This 2024 Romance Anime Displayed The Most Toxic Relationship In Years

Crunchyroll’s Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga li is one of 2024’s most controversial anime. The sizzling yakuza romance was already set up to be a highly-anticipated title, featuring an intense story about two yakuza family members who are forced to get engaged. Having said that, Yakuza Fiancé definitely lives up to the hype because it’s been a while since a bold romantic story became the talk of the town.

The anime is deliciously contentious with its evocative themes, especially the show’s leading man, Kirishima Miyama. His aura and disruptive personality are the reasons why the fans have been attracted to the dangerous love story that unapologetically waltzes between romance and toxicity. Whether for better or for worse, Yakuza Fiancé has become one of the most talked about anime of 2024, but that doesn’t mean it was a healthy addition to the genre.

Yakuza Fiancé Depicts a Dangerously Addictive Romance

There Are Definitely No “Cozy” Feelings In This Love Story

Yoshino is a “princess” of the largest yakuza group, which means she’s naturally trained to deal with condescending men and their knack for making decisions on her behalf. Unfortunately, Yoshino finds herself in a difficult situation when her grandfather arranges her “marriage” to the grandson of the Miyama clan leader as a part of some truce. Although she hates the idea of being shipped to Tokyo like that, Yoshino ultimately complies with her grandfather’s wishes. Thus, she arrives at the Miyama residence and comes face to face with the chaos that would come in the shape of the handsome yet erratic Kirishima Miyama. Their initial clash is cold and awkward as Kirishima shows no visible interest in Yoshino and goes along with a pretentious act that angers her. Kirishima makes it painfully clear to her that he isn’t interested in someone “mushy” like her who doesn’t have what it takes to be edgy enough to be considered as a potential partner for him.

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This challenge is what starts the electrifying relationship between the two as it becomes a matter of pride for Yoshino. She decides to leave all the absurdity behind, but her grandfather advises her against it and convinces her to stay and take revenge for the humiliation instead. Her grandfather’s words awaken the dormant yakuza in Yoshino, and she goes as far as selling her kidney to prove a point. Although there could have been other ways she could have proved to Kirishima that she was independent, she did something as ludicrous as that, and all of this happens in a single episode. Kirishima and Yoshino’s extreme behaviors set the thrilling tone for the series as one yearns for revenge while the other takes this newfound “badass” personality as a queue to spark the fire of love in his heart.

Yakuza Fiancé Features One of the Most Toxic Male Leads of the Last Decade

Kirishima Miyama Is As Manipulative As They Come

Yakuza Fiancé is in no way a healthy romance, and the show is blatantly upfront about it. The anime does not even try to pretend that all the unhealthiness and red flags would make sense at some point. Maybe that’s the reason why viewers get hooked on the alluring story because the anime does not mislead them. The show is edgy, dark, provocative, and dangerously enticing, and the source of all these emotions is undoubtedly the yakuza prince, Kirishima. The character has been specifically designed to set off alarm bells. He’s the ultimate bad boy, a true embodiment of all things toxic when it comes to partnership.

The only reason that he even remotely considers Yoshino a potential candidate for marriage is her defiance. It seems that Kirishima was never used to dating women who would defy him in any capacity, but seeing Yoshino stand up for herself sparked a unique obsession in him. He becomes infatuated with her, suddenly claiming that he has fallen in love with her. He flips like a switch, raising a cluster of red flags, proving that the whole thing is nothing but a game to him.

Kirishima does not have an ounce of respect for the female race except when he feels they are interesting enough to challenge his pride and manliness. That’s why Yoshino got on his radar, but instead of taking this new experience positively, he turned it into something completely disrespectful. He starts stalking Yoshino, keeping an eye on her even while she is asleep. Of course, Yoshino is annoyed with his sudden interest in her, but wasn’t that her aim all along? It’s jarring to witness that while she stayed on to make Kirishima fall in love with her as a way to get revenge, she seems to be doing absolutely nothing to progress that plan. This perplexing push-and-pull between the two has been incredibly frustrating and distasteful.

Yoshino and Kirishima’s Relationship Is A New Level of Unhealthiness

Their Feelings Don’t Stem From A Place of Care or Purity

Yakuza Fiancé features a toxic relationship, but that’s nothing groundbreaking. The anime never set out to entertain the fans with a healthy partnership that aims to revitalize the soul and the concept of intimacy. Yoshino and Kirishima’s world is violent and full of mistrust and political agendas. One of the reasons why fans have been hooked on the show despite it featuring a twisted love affair is because the story’s aim is not idealization. The yakuza business and politicizing in the backdrop is a testament to the complexities involved in Yoshino and Kirishima’s relationship.

They couldn’t experience a healthy relationship even if they wanted to because they can’t escape their destructive world. The show features a fiery romance in the capacity of the ambiguity of the yakuza world. At the same time, it would be shocking to witness the male lead openly cheating on the heroine in a typical high school drama, but not in Yakuza Fiancé. Yoshino somewhat has an idea that Kirishima is not some naïve teenager who would transform overnight with the joy of finding his soulmate. Some things are inherent, and Kirishima’s tumultuous personality and outlook towards relationships are not something that can go away because he has developed an obsession with Yoshino.

Ultimately, it’s not like Kirishima is the evilest guy on the block. He cares for Yoshino in his own distorted way and goes to certain lengths to make her feel comfortable. However, he does that at the expense of her privacy and self-respect. It doesn’t take much time for the trope to become mundane as the story progresses, with no sign of Kirishima changing his ways. It’s not like he doesn’t feel for Yoshino at all, but he remains in the process of learning throughout the story. During that time, he cheats on Yoshino several times, leading the latter to believe that he might have grown bored of her. While the audience must have had a blast being entertained by the mayhem and explosiveness of Kirishima and Yoshino’s unpredictable love story, their romance holds little to no value.

What Anime Like Yakuza Fiancé Mean for The Genre

Yakuza Fiancé’s Surprising Reception Has Revived Fans’ Interest In Problematic Love Stories

One of the most surprising aspects of the anime is the depth and complexity of the story and its characters. There’s toxicity, violence, and a psychotic romance, but there’s also a compelling narrative. The power struggle and the mysteriousness in the backdrop are the perfect mediators in grounding the destructive romance. The anime works because Yoshino’s genuineness and strength balance Kirishima’s red-flagged personality. She’s vibrant, smart, and holds her ground even in a dangerous situation. Butting heads with Kirishima may be a matter of pride for her, but there’s more to her actions than meets the eye. Having said that, when it comes to the relationship aspect of the story, there’s no denying that Yakuza Fiancé has depicted one of the most toxic relationships in the genre in a while. No one has quite owned the bad boy archetype the way Kirishima has.

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Whether it’s the characters or the plot, Yakuza Fiancé is all about offering something different and mature. The anime is pretty straightforward about where it stands thematically, so it shouldn’t threaten the evolution of the romance genre. Sure, viewers have more or less left behind the outdated tropes that glorified male bravado at the expense of a one-dimensional heroine. However, anime like Yakuza Fiancé makes fans look twice because of its conflicting nature. In its entirety, the series is the ultimate guilty pleasure watch, something that the audience knows thrives on moral ambiguity, but the viewers can’t help but get caught in its orbit. The dysfunctionality in the anime is addictive, and despite even feeling disgusted at some point by the “romance,” viewers are forced to finish the series just to know how it ends. Moreover, since the show did not end on a definite note, there’s a possibility of fans being treated to the ultimate conclusion of 2024’s most problematic love story.

Release Date

October 7, 2024

Seasons

1

Studio

Studio Deen

MyAnimeList Score

7.14