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Shintaro Kazama is a major character and one of the overarching protagonists in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series.
He was the patriarch of the Kazama family, the former captain of the Dojima Family, and the owner of the Sunflower Orphanage, where he would raise series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, Akira Nishikiyama and Yumi Sawamura.
He was voiced by the late Watari Tetsuya in the Japanese Dub and Roger Jackson in the English Dub of the PS2 Yakuza.
What Makes Him a Base Breaking Character?[]
What Do People Like About Him?[]
- In general, he's a very good father figure to Kiryu, Nishiki and Yumi, the former especially who looked up to him and wanted to follow in Kazama's footsteps.
- He founded Sunflower Orphanage with the intent of raising the children of those whom he killed as a way to make amends for his actions, showing that he regrets killing those people.
- He is shown to be very smart and cunning as he has made multiple plans with the goal of preventing corrupt individuals from obtaining power or completing their goal. Such as preventing his corrupt boss, Sohei Dojima from obtaining the Empty Lot and instead helped Masaru Sera become the owner of it, earning Sera the spot of the next Tojo Clan chairman. In Yakuza 1/Kiwami, he and Sera would team up to steal the 10 billion yen from the latter's former, corrupted ally, Kyohei Jingu who attempts to use the money to plan to destroy the Tojo Clan.
- When Kazama was critically injured protecting Haruka Sawamura from a blast caused by Futoshi Shimano, he tells Kiryu that he kills his parents and apologies for killing them before dying, Kiryu would forgive him and Kazama's death is considered one of the saddest deaths in the series.
- Overall, his supporters loved him for being badass that some of them wished he deserved more screentime, for example a Gaiden styled game that starred a younger version of Kazama as a playable protagonist.
What Do People Hate About Him?[]
- One of the many criticisms that Kazama's detractors would point out is his apparent favoritism on Kiryu rather than Nishiki. Many of his detractors believe that Kazama cares less about Nishiki as opposed to Kiryu. It goes to the point where his rival, Futoshi Shimano confronts Nishiki when the latter struggles with his family during Kiryu's jailtime asking Nishiki "If he (Kazama) really wanted to help ya come up, why did he give ya men ya couldn't control?" which once again depicts Kazama as being a absent father.
- Many detractors believe that he (indirectly) let Yuko Nishikiyama, Nishiki's sister die as he doesn't lead Nishiki the money needed for her treatment.
- Yuko's death was one of the major factors that led up to Nishikiyama snapping and turning into the cold-hearted adversity that Kiryu would encounter in the story. This causes some detractions to accuse Kazama of (indirectly) causing Nishikiyama's transformation even going to the point where they say he deserve to get shot by Nishiki when Kiryu met him at the Tojo Clan Headquarters during Masaru Sera's funeral.
- He is also aware of Sohei raping women and when he finds out Yumi is kidnaped by Sohei, he doesn't do anything about it, gaining him ire from his detractors.
- Although he did apologize for killing Kiryu and Nishiki's parents and even founded the Sunflower Orphanage for the kids of the people he killed with Kiryu even forgiving him, some detractions believe that this moment doesn't put a good end to his character arc but rather shows how much Kiryu is 'brainwashed' to the end as Kiryu would devote his life for Kazama.
- Daisuku Kuze, one of the major antagonists of Yakuza 0 would point that out to Kiryu asking if Kazama taking in the kids and owning them for life to the point where they (Kiryu specifically) would die for him is in his own words, "some brainwashing shit right there."
- Overall, despite doing a lot of good things during the games he's in, he still has a number of detractors who all accuse him of neglecting Nishiki, "letting" Yuko die, 'brainwashing' Kiryu and Nishiki and not doing anything about Yumi being kidnaped by Sohei Dojima. It goes to the point where some detractors considered him one of the worst fathers of the series.
Trivia[]
- An article from Eurogamer suggests that Kazama was 'the real villain of Yakuza Kiwami' citing the reasons being that he made decisions that put Kiryu in danger and he completely declines to communicate directly with him, is considered a absent and undeserving father and being favorited towards Kiryu more rather than Nishiki to the point where that favoritism separates Kiryu and Nishiki with the article concluding that Kazama's final action of saving Haraka was an apology which is symbolic of the hope that Kiryu won't repeat his mistakes as a father.
External Links[]
- Shintaro Kazama on the Yakuza Wiki
- Shintaro Kazama on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
- Shintaro Kazama on the Guile Heroes Wiki
- Shintaro Kazama on the Heroes Wiki
- Shintaro Kazama on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
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 Base Breaking Characters
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Yakuza 0 Yakuza/Yakuza Kiwami Yakuza 2/Kiwami 2 Yakuza 4 Yakuza 5 Yakuza 6 Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth |
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