I agree, I think that his personality on 0 with the cabaret was an act too, in my opinion Majima is both the Mad Dog and a serious person, the Mad Dog ain't fake, he likes to get crazy in battle too, but I totally ignore Majima personality in 1 and 2, because it just doesn't make sense with his character later on
@@leonardo25gabriel Also - even if this is unrelated to the psycholgical topic: Fighting Majima in Yakuza 1 is some BUUUUUUULLSHIT. I'm the one who'll need therapy for fighting that annoying bastard.
@@thekingmeruem >His time Play the Battle Review (basically the precursor to Climax Battles), either the Time Trial or Revenge tabs and tell me how your attempts go. GGs, got zoned and shanked for the entirety of the fight.
@@Fabio-ql5yf Majima in Yakuza 1 literally tries to kill people multiple times, threatens innocent people, etc etc It doesn't make sense with the personality he is presented in the rest of the series, he ain't a crazy sadist murderer, just crazy, they probably din't plan on his personality that much, so I understand
One thing that I love about your analysis is how this study of Majima show a LOT about Kiryu's own demise in the serie and why he got such a "darker" fate in the end compared to Majima (who had a shit life), Kaito or Shinada, which all got closures on their trauma/problems. Kiryu is an idealistic person with a set code of "honor" he follows, he is an empathic person who live through making the ones he loves happy, he lack personnal goals or ambition and only wish to support the ones that made him feel whole. Kiryu story has always been the issue between the romantisation of the yakuza/samurai and the crude brutal reality of the underground world. While Kiryu did succeed to do a lot of good things, like helping and saving Haruka, saving Daigo, helping indirectly Majima, avenging the "weak" who had been broken by terrible schemes, helping countless peoples in general... He also never got closure on many of his traumas. In the end, he lost his own "brother" who betrayed their paternal figures and "hated" him, his own "father" figure was the origin of him being an orphan, he is the reason the second woman he loved lost her parents (and ironically it is one of the few trauma where he got closures), he lost the love of his life, he "made" Haruka suffer because of who he is, he made all of the children in Sunflower suffer due to his origins, he lost the first real new friend he had for years after seeing Rikuya die in Y3, he didn't support the "son" he loved in Daigo, etc. Kiryu often fail to save "himself" and sacrifice himself countless time, ignoring who he is because "he can take it" but we all knows he can't (Yakuza 5 made a god damn effort of showing what happen to Kiryu when he go toward this extreme road. It is also why him choosing to 'attone' selflessly at the beginning of Y6 lead to again more issues). In the end, the incoming spin off game about Kiryu is VERY important in my eyes because I genuinely hope it is a game where Kiryu as a person get confronted FOR GOOD about this issue and force to fight/live for his own happiness and not the one of other. I really hope a character, be it Haruka, Daigo, Majima, Ichiban or Date, fucking punch him into having the right to be happy. It is why Majima is so important as a contrast. His sacrifices made him miserable too and the closure he got is what allowed him to finally be himself.
This was beautifully written and so well put! I hope it's okay if I draw on some of these ideas when the eventual Kiryu episode comes out? Of course full credit for those ideas will be cited in the video. Thank you again for the comment!
@@vgology Yes absolutely, there is a lot of things I certainly misunderstand or interpret in my own way. If I can add one things about this whole Kiryu theme... It is also why I genuinely love Rikiya and Nagumo relationship with Kiryu. I feel they are two ways to show how Kiryu's "kyoudai" genuinely give him a lot in their own way, reminiscent of how Nishiki was so important to Kiryu. Nishiki is the person that wanted to save Kiryu from the violence of the Yakuza world. He was willing to kill him to avoid him suffering, he threw himself to stop Kiryu from Killing Shibusawa as he knew it would broke Kiryu in the inside (which is even worse when we saw how Nishiki's first killing ended up breaking the loving person he was and started his new self). He was the person who didn't romantize the Yakuza's life, well aware that it is a lot about how you are perceived (something that then lead to Nishiki feeling dwarfed by Kiryu's charisma and strength). He was the man who showed to Kiryu that he had to make a choice in this life when it came to be a Yakuza, that someone who wished to wear "white" in a world of darkness would end up becoming just as black. Rikiya is so important because he is the one person who genuinely made Kiryu reconnect to the feeling of friendship when it come to the Yakuza world. Rikiya is loved by his community, he is a genuinely nice person with a bit of a naive streak but certainly not an idiot. He is loyal and someone who isn't scared to go through for someone he loves. Just like Kiryu, he is a mirror of what Kiryu is in some aspect (while having his own traits, being naive, prideful of his home, sometime hotheaded, younger). He is also someone who is way less straight laced than Kiryu, not even thinking twice about faking being a gay couple to enter the hotel room, immediately defending his homeland pride, not even letting one chance for Kiryu to push him away as he call him aniki. He is not without reminding Kiryu's relationship with Shinji. Rikiya die to save Kiryu and it is something that Kiryu struggle to tank because someone younger than him, that he opened to and liked, decided to DIE for him. And it show a lot about Kiryu's issue, Kiryu struggle to make himself happy because he struggle to connect to people (Thank fucking god he got Haruka and all the orphans around him) and allowing himself to be loved. He is the one who take bullet in the body, it is how his brain work. Loosing Rikiya is reminding him of being helpless to save the ones he loves (expressed in Yakuza 5, where he leave Haruka and the kids and then breakdown when Daigo get shot) but it also show that Kiryu is genuinely someone who need others to make himself happy. Then come Nagumo, and god did I not expect to love this character this much. What make Nagumo so important as a "kyoudai" is that he is one of the VERY VERY VERY fucking few characters that Kiryu learned to trust and see like a man he doesn't have to protect or monitor. Kiryu was always the protective and wise figures for many characters, level headed and with a high morality too. Nagumo is incredibly impulsive and can be dumb but he is someone who despite all of that deeply understands his responsabilities and the ones around him. He fight ALL THE TIME with his boys and yet he knows them way too well. But more than that, he is someone who respect others and respect himself. I don't wanna ramble too much but he is the ONLY fucking person where Kiryu basically accept to go on a "suicide" mission, they both drink together and go fight even if it means dying. There is no desire of seeing someone as "needing to be protected", Nagumo is the closest person I saw Kiryu treat as an equal outside of his fellow tojo friends (majima, saejima, daigo) and they both shared the feeling of loss and injustice. They are actually EXTREMELY similar in this aspect (like Nishiki & Rikiya). Nagumo is the sign of maturation that Kiryu got through when it came to accept people. Yakuza 6 is a lot about Kiryu's despair about loosing Haruka again and how he struggle to cope with it, it hit him with being a father (again), it is a game where one of the fucking minigame is actually Kiryu making FRIENDS. Something he never did outside of the cabaret club or side quests. Yakuza 6 is a game where Kiryu is push to his limits, but also where he is the most able/mature when it come to connecting to people. We went a long fucking way from Yakuza 0 where he was an idealist with no self care and only lived for some people to someone who learned to forgive himself (yakuza 2), to dare loving others (like TRUE love, not just being a genuine nice person because it is just who he is) in the end of Y2/Y3 and let them in his life again, to someone who learned to actually reconnect with people and have more self respect/know what he wish for (Y5/Y6). It is why Y6 end is so hard, because he again did the ultimate sacrifice to "protect the ones he loves" instead of doing what he wished and is now alone again. Despite doing SO MUCH for himself in Y6, in the end Kiryu chose a path of limbo where he is neither alive nor dead, not unlike the grey of his suit, he decided to be neither and therefore be/have nothing. ... Someone make this man be happy I beg of you, Ichiban please...
@@nevrankroaton Another great write up! You clearly have a deep understanding about the characters and the games and I loved reading your interpretation of everything. Thank you again for sharing! I hope my Kiryu video can do your comments justice
@@nevrankroaton that was beautiful and if anyone can bring someone from darkness to light, it's gonna be our beautiful hero kasuga Ichiban, while he and kiryu share a lot of characteristics like putting their friends first, ichi has shown a deep and mutual respect with his party, he never even hesitated to let saeko join the fights (which to my understanding are more like the clan battles in 6, y'know our group beating down the other group, than actually dragon quest) a specially impactful contrast was at the end of like a dragon, while kiryu chose to sacrifice 10 years in the joint (nice reference) and "spare" nishiki of his fate (which would ultimately would be nishiki's downfall), Ichiban convinced Masato to accept his fate of prison time so that he could pay for his deeds and start from 0 a stronger man with ichi at his side as an equal
@@TheTony257 tbh, can't wait to see how much Kiryu changes Ichiban to be more mature, while Ichiban changes Kiryu into more... Human. Afterall, as I quote him before his fight against Shibusawa, "There's only one room for a dragon".
@@KingShibe Sure but in the single early scene he's in he doesn't act as crazy as he would eventually act later on (mostly because he got, like, 5 minutes of screentime before the 10 year timeskip). Also I guess it's 16 years total then, my bad
6 years is still a very long time and all he did was beat a guy up. At least in Kiwami Majima never kills anyone unlike the original where I'm pretty sure he actually killled one of his own men at some point. So they put some effort into making him a bit more consistent.
One of my favorute lines from Majima is from Yakuza 5 at the begining of Saejima's part in the batting cages, Majima says "Ffter all these years I guess my fangs went 'n fell out. 'Course I wanna keep playin' the tough guy. But no one knows me better then I know myself. Gotta have the stones to face reality". officialy dropping the Mad Dog Persona (unless he absolutely NEEDS it). While Majima was never originally intended to be a complex character, I think its clear to see that as early as Yakuza 3, Majima was changed to be more indepth. In Yakuza 3 you see him switching between his normal self and Mad dog on the spot MANY times, and in 4 and 5 he never puts on his mad dog facade. Yakuza 0 didnt change his character at all, It just gave context as to WHY hes the way he is.
