Hello guys
I'm tired of dumb gangsters, I want an mc like the yakuza half of Ouroboros or like the protagonist of the webtoon Double Casting, who is both strong and smart. If possible, I'd like to see an honor student who decides to climb up the ranks of organized crime, I wonder if there's a manga like that

Thanks for your help 🙂
Edit: bonus points if they don't look like the competent gangster they are

Hi, I can definitely recommend Tokyo Crazy Paradise. The young male lead is the heir to the group, while the female lead soon becomes a part of the yakuza. Both of them are clever and well written characters.
In Gokusen, the lead is at times smart but often causes trouble/is naive. The male lead is very smart though, as are many characters involved in the yakuza group featured.
Happy reading 🙂 😀

Sanctuary and Yamikin Ushijima-kun should be the current standard for Yakuza manga. Neither are perfect but both went for a bleak world view and an R-rating. As such stories should.

The best overall Mafia narratives to date are The Sopranos and The Godfather Part 1/2 (+ the book). American Crime is the ripest ground for such stories, take that however you want.

@calstine Baccano! (i link to the new manga btw.) should only feature organized crime from the EU/US. His Durarara!! had Yakuza subplots though.

I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Darn, Sanctuary and Yamikin have already been rec'ced! I'll just second them, then.

Baccano! (Novel) might fit, though I've only read the first volume so far.
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