Originally posted on 20 January 2016
Source: page 96

Destiny of a Dragon

Secrets Behind the Birth of Hugely Popular Character Goro Majima

Goro Majima - aka "Majima no Nii-san" - one of the most popular characters in the Ryu ga Gotoku series. He is the lifelong rival of Kazuma Kiryu, whom he persistently confronts, and the two have come to blows countless times. At the start of development, however, Majima was meant to simply serve the role of a character who fought back but stood no actual chance of winning.

"Really, he was just put in there to add some spice to the story. We thought it would be best to put in a kind of crazy character like the policeman played by Gary Oldman in the film Leon to portray the story. But the character gradually began to move of its own accord..." (Yokoyama)

Nagoshi not being there at the time of Majima's voice recording also seems to have had a huge impact on the character's formation.

"By chance I wasn't able to make it to the recording, and Yokoyama said to Mr. Ugaki, the voice actor, 'Just play him as absolutely crazy.' That ended up in him speaking the way he does. I thought it sounded overdone, but Yokoyama was full of confidence about it all, so we left it alone and he ended up being amazingly popular. Majima is a miracle that came from my absence. He has bitter elements to his personality, too, and I think it all turned out well in the end." (Nagoshi)

He has appeared in every game in the series, from 1 onwards and Kenzan!. In RGG4 it is learned that he was once the sworn brother of Saejima, one of the protagonists. Also shown is a story from the past that tells how he lost his left eye.

"Majima is actually a loner. He buries his own loneliness by fighting strong men." (Yokoyama)
"I always want Majima to be on the same level as Kiryu. Kiryu has lots of rivals, but he's probably the strongest of them all." (Nagoshi)
Majima is lucky to have grown into a character that is so beloved by fans and development team alike.

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