History Main / Yakuza

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* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' One group makes a brief appearance to demonstrate where [[spoiler: Homura]] gets her middle grade weaponry from. [[spoiler: She uses TimeStandsStill to walk in and take whatever she wants.]]
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->''"As Joseph Castellano… put it, ‘[[TheMafia What is a Gambino crime family?… Does this Gambino crime family have an office? Does the office have a plaque on the door that says, “Gambino crime family?”]]' In Japan, the answers would be, in reverse order, ‘yes,’ ‘yes,’ and ‘read our rules and creed.’"''

* ''YakuzaGraveyard'' involves, well, ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Yakuza]]''.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7161848/1/893 893]]'' Harry Potter is raised by the Yakuza.

* [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Unsurprisingly]], due to the great degree with which the game was influenced by Creator/WilliamGibson, ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' includes plenty of Yakuza in varying capacities. The fact that the default setting for the game is the West Coast of the [[DividedStatesOfAmerica former U.S.]] may be a contributing factor, though.

* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', Yusuke's HotMom, Atsuko Urameshi, has some kind of... ''connections'', shall we say... with the local yakuza. Specifically, she gets her buddies to intimidate Yusuke's principal into letting him back into school after he comes back to life. The anime version {{Bowdlerise}}d this away.

* In the 1989 version of ''Film/ThePunisher'', the title character has killed off so many Mafia members the Yakuza is able to take control.
** They return as a faction in ThePunisherWarZone

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Shirou's house is technically owned by the local yakuza. They allow him to stay there as a favor to his deceased father Kiritsugu, with whom they were on very good terms. Shirou's guardian, Taiga Fujimura, also happens to be the yakuza boss's granddaughter, though there is no indication that takes any part in the family business.

Not that these are [[NotSoDifferent mutually exclusive descriptions]], though. Tired of robbing the penniless peasants, these Ronin bands often gravitated towards more affluent cities, where they sought employment as a [[HiredGuns hired muscle]]. There they mingled with and frequently joined, local urban self-defense groups and mutual help societies, and this is where their claim of the [[JustLikeRobinHood service to society]] comes from. The fact that these groups were often indistinguishable from the [[GangBangers petty gangs]] is usually blissfully ignored. The modern descendants of such gangs are the very Yakuza groups that are discussed here. Today some 70% of the Yakuza come from ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin burakumin]]'' background.

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' has the local Sonozaki family. One of the main characters, Mion Sonozaki, is a [[MafiaPrincess Yakuza Princess]] of the family.

* Furio Tigre, from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Trials and Tribulations'', has connections with Yakuza (or the Mafia in the translation). [[spoiler: Mostly, he owes a Yakuza/Mafia boss a large sum of money after almost killing his beloved granddaughter in a car crash. For worse, the girl has sorta fallen for him, so he uses her in his plans.]]
** Dee Vasquez also had her own Yakuza thugs in the first game.
** And one of your clients in ''Apollo Justice'' is the son of a Yakuza boss.
* Members of the Yakuza play roles in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games, especially in ''[=GTA3=]'' and ''Liberty City Stories''.

* The Azai Corporation in ''VisualNovel/GSenjouNoMaou'' plays a huge part in the game, as the main character's motivation is to repay his debt to them.
* ''{{VisualNovel/Sampaguita}}'', the 3rd game of the ''{{VisualNovel/Yarudora}}'' series, has them as one of the antagonist factions which are after the main heroine, Maria Santos. And they're ''certainly'' not above [[WouldHitAGirl hitting a girl]].

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Shirou's house is technically owned by the local yakuza. They allow him to stay there as a favor to his deceased father Kiritsugu, with whom they were on very good terms. Shirou's guardian, Taiga Fujimura, also happens to be the yakuza boss's granddaughter, though there is no indication that takes any part in the family business.

* A lot of Creator/TakeshiKitano's movies feature him playing a yakuza, including ''Sonatine'', ''Boiling Point'', ''Kikujiro'', ''Brother'', and ''{{Outrage}}''.

