Hi there, it's time for me to bring another Like a Dragon candidate to the wiki, who is probably one of the most hated characters in the franchise (for deliberate reasons). Please welcome Jun Oda!
What's The Work?[]
Like a Dragon is a beat 'em up (later turn-based RPG) crime drama video game franchise created by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. The games take place in various cities across Japan, which there are a lot of threatening villains who tried to harm the innocents. Thankfully, the games also feature a lot of heroes who selflessly stop them and to protect the civilians.
Who is He?[]
Wei Tian, better known as Jun Oda, is the overarching antagonist of Yakuza 0, the prequel of the Like a Dragon franchise. He was the sworn brother of Tetsu Tachibana, the head of Tachibana Real Estate. As the story progresses, he was revealed to be an infamous sex trafficker who happened to do so to many women, including Tachibana's sister Makoto Makimura, which he kept it as a secret for decades.
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
Before the events of the game, he immigrated to Japan without anything in hand, so he has done a lot of crimes to make a living, including becoming a sex trafficker who made many women sex slaves and sold them to many syndicates, notably when he sold Makoto Makimura to the Korean Syndicate, as a result, she was caged and horribly abused, causing her to go blind due to the horrific trauma, especially when he unintentionally revealed his bat tattoo to Makoto, this also made her further more fondly remember of him. Therefore, he was majorly responsible for driving most of the events and tragedies of the game
After meeting and befriending Tetsu Tachibana, and finding out one of his victims (Makoto) turned out to be Tachibana's sister, whom Tachibana tried his best to reunite, he then did everything to keep his crimes a secret, further hindering their reunion, because he was afraid that Tachibana might turn on him if he knew the truth. After moving to Kamurocho, he then started to work as a mole for Keiji Shibusawa, which he tried to get any important information from Tachibana to help Shibusawa in rising power, as well as to try to get rid of Makoto.
When him and Kiryu were on their ways to escort Makoto, upon realizing she was his victim, he did his best to get rid of her and even attempted to slap her when she slightly saw his bat tattoo. He also tried every way so that he could get rid of Makoto and to further keep his heinous acts as a secret, such as attempting to kill Kiryu and Makoto, as well as stopping their ways. Although he redeemed himself at the end, he also snitched about Homare Nishitani's failure to capture Makoto, leading to Nishitani's death.
Heinous Standard[]
As loathsome as his crimes were, it is still important to consider the extremely high heinous standard of the Like a Dragon franchise, where many notorious crime lords and officials commit heinous acts for breakfast, and many villains find it difficult to stand out, let's take a look at some of the most heinous villains who set the verse's standard:
(Most of the list were copied from my previous Like a Dragon proposals)
- Sohei Dojima: The villain who set the heinous standard of the verse. He committed an infamous Jingweon massacre, as well as massacring many of Elder Chen's men, and then orchestrated a full-scale gang war which could have harmed thousands of innocents. After his defeat, he cowardly raped Yumi Sawamura out of spite and was rightfully killed by Nishiki. Overall, he kickstarted most of the events happening in the Yakuza Saga by influencing other Pure Evil villains to do his crimes, such as Kei Ibuchi and Ryo Takashima. Overall, he was a power hungry crime lord and a serial rapist who orchestrated countless incidents of the franchise.
- Tsuneo Iwami: The most hated villain of the franchise, and for obvious reasons. Despite having every chance to be an honest successful citizen, threw it all away and became a power hungry crime lord who harmed a large scale of innocents, he even killed his own father just to keep doing so. He also had no problem brutally killing harmless women and children. He also helped kickstart the subsequent events of the Like a Dragon saga, involving many heinous villains. This guy also willing to kill a baby just for his sake of being evil.
- Kyoya Sadamoto: A prime example of how a low resource villain could have committed such atrocious crime. As an ordinary businessman, this guy burned down his in-laws' house and killed every single family member, except for his wife, just to inherit their will. He also poisoned dozens of people with his brutal poison toxin at the end, just to satisfy his bloodlust. He also had no problem killing his wife and son to cover up his crimesif not for Kaito's interference.
- Bryce Fairchild: A notorious cultist and child abductor who had been doing what he did for half a century. With a mask of a noble cult leader, he had committed a lot of acts which made Hawaii a dangerous place, including child trafficking, child manipulation, aiding organized crimes and many more. He also attempted to use his island with radio active waste to harm the large scale of people.
For Oda, I think he can still pass the heinous standard for some reasons I'm gonna list. First of all, his crimes of sex trafficking was very graphic and unique in the verse, which he turned a lot of innocent and helpless women into sex slaves and let them get abused in brutal ways. One of the notable victims was obviously Makoto Makimura, which he made her suffered a lot and even traumatized her to the point of going blind. His crime and how he kept it as a secret for a long time also heavily hindered Tachibana's reunion with his sister and he unfortunately never had a chance to do so, as well as making Tachibana traumatized for feeling not able to help his sister. Therefore, he had a very realistic depiction of sex trafficking, with many on-screen consequences, as well as initiating most of the events of the game.
Even after his sex trafficking scheme, he also became the mole for Shibusawa, thus directly helping him to become a power hungry crime lord who could have done worse if he was not stopped by Kiryu. He also had a really low resource (much lower than Shibusawa and other villains in the game) as he was just an ordinary employee and businessman but still managed to commit such atrocious crimes and further contributing to most of the incidents in the game. His sex trafficking crime were also done when he had much lower resources point.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
As heinous as this guy's crimes were, he still had a tragic and sympathetic backstory, as he was just a very poor guy who immigrated to Japan, and he wanted to do anything just to make himself a living, including those unethical works which made him heinous. He was also way too remorseful, despite committing those atrocious crimes, he was heavily haunted and felt extreme guilt by it and the reason why he kept it a secret, despite being aware of the consequences, was because he wanted to stay away from his past and kept it from haunting him further.
He was also an affable and honorable person who sometimes assisted and stood up for Kiryu and Tachibana in their journeys ocassionally. Despite keeping his sex trafficking crime as a secret to Tachibana for decades, he genuinely respected and loved him as a brother, as he was willing to protect him from many threats if he had to, he also told Kiryu to tell Tachibana that he always saw him as a brother and his loyalty towards him was completely genuine.
His defeat was also played for sympathy, as he redeemed himself at the end, and tried to atone for his crimes by using himself as a bullet shield from Shibusawa and his men so that Kiryu and Makoto could get away safely.
Verdict[]
I'll give him a yes.