Tbh Majima from Yakuza 3 (mainly 4) onwards feels like a retcon for me, and I'm absolutely okay with that, because the crazy joker Majima from Yakuza 1 and 2 isn't cool as Majima from the rest of the series, they're just two different characters
@Leonardo Gabriel It's 100% a retcon because the writers changed between 2 and 3, but it was a very welcome and believable retcon since Y2 already showed Majima developing a stronger friendship with Kiryu. It isn't hard to believe that by the time Y3 rolled around, Majima would see Kiryu as his closest friend and ally and become much more grounded by him. It was pretty much logically where the character was going. This is compared to Sayama randomly deciding to fucking move to America, the bad retcon 3 made. Oh well, you can't win them all.
I kinda appreciated in Y5 that Majima's line about his fangs falling out was a bluff, as we saw later in the game when he's chastising Saejima for going soft. One thing the Mad Dog persona shows us throughout the latter half of the series is that it's not just a shield for him, it's an excuse. He doesn't ever really go all out until something that personally, deeply affects him is on the line -- which is why he doesn't challenge Kiryu until he's at full strength in Majima Everywhere, and why when he fights Saejima it's not a "test" or anything dumb like that. He's fighting because if he doesn't, Haruka will die and he can't let that sit. The Y5 fight shows this in gameplay too -- Majima does stuff in that fight that he NEVER did before, that was never a part of the Mad Dog persona. His quicksteps are faster, his attacks hurt more, even his Heat QTEs have tighter timings. For the first time in the series, he's throwing everything he's got at the one guy he trusts can take it. That's not the Mad Dog, that's just Majima, the guy we would watch grow throughout Y0. That's nuts.
Also check him out at the end of Yakuza 6 when ****SPOILER**** himself, Saejima & Daigo believe Kiryu to be dead. He's incredibly low key, sombre, more of the normal Goro you witness in Yakuza 0.
The Fact that Mad Dog persona is less of an act but more of a coping mechanism for Majima to deal with his trauma makes it all the more tragic and depressing. We always get to his "real side" whenever we get to play as him or when he's talking to Saejima But whenever he's near Kiryu or any other characters he switches to Mad Dog to cope and help himself. So it is nice to see him mellowed out a bit on later entries cus its slowly healing him and Kiryu also unknowing helped him the most to deal with his trauma so you know damn well Majima is really thankful for Kiryu even if he won't admit it.
I think this is the most accurate answer tbh. The last question would be how much it's intentional and how much it's not. Because you know, Majima does some very weird fucking things while being the Mad Dog. I can't picture this guy willingly crashing contruction machinery into a building to get to Kazuma. That feels like this side of him acting a bit on his own, with "real Majima" thinking about it later and saying "woops"
Nah he just doesn't give a fuck anymore he does what he wants after being what felt like a slave for a long time he stopped being a pawn and became a king especially after watching that nashi dude die for him he straight up jacked his style
we all have that Mad Dog inside of us, but it will take perfect timing of events for it to show. in Majima's case all of those moments were all aligned for him.
I dont even think majima "loved" mirei park, it seems he kinda used her for a coping mechanism but made love to her because she believed it was real. Thats why in yakuza 5 she tells haruka that sometimes the fans "love" is fake, she says that because she has been through it herself with her fans but mainly majima, and to warn haruka not to believe that fake love. Of course when she got pregnant majima definitely wanted it but she didnt so he lashed out, he almost tried to force himself to love her but couldnt
This is an excellent point! Thank you for writing it up. I definitely agree with you, the relationship with Mirei was definitely a product of coping, and although I think he did care for her, he never truly loved her. Thanks again for the comment!
I can't blame him, as the pain of your child being taken away would be too much for most people. Especially if it was by somebody you were supposed to be close to
Honestly, that romance is so weird for me, it only serves as a plot device to bridge some random connection between enemy forces to make it involving Haruka. And i don't think it goes that deep for Majima and Mirei, its as blunt as it is, I've seen enough RGG writing skills to see through their intention, Mirei wanted to progress with her career and had to leave romance life behind, it's as straight forward as it could be with Mirei wanting Haruka to leave Kiryu behind like she did to Majima. With all that crap about rubber bullets and Katsuragi left unscathed to shoot Yasuko, I will never trust RGG to have such capacity for deep meanings They write things to be as convenient as possible, it's like the joke when a literature teacher rambles about a poem author using the color purple for sadness and regret while the author just likes purple because it rhymes
@@lycanbladefang4768 i remember hearing a fan theory that it was actually katsuya who loved park but he knew she loved majima, who didnt love park back. So katsuya (using his acting chops) simply hid his feelings for her so she could be happy, kinda like what majima did to makoto in 0 in some weird way. What ANNOYS me is we dont get to see majima's reaction to park's death, that too shinada's reaction to Fujita's death. Almost like that character bond was for nothing
@@lycanbladefang4768 I'm annoyed with Y5's plot being an expansive mess specifically because of this -- if we remember that Y5 was released before Y0, Mirei no longer looks like a coping mechanism and does actually look like a completely random twist connection. I'm glad that RGGS at least added SOME implied meaning to Mirei's relationship with Majima through Makoto (I believe it was definitely intentional), but it sucks that it's so hamfisted when taken as-is, prior to Y0's recontextualization. One thing I'm hoping for (and I think I'm already disappointed by because Kiryu is returning as a dual protagonist, and all of the baggage that that represents) is that Y8 onward will have some better storytelling now that the director of the old convoluted series has stepped down. But, I guess we'll have to see. Maybe I should just play Judgment until that gets all tangled up in bullshit.
I know that Majima is usually considered to be one of the best characters among the community and I honestly think stuff like this contributes a lot to it.
Yes, it is. It comes from the trauma suffered in 0 and he created it so no one could predict him ever again. In a way, the unpredictability made him a king-maker of sorts
Yknow, after everything he goes through, it's really a nice thing to see Majima living a much nicer life later on in the series. Something I noticed about his appearance in Yakuza 7, his new version of "Receive You" (Receive and Turn You) just sounds a lot happier than most of the previous ones (Especially Receive and Bite You in my opinion.) I think this was a conscious decision to help paint modern Majima as a man untethered from his past, having made his amends with his brother and gotten closure on the most traumatic parts of his life. Also Majima can create shadow clones of himself and this is just canon and something he does on more than one occasion.
Great analysis, the Mirei and Makoto resemblance was on point. I also noticed it and dassumed it was due to Majima's unresolved feelings for the past. I was glad to finally play Kiwami 2 and get that clousure for the character. Poor guy.
I thought majima was always just a little crazy before the mad dog "switch" is flipped. From what I've seen is oddities slip out during combat or when he's enraged, for example his fighting styles specifically the mad dog one, the games cutscenes seem to suggest that he gets the mad dog fighting style before the "switch" is flipped which makes it seem that the mad dog style is just a result of his already supposed craziness now I don't think he was full blown crazy like was after 0 when he was putting on the act but there was definitely some there before he put on the mad dog persona. Now for how he acts when he's enraged I can't really go off on because he's fucking pissed i probably wouldn't screaming at the top of my lung but i know people who probably would, now at the end of the game when he's storming the dojima hq the cutscene where he yelling at the dojima family members, in that moment he didn't care anymore he was letting go combined with the rage of makato getting shot, produced that ball of explosive rage the majima I think what we got in those final moments was the actual mad dog not some persona that he's subconsciously putting on the actual true mad dog.
I think Majima's particularly brutal fighting style is because of his torture, as Jana said. He also was a member of the Tojo Clan for a few years prior to the '85 hit, and we see that he manages to mess up a ton of Shimano dudes before he's finally captured in Y4's flashback. So he's clearly pretty tough and already pretty scarred by Y0, so I think him coming out the box with a fucking neck snap Heat Action makes at least some sense. I really, REALLY want a Majima spinoff detailing his adventures from 1989 to 1995 -- I would actually really like to see how his relationship to Mirei and Katsuya develops, and it's an adventure ripe for the picking, but I think it also might not be that interesting if we know that Majima is "just" the Mad Dog of Shimano by that point, doing the same stuff he was always doing.
Definitely with what you and others said that it was already lying just under the surface--but everything in 0 scraped that top layer off. We see in the scene where he breaks out of Sagawas control that he's calm, composed, but at the same time you can't call him anything but gone. He's the mad dog through and through, but the "mad dog" as we know it is more of a state than his true personality
As someone who has experienced many traumas from taking the moral high ground, Majima is someone I relate to strongly. When you are walked all over for being the "nice guy," a single major event can cause you to change your personality as self defense. You don't want to be seen as weak, so you start acting tough to protect yourself from being taken advantage of again. For me, I interpret the Mad Dog persona as a self creating myth for people to fear Majima rather than to challenge him. He does it to protect himself.
I really don't think the mad dog is an act, at least not on the traditional sense. Majima's character arc in Yakuza 0 is about FREEDOM. He's trapped in Sotenbori in the caberet under Sagawas heel. When he gets back to his apartment he's being watched from all sides. He's unable to even raise his fist against a patron who disrespects him by pouring alcohol on him. He's caged up. That way near the end of the game, Majima is finally allowed to break out. Sagawa even says Majima "finally got out of the cage" and Majima himself decides to live as free as he wishes. It doesn't make sense for someone who's entire arc is about being free to suddenly trap themselves in a fake persona. I think people want it to be an act because they have trouble reconciling the fact that Majima can have crazy moments and serious ones. In reality, those two sides of him aren't that mutally exclusive. Just because he's batshit insane in one moment doesn't mean he can't also be serious in the next. That's freedom. Being able to choose what you want to act like depending on how it suits you is the epitome of how Majima wants to live. I mean even in his opening cutscene in Yakuza 0, he showcases that he has a flair for the dramatic when he says "Alright boys, give me one with a beat!" hinting that there's a way that'd he'd rather be acting like. In Japanese his course rough self even peeks through when he whispers "Shaa nai na" right before asking the band which is extremely informal in stark contrast to his painfully formal speaking to Sawaga and to his patrons as the lord of the night. That whisper is indicitive of the fact that his mad dog persona is actually part of his real personality. That he's being restrained and he just wants a chance to let loose. TLDR: Mad Dog being an act doesn't mesh well with Majimas want for freedom, at least in my opinion
I actually agree with your opinion wholeheartedly. And I think it's both and that's it's actually what his original personality is like and the reason why people think it's an act is because that's what he wants people to think.
