Masato Aizawa

SPOILER WARNING: Plot details for Yakuza 5 follow. (Skip)

Masato Aizawa (相沢聖人, Aizawa Masato) is a secondary antagonist in Yakuza 5. He is a member of the Tojo Clan serving as a bodyguard to Daigo Dojima and is the secret son of the seventh chairman of the Omi Alliance.

Profile[]

Appearance[]

Aizawa is an extremely muscular, stocky man. His black hair is short and slicked back.

Tattoo[]

Aizawa's back tattoo depicts a koi, which, according to legends, can ascend into a dragon, symbolizing Aizawa's ulterior motive to surpass Kiryu. The only difference is Aizawa's koi is a dark shade of blue, yellow and green, and is more bulky. The darker colors reflect Aizawa's life in the shadows, whereas the bulky appearance matches Aizawa's physique.

Attire[]

While working as Daigo's bodyguard, Aizawa wears a black, double-breasted suit and dress shoes, over a white dress shirt and a green tie with silver, parallelogram patterns. He adorns a Tojo Clan crest pin his left coat lapel.

At the Tojo Clan Headquarters, he wears a white pinstripe suit over a plum-colored dress shirt with its top two buttons undone, as well as a black leather belt, a gold chain, and his black dress shoes and Tojo pin. He also carries a katana with floral engravings decorating its guard and sheath.

Personality[]

Aizawa comes across as a gentle giant type at first, but is quickly shown to easily become aggressive and violent. As a member of the Tojo Clan, he maintains his absolute loyalty with his oath brother, Yu Morinaga and follows commands from the guided latter. His strong temper is shown easily when confronted with the Yamagasa Family and Kazuma Kiryu who refuse to abide by Morinaga's orders. As opposed to Morinaga, Aizawa lacks calculation in his abilities, and is fully driven by instinct in order to complete his objectives unless guided otherwise.

As the secret son of Tsubasa Kurosawa, Aizawa possesses strong leverage over the future of the Omi Alliance and possibly the Tojo Clan. Despite this, Aizawa does not recognize any pride in being the heir to a high-ranking yakuza, and wishes find his own path throughout the underworld. Aizawa chooses physical strength and fighting prowess as his way of life, and centers almost all of his actions accordingly.

As a believer in the self-made man, Aizawa holds Kiryu in high regard while bearing a strong disdain towards Daigo Dojima, being the heir to the Dojima Family name and also having full support from Kiryu. Aizawa contrasts himself to Kiryu, focusing fully on physical strength as opposed to Kiryu's strong charisma. With Aizawa's high opinion of Kiryu, he finds no greater pride than defeating who he considers to be the strongest person in the yakuza world, and would consider himself to be "at the apex of our world" if successful in his battle.

Background[]

Aizawa was born to Tsubasa Kurosawa and an unnamed mother. Details about Aizawa's childhood are completely unknown. After Kurosawa was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer around June 2012, he asked Aizawa to be his successor. Hearing out the plan of taking over both the Omi Alliance and Tojo Clan, Aizawa accepted. Planted into the Tojo Clan alongside his oath brother, Yu Morinaga, Aizawa became a bodyguard to Daigo Dojima. While serving Daigo, Aizawa and Morinaga questioned the way the Tojo Clan was run, viewing Daigo as incompetent. Aizawa trained his fighting skills, with the goal of defeating Kazuma Kiryu one-on-one.

Involvement[]

Yakuza 5: 2012[]

Aizawa and Morinaga are present as Daigo Dojima forms an alliance between the Tojo Clan and Yamagasa Family. As Daigo walks into Nagasugai alone, Minoru Aoyama signals the pair to follow him. Seeing Daigo enter a taxi, the pair tail the taxi, but eventually lose track of it. Afterwards, Morinaga tells Aizawa to quit their plan, telling him "You'll never have the strength to surpass Kazuma Kiryu."

Learning of the taxi's company, Nagasu Taxi, and the name of Daigo's driver, Aizawa and Morinaga learn his driver was Kiryu, under the alias of "Taichi Suzuki." Aizawa and Morinaga unsuccessfully try to convince Kiryu to help them track Daigo down. Kiryu refuses, and defeats them both to drive them off, though he later enlists them to help him raid the Yamagasa Family to find Aoyama since it seemed like he had orchestrated Daigo's disappearance. During the raid, Morinaga is shot by Aoyama, and Aizawa separates from Kiryu to take him to safety. Later, Morinaga killed Aoyama, and claimed to Kiryu that he had killed Aizawa before disappearing.

However, Aizawa is in fact alive and well. He eventually ends up in Purgatory of Kamurocho, where he goes up against a powerful Coliseum fighter, in what appears to be an attempt to find info on Morinaga's whereabouts, though he already knows of his death. Taiga Saejima visits The Florist of Sai for the same information, and stops Aizawa from killing his opponent. After Aizawa cools down, he reveals to Saejima that Morinaga simply disappeared without ever killing him. Here, Saejima attempts to get his spirits up by challenging him to another fight, and after Saejima defeats him, the Florist reveals that Morinaga had been killed recently. When Naoki Katsuya announces the change of plans at the Tokyo Dome, Aizawa attempts to leave Purgatory to track Katsuya down, but Saejima urges him to stay behind so he can give Morinaga a proper sendoff and recover, though he disappears anyway.

