| “ | ...Well, I suppose I've been going on long enough. It's almost ironic, wouldn't you say? Masumi Arakawa leaves two sons behind... One who worships the ground he walks on. And the other who spits on his grave. One works to rehabilitate the yakuza. And the other, in all his hatred, sends them to their doom. We're mirror images, he and I. | „ |
| ~ Ebina comparing himself to Ichiban Kasuga before fighting Kiryu. |
Masataka Hikawa, also known as Masataka Ebina, is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Bryce Fairchild) and final boss of Sega's 2024 action-adventure RPG video game Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
He is the captain (later Acting Chairman) of the Seiryu Clan who is planning the "Second Great Dissolution", a seemingly innocent scheme in which he recruits every ex-yakuza into the Seiryu Clan and rehabilitates them into a normal life in society. In reality, he holds a severe hatred for the yakuza and is desperately plotting ways to eradicate all of their kind in an act of revenge against his father, who is revealed to be Masumi Arakawa.
He was voiced by Hiroki Hasegawa in Japanese and by Daniel Dae Kim in English (who also voiced Hiroshi Sato in the Legend of Korra series).
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- As part of his goals to eradicate the Yakuza and kill his father, Masumi Arakawa, he joined the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and became an elite bureaucrat, being heavily driven to accomplish his goals.
- When he learned news of the Great Dissolution and later Arakawa's demise, he was enraged on the fact the Yakuza now suddenly became ordinary civilians, now being theoretically treated as one, and the fact he could not be able to kill his father with his own hands, unable to let go of his vengeful desires.
- He came up with an idea to rally up large groups of former Yakuza members at his disposal and have them all killed to satisfy his vengeful desire. To achieve this, he would join the Seiryu Clan and was quickly promoted as captain by Mamoru Takabe, thanks to his earnings.
- He became acquainted with the Overseer of the Hawaiian criminal underworld and the Sage of Palekana, Bryce Fairchild, and the two would forge an alliance, with Bryce's connections leading to Ebina meeting Eiji Mitamura, who had severe hatred towards the Yakuza as well.
- But even though they work together, it is obvious that he and Bryce despise one another, as demonstrated by Ebina's admission that he thought Bryce was a power-hungry fool.
- He framed Takabe and had him arrested in order to take over the Seiryu Clan as acting chairman.
- Alongside Eiji, who was using the VTube channel Tatara Channel owned by VTuber Hisoka Tatara (who is actually Chitose Fujinomiya), they would spread false rumors about Kasuga and the other ex-yakuza members, leading to them being fired from their jobs and not being able to find work due to being a Yakuza in the past.
- They did a similar thing to Daigo Dojima and his security consolidation, with the company being shut down and forcing him, Goro Majima, and Taiga Saejima to hide away from the media.
- Not only that, but those who are associated with them also got their lives ruined, with Adachi and Kasuga being a good example, as the two lost their jobs due to their relations to Kasuga.
- Following this, Ebina would recruit hundreds of former yakuza members to join the Seiryu Clan in order to decieve them that he was following Takabe's plan to cause the Second Great Dissolution to disband all of the yakuza organizations in Japan, when in reality, he was planning to have them all killed.
- Ebina had Sawashiro send Kasuga to head to Hawaii in order to find his biological mother, Akane Kushida as bait as a favor for Bryce, as he needed to find a girl named Lani Mililani, who was revealed to be the actual sage of Palekana and have her and Akane eliminated.
- It is also revealed that he sent Eiji to observe Kasuga's movements and to assist Bryce in finding Lani, which would result in the deaths of both Kihei Hanakawa and Wong Tou.
- On Nele Island, he and Bryce would store all of Japan's nuclear waste, enabling the Japanese government to resurrect its nuclear industry and the two to accumulate wealth.
- He pre-recorded his message to disband the Seiryu Clan and rebirth as the nonprofit organization Bleach Japan, as well as revealing his partnership with Palekana and his plan to pass their Yakuza rehabilitation program to the government, all in order to draw Kiryu and his team to the Tojo Clan headquarters, exposing him further.
- After discovering Sawashiro's betrayal, he captured and tortured him to the point of damaging his right eye and used him as bait to draw in the heroes to the Millennium Tower.
- When Kiryu and his group confront Ebina, he tells them that he intends to use Nele Island as a nuclear waste disposal site and send all hundreds of these former Yakuza to work there while gradually becoming infected with radioactive poison until they eventually die.
- He tried to kill Kiryu and his team, and despite his best efforts, he ends up being defeated.
- Despite the high bar for heinousness in the Like a Dragon franchise, Ebina is particularly notable for ruining the lives of hundreds of former yakuza members by spreading false rumors about them, which led to them being fired and then luring them into believing that he would change their ways, when in reality, his true motivation was to torture and kill them by having them work on a radioactive island that would have gradually poisoned them to death. Furthermore, he is also held accountable for his own personal villainy towards characters, such as causing Kasuga and his friends to lose their jobs, disclosing Kiryu's survival to the public, and fabricating false information about his "plan" to revive the Tojo Clan.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- Despite his attempted mass murder on hundreds of former Yakuza members, Ebina is ultimately too tragic to be NPE.
- As a child, Ebina had a terrible life because he and his mother were forced to live alone because the former Hirakawa family ignored them, and several of them went on to join different Yakuza clans. His mother's deteriorating health made it difficult for her to raise Ebina appropriately, and in her final moments, she attempted to convince her son not to despise the Yakuza or his father. But because of his grief and resentment of the Yakuza, particularly Masumi, he disregarded his mother's request and made the decision to exact revenge on them for destroying his life.
- Even though he harbors resentment toward the Yakuza, he is extremely self-loathing of himself because he knows deep down how hypocritical he is for joining the same criminal underworld he despises in order to get his revenge, even getting a tattoo on him. Additionally, he knows that even if he were to get his revenge, it would leave him completely unsatisfied and deprived of a target on which to focus his rage—an outcome his mother dreaded and worked to avoid.
- He is a death-seeker, as evidenced by the fact that he included himself in his plan to wipe out the Yakuza. This is made even clearer when, after losing, he threatened to crawl back up like the other Yakuza if Kiryu did not finish him.
- Even Kiryu admits that Ebina is a victim of his actions when he resigned as the Fourth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, which led to disasterous consequences. Kiryu even believed that if he had been the leader of the Tojo Clan instead of quickly resigning from his role, he could have improved the Yakuza and given Ebina a better life than he had.
- As previously stated, despite rejecting his mother's plea and considering her a fool for wanting to forgive Masumi, he still loved her and was partially motivated to avenge her.
- His defeat is depicted sympathetically, with Ebina having an emotional breakdown about the Yakuza and demanding Kiryu finish him off or he will crawl back up like the rest of the Yakuza. Instead, Kiryu expresses regret and apologizes, as well as tearfully pleads with Ebina to allow the Yakuza, including himself, to make amends before passing out, which encourages Ebina to let go of his vengeful impulses.
External Links[]
- Masataka Ebina on the Villains Wiki
- Masataka Ebina on the Yakuza/Like a Dragon Wiki
- Masataka Ebina on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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