“These stans are nuttier than yakuza!”

If there’s one manga that made me go “Wow, I wonder if I’m just like the main character of this series!,” it’s most definitely this one.

As I have confessed in the past, I got into K-Pop this year due to 4th generation girl groups. And then I remembered that Teki Yatsuda’s The Yakuza’s Bias came out this year in the U.S. Now that I’m deep into the K-Pop swamp, I finally decided to read the manga after a lot of praise (especially from The New York Public Library).

By god, it’s one of the funniest things that hits home to me and to a lot of K-Pop fans.

The Yakuza’s Bias is about a notable yakuza enforcer named Ken Kanashiro and his love for a K-Pop boy group member. He’s the enforcer of the Washio Clan, one of the most prominent gangs in the underworld. One day, the daughter of the Washio Clan, Megumi Washio, decides to ask Kanashiro to accompany her to a K-Pop concert featuring her favorite K-Pop group, MNW. Ken humors her and finds himself enamored with one of MNW’s members, Jun, who he proclaims to be a very manly man. The manga shows Kanashiro’s descent into becoming a huge K-Pop stan and his insistence to share that passion with his fellow yakuza syndicate members.

I think what makes this manga endearing and hilarious is the power that K-Pop music has on everyone it touches – most particularly, people who’ve felt that their lives were missing something or they’re not connected to other people in a meaningful way. Kanashiro constantly compares the yakuza to K-Pop idols in a hilarious and frightening manner. Megumi tries her best to drag everyone she knows (including her own mother) into the K-Pop abyss so she can have someone to talk with about her bias.

Perhaps the best example of K-Pop touching someone’s heart in the manga is a rival yakuza member named Kinji Mizuhara. He was inspired by Kanashiro to join a gang in the past. However, Mizuhara dislikes his job and role in the yakuza. One day, he decides to off Kanashiro only to catch him outside for a MNW fan merchandise trading meetup. After being weirded out, Mizuhara finds out about MNW and decides to use Kanashiro’s fandom as psychological warfare. However, he becomes enamored with a MNW member himself and would later become K-Pop “friends” with Kanashiro as well.

The power of community is really illustrated in The Yakuza’s Bias. There’s talk about how K-Pop fans use social media (particularly Twitter) to gain followers by coming up with fun stories to find community. K-Pop groups rely on said fans to spread their love worldwide across various communities (seeing the yakuza become K-Pop fans is charming).

A final point I’ll bring out about the manga is a scene in Volume 2 where Kanashiro’s bias, Jun, releases a mixtape. Kanashiro and Megumi become disgruntled about Jun’s song. This is mostly because of how vulnerable and dark the song is. There’s interesting commentary about how to handle idols acting and feeling like regular human beings. After all, idols are supposed to be hard-working perfectionists selling hopes and dreams. You don’t see what really happens behind the scenes. Kanashiro falls into somewhat of a deep depression as he only saw Jun as a tough gangster type.

But when MNW makes their comeback with a new hit song and a darker, mature look, Kanashiro realizes MNW is just like the Washio clan. While walking different paths, they’re part of the community that is human beings. Baring your weaknesses and confronting them head-on is what makes someone stronger.

I have personally seen what K-Pop has done for fans all across the world. While the industry is insidious at times, there’s honest people working in it who want the world to enjoy their music. Ever since I started listening to K-Pop, I found K-Pop fans in the anime/manga community and mahjong community. It makes me feel alive. I even managed to find fans of The Yakuza’s Bias at Anime NYC this year and we all gushed about it.

Reading about a fictional K-Pop idol’s struggles made me think about my long road to learning how to accept myself. Even though I didn’t have people to really help guide me, I managed to get to the stage of self-acceptance. Because of that, I’ve gotten to appreciate those who choose to stick around me a lot more.

If there’s anything you will get out of The Yakuza’s Bias besides some really silly gags, it’s how much we really need other people, whether they’re our friends or a K-Pop idol, to make our lives worthwhile.