I thought two special points that should be raised regarding Majima's 'mask'. One's a theory, one's a very noted point. The theory I had was regarding Majima's prediliction of beating the hell out of his subordinates. The first time you see that is when he assaults the pair harassing Makoto. I wonder if he built that into his legend to cover up that he was protecting Makoto, and he literally carried it through for years out of his desire to separate her from the yakuza lifestyle and never give a hint to anyone of his other motivation for having done it the first time. The fact that comes up is actually shown in your video. When Majima goes to fight Kei Ibuchi [with one of the BEST dynamic intros in the whole series], despite his thrilling dodges and vicious knife slashes... watch his face. No manic smile, no cackling laughter, not even a smug grin. Obviously you can't avoid these for the precanned animations and heat actions during the fight, but the fact that Majima's persona drops off that sharply points to the deliberation of it being a mask. Ibuchi and his disrespect for everything Majima stands for, all of his code of honor, he brought out the true, serious Majima behind that mask, with the terrifying level of focus of someone who can literally dodge bullets from hearing the trigger pull. It's not the murderous glee that he's supposed to be famous for, it's deadpan unwavering purpose. Ibuchi is far from the most dangerous person Majima has fought [I think we can all agree that would most likely be Lao Gui] so this change isn't because of the danger or intensity of the confrontation, but of a choice on his part.
Man, I've just discovered this channel a few hours ago and binge watched all your videos and let me tell ya this is the best channel I've found this year. Congrats for the research and effort you put on every video. I wish you the best.
This really is an amazingly explained insight to a beloved character who's developed in such strange ways throughout the series. It does truly go to show how despite how tough these funny fighting men are, they still have so much pain.
I'm glad somebody is putting a magnifying glass up to everyone's favorite cyclops. Where most people see a rabid clown, I see a man in pain. Crying for help. Anyway... *picks up electrical transformer to crush Majima with after he jumped out from a giant-sized traffic cone again*
Ever after figuring out how the mad dog thinks I still can’t figure how we can dumpster him in one moment and then turn around and see him sitting in restaurant waiting for us in the next
Majima's #1 trait is tenacity. He might not be the strongest, quickest, or most skillful, but he's not going down and staying down unless you kill him. You can only slow him up.
Guess also a pivotal point for Majima's transformation from the Lord of the Night into the Mad Dog was Shimano's manipulation from the days of the Hole into the Makoto ordeal. You can sense how he snapped with the realization he was being played all along. Furthermore, when he also realized his patriarch is an actual betrayer of the clan as he wanted to sell it out to the Omi and yet his loyalty to him prevent Majima for ever rat Shimano out. I guess the switch was to never let anyone manipulate him like that again, pretend to be unhinged, bat crazy.
Some of my favourite moments in the series are when you can see the mad dog come down in times when Majima has to seriously think, such as the boss fight with Kei Ibuchi (footage beginning at 6:53) where he isn't being 'mad' because he's fighting seriously with stakes and risk involved.
Bro thank you for making this. My first game was Yakuza 0 about a year ago and I’ve searched all over the internet to find a decent answer to this question.
I feel like the mad dog is indeed a mask formed to hide his true feelings about the situation around him You can see break character when Kiryu asks him to come back to the family in Yakuza 2. He's not playing around like he was like 10 seconds before. His tone even changes as well. As if to make it clear he's not joking about not coming back
This video is worth it. I am a fan of the series for the past 17 years since Yakuza 2. Wish there was a course in college about the psychology of video game characters. I would take it in a heartbeat.
so having dealt with a dissociative identity disorder i can kinda see now how the change hit, like personally now whenever i’m asked to explain say my beliefs on something i don’t know what to actually tell people because no matter what i say it feels disingenuous because my perception of reality got lost and while my shift isn’t quite as dramatic as normal dude to crazed lunatic there was a point where there was a front that caused a mental split during a very trauma filled section of my life and i think that may be why majima is my favourite yakuza character because i can relate to him in more ways than i realise
yes and no. the entier thing being all he is IS an act. however the thing is that craziness IS within him. its actually his anger we see from time to time in Y0 but also his love as well. using these two conflicting yet equally powerful and passionate emotions it makes it hard and practically imposible to predict or even understand much of anything does. this applies to Majima too. Majima finally lets his true drive out and just goes with it so he doesnt have to deal with everything since hes suffered so much. however he knows when and were he needs to focus and get serious, hence why he no longer acts all gitty at times
Its either an act, or its a defense mechanism to protect himself, or he really partially broken because everything went past the certain threshold some part of him become mad.
I always believed that it would make more sense if Majima began acting as the Mad Dog after saying "I'll be your damn clown" in Yakuza 0. In that scene he let himself get beaten up by a bunch of tugs, because he believes he deserves to be punished for his actions. I always thought that his quote was connected to him turning into the Mad Dog. Do you think that that scene had an impact on his character? (ps Amazing analysis. It's really helpfull that you cited and showed your sources in the video, not allot of TH-camrs do that. Also the way you constructed the video is really neat, must have taken several rewrites to get it to this form of perfection. Great job!)
Great video! This has been a topic that's kind of annoyed me for a while now and I feel like you covered it with more tact than most reddit comments do. I will say I believe that his change was still MOSTLY deliberate on his part, rather than being a part of his trauma. To me, the whole point of Majima's story in 0 is that for most of his life, at least in the Yakuza, every action he makes is closely controlled by someone else. The one time he lashes out and tries to do something he believes in (not leaving Saejima behind) he is tortured for a year and put right back in his place, just following orders again. 0 for him is a journey of learning what it means to be free through the people he meets, and thus his character arc is him deciding to be the most wild and free person he knows, as he knows now how much he hates being under someone else's control. I think that's reflected by the fact that even in his more intimate and serious scenes in games post 0, his mannerisms and vocabulary are still far more carefree and abrasive then they were pre 0 (e.g. his dinner with Saejima at the start of 5, his conversation with Ichiban at the end of 7). To me, this shows that his personality before he flipped the switch was the fake one he put on to stay safe, and his Mad Dog personality, to an extent, is just him staying true to himself.
Something I wish was brought up in this video is Majima's relationship with Yuki. I know it's kind of up in the air whether or not substories in the Yakuza games are canon or not, but I feel like Majima's relationship with Yuki is a really good example that he's capable of flipping off his persona or at least toning it down rather heavily. If I remember correctly, Kiryu points out during Yakuza Kiwami 2 that Majima's acting pretty out of character during his reunion with Yuki because not only does Yuki not know what he's become, but because after nearly 20 years, he still cares about her in the same manner he did when they first met. I always found their relationship kind of cute and wished that RGG would expand it more if they ever did remakes for the other games, but I doubt that'll happen considering they did mostly wrap up their whole relationship in Kiwami 2.
Since I started with Yakuza 0 and loved Goro Majima for the character he was portrayed as (serious melancholic man with a wacky side coming through sometimes), I saw on the Internet a pic of Goro Majima after Yakuza 0, and started thinking that he was gonna be driven insane by torture. I really wasn’t looking forward to it, but thankfully, it wasn’t that.
I really am hoping that we get a Majima standalone game where we can get a deeper look into his personality following his transformation into the Mad Dog. The only time we ever get a closer look at Majima’s life was in Yakuza 0, more indirectly with plot points of Yakuza 4 & 5, but we haven’t gotten much of Majima as an independent figure. He is a character with a lot of trauma. He uses the Mad Dog persona to escape it for a bit, but deep down he still holds the same values of loyalty, brotherhood, and compassion.
In my opinion the Mad Dog persona is a way to scare of anyone he cares about that isnt strong enough to protect them self from the life hes leading and thats why he like Kiryu so much as he was the first person in years that hecould count on
But there is still a chance that he is still sane and does all of this in purpose, for fun, and just because he wants to, right? I can totally imagine someone doing that for many years.
I mean, he is sane. He switches between normal majima and mad dog when it counts. When things are more serious he gets more serious. I think it's a mixture of what this guy said, coping but with a harsh environment where it's good to be unpredictable. Also, a bit of the fact that he also wants to be entirely free to express himself because he hated the idea of being trapped or someone else's prisoner.
I found this video when i was playing kiwami 2 almost a year ago. Told myself to keep this video aside until i reach 6 (for spoilers and character development) Literally burned through the series within that that time and made it to 6. Finally was able to watch this video fully. Completely worth the wait!
I like when I get suggested videos like this. In his line of "work", Majima has to be very cautious and not show any vulnerability. If he has to act a role to protect himself then he'd do it no problem. In Yakuza 4 he didn't have a kansai accent, yet later he does. I also remember Saejima thinking the eyepatch was just for show. Meaning acting and pretending is not someone new to Majima. I do think part of the mad dog thing is not an act. He's genuinely not all there and we all know how traumatized he is. So it's a mix of the two
So I can't watch the video bc im not done all the Yakuza games but I think that the "Lord of the Night" persona was the front. The reserved collected Majima is like the Japanese concept of "keeping your face" where the basic idea is never show what you are feeling. I think the Mad dog is what Majima truly wants to be.
