Anime & manga on Yakuza question

[Waylaid]

Any anime or manga that depicts life of the Yakuza? What are the best ones out there?

 

[AstroNerdBoy]

I don't know any titles that star yakuza, but I know several manga/anime titles do show them (even if they get renamed "gangsters," which to me is less sinister sounding). Love Hina manga has a couple of brief appearances by yakuza, including some who are going to run the beach tea house after Keitaro and the girls return to Hinata-sou. Full Metal Panic ~Fumoffu~ had a few episodes touching the yakuza and an entire episode dedicated to the yakuza.

 

[Artimus Gigan]

Cromartie High School is one, all the characters are the type

 

['Stute Fish]

Sanctuary (Sho Fumimura and Ryochi Ikegami) is a manga and OAV about a yakuza and a politician who were childhood friends, and who planned to gain power over Japan together through their respective positions. It was released some time ago, though (it's on Amazon with preview pages, if you want to give it a look-see). Only read a couple of chapters back when it was being released in magazine format and was interested in it, but just never picked up the collections; everything I've heard about it is positive, though. At the very least, Ikegami's art is always good-lookin'.

 

[Nin-Nin69]

City Hunter loves to poke into the lifestyle of the Yakuza.

 

[lwitkop]

I'd like to second the recommendation for Sanctuary. It was the first manga series I ever read, and it really helped me see the depth of storytelling possible in manga. The art is also stunning, using a more realistic drawing style than many manga. You may be disturbed by the severed head in the basket, but man, it's a great-looking severed head in a basket. I think it never caught on like some other titles because it didn't appeal to the teen demographic. There's also an anime movie version of it I rented once from a video store, but I don't remember much about it, just that I wasn't terribly impressed.

 

[Go-chin]

Gokusen.

It's not directly about the yakuza, but the main character is the granddaughter of one of the heads of them.
it's about her life as a high school teacher while hiding the fact she's still a part of the clan.

 

[Keldran]

Most anime/manga I see that somehow involves yakuza does it in an off handish sort of way, not making it the main focus. It's stuff like "oh, that girl's dad is a yakuza boss, so don't piss her off" or "Kyoko/Onizuka/etc used to run wild in their youth..." or it's another criminal organization having a turf war with the yakuza like in Crying Freeman or even parts of 20th Century Boys. I believe there might even be passing mention to it in Tokyo Godfathers but it's been awhile since I've seen it so don't quote me on that. Honestly I see more regular characters acting like yakuza in extortion schemes than being actual yakuza.

 

[Tash]

Yakuza stories were (supposedly) more common about 50 years ago, so it may be hard to find any of those in english.