Like sumo wrestling, the katana, and geisha, the yakuza are just one of those iconic things about Japan. Certainly every country has its underground criminal element that is both respected and feared by those withing their territory, but few are known for their strict code of conduct and ritualized practices like the yakuza are.
That said, those looking specifically for yakuza anime in the sea of anime about thugs, gangsters, and other organized crime will have a tough time finding something satisfactory.
Anime about the yakuza are not as popular as you would think, and often the series that do exist are distinctly comical in nature. However, we have scraped together the best yakuza anime recommendations worth watching.
Best Yakuza Anime
Why is Serious Yakuza Anime So Rare?
You want anime detailing the serious, dangerous, and deadly life of a yakuza member?
Well, often the answer anime gives you is – Too bad! Well, unless you enjoy yaoi or difficult to find OVAs, anyway.
But, why is that?
The answer is actually likely a combination of different reasons. The first of which being that the yakuza are, like any criminal organization, scary for people that actually have to deal with them. When you deal with something scary and violent, it is usually best to make them comical rather than to make them something to be idolized, idealized, or feared.
However, a more unexpected reason is also that the yakuza aren’t exactly cool anymore. They had their heyday, but due to a series of legal and social developments in Japan over the years, the size and power of the yakuza have significantly diminished.
In modern Japan, most yakuza exist almost as more of a corporation than underground crime network. The government allows them to exist within strict confines and, due to the difficulty of recruiting new members, they are often seen as a series of old men with little power or menace anymore.
Perhaps depicting the yakuza as comical in anime was also meant to impact membership as well. If you make an organization look cool, young people may be more likely to join it. Who didn’t watch something like The Godfather and feel at least a little intrigued by the Italian Mafia?
However, if you make those gangsters look like house husbands, idol maniacs, or babysitters – Well, they don’t look so cool while also still representing the good aspects that Japan wants to ingrain into its youth.
The Way of the House Husband
The Way of The House Husband follows a legendary yakuza member who took out an entire gang in one night, and then mysteriously disappeared.
He didn’t die or go to jail, but rather he got married to an office lady and became a house husband.
Now, watch him do daily tasks like laundry and cooking while interacting with the other community members in his neighborhood – all while looking and carrying himself with all the menace of a yakuza man.
The Way of the House Husband is actually kind of hard to describe. Tatsu dresses in a slick suit, has the scary scars, and talks in a way that seems menacing, but he’s actually very nice to everyone and the pinnacle of socially responsible. It is what makes this show so charmingly wholesome.
The Way of the House Husband does have one kind of large flaw, though. The animation isn’t the best. In fact, sometimes it is more a slide picture show with voice acting than an anime. However, when the source material is as strong as it is in this show, it might be something you can look past.
The Fable
While still very much a comedy anime, The Fable is also one of the better options for more serious yakuza stories.
The Fable follows the titular assassin who has earned a legendary reputation. So much so, that his boss tells him to lay low for a whole year and try living like a normal person.
Now, as a man literally raised to kill, this proves somewhat difficult in no small part due to the local yakuza organization often forcing his hand into non-lethal action.
The Fable, the anime, is often jokes based on his day-to-day life in the neighborhood, but every so often, you will see a few serious yakuza plots. Although, they are always somewhat undercut with jokes swiftly afterwards.
The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting
While The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting is about a wily member of a yakuza clan becoming the primary babysitter for the daughter of his boss, it is actually about as close as you are going to get to an anime displaying the yakuza in any serious light.
The main character is watching his boss’ daughter because she is targeted like her mother was. It is why her father also keeps her at a heart-breaking distance as well.
While The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting is about a family with problems and a child struggling to deal with those problems, it also has a bit of clan drama to it that it explores as well.
Hinamatsuri
All of the yakuza anime on this list, with perhaps one exception, are comical in some way. However, only a few do comedy as well as Hinamatsuri.
Hinamatsuri tells a pretty familiar story about a yakuza cog-in-the-machine who ends up with a young child. However, that child came crashing into his home in a pod and possesses psychic powers.
