This movie really embodies the saying "Divided we fall." If they had only listened to Cobra from the beginning, when he tried to tell them that they needed to work together against an outside threat. But no, they knew better. Well, all of them but Murayama, of course, who is so smitten with Cobra that he would agree to anything he said, so.

What really hurt was when a part of the Hoodlum Squad - his own people for whom he fought and bled in the past! - turned against Cobra, too. Not that I didn't get Tetsu's desire to help his father but he, his father, the others they were making a deal with the devil and after everything they'd been through in the past, I didn't understand how and why they even trusted Kuryu. Kuryu's henchmen literally murdered people to get what they wanted, how could've Tetsu believed that his dad would win anything in this equation?

(And considering what happens to Cobra in the next movie, it hurt even more because if only his people trusted him...)

But really, Cobra has guts! Like, holy smokes! But he's also wise and not easily provoked. I loved how he kept coming to Rocky, again and again, to change his mind. And when Rocky insisted on this doomed exercise of his, Cobra still told him that, alright, but if Rocky needed help to just let him know. And then he came to Rocky's help, after all, even unasked. I love that Cobra doesn't let his ego get in the way, that's a really fantastic thing in today's entertainment industry's obsession with overblown macho-ism.

Also, Murayama! He is really head over heels for Cobra, isn't he? Like, he doesn't even try to hide it. When he went to Hyuga and fought him to make him join Cobra's plan! Cobra didn't even ask him to do it, he did it on his own initiative, for Cobra. If there's any romance at all in this franchise, it's definitely Murayama's one-sided smittenness with Cobra.

Another thing I loved? That more Exile members - and 3JSB members in particular! - joined the cast! It's so much fun watching them all punch each other's daylights out! Ha!