* About half the main cast of ''Manga/SetoNoHanayome'', including the heroine, are yakuza mermaids. (You heard me.)
** Being a light comedy, they're played positively enough to be samurai-ish. They have a few swordspersons around, and San uses a Japanese pun to riff on 'chivalry'. That and [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything they never do anything Yakuza-ish]] because they're too busy screwing up Nagasumi's life.

* ''HeatGuyJ''

* In one episode of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', the reporter goes to some of them to ask about the strongest man in Ikebukuro, and there's some discussion about how they have business in the area but pretty much stay out-of-sight unless the various [[MobWar delinquent wars]] get so bad that they need to intervene.

* Almost everybody in ''Gekkoh''.

* A ''TimeTrax'' episode deals with the Yakuza.

->''"They'll kill you five times before you hit the ground."''
-->-- '''Agnes Skinner,''' ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

See also TheMafiya, TheMafia, TheIrishMob, TheTriadsAndTheTongs, TheCartel, TheSyndicate, MafiaPrincess.

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* ''Film/BlackRain''. The protagonist makes a deal with the local boss to take down the antagonist. The boss makes a point out of the antagonist's dishonourable behavior.

Not that these are [[NotSoDifferent mutually exclusive descriptions]], though. Tired of robbing the penniless peasants, these Ronin bands often gravitated towards more affluent cities, where they sought employment as a [[HiredGuns hired muscle]]. There they mingled with and frequently joined, local urban self-defense groups and mutual help societies, and this is where their claim of the [[JustLikeRobinHood service to society]] comes from. The fact that these groups were often indistinguishable from the [[GangBangers petty gangs]] is usually blissfully ignored. The modern descendants of such gangs are the very Yakuza groups that are discussed here. Today some 70% of the Yakuza come from ''burakumin'' background.

* The final arc of the second season of ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', "Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise," centers around a war between two rival yakuza groups triggered by the death of one of their bosses, a war that [[TheMafiya Russian mob]] boss [[TheBaroness Balalaika]] wants to use to gain a foothold in the Japanese underworld. The yakuza, as befitting of the show's tendency to play every mafia movie cliche in the book to the hilt, but [[CurbStompBattle unfortunately for them]], Balalaika is a {{Magnificent B|astard}}itch and [[CombatPragmatist doesn't play by their rules]]. And then, Rock and Revy meet up with Yukio Washimine, the girl who is about to become the leader of one of these groups...[[FromBadToWorse yeah,]] [[HeelRealization it doesn't]] [[DownerEnding end well.]]

* In ''Manga/KaseiYakyoku'', the male lead Taka Itou, his younger brother Saburou and a kid named Junichirou Uchida (the brother of one of Taka's love interests) are involved with the {{Yakuza}} of TheRoaringTwenties, though not entirely by choice. Taka's boss is seen on-screen, and he's a brutal {{Yakuza}} whose only sort-of soft spot is for his daughter Nami, [[spoiler: despite having killed ''his own wife'' when she tried to cheat on him.]]
* Similarly, in ''Manga/SakuraGari'' (which also takes places in Tokyo of TheRoaringTwenties), the {{Yakuza}} forcibly recruit Masataka's beloved older brother Takafumi and get him to be in debt with them. Souma offers to pay for it, but only if [[WorkOffTheDebt Masataka]] [[ScarpiaUltimatum becomes his lover.]] [[spoiler: They kill Takafumi anyway.]]

* Featured in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', after Homer hires the Mafia to protect Marge's pretzel business, her rivals engage in some tit-for-tat by hiring the Yakuza, leading to the memorable quote, "They'll kill ya five times before ya hit the ground!!!" The Yakuza and the Mafia then have a big gang brawl on the Simpson lawn. The [[MisterBig pint-sized]] Yakuza leader just stands ominously during the brawl, prompting Homer to resist taking shelter before finding out what he's going to do. After Homer retreats inside, we see the little Yakuza [[FunnyBackgroundEvent doing backflips through the Simpsons' window]].