It's *a* front. He's not calm or collected, but he's not insane like his Mad Dog persona. He's only like that because his boss tells him to. I won't spoil anything, but you're half-right.
In my head, i always thought majima had a form of a multiple personality disorder due to his trauma , mostly because of kiwami where majima can show up in multiple costumes and act completely different
@@thatrandomcrit5823 Yes, acting is normal acting like Majima des is not. He can use normal things in abnormal ways to cope. Its like telling ppl I have ADHD too when they describe the symptoms. Yes every person can forget but will not forget almost every single time etc.
I still wish the games properly explain how he became The Mad Dog but it sure does show quite a bit to make the stars align for it. I believe just about everyone has a persona they develop, especially when your life's been dogshit. This was a rather sound analysis. Cant wait to tell ppl who stream the series this. You earned my sub.
my man Majima have been through a lot in life, if there's any people out there who apparently had the same things happened to Majima, i pray the best for you
Bravo. People and their psychology are very complex thus dificult to even underestand As someone who also davs on methad acting i find this very comprehensive. When methods acting you learn every aspect of yourself, specially what you can do and this hat not, there is people who CANT harm others for example or said mean things, thus help get a better underestanding of onself. Aditionally there the compartmentalized aspect of it, meaning: even if you can do it, are you gonna? And this is the critical aspect of method acting, one can learn they have very persuasive skills, thus they have to decide when and how to use them Keep in mind ALL aspect are part of one self, then one chooses what to use and when. As we see majima is BOTH the super colected and overly expresive self, in adition with and arrogant sling and very skillfull body control. The colected Majima is still there, he just choose not to use it anymore, as we only see this aspect of himself when he was the cavare worker, keeping the image, which can be interpreted as a chain or him conforming to society. Aditionally trauma can subconsciously block some of this skills, as the mind ties them to pain thus the user cant access them anymore or refuce to do so, this goes for empathy too. And finally this isnt just for method actor, but anyone too, as who you ARE and what position you take in society are choices of the part of you to show and to hide, actors just underestand it better.
I think it’s a way for him to let loose. You can tell in 0 how much some of his mad dog mannerisms leak out occasionally. Especially after he meats Makoto
Interesting theory, and I think it has way stronger point than "majima snapped and went crazy like joker" misconception that some people believe. Narrative wise, I think Majima was mad from the start, one thing about Y0 and Y1 Majima has in common is that he loves fighting, and it shows through how he already acts like a mad dog in combat from the very start of Y0. His calm composure was a mask to blend in with the society, something we all do so we can work together as a human and not be a weirdo outsider. Majima hated this, and joined yakuza thinking it would be different, but it turned out yakuza was pretty much the same, you have to live under yakuza's rules to survive being a yakuza goon, else you'll get punished for it, if not face death. While Majima was unhappy about this he still refused go back to being a civilian because that wouldn't change anything either. Throughout his adventure in Y0 he re-affirms his fondness of yakuza life-style by meeting and battling with the "mad" people he came to adore, they were living in the world Majima wanted to live. This is why he can't just quit yakuza and live rest of his life with Makoto as a civilian, his desire to fight would most likely end up with him leaving Makoto. So he cut ties with Makoto, embraced being yakuza, and he chose to be a mad dog who'd rather die early doing whatever he wants (which is what people he adored all had in common, they all died early enjoying whatever they wanted to do) than be a submissive dog who suppresses their desire and not be themselves just to survive in a circle (which was who Majima was at the start of Y0), a little ironic considering Majima become of the very few longest living Yakuza character.
Some weird trivia I want to share. Noh theater is easily recognizable by the masks used, as opposed to the bare-faced theater of kabuki. Of one of the masks, Hannya is probably the most recognizable as a fierce demon. It actually depicts a fierce woman-turned-demon due to jealousy and rage, and more importantly scorning of an injustice done to her. Now that's not the fun fact I want to highlight. When you go into the etymology of Hannya, There are multiple hypotheses. The phonetics stem from Sanskrit प्रज्ञा, Prajna, mmeaning Wisdom of Buddha. Another theory tells that it comes from the line : "Ara osoroshi ya, hannya goe ya" ("What a horrible voice reciting the Heart Sutra [a sutra to repel demons"), implying a demon repelling demons, and I find that interesting. Another interpretation is a male monk named Hannya perfecting the role, meaning both 1 mastering the subtle masculine and feminine to bring out the role and 2, a kind soul bearing a demonic role. Which in a way describes Majima
So basically, this person who underwent loads of trauma and had their eye stabbed decides to dissociate into a knife-wielding lunatic in order to avoid their unresolved trauma? Hmm, familiar…
i also feel like the mad dog or the tough guy persona in a sense was a way to not only help himself but the people around him eg biggest impact was on Kiryu. at the very start of kiwami he already showed that he wanted to keep Kiryu on his toes post prison time so he doesnt forget & lose touch with how their world works in a pretty indirect/roundabout way. there is the tough love & worry for kiryu consistently. i feel majima sees kiryu similarly from what theyve been through but possibly felt that kiryu handled/coped w it better hence why he wanted to see kiryu flourish & how far the dragon of dojima could go & thats the concept behind Majima everywhere if that makes sense. that aside u could tell there were switches & times where his tone changed from mad dog to serious when he's rly standing on business as early as kiwami (& Y0 when he saw makoto again). because of this, throughout i felt he consciously knows & is aware this was all his persona & act that he chose to adopt but also a way of life he enjoyed living because of how freeing it can be. its not total freedom because he still has to care which is in the tough love way but it might be worth it in his eyes. TLDR: because of his genuine nature the mad dog persona was something he consciously chose. anyways i enjoy his whole self, mad dog or not, makes him HIM. soul crushing but well written character
Something I remember: In the beginning of his first appearance in Yakuza0, at one point, he mentions something along the lines of ‘managing these girls is gonna put me in a nut house”. He then gets the mad dog fighting style after the Cabaret questline.
Just 10 seconds in the video i want to say "sudden and out of the blue" has a 15 years gap, unless you meet him before prison, but it's still a 5 years gap, so not sudden at all
I used to think that the "real"majima changed after yakuza 0 but after playing yakuza 0 again recently that change. I noticed this time I played majima was tortured literally for a year or years and his personality didn't fracture. The second thing I noticed this time around is that majima even in yakuza zero adopted the "mad dog" personality while he was fighting and nishitani (a guy who himself was crazy) was attracted to this part of majima's personality. In the post victory freeze frames after majima wins a fight you can see him smiling or laughing in yakuza 0. Even in the beginning of fights he laughs when he does that move to show players what style he is using. My point is the "mad dog" persona was more unleashed then developed as a defense thus him saying he was gonna "live more free" .It is the real him at least that's what the developers want us to believe
With Majima, it’s less a matter of ‘Is the Mad Dog an act’ and more ‘How _much_ of the Mad Dog is an act’
I agree, I think that his personality on 0 with the cabaret was an act too, in my opinion Majima is both the Mad Dog and a serious person, the Mad Dog ain't fake, he likes to get crazy in battle too, but I totally ignore Majima personality in 1 and 2, because it just doesn't make sense with his character later on
@@leonardo25gabriel
Also - even if this is unrelated to the psycholgical topic:
Fighting Majima in Yakuza 1 is some BUUUUUUULLSHIT. I'm the one who'll need therapy for fighting that annoying bastard.
@@tornadoandy123 did you just call our boy annoying? You should be honored he gives you some of his precious time
@@thekingmeruem
>His time
Play the Battle Review (basically the precursor to Climax Battles), either the Time Trial or Revenge tabs and tell me how your attempts go.
GGs, got zoned and shanked for the entirety of the fight.
@@Fabio-ql5yf Majima in Yakuza 1 literally tries to kill people multiple times, threatens innocent people, etc etc
It doesn't make sense with the personality he is presented in the rest of the series, he ain't a crazy sadist murderer, just crazy, they probably din't plan on his personality that much, so I understand
What this taught me is that the disco closing down made Majima an even madder dog.
Haha probably the biggest factor, really
One thing that I love about your analysis is how this study of Majima show a LOT about Kiryu's own demise in the serie and why he got such a "darker" fate in the end compared to Majima (who had a shit life), Kaito or Shinada, which all got closures on their trauma/problems.
Kiryu is an idealistic person with a set code of "honor" he follows, he is an empathic person who live through making the ones he loves happy, he lack personnal goals or ambition and only wish to support the ones that made him feel whole.
Kiryu story has always been the issue between the romantisation of the yakuza/samurai and the crude brutal reality of the underground world.
While Kiryu did succeed to do a lot of good things, like helping and saving Haruka, saving Daigo, helping indirectly Majima, avenging the "weak" who had been broken by terrible schemes, helping countless peoples in general...
He also never got closure on many of his traumas.
In the end, he lost his own "brother" who betrayed their paternal figures and "hated" him, his own "father" figure was the origin of him being an orphan, he is the reason the second woman he loved lost her parents (and ironically it is one of the few trauma where he got closures), he lost the love of his life, he "made" Haruka suffer because of who he is, he made all of the children in Sunflower suffer due to his origins, he lost the first real new friend he had for years after seeing Rikuya die in Y3, he didn't support the "son" he loved in Daigo, etc.
Kiryu often fail to save "himself" and sacrifice himself countless time, ignoring who he is because "he can take it" but we all knows he can't (Yakuza 5 made a god damn effort of showing what happen to Kiryu when he go toward this extreme road. It is also why him choosing to 'attone' selflessly at the beginning of Y6 lead to again more issues).
In the end, the incoming spin off game about Kiryu is VERY important in my eyes because I genuinely hope it is a game where Kiryu as a person get confronted FOR GOOD about this issue and force to fight/live for his own happiness and not the one of other.
I really hope a character, be it Haruka, Daigo, Majima, Ichiban or Date, fucking punch him into having the right to be happy.
