Homare Nishitani

This article is about the Yakuza 0 character. For the Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name character, see Homare Nishitani III.

Homare Nishitani (西谷誉, Nishitani Homare) is a supporting character in Yakuza 0. He is the patriarch of the Kijin Clan, an Omi Alliance subsidiary, as well as a retainer to the 5th Omi chairman, Jin Goda.

Profile[]

Appearance[]

Nishitani has a light goatee with his hair parted down the middle on both sides.

Attire[]

Nishitani wears a striped fuchsia suit, a black dress shirt, a purple necktie, a watch on his left wrist, a brown leather belt with a gold buckle, and brown leather oxfords. His watch has a black crocodile leather watch strap, a gold case, and a black dial.

Personality[]

I can't wait! Just looking at somebody strong gets my juices flowin'. I'm rock hard, buddy ol' pal. Can't hold this back!

— Nishitani to Majima, Yakuza 0

Nishitani is wild and almost sadomasochistic in his desires. He relentlessly pursues whatever he feels like, doing whatever it takes to get what he wants. A man whose three tenets of life are money, sex, and violence, he is an unpredictable foe that not even the Omi Alliance can control. Nishitani even confesses that he's turned on by fighting strong rivals like Goro Majima.

Nonetheless, he is shown to be loyal to those who cooperate with him and is somewhat of an idol among his followers. He also respects those who can meet him on the same level, physically, and mocks his adversaries for trying to defeat him with weapons instead of their fists.

Nishitani is also quite intelligent. For example, he quickly bypassed the "Customer is King" policy after Majima invoked it to avoid fighting him. He was also able to accurately deduce the identity of the man that took Makoto away from Majima.

Background[]

Homare Nishitani was raised by his uncle, Billiken, from a very young age. He was described as being a troublemaker since birth, to a point where Billiken remarked that he had never seen a baby so good at shoplifting.

Nishitani steadily increased his criminal path as he aged. According to Billiken, Nishitani had started pickpocketing in kindergarten, moved onto robbery during elementary school and into car break-ins by middle school. His criminal activity escalated considerably by high school, however, when he moved onto murder. Billiken's daughter was murdered by another student who barely saw legal consequences because he was a minor. After the killer was released from juvie, Nishitani stabbed him to death after seeing how distraught Billiken had become because his daughter's killer had faced such little punishment.

Eventually, as an adult, Nishitani became the patriarch of the Kijin Clan. It is unknown if he was the founder of this group, but as of the events of the game, it is a direct subsidiary of the Omi Alliance, with Nishitani himself being a retainer to the fifth chairman (meaning that he was among the brass of the organization).

Involvement[]

Yakuza 0: 1988[]

Nishitani is hired by Keiji Shibusawa of the Tojo Clan's Dojima Family to kidnap Makoto Makimura. To this end, he dispatches Kijin Clan men to retrieve Makoto from Hogushi Kaikan Massage. However, the kidnapping attempt is foiled by the intervention of Goro Majima.

After his clan's failed attempts, Nishitani decides to take matters into his own hands. He tracks down Majima at Ashitaba Park, and takes a bag out of the trash that Majima threw out. Inside the bag, was clothing meant to dress up someone as Makoto. Along with pictures inside showing a girl who looks similar to Makoto, Nishitani figures out the plan of faking Makoto's death, and begins looking for Makoto's body double. The next morning, Nishitani murders Makoto's body double, dresses her in Hogushi Kaikan attire, and throws her body into the Sotenbori river.

Nishitani waits Majima to meet him in for a deal

The next day, Nishitani decides to introduce himself to Majima in a grandiose fashion: He rents the entirety of the Cabaret Grand for the day and parties with several of the establishment's hostesses while he waits for Majima to arrive. When he doesn't, he calls Lee's massage parlor, correctly suspecting he'd be there, and tells him to come to the Grand to meet him. While he waits for Majima to arrive, Nishitani violates the club's public lewdness policy by offering one of the hostesses 10 thousand yen per second to let him grope her, only to get admonished for it when Majima does arrive. Nishitani sends the hostesses away and introduces himself, also admitting that he's the one who killed the body double and sent Oishi and his men after Makoto.

Nishitani asks Majima to give him the girl, promising not to harm her and to not tell Sagawa about the ruse with the body double, but Majima refuses. Nishitani is ecstatic about this, since it means he now has a reason to fight Majima, whom he wants to "test out" after hearing what his lackeys had said about his fighting prowess. However, Majima refuses, since he's technically a client, which prompts Nishitani to take out his cellphone and call the police on himself, saying that he's a burglar who is robbing the Grand. Nishitani then pulls out a knife and tells Majima that he has to fight him now, since he's a "robber". A fight finally breaks out between the two, during which Nishitani attacks Majima in a wild, erratic manner, before the police finally arrive and put an end to the battle. Disappointed, Nishitani surrenders himself to the officers and tells Majima to save himself up for "next time," since he's now his "favorite toy."

