone tries to rip Kiryu off, he turns it into a lesson (usually a violent one) and tries to make them see the error of their ways. Kiryu isn’t all about the glory, and he isn’t a pervert either. He treats everyone (male or female) with respect, that is unless they mess with him. There is even a substory in which he goes to his regular host club, only to find a man in drag as his hostess.

He doesn’t act homophobic and actually remains secure in his sexuality throughout the entirety of the sequence. Could you imagine Dante from Devil May Cry, or Duke Nukem flirting with a male hostess? I highly doubt it. He even allows himself to be vulnerable at times and tries to help others learn from his own mistakes.

Yagami is the same way. He helps women discover cheating husbands, helps a girl with advertising as a mascot, and even feeds stray cats. In Lost Judgment, he does plenty of things to help kids solve their problems, and even tries to keep kids out of trouble with the law. Even Kaito (a former Yakuza) treats other people and kids well.

In fact, dating comes up a fair bit in the Judgment games, and Yagami doesn’t objectify the women he is with. He is careful to show them respect and even tries to make sure they are safe as much as possible. I can’t see Duke Nukem doing much more than staring at a woman’s boobs while she’s talking.

Kiryu’s masculinity is understood by most other characters, but they don’t try to constantly throw it in your face. Kiryu is a skilled fighter and he knows it, but he also has honor. He never fights without a reason, and never goes looking for a fight. While the Yakuza series does have its share of fan service moments and adult content moments, Kazuma Kiryu is actually a relatively decent role model (Yakuza background aside).

Another important way Kiryu is set apart from other protagonists is in how he interacts with children. He doesn’t belittle them or dismiss them; instead, he listens and tries to help them if they need it. You never see a moment where Kiryu says “ugh, children.” Instead, he always seems happy to help them, and always seems to enjoy playing Pocket Circuit with them, or even the (seemingly adult) card game MesuKing.

I have a few issues with how the Yakuza franchise leans heavily on fan service. Cleavage is common, and sometimes women are downright sexualized for no reason, particularly in MesuKing. Nonetheless, Kiryu is almost never the one doing the sexualizing. Instead, he plays more like a white knight, ready to help, and ready to protect anyone (male or female) that needs it.

The sexualization has gotten better over time, and even in more outrageous characters like Goro Majima, there is a point made to not oversexualize or brutalize women. There are a few bits of Japanese-typical homophobia elements, usually with drag and other cross-dressing, but the characters themselves tend to be more tolerant.

More games should have characters written like Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima, Takayuki Yagami, and Masaharu Kaito. If there were more characters like them, I think there would be fewer people that had a problem with the way men are portrayed, and the way women are subject to the whims of their leading male counterparts. With the idea of toxic masculinity coming up more and more these days, it is characters like Kiryu and Yagami that show us another way. Writing secure, kind male characters isn’t impossible.