It is why Majima is so important as a contrast. His sacrifices made him miserable too and the closure he got is what allowed him to finally be himself.
This was beautifully written and so well put! I hope it's okay if I draw on some of these ideas when the eventual Kiryu episode comes out?
Of course full credit for those ideas will be cited in the video.
Thank you again for the comment!
@@vgology Yes absolutely, there is a lot of things I certainly misunderstand or interpret in my own way.
If I can add one things about this whole Kiryu theme...
It is also why I genuinely love Rikiya and Nagumo relationship with Kiryu. I feel they are two ways to show how Kiryu's "kyoudai" genuinely give him a lot in their own way, reminiscent of how Nishiki was so important to Kiryu.
Nishiki is the person that wanted to save Kiryu from the violence of the Yakuza world. He was willing to kill him to avoid him suffering, he threw himself to stop Kiryu from Killing Shibusawa as he knew it would broke Kiryu in the inside (which is even worse when we saw how Nishiki's first killing ended up breaking the loving person he was and started his new self).
He was the person who didn't romantize the Yakuza's life, well aware that it is a lot about how you are perceived (something that then lead to Nishiki feeling dwarfed by Kiryu's charisma and strength). He was the man who showed to Kiryu that he had to make a choice in this life when it came to be a Yakuza, that someone who wished to wear "white" in a world of darkness would end up becoming just as black.
Rikiya is so important because he is the one person who genuinely made Kiryu reconnect to the feeling of friendship when it come to the Yakuza world. Rikiya is loved by his community, he is a genuinely nice person with a bit of a naive streak but certainly not an idiot. He is loyal and someone who isn't scared to go through for someone he loves.
Just like Kiryu, he is a mirror of what Kiryu is in some aspect (while having his own traits, being naive, prideful of his home, sometime hotheaded, younger).
He is also someone who is way less straight laced than Kiryu, not even thinking twice about faking being a gay couple to enter the hotel room, immediately defending his homeland pride, not even letting one chance for Kiryu to push him away as he call him aniki.
He is not without reminding Kiryu's relationship with Shinji.
Rikiya die to save Kiryu and it is something that Kiryu struggle to tank because someone younger than him, that he opened to and liked, decided to DIE for him. And it show a lot about Kiryu's issue, Kiryu struggle to make himself happy because he struggle to connect to people (Thank fucking god he got Haruka and all the orphans around him) and allowing himself to be loved. He is the one who take bullet in the body, it is how his brain work.
Loosing Rikiya is reminding him of being helpless to save the ones he loves (expressed in Yakuza 5, where he leave Haruka and the kids and then breakdown when Daigo get shot) but it also show that Kiryu is genuinely someone who need others to make himself happy.
Then come Nagumo, and god did I not expect to love this character this much.
What make Nagumo so important as a "kyoudai" is that he is one of the VERY VERY VERY fucking few characters that Kiryu learned to trust and see like a man he doesn't have to protect or monitor. Kiryu was always the protective and wise figures for many characters, level headed and with a high morality too. Nagumo is incredibly impulsive and can be dumb but he is someone who despite all of that deeply understands his responsabilities and the ones around him.
He fight ALL THE TIME with his boys and yet he knows them way too well.
But more than that, he is someone who respect others and respect himself.
I don't wanna ramble too much but he is the ONLY fucking person where Kiryu basically accept to go on a "suicide" mission, they both drink together and go fight even if it means dying. There is no desire of seeing someone as "needing to be protected", Nagumo is the closest person I saw Kiryu treat as an equal outside of his fellow tojo friends (majima, saejima, daigo) and they both shared the feeling of loss and injustice. They are actually EXTREMELY similar in this aspect (like Nishiki & Rikiya).
Nagumo is the sign of maturation that Kiryu got through when it came to accept people.
Yakuza 6 is a lot about Kiryu's despair about loosing Haruka again and how he struggle to cope with it, it hit him with being a father (again), it is a game where one of the fucking minigame is actually Kiryu making FRIENDS. Something he never did outside of the cabaret club or side quests. Yakuza 6 is a game where Kiryu is push to his limits, but also where he is the most able/mature when it come to connecting to people.
We went a long fucking way from Yakuza 0 where he was an idealist with no self care and only lived for some people to someone who learned to forgive himself (yakuza 2), to dare loving others (like TRUE love, not just being a genuine nice person because it is just who he is) in the end of Y2/Y3 and let them in his life again, to someone who learned to actually reconnect with people and have more self respect/know what he wish for (Y5/Y6).
It is why Y6 end is so hard, because he again did the ultimate sacrifice to "protect the ones he loves" instead of doing what he wished and is now alone again. Despite doing SO MUCH for himself in Y6, in the end Kiryu chose a path of limbo where he is neither alive nor dead, not unlike the grey of his suit, he decided to be neither and therefore be/have nothing.
... Someone make this man be happy I beg of you, Ichiban please...
@@nevrankroaton Another great write up! You clearly have a deep understanding about the characters and the games and I loved reading your interpretation of everything. Thank you again for sharing! I hope my Kiryu video can do your comments justice
@@nevrankroaton that was beautiful and if anyone can bring someone from darkness to light, it's gonna be our beautiful hero kasuga Ichiban, while he and kiryu share a lot of characteristics like putting their friends first, ichi has shown a deep and mutual respect with his party, he never even hesitated to let saeko join the fights (which to my understanding are more like the clan battles in 6, y'know our group beating down the other group, than actually dragon quest) a specially impactful contrast was at the end of like a dragon, while kiryu chose to sacrifice 10 years in the joint (nice reference) and "spare" nishiki of his fate (which would ultimately would be nishiki's downfall), Ichiban convinced Masato to accept his fate of prison time so that he could pay for his deeds and start from 0 a stronger man with ichi at his side as an equal
@@TheTony257 tbh, can't wait to see how much Kiryu changes Ichiban to be more mature, while Ichiban changes Kiryu into more... Human.
Afterall, as I quote him before his fight against Shibusawa, "There's only one room for a dragon".
Okay, to be fair, 17 years pass between Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, so he didn't start doing all of that overnight
haha fair fair
Kiwami beginning was in 1995. 6 years after 0
@@KingShibe Sure but in the single early scene he's in he doesn't act as crazy as he would eventually act later on (mostly because he got, like, 5 minutes of screentime before the 10 year timeskip). Also I guess it's 16 years total then, my bad
6 years is still a very long time and all he did was beat a guy up. At least in Kiwami Majima never kills anyone unlike the original where I'm pretty sure he actually killled one of his own men at some point. So they put some effort into making him a bit more consistent.
@@Gon-hx4df let's face it, he spent 15,5 yrs perfecting his "Kiryu-chaaaaaan" screech
One of my favorute lines from Majima is from Yakuza 5 at the begining of Saejima's part in the batting cages, Majima says
"Ffter all these years I guess my fangs went 'n fell out. 'Course I wanna keep playin' the tough guy. But no one knows me better then I know myself. Gotta have the stones to face reality".
officialy dropping the Mad Dog Persona (unless he absolutely NEEDS it).
While Majima was never originally intended to be a complex character, I think its clear to see that as early as Yakuza 3, Majima was changed to be more indepth. In Yakuza 3 you see him switching between his normal self and Mad dog on the spot MANY times, and in 4 and 5 he never puts on his mad dog facade.
Yakuza 0 didnt change his character at all, It just gave context as to WHY hes the way he is.
This is an excellent point and a line that I had completely forgotten about. Thank you for mentioning it!
Tbh Majima from Yakuza 3 (mainly 4) onwards feels like a retcon for me, and I'm absolutely okay with that, because the crazy joker Majima from Yakuza 1 and 2 isn't cool as Majima from the rest of the series, they're just two different characters
@Leonardo Gabriel It's 100% a retcon because the writers changed between 2 and 3, but it was a very welcome and believable retcon since Y2 already showed Majima developing a stronger friendship with Kiryu. It isn't hard to believe that by the time Y3 rolled around, Majima would see Kiryu as his closest friend and ally and become much more grounded by him. It was pretty much logically where the character was going. This is compared to Sayama randomly deciding to fucking move to America, the bad retcon 3 made. Oh well, you can't win them all.
I kinda appreciated in Y5 that Majima's line about his fangs falling out was a bluff, as we saw later in the game when he's chastising Saejima for going soft. One thing the Mad Dog persona shows us throughout the latter half of the series is that it's not just a shield for him, it's an excuse. He doesn't ever really go all out until something that personally, deeply affects him is on the line -- which is why he doesn't challenge Kiryu until he's at full strength in Majima Everywhere, and why when he fights Saejima it's not a "test" or anything dumb like that. He's fighting because if he doesn't, Haruka will die and he can't let that sit. The Y5 fight shows this in gameplay too -- Majima does stuff in that fight that he NEVER did before, that was never a part of the Mad Dog persona. His quicksteps are faster, his attacks hurt more, even his Heat QTEs have tighter timings. For the first time in the series, he's throwing everything he's got at the one guy he trusts can take it. That's not the Mad Dog, that's just Majima, the guy we would watch grow throughout Y0. That's nuts.
Also check him out at the end of Yakuza 6 when ****SPOILER**** himself, Saejima & Daigo believe Kiryu to be dead. He's incredibly low key, sombre, more of the normal Goro you witness in Yakuza 0.
The Fact that Mad Dog persona is less of an act but more of a coping mechanism for Majima to deal with his trauma makes it all the more tragic and depressing.
We always get to his "real side" whenever we get to play as him or when he's talking to Saejima
But whenever he's near Kiryu or any other characters he switches to Mad Dog to cope and help himself.
So it is nice to see him mellowed out a bit on later entries cus its slowly healing him and Kiryu also unknowing helped him the most to deal with his trauma so you know damn well Majima is really thankful for Kiryu even if he won't admit it.
