Indeed! That was such a fresh perspective/situation for the series to go to, it hit a major, "issue," that the world has been talking about for decades now and had a tasteful narrative surrounding it.
I'm still (pun intended) salty about SaltyYen's bashing of 6:
"6 is a bad game because..
is just stupid haha, so it makes the rest of the game stupid."
Takes like that bug the shit out of me, especially when you have an audience that laps up everything that comes out of your mouth.
But anyways, I wanted to touch on what you said on the last page, Dan, about Kiryu being your preferred protagonist over Ichiban; I agree.
I don't dislike Ichiban in the slightest and I think he's great for the series going forward (for now), but Kiryu is on a Xiuying-level of awesome character; he is just so well-conceptualized and superbly-handled/portrayed, he has always been my pick for the best character ever created by Sega, after Xiuying.
Physicality aside (because anyone would be dead or severely-maimed with the multitude of injuries he's had throughout the series), everything about the guy is realistic and very human; someone who could exist in real life and not be a character.
I've also never been a fan of Nakaya or any character's he's voiced, so that helps Kiryu lol (though his work as Ichiban is his best by far).