Like a Dragon / Ryu ga Gotoku jdorama Episodes 1~3 review

I am a huge Ryu ga Gotoku fan. I have finished all the games except for Kurohyo 2 and some games more than twice. I love that they have Amazon money to do a RGG jdorama and the problem with jdoramas is always budget because the market is limited but Alice in Borderland has shown what Japan can do with big budgets.

That being said I had low expectations from the trailer. I didn't think Takeuchi Ryoma could do Kiryu justice. I was still going to get Amazon prime to watch and support jdoramas. Funny enough, I just won 3 months of Amazon prime from McDonalds monopoly 2 days before so I did not have to spend any money.

The first episode I was bewildered. Having more backstory is cool for Sawamura Yumi and Nishikiyama's sister Miho is great but a bunch of kids doing a heist on a game centre in Kabukicho? Didn't buy that and the first big change was making Kazama a retired yakuza from the Dojima clan who is now running the orphanage.

Ok, so the whole purpose of the heist was a convoluted way for Kiryu and Nishikiyama to join the Dojima clan? What was wrong with the motivation from the game where they respected Kazama and wanted to follow in his footsteps? 

I liked the fight outside the prison. I liked the violence and Kiryu's arrogance. I thought I could get behind this Kiryu.

I don't like how quickly Kiryu and Nishikiyama went from shining cars to sakazuki or exchanging oaths. WTF did these 2 do to prove their worth to the clan? They writers should have shown that instead of them playing happy families in the abandoned bathhouse in Kamurocho. They need to show more of the bond between Kiryu and Nishikiyama as they prove their worth. Show how Kiryu and Nishikiyama are good at kicking ass and Nishikiyama is more brains.

The worst thing this show has done in the 3 episodes is giving Yumi an older sister being played by the actress from the Naked Director, Morita Misato. In the game Yumi disappears and pretends to be her older sister but this new character I do not care about at all and takes away from the Kiryu, Yumi Nishikiyama triangle.

I don't feel like the writers of the game understand what makes the games good. It is the brotherhood between Kiryu and Nishikiyama and they are going out of their way to flesh out their version of Yumi and giving a big role of Aiko, Yumi's sister to Morita Misato. This character of Aiko did not exist in the game. I really do not like how they make the Dragon of Dojima to be a character and they have added the Demon of Kumorocho to the story. Not happy how they put Saejima in the story only to die. 

This series is RGG 0 and 1 and they are not doing a good job of adapting either. Reminds me Miike's Ryu ga Gotoku movie where he mashed elements of 1 and 2 and just did whatever he felt like doing. I just want to play the game right now and erase this bad memory. 

Just adapt the first game and flesh same things out. It feels like these people are not fans of the game and are more of the I can fix this story, we need more Aiko instead of Kiryu and Nishikiyama. It feels like the writers are thinking the characters in the game are not compelling enough. Hire people who are fans, not creators who think they can 'fix' things. They did the same thing Miike did for the movie, sigh. As a dorama, it is merely a meh but as a fan, I dislike it very much.