I think this is the most accurate answer tbh.
The last question would be how much it's intentional and how much it's not.
Because you know, Majima does some very weird fucking things while being the Mad Dog.
I can't picture this guy willingly crashing contruction machinery into a building to get to Kazuma.
That feels like this side of him acting a bit on his own, with "real Majima" thinking about it later and saying "woops"
Nah he just doesn't give a fuck anymore he does what he wants after being what felt like a slave for a long time he stopped being a pawn and became a king especially after watching that nashi dude die for him he straight up jacked his style
@@AyoMousy yea you don't understand his character bro
@mithvibes4727 yeah and you do? Fckn comedy I'm right and your mom knows it too
we all have that Mad Dog inside of us, but it will take perfect timing of events for it to show. in Majima's case all of those moments were all aligned for him.
I dont even think majima "loved" mirei park, it seems he kinda used her for a coping mechanism but made love to her because she believed it was real. Thats why in yakuza 5 she tells haruka that sometimes the fans "love" is fake, she says that because she has been through it herself with her fans but mainly majima, and to warn haruka not to believe that fake love. Of course when she got pregnant majima definitely wanted it but she didnt so he lashed out, he almost tried to force himself to love her but couldnt
This is an excellent point! Thank you for writing it up. I definitely agree with you, the relationship with Mirei was definitely a product of coping, and although I think he did care for her, he never truly loved her.
Thanks again for the comment!
I can't blame him, as the pain of your child being taken away would be too much for most people. Especially if it was by somebody you were supposed to be close to
Honestly, that romance is so weird for me, it only serves as a plot device to bridge some random connection between enemy forces to make it involving Haruka. And i don't think it goes that deep for Majima and Mirei, its as blunt as it is, I've seen enough RGG writing skills to see through their intention, Mirei wanted to progress with her career and had to leave romance life behind, it's as straight forward as it could be with Mirei wanting Haruka to leave Kiryu behind like she did to Majima.
With all that crap about rubber bullets and Katsuragi left unscathed to shoot Yasuko, I will never trust RGG to have such capacity for deep meanings
They write things to be as convenient as possible, it's like the joke when a literature teacher rambles about a poem author using the color purple for sadness and regret while the author just likes purple because it rhymes
@@lycanbladefang4768 i remember hearing a fan theory that it was actually katsuya who loved park but he knew she loved majima, who didnt love park back. So katsuya (using his acting chops) simply hid his feelings for her so she could be happy, kinda like what majima did to makoto in 0 in some weird way. What ANNOYS me is we dont get to see majima's reaction to park's death, that too shinada's reaction to Fujita's death. Almost like that character bond was for nothing
@@lycanbladefang4768 I'm annoyed with Y5's plot being an expansive mess specifically because of this -- if we remember that Y5 was released before Y0, Mirei no longer looks like a coping mechanism and does actually look like a completely random twist connection. I'm glad that RGGS at least added SOME implied meaning to Mirei's relationship with Majima through Makoto (I believe it was definitely intentional), but it sucks that it's so hamfisted when taken as-is, prior to Y0's recontextualization.
One thing I'm hoping for (and I think I'm already disappointed by because Kiryu is returning as a dual protagonist, and all of the baggage that that represents) is that Y8 onward will have some better storytelling now that the director of the old convoluted series has stepped down. But, I guess we'll have to see. Maybe I should just play Judgment until that gets all tangled up in bullshit.
honestly, i never bat an eye to majima going soft and changing character from 0 to mad dog in 1, but you explained it all amazingly
I know that Majima is usually considered to be one of the best characters among the community and I honestly think stuff like this contributes a lot to it.
Yes, it is. It comes from the trauma suffered in 0 and he created it so no one could predict him ever again. In a way, the unpredictability made him a king-maker of sorts
Yknow, after everything he goes through, it's really a nice thing to see Majima living a much nicer life later on in the series. Something I noticed about his appearance in Yakuza 7, his new version of "Receive You" (Receive and Turn You) just sounds a lot happier than most of the previous ones (Especially Receive and Bite You in my opinion.) I think this was a conscious decision to help paint modern Majima as a man untethered from his past, having made his amends with his brother and gotten closure on the most traumatic parts of his life.
Also Majima can create shadow clones of himself and this is just canon and something he does on more than one occasion.
Great analysis, the Mirei and Makoto resemblance was on point. I also noticed it and dassumed it was due to Majima's unresolved feelings for the past.
I was glad to finally play Kiwami 2 and get that clousure for the character. Poor guy.
you got some nice vids too
@@Crudecoronet Thanks Kyodai!
He definitely deserved it, happy they added that in Kiwami 2, it was a much needed scene.
SEGA probably didn't thought as much as you did on the character of Majima, it is a great explanation!
I thought majima was always just a little crazy before the mad dog "switch" is flipped.
From what I've seen is oddities slip out during combat or when he's enraged, for example his fighting styles specifically the mad dog one, the games cutscenes seem to suggest that he gets the mad dog fighting style before the "switch" is flipped which makes it seem that the mad dog style is just a result of his already supposed craziness now I don't think he was full blown crazy like was after 0 when he was putting on the act but there was definitely some there before he put on the mad dog persona.
Now for how he acts when he's enraged I can't really go off on because he's fucking pissed i probably wouldn't screaming at the top of my lung but i know people who probably would, now at the end of the game when he's storming the dojima hq the cutscene where he yelling at the dojima family members, in that moment he didn't care anymore he was letting go combined with the rage of makato getting shot, produced that ball of explosive rage the majima I think what we got in those final moments was the actual mad dog not some persona that he's subconsciously putting on the actual true mad dog.
Well he was tortured for a year. Nobody just walks such experience off scot free.
I think Majima's particularly brutal fighting style is because of his torture, as Jana said. He also was a member of the Tojo Clan for a few years prior to the '85 hit, and we see that he manages to mess up a ton of Shimano dudes before he's finally captured in Y4's flashback. So he's clearly pretty tough and already pretty scarred by Y0, so I think him coming out the box with a fucking neck snap Heat Action makes at least some sense.
I really, REALLY want a Majima spinoff detailing his adventures from 1989 to 1995 -- I would actually really like to see how his relationship to Mirei and Katsuya develops, and it's an adventure ripe for the picking, but I think it also might not be that interesting if we know that Majima is "just" the Mad Dog of Shimano by that point, doing the same stuff he was always doing.
Definitely with what you and others said that it was already lying just under the surface--but everything in 0 scraped that top layer off. We see in the scene where he breaks out of Sagawas control that he's calm, composed, but at the same time you can't call him anything but gone. He's the mad dog through and through, but the "mad dog" as we know it is more of a state than his true personality
Maybe Mad Dog is Batman Zurr En Arrh eg his true mental peak
@@DetectiveGreyMaybe turn Trauma into Power
As someone who has experienced many traumas from taking the moral high ground, Majima is someone I relate to strongly.
When you are walked all over for being the "nice guy," a single major event can cause you to change your personality as self defense. You don't want to be seen as weak, so you start acting tough to protect yourself from being taken advantage of again.
For me, I interpret the Mad Dog persona as a self creating myth for people to fear Majima rather than to challenge him. He does it to protect himself.
brudda think he the underdog
@@dramurgy6120brudda think he da underdog 😭😭🙏🙏
@@monsieurzone6878 😭😭😭😭😭🙏🙏🙏 no wonder dis nigga getting bullied 💀💀🥱🥱🥱🥱😴😴
Jesus loves you
Isaiah 41:10
Romans 3:23-24
John 3:16-17
Romans 8:35-39
Luke 23:23-24
@@scrubbingdoubles8585 L religious zealot
I really don't think the mad dog is an act, at least not on the traditional sense. Majima's character arc in Yakuza 0 is about FREEDOM. He's trapped in Sotenbori in the caberet under Sagawas heel. When he gets back to his apartment he's being watched from all sides. He's unable to even raise his fist against a patron who disrespects him by pouring alcohol on him. He's caged up. That way near the end of the game, Majima is finally allowed to break out. Sagawa even says Majima "finally got out of the cage" and Majima himself decides to live as free as he wishes. It doesn't make sense for someone who's entire arc is about being free to suddenly trap themselves in a fake persona.
I think people want it to be an act because they have trouble reconciling the fact that Majima can have crazy moments and serious ones. In reality, those two sides of him aren't that mutally exclusive. Just because he's batshit insane in one moment doesn't mean he can't also be serious in the next. That's freedom. Being able to choose what you want to act like depending on how it suits you is the epitome of how Majima wants to live.
I mean even in his opening cutscene in Yakuza 0, he showcases that he has a flair for the dramatic when he says "Alright boys, give me one with a beat!" hinting that there's a way that'd he'd rather be acting like. In Japanese his course rough self even peeks through when he whispers "Shaa nai na" right before asking the band which is extremely informal in stark contrast to his painfully formal speaking to Sawaga and to his patrons as the lord of the night. That whisper is indicitive of the fact that his mad dog persona is actually part of his real personality. That he's being restrained and he just wants a chance to let loose.
TLDR: Mad Dog being an act doesn't mesh well with Majimas want for freedom, at least in my opinion
This is hands down the best explanation yet on the internet!!
I actually agree with your opinion wholeheartedly. And I think it's both and that's it's actually what his original personality is like and the reason why people think it's an act is because that's what he wants people to think.
thanks for covering such topic as majima's personality, it was really interesting
bro you are so good at this, can't believe you don't have a million subs
this is pure quality!👌
Hey, thanks so much for the support and comment! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Dude you basically summed up EVERYTHING I had assumed about Majima. Great video.
Yakuza 4 was the turning point for majima. He wasn't doing any of his crazy antics anymore.
This is an awesome psycho analysis on one of the most beloved video game characters ever written. I'm very glad to know Majima finally found closure
Cool video! Majima is such an intriguing character
I thought two special points that should be raised regarding Majima's 'mask'. One's a theory, one's a very noted point.
The theory I had was regarding Majima's prediliction of beating the hell out of his subordinates. The first time you see that is when he assaults the pair harassing Makoto. I wonder if he built that into his legend to cover up that he was protecting Makoto, and he literally carried it through for years out of his desire to separate her from the yakuza lifestyle and never give a hint to anyone of his other motivation for having done it the first time.
The fact that comes up is actually shown in your video. When Majima goes to fight Kei Ibuchi [with one of the BEST dynamic intros in the whole series], despite his thrilling dodges and vicious knife slashes... watch his face. No manic smile, no cackling laughter, not even a smug grin. Obviously you can't avoid these for the precanned animations and heat actions during the fight, but the fact that Majima's persona drops off that sharply points to the deliberation of it being a mask. Ibuchi and his disrespect for everything Majima stands for, all of his code of honor, he brought out the true, serious Majima behind that mask, with the terrifying level of focus of someone who can literally dodge bullets from hearing the trigger pull. It's not the murderous glee that he's supposed to be famous for, it's deadpan unwavering purpose. Ibuchi is far from the most dangerous person Majima has fought [I think we can all agree that would most likely be Lao Gui] so this change isn't because of the danger or intensity of the confrontation, but of a choice on his part.
5:05 that sequences of sentences for the next minute made broke my heart almost cried at work sorting checks
Man, I've just discovered this channel a few hours ago and binge watched all your videos and let me tell ya this is the best channel I've found this year. Congrats for the research and effort you put on every video. I wish you the best.
Thank you and welcome! Glad you're enjoying the content! Really appreciate the support and kind words
This really is an amazingly explained insight to a beloved character who's developed in such strange ways throughout the series.
It does truly go to show how despite how tough these funny fighting men are, they still have so much pain.
I'm glad somebody is putting a magnifying glass up to everyone's favorite cyclops. Where most people see a rabid clown, I see a man in pain. Crying for help.
Anyway... *picks up electrical transformer to crush Majima with after he jumped out from a giant-sized traffic cone again*
Ever after figuring out how the mad dog thinks I still can’t figure how we can dumpster him in one moment and then turn around and see him sitting in restaurant waiting for us in the next
Majima's #1 trait is tenacity. He might not be the strongest, quickest, or most skillful, but he's not going down and staying down unless you kill him. You can only slow him up.
This is a really good dive into majima as a person and makes a lot of good points.
Guess also a pivotal point for Majima's transformation from the Lord of the Night into the Mad Dog was Shimano's manipulation from the days of the Hole into the Makoto ordeal. You can sense how he snapped with the realization he was being played all along. Furthermore, when he also realized his patriarch is an actual betrayer of the clan as he wanted to sell it out to the Omi and yet his loyalty to him prevent Majima for ever rat Shimano out. I guess the switch was to never let anyone manipulate him like that again, pretend to be unhinged, bat crazy.
Algorithm is blessing me with smaller creators recently and it’s hype. Great video brother
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the video
You've got great analytical skills, almost thought this was a paper at one point
Thank you, appreciate the comment!
Some of my favourite moments in the series are when you can see the mad dog come down in times when Majima has to seriously think, such as the boss fight with Kei Ibuchi (footage beginning at 6:53) where he isn't being 'mad' because he's fighting seriously with stakes and risk involved.
Bro thank you for making this. My first game was Yakuza 0 about a year ago and I’ve searched all over the internet to find a decent answer to this question.
It's insane to me that this guy doesn't even have 10k subs, his videos are incredibly well made.
This is done very well.
Thankyou for making this video, yakuza will always be my most favorite game
I feel like the mad dog is indeed a mask formed to hide his true feelings about the situation around him
You can see break character when Kiryu asks him to come back to the family in Yakuza 2. He's not playing around like he was like 10 seconds before. His tone even changes as well. As if to make it clear he's not joking about not coming back
Well made analysis just like the Kuwana one. Would love to see a Nishiki and Kiryu one too.
Good video. Hoping more people can see your works.
Thank you, appreciate the support!
This video is worth it. I am a fan of the series for the past 17 years since Yakuza 2.
Wish there was a course in college about the psychology of video game characters. I would take it in a heartbeat.
Fantastic work on the video, no idea why YT didn't recommand it to me earlier !
so having dealt with a dissociative identity disorder i can kinda see now how the change hit, like personally now whenever i’m asked to explain say my beliefs on something i don’t know what to actually tell people because no matter what i say it feels disingenuous because my perception of reality got lost and while my shift isn’t quite as dramatic as normal dude to crazed lunatic there was a point where there was a front that caused a mental split during a very trauma filled section of my life and i think that may be why majima is my favourite yakuza character because i can relate to him in more ways than i realise
I first started playing the Yakuza series with zero and fell in love with these games
We might need a smaller follow up video with Pirate Yakuza with how memory loss could affect him.
yes and no. the entier thing being all he is IS an act. however the thing is that craziness IS within him. its actually his anger we see from time to time in Y0 but also his love as well. using these two conflicting yet equally powerful and passionate emotions it makes it hard and practically imposible to predict or even understand much of anything does. this applies to Majima too. Majima finally lets his true drive out and just goes with it so he doesnt have to deal with everything since hes suffered so much. however he knows when and were he needs to focus and get serious, hence why he no longer acts all gitty at times
How the hell do you have less than 1000 subscribers?! this was a great analysis man
Great video! I also think Majima pulls the Mad Dog personality because he hates the idea of being controlled or manipulated
This is such a well-done and well-researched video
Majima is such a good character. and the closure cutscenes in kiwami 2 were so wholesome.
"You play the fool to hide a warrior's pain."
Its either an act, or its a defense mechanism to protect himself, or he really partially broken because everything went past the certain threshold some part of him become mad.
And you be surprised lots of yakuza 'fan' never play 3 4 5. Lol. Thats why they thought meme lord gag man majima as the ultimate majima.
I always believed that it would make more sense if Majima began acting as the Mad Dog after saying "I'll be your damn clown" in Yakuza 0. In that scene he let himself get beaten up by a bunch of tugs, because he believes he deserves to be punished for his actions. I always thought that his quote was connected to him turning into the Mad Dog. Do you think that that scene had an impact on his character?
(ps Amazing analysis. It's really helpfull that you cited and showed your sources in the video, not allot of TH-camrs do that. Also the way you constructed the video is really neat, must have taken several rewrites to get it to this form of perfection. Great job!)
Thank you for this. It was wonderful.
Great video
Someday we gonna get a majima solo game with the events prior to yakuza 0
Man I hope so, that would be absolutely amazing
Great video!
Great video! This has been a topic that's kind of annoyed me for a while now and I feel like you covered it with more tact than most reddit comments do.
I will say I believe that his change was still MOSTLY deliberate on his part, rather than being a part of his trauma. To me, the whole point of Majima's story in 0 is that for most of his life, at least in the Yakuza, every action he makes is closely controlled by someone else. The one time he lashes out and tries to do something he believes in (not leaving Saejima behind) he is tortured for a year and put right back in his place, just following orders again. 0 for him is a journey of learning what it means to be free through the people he meets, and thus his character arc is him deciding to be the most wild and free person he knows, as he knows now how much he hates being under someone else's control. I think that's reflected by the fact that even in his more intimate and serious scenes in games post 0, his mannerisms and vocabulary are still far more carefree and abrasive then they were pre 0 (e.g. his dinner with Saejima at the start of 5, his conversation with Ichiban at the end of 7). To me, this shows that his personality before he flipped the switch was the fake one he put on to stay safe, and his Mad Dog personality, to an extent, is just him staying true to himself.
this is a really good analysis dude thanks
Something I wish was brought up in this video is Majima's relationship with Yuki. I know it's kind of up in the air whether or not substories in the Yakuza games are canon or not, but I feel like Majima's relationship with Yuki is a really good example that he's capable of flipping off his persona or at least toning it down rather heavily. If I remember correctly, Kiryu points out during Yakuza Kiwami 2 that Majima's acting pretty out of character during his reunion with Yuki because not only does Yuki not know what he's become, but because after nearly 20 years, he still cares about her in the same manner he did when they first met. I always found their relationship kind of cute and wished that RGG would expand it more if they ever did remakes for the other games, but I doubt that'll happen considering they did mostly wrap up their whole relationship in Kiwami 2.
Since I started with Yakuza 0 and loved Goro Majima for the character he was portrayed as (serious melancholic man with a wacky side coming through sometimes), I saw on the Internet a pic of Goro Majima after Yakuza 0, and started thinking that he was gonna be driven insane by torture. I really wasn’t looking forward to it, but thankfully, it wasn’t that.
Majima is the best friend you'd want to have your back in a fight, the hero we all need but don't deserve.
You get it my man. Majima is such a good character.
Great video! Loved it
this is amazing! great video
He feels like that crackhead friend who takes nothing seriously but when it actually becomes serious and stuff, he locks in.
I really am hoping that we get a Majima standalone game where we can get a deeper look into his personality following his transformation into the Mad Dog. The only time we ever get a closer look at Majima’s life was in Yakuza 0, more indirectly with plot points of Yakuza 4 & 5, but we haven’t gotten much of Majima as an independent figure. He is a character with a lot of trauma. He uses the Mad Dog persona to escape it for a bit, but deep down he still holds the same values of loyalty, brotherhood, and compassion.
One could have only imagine how much Majiama could have been despite being crazy he is a genius manager and business man.
Damn good video
In my opinion the Mad Dog persona is a way to scare of anyone he cares about that isnt strong enough to protect them self from the life hes leading and thats why he like Kiryu so much as he was the first person in years that hecould count on
But there is still a chance that he is still sane and does all of this in purpose, for fun, and just because he wants to, right?
