Fan CastingTekken 8 — Kazuma Kiryu Gameplay Trailer

Kazuma Kiryu (Japanese: 桐生 一馬, Hepburn: Kiryū Kazuma) is a fictional character and the initial main protagonist of Sega's action-adventure beat 'em up Japanese role-playing game series Yakuza / Like a Dragon. He is popularly known as "the Dragon of Dojima" (堂島の龍, Dōjima no Ryū) due to the tattoo of a dragon on his back and his originally being a fearsome member of the yakuza group known as the Dojima Family, subsidiary of the Tojo Clan. He was introduced in the series' 2005 debut game, where he took the blame for his boss's death to protect his sworn brother Akira Nishikiyama, resulting in his expulsion from the clan and a ten-year stay in prison. After leaving prison, he fights against the new threats in his life, during which he meets Haruka Sawamura, to whom he eventually becomes an adoptive father. He is voiced by Takaya Kuroda in Japanese and by Darryl Kurylo (2005, 2020) and Yong Yea (2023–present) in the series’ English-dubbed releases. Besides the main series, Kiryu has also appeared in three live-action “Like a Dragon” projects: two films and a television series, as well as other video games including Project X Zone 2 and as downloadable content in the spin-off game, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise.