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©小西明日翔・講談社／来世は他人がいい製作委員会
In the pantheon of great literary love stories, there are enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, ex-lovers to lovers, and about a dozen other combinations on the road to true but unexpected love. Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii is perhaps most closely related to the first, if the first one specifically included super-toxic organized crime heirs who hated women with every fiber of their being. And the refrain, “But I can change him!” also includes petty revenge and—you know, it’s actually an enemy-turned-lover of a T.
Yakuza Fiancé, a charming romantic comedy with a steamy opening that promises sex and steamy flirting, is one of the new anime titles of the fall season. Scheduled to air on Crunchyroll in October, the series is adapted from a manga by Asuka Konishi, a pseudonym that obscures much of what is known about the mysterious author. Produced by Studio DEEN, the series is written and composed by relative newcomer Rika Takasugi, with Toshifumi Kawase, who has had a long career in everything from writing to directing, directing, and writing.
The audience crammed into the small panel room at Anime NYC had absolutely no idea what to expect from Yakuza Fiancé—most of the room dutifully “Oooh’d” like teenagers when the implied sex scene played out in the opening credits. Meanwhile, the girl behind me—a cosplayer dressed as a Hamburglar holding Ronald McDonald’s severed head in her lap—kept saying, “Wowwwwwww” every time something outrageous was said on screen. This happened often—protagonist and male love interest Kirishima Miyama is (deliberately) one of the worst antiheroes ever made. He’s a TV pilot for a while. He’s the grandson of the head of a Tokyo yakuza clan, and while his family ties seem to be an open secret at school, he’s still beloved by a core group of mean girls. and his good looks.
Enter heroine Yoshino Somei, a sweet girl who absorbs the protagonist's energy so quickly that the entire room cheers. She is the granddaughter of the Osaka yakuza clan, but in order to mend a rift between the two families, she is transferred to Tokyo with a betrothal to Kirishima. She ends up living in their newly renovated teahouse, which immediately earns the ire of the mean girls at school who don't want her anywhere near their precious man. Before long, she quickly realizes that Kirishima has a dark side. Not only does he quickly escalate to extreme violence, graphically contorting the face of a man who dares to look in Yoshino's direction—he actually enjoys his yakuza birthright. In the grand scheme of romantic comedy archetypes, the “heir to a powerful family villain” usually falls into one of two categories—the sweet guy who’s uncomfortable with his family’s business and power or the villain who’s itching to ruin someone’s day. Kirishima is the latter. He soon discovers Yoshino’s weaker, more timid nature and snarls that she’ll only be useful as a prostitute. The Hamburglar behind me doesn’t like this one bit.
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Without revealing too much about the pilot, who is probably one of the strongest candidates of the fall, Yoshino is advised by her grandfather that the only option she has left that will help them keep their family honor is to make Kirishima fall in love with her and crush his heart like an insect after a year. She calms herself down, makes a call and makes a bold, daring and unexpected move that causes the whole room to burst into loud cheers. Of course, Hamburglar lets out a long “Wooooooooooow”. And it is truly a “wow” moment.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about this particular flavor of Enemies to Lovers. Kirishima is a level of toxicity that has hundreds of fans squirming in their seats. But he is, after all, the future leader of a violent crime syndicate, so perhaps that shouldn't be too surprising. Yoshino, however, is pretty damn cool. When it comes to digging deep and finding her power, she transforms into a stone-cold force of nature that would make even Kirishima shiver. She alone is a reason to watch Yakuza Fiancé, and the reason the series has so much potential. Never mind the haters who claim the show is aesthetically unpleasing—well, maybe that's true. Maybe the characters' thick necks, bulging eyes, and alien giraffe-like limbs aren't the most beautiful, but Yoshino should more than make up for it. Am I in love? Maybe.
