Yakuza TV show won't have karaoke, though singing "may come eventually"

Sorry singing fans, Amazon's Yakuza TV show won't include the game's iconic karaoke sessions.

The Yakuza, or Like a Dragon, games are known for their bizarre minigames, but it seems the TV producers are taking a more serious approach to their adaptations by focusing on human emotion and offering new interpretations of familiar characters.

When asked during a roundtable if karaoke would be featured in the Like a Dragon: Yakuza TV show, executive producer Erik Barmack said it would not, though "singing may come eventually" (thanks The Gamer).

Like A Dragon: Yakuza - Teaser Trailer | Prime Video

"When you start to figure out how to boil down this world into six episodes... there's so much source material to pull from," said Barmack. There's no confirmation of further series, but it seems the door for karaoke is open at least.

Similarly, the TV show won't focus on the substories of the games, which often include some outlandish characters and activities.

"I think we're digging into the human emotions and the emotional elements of the characters of this iteration," said lead actor Ryoma Takeuchi (Kazuma Kiryu). "In a positive way, we're departing from the game at the end of the day; it all comes together."

Added Barmack: "As this series is an origin story, we wanted to make sure fans were emotionally connected to these characters... It's a balance that has to be found between the world that is so quirky and these characters, which need to feel real to everybody who is watching the series."

A teaser trailer for the series was shown at San Diego Comic Con, plus a video interview with director of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and show executive producer Masayoshi Yokoyama.

He described the portrayal of characters Kazuma Kiryu and Akira Nishikiyama as "totally different from the original story", but added "that's what's great about it" because there's nothing more to add to the game's character. There will also be brand new characters original to the Amazon TV show.

In November 2023, Sega reported lifetime sales of the Yakuza game series had reached 21.3m units. The most recent game, Infinite Wealth, sold 1m units in its first week to become the fastest selling in the series.