Yakuza TV show won't have karaoke, though singing "may come eventually"

Sorry singing fans, Amazon’s Yakuza TV show won’t include the game’s iconic karaoke sessions.

The Yakuza, or Like a Dragon, games are known for their bizarre minigames, but it seems the TV producers are taking a more serious approach to their adaptations by focusing on human emotion and offering new interpretations of familiar characters.

When asked during a roundtable if karaoke would be featured in the Like a Dragon: Yakuza TV show, executive producer Erik Barmack said it would not, though “singing may come eventually” (thanks The Gamer).

“When you start to figure out how to boil down this world into six episodes… there’s so much source material to pull from,” said Barmack. There’s no confirmation of further series, but it seems the door for karaoke is open at least.

Similarly, the TV show won’t focus on the substories of the games, which often include some outlandish characters and activities.

“I think we’re digging into the human emotions and the emotional elements of the characters of this iteration,” said lead actor Ryoma Takeuchi (Kazuma Kiryu). “In a positive way, we’re departing from the game at the end of the day; it all comes together.”