The decision is subject to being revisited based on new information from official sources. To be considered, any new information must have been released following the date of the most recently-released information contributing to the wiki's consensus (March 20, 2023) and must be directly related to Daigo (for example, information on Mine's romantic encounters with women will not be considered.) Information prior to March 20, 2023 has likely already been discussed either here or on the Yakuza/Like a Dragon Wiki Discord server. Posts on the topic that lack new information will be removed.
The staff of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon Wiki recognizes some users may not realize a consensus has been reached and will not take action unless local or global policies are breached.Correction[]
"Daigo, to Mine, was someone for the first time in ages he genuinely respected and cared for; he loved him like he was his best friend and brother." Mine says he 好きになる for Daigo. 好きになる (Suki ni naru) means "Fell in love with". You cannot use 好き (suki) platonically unless it's something like 大好き or 好きなんだ (daisuki or suki nanda, to like something or someone in general. This is wording better used to say you like food or a movie rather than people tho). Suki is a proper, formal adult love confession (for the record 愛してる ai shiteru is the super over the top dramatic way so adults rarely use it. Hell it's rarely used outside fiction).
You can listen to it again here: https://youtu.be/H00fOtMqh9A?t=8763
So yeah saying "loved him like he was his best friend and brother" greatly misses the mark. Churrumais (talk) 03:24, March 14, 2017 (UTC)
Mine and Daigo[]
Are you sure that Mine had requited feelings towards Daigo? It's rather interesting that Daigo doesn't have a valid LI in the story so far, after being 6-7 games in.
Correction as of 15th Feb
[Username removed for privacy] - 10:01, 15 February 2021 (UTC)
Is it, though? Not according to...
- Kiryu in Yakuza 4's reminisce retelling of the story of Yakuza 3, where he uses the words "desire" (欲望, yokubō, lit. "desire, appetite, lust") and "love" (愛情, aijō, lit. "love, affection," can be used more generally but has strong romantic connotations) to describe the emotions that drove Mine's actions. It’s possible that the use of yokubō is referring to Mine's ambition, but it’s worth noting that the other words in the line can all be attributed to a specific person: ”jealously” (sic) towards Kiryu and “admiration and love” towards Daigo.
- The official guidebook for Yakuza 3, page 211 of which contains the line "That is why Mine fell in love with Daigo and decided to follow him." in its summary of the final chapter and uses the phrase horekomi (惚れ込み, lit. “to be captivated by, to fall in love with,” has strong romantic connotations) in doing so.
- The official guidebook for Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin!, page 228 of which profiles Mine as "Lieutenant of the Tojo Clan, Chairman of the Hakuho Clan. He fell in love with the head of the Tojo Clan, Daigo Dojima, and for his sake, rose to the rank of lieutenant from being a simple office worker. Appears as Hijikata Toshizo in this work." and also uses the phrase horekomi in doing so.
- The 10th anniversary book, page 50 of which contains the line "[…] He fell deeply in love with Daigo Dojima, who viewed him as a man, and swore an oath of brotherhood to him. […]" in its summary of Mine's story and uses the phrase shinsoko horekonde (心底, shinsoko, lit. "completely, from the bottom of one's heart" + 惚れ込んで, horekonde from horekomi) in doing so.
- The 10th anniversary book's relationships chart on page 17, which describes Mine as being "devoted to" (心酔, shinsui, lit. “adoration, admiration, devotion”) Daigo with the same wording other official material uses for how Oda felt towards Tachibana.
All translations and images from an essay I wrote on the topic. In the interest of civility (because the original is quite opinionated) and saving time, I copied and paraphrased the points I made in that essay here, but it is very easily accessible in full and contains clearer, direct snippets of the text and the full titles of the books in Japanese. Anyone is welcome to read it provided the disclaimer that it is published on my personal blog and as such the thoughts and viewpoints expressed are my own, not the wiki's, SEGA's, or RGG Studio's.
As for why none of this information is on the article, it's because citations are not needed for listing characters as romantic interests if it is made explicit in the games. That's always been the case, whether we're talking about a man and a woman, two men, two women, anything the series depicts. Frankly, there are more sources for Mine viewing Daigo as his romantic interest than there are for nearly any other two characters, and it would be unfair in more ways than one to go into this much detail on the matter just because that fact is considered contentious in certain circles.
Consensus has been reached, by two different localization teams, this wiki, Japanese Wikipedia, and numerous other reputable sources dedicated to the series. You're entitled to your interpretation, but as long as there are still competent editors interested in documenting the facts around, this article will reflect the facts as decided by consensus.
And by the way, sign your posts using ~~~~. I've taken the liberty of doing it for you this time.
GOROMI (talk) 08:25, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
RE: Mine and Daigo[]
[Username removed for privacy], for posterity, please try to create new sections rather than editing older ones (if you're presenting new ideas rather than correcting yourself or appending something within a reasonable timeframe after the original message, of course).
Mine did not have requited feelings toward Daigo as far as we know and the wiki doesn't really present it as if he did; we chose "romantic interest" over "love interest" to avoid the immediate connotation of it being mutual, in fact, but we're hoping to explain both the system and their relationship better with some upcoming changes. The relationship tags are written from the perspective of the character in question (which is why on Daigo's page, Mine is listed as an oath brother and friend).
In RGGO's expanded content, while Daigo makes some... interesting choices RE: asking Mine if he's single and leaving the area where most of the nightlife is clustered to take Mine to the hotel district and emphasize he wants "some action," that's sort of Yakuza's sense of humor. The few times we get to see Daigo's perspective make it pretty clear he sees Mine as family.
They do seem to be closer friends than 3 suggests—an entire event centers around a bar they frequent together where Daigo reserves a bottle for them and each refusing to drink from it in the other's absence, Daigo being comatose and Mine being, y'know, Not Alive—but that's all there is to it. We're not trying to say anything else.