These are the characters that debuted in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

For Ichiban Kasuga, see his page.
For Kazuma Kiryu, see his page.
For The Heroes of Tomorrow, old and new, see their page.
For Kihei Hanawa, see here.
For Jo Sawashiro and Masumi Arakawa, see here.
For Takaaki Matsunaga, Naoto Tagashira and Haruto Sawamura, see here.
For Youtaro Nakajima, see here.
For Goro Majima, see his page.
For Haruka Sawamura, Taiga Saejima, Shun Akiyama, and Jo Amon, see here.
For Daigo Dojima, Susumu Gondawara, and Kaoru Sayama, see here.
For Makoto Date, Dr. Emoto, Sotaro Komaki, Kazuki, and Yuya, see here.

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The Seiryu Clan

A yakuza organization based in Isezaki Ijincho, Yokohama, first introduced in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. In the wake of Chairman Ryuhei Hoshino's death, Clan Captain Mamoru Takabe has succeeded the position, despite his current incarceration.

Masataka Ebina (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Voiced by: Hiroki Hasegawa (Japanese), Daniel Dae Kim (English)^{Other Languages} Teng Xin (Chinese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ebina.png

The Captain and Acting Chairman of the Seiryu Clan, in Takabe's absence.

A Lighter Shade of Black: In comparison to Bryce, who is made out to be a completely amoral, egomanical, and delusional scam artist, Ebina is held to be something of a Tragic Villain looking to redress a real grievance, albeit in far too extreme a way to be considered sane.
Arch-Enemy: He considers himself to be one to Masumi Arakawa, for the role the latter played in orphaning him and his mother dying in poverty, despite having been conceived in the first place in a doomed attempt to sway Masumi's love away from Akane. Despite being aware of their blood connection, he's much more muted in this respect towards Ichiban, despite acknowledging their polar opposite natures, deriding him as a blind fool worshiping the wrong man, but overall treats him as partial collateral in his aim to eradicate the Yakuza overall, despite his efforts tearing down everything Ichiban worked so hard to build. He's not even upset that Kiryu faces him instead of Ichiban by the Final Battle.
Being Evil Sucks: After The Reveal, the game makes no secret of the fact Ebina is aware of his own hypocrisy as a yakuza patriarch who has a rabid hate for yakuza, and he is dying inside whenever he makes a move towards giving the Seriyu more power as part of his revenge scheme.
Big Bad Duumvirate: He and Bryce are the central antagonists of the game, working together to turn Nele Island into a dumping ground for nuclear waste. His personal stake is to send yakuza members over there in order to consign them to a horrific fate where they'll die of radiation poisoning.
Boomerang Bigot: The Don of a reforming yakuza clan hates all yakuza, and Kiryu realizes that, as opposed to him being an outright Straw Hypocrite, that he hates himself for being swept up in the life too.
Boss Subtitles: Ebina is notable in that he doesn't have them, having shown at this point he's been so completely consumed by his desire for revenge against the yakuza that he doesn't even consider himself part of any faction at all.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Ryo Aoki/Masato Arakawa; both are sons of Masumi Arakawa (Masato raised while Ebina born) who came to despise the man and yakuza in general, and are using social connections to destroy them as an organization; however:
- While Masato reinvented himself as the straightlaced politician Aoki and only leaned on his yakuza connections when Bleach Japan wasn't up to snuff, Ebina is a full yakuza himself who is using the ostensible reestablishment of the Seriyu Clan to begin a Genocide from the Inside and uses Hisoka Tatara to sabotage attempts at yakuza reforming so they're forced to work in the Nele nuclear waste dump.
- Their attitude towards their brother Ichiban - while Masato had a personal, obsessive hatred for Ichiban as someone who thrived in life despite Masato considering him a lowly lapdog, Ebina fully admits that while he dislikes Ichiban, it's in an impersonal sense as a symbol of Masumi's continuing influence, and he's honestly not that upset that his final opponent is Kiryu instead.
- Where Masato scorned his family and saw them as nothing but tools for his own gain, Ebina's grudge stems solely from wanting to avenge his, even to his own detriment.
- Where Masato, despite his scorn for yakuza, became one in all but name with little self-awareness over it, Ebina is all too aware of what he is and is self-loathing enough to willingly destroy himself if it means destroying all yakuza. While Aoki's ultimate goal was to bring the Yakuza to heel by amassing political power, Ebina just wants to straight-up kill them all by leveraging Bryce's scheme.
- Similarly, while Aoki founded Bleach Japan, Ebina finds them an occasionally useful embarrassment.
Curb-Stomp Battle: None of the Heroes of Tomorrow at the time (Nanba, Zhao, Seonhee and Saeko) posed any challenge to him; he simply swats them away showing just how big the power gap between him and the others. It takes Kiryu to subdue and defeat him.
Death Seeker: By the end of the boss fight against him, it is clear that his plan to destroy all the yakuza includes himself as he furiously yells at Kiryu to finish him or else he will continue to crawl back just like other yakuza. It takes Kiryu's begging for forgiveness and asking with tears that Ebina give all yakuza (including Ebina himself) another chance to atone for their sins in life for him to let go of that self-destructive vendetta.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: While he was never heard speaking fondly of her. It’s very clear that the reason why hated Masumi was because his actions left Ebina and his mother suffered in poverty before her death. Moreover, judging by how Ebina remembers it, Masumi never even try to reach out or helped her at all. This also extends to his grudge to the whole yakuza, since the driving force of it beside from his hatred towards Masumi, is also the fact that despite the yakuza glorifying the bonds of family, no one from the Hikawa family ever bothered to reach out and helped him and his mother either. Preferring to scatter and join other families instead and thus fueling Ebina’s vendetta even more.
Fallen Hero: Played with; He was originally a cop who wanted to take down the Yakuza legitimately, though his motivation was still purely for revenge. Arakawa's death and his inability to truly exact vengeance meant that he decided to go even further to exterminate the Yakuza.
Final Boss: To Kiryu, and of Infinite Wealth as a whole.
Foil: Before the final boss fight, he notes the irony that while he absolutely despises Masumi Arakawa with a passion, his half-brother Ichiban idolizes the man. But Saeko tells him he's got it wrong. The real difference is how they respond to the impossible. Where Ichiban took to redeeming the Yakuza like Sisyphus pushing up that rock for eternity, Ebina decided to twist his vengeance into mass murder.
Freudian Excuse: After his father Masumi Arakawa wiped out the Hikawa Family, he and his mother were forced to eke out a meager existence, with her dying while he was in Middle School. This instilled in him a hatred for Arakawa (and by extension, Ichiban and Masato) as well as the Yakuza. Eventually including himself for becoming one.
Genocide from the Inside: His plan is to achieve a position of power within the Yakuza, consolidate all ex-Yakuza under his banner before sending them to a miserable fate in an irradiated pit.
Genre Savvy: An example that is nearly Played for Laughs. He shrugs off the fact that Ichiban doesn't show up to face him in the Final Battle, despite the clear Cain and Abel issues between them due to their shared parentage and opposing views, noting that it's equally dramatically appropriate for Kazuma Kiryu to be having a final fight atop the Millennium Tower in his place.
Hates Their Parent: He despises Masumi Arakawa for inadvertently making his life a living hell by abandoning his arranged marriage with Ebina's mother and wiping out the Hikawa Family, to the extent that he gets a laugh out of Masumi being killed shortly after the Tojo and Omi's dissolution, though that's partially out of deranged anger as he wanted to kill Masumi himself.
He Who Fights Monsters: In his attempt to round up and destroy all the yakuza, he has become no different from them to the point that he even got a back tattoo, which he acknowledges and hates himself for.
Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his Japanese voice actor, Hiroki Hasegawa.
Katanas Are Just Better: During the second half of his attack he grabs a Katana, allowing him to use wide-sweeping attacks that inflict bleed on the targets.
Knight Templar: He absolutely loathes yakuza and does not believe them capable of any sort of reform, leading to him sabotaging reform job prospects to deliberately expose them to carcinogens.
Leitmotif: "The End of Denial", a very dramatic, conclusive track with a hint of gloom that is fitting for the herald of the Yakuza's twilight.
Like Father, Like Son: Ironically, in his pursuit for vengeance, he ends up resembling the two yakuzas who are primarily responsible for ruining his life, his maternal grandfather (the patriarch of the Hikawa family) and his father (Masumi Arakawa); the former with his willingness to use anyone to obtain more power and the latter's uncompromising viciousness when it comes to avenging their loved ones (Ebina's own mother in Ebina's case).
Long-Lost Relative: He's revealed to be Ichiban's half-brother through Masumi Arakawa and his original fiancée, the daughter of his former boss.
Mask of Sanity: He's relatively composed overall, but by the final chapter, he showcases his gleeful willingness to murder Yakuza, even those who want to redeem themselves in a changed world that rejects their old way of life, and gets disturbingly dramatic when recounting his past and goals to Kiryu's party, even breaking out into maniacal laughter over how his hated father got himself killed during the first dissolution, denying Ebina the chance to personally take vengeance on him or the organization he hated so much, forcing him to reform it again himself in order to do it his way.
Pay Evil unto Evil: His entire plan is framed as this, believing that the Yakuza can’t be redeemed and they aren’t worthy of coming back to normal society for all their crimes. For specific examples:
- He stabs Narasaki to death. The man is a Smug Snake Hate Sink that’s exactly the kind of selfish and violent thug that Ebina thinks all Yakuza are.
- Torturing Sawashiro. While Sawashiro had turned into The Atoner, he still has decades of blood on his hands and it’s implied he might’ve been behind ruining Eiji’s life along with numerous innocent people. He even points out to Kiryu’s party that Sawashiro deserves it after doing it to others for so long.
Post-Final Boss: If Shishido was Kiryu's True Final Boss back in Gaiden from a meta standpoint, then Ebina could be considered an example of this, given Kiryu's role in Infinite Wealth.
Revenge Before Reason: Even his mother, the source of his grudge against the Yakuza, begged him not to hate either Masumi Arakawa or the criminal underworld with her dying breath, but Ebina's hatred was so strong he dismissed her pleas, committing his entire life to wiping out as many Yakuza as he could, especially his father. When the events of the first game rendered everything he wanted null and void, he went to the extent of turning himself into a Yakuza in order to reform the scattered members and lure them into a massive death trap, something that causes him no end of emotional conflict. He's even fully aware that Nele Island will become a seriously dangerous environmental hazard from his plan, but still goes through with it because he considers the conditions Worth It in making the Island a Hellhole Prison that will slowly kill all the Yakuza condemned as slave labour there.
The Usurper: He got Takabe arrested so that he could take his place as "Acting Chairman".
Status-Buff Dispel: In his fight, his "Guilty Conscience" is a taunt that not only enrages party members but also removes their buffs.
Strong and Skilled: Of the three men that could claim to be Masumi Arakawa's son, he's definitely the most combat-capable of them, serving as the final opponent for Kiryu and a steep challenge even when fighting him and outnumbered 5-to-1. That said, compared to the genuine monsters Kiryu's fought in the past, he's not as powerful as them, but a combination of his younger age and Kiryu being terminally ill with cancer means he's still got an advantage throughout the fight. Mechanically, aside from having the stats you'd expect from a Final Boss he has various wide-hitting AoE attacks as well as being able to inflict status ailments such as sleep and bleed to keep the party on their toes.
Tattooed Crook: His tattoo depicts a Mugen Gokusotsu, a type of Oni which tortures the souls of the damned in Hell for eternity, symbolizing the sort of fate Ebina has in mind for the Yakuza^note. Furthermore, the fact he's tattooed at all symbolizes that for all his hatred of the Yakuza, he's become just like them in pursuing revenge.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: On his end, he knows that Bryce's scheme for world domination is incredibly short-sighted and has more drawbacks than benefits, seeing the cult leader as nothing more than a power-hungry fool. He only went along with it because it provided him with a perfect death trap to send the yakuza to.
Tragic Villain: He's a man whose life was ruined by the yakuza as child who wound up falling in with the yakuza himself as an adult, and he absolutely loathes himself for it. He knows his quest for revenge against the yakuza is completely self-destructive, but he just can't let go of his hatred over the hand they indirectly played in his mother's death.
Vengeance Denied: The events of Like A Dragon technically gave him everything he wanted: his hated father Masumi Arakawa dead and the major Yakuza clans disbanded. However, because neither of these were events Ebina had a hand in, his grudge was still unsatisfied, and the idea that the Yakuza had a chance for re-integrating into society after their criminal lifestyle pissed him off so much that he turned himself into a Yakuza boss in order to provide a figure that could gather all the remnants of the Dissolution under one banner, all with the intention of giving them nothing less than death for their past choices.
Vengeance Feels Empty: It's all but stated that one of the driving forces behind his antagonism towards the Yakuza's attempts at reforming themselves into a legitimate lifestyle is that it deprives him of a target to vent his hatred on, leaving him unsatisfied and with nothing else in his life. His mother's last words showed that she feared this outcome for him, but Ebina didn't listen to her.
Villain Has a Point:
- Nanba calls him a bastard for torturing Sawashiro then putting him up on display for Kiryu’s party, but he’s completely right that Sawshiro has done the same thing to others over the years and is no innocent victim. His actions in the first game alone include trying to kill Ichiban and his party or sending psychotic goons to do it in his stead.
- A big part of his grudge against the Yakuza stems from the fact that many of them spent years victimizing innocent people only to now want a chance at a normal life when the Dissolution happened rather than because they chose to. While the game frames him as being consumed by pointless vengeance, it can’t be denied that the protagonists face numerous Yakuza throughout the games who attempt to victimize civilians and only stop after having their asses kicked. As such, he’s not completely wrong to think that they should be punished.