I can totally imagine someone doing that for many years.
some ppl would argue that wanting to do smthn like that isnt rly something a sane person would want
I mean, he is sane. He switches between normal majima and mad dog when it counts. When things are more serious he gets more serious. I think it's a mixture of what this guy said, coping but with a harsh environment where it's good to be unpredictable. Also, a bit of the fact that he also wants to be entirely free to express himself because he hated the idea of being trapped or someone else's prisoner.
I found this video when i was playing kiwami 2 almost a year ago. Told myself to keep this video aside until i reach 6 (for spoilers and character development)
Literally burned through the series within that that time and made it to 6.
Finally was able to watch this video fully.
Completely worth the wait!
This was great man
Y0 majima: nooooo i can't kill
mad dog majima: hehe knife goes brrrrrrrr
at about 45s in the mic popping sounds like someone running up stairs and I deadass thought someone was breaking into my flat lmao
I like when I get suggested videos like this.
In his line of "work", Majima has to be very cautious and not show any vulnerability. If he has to act a role to protect himself then he'd do it no problem. In Yakuza 4 he didn't have a kansai accent, yet later he does. I also remember Saejima thinking the eyepatch was just for show. Meaning acting and pretending is not someone new to Majima.
I do think part of the mad dog thing is not an act. He's genuinely not all there and we all know how traumatized he is. So it's a mix of the two
you know the writers did a good job when you do a psycho analysis on a fictional character.
So I can't watch the video bc im not done all the Yakuza games but I think that the "Lord of the Night" persona was the front. The reserved collected Majima is like the Japanese concept of "keeping your face" where the basic idea is never show what you are feeling. I think the Mad dog is what Majima truly wants to be.
It's *a* front. He's not calm or collected, but he's not insane like his Mad Dog persona. He's only like that because his boss tells him to. I won't spoil anything, but you're half-right.
@@SSD_Penumbra Oh! I may obtain new info! Okay! Very interesting! Thanks for the spoiler-free response.
The Man let his intrusive thoughts win
I think imma cut my hair like goro. Ive never seen anyone make a bowlcut fade look so cool
did it?
@@انا-ق4ز nah its a tough decision ive been wanting to do for like 2 years. My ponytail is down to like the middle of my spine
@@High_Bread woah you're like majima from yakuza 0
@@انا-ق4ز yea idk if i can rock an eye patch. That’s definitely hard to pull off. Especially cause im a ginger
@@High_Bread just go for it
In my head, i always thought majima had a form of a multiple personality disorder due to his trauma , mostly because of kiwami where majima can show up in multiple costumes and act completely different
Or... You know... Acting.
@@thatrandomcrit5823 Yes, acting is normal acting like Majima des is not. He can use normal things in abnormal ways to cope. Its like telling ppl I have ADHD too when they describe the symptoms. Yes every person can forget but will not forget almost every single time etc.
He just likes to do a little trolling.
That's Majima being an absolute troll, though. Nothing psychological about it. He's just doing it to fuck with Kiryu.
I still wish the games properly explain how he became The Mad Dog but it sure does show quite a bit to make the stars align for it. I believe just about everyone has a persona they develop, especially when your life's been dogshit. This was a rather sound analysis. Cant wait to tell ppl who stream the series this. You earned my sub.
"Today on game theory: Majima Goro recieves therapy?"
my man Majima have been through a lot in life, if there's any people out there who apparently had the same things happened to Majima, i pray the best for you
Thank you
It’s either stay the same and let your mental health goes to shit or let everything out as a way to cope. Majima chose the latter
Bravo.
People and their psychology are very complex thus dificult to even underestand
As someone who also davs on methad acting i find this very comprehensive.
When methods acting you learn every aspect of yourself, specially what you can do and this hat not, there is people who CANT harm others for example or said mean things, thus help get a better underestanding of onself.
Aditionally there the compartmentalized aspect of it, meaning: even if you can do it, are you gonna?
And this is the critical aspect of method acting, one can learn they have very persuasive skills, thus they have to decide when and how to use them
Keep in mind ALL aspect are part of one self, then one chooses what to use and when.
As we see majima is BOTH the super colected and overly expresive self, in adition with and arrogant sling and very skillfull body control.
The colected Majima is still there, he just choose not to use it anymore, as we only see this aspect of himself when he was the cavare worker, keeping the image, which can be interpreted as a chain or him conforming to society.
Aditionally trauma can subconsciously block some of this skills, as the mind ties them to pain thus the user cant access them anymore or refuce to do so, this goes for empathy too.
And finally this isnt just for method actor, but anyone too, as who you ARE and what position you take in society are choices of the part of you to show and to hide, actors just underestand it better.
you know a lot about this series for someone who can't pronounce even its localised name, very good
I think it’s a way for him to let loose. You can tell in 0 how much some of his mad dog mannerisms leak out occasionally. Especially after he meats Makoto
Majima went "I just flip the switch"
Interesting theory, and I think it has way stronger point than "majima snapped and went crazy like joker" misconception that some people believe. Narrative wise, I think Majima was mad from the start, one thing about Y0 and Y1 Majima has in common is that he loves fighting, and it shows through how he already acts like a mad dog in combat from the very start of Y0. His calm composure was a mask to blend in with the society, something we all do so we can work together as a human and not be a weirdo outsider. Majima hated this, and joined yakuza thinking it would be different, but it turned out yakuza was pretty much the same, you have to live under yakuza's rules to survive being a yakuza goon, else you'll get punished for it, if not face death. While Majima was unhappy about this he still refused go back to being a civilian because that wouldn't change anything either.
Throughout his adventure in Y0 he re-affirms his fondness of yakuza life-style by meeting and battling with the "mad" people he came to adore, they were living in the world Majima wanted to live. This is why he can't just quit yakuza and live rest of his life with Makoto as a civilian, his desire to fight would most likely end up with him leaving Makoto. So he cut ties with Makoto, embraced being yakuza, and he chose to be a mad dog who'd rather die early doing whatever he wants (which is what people he adored all had in common, they all died early enjoying whatever they wanted to do) than be a submissive dog who suppresses their desire and not be themselves just to survive in a circle (which was who Majima was at the start of Y0), a little ironic considering Majima become of the very few longest living Yakuza character.
I think he's always been a bit bloodthirsty, but the more gonzo parts are an act, though he may have fooled himself a bit.
Some weird trivia I want to share.
Noh theater is easily recognizable by the masks used, as opposed to the bare-faced theater of kabuki.
Of one of the masks, Hannya is probably the most recognizable as a fierce demon. It actually depicts a fierce woman-turned-demon due to jealousy and rage, and more importantly scorning of an injustice done to her.
Now that's not the fun fact I want to highlight. When you go into the etymology of Hannya, There are multiple hypotheses. The phonetics stem from Sanskrit प्रज्ञा, Prajna, mmeaning Wisdom of Buddha. Another theory tells that it comes from the line : "Ara osoroshi ya, hannya goe ya" ("What a horrible voice reciting the Heart Sutra [a sutra to repel demons"), implying a demon repelling demons, and I find that interesting.
Another interpretation is a male monk named Hannya perfecting the role, meaning both 1 mastering the subtle masculine and feminine to bring out the role and 2, a kind soul bearing a demonic role.
Which in a way describes Majima
So basically, this person who underwent loads of trauma and had their eye stabbed decides to dissociate into a knife-wielding lunatic in order to avoid their unresolved trauma? Hmm, familiar…
i also feel like the mad dog or the tough guy persona in a sense was a way to not only help himself but the people around him eg biggest impact was on Kiryu. at the very start of kiwami he already showed that he wanted to keep Kiryu on his toes post prison time so he doesnt forget & lose touch with how their world works in a pretty indirect/roundabout way. there is the tough love & worry for kiryu consistently. i feel majima sees kiryu similarly from what theyve been through but possibly felt that kiryu handled/coped w it better hence why he wanted to see kiryu flourish & how far the dragon of dojima could go & thats the concept behind Majima everywhere if that makes sense. that aside u could tell there were switches & times where his tone changed from mad dog to serious when he's rly standing on business as early as kiwami (& Y0 when he saw makoto again). because of this, throughout i felt he consciously knows & is aware this was all his persona & act that he chose to adopt but also a way of life he enjoyed living because of how freeing it can be. its not total freedom because he still has to care which is in the tough love way but it might be worth it in his eyes.
TLDR: because of his genuine nature the mad dog persona was something he consciously chose. anyways i enjoy his whole self, mad dog or not, makes him HIM. soul crushing but well written character
it's the jacket man. Ever since he wore the jacket get got crazier and crazier, like the Isildur's bane or smth
Something I remember:
In the beginning of his first appearance in Yakuza0, at one point, he mentions something along the lines of ‘managing these girls is gonna put me in a nut house”.
He then gets the mad dog fighting style after the Cabaret questline.
2:30 He does get closure in kiwami 2 the majima saga
Just 10 seconds in the video i want to say "sudden and out of the blue" has a 15 years gap, unless you meet him before prison, but it's still a 5 years gap, so not sudden at all
I used to think that the "real"majima changed after yakuza 0 but after playing yakuza 0 again recently that change. I noticed this time I played majima was tortured literally for a year or years and his personality didn't fracture. The second thing I noticed this time around is that majima even in yakuza zero adopted the "mad dog" personality while he was fighting and nishitani (a guy who himself was crazy) was attracted to this part of majima's personality. In the post victory freeze frames after majima wins a fight you can see him smiling or laughing in yakuza 0. Even in the beginning of fights he laughs when he does that move to show players what style he is using. My point is the "mad dog" persona was more unleashed then developed as a defense thus him saying he was gonna "live more free" .It is the real him at least that's what the developers want us to believe