8 Best Yakuza Romance Manga, Ranked

Highlights

• Love can blossom in unexpected places, even in the dangerous world of the Yakuza, where strict rules govern relationships.
• Anime like Gokudō Juliet explore the complexities of falling for someone from a different background, adding drama to romance.
• Yakuza romance manga like Yakuza Fiancé offer a grounded take on love amidst arranged marriages and dark family secrets.

Love comes in many forms, and can bloom anywhere. Even romantic love can form in the grimmest places, and the world of organized crime is very grim. Particularly in the Gokudō or, as they’re better known, the Yakuza. Aside from crime, they’re also known for their strict hierarchy and moral code.

People know their place in the group, and if they go against the rules, they could end up losing more than a finger or two. Nevertheless, they’re a good source of creative inspiration for crime dramas, action stories, and more. Some mangaka have even used them and their different families to create the best yakuza romance manga.

8 Boss Bride Days

MyAnimeList Score: 6.50

• Written & Illustrated by Narumi Hasegaki.
• 15+ Volumes, 28+ Chapters.
• Available in English via Kodansha USA.

Boss Bride Days is about what happens when one’s fantasies become real. Self-proclaimed nerd Sakura would rather spend her days indoors playing her yakuza-themed dating game than head outside. But when she does go outside, she saves the life of an old man who just happens to be the head of the Amō-gumi, a yakuza family. Moved by her courage, he ends up putting her into his succession plans.

If any of his three grandsons manage to win Sakura’s hand in marriage, they’ll become the family’s new boss too. Now she’s got the slight and sweet Shusuke, the brusque Reo, and the calculating Ryusei trying to win her over. Sakura thinks they’re just trying to use her. However, not everyone is happy to see her in the family. With her life on the line, they may prove their love to be genuine.

7 Gokudō Juliet

Anime Planet Score: 3.8/5 Stars

• Written & Illustrated by Kameno.
• 92 Chapters.
• Fan Translations only.

There are many ways to develop drama in romance and one of the more popular ones is to have people from opposite sides of the tracks fall for each other. It worked for Romeo & Juliet, so why not Gokudō Juliet? Where Yamato, the daughter of a late police officer, gets into a little trouble on her first day at high school.

She’s helped by Jin, a handsome young man with a sweet side. Others tell her not to get close to him, as he’s part of the largest yakuza family in the area. But there’s something about him that appeals to her. Even when her mother reveals Jin played a part in her father’s death, she wants to get closer to him to find out what exactly happened to him. Is he still as sweet as he looks? Or is he a devil in disguise?

6 Wild Ones

MyAnimeList Score: 7.67

• Written & Illustrated by Kiyo Fujiwara.
• 10 Volumes, 57 Chapters.
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Shojo Beat.

Wild Ones takes its lead, Sachie, for an emotional ride. With her mother’s recent death in a car accident and her father long since deceased, she thought she had nowhere left to go. Until her grandfather, Raizo, arrives on the scene and offers her a place to stay. Sachie had never met him before, but she soon finds out why her mother never mentioned her side of the family.

Raizo is the head of his own yakuza clan, where each of its members looks up to him like a father rather than just a boss. Not only does Sachie have to move in with his entourage, she’s assigned a bodyguard: the handsome and heroic Rakuto. Sachie doesn’t like crime or deception, and Rakuto can be overprotective. But there’s more to Raizo’s family than that, and there’s more to Rakuto too.

5 Nisekoi: False Love

MyAnimeList Score: 7.72

• Written & Illustrated by Naoshi Komi.
• 25 Volumes, 229 Chapters.
• Available in English via Viz Media.

In Nisekoi, Raku dreams of becoming a public servant and being with his crush, Kosaki. Unfortunately, as the heir to a large yakuza family, his father has other plans. After a long turf war with the American Bee Hive family, Raku’s father arranges a peace deal with them by pairing his son up with their daughter, Chitoge. She and Raku hate each other but must pretend to be in love to keep their families happy.

