REVIEW: ‘Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii’ Episode 9 — “To Be Honest, I Want to Marry You, Part Two”

Yakuza Fiancé Episode 9 shocks viewers by providing even more entertainment than the previous episode in many ways. Almost every major character that has appeared thus far is given a chance in the spotlight, leading to some fun moments.

The episode begins with Ozu’s goons looking disgruntled as  Kirishima (Akira Ishida) lures them to a public fireworks festival as part of his plans. They are forced to split into two groups. Yoshino (Hitomi Ueda), who’s aware of his plans, arrives at the location and spots Ozu, and she follows him.

After the opening credits, Kirishima begins to pick off the goons one by one in an impressive display of stealth combat, and Ozu meets up with their leader. He berates them for acting on their own. This angers the head goon, who drags Ozu away. Yoshino sees this and follows them. Ozu then tells his harasser that Azami will not take kindly to his actions. He then reveals Azami’s mysterious background and how dangerous he is. According to Ozu, Azami can dispatch enemies without leaving a trace and oddly has no interest in power or money.

Meanwhile, Kirishima successfully captures one of the goons and uses him to contact the rest. He sends them his location and invites them to approach him, demanding that they bring the group’s leaders.

Yoshino, who has been spying on Ozu’s conversation, gets her position compromised, and she’s forced to confront the angry goon. He threatens her, and she provokes him, leading to him assaulting and overpowering her. Luckily, at the same moment, Kirishima is able to cut the power in the area. This gives her the chance to escape by jokingly calling out Kirishima’s name, which distracts the goon.

This is one of many moments in the episode that showcase a shocking and hilarious tonal shift. One moment, a serious subject is being discussed, or something graphic is happening on screen, and the next, the same characters act cartoonishly goofy. While both instances are highly entertaining in their own ways, the sharp shift from one to the other is very jarring, and it happens multiple times, which sometimes devalues these moments.

As Yoshino tries to escape her pursuer, Kirishima flawlessly takes out all the new goons he led to his location, proving himself a master of stealth and close-quarter combat. The scene does a great job of highlighting Kirishima’s highly precise fighting style, and the excellent background music makes it more engaging to watch.

Right after Kirishima dispatches his pursuers, Azami makes an appearance. Kirishima asks him why he orchestrated a manhunt on him, but Azami asks where Yoshino is and is only interested in her, as he “has business with her.” Kirishima is surprised and, unsurprisingly, gets mad, and a fight between the two breaks out.

This short but highly engaging fight showcases some excellent choreography by Studio DEEN, perhaps the best the anime has had since. What makes it much more entertaining than previous fights is that both Azami and Kirishima have similar fighting styles and demeanors during combat. This short bout shows this quite well, making it hard to know who is the superior fighter.

Halfway into the fight, the lights come on, and both fighters stop. Kirishima asks Azami what he’ll do now that most of his goons are down and the rest are spread apart. Azami shows he clearly has no interest in the situation without Yoshino and leaves, but not without telling Kirishima he poses no threat and is of no interest to him.

Through this short meeting, we learn that Azami and the red head went along with the manhunt to draw in Yoshino. We also learn that Azami is seemingly a well-known Yakuza who, according to Kirishima, used to look different, and the scar on his face may support this. These small details we learn through dialogue are one of the strong points of the anime, as it rarely has to rely on big exposition dumps like other anime. This structure makes the narrative more enjoyable to follow.

Meanwhile, Yoshino evades her pursuer and rents a bicycle, which she promptly uses to run over him with, then gets close enough to tase him. Yakuza Fiancé Episode 9 then cuts to Shoma and his opponent (Kôji Yusa), who are still fighting. However, halfway into the fight, Azami texts the red head about his departure, which prompts him to stop fighting. Shoma then asks him why he’s after Kirishima, to which he responds by saying there will be an internal conflict within the Yakuza groups and that Kirishima is involved, without revealing how.

This revelation suggests that both Yoshino and Kirishima are somehow going to be involved in the Yakuza war hinted at in previous episodes and that some moves are clearly already being played. Yakuza Fiancé Episode 9 ends with Kirishima and Yoshino approaching a badly beaten Ozu in a very smug way.

Yakuza Fiancé Episode 9 is another excellently entertaining, well-rounded episode. It does a great job of highlighting many of the main characters and entertaining viewers with its dialogue and well-executed fight scenes. However, the most impressive part of the episode is the narrative structure and how well the episode develops the plot.

Overall, Yakuza Fiancé Episode 9 is one of the best episodes of the season so far, and it keeps an upward momentum as we approach the season’s conclusion.