Raise wa Tanin ga Ii

After years of animosity, the leaders of Osaka's Somei and Tokyo's Miyama yakuza groups have called a truce—by arranging an engagement between their respective grandchildren, Yoshino Somei and Kirishima Miyama. To this end, 17-year-old Yoshino moves to Tokyo to live with the Miyama family and attend school with her new fiancé. Although Kirishima is all smiles and perfectly polite, there is something unsettling about his demeanor that Yoshino cannot put her finger on.

Yoshino's suspicions are soon confirmed: despite his manners, Kirishima is a masochistic maniac. He hurts people without batting an eye and also revels in being punished verbally and physically himself. What he wants most is a spoiled and arrogant fiancée who will ruin his life. When Yoshino does not quite meet his expectations, he reveals his true colors and openly insults her. However, instead of running away in fear, Yoshino decides to take revenge by making Kirishima fall in love with her and then ruthlessly breaking his heart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Somei, Yoshino Main

Ueda, Hitomi Japanese

Miyama, Kirishima Main

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Toriashi, Shouma Supporting

Yusa, Kouji Japanese

Somei, Renji Supporting

Ueda, Youji Japanese

Suou, Azami Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Akashigata, Tsubaki Supporting

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Miyama, Gaku Supporting

Nakai, Kazuya Japanese

Shiota, Nao Supporting

Ookubo, Rumi Japanese

Ozu, Kento Supporting

Tachibana, Shinnosuke Japanese

Akaza, Shiori Supporting

Kudou, Haruka Japanese

Konishi, Yuuki Producer

Tada, Yuuichi Producer

Santou, Shunsuke Producer

Kuwayama, Yukari Producer

Reviews

Dec 23, 2024

Marinate1016

Recommended

If you like messy and spicy romance with the ever present danger of death or bodily harm hanging over your main character’s shoulder, look no further than Yakuza Fiancé! Finally, a series that shows us the real ins and outs of Japan’s most famous criminal organisation and right in the middle of all that are our two leads who SHOULD be in class doing their math lessons, but are instead uncovering mob conspiracy theories and interrogating grown ass men. Yea, this show’s a riot, over the top and unbelievable but damn is it fun as hell. It also features the best girl of the ... season. I’m obsessed with this story and need more.

Disclaimer up front, I am a massive Yoshino stan, she was my pick for girl of the season and is one of my favourite female characters overall. If you like your leads to not be damsels in distress who stand around waiting for the guy to come rescue them, able to outsmart people and not afraid to get their hands dirty in a fight, I have good news for you. Yoshino does that as well as anyone I’ve seen. She really is the driving force behind this story and your enjoyment will depend on how much you like her as a character. Assuming you’re a fan of bad ass girlboss characters, this is easily going to be one of the best shows of the year for you.

One cool thing about Yakuza Fiancé is it doesn’t glorify the yakuza or make it this cool thing you want to join. Voluntarily entering it is one thing, but being born into a yakuza family puts you into a prison of sorts, prohibits the things you can do and be. You always have to have a guard and be looking over your shoulder. It’s a very restrictive lifestyle that can be hard to deal with, mentally and physically. They do a good job of showing how that affects Yoshino. She has to put up this fake persona to cope and survive with her circumstances. It gets played off as a joke during the series sometimes, but for the most part I think they nail the gravity of the situation. This series really doesn’t shy away from the reality of gang life. Blackmail, extortion, murder, drug use and a plethora of other unsavory things. It gets dark at times which I love. While exaggerated at times, it definitely felt like I was watching something aimed at adults. Hell, we even have a male lead who has casual sex with other girls while he’s pursuing the female lead. Like when’s the last time we’ve seen something like that, Nana?

That’s a perfect segue into the other big selling point here. The romance. Love em or hate em, Yoshino and Kirishima are the focal point of the story. The classic arranged marriage to genuine relationship trope, but this one actually feels interesting because Kirishima is a scumbag. He acts like you would think a gang member acts. Sleeps around, foul mouthed, anger issues etc. While I am, at the time of writing, not a big fan of him, I really appreciate that the author gives us a different type of male lead. All of these shy dudes who are scared of girls get old. Show me someone who’s unhinged and has a ton of experience with women, but not THIS sort of woman. It’s a unique romance setup. I did see a little bit of growth out of Kirishima towards the end of the series, but personally I much prefer the childhood friend/bodyguard for Yoshino. Yea, he’s also a mob guy, but a much more normal person if that makes sense. There’s a cool little love triangle brewing between them which I love. Huge fan of tension and drama and this show has it in spades. The romance doesn’t get overbearing though, Yoshino is her own character and isn’t reliant on a man or a relationship to shine which I love.

The art style is apparently a love or hate thing. I think it looks gorgeous, Yoshino’s look was one of my faves of the year. The animation left a lot to be desired, but it is a seinen romance tbf so you don’t need anything crazy.. certainly could’ve been better though. It’s up there with Deen’s better works as of late, not quite Gimai Seikatsu good, but solid.