Masafumi Narasaki

Voiced by: Takeshi Hirabayashi (Japanese), Feodor Chin (English)^{Other Languages} Ziqi Gan (Chinese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_1_068.png

A Seiryu Clan Lieutenant that rules through fear, to him, his subordinates will only ever be tools to use and cast aside.

Alas, Poor Villain: Very downplayed. His reaction isn't seen, but he's shown to be nothing but supportive and loyal towards Ebina despite his overall jerkiness towards others, and the latter finishes him off by stabbing him In the Back after tricking him into a one-on-one talk. There is some element of pity that his one apparently good quality was used to kill him by the boss he so trusted.
Allegorical Character: He more or less embodies the Yakuza as a whole, or at least Ebina's perception of them, a violence-happy, disrespectful, antagonistic criminal who shows no remorse or regret for his past misdeed, thinks nothing of committing more of them to satisfy his own ego, cares nothing for collateral damage, and joins in the Great Dissolution merely because it offers an easy choice for a better living than doing the hard work of trying to re-integrate into society despite the Anti-Yakuza laws. His bloody death represents exactly what Ebina feels all such criminals deserve, with the issue being that he sees all those who lived the Yakuza life as being equally deserving of such a fate, himself included. The fire he uses to burn Narasaki's corpse even intentionally spreads to the iconic Tojo Clan HQ, showing Ebina's intentions to wipe out the Yakuza without a trace of what they used to be.
Asshole Victim: When the other Yakuza leaders of the reformed "Bleach Japan" are heading out to travel to Nele Island for what they think is the beginning of their new lifestyle (actually a massive death trap handling radioactive waste as slave labour), Ebina asks for Narasaki to stay behind and then personally stabs him to death, rather than letting him die with the rest. It's implied that he was such a massive Jerkass who so perfectly encapsulated the stereotypical Yakuza that Ebina loathed that he wanted the satisfaction of personally murdering him with his own hands.
BFS: Whips out a long odachi during his fight against Kiryu.
Flat Character: There's not much to him besides being a lieutenant of the Seiryu Clan.
Gatling Good: Whips out a big Gatling Gun and tries to shoot Kiryu with it from higher above, wounding multiple Seiryu Clan members in the process.
Hate Sink: His role is to be a smug, annoying jerk with no redeeming qualities for the player to hate. Kiryu puts him in his place every time they meet and the player will likely feel relieved when Ebina kills him.
Remember the New Guy?: He's a veteran Seiryu Clan Lieutentant, but he never appears in the previous game.
Shadow Archetype: To Ichiban himself. His subordinate relationship to Ebina mirrors Ichiban’s with Masato. And like that relationship, it’s completely one-sided.
Small Name, Big Ego: Thinks he’s good enough to mess with Kiryu despite just being a no-name lieutenant. Kiryu makes it clear he sees him as nothing more than a particularly annoying grunt every time he tries to instigate something.
Undying Loyalty: To Ebina to the point that insulting him earns his wrath.

Honolulu Residents

The Barracudas

The Barracudas are a major force of the Hawaiian criminal underworld. Atypical of many criminal organizations, members of the Barracudas are linked not by any racial or ethnic grouping, but through their shared status as formerly homeless individuals.

In General

The Cartel: Played With. They are ethnically diverse rather than exclusively Latino, but they are led by a Mexican man, and their fashion, tattoos, and brutality all invoke this trope.
The Dreaded: The people of Honolulu are terrified of them, so much so that the streets clear when they come out around 10 PM every night. Considering what they do to those who get in their way, it's hard to blame anyone for steering clear.
Driven by Envy: They run a massive counterfeiting ring, to the point of absurd mockery via running an exact copy of a famous mall underground and having the people responsible for stocking those stores, and many more around the world, bid on their knock-offs, that are made with some official materials gotten through unknown means, at a discount. They make a profit using the homeless that live in their district as cheap labor, but the actual purpose of their overly complicated and costly scheme seems partly driven by envy. The Barracudas are mostly former homeless, so getting a cut into a market targeted primarily at the rich, with such a mocking display of excess, suggest it's a way to assert themselves to the targets of their envy and hate. Dwight's speech about counterfeiting seems to also suggest this as a motivation, even pointing out the fake nature of the "paradise" of Honolulu, pointing out there's little difference in that and his own fakes.
Establishing Character Moment: Ichiban and Kiryu get a good idea of what the Barracudas are like watching a legion of them walk down the streets like they own the city, and then inflicting a Cruel and Unusual Death upon a homeless guy who tried to pickpocket one of them.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Tomizawa explains upon their introduction that most of the Barracudas members were former homeless people. Now that they've been gathered into a powerful mafia group, their collective anger gets taken out on the city that tossed them aside.
Leitmotif: Certain story encounters against them are scored by "BARRACUDA", a brash and bold EDM track that perfectly exemplifies how different Hawaii's underworld is from the yakuza, as one of the first times it's heard is shortly after they gut Roman in their counterfeit factory.^note
Meaningful Name: Like their namesake fish, they're aggressive and ferocious killers. They tend to carry machetes, which they use to gut their enemies, something Dwight comments on before his first boss fight. And, despite their brutality, they're not the biggest fish in the ocean, so to speak; they're being controlled by Palekana, and it's Bryce Fairchild who holds all the real power in Hawaii's underworld, not Dwight. Finally, barracudas often fall prey to sharks— which is the fate that befalls Dwight and at least one of his unlucky henchmen in his third and final boss fight.

Dwight Méndez

Voiced by: Danny Trejo (English), Shuhei Matsuda (Japanese, Japanese speaking voice), Maxwell Powers (Japanese, English speaking voice) ^{Other Languages} Shengzhang Dong (Chinese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stand_dwight.png

The Kingpin of the Barracudas and overseer of the world's largest counterfeit goods market.

Actor Allusion: Dwight's combat stance is an almost exact replica of the stance used by Danny Trejo in Machete. Bonus points for wielding the exact same weapons, too.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After his defeat in Chapter 4, he's quite cooperative when Tomizawa has him at his mercy, flat-out promising to wipe his record clean and even bribe him with $10 million. Too bad for Dwight it earns him a slash across the forehead and some soiled trousers.
Arch-Enemy: He's the one responsible for framing Tomizawa for a robbery that ruined his life.
Bad Boss: Doesn’t react to one of his men being eaten by a shark and even knocks one off the speedboat he comandeers to escape when he could’ve just told the guy to start driving. Tomizawa lampshades the latter.
Blatant Lies: Claims that he was paid by an unknown client to search for Akane for reasons he doesn’t know. He’s lying through his teeth. He knows exactly who his client was, why he wanted her, and he says nothing about Lani being the true reason they’re searching for Akane.
Bring My Brown Pants: He pisses himself when Tomizawa comes narrowly close to gutting him like a fish.
Combat Pragmatist: Having trouble in a fight? Why not just grab your minion's grenade launcher and fix that? Needless to say, the leader of one of the most feared mafia groups in Hawaii does not fight fair.
Cruel and Unusual Death: And a karmic one, at that. Having lived his life hurting others for profit, leading a gang infamous for their brutality, the Barracudas' Kingpin goes out Eaten Alive by a shark lured by his flashy jewelry as he attempts to flee Hawaii.
Cultured Badass: He often likes to talk a lot about the history of Hawaii, such as how it was forcibly transformed by Americans into a resort island, usually just to make a point about how as a counterfeiter there's still value in the fakes he peddles.
Dirty Coward: The guy cannot remotely withstand the brutality he dishes out, immediately being reduced to begging Tomizawa for mercy after his defeat in Chapter 4 and outright pissing himself when Tomizawa nearly guts him. It was possibly just an act, at least partially, given that he doesn’t show nearly this much panic in subsequent boss fights and he successfully used his begging to lie about his involvement in Akane’s search.
The Dragon: While he's a bigshot crime lord in his own right, he and his gang serve as Bryce's main enforcers.
Flunky Boss: He's fought alongside his fellow Barracuda members in all of his boss fights.
A Glass of Chianti: Just look at his render. He'll even have some wine in a glass when you meet him early in the game.
Hate Sink: There’s nothing remotely positive about Dwight. He’s a Dirty Coward, a Bad Boss, and a shameless criminal who framed Tomizawa and countless other innocents for the crimes his gang committed. His gang is also the nastiest of the three fought in the story, surpassed only by Bryce's own crimes through the Palekana religion, engaging in Disproportionate Retribution and Cold-Blooded Torture at the drop of a hat.
Horrifying the Horror: He’s well-known as being the most terrifying criminal in all of Honolulu, but even he’s terrified of Bryce, who he describes as more monster than man.
Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his English voice actor, Danny Trejo.
Just Desserts: He meets his end by being devoured by a shark, likely the same one that ate one of his own men and shrugged off.
Large and in Charge: In contrast to his face model, he's a massive wall of muscle.
Laser-Guided Karma: After his final boss fight, he attempts to escape on a jetski only to be eaten by a shark thanks to the bright lights from the ski (as well as the jewelry he wears). As Yamai puts it, Hawaii itself has decided to punish him for his flashy and ostentatious manner.
Leitmotif: "Twin Machetes". The name being on the nose aside, this is a vicious and oppressive electronic track backed by a Spanish guitar that compliments his faction's savagery and his Hispanic background.
Machete Mayhem: Fights mainly with a pair of somewhat ornate machetes like his Ink-Suit Actor's most famous role.
Nerves of Steel: Oddly, despite being a Dirty Coward, he’s not at all phased when a giant shark eats one of his men, even taunting Ichiban’s crew that he’ll feed them to it. Even when he’s nearly killed by it during the QTE segment, he just gets madder at Ichiban rather than panic at the near death experience.
Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Downplayed with Tomizawa planning to get rid of the humiliating photo he previously took and threatened Dwight with, now that there's no further business left with him. He does call Dwight a piss stain afterwards, however.
Recurring Boss: He's fought three times in the story.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: After being defeated for the last time, he attempts to run off on a speedboat knowing Bryce will come after him for failing too many times already. Moments later, the the jet ski's lights alongside his jewelry end up attracting a shark.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon being defeated for the final time, having failed Bryce far too many times he decides to flee the country and hops on a jetski, taunting them about escaping to Switzerland. Unfortunately the sharks had other plans.
Starter Villain: The first major evil the party has to face down in the game (since Yamai's group is so small). He also sticks around into the final hours of the game.
Tattooed Crook: A play on the series' staple, Dwight has western-style tattoos on his arms, fingers, and forehead.
Throw Down the Bomblet: Dwight takes a rotary grenade launcher from a Barracuda during the second phase of his second fight; it becomes part of his movelist afterwards, with him starting out using it in his final fight.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Tomizawa nearly kills him in chapter 4 very early into the story, but spares him hoping that the blackmail picture he took would be enough to make him back off. It doesn’t. He hounds the party for the rest of the story, and when Tomizawa brings up said photo in their final confrontation, he brushes it off. Tomizawa says he should’ve just shoved the machete through his heart when he had the chance.

Roman Reynolds

Voiced by: Ben Diskin (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_1_1434.png

A police officer who Ichiban and Tomizawa confront and get in trouble with in Hawaii. He also has connections to the local mafia and gangs. He can be fought in the game's demo.

Alliterative Name: Roman Reynolds.
Asshole Victim: He's a corrupt cop and a smug, hateful asshole of the highest order who was responsible for framing both Ichiban and Tomizawa. None of the Heroes of Tomorrow mourn him after he gets gutted in the District Five underground for showing them the Barracudas' counterfeit operation.
Dirty Cop: He has close ties to the local gangs and assaults the party over not being able to pay his "fees" for getting into District Five.
The Dreaded: The local gangsters use his name to intimidate others, saying that messing with Roman leads to bad consequences for all involved.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He mentions having a son he's genuinely proud of. It seems sincere and it may the one thing he says that isn't drenched in smug condescension.
- Granted, he brought up his son to swerve into asking for a $50,000 bribe via his son wanting a sports car, so he might just be playing along with Ichiban's question if he was a family man to get back to the topic at hand.
Frame-Up: He specializes in this, using his position to help the Barracudas frame innocent people for their crimes by manufacturing false evidence and providing fake witnesses. Both Ichiban and Eric are victims of this.
Gory Discretion Shot: He gets gutted by a machete from stomach to neck, but we thankfully don't get to see the whole deed; just a blood geyser, his death rictus, the party's shocked expressions, and his killer's blood-spattered face.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: While he complains the entire time, he does actually go above and beyond what you might expect from a Dirty Cop who only helps because he’s being forced to. This gets him killed when he takes the group into the heart of the Barracuda’s operations.
Obviously Evil: He has sickly pale skin and sunken features that make him stand out compared to the other characters in the game.
Police Are Useless: As he's guiding the Heroes of Tomorrow through District Five, he refuses to get involved in any fights the heroes get in with the locals, stating that he only serves the American public, not tourists...despite the fact that Tomizawa is an American citizen.
Smug Snake: He arrogantly flaunts his power as a Dirty Cop, brags about his corrupt abuse of his position as a police officer, struts around like he owns the entire city and demands a $50,000 bribe from Ichiban for the information he's looking for. He only relents and helps the Heroes of Tomorrow after a beatdown for his trouble.
Starter Villain: He's the first notable antagonist that Ichiban and Kiryu have to contend with, and he's mostly a bottom-rung goon for the Barracudas.
Unknown Rival: He framed Tomizawa for a crime and ruined his life. At no point does he ever seem to recognize or care who Tomizawa is.

The Ganzhe

The Ganzhe are a notorious Chinese mafia organization operating out of Hawaii, holding power similar to that of the Barracudas. They've created a global network for themselves by laundering money for the elite.

In General

Illegal Gambling Den: They mostly focus on running underground casinos, since gambling is illegal in Hawaii.
Leitmotif: "Camouflage," a techno and electronic track with a good bit of speed to it. Considering their scheme of hiding illegal casinos in plain sight, the track's name fits.
Meaningful Name: The characters used for their name, 澗礁, roughly mean "brook" or "stream" for the first character, and "reef" for the second. It could refer to them being a sort of middleman criminal group, an entrenched obstacle the rich have to pass through while moving their money through Hawaii. If cash flows in a "stream," then some of that gets caught in the "reef." They even have their own "reefs" set up via their illegal casinos, stationary areas that money ends up getting stuck in, so to say, as gamblers pass by them.
Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: Chinese mobsters first introduced giving a hard time to a local man who's debt they now own, planning to break down his shop and make him work for them. They're even willing to pull a gun on the guy and Palekana protestors when things go south.
We Hardly Knew Ye: They're introduced at the end of chapter five, and by chapter six the entire organization is eating itself alive with the activation of all the Palekana sleeper agents.

Wong Tou

Voiced by: Takuya Masumoto (Japanese), Rich Ting (English)^{Other Languages}Yuze Sang (Chinese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wong_1.png

The Commander of the Ganzhe, Honolulu City's local Chinese mafia, and owner of the Nirvana Hotel.

Affluent Ascetic: For all the luxury and wealth he has as the owner of the Nirvana Hotel and leader of the Chinese mafia, his office is bare necessities and he dress in a formal but not flashy manner. He says it's because his wealth makes him unable to enjoy a good for its value he just needs its utility, since he can buy anything he wants anyway. Ichiban feels like Wong is just getting high on a sense of superiority he gets from being less materialistic than expected from someone his station to be.
Alas, Poor Villain: Wong may have been a ring leader and part of the reason why Hawaii’s situation is bad, but unlike Bryce or Dwight, he at least displayed some sympathetic qualities. He’s a divorced father trying to raise his son the best he could and wished to avenge his murdered mother in addition to rescuing his kidnapped son. Sadly, he gets killed before either could happen. And while him turning to the good guys is questionable at best, he expresses gratitude for those who helped him survive up to that point and planned to repay the party; indicating the possibility was still there. It was enough for Chitose to remember his son is on Nele Island and rescue him in Wong’s stead once the business with Bryce was done.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Pleads for the party not to leave him to Yamai when they consider just ditching him to escape. Thankfully for him, Ichiban refuses to abandon him.
Bullying a Dragon: When the Ganzhe were starting out in Hawaii with plans to expand to the mainland United States, Wong got a visitor telling him to stop what he's planning and fall in line with the Overseer. Wong, thinking it was just an empty threat, dismissed him and thought nothing of it. One week later, he received his mother's severed head in a box, and realized worse would be in store for him if he didn't comply, and ever since has been begrudgingly working under Bryce.
Climax Boss: The last of the three leader of the warring crime factions of Hawaii to be introduced, seemingly the most professional and successful of them, with his secret high-roller casino business, and proficient enough in a fight that it requires both Kiryu and Ichiban working in tandem to beat him, with a noticeable Puzzle Boss mechanic that emphasises his superiority one-on-one. Following his defeat comes the revelations the secret true ruler of Hawaii's underworld that has both the Ganzhe and the Barracudas under his thumb, and Wong Tou swiftly comes under fire from his own gang thanks to Bryce's sleeper agents.
Co-Dragons: Of an unwilling sort with Dwight Mendez. Whilst they run different gangs that have minor disagreements with each other and never interact together on-screen, in practice, as part of Bryce's absolute control over Hawaii's underworld, they're both subservient to him, and their gangs are technically collaborating to find Akane under his orders. Wong is not happy about this, and is aiming to get payback against Bryce for his mother's death, but the infiltration of his sleeper agents inside the Ganzhe means it was a doomed effort event without the heroes accidentally making him a target. Wong's swift fall from grace informs Dwight's own dogged "loyalty" to Bryce, as he knows how easily he too can become marked for death by the Overseer.
Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: An interesting variant. He is modelled after Daniel Dae Kim. However, Kim himself doesn't provide his English dub performance for Wong Tou. Instead, he voices Masataka Ebina.
Decoy Antagonist: Despite being built up as one of the most powerful gang bosses in the story, he lasts all of one boss fight before he’s summarily marked for execution by Bryce and forced to ally with the heroes to save his son.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He deeply loved his mother and was shocked when Bryce assassinated her just to prove a point.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He dearly loved his mother (who was murdered and her face shipped to him as a display of power from Palekana) and desperately wants to keep his son safe, even teaming up with the Heroes of Tomorrow. He unfortunately dies long before his son is rescued from Nele Island.
Forced into Evil: Downplayed some in that the Gangzhe are no saints, but Wong Tou had no interest in following Bryce's orders — until Bryce got his message across via Wong's mother's head in a box.
Leitmotif: "Giftiger Fullhalter" (roughly translating to "Poisonous Fountain Pen" in German), a fast-paced EDM track with an erhu (also known as a Southern Fiddle or Chinese violin) playing throughout that compliments his quick reflexes and his Chinese heritage.
Heel–Face Turn: To his credit, once he realizes that his son's in danger from Palekana and Kasuga and the gang are willing to put grudges aside to help save him, he quickly allies with the party, eventually joining with their efforts to save Akane and Lani for real. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't live to see his son safely brought back.
I Owe You My Life: He is entirely aware that Ichiban, Kiryu, Chitose, and Tomizawa stuck their necks out for him, and he's sincerely grateful. He even promises that once the matters with Palekana are settled, he'll see to it that Kiryu gets the best doctor Wong can find for his rapidly worsening cancer. Unfortunately, he doesn't live long enough to follow through, but the intent was earnest.
Meaningful Name: The Chinese characters that make up his name, at first, seem to mean "East Asian" and "to expand," which matches up with his desire to expand his criminal empire. However, the character for "East Asian" can also carry the meaning of "to let a secret be know" in Cantonese, which pronounces the character in the same way as the characters in-universe do. This could refer to him being the one who reveals the true nature of Bryce and Palekana.
Noble Demon: He might be the head of a violent mob, but he's actually a pretty decent guy with a moral code - he sincerely loves his son and thinks extremely highly of the Heroes of Tomorrow after they refuse to abandon him to Yamai and Palekana, outright stating that he can't even begin to repay them for what they've done.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: You don't become leader of a gang like the Gangzhe without being able to hold your own really well against both Kiryu and Ichiban, as shown in his Dynamic Intro.
The Pen Is Mightier: He uses a poisonous pen knife in his battle.
Puzzle Boss: His boss fight is meant to teach you the importance of positioning. He automatically dodges any frontal attacks, meaning that you need to flank him in order to properly do damage.
Redemption Equals Death: He joins up with the heroes and the Daidouji Faction to save his son, and becomes a willing accomplice to their efforts - unfortunately, nobody saw Eiji coming until it was too late.
The Worf Effect: More from a leadership standpoint than a combat one. Wong Tou is commander of one of the largest criminal organisations in Hawaii, capable of easily seeing through Ichiban and Kiryu's attempted infiltration of the Nirvana's secret casino and leveraging the situation to force Ichiban to surrender himself as bait to secure Aakane, and skilled enough in a fight that it requires both Kiryu and Ichiban fighting in tandem to defeat him. However, Bryce's long-standing grip over Hawaii's underworld and sleeper agents prove to be far more widespread that Wong Tou was expecting, with one of his men revealing himself as such the minute Wong is forced to disclose the existence of "the Overseer", throwing himself to his death out the window as a signal for the rest of the agents to move in and kidnap Wong's son as leverage against him. In a heartbeat, Wong goes from the leader of a criminal gang to a fugitive of it, and only survives through Ichiban's group defending him from his own men.
You Killed My Father: He always intended to betray Bryce to take revenge for his mother's murder at his hands.

The Yamai Syndicate

The Yamai Syndicate is an up-and-coming Yakuza organization based in the Night Square portion of Honolulu City. Made up of mostly Japanese-Americans, they are constantly competing with the Barracudas and the Ganzhe in order to expand their territory.

In General

A Lighter Shade of Black: The least evil of the major criminal groups of Hawaii. While they do cause a lot of chaos, including a lot of property damage (like burning down a trove of trees), they're only seen busy with petty crime. Yamai even tries to negotiate with Ichiban when he first meets him, even with obvious threats mixed in. This is a far cry from the Barracudas and their grusome acts of violence, and the Ganzhe's extra rough way of treating their debtors. They even end up helping Ichiban and friends.
Always a Bigger Fish: Despite Yamai's gang being the third largest in Hawaii, it is leagues behind the Barracudas and Ganzhe in terms of resources and manpower. It says a lot that Ichiban starts off their rivalry by taking him down as a not-especially-difficult early-game boss with only Eiji to help out as a Support Party Member. They're so small that Bryce doesn't even bother trying to force them to work for Palekana.
Leitmotif: For the syndicate, they get the hard-hitting rock/electronic track "Slugfest," their boss getting the more fleshed out version fo it called "Kooky." Good way to show how central Yamai is to his group's identity.
Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: Yamai's syndicate gives people a place to go and by the accounts of most of his subordinates they're happy living under his leadership, not to mention his territory is one of the very few places in Honolulu safe from Bryce Fairchild's eyes as the Barracuda-Palekana alliance doesn't control it.
Yakuza: Notable this time around due to them being stationed in Hawaii of all places. Even Ichiban is surprised to see them there.

Yutaka Yamai

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Andrew Kishino (English)^{Other Languages} Su Zhihao (Chinese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yamai_5.png

The Patriarch of the Yamai Syndicate, a Yakuza organization based in Hawaii.

Alliterative Name: Yutaka Yamai.
Back-to-Back Badasses: He pulls this with Ichiban during their Enemy Mine shortly prior to Yamai allying with him for real.
Bad Boss: He knocks the wind out of Tomizawa with his crowbar and, during his first boss fight, flings the unconscious body of one of his goons at Eiji. Downplayed, in that when he's not upset with them he's perfectly civil and looks out for them. It's notable he's never asked one of them to cut off a pinkie.
Broken Ace: Can kick some serious ass when bothered to and commands an entire sector; however, he hides his anger and broken heart for his former Matriarch. By the end of it, he gets tired of running and turns himself in.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When Ichiban tells him to leave Tomizawa alone when they meet alongside Kiryu, he openly asks who that is, despite having forced him to work together before. By his own admission, he has a tendency to forget things that do not interest him, meaning Tomizawa fell off his radar entirely out of boredom.
Coat Cape: He wears his overcoat this way, presumably as a compromise between his oversensitivity to cold and his need to quickly shed layers so he has free movement in a fight.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- As invoked by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's executive producer, Masayoshi Yokoyama, Yamai is basically Ichiban's Goro Majima. Like Majima to Kiryu, he is a very persistent Recurring Boss ready to throw down with Ichiban whenever they cross paths. They also both happen to be introduced as being seemingly psychotic before it's revealed that they actually operate on their own code of ethics. Where they differ is their temperaments. Majima carries himself like a hyperactive Large Ham that belies a more serious and perceptive man, while Yamai is a near-perpetual Cold Ham (pun not intended) who exudes understated menace and is always objective-driven but has a more compassionate side he isn't willing to admit to having. Most significantly, Majima is the one who constantly seeks Kiryu out for a fight. Yamai keeps fighting Ichiban because Ichiban won't stop sticking his head in his family's business. Similarly, like Ichiban, he never fights alone though rather than a small group of comrades he's instead backed by a sizable group of his thugs, in contrast to Majima whose boss battles are pure one-on-one affairs (ironically excluding his battles in Ichiban's Saga).
- To fellow Recurring Boss Daisaku Kuze, being just as much of a Blood Knight Noble Demon, but while Kuze hunts Kiryu out of spite over being beaten by someone Kuze thought didn't take yakuza life seriously, Yamai just keeps getting into fights with Ichiban because Ichiban pokes his head into his syndicate's business, and never takes it too personally, quickly developing a sense of healthy respect for Ichiban and Kiryu both after his first defeat. In addition, while Kuze fights with his shirt off, Yamai always has his thick suit on, only removing his Coat Cape.
Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Adding to his unnerving appearance, his eyes have permanent dark bags underneath them.
Crowbar Combatant: Carries a crowbar both as a weapon and for the utility. He's shown to be very talented with it in his dynamic intros and boss fights, fighting as if he's made his own martial art based on it. His final fight against Ichiban and the Heroes of Tomorrow has him setting the hook of his crowbar on fire with a molotov cocktail.
Dark Is Not Evil: Of the three major Hawaiian syndicate bosses the Heroes of Tomorrow lock horns with, he's both the most creepy looking and the most ethical.
Defeat Means Friendship: Defied. He explicitly tells Ichiban that they'll never be friends, but he also respects him and what Kiryu sees in him, and is more than willing to play ball and help Ichi and his group out.
Enemy Mine: He briefly teams up with Ichiban's party against the Barracudas and Ganzhe when both groups try to muscle in on Yamai's territory.
Everyone Has Standards: He may be a yakuza and can be a Bad Boss when his subordinates upset him but there are lines he won't cross. He was only pursuing Akane and Lani in order to gain leverage over the Barracuda-Palekana alliance and never meant any harm towards them, and he explicitly states he won't hurt women or children generally. Once he realizes the scale of the conspiracy he allies with Ichiban and the Heroes of Tomorrow in order to keep much worse criminals like the Barracudas and Palekanas out of Honolulu. He freely offers Akane and Lani shelter in his territory and even arranges a flight for them to Japan to both keep them safe and prevent Bryce Fairchild from securing control over Hawaii. On a more general level he also never forces his men to tattoo themselves or commit yubitsume.
Evil Is Deathly Cold: He feels perpetually chilled, even in his coat in the tropical Hawaiian climate. Somewhat downplayed when he turns out to be far less villainous than your initial encounters with him suggest. It's implied to be a psychosomatic response to his former crush betraying him; after he finds her hospitalized and suffering from late stage Alzheimer's, he gives her his coat and comments how it was too warm.
Yamai: Brr... It's like a meat locker in here.
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: He's on the giving end when he whacks Ichiban in the side with his crowbar during the party's Darkest Hour after Eiji's betrayal and the loss of Lani.
Flunky Boss: He's always accompanied by his men during his boss fights.
Frame-Up: It turns out that while he did kill his own patriarch, he did it for the matriarch who he had feelings for. However, the matriarch betrayed him by falsely accusing him of trying to sexually assault her, forcing him to flee Japan.
Good All Along: He will never admit it, but Yamai's frightening demeanor, Blood Knight and Bad Boss tendencies, and dour attitude hide the fact that he ultimately looks out for those under his protection, brings an unconcious and cancer-stricken Kiryu into his base to recover after the siege of the Nirvana Hotel, and is willing to help the Heroes of Tomorrow fight back against the Barracuda-Palekana alliance if it means keeping truly dangerous criminals out of Honolulu. He even successfully brokers a deal with Date to bring Akane and Lani to Japan in exchange for turning himself in for killing his patriarch in order to keep them safe and destroy any leverage that Bryce has over them.
Good Is Not Nice: He turns out to be Good All Along and actually looks out for those under his family's protection. However, he's also generally intimidating, unapproachable, and has a tendency to rough up his own men when they fail to do their job.
Graceful Loser: All beating him does is slot Ichiban into the "possibly a Worthy Opponent" category for him; part of the reason he gets more difficult across his boss fights is that he realizes Ichiban actually poses a challenge and uses more of his actual skills.
Guest-Star Party Member: An uncontrollable one, true, but he does hop into the fray alongside Ichiban, Adachi, Tomizawa, and Chitose against Bryce's goons, and is actually a stupidly good ally to have alongside the party - if he gets his attack buffed by one of your party members, he can easily one-shot the grunts on his own.
Incendiary Exponent: Yamai begins his final fight by lighting the end of his crowbar on fire by way of a Molotov Cocktail.
Insistent Terminology: He is the boss of the Yamai Syndicate, not the patriarch of the Yamai Family, despite his gang basically being a yakuza family by any other name. It's eventually explained that Yamai made it a point to distance himself from some of the more old-fashioned yakuza trappings, and as such does not bother with things like formal oaths or Yubitsume.
Jerkass Façade: For as cold-blooded and terrifying as he comes across in his introduction to even those who work for him, it turns out it's mostly just a front, and he actually does care about those under his family.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Maybe "gold" is a bit generous, but Yamai isn't actually the sadistic sociopath he first appears as:
- He genuinely has a soft spot for kids and older women, and he promises Ichiban and Kiryu that no harm would ever come to Akane or Lani under his care. He also is the one to force Ichiban and Akane to have a much-needed mother-son talk.
- Yamai idolizes Kiryu and when the latter has a medical emergency while fighting the former, Yamai takes him to get medical attention and doesn't harm him at all.
- For all of his yakuza bluster, his syndicate displays some of the more positive aspects of yakuza life: giving people a place to go. That includes a doctor who now lives happily on Yamai's payroll. Yamai also never forces his men to tattoo themselves or commit yubitsume for him, as he knows how marked this would make them in some parts of society back in Japan.
Leitmotif: For his syndicate in particular, they get the hard-hitting rock/electronic track that is "Slugfest". As for Yamai himself, he gets "Kooky", a track that follows after the latter, but with more emphasis on traditional Japanese instruments to reflect his background.
A Lighter Shade of Black: While he's still a criminal and has no qualms about abusing Tomizawa, he turns out to have an ethical code and can be a surprisingly Benevolent Boss towards his men. He notably gives people who are outcasts a place to feel at home and never mandates tattoos or yubitsume for failure. He's especially benevolent compared to the Barracudas and the Ganzhe, especially with the reveal that they're puppets to serve Bryce Fairchild's cult.
Likes Older Women: The hostesses he surrounds himself with during Kiryu's rescue mission appear to be on the older side. As it turns out, this is to fill the void of Yui Tabata, his former matriarch whom he used to have a major crush on.
Limp and Livid: When he's getting serious, he starts hunching over and demonstrating shocking levels of agility.
Locked Out of the Loop: While he's looking for Akane like the Barracudas and the Ganzhe are, he has no idea that they're under orders from Bryce to specifically bring back Lani and is only doing it because he sees it as an opportunity for expanding his syndicate. Once Yamai learns who exactly Lani is, he reconsiders being a part of the manhunt.
Logical Weakness: Given that he constantly mentions being cold, it stands to reason that he's weak to ice attacks, which would certainly make him even colder.
Looks Like Cesare: Yamai's unkempt straight hair, sunken-eyed expression, and near-constant grimace gives him a definite vibe similar to this.
Meaningful Name: Yutaka Yamai's first name uses the characters for "abundance" or "plenty," and last name uses characters that combined can mean "mountain well." This matches his role in the Hawaiian underworld, as his syndicate promises great things for its members (with Yamai's persistance in going after the larger organizations), and giving respite to those with nowhere else to go, offering sustenance as a mountain well might, and helping people who need it dearly. It also hints at Yamai being a kinder person then he first appears.
Mirror Character: To long-time series staple Goro Majima, so much so that even Yokohama acknowledged Yamai as "Ichiban's Majima". While he is not as outwardly manic and crazy as Majima, he's just as uncontrollable, unstable, and primal as the Mad Dog himself in his hey day while also being an unpredictable Wild Card to our heroes. Both characters also share haunting backstories that caused them to turn into the seemingly ruthless patriarchs they are, a heroic counterpart that they fight frequently, and certain characteristics such as an affinity for weapons (knives and bats for Majima, crowbars for Yamai) and a respect for Kiryu.
- Also to Ichiban himself. They're both yakuza who were kicked from their families and formed new lives with their own circle of allies to rely on elsewhere. They both use blunt instruments as improvised weapons (baseball bats for Ichiban in his Hero job, and the crowbar for Yamai). They even find themselves going up against bigger organizations, like Yamai trying to take a bite out of the Barracudas' influence with his much smaller group not being too dissimilar to Ichiban facing the Omi. He's an Ichiban-like character who's more "like a demon" then "like a dragon."
Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: He plays this far more straight than your early meetings with him suggest. Yamai's syndicate gives people a place to go and by the accounts of most of his subordinates they're happy living under his leadership, not to mention his territory is one of the very few places in Honolulu safe from Bryce Fairchild's eyes as the Barracuda-Palekana alliance doesn't control it.
Noble Demon: While Yamai is a criminal, he's later shown to be the kind of yakuza who follows a code of honor.
Older Than They Look: While he doesn’t look particularly young, he also doesn’t look 50 years old.
Pet the Dog: Despite his Good Is Not Nice behavior, he does end up having his fair share of moments of kindness:
- When Ichiban and his team return to him with Akane and Lani, he agrees to have them all escorted to Hanawa in armored vehicles.
- After Lani ended up getting kidnapped by Bryce's men, Akane was put under Yamai's care and protection until Ichiban could get Lani back.
- After rescuing Lani again, the team is at a loss on how they can get Akane and Lani out of Hawaii. Cue Yamai coming into the room and suggesting that they hop aboard a boat of his in order to get the two off of Hawaii and to Japan via the Coast Guard, having already arranged things beforehand for the latter to come pick them up.
- As mentioned below in The Coats Are Off, Yamai gives his former matriarch his coat after she told him she was cold.
Primal Stance: Some of his charging moves have him take this stance, and [[spoiler:his last two fights against Ichiban has him constantly doing this to signify that he isn't holding back anymore.
Recurring Boss: Ties with Kuze as one of the most persistent in the series. He's fought five times in total.
Spanner in the Works: Kiryu showing up at Akane's house makes Yamai much more interested in the chase for her; this eventually leads to him allying with the Heroes of Tomorrow after he finds out about the reason Hawaii's underworld is chasing Akane and what Bryce has planned for Lani, later providing shelter for the two and ultimately allowing the pair to escape from Bryce's reach by arranging for safe travel to Japan at the cost of Yamai turning himself in to the police.
The Coats Are Off: Always removes his signature Coat Cape before engaging in a fight. He selflessly gives his coat up to his former matriarch when he sees her in the hospital one last time before turning himself in.
Underestimating Badassery: Several of the big crime syndicates look down on the Yamai Clan overall due to lack of numbers and smaller influence. Not only does the Yamai clan have the least amount of fatalities, Yamai himself walks away from the story without any serious injuries.
Vengeance Feels Empty: When he returns to Japan, he takes the opportunity to track down his former clan matriarch to the hospital fully intending to get revenge on her. However, after seeing that she has already succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease and doesn't even remember who he is anymore, Yamai gives up since there's no point in trying to exact vengeance on her anymore.
When He Smiles: Horribly subverted. Apart from the occasional smirk, Yamai does not smile. Ever. The one time it does happen, it's an unnervingly-pleased, beaming grin in front of the lit match he personally uses to set Nirvana Hotel's surrounding trees completely ablaze.
Wild Card: Early on, Yamai is very capricious in what he does - he still tries to hunt Akane, but he also is willing to ally with Ichiban if he feels his turf is being invaded... only to fight him immediately after that invasion is neutralized. He eventually does settle on being on Ichiban's side, but it takes a good half of the game for him to settle on a stance, and he causes chaos the whole time in the process of figuring it out.
Would Not Hit a Girl: Downplayed. He makes it clear that he never meant any harm to Akane, only pursuing her in an effort to gain leverage over Barracudas and the Ganzhe. He also reiterates that he doesn't hurt women generally. This doesn't stop him from attacking Chitose during fights, although this may just be a case of seeing her as an equal combatant that he's fighting on even ground, or possibly just a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation.
Would Not Hurt A Child: Something that makes him reconsider his stance on the issue of finding Akane is the fact that Palekana wants to kill the ten year old girl she's sheltering. Yamai may be a criminal, but there are lows he won't sink to.

Palekana

Palekana is a Hawaiian religious organization with a history of more than one hundred years. Their beliefs hold fire sacred, and are well known for their commitment to aiding the less fortunate.

In General (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Child Soldiers: Their primary manpower. Due to how long they've been operating as Bryce's cult, many of those children have grown into adults, and are all over Hawaii.
Corrupt Church: Due to Bryce, a proper native Hawaii religion has become a tool for a gangster's evil schemes.
Cult: Due to Bryce taking over the religion in the 50s, Palekana has become effectively a cult that brainwashes many of its members for Bryce's benefit. We even see familiar functions of a cult, like low-ranking members finding themselves returning to the cult even when they realize the truth, because they have nothing elsse outside it and feel a need to return to what is normal for them.
God of Fire: They worship a volcano god named Nele and treat fire as sacred.
Hidden Agenda Villain: On the surface, Palekana is a charitable religion. In reality, it's an organization corrupted and run by a criminal with a god complex.
Leitmotif: Their battle theme is "Palekanian Dance," which uses elements of native and trbial music to match their status as an ancient religion.
Manchurian Agent: Their main strategy is to use their Child Soldiers as sleeper agents in the police, gangs, and wherever else once they grow up. As a result, they have eyes and influence everywhere, and agents will be activated when needed, even throw away their own lives if so ordered.
They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: They're effectively the head of the criminal underworld of Hawaii, but you wouldn't know it just from looking at their rank and file charity workers - or the people you interact with you have *no idea* are apart of Palekana.

Bryce Fairchild (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Voiced by: Tōru Furuya (Japanese), Chris Parson (English)^{Other Languages} Lengquan Yeyue (Chinese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bryce_0.png

The current Sage of Palekana, a religious group in Hawaii.

A God Am I: He boasts that, as someone who still has the fanatical love of cult members he's brainwashed and a broker for powerful people, he's as close to a real divine figure as actually exists.
Ambition Is Evil: He usurped control of Palekana not just to exploit it for profit but because he wanted control of Nele Island due to the potential possibilities of owning a private island to use as a personal compound, with his ultimate ambition being to use it's status as an international dumping ground for nuclear waste as blackmail material against world leaders.
Bad Boss: He's feared by his minions since they know he treats them all as expendable. The opening cutscene of the game has him personally disposing of the assassin he hired to kill the previous Palekana Sage while in his boss fight he guns down one of his men just to take his gun. In his boss fight, not only does he toss grenades that can take out his own men, his soldiers will attempt to suicide bomb the party.
Boss Subtitles: Despite commanding complete loyalty from his Haku, Bryce doesn't have a title attached to him in his boss fight; clearly demonstrating that he is loyal to no one but himself and his greed, on top of further enforcing his illegitimacy.
Better to Die than Be Killed: Attempted; Upon being defeated and Chitose using the Tatara Channel to expose him, Bryce decides to throw himself into the irradiated waters of Nele Island. However Ichiban ends up saving him at the last moment so he doesn't get to go out on his own terms and is forced to face the music.
Big Bad Duumvirate: He and Ebina are working together in order to turn Nele Island into a dumping ground for nuclear waste for the world so that he can gain leverage over world leaders.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Seemingly the genial and wise leader of Palekana, in reality he had the last Sage assassinated so that he could perform a illegitimate takeover, indoctrinates orphans into a Child Soldier army and fanatically loyal sleeper agents (who he doesn't give two shits about, even shooting one of his own men dead during his boss fight), and is willing to turn Nele Island into a future ecological disaster just waiting to happen out of sheer greed.
Climax Boss: The final boss of the Hawaii story, but not of the game as a whole; that status goes to Ebina.
Clipped-Wing Angel: Upon having his health reduced to the final 10% Ichiban will kick the guns out of his hands, upon which Bryce will be reduced to using a sword which he swings rather pathetically. He's much less dangerous in this state, being scarcely better in a physical confrontation than Masato Arakawa.
Cool Old Guy: He cultivates this image as part of his leadership of Palekana, being a wise and thoughtful elderly man whose religious organization is committed to serving the needy and who has a soft spot for children in particular. It's all a lie — he illegitimately assumed the position of Sage after having the previous one assassinated and turns out to be a greedy, sadistic sociopath with zero regard for any of the cult members he indoctrinated into fanatically loyal sleeper agents.
Deceptive Disciple: Originally, Palekana was a genuinely benign small religion, but Bryce assassinated the former Sage due to said generosity, wanting to turn it into his personal army and money till.
The Don: He is essentially this to the Hawaiian underworld as the two out of the three major criminal organizations in Hawaii, the Barracudas and the Ganzhe, answer to him. And through having indoctrinated children infiltrate every echelon of Hawaii, he's effectively the secret ruler of Honolulu. He even states that prior to joining Palekana he was a mobster and was easily able to integrate himself due to his experience in hierarchal societies.
The Dreaded: As the "Overseer" of the Hawaiian criminal underworld, he's widely feared by his minions due to the fact that since he has sleeper agents in all echelons of Hawaiian society he knows all and sees all.
Early-Bird Cameo: A younger Bryce shows up (and is briefly discussed) during the opening assassination of the previous Sage, where he then proceeds to kill the assassin and take the necklace that denotes legitimate succession himself. This is long before Palekana is even properly brought up.
Evil Counterpart: To Ichiban, appropriately enough. Like Ichiban, Bryce has enough charisma to command his own personal army of child soldiers and runs a religion that is as benign and charitable as can be. ...But whereas Ichiban personally leads his company from the frontlines, fights alongside, and sees the best in them (especially Tomizawa and Chitose, who both made a terrible first impression on him, to put it lightly), Bryce is a coward who lets his foot soldiers do most of the fighting and doesn't give two shits about them. And while Ichi wears his heart on his sleeve with his sincere kindness, Bryce only ever uses Palekana for his own ends and doesn't care about their beliefs at all.
Evil Old Folks:
- Given that he joined Palekana in 1950, his age could go from late 80's to 90's. This is implied to be a factor in his scheme to turn Nele Island into a radioactive dumping ground for massive profit: even his partner Ebina notes that the plan isn't a feasible long-term one, as the waste will eventually fill up and overflow into a massive ecological disaster. Whilst Ebina doesn't care because the conditions make the island a perfect Hellhole Prison he can send Yakuza to to steadily die of radiation poisoning with no escape, Bryce is implied to be uncaring of the fallout because the venture will earn him tons of money in the short-term, and he'll be long dead by the time the hazardous waste becomes an issue for future generations.
- This is also a factor in how he maintains such control over Hawaii's underworld despite not being openly associated with any criminal dealings. He indoctrinates the children selected to be Haku and trained on Nele island into becoming his mindlessly loyal Child Soldiers, with Dana theorising that he's even give them facial and vocal surgeries to give them completely different appearances before sending them back out to the mainland to infiltrate various organised groups, such as the Police, the Barracudas or the Ganzhe, as sleeper agents. The length of time Bryce has been doing this means that the children have all grown up into adults with Blind Obedience to his every word and with no way to tell who's a sleeper agent until they strike. This gets emphasised quite dramatically when once such agent reveals himself to Wong Tou the minute he discloses information on "the Overseer" and then kills himself as a signal for the rest to act against Wong, turning him into a fugitive from his own gang in a heartbeat.
Evil Overlord: This is basically what he is at his core, a common JRPG villain archetype interpreted through the lens of a modern world; the leader of a powerful and evil religion whose goal is to essentially Take Over the World and has delusions over his own divinity.
False Prophet: Bryce is this trope in spades.
Final Boss: The last opponent Ichiban faces in the game's story, but is only the game's penultimate boss overall.
Flunky Boss: Similiar to Munakata before him, Ichiban and his party must go through waves of his minions before fighting him. He can also summon additional forces to back himself up.
Friend to All Children: A very dark example. He acts as a Parental Substitute to the children at the orphanage but only so he can go out of his way to recruit children at a young age to be trained and indoctrinated into his cult members on Nele. Even so, he seems to only send adults out to be killed rather than children and despite everything he did treat Wong's son well enough.
Gratuitous English: In the Japanese Dub, even during the opening cutscene (where almost every other character is voiced by an English VA), anytime he speaks English it's voiced by Toru Furuya in a very noticeable accent.
Guns Akimbo: Wields two submachine guns taken from his subordinates' corpses during his boss fight.
Hate Sink: In contrast to Ebina, he is given no sympathetic dimension, being nothing more than a greedy and power-hungry scam artist with a god complex.
Hiding Behind Religion: He doesn't actually believe in Madame Nele or the Palekana faith, even going as far as to mock his followers for "clinging to an imaginary god".
Hoist by His Own Petard: His refusal to bring the Yamai Syndicate to heel due to their small size winds up being a fatal mistake as their assistance towards Ichiban's party would be crucial in taking Bryce down.
Leitmotif: "Impersonation", an oppressive track filled with operatic wailing perfectly suited for a False Prophet who believes himself to be the closest thing to a god.
Made of Iron: He can take a lot of abuse for an old man in his 80s at least with no obvious muscle mass.
The Man Behind the Man: He's the one pulling the strings behind both Barracudas and the Ganzhe, and he has sleeper agents in various positions of power including the police and the Hawaiian government. This effectively makes him the de-facto ruler of Hawaii.
Mighty Whitey: Subverted. He's a Caucasian man who's the head of what's supposed to be a Native Hawaiian religion. This is foreshadowing towards his actual legitimacy (not much) and he more or less utterly corrupted the religion rather than save it.
Non-Action Big Bad: Justified, considering at the youngest he would be in his 80s. He relies exclusively on his cultists throughout the story and during his fight. When he does step into the fray it's mostly out of increasing desperation and even then he relies on a pair of submachine guns. When he loses those he picks up a sword but is significantly less of a threat given his age.
Obviously Evil: Even in the 50s he was so evil that the previous Sage and his wife were concerned about his ambitions and made contingencies to prevent him from taking power as well as to protect their family (explicitly disowning Bryce in his will, switching the sacred pendant with a fake).
Older Than They Look: Looks pretty spry for somebody who must be in his eighties at the youngest. Kiryu lampshades it by noting he must be some kind of monster.
Pet the Dog: While obviously having ulterior motives, it’s implied that he’s somewhat more merciful with children. Most of the men he sends out to die are adults rather than young kids, and he gave his worshippers strict orders to treat Wong’s son well. In addition, it was stated that he was okay with Lani being alive before her true heritage was revealed.
Revealing Cover Up: Discussed. Even when Bryce keeps quiet about the true reason for his focus on Lani, the extent of his mobilisation of the criminal gangs of Hawaii and his sleeper agents within the police to find her tip off those who realise the true scope of his efforts to find her that she must be very dangerous to him. Bryce's sociopathic disregard of anybody else means he wouldn't be expending so much effort on a mere child amongst the many his religion indoctrinates unless she was a serious threat to him somehow.
Save the Villain: He's on the receiving end when Ichiban grabs his leg and hauls him back up when he attempts a Spiteful Suicide. Though Ichiban does so less out of the goodness of his heart and more to keep him from avoiding accountability for his crimes with his death.
The Sociopath: As befits the cult leader with superficial charm, massive lust for power, and Lack of Empathy for anyone other than himself.
Spiteful Suicide: After he's beaten and Chitose has blown the whistle on him using the Tatara Channel, he tries to dodge accountability by throwing himself into Nele Island's radioactive waters. Ichiban, however, is ready for this and stops him.
"Spread Wings" Frame Shot: The first time Ichiban meets him, he's standing in front of a mural of an eagle which makes it look like he has wings.
Straw Hypocrite: He has no actual respect for religion in general, let alone his own; he only ever viewed Palekana as a means to get more money and power, to eventually become his own god.
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: While he is a legitimate Final Boss, his physical threat comes exclusively from legion of minions and dual submachine guns. When he's stripped of both things, he's about as threatening as any elderly man with no real combat experience would be.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- Thematically, he's essentially Ichiban's equivalent to Jingu and Munakata, being an unapologetically vile and greedy man in power whose aim is to capture (or in Jingu's case, kill) a child for his own ends, along with orchestrating a conspiracy to gain some form of control over the yakuza and Japan (among other countries and crime groups). From a gameplay standpoint, his boss fight is fairly similar to Jingu's and Munakata's (like the latter two, the mooks protecting Bryce are more threatening than the man himself), but unlike either, the turn-based nature of Infinite Wealth makes the fight much more bearable.
- He plays a similar role to Andre Richardson of Yakuza 3 fame, a blond, gun-toting American villain who infiltrated and manipulated a benevolent (or at least relatively so in the CIA's case) organization for their own ends. He also serves as the business partner and Pre-Final Boss to a yakuza who is a far more sympathetic villain than he is. Apparently even being a Foil to the Revolve bartender, presumed to be Richardson himself.
Throw Down the Bomblet: He tosses out grenades during his boss fight, which can take out his own men.
The Usurper: He assumed power after having the last Sage assassinated upon learning that the Sage was planning to sell off Nele Island (which Bryce wanted for himself) to fund his charitable efforts.
Villainous Breakdown: By the end of the boss fight against him, he starts losing his composure as Ichiban and his party gain an upper-hand.
Villain with Good Publicity: On the surface, he's the benevolent Sage of Palekana. In truth, he's a grade A asshole who doesn't care how many lives he must ruin, directly or not, to further his goals.
Would Not Hurt A Child: Heavily downplayed. He has no issue with indoctrinating children to be his loyal soldiers, and he hunts down Lani ruthlessly because she’s the true heir to Palekana. Despite that, however, he doesn’t just kill her. Ichiban even calls Dwight’s bluff that he’ll shoot her if they get close by saying Bryce wants her delivered alive. Why he does this is never explained since presumably all he needs is her necklace and killing her would prevent any knowledge of her status as the true heir from spreading, though it's implied Bryce wants to personally make sure there is no possible proof left about the truth of Lani's heritage to keep it under wraps.
- He also has Wong Tao’s son treated well in the village after kidnapping him, though that’s for more pragmatic reasons. Chitose theorizes that he planned to mold him into the new head of the Ganzhe and treating him well would instill more loyalty.

Lani Mililani (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Voiced by: Atsumi Tanezaki (Japanese), Justine Lee (English)^{Other Languages} Min Lin (Chinese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/like_a_dragon_infinite_wealth_ps5_meeting_akane_and_lani_scene_3_1_screenshot.png

A mysterious child tied to Palekana.

Alliterative Name: Lani Mililani.
Living MacGuffin: She is the sole reason why all of Hawaii's underworld is chasing Akane, as her very existence threatens to topple it.
Lost Orphaned Royalty: She is actually the last remaining legitimate successor to be the Sage of Palekana after her family was usurped by Bryce.
Replacement Goldfish: Kiryu sees Lani as this for Haruka, as they largely share the same circumstances, being innocent young girls being pursued by powers they cannot even comprehend and being forced to go on the run as a result.
Rightful King Returns: At the end of the game, she embraces her role as the true Sage to rebuild Palekana and repair the damage Bryce had done to the organization.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Lani's grandmother sent her to the Palekana orphanage hoping that that she would be well taken care of, not realizing that this would lead to her granddaughter becoming the target of every major gang in Honolulu.
Walking Spoiler: Just her very existence spoils the entire reason why Akane went into hiding in the first place.
Young and in Charge: Takes over as the new Sage after the ending at the ripe age of ten years old (with Akane taking care of her and presumably acting as her regent).
Younger than She Looks: For someone who's supposed to be only 9 years old, she looks more like a high school freshman at most, if that.

Other Ijincho Residents

Shinya Sasaki

A former yakuza from the disbanded Hiwatashi Family. He's a client of Ichiban's at Hello Work.

Because You Were Nice to Me: Initially, he's angry that Ichiban refuses to get him any work, but after Ichiban gives him back the money he lost in their scuffle instead of just taking it for himself, Sasaki is encouraged to seriously try to clean up his act and live on the straight and narrow.
He Cleans Up Nicely: He looks like a completely different person after changing out of his typical yakuza-looking attire.
Recruiting the Criminal: Ichiban manages to get him a job in Adachi's investigation agency, where he uses his experience as a thief to help stores find their blind spots.
Then Let Me Be Evil: While he was genuinely attempting to use his skills for good, thanks to the Tatara Channel ruining any attempts at a legitimate life he ultimately decides to join the Seiryu Clan.
What Happened to the Mouse?: He's never heard from again after Chapter 1.

Asakura

Voiced by: Mikuru Asakura (Japanese), John Choi (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_862.png

Back-to-Back Badasses: He stands back-to-back with Ichiban during his last Substory as they face down some hostile streamers. He also does this when summoned as a Poundmate with whoever summoned him.
Duel Boss: Ichiban ends up facing him all alone every time he's fought, no matter who's in the party at the time.
As Himself: Modeled and named after his voice actor and MMA fighter, Mikuru Asakura. Hell, even his fighting style is modeled after how he fights in real life!
Made of Iron: He gets shot in the shoulder in his final substory, but it's not enough to stop him from wiping the floor with some goons alongside Ichiban.
Noble Demon: When he appears he's acting as Katayama's "bodyguard", essentially beating up people that try to stand up to his harassment. It is then revealed that Asakura just wants to have a good fight and isn't really malicious. He's also treats Ichiban respectfully, telling him he looks forward to their next battle.
Recurring Boss: He's fought once in Ijincho and can also be fought three times in Hawaii, growing much stronger with each battle.
Stealth Mentor: His fights act akin to those of the masters from previous games, where Ichiban can learn new moves after every duel. They're not only good on their own, but they don't take up an Inherited Skill slot, allowing Ichiban to use them no matter what he reclasses to.

Katayama

Voiced by: Khoi Dao (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_215.png

A digital con artist who follows Hisoka Tatara that shows up from time to time.

Bullying the Dragon: Quite literally, seeing as he's picked fights with both the Dragon of Dojima and the Dragon of Rock Bottom, and both times ended with his ass being laid flat.
Camera Fiend: He and his lackeys would point their cameras at people such as Ichiban with the intention of putting them on blast on the internet.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- When he beckons Asakura to assist in fighting Ichiban, he nervously asks him to only go as far as to knock Ichiban out, not cause any serious injury.
- Downplayed. While he gleefully attacks Ichiban in the ending, he freaks out when Ichiban refuses to fight back and eventually lets him pass. It’s unknown whether this was out of genuine moral standards, he was just scared of Ichiban’s odd behavior, or he realized that attacking someone who won’t fight back only makes him look bad.
Flunky Boss: In addition to his goons, he also accompanied by some sort of bodyguard: Asakura in the first fight and some Seiryu grunts in the second.
Hate Sink: A weasel of a man who always shows up just to provoke a fight with the protagonists and record them fighting back to make them look bad. He first appearance has him gloating about Ichiban's situation and threatens to blackmail him with footage of him getting punched.
Hoist by His Own Petard: His typical tactics of vigilante beatings and harassment that he built his reputation on implicitly lose him the backing of the people when he decides to apply it to someone who won't fight back, as is what happens in the end when he repeatedly punches Ichiban while Ichiban is escorting Eiji, with the crowd slowly stopping cheering for him and instead looking on in silent horror and disgust at what he is doing.
Hypocrite: For all his yammering about wanting the yakuza off the streets, his willingness to team up with the Seiryu Clan betrays the fact that he clearly only cares about clout.
Karma Houdini: Despite being beaten up twice, he continues to be a scummy streamer that attacks an unwilling to fight back Ichiban when he takes a repentant Eiji to the police station. That being said, doing so seems to have lost him the backing of the public, as everyone else realizes before him just how much of his behavior resembles assault, just staring at him instead of cheering him on.
Pathetically Weak: Even though he jumps Ichiban, and later Kiryu, all while backed up by several tough goons, he gets his shit kicked in almost effortlessly by the protagonists without a second thought. Even after he whallops Ichiban with everything he has in the end, it's not even enough to seriously injure Ichiban and he's knocked to the ground from a light shove from Ichiban.
Playing the Victim Card: When Ichiban retaliates at him for pointing a camera at him without his consent, Katayama would cry out about how Ichiban is the one harassing him and makes plans on editing the video to make himself look like the victim. Unfortunately for him, Ichiban and Kiryu are more than willing to give him authentic injuries.
Recurring Boss: He's fought twice.
Small Name, Big Ego: He fashions himself as a big time influencer but in reality, he's just a parasite nipping at the Tatara Channel's heels, only ever going after people who were already covered by her.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He serves a similar role to Kume from the previous game, being a despicable bully who boasts about a nonexistent moral higher ground that serves as a recurring minor antagonist. The difference being he has a much smaller backing, and falls apart much more easily.

Other Hawaiians

Revolve Bar Bartender

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore (English)

The Bartender at Revolve Bar in Honolulu. He allows Ichiban to use the storage room above the bar however he'd like, free of charge. He bears a suspicious similarity to a figure from the past.

Call-Back:
- In the English Dub, when talking to Ichi about his room upstairs, he pronounces the word "roof" as "ruff," harkening back to a much memed Andre Richardson voiceline in Yakuza 3.
- His Poundmate Special has him pulling off some Gun Fu like he did against Kiryu as well as singing "Kamurocho Lullaby".
- The circumstances where he hints at his true identity are almost identical to the Survive Bartender; Ichiban gets accused of philandering by all of his potential love interests due to the Bartenders being mildly irresponsible (Kashiwagi leaving a ring near Ichiban's bed while Richardson leaves him a suggestive phone ad) and barely survives, with the Bartender making a reference to surviving an incident.
Easily Forgiven: Kiryu doesn't seem to hold any hard feelings towards Richardson despite all of his actions in 3. The most he does is be mildly worried when he hears that he's off on a "secret mission", which turns out to be something completely benign.
Guns Akimbo: His Poundmate special has him sing "Kamurocho Lullaby" while busting out two pistols to gun down enemies.
Heel–Face Turn: After surviving the events of 3, Richardson effectively quit being a terrorist and moved on to be a bartender in Hawaii, with Kiryu seemingly accepting that he's turned over a new leaf. While the Big Swell DLC has the Heroes following him while he's on a secret "mission" (which causes Kiryu some concern), it turns out that he's just visiting a strip club to get a photo of his favorite dancer.
Made of Iron: Like Kashiwagi, he somehow survived something that no one else should (specifically falling from the roof of a hospital), especially since Mine presumably didn't.
Retired Monster: Heavily implied, but never outright stated, to be Andre Richardson, having given up his terrorist acts since his assumed death in 2009 and overall settled down.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He fulfills the exact same role as the Bartender of the Survive Bar, being the proprietor of the Good-Guy Bar that serves as the team's HQ and even allowing Ichiban to use the storage room as an apartment. He's also all but stated to be Andre Richardson, similar to how the Survive Bar Bartender is Osamu Kashiwagi after secretly surviving his supposed death in 3.
Took a Level in Kindness: He's gone from the ruthless head of a terrorist organization to a chummy barkeep willing to let Ichiban stay in his storage room free of charge out of the goodness of his heart.
Walking Spoiler: Similar to the Survive Bartender, it's pretty difficult to talk about him without mentioning the fact that he's a surviving character from the past (specifically Andre Richardson).

Kei

Voiced by: Kson (English & Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_304.png

A Revolve Bar employee.

Actor Allusion: She's introduced in a substory called "Welcome to Hawaii, MFer!", which could be a reference to "Good morning, motherfuckers!", the catchphrase of her VA during her life as her previous corporate VTuber persona.
- Multiple aspects of Kson were incorporated into her dialogue, including being American-born (Kei mentions being from Georgia) and a gag about her wide shoulders (something that Kson has brought up on stream previously).
All Girls Want Bad Boys: She's absolutely wild for Kiryu, having quickly fallen for his solemn, brooding demeanor. She quickly hits it off with Ichiban after finding out that he's friends with him, and even calls him her "husbando" in the English version.
As Herself: Everything about her in-game is more or less accurate to her voice actress, from her English potty-mouth to fangirling over Kiryu.
Early-Bird Cameo: Technically first appeared in Gaiden as a hostess, though given the short time between the two games it's likely more of an Identical Stranger situation.
Fangirl: BIG TIME for Kiryu, just like her voice actress.
Lady Swears-a-Lot: Has a very notable potty mouth, just like her voice actress.
Motor Mouth: Her rambling about Kiryu goes by a mile a minute before she catches herself doing it.
Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: As stated above, Kson provides both her English and Japanese VO.

Charlie

Voiced by: Katsunori Okai (Japanese)

One of the main posterboys of Crazy Eats.

Gratuitous English: He seasons his sentences with plenty of English.
Expy: His short green hair, yellow-and-red work shirt, and energetic attitude make him a blatant tribute to Axel, one of the original four cabbies from Crazy Taxi.
Keet: Befitting of a crazy delivery driver, he's very energetic and perky.
Shockwave Stomp: His Poundmate summon has him create shockwaves as he lands some sick flips on his bicycle.

Kuroki

A photographer of so-called "sickos" who introduces Ichiban to the Sicko Snap game.

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Kuroki is easily mistaken as one of the sickos he photographs due to how excited he gets about the prospect of taking shots, but he is a legitimately great photographer and is doing a public service by using his photography to help the police to locate and identify the perverts he snaps.
Camera Fiend: He's a professional photographer who spends most his time in Hawaii riding the tram to get pictures of sickos. He even shares his love of his craft with Ichiban.
Eccentric Artist: The man is passionate about his photography and the subject of said photography, to the point he gets mistaken for being a sicko himself.
The Peeping Tom: Averted, but commonly mistaken as one for understandable reasons. He really, really likes snapping sickos.

Tony

A kid who runs a local lemonade stand. Ichiban helps out his business in a substory.

Abusive Parents: To be precise, his uncle, who has been stealing all the money Tony made at his lemonade stand. Thanks to a beating and lecture from Ichiban, though, he becomes genuinely resolute to improve himself and calls in every favor he could to get Tony back his money.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: It's never stated outright if Tony has a romantic crush, but his entire lemonade stand business was so he could give a final goodbye gift to a woman who meant a lot to him before she leaves Hawaii with her fiance.
Lemonade Stand Plot: Tony's story revolves around his lemonade stand and the money he's trying to raise to get a woman he cares deeply for a goodbye present before she leaves Hawaii.

Bony Kashiwa

A Japanese action film director who's come to Hawaii to work on his latest film. Ichiban (unfortunately) acts as his stuntman for two substories.

Eccentric Artist: Kashiwa's stunt direction style is having stuntmen run through streets filled with explosions, cars, and massive trucks! It gets a great action scene, but he has also earned a poor reputation among stuntmen in the industry - and for good reason.
Intergenerational Friendship: Ends up in one with a famous American director in his second substory, as the younger director is impressed by his practical stunt direction, and Kashiwa learns how CGI can compliment his directing style.
The Perfectionist: Kashiwa takes his directing very seriously, and god help anyone on staff who doesn't have the same insane drive for the perfect stunt that he has.
Prima Donna Director: Has quite a few shades of this, from his insane demands to his sudden switches from anger to joy. That said, he does seem to care about his crew, he just don't express it well - that and his demands are genuinely life threatening.
Stuff Blowing Up: Summoning him as a poundmate has him detonate explosions all over the area.

Nathan

A local TV director who runs a show interviewing Japanese tourists. A huge fan of Japanese culture, while comically not really understanding it beyond old samurai films.

Dual Wielding: Breaks out two katanas to slash enemies when summoned as a poundmate.
Human Notepad: Played for Laughs. He has two tattoos on his arms of Japanese text, and clearly does not know what either actually means. The one on his left arm translates to "mosquito coil," and right arm to "parent teacher conference." A good indicator that Nathan doesn't really understand the culture he's so obsessed with.
Innocently Insensitive: He has nothing but love and respect for Japanese culture, but the way he envisions how Japanese people live is stereotypical at best and racist at worst, such as making Ichiban play darts with shuriken and expecting him to either commit Seppuku or yubitsube when he loses. He learns to see Japanese people as real individuals instead of fictional characters by the end of the substory.
The Movie Buff: A huge fan of old Japanese cimena, mainly samurai films. Name drops a few directors, even Akira Kurosawa.
Occidental Otaku: More due to a love for samurai cinema than anime, but he's very much of the same ilk.

Raymond

A local lifeguard that Ichiban ends up helping in a string of substories on Aloha Beach.

Emergency Services: He's a lifeguard, so part of his job is rescue and emergency medical care.
Heroism Motive Speech: Gives one to Ichiban explaining he started doing this job because he was inspired by a lifeguard who helped him as a child. By the end of his final substory, Raymond ends up inspiring someone else the exact same way.
Large Ham: Almost to Shatner or Hasslehoff levels in the English dub - and considering his profession, the latter may have been an insperation. That said, despite his overly poetic speeches and boasting, he does take his job seriously and is otherwise not a terribly prideful person. He even makes sure to thank Ichiban for all his help every time he volenteers.
The Real Heroes: He's a lifeguard, and his profession is treated with a lot of respect. His substories even highlight the less glamorous parts of the job, like passing out water bottles to those who are showing signs of heat stroke. He takes these aspects of the job just as seriously as rescuing drowning victims, because it's still a way to save and protect lives.

Professor Oka

An inventor with a poor reputation due to a previous failure with his Street Surfer. Completing his substory lets Ichiban and the party use Street Surfers for free.

Butt-Monkey: Boy howdy, is he ever. His substory even ends with a damaged Street Surfer exploding on him.
Determinator: The man just refuses to give up on his Street Surfer, despite all the set backs - those being how often they blow up. Even after getting caught in the explosion of a damaged one, he just starts making notes to himself on what part was damaged and caused the explosion, planning to deal with that bug in the next model.
Fame Through Infamy: Oka is mostly known through Hawaii because of his Street Surfer - and hated because of it, due to them blowing up when he first revealed them. His reputation is so bad that people actually attack him for it at the end of his substory.
The Professor: A more classic example of this than Okita, who's more of a Mad Scientist. Oka's work is perfectly sound in concept and scope, the issue is that everything he builds tends to explode for one reason or another.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Ichiban actually ends up liking the Street Surfer a great deal after a trial run, and helps Oka out by both protecting him from punks, and finally telling him that his invention is indeed something amazing. Somewhat undercut by a damaged Street Surfer blowing up on him in the next moment.

Sujimon Discreet Four

In General

Elite Four: Even though there's five of them, they serve a similar purpose to the Elite Four that they're named after, being extremely powerful and notorious Sujimon trainers that serve as the main obstacles towards Ichiban becoming a Sujimon Master. King is the champion, and Jack, Queen, Ace, and Joker all have to be faced before him.
Expy: On top of being named after the Elite Four from Pokémon, in practice, they function as a combination of them and the Gym Leaders that must be challenged first. King in particular is closer to a Pokémon Champion, being the final opponent faced in the storyline.
Leitmotif: "Just Keep Fighting," the general boss theme of the Sujimon League. The Discreet Four all share it, outside King.
Non-Indicative Name: The Discreet Four is actually made up of five people. Lampshaded by Ichiban in one of the pause screen comments in the Sujimon League section.
Playing Card Motifs: All five of them are named after the various rankings of the cards.

Jack

The first of the Sujimon Discreet Four.

Fat Bastard: An overall unpleasant, large man who thinks that the poor should worship the rich, and happens to have gone through three divorces.
The Friend Nobody Likes: While the rest of the Discreet Four have personal connections to their Sujimon, Jack is just a rich jerk who buys the strongest ones he can find with no further work put in with them. None of the others respect him for that reason. No wonder he didn't get an invite to help out in the finale of the story.
Light 'em Up: Uses light type Sujimon a good deal. Makes sense the rich guy would go for the gaudy element.
Rich Bitch: He's very wealthy and his gym is at the top of a fancy hotel, and his personality isn't the most pleasant.
Sore Loser: He goes straight into denial at having lost, refusing to believe that Ichiban could beat him. Thankfully, it doesn't go beyond that.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Unlike the rest of the Discreet Four, after his defeat, he's never seen again. Even when the Discreet Four is all together in future scenes, Jack is completely absent.

Queen

The second of the Sujimon Discreet Four.

Dude Magnet: Sodachi and his students become infatuated with her, much to Ichiban's chagrin.
Even the Girls Want Her: All of her trainers in her gym are women who adore Queen, and show little to no interest in the men challenging her.
Graceful Loser: After she's beaten, she accepts Ichiban's victory without issue and sincerely congratulates him.
Making a Splash: She specializes in Frost type Sujimon, and her gym is based on a pool resort.
Meaningful Name: Queen is a fitting title for a woman of authority like her.
Ms. Fanservice: Her outfit is a tube top with fishnet sleeves and a pair of shorts, giving a good show of her cleavage, stomach, and legs. Of course, Sodachi wastes no time to admire her beauty.
The Smurfette Principle: Queen is the only woman of the Discreet Four.

Ace

The third of the Sujimon Discreet Four.

Graceful Loser: Upon being bested, he takes his loss with grace and offers Sodachi, Yokawa, and Kuraki personal training.
Kill It with Fire: He specializes in Blaze type Sujimon.
Meaningful Name: Ace is the most traditionally skilled of the bunch as an accomplished martial artist, and keeps a cool head in rough situations. He's basically The Ace of the group.
We Used to Be Friends: With Morikasa, though beating him helps restore that friendship.

Joker

The last of the Sujimon Discreet Four.

Casting a Shadow: Unsurprisingly, he specializes in Shadow type Sujimon.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Used to be just another directionless Sujimon himself, but eventually became one of the best Sujimon trainers in the league.
Heel–Face Turn: Has a big one towards the finale of the Sujimon League story. He helps save King's mother from the league organizers alongside Ace and Queen, thanks partly due to his fight with Ichiban reminding him why he loved Sujimon fights in the first place.
Meaningful Name: The Joker card symbolizes chaos and unpredictability, Joker is not afraid to get his hands dirty even if it means breaking the Sujimon policies.
Sore Loser: Upon losing, he goes into a rage and fights Ichiban on his own instead of with Sujimon with the intention of killing him.
Tattooed Crook: He has a large centipede tattoo around his body, which even reaches to his jaw. Out of the Discreet Four, he's the most violent, resorting to sabotaging and kidnapping to get himself an advantage.

King

The Sujimon champion. Seems to have a past with Professor Morikasa.

Classical Elements Ensemble: Despite his design suggesting he'd focus on Light type Sujimon, King uses the most balanced team of types of the entire Discreet Four.
Final Boss: Of the Sujimon league, although Morikasa is the True Final Boss of the Divine League.
Hostage Situation: The reason King goes along with the league organizers for so long is due to them having his mother as a hostage. They paid for her medical treatments, but then took her captive to keep their champion in line.
Kid Hero All Grown-Up: Keeping with the Pokémon references, he's implied to have been the Ash Ketchum to Morikasa's Professor Oak during the early days of the Sujimon Stadium.
Graceful Loser: When Ichiban beats him, instead of shutting down the stadium like the agents command him to, he tosses the remote aside and claps along with the crowd.
Leitmotif: "Never Look Back," King's battle theme, which is notably grander sounding than the regular boss theme used by his fellow Discreet Four members.
Meaningful Name: King is well, the Sujimon champion.
Sharp-Dressed Man: He wears an all white suit with a cravat and a long black scarf made of feathers.

Dondoko Island

Gachapin and Mukku

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Gachapin (left) and Mukku (right)

A recognisable mascot duo consisting of a green bucktoothed stegosaurus and a red yeti. They represent Dondoko Island.

Ambiguous Situation: It's never made entirely clear if they're people in suits or if they're just creatures that happens to look like that, as is explicitly the case within their own franchise's lore.
The Bard: Mukku likes reciring poems he came up with, usually in haiku form.
Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Mukku is one with red instead of white fur, which raises the question of what he's doing in a tropical island.
Mascot: They are iconic Japanese mascots that were created in 1973 and have made countless cameo appearances in various media.

Matayoshi

The man in charge of Dondoko Island. He runs the shop and makes sure Ichiban gets paid proper when he makes milestones.

Butt-Monkey: Tends to get the short of the stick in most interactions, not helped by his failed attempts at humor by mentioning is hostess habit (if it is a joke).
Friendly Shopkeeper: Runs the shop and is an overall friendly guy to Ichiban and the other island residents. He even helps reunite them all as the island improves.

Kenzo

Dondoko Island's head of construction. He renovates land and can help Ichiban out with upgrades to his home and gear.

Jumped at the Call: The first one asked to come back to the island, and he was more than ready to help out.
Person of Mass Construction: While Ichiban does most of the island construction, Kenzo will upgrade his house (even add a second floor) and equipment. He'll also handle land renovation, and he does it all absurdly fast.

Subaru

A child who was found on Dondoko Island and raised by Matayoshi. He runs souvenir development, can organize night time camp fires, and uses Gachapin's media conections to run ads when requested.

Child Prodigy: A full on genius who's already taking university classes.
Doorstop Baby: His parents left him on the island, where Matayoshi and the other residents raised him.
Wise Beyond Their Years: Subaru has both book smarts and a great deal of wisdom. When Matayoshi explains Hook's motivations, Subaru is the first to point out that Hook is just doing the same thing that the rich people who ruined his island did.

Saya and Yui

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Dondoko Island residents that run the Dondoko Farm and motivate Ichiban's Sujimon to work on said farm.

As Herself: The both of them are modeled and named after famous weather reporters and their voice actors Saya Hiyama and Yui Komaki respectively.
Damsel in Distress: Whenever boars and animals attack the farm. Their distress ends up motivating the otherwise lazy Sodachi. That said...
Damsel out of Distress: Saya gets taken hostage by the Washbucklers in the finale of the story. It is then everyone learns she has a horrific temper that throws her into a fit of violence that finishes off the pirates for good. Yui even tried to warn them.
The Smurfette Principle: The only women on Dondoko Island who are not mascots.
Unstoppable Rage: Saya has this, but it isn't shown until the Washbucklers make the mistake of picking her as a hostage.

The Washbucklers

A gang of ruffians that constantly dump trash on Dondoko Island.

Arc Villains: Of the Dondoko Island storyline.
Became Their Own Antithesis: Hook ended up doing this with his resort trashing scheme. He gets paid by the rich to ruin their much cherished resorts, but really just ended up destroying the nature of these islands the same way the rich people who ruined his island home did.
For the Evulz: Their main motivation for picking on Dondoko Island seems to be that it's fun. When Ichiban enters the picture, they can't stand him getting in the way of their fun by helping restore the island they trashed.
He Who Fights Monsters: While Hook is nothing more than a bully these days, all of this started with him trying to get revenge on the people who ruined his home - and then he ended up ruining similar places in the process.
Leitmotif: "We are Clean Pirates!," a jaunty, nautical tune used whenever you have to beat down the pirates in a major deciding fight.
Motive Decay: Hook is definitely suffering some of this. His speech before the final battle suggests that he's become blinded by the money he makes from his scheme and has forgotten his entire revenge motive, and that's not even getting into his sadistic streak.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The common crew title among them is Dread Pirate.
Ruthless Modern Pirates: They're pirates who dispose of waste for corporations.
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Ichiban has Dread Pirate Hook promise to disband the Washbucklers if he loses the final battle, which he does. He does not keep his word because, as he explains, he is a pirate and therefore has no sense of honor.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The leader of the Washbucklers, Dread Pirate Hook, got his start living with his family on a resort island called Zundoko Island, not far from Dondoko. His family taking a bad deal to turn the island into a resort aimed at the rich was his Start of Darkness.

Key Figures

Akane Kishida (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Voiced by: Yoshiko Sakakibara (Japanese), Patti Yasutake (English)^{Other Languages} Xiaotong Lu (Chinese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_1_59.png

The former love of Masumi Arakawa and Ichiban's possible biological mother. Originally presumed dead, she is currently living in Hawaii with Ichiban setting off to find her. For reasons unclear, she has become a target of the Barracudas.

But Not Too Foreign: She's part Native Hawaiian.
He Knows Too Much: She's a target of Bryce's wrath after Lani came to her with evidence that she's the actual heir of Palekana as well as Bryce having no legitimate authority.
- Was a target of this from Sawashiro. Upon learning that she survived, he traveled to Hawaii with every intent to kill her; Sawashiro theorized that if she did return, she and Arakawa would compare what truly happened during the night and realize Masato was not their son, which would in turn raise suspicion under Sawashiro, which knew the truth. However, upon meeting her, Akane requested that Sawashiro report instead she died. He honored her request, leading to Arakawa calling off his search for her.
Calling Parents by Their Name: Is on the receiving end if this by Ichiban, who calls her “Akane-san” instead of mom. Downplayed since unlike many examples, it does not contain any sort of malice in anyones part with Ichiban adding the ‘san’ honorrifics to show that he respects her and Akane herself is fine with it. The main reason why this occurs is because despite them still caring for each other, they lack any sort of familiarity and the mother-son bond between one another due to being seperated for more than four decades.
Internal Reformist: After Bryce is brought down, she and Lani return to Palakena to rebuild it as the charitable organization that it once was, with Akane presumably becoming Lani's regent until she comes of age.
Mama Bear: The reason why she even went missing in the first place was to protect Lani from Bryce, and will do anything to protect her from harm. This trope was also in effect with Ichiban, as she ran like hell immediately after delivering him to keep him safe.
Missing Mom: After hiding her son in a coin locker, she would end up disappearing from the life of Masumi Arakawa and Ichiban.
Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You; She left Ichi in a coin locker while on the run from Hikawa thugs. While she herself was still being hunted, Ichiban was at least safe. However, Akane makes it very clear that she regrets having to leave him, and she only wishes that she could have held him and seen him grow.
One True Love: According to Ichiban, while Arakawa has had many suitors over his life he only ever truly loved Akane.
Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Originally it was assumed that she was killed by Arakawa's boss, only to be revealed that she managed to get smuggled to the Philippines and eventually ended up in Hawaii.
Silver Fox: As seen when Sawashiro gave Ichi her picture, she was quite an attractive woman in her youth. In the present, while age has caught up with her as evidenced in the wrinkles on her face and her hair greying, she still retains her beauty to a degree.
So Proud of You: She tells Ichiban that he's just like his father in his looks and kindness, and that she's immensely proud of the good man he's become.
Universally Beloved Leader: All of the children and staff members at the Palekana Orphanage have high regards for Akane, being equally devastated at her sudden disappearance.

Eiji Mitamura (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Voiced by: Ryo Narita (Japanese), Aleks Le (English) ^{Other Languages} Huang Xiangyu (Chinese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eiji_9.png

A wheelchair-bound young man Ichiban meets and befriends on the plane to Hawaii. It is later revealed that he is a former member of Bleach Japan who is secretly working with Ebina to prevent former yakuza's rehabilitation as much as possible so they have no choice but to turn to Ebina's Seiryu Clan.

Affectionate Nickname: Ichiban nicknames him "Ei-chan". He refuses to stop using the nickname even after Eiji's true colors are revealed.
The Atoner: By the end of the game, he's realized that Ichiban is genuine in his intentions to be his friend, and is finally convinced to turn himself in by him. They part at the Kamuro Police Station as friends for real, with Ichiban promising to meet him on the other side of his likely prison term.
Bad Influencer: He's the manager of Tatara Hisoka and creates a Sock Puppet stand-in when her creator and actress, Chitose, quits. He's also the source of her defaming info, meaning the ultimate source of Ichiban's issues is him.
Beard of Sorrow: The ending of Infinite Wealth has him grow a goatee. Considering how screwed his situation has become during that time, it's warranted.
Because You Were Nice to Me:
- He helps Ichiban prove his innocence to the police when Eric tried to mug him and against the Yamai simply because Ichiban helped him up onto his wheelchair when they exited their plane. Said act was enough for Eiji as nobody else had shown him that kind of kindness ever since he became wheelchair-bound. Or at least that’s what he claims. In truth, it’s because Ichiban getting arrested would’ve derailed the plan to use him to find Akane.
- In the end, he agrees to turn himself over to the police, surprised and remorseful that even after all he's done, Ichiban is still offering him the same kindness and care for him. Also acknowledging the irony that he really isn't able to properly walk for the moment, due to having actually been injured in his leg.
Black-and-White Insanity: As a former Bleach Japan member, he has this in spades. He's thoroughly convinced that Ichiban is evil and faking his kindness to use others for his own gain, no matter how many times it's made abundantly clear right in front of him that Ichiban is everything he presents himself as. All because Ichiban is an ex-yakuza and Eiji refuses to believe that any genuinely good person would ever join the yakuza. It's not until Ichiban risks his own safety to take Eiji to the police station that Eiji finally understands that he was wrong about Ichiban.
Didn't Think This Through: He allied with a group meant to take down all of the yakuza through a mass murder plot, explicitly being the right-hand man, but did not think about what could happen if the plot fell through. As Ichiban points out, every yakuza in the country wants his head for helping, and that isn’t even bringing up the massive negative press and vigilante justice that caused him to hold up in his room, terrified to leave even if he could.
Evil All Along: Turns out this unassuming, wheelchair-bound young man is in fact a former member of Bleach Japan, duping Ichiban from the moment they met.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Like most members of Bleach Japan, he refuses to believe that Ichiban is a legitimate Nice Guy and thinks of all of his kind acts as being nothing more than a mask for his true intentions. Unlike most members, Ichiban's persistence eventually does get through to him, and he ultimately clears Ichiban's name.
Evil Costume Switch: He's first introduced wearing a white shirt, but after revealing himself as a spy for the Seiryu Clan, he switches to a black Hawaiian shirt with blue floral patterns.
Faux Affably Evil: Becomes sneering and insulting towards Ichiban after his true allegiance is revealed. He even makes jokes about how at least Ichiban got to spend some time at a nightclub when they track him down and beat up his goons.
Freudian Excuse: He was once a reporter who had his career ruined by the Arakawa Clan, thus leading him to become an agent of Bleach Japan and later Ebina's crusade against the Yakuza.
Hero Killer: He doesn't directly pull the trigger, but his actions directly result in the deaths of Wong Tou and Hanawa, who were both firm allies to Ichiban and Kiryu.
Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his Japanese voice actor, Ryo Narita.
Graceful Loser: Ichiban's kindness towards him at the end despite everything he's done convinces him to turn himself over to the police without resistance.
Guest-Star Party Member: He does join certain battles, but only as an AI-controlled assistant who would buff and heal Ichiban as well as debuffing the enemy without inflicting any damage.
Irony: As someone whose life was ruined by the Arakawa Clan, him working for Bleach Japan meant that he worked for the (adopted) son of the Arakawa Clan boss, who may or may not have played a part in the former event considering what Eiji was trying to report, but already wanted to tear down the Yakuza as well.
Karmic Injury: He spent a large chunk of the game pretending to be crippled. When Ichiban finds him in the epilogue, it turned out he had wounded his ankle badly enough to barely be able to walk while trying to evade everyone out to get him.
Knight of Cerebus: While the game always had dark moments, it was clear that so long as Ichiban has his friends, they can take on any obstacles. Once Eiji’s treachery has been revealed, the plot takes the long road of despair and hopelessness.
Laser-Guided Karma: At the end of the game, after ruining many lives through Hisoka Tatara, he ends up being the one hounded mercilessly by people via media for his part in Ebina's scheme. Also, after faking being disabled early in the game he ends up actually crippled with a broken left ankle in the epilogue by an angry protester, something that he even acknowledges. At least it doesn’t look permanent.
The Mole: He integrates himself quite well into the party, only to be using them to find Akane and Lani - once they're found and in Daidouji hands, Eiji makes his move, with his boys capturing Lani and killing Hanawa and Wong Tou.
Moral Myopia: Much like his former boss Ryo Aoki, in trying to eradicate yakuza, he becomes one in all but name. He uses their exact tactics and willingness to flout the law to ruin lives, all for a sense of power. He also sneers at Ichiban ‘faking’ being a Nice Guy when he himself is threatening to have his goon shoot a ten year old girl. It's also implied another reason he joined Bleach Japan and Ebina was that he had no trouble believing his or Ryo Aoki's backgrounds as people who already despised having ties to the yakuza, when again, he doesn't give Ichiban among others the benefit of the doubt.
Obfuscating Disability: He's fully capable of walking and is just faking it with injections of lidocaine to temporarily paralyze his legs. He deliberately went through the ruse to prey on Ichiban's memories of helping Masato.
Oh, Crap!: Eiji's reaction when Chitose does a livestream as Tatara Hisoka, revealing that Ebina had planned to sentence all of the former yakuza to die at Nele Island, transporting toxic waste. Naturally, as Ebina's Number Two, this puts a target on Eiji's back by a bunch of very pissed-off yakuza, a fact that he's all too aware of.
Pay Evil unto Evil: Believes he is doing this by helping Ebina in his plan to doom any and all people who've been in the yakuza to a slow death via radiation poisoning, unwilling to see any of them as anything more than a villain who deserves punishment.
Pragmatic Villainy: Saving Ichiban from Tomizawa’s Frame-Up wasn’t done out of the goodness of his heart. His and Ebina’s plan hinged on using Ichiban to find Akane and Lani. Had he been arrested or otherwise lost the location to Akane’s house, their plan would’ve gone up in smoke.
The Unfought: He is never fought in-person at all, in spite of having a Sujidex entry, though he does provide support buffs to the Barracuda grunts.
Villainous Legacy: He's someone trying to pick up where Ryo Aoki left off.
Would Hurt a Child: Has no compunction with threatening Lani by having a goon put a gun to her head or tossing her off her wheelchair while she’s Bound and Gagged to scare Ichiban’s group with a fake bomb (that’s actually tear gas).
You Are What You Hate: He joined Bleach Japan as a means of revenge against yakuza born out of being framed for a car accident that destroyed his journalistic career. He ends up someone who is all too willing to frame people trying to clean up their lives in order to destroy their livelihoods, and using his criminal connections to do so. Like so many others, he's become yakuza in all but name. Compared to Ebina, who actually is a yakuza, but considers even himself as no better for it.

Characters / Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

The Seiryu Clan

Voiced by: Hiroki Hasegawa (Japanese), Daniel Dae Kim (English)^{Other Languages} Teng Xin (Chinese)

Voiced by: Takeshi Hirabayashi (Japanese), Feodor Chin (English)^{Other Languages} Ziqi Gan (Chinese)

Honolulu Residents

The Barracudas