Just adding my two cents, sensei did say that she was heavily inspired by movies for her depiction of yakuzas, and strangely much more from the chinese mafia than the japanese one. Basically, she never cared about the accuracy of it, she just wanted her world to look cool, and she made the Asami less merciless than your usual mafioso because then Akihito would've just been killed and there wouldn't been a story to tell, aha.
I'm unsure why I can't find the translation of the interview that I posted here however (has it been deleted ?_?), and the site where that French interview was posted has been taked down (it was basically abandonned) since :/
Thanks--that makes sense. It's not as if this is a documentary. :)
For some reason I can never find interviews when I am looking for them. I had thought J Unleashed had some translated, but I can't find them now either. Maybe it was just a link.
There are those who think the real yakuza are the zaibatsu. The people you see with the tatts are cover for" them"that hide in plain site. the way certain companies run and not run .( I think Asami as the Fixer is very real. post) you have any doubt they Yakuza's power goggle Smap (A Jpop group) see what happened when they wanted to retire. Of course this is just my opinion. Anoni
Yakuza involves rituals and a complex hierarchy that we do not see in Asami's operation. Asami is a lone wolf, unaffiliated with any other groups. Also, the title "Fixer" does not refer to Asami in the criminal sense. It is a photography term, a chemical used in developing film. In the context of the story, it refers to the developing relationship in that chapter. Asami is never referred to within the story as a "fixer."
fSensi never rep. or said Asami was or was not. Target in the Veiwfinder/ Fixer chap. we see Takaba fixing his photos but we also see Asami trying to retrieve that info disk for his client. He is on the job, as (in my opin. a fixer) The meaning can be taken both ways.?why can't both things be true? There are so many open spaces in this story there is no way to determine the absolute truth sometimes. The truth of this story is Takaba takes photos and works with fixer. Asami owns some night clubs, I (my opin. only based on supposition) he works as a fixer in the underworld. I never said he was yakuza. No one knows what Asami is. Who was Kuroda talking about in the penthouse when he visited when he implied that Asami had people he had to ans. to before the warehouse incident with Sudoh? Yet he is shown as working with his own crew independently. That's what's in my head and I'm going with it Every one is free to fill in the spaces in the story as they please. this story is a not accurate any way. Was not meant to be.
I read an article were some Japanese banks got into trouble because of their business dealings with yakuza, so who is to know how deep some connections go? Going by fictional examples, I could see zaibatsu using yakuza and having business relationships with certain groups. That would kind of make some yakuza the foot soldiers or street level enforcers for some zaibatsu (for some things). Maybe the lines are not so clear.
Anonymous may be right that Asami could be a lone wolf. I like a zaibatsu clan simply because to me it fits the office and comes with a ready made organization. We don't really know. :)
I have a question for those of you who know more about Japanese culture and history than I do (which is probably all of you). In another thread, we were discussing how Asami could be a criminal and not be yakuza. Although I am pretty sure I got that part correct, it occurred to me that I make certain assumptions based on what I have seen in movies and on TV--and those sources are not known for accuracy (unlike yaoi, which I am sure is a picture of truth). So, for those who know, is there a clear distinction between zaibatsu (financial cliques that seem a lot like cartels or just big business) and the yakuza (organized crime which is similar in some ways to the mafia in the US)?
For me, the word yakuza brings up images of tattooed men who fight like ninjas (unless they have guns, and really, shouldn't they have guns?) and who drive cool cars. In romantic stories, yakuza can be orphans who joined to survive and made a name for themselves on the street. It starts to sound cool before people start chopping fingers off. If the government or a zaibatsu family had some deals with yakuza, I would think those were part of business, but not close ties or a matter of being on equal social footing.
I don't really know as much about zaibatsu--not even from movies. Most people in the US know of groups such as Mitsubishi and Suzuki and we probably think of cars and motorcycles, not crime. Of course, Grand Theft Auto has taught us these groups can also be criminal. My impression, which may be wrong, is that someone born into a "good" family that controls a zaibatsu has a different social rank from a yakuza boss, even if his hands are not clean. From what I have read, many zaibatsu have at least historically had both legal and illegal interests, but they were useful to the government (e.g. they would collect taxes and promote government interests). The US was going to wipe them out after WWII, but then we became scared of communism in Asia and let them do their thing. I am not saying anything bad about any real life organization, but isn't it possible to be head of some zaibatsu group and also have underworld ties?