Otakuism

Mahjong Legend Akagi: The Genius Who Descended into Darkness is about Akagi Shigeru, and his rise to become a legend in the underground world of gambling with his amazing abilities and god-like boldness. It all begins when he stumbles on a Yakuza run mahjong match while getting out of the rain. He gives some good advice to Nangou, the losing player in the match, even though Akagi doesn’t even know how to play the game. On a whim, Nangou lets Akagi play for him, and Akagi stuns everyone by winning big and outsmarting his opponent, even though he’s cheating. Here begins the legend of Akagi, as he goes on to win big against the greatest players in the underground world. The show climaxes with Akagi facing Washizu Iwao, the Monster of the Showa Era and shadow emperor of Japan, where Akagi has to bet his own blood as points.

First things first, Akagi is gar. No doubt about it. He has no fear. He only finds enjoyment in games where he can risk his life for big rewards. He would rather have his head chopped off than admit he lost a bet, which was rigged anyways. In a game of chicken, he drives over a cliff into the sea instead of stopping, just to make sure he won. Even Washizu Iwao, a man who only enjoys killing people younger than him in the most terrible ways possible, is afraid of Akagi. He can’t be intimidated and will fuck you up. It helps that he’s damn good at Mahjong too. Akagi is truly a genius in both skill and luck, and knows how to manipulate people perfectly. He can bluff with a straight face and send others into self-questioning bouts of fear. He can also cheat really well if he has too. As for the other characters, they’re all men, because this is a manly anime. There is only one woman in the entire show, and she only shows up in the background for five seconds. They mostly consist of Yakuza bosses and their underlings, along with various crooked cops that serve as narrators. Most of them aren’t that interesting, that is unless their Akagi’s opponents, who are all rather weird, like the blind mahjong player Ichikawa or the insane Washizu.

The first thing you’ll notice when watching Akagi is the art style. It’s probably the most un-moe style around. All the characters are drawn in bold lines with mostly the same angular faces, and really big noses, like Akagi’s pointed one. However, if you look past the art style the animation is actually really good. Maybe it’s because there’s not a lot of people moving around, but it never looks truly horrendous. The director finds interesting ways to portray mahjong as an epic clash between men just as violent as any bloody shounen match. The mahjong tiles are all cg-rendered and look incredibly nice. Mahjong has never looked this good I bet. All the music is perfect. The OP is a soulful blues song about how everything will be alright as Akagi walks through scenes of post-war Japan. Most of the series takes place in the 1960’s, so there’s a lot of imagery like that. The ED’s are great hard rock tracks. The rest of the music is pretty lowkey, but very scene setting. You’ll notice it unexpectedly in quite a few places.

The only obstacle to enjoying Akagi is that you should probably know what mahjong is, since the whole anime is nothing more than really long mahjong matches. Still, I had no idea what mahjong was before I watched Akagi, but I managed to pick it up pretty fast. It was mostly because Triad’s fansubs had excellent liner notes to explain the game. Only time liner notes have ever been useful. However, not knowing what mahjong is shouldn’t be an excuse to not watch Akagi. It’s plently badass without knowing what their saying. All you need to know is that when Akagi says Ron, some epic shit just went down. Mahjong is actually a pretty interesting game, and I wouldn’t mind playing it, if it wasn’t for the fact that no one in Virginia knows what it is. The only weakness in Akagi is that some characters take way too long to examine moves. Hearing for half an episode on how crazy Akagi’s move was for the umpteenth time can get annoying.

Akagi is a very hard anime to describe. Despite me thinking how awesome it is, I know only a few people would actually watch it all the way through. The mahjong and art are big hurdles at the beginning, but if you can get used to that, then you can probably enjoy an excellent anime that isn’t about moe harem girls, but the most badass man ever. You can also learn how to gamble along the way. As a preview for the anime, here is probably the greatest moment in the show, right in the middle of the deathmatch between Akagi and Washizu: