Fictional character in the Yakuza video game series
Kazuma Kiryu
964, 9w8, ISFP, Sp/Sx
Kazuma Kiryu (Japanese: 桐生 一馬, Hepburn: Kiryū Kazuma) is a fictional character and the protagonist of Sega's action-adventure beat'em'up Japanese role-playing game series Yakuza. He is popularly known as "the Dragon of Dojima" (堂島の龍, Dōjima no Ryū) due to the tattoo of a dragon on his back and him originally being a fearsome member of the yakuza group known as the Dojima Family, a subsidiary of the Tojo Clan. He was introduced in the series' debut 2005 game, where he took the blame for his boss's death to protect his best friend Akira Nishikiyama, resulting in his expulsion from the clan and a ten-year stay in prison. After leaving prison, he fights against the new threats in his life, during which he meets Haruka Sawamura, to whom he eventually becomes an adoptive father. He is voiced by Takaya Kuroda in Japanese and by Darryl Kurylo in the English version of the first game which he reprises 15 years later for Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Besides the two Yakuza live-action films, the character has also appeared in other video games including Project X Zone 2 and as downloadable content in the spin-off game, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise.
