imagine a dragon sitting in a bar with just him and the mama. a man comes bursting through the door, enraged, possibly drunk. the dragon's dealt with this man before. and by god is he tired of him. and yet, he still steps out. he still beats him in a fair one on one fight on the man's terms.

the dragon sees dealing with ruffians unimportant. he returns to the bar. he returns to a child in his care that was just out of shot.

therein is the core of yakuza, summed up neatly in the cold open to what might be the most introspective and heartfelt game ever written.

yakuza 6: the song of life is the lest leg in kiryu's long, overwhelming, and tumultuous journey. it sees the dragon of dojima forced to reconcile with a world that's moved past him. the yakuza life is no longer what it once was. the little honor left in the world went away with the imprisonment of daigo, saejima, and kiryu. the new blood doesn't see things the way our old guard does. it's turned into a business of pencil pushing and number crunching.

fate has been overturned. the yakuza have found the exact balance they needed to stay afloat without meaningful risk or meaningful change. they are, after all, criminals first. but that's not to say these criminals are all without heart.

takumi someya is probably the most fascinating bit of this game. sporting no tattoo, his back is barren. his fate has yet to be written. or maybe he was never destined for anything.

time and time again, kiryu puts himself in the way of someya doing anything with his life. someya's bloodstained philosophy is one kiryu, no, the dragon of dojima stands to reject. it works directly counter to every last thing the dragon wants to leave behind. this isn't aizawa. this isn't daigo. this certainly isn't mine. no, someya's very existence within the tojo contradicts everything our dragon stood for.

so if takumi someya's existence in the tojo stands in contradiction to kiryu, and takumi someya is also not a criminal without a heart, then where does takumi someya belong?

well, someya IS kiryu. at least, their journies are paralleled. someya was never destined to be a criminal. he was meant to be a loving husband and a great father. his back is bare because his fate wasn't with the yakuza. but his life in the yakuza worked against his life with his family. the two couldn't truly coexist.

the dragon of dojima is against the tojo, which is why takumi someya's existence in the yakuza is against the whims of the dragon.

there's a lot more to say about this genuinely unbelievable game but to leave this rambly mess on some kind of note i'll say this.

i think takumi someya is really really hot