When the yakuza boss’s daughter drags top lieutenant Ken to a K-Pop concert, he finds himself utterly captivated by the group, especially the main rapper Jun.
I only dabble in reading manga, but one genre I have found myself enjoying is light-hearted gag mangas – with one major caveat. The joke’s got to have legs enough for a series, or it will run thin quickly. Luckily, this is not the case with The Yakuza’s Bias.
Ken might be a serious, tough-talking yakuza member, but he finds much to admire about the unyielding dedication to his job and loyalty to his band members that Jun, a K-pop idol, displays. Over the course of the manga, we get to see him meet fellow fans, get into fandom spaces online, and even write a fanfic set in a mafia AU universe. Though I am not into K-pop myself, having friends who enjoy it and plenty of familiarity with different fandoms was enough context to carry me through.
The art seemed fairly standard, though I did appreciate that characters were drawn distinct enough from one another that I could keep up with everyone who was introduced. I do have to admit that I was a little uneasy at times about being so amused by a clan of active yakuza members – some little part of my brain kept pinging about the dark side of Ken’s lifestyle that did not allow me to relax completely into the story. This is probably a me issue though, and certainly there’s nothing particularly criminal on the page.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
