Front and back swimsuit kiryu

Madness, Atonement and Love

Content Warning: Yakuza 0 to LaD spoilers Content Warning: i jump between Yakuza 0 and 4 plot remember that there is a time difference between the events

Majima is the best way to explain yakuza, its very funny one minute, hahaha funny face man does break dancing as a fighting style, and the next moment he is face with the decision to either kill an innocent woman to get back to the world he has been dying to live in again or let her live and live a life of hiding and protecting her from those that set you out to kill here. Majima has so many layers, that are all centred around one core theme, his sworn brother Taiga Saejima or his kyoudai. Majima on his own is amazing but he gets better when he is whole...

Saejima is hands down one of my fav characters in yakuza, his arc throughout the games is just brilliant but i especially like his first game, at first you think he is a cold no nonsense killer convicted for killing 18 people making him a legend in the yakuza world (and they say yakuza is a silly game ahaha... they dont know shit) many years after the events of yakuza 0 Saejima breaks out with his new friend Hamazaki (who i may write a blog post later) once he is out Hamazaki is shot and we presume he is dead. now Saejima is on the run to look for his kyoudai for answers, he may have to kill majima or maybe he doesnt...

AAAAAA man Makoto is so interesting, a blind woman who falls for a Yakuza, a yakuza she doesnt know the name of. he is this mysterious protector figure who always looks out for here and the people around her to the best of his ability. to her she is not the yakuza with the tattoo on his back, instead he is him, simply a man she loves, she knows that he is a man that is there to protect her from something, something bigger than the both of them, a yakuza war over a bit of land... land that is owned by none other than Makimura Makoto.

Jumping back to Majima for a moment, his chemistry with Makoto (the woman he is meant to kill) is brilliant, at first i thought it was a protective fatherly thing, but slowly it became obvious it was a... ahem thing... yeah slowly he is falling in love while this woman has never seen his face or heard his name bc she was traumatised to the point of mental blindless. as they fall in love it becomes clearer and clearer that the lives they must live are very different. bc of the this and the fact that Makoto gets shot by the Tojo Clan for (yakuza 0 plot reasons) Majima goes fucking insane, instead of this calm and collected character we met in The Grand we get this fucking love sick man (heh reminded me of BlackPink but i digress) who just wants to avenge the only one who he truly loved (sorta yakuza 5)... and this is the birth of The Mad Dog of Shimano. man the scenes leading up to his break made me so angry i was fully for Majima going mad dog on the cunts, it felt so good beating the shit out of some of them in the finale and it felt bittersweet for some... man Awano, but thats a talk for another day.

Jumping back to Saejima, after breaking out he washes ashore of a small island nation by the name of Okinawa, fans of the series know this place as the home of Kiryu and his orphanage. soon someone stumbles upon Saejima and takes him in, the person is of course Haruka Sawamura (the daughter of Kiryu). Saejima regains his consciousness and chats for a bit with Haruka, but then ummm... yeah ummm... i dont really want to type out what happened next, so lets just say that Saejima hasnt seen a woman in a long time (jesus i hate this scene and i am not defending it i am just trying to put it as nicely as possible). soon, in comes Kiryu who very quickly sees what happened and and realises who Saejima is, bc who wouldnt, but as they get to talking Saejima makes up a fake name and Kiryu goes along with it. blah blah storyy Majima sadness

AAAAAAAANND they fight. Kiryu fights in yakuza games (where you fight against him) always put the fear of a thousand suns inside you, they are so good at making you be like "OH SHIT i know that move" and then "Oh god i dont know that move what the fuck Kiryu a fucking beast" the fight ends and Saejima "wins" bc before he can finish Kiryu off Haruka comes in and has to be the voice of logic and reason, all things that sissies worry about, and she stops the fight...

now skipping way way way ahead to going to meet Majima you go to see him fight his lackies and then he comes down from the stairs, and for a man that rarely ever emotes you can see how happy Saejima is even through his tough face. Majima and Saejima walk to the batting cages for their fight, they talk about why Saejima is there and what is going to happen, its clear Majima isnt gonna go down without kicking, bc in his mind it would be disrespectful to Saejima if he didnt give him a show, in any case, it could be Majima's last.

its so amazing doing this fight, bc its been built up since fucking yakuza 0 and when you do it you are just like "YEAAHHHH HIT HIM HARDER WOOOOOO" and when its over you are brought back to the earth and you have to think, at what cost? this reuniting scene is one of the best, its so sad and so exciting, all you can think leading up to it is how it went for Kiryu and Nishikiyama, its just very well done.

The 2 chat for a bit and Saejima asks about the eyepatch Majima explains why he didnt show when they where supposed to do the hit, the very same hit that landed Saejima in jail. the reason being he was taken hostage by one of the family heads, and he explains that bc he gave them such hell the only way to shut him up was to take one of his eyes, Saejima laughs, now its clear, the kyoudais are back together and stronger than ever.

it is very very clear to me that Saejima and Majima are 2 parts of a greater whole, there is no Majima without Saejima and there is not Saejima without Majima. its beautiful how the insanity of Majima and the stoicism of Saejima mix so well, i think its beautifully shown in the Yakuza LaD scene when they do their attack, that gif is just brilliant at showing how they compliment each other haha. (sorry couldnt find the gif)

Majima and Saejima show us some people are worth it and even if they are worth it, sometimes the best call is to let them go, i of course have to finish what i started. awhile after Majima takes out the Tojo Clan, he goes on a walk, finally free from everything... and he sees her, there she is happy and she looks him dead in the eye (NO THE PUNS TODAY AAAAAAA) and doesnt see him for the protector she once did when she was blind, now seeing him as a flashy yakuza with a tattoo on his back, Majima doesnt speak knowing she would recognise the voice. soon, a man who looks like her boyfriend comes and says "Hey is this man worrying you" and in one swift move Majima takes him and talk to him heart to heart, asking "do you love her" and "will you look after her", the boyfriend is very confused and a bit scared, after all a yakuza with one eye is grabbing him talking in a very scary tone. the man answers yes and Majima walks away into the crowd, Makoto trails him with her eyes until there is nothing to see and she goes on with her life....

to be continued... ->

yeah sometimes when you love someone so much, the only okay thing to do is to let them go bc you know you would only bring them more pain if you stayed together... in a way, it would be selfish, robbing them of a normal life. this is exactly how Majima at this point sees it, and i respect him for it, maybe in the future they will meet again, and maybe just MAYBE, they will finally get proper closure that they deserve, but until then i will say goodbye and thanks for taking time out of your life to read my stupid little essay