At around the same time Goro Majima is revealed to be alive, Aizawa invades the Tojo Clan Headquarters and effectively takes it over, awaiting Kiryu's arrival. Once Kiryu arrives, Aizawa reveals that he is the son of Kurosawa, and that Kurosawa wanted him to inherit both the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance as his legacy. However, what Aizawa truly wants is to defeat Kiryu fair and square on his own merits and reach the top of the hill in the yakuza world, as Morinaga once said he could never do so. To this end, he discards his katana in order to fight Kiryu with his own two fists.

Kiryu is ultimately able to defeat Aizawa despite his previous gunshot wound from Kurosawa. Afterwards, an exhausted Kiryu tells Aizawa to fight his way to the top, and that he will be ready for him once he makes it there. Aizawa then passes out as Kiryu departs. What happens to Aizawa afterwards is unknown.

Fighting Style[]

Aizawa is fought three times in Yakuza 5: the first time as Kiryu against him and Morinaga, the second as Saejima against him alone, and the third as Kiryu for the final boss fight. He and Morinaga also join Kiryu as AI companions, during the first half of the Yamagasa Headquarters long battle.

Initially, Aizawa is lacking in terms of fighting skill, relying mostly on brute-strength. In his last fight, however, he evolves from a sluggish scrapper into an exceptionally swift, well-rounded combatant on par with Kiryu. His physical prowess is such that he can lift up and swing the giant sculpture at Tojo HQ with just one hand.

Aizawa's complete moveset boasts a diverse range of attacks, including quick punch strings and kicks, and wide and heavy-hitting blows. Many of these have very strong tracking and are difficult to evade. His style also places a consistent emphasis on grappling, with several takedowns and wrestling throws.

His combos are listed below:

a Rush Combo consisting of a left jab, a ducking right hook, a right knee strike (all fights), a rapid left cross-right cross, and a left shoulder charge (2nd fight onward), followed by:
- a rapid left jab-right cross-left cross and a right haymaker finisher (3rd fight only), or
- a thigh grapple command grab finisher where he performs a turning takedown and a ground-and-pound (3rd fight only);
a left haymaker-right haymaker combo, and
a combo made up of a right haymaker and a left gut punch command grab, followed by a rapid left jab-right cross-left jab and a shoulder wheel (3rd fight only).

His other attacks include the following:

a left push kick,
a right haymaker, which can stun his opponent;
a jumping double hammerfist (3rd fight only),
a ducking right hook as a running attack (3rd fight only),
a lunging thigh grapple, followed by:
- lifting his opponent over his left shoulder and throwing him off to the side as a front grab attack, or
- the Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! jiu-jitsu enemies' rear grab attack;
a spinning right/left back kick as a right/left dodge attack respectively (3rd fight only), and
Daigo's downed attack from Yakuza 4 and 5 (3rd fight only).

He also has two different taunts:

one where he steps forward and beckons Kiryu with his right hand (1st & 3rd fight), and
another where he walks with his arms wide open, beckoning and nodding his head (unused).

In his second encounter, Aizawa has multiple recovery animations, indicating his exhaustion from his prior Coliseum match. Said animations are listed as follows:

one where he leans over with right hand on his knee, shaking his left fist (2nd fight only);
a second one where he leans over and clutches his stomach with his left hand before stumbling forward (2nd fight only), and
a third one where he stumbles and falls on his left knee before getting back up (2nd fight only).

Aizawa will enter Heat Mode early into his final fight, in which he can use some extra attacks:

a knockback guard reversal (3rd fight only),
a thigh grapple-turning throw command grab as a front damage reversal (3rd fight only), and
quickstep attacks (3rd fight only), including:
- a left shoulder charge after frontstepping, which can stun Kiryu; and
- a thigh grapple command grab after backstepping, followed by a turning takedown and a ground-and-pound.

Aizawa will enter a health-recovery stance three times in his last fight to supplement his nine health bars, healing him less each time. This will normally occur at varying points throughout the fight, but can be delayed to the final phase if his health is low enough during the first QTE. This ability can be interrupted by Kiryu's Komaki Parry and Finishing Holds.

His aura in Heat Mode is bright pink entwining with bright yellow.

Aizawa's moveset is reused by the Pleasure King in Yakuza 0, as well as Gary Buster Holmes in Yakuza Kiwami, Yakuza Kiwami 2, and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

SPOILERS END HERE. (Return)

Trivia[]

In Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, a robot with the name "M-AIZ" with Aizawa's moveset and theme music can be fought in the Coliseum's "Minamida Grand Prix". The robot displays Aizawa's likeness colored white on a screen that acts as the face.