Judgment is rumoured to be getting a live-action TV adaptation starring Japanese actor and pop star Takuya Kimura, the same actor who plays Takayuki Yagami in the games.
Judgment is a spin-off to the beloved JRPG series Yakuza. While the main games are moving toward turn-based combat, Judgment is keeping the real-time, over-the-top, silly fights that we've had since the PS2 days. But rather than playing a part in Japan's criminal underworld, you're a grizzled detective trying to solve a case. You're Yakuza's own Sherlock Holmes.
Nikkan Gendai reported that a TV adaptation is being made for Asahi Television (as spotted by Kotaku) with the title 'Sabakarezaru' which translates to 'The Unjudged'. Lost Judgment, the second game in the spin-off series, had the title Sabakarezaru Kioku (Unjudged Memory), seemingly pointing to the show adapting the second game. Nikkan Gendai also claims that a movie is being penned, bringing Judgment to the small and silver screens.
Right now, Kimura is starring in BG-Personal Guard which is on its second season, but the actor said he doesn't want to return for a third, citing a personal rule.
"Kimura spends so much time creating roles that he declares that 60 percent of the roles have been created before recording. If you play the same role three times, you will inevitably compare past works and arrange your own," Gendai writes. "It's said that season three will not be done no matter how much of a hit the drama is because it will not be possible to do it freely. There was no season three for Hero which had a high audience rating."
Kimura has a rule of thumb that he won't go beyond a second series, so will he return for Judgment 3? How long will this reported adaptation last? Time will tell, but the show is in the early stages of planning, so it's unlikely that we'll see anything anytime soon. At any rate, video game adaptations are seeing a spike in popularity lately - Yakuza joining in on the fun isn't too surprising. Let's just be thankful that Sega didn't cast Chris Pratt.