Nishitani is approached by Majima once again

A couple days later, Nishitani is still relaxing in his prison cell hideout when Majima arrives, having been allowed in to see him by Detective Billiken. Majima tells Nishitani that Makoto was kidnapped by a man in a white suit and asks if Nishitani was working with him, but Nishitani refuses to answer any questions until he's had a rematch of their fight at the Grand. A begrudging Majima obliges him and the two brawl again, with Majima being the victor once more. A satisfied Nishitani thanks Majima for the fight, which makes Majima admit that he's come to find Nishitani "pretty entertaining" himself, much to Nishitani's delight. The Kijin patriarch fulfills his end of the bargain and tells Majima that he isn't working with the man in white Majima described, but based on his description, he concludes it must be Masaru Sera, the President of the Nikkyo Consortium. After telling him how to find Sera, Nishitani offers Majima a position in the Kijin Clan, saying that together they can free Makoto from the Nikkyo and deliver her to Shibusawa, which would protect her from Sagawa and Shimano since, unlike them, Shibusawa wants her alive. However, Majima turns the offer down because he refuses to let Makoto continue to be exploited by the yakuza underworld.

Nishitani readys to kill the back stabbing cop before his last breath

After their conversation is done, Nishitani opens his cell door, revealing it was unlocked the whole time and lets Majima out. However, while they're leaving, they witness one of the precinct's police officers murder Billiken. The officer says Shibusawa is angry that Nishitani failed to secure the girl on time, so he's paid him to kill him. The cop shoots Nishitani until he runs out of bullets but the infuriated yakuza refuses to die. Nishitani stands his ground and tells Majima to go save Makoto, passionately declaring that dying early is part of the yakuza life but that he's "had a blast bustin' heads" and "blazing his own path", which Majima ought to do as well. The officer backs away in terror and begs for his life, but a murderous Nishitani advances towards him. As Majima departs, Nishitani lunges towards the officer, who screams from off-screen. Presumably, Nishitani kills the officer with his bare hands before succumbing to his bullet wounds.

Fighting Style[]

Nishitani is fought twice in Yakuza 0. His fighting style embodies his wild, playful personality, centering around the use of a tantō dagger. His moveset — similar to Majima's Mad Dog of Shimano style — is composed mainly of swift, smooth attack-strings with clean cuts and stabs, whilst also incorporating kicks. He also uses many of Majima's attacks from previous Yakuza games.

His combos are three in number:

one combo consisting of a lunging leftward-rightward slash, followed by:
- a spinning underarm reverse-grip thrust, a high knife thrust (both fights), and a rapid low leftward slash-rightward horizontal slash (2nd fight only); or
- an overarm knife thrust-spinning command grab, followed by him throwing Majima over his shoulder and stabbing him in the abdomen;
a second combo comprising a lunging underarm thrust, a left-handed reverse-grip thrust, a spinning left outward crescent kick (both fights), and a two-handed gut-thrust (2nd fight only); and
a third combo made up of a hopping left push kick, and a sliding downward diagonal left-upward diagonal right slash-backwards cartwheel kick-upward vertical slash before laughing.

The remainder of his moveset includes the following:

Majima's jumping knife plunge from Yakuza 1-5,
Majima's running knife thrust from Yakuza 3-5,
Majima's side flip slash-spinning slashes attack from Yakuza 5,
a spinning upward diagonal right slash as a front damage reversal (Heat Mode only),
quickstep attacks (2nd fight only), including:
- a spinning downward diagonal left slash after sidestepping right, and
- a spinning rightward horizontal slash after sidestepping left;
falling flat on his back and pretending to be downed, slashing at Majima's feet thrice and performing a starfish kick-up if he gets too close;
a counter stance where he waves his hands up and down, retaliating with an upward underarm knife thrust if Majima attacks (2nd fight only);
Majima's get-up attacks from Yakuza 2, 4 and 5 (unused); and
Majima's taunt from Yakuza 1-5.

Nishitani is incredibly evasive and will often chain multiple quicksteps back-to-back — an ability that other bosses only gain in Heat Mode.

His aura in Heat Mode is bright neon pink.

Nishitani's moveset is reused by Masashi Suzaki in Judgment.

Trivia[]

Nishitani's intro animation from his boss battles is reused as Majima's intro animation in his battles in Yakuza Kiwami.
Nishitani's fight card displays "Kijin Clan Chairman" rather than "Kijin Clan Patriarch."