For an extra complication, when Raku was little, he promised to marry his childhood friend. He doesn’t remember what they looked like, but to prove their identity, they had a key that would unlock his heart-shaped pendant. So now, he must juggle his fake love with Chitoge, his crush on Kosaki, and several girls who may be his childhood sweethearts.

4 Yakuza Fiancé: Raise Wa Tanin Ga Ii

MyAnimeList Score: 7.77

• Written & Illustrated by Asuka Konishi.
• 8+ Volumes, 38+ Chapters.
• Available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment.

If the other entries seem a little fanciful, Yakuza Fiancé: Raise Wa Tanin Ga Ii (A Future Fit for Others) goes for a more grounded take on yakuza romance. Or at least one where things aren’t so rosy. Yoshino hoped that, despite being the granddaughter of the head of the Somei Group, Kansai’s largest yakuza organization, she could be an ordinary high schooler.

Instead, when the Somei merges with the Miyama Group, its equivalent in Kanto, she’s put in an arranged marriage with the Miyama Group leader’s grandson to seal the deal. Said grandson, Kirishima, is nice and polite enough around her, but he has a dark side that’s more brutal than any ordinary yakuza. Yoshino is no wilting flower, but with normality thrown out the window, she’ll have to steel herself for life within the Miyama.

3 Gokusen

MyAnimeList Score: 8.06

• Written & Illustrated by Kozueko Morimoto.
• 15 Volumes, 156 Chapters.
• Fan Translations only.

Gokusen is a “hot for teacher” story with a twist, as class 3D, the unruliest class at an all-boys school, gains a new math and homeroom teacher: Kumiko “Yankumi” Yamaguchi. Though they thrive on tormenting the school staff, Yankumi withstands their attempts to break her and brings the class to heel, gaining their respect.

One of her students, Shin, takes a particular interest in Yankumi as she doesn’t act like a typical teacher. Eventually, he discovers her secret: Yankumi is the heir to the Kuroda-Ikka yakuza clan, and they want her to come back as their boss. Even though she can hold her own, Shin does his best to back her up, even if he ends up being the one saved by her most of the time.

2 Tokyo Crazy Paradise

MyAnimeList Score: 8.29

• Written & Illustrated by Yoshiki Nakamura.
• 19 Volumes, 111 Chapters.
• Fan Translations only.

Set in the far-off future year of 2020, Tokyo Crazy Paradise sees the city become a crime-riddled dystopia where murder and acts against women are commonplace. As a result, Tsukasa’s parents raised their daughter as a boy. She wants to follow in her parent’s footsteps and become a cop, but when they’re killed in the line of duty, she’s left to look after herself and her siblings alone.

To pay off her parents’ debts and make ends meet, Tsukasa becomes the bodyguard for Ryuji, her classmate and leader of the biggest yakuza group in the area. At first, Ryuji ramps up her debts to keep her on his proverbial leash, but this only drives her to take side jobs that get her in trouble. Eventually, as the two save each other from different threats, the two form a bond beyond their contract.

1 Like The Beast

MyAnimeList Score: 8.47

• Written & Illustrated by Kotetsuko Yamamoto.
• 16+ Volumes, 38+ Chapters.
• Available in English via Futekiya.

There’s no shortage of yaoi/BL yakuza stories. In fact, there are a lot of them, and they often come with content warnings. However, if readers want a love story with a little spice instead of the whole rack, Like the Beast should be up their street. It shows what happens when two guys from different sides of the law fall for each other.

Not that Officer Ueda had this in mind when he became a cop. He just likes helping people, which endeared him to the community. It just happened to charm Aki, heir to the Gotōda group too. After the two took care of an underwear thief together, Aki confessed his love for Ueda. Flustered, Ueda gives him a chance, only to find out the hard way what kind of trouble dating a mobster as a cop brings.