This was probably my 3rd favourite show of the season or so. I loved this one so much. The messiness, the gang warfare drama, Yoshino being a badass. There’s a lot to love here for me and I believe any fan of strong female leads will enjoy it. If you like your romance with some spice, this is also for you. Cannot wait to start reading it.

Yakuza Fiancé gets 9 out of 10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 13, 2024

Salvatierra21

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (9/12 eps)

Here we can see a youthful romance anime with a Yakuza but the attractive thing about it is that it does not stay in the juvenile but the plot tries to have a more mature development to touch on the murky themes of the underworld and toxic relationships giving it the seinen category thinking that you will find an interesting plot where the values ​​and morals of the characters will be measured to fulfill their objective but this is overshadowed by the main part which is the construction of the relationship of the couple dividing the public since everything is left for the moment by ... the typical toxic relationship that is forgiven everything in this case to the man in seeing his cruel and inhuman actions and also seeing a pleasant, perceptive protagonist with a very risky appearance but frustrating the viewer with her naivety that breaks with everything said before

In the animation I like that retro style that it has and the design of the characters of the young people seeing themselves as adults can be justified with the fact that they are the last year to enter the University but it looks very rough, the fast movements, there are static scenes that break the flow

The only thing I see that would make this story have at least a satisfactory ending would be for the boy protagonist to get what he deserves by paying for the consequences of his actions, leading him to life imprisonment

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Dec 23, 2024

Aisukurimu

Not Recommended

The most devastating thing a show can suffer from is being mid in every category. For a yakuza anime, there's surprisingly little business happening. For a romcom, it's neither very romantic nor particularly funny. For a toxic relationship, there's a lack of morally daring moments. And for a high school setting, there's definitely no studying going on. Nothing much happens in the twelve episodes to be honest.

I can see where this is going, crazy yakuza power couple laced with romance and plotting, sexy and dangerous. But the whole premise falls apart because of Yoshino's bad characterisation. On the one hand, she's a yakuza anego speaks ... with Osaka ben, unrestrained, clever, and doing as she pleases. On the other hand, she's innocent, naïve, and most importantly, a virgin. This character is a sheer byproduct of a woman oppressed in a patriarchal society and how they imagined how someone in a higher position would act.

The way they show how Yoshino has guts is by selling her kidney. Apparently she can't possibly have kidneys and guts in this economy. This bizarre action is meant to demonstrate her defiance toward Kirishima when he suggests she become an escort. Let me check the calculator, she sold her kidney for 25k (USD) to give him to prove a point? Sorry, I know the yen is weak now, but is the Japanese yakuzas that broke that her family doesn’t have 25k??? Why would she give him the money? Why would she even need his approval in the first place?

They try so hard to show that Yoshino is on top that it ends up having the opposite effect. When has anyone in a position of power ever needed to explain themselves? The part in EP11 where she decided to date Kirishima is seemingly a power control over both Kirishima and Shoma is laughable. When you think you're Pavlov but you're actually the dog. Funnily, Tsubaki even points out something similar to Yoshino as well.

The only vaguely interesting women in the show is Tsubaki. Tsubaki is what I imagine the type of person Yoshino could have been, she's sharp and self-assured. Took one look at Kirishima and saw right through that facade. Yoshino should thank her for having some sense and not actually take her kidney. Obviously Tsubaki cannot be the main character because she does not have the attractive appeal of the innocence of the virgin. Nao on the other hand is also a sufferer of this, the way she is portrayed as a scheming woman is hostile. Later then revealed how Nao and Yoshino have been secretly eyeing each other is amusing, reducing two women to rivals competing over a man. Why should Yoshino care if Kirishima slept with Nao in the hotel if she's not interested or plan to be interested in him in the first place? Testing his loyalty with a hand made toy, what a joke.

It's obvious that Kirishima is the little beloved of the story. He's a classic fuckboi, sleeps around, beats people up, but at the end of the day he still has a heart of gold, loyal to Yoshino! It's okay they said he's a scumbag, so it shuts all of us up! He probably also has a meticulously crafted backstory to explain why he is the way he is, I don't even need to read the manga to know. It's always the 'bad' boy who gets character development.

The art style has a bit of a resemblance to older mangas, and it seems they do have some aesthetics from the stills in the OP and ED (not sure about the show feet though, I remain silent about that). But in the main body, it screams low budget, especially the side profiles, it's like Detective Conan side profiles.

One last thing, if she ever does falls for him under the name of 'true love' do @ me, I'll go file this under pampered wife literature and tap on the 'equal' power dynamics sign.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii Episode 12 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 23	43 replies	by joemaamah »» 50 minutes ago
	Seinen or Josei Himmels22 - Dec 20	42 replies	by bastek66 »» Yesterday, 7:03 PM
	Poll: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii Episode 11 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 16	45 replies	by cooldogmom »» Yesterday, 2:42 PM
	Poll: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 9	39 replies	by MegamiRem »» Yesterday, 5:45 AM
	Poll: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 4	48 replies	by MegamiRem »» Yesterday, 5:33 AM