Being a huge Yakuza universe fan, and I just completed the Kurohyo2 game, I finally decided to start the second season of the drama up.
Now first off, I adored the first season, it was gritty, fun, and well put together and face paced like the game. The fight scenes were well done, in your face and flowed well with the cuts.
This season however, I’m only one episode in obviously, has much different production, filming style and quality. It actually seems rushed and poorly planned, the story is there yet, the camera quality gets iffy here and there, and the fight scenes are slow and boring.
The first major gang fight scene (DIS) is pretty campy, and poorly coreographed overall. It felt weak and I was amused at how Takumi has clearly lost weight since the first season, and his fighting stance is kinda comical in this one due to his gauntness.
I enjoyed the episode, but it felt weak out of the gate, I’m hoping it picks up, I’ll def be watching it and buying it ( stop buying bootlegs you idiots, with shitty Chinese google translate subs), on official dvd. Hopefully it’ll grow more production legs and they are trying new things.
Also, if you haven’t played the Kurohyo spin-offs of the Yakuza series, it’s worth importing. I very much doubt there will ever be an English patch, for those wondering, just due to the fact that series as a whole hasn’t much support outside of Japan.
Haven’t watched much of season 2 so far since there are no good English subs (or even poor ones!)