He refuses her offer to use her like a tool for his shady dealings, and that begins a sort of odd bond between them as they live together as a wholesome, but also somewhat dysfunctional small family.
It is difficult to explain what makes comedy anime funny. It is a combination of the jokes, the timing, and the reactions – all three Hinamatsuri does almost flawlessly in every bit that it sets up.
It is, however, often one of those shows that is “yakuza without saying yakuza,” in that you never see Nitta’s boss and it never goes into too much depth in how his organization functions.
Gokusen
Gokusen certainly has a high bar for entry in that the anime is both old and the art style of Gokusen was never good looking, even in its manga. However, it is essentially the yakuza version of Great Teacher Onizuka.
In Gokusen, the main character is the daughter and presumed heir to her yakuza clan. However, she wants to be a teacher. She uses her experience dealing with rough men to teach a class of delinquents.
Her belief in them and ability to handle their various attitudes whips them into shape, endears them to her, and rehabilitates the ones with problems.
Gokusen handles its drama in a way that is both comedic and pretty touching sometimes. It is really a shame that its looks often put people off from giving it a try.
Akiba Maid War
Now, bear with me here.
Akiba Maid War is about maid cafes in Akihabara all vying for customers. However, the way the anime series tells that story is that it makes the maid cafes act like yakuza clans. This means turf wars, homage quotas to the clan group leader, lots of violence, and passionately proclaiming what it means to be a maid.
It takes every trope from yakuza movies and media, then paints it with a maid uniform. It is a unique experience and, while it looks silly, it is actually a great yakuza story in every way.
Akagi
It used to be that gambling and mahjong parlors were a large part of yakuza business. As such, this shady show about mahjong has the yakuza play a rather larger part.
Akagi follows the titular character as he gambles his way up to the top of the underworld with mahjong prowess. He doesn’t care about money or even his life, but he does care about winning.
While mahjong is yakuza business, the yakuza aren’t as much of a focus as the gambling in Akagi. They are mostly there for as a threat to the main character, and it is effective.
If you do fall in love with Akagi, be sure to watch the spin-off Mr. Tonegawa which follows a character in the “definitely not Yakuza” corporation. You may also wish to watch Kaiji, by the same creator, but that has more general thugs and less specific yakuza.
My Bride is a Mermaid
My Bride is a Mermaid isn’t a yakuza anime, not technically, anyway. My Bride is a Mermaid is a supernatural rom-com.
The series follows a boy that is saved by a mermaid. However, when a human encounters a mermaid, there are only two choices – one of them has to die or they have to get married to continue keeping the secret.
He makes the rom-com anime choice, of course. However, he married into a family of what is very much a yakuza clan of mermaids and other sea creatures of myth. It adds flavor to the show and is often a driving force behind the comedy.
Back Street Girls
In the yakuza, you live and die by the word of your boss. And if your boss says to go get a sex change and become a successful idol group? Well, you go and do it.
Similar to Akiba Maid War, Back Street Girls is another fun amalgamation of cute and criminal as it blends the yakuza with idol anime.
This series is definitely a fun premise, and excellent if you like a raunchier, vulgar style of comedy. However, similar to The Way of the House Husband, most people ding this particular anime for its lower quality animation. The CGI is obvious and occasional cloying.
My Home Hero
My Home Hero doesn’t start off as a yakuza story. It starts off about a salaryman who impulsively kills his college-aged daughter’s abusive boyfriend and tries to cover up the crime.
Unfortunately for him, he learns that the man he killed was the son of a prominent yakuza associate. As the crime family looks into his disappearance, the main character gets pulled into their investigation. Now, covering up his murder become a matter of life and death.
The longer My Home hero goes on, the more yakuza it becomes. Furthermore, while it doesn’t start as a yakuza anime, it very much becomes one of the best options for a serious, modern yakuza story.
Do you know more yakuza anime that I missed? Let fans know in the comments section below.
