Since I’ve never played the Sega video games, it’s hard to know if I’ll be more or less forgiving than die-hard fans. As a series on its own merit, though, Like a Dragon isn’t without some promise, mostly in watching the various lifepaths of four youths in the Yakuza’s orbit. However, that intriguing setup is undone by a confusing and momentum-killing, flashback-ridden narrative. It’s constantly jumping between 1995 and 2005, which often left me scratching my head as to which young character correlated to which old character. Plus, and maybe it’s the poor dubbing, but there is a certain campiness that undermines the inherent seriousness.