Goro Majima Yakuza

Everybody loves a bad boy, right? That certainly seems to be the case within the Yakuza fandom, where antiheroes like Kazuma Kiryu are celebrated for solving problems with their fists. It appears to be news to series producer and director Hiroyuki Sakamoto, however, who was surprised to learn just how popular antagonist Goro Majima is within a certain subset of the community.

In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Sakamoto was asked what his favourite element of the upcoming Like a Dragon: Ishin! was. He recalled that the studio was having trouble deciding which characters to include in the game, wanting to form an "all-star cast" from among the wider Yakuza-verse, and so held a popularity contest.

The results were unveiled in public, outside of Alta in bustling Shinjuku, a downtown district in Tokyo, on a massive screen in front of a screaming crowd of fans. Unsurprisingly, Goro Majima was revealed to be number one, and Sakamoto describes what happened next, recalling that "there was just this huge horde of female fans that all just screamed and screamed. And at that moment, we were like, ‘Wait a minute, girls like Majima this much? Is he that popular with the ladies?!"

Apparently so. With his icy demeanour, killer sense of style, and the air of danger presented by his iconic eyepatch, we can't be certain we wouldn't have reacted in the exact same way. Do you agree that the Mad Dog of Shimano deserves recognition as the number one best boy across the Yakuza franchise? Freak out in the comments section below.

[source rockpapershotgun.com]