It was at some point, when my train of thought went something along the lines of "I can probably handle the myriad buttholes but are all the anal juices really necessary?" that I began to wonder if maybe this time Ikuhara had gone with batshit insane weird for batshit insane weirdness' sake. But then I remembered the scene with the two hot cops doing their weird yet sexy dance and put such silly thoughts behind me.
After getting way too much into a recently-released mahjong gacha game and after realizing that the current season is lacking in quality titles, I decided it was time to re-watch Akagi. I remember the show being good, but the rewatch has reminded me just how truly incredible it is. It's among the greatest anime ever made, which is incredible considering that:
a.) It's a very ugly show:
I doubt anyone who hasn't seen the show would look at the above screenshots and conclude that the anime is one of the best in existence.
b.) It's mostly just people playing mahjong. There's no character development and no cool storylines. It's just mahjong. Anyone who has played the game knows it's not very exciting to watch and anyone who hasn't likely won't be interested in the idea.
And yet, the show manages to take the above concept and turn it into the most incredible thing there is. Unfortunately, explaining why the show is so good isn't easy. There's not a lot of impressive animation so showing off cool sakuga gifs doesn't work. I can't praise the story, the character development or how emotional the show made me feel, because none of that is really a thing in Akagi. Instead, the show deserves a much more comprehensive post and since I'm still feeling impressed over just how good the show is, I figured I'd give it a go.
The core appeal of the show is reasonably easy to explain: you watch Akagi to see its protagonist (named Akagi, which makes writing about the show a bit of a pain) play mahjong against impossibly strong opponents and beat them so hard that they can't even comprehend what has happened. It's basically like every show featuring an intentionally overpowered protagonist, except infinitely better. What makes writing stories like this tricky is that the protagonist has to be unbelievably strong, which is often hard for the audience to accept. However, the this show does some really neat things that make this a lot easier. Firstly, by making Akagi evil. Not in the traditional "wow, this guy is kind of a dick" that applies to a lot of anime protagonists, but in a much more fundamental way:
Akagi, as it turns out, only plays mahjong so that he can utterly destroy people, either by taking all of their money or by beating them so profoundly they are unable to ever play mahjong again. The show does a good job at making Akagi seem truly terrifying. In several instances, he raises the stakes so high that both he and his opponents are risking their lives, not because he is 100% confident he will win but simply because he sees no point in playing for less. One really nice thing is that in several episodes, the show switches the point-of-view perspective from Akagi to his opponent, showing just how much they are struggling and how much Akagi's play has affected them psychologically. At a later point, the show just entirely switches to the perspective of Akagi's opponent, and at that point, it's hard not to sympathize with the guy. The visuals do a nice job of complementing this, and Akagi's eerie laugh whenever he outplays his opponents quickly becomes both satisfying and deeply unsettling:
This makes it a lot easier to accept that Akagi is so good at mahjong because it quickly distances him from a generic Gary Stu protagonist. Instead, Akagi fits a much older character archetype, which is best summarized by his introduction:
This makes it easy to accept his skill. Humans playing a game with the devil (or death) is a pretty well accepted trope, one where we all know the devil will undoubtedly be very good at the game. It even makes it easy to accept when he gets unreasonably lucky. After all, the devil being lucky is so well-accepted that truly lucky people are even described as "having the devil's luck".
However, the protagonist isn't really what makes this show so great. Instead, what I love most about the show is just how mahjong-centric it is. It isn't satisfied by simply having Akagi beat his opponents. It wants to really show how he managed to do this by focusing on his games in extreme detail. Apart from 4 or 5 episodes that are used to set up the next story-arc, every episode consists solely of people playing mahjong, and boy does the show go in deep. What makes this truly impressive is that mahjong is fundamentally unsuitable to the kind of story the show is trying to tell. It's too random for someone to consistently dominate his opponents and it's too slow to constantly deliver exciting situations or game-turning moments. Usually, when an anime wants to make mahjong exciting it simply pushes the actual game of mahjong far into the background and focuses on people scoring a ton of points by getting very rare hands that almost never happen in regular play (Saki and Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku/The Legend of Koizumi are good examples of this). Akagi could have easily done the same and we'd still get the same overall story with the same kind of psychological drama that is seemingly the main point of the show. But it doesn't do that. Instead, it always delivers a believable explanation for everything Akagi does, even if it initially feels like complete bullshit. The show's portrayal of mahjong is definitely very far from how it actually plays, but it still adheres to the same rules and makes use of the same strategies, which makes the explanations believable enough to work.
The best example of this is about half-way into the show. Akagi first manages to pull off something that looks like the most unbelievably lucky thing in existence, but then the shows spends 3/4 of the following episode explaining how he did it. It's still pretty bullshitty but it's reasonable enough to work and uses a lot of solid mahjong logic. It's a really great example of why this show is so interesting to watch. The example does contain some spoilers, though nothing that should really matter much to anyone planning to watch the show.
In the scene in question, Akagi leaves the table on the last discard, saying that the opponent will discard exactly the tile Akagi wants him to (which is the only one left in his hand, for dramatic effect), which will cause him to win the game:
Statistically, the chances of this happening are pretty much non-existent. The opponent would first need to have the tile in his hand to begin with, and after that would need to discard that very specific tile. And yet, the explanation works really well:
First, Akagi had to predict his opponent had the tile in his hand. The explanation here is that Akagi got quite lucky when calling a kan (having 4 identical tiles in your hand allows you to reveal them for extra points and lets you draw a new tile), which immediately showed his opponent that he had a hand capable of instantly deciding the game. This caused his opponent to go on the defensive, but he couldn't completely drop out of the game either, as even a self-draw (tsumo) win by Akagi would be enough to win the game. Because of this, he discarded a tile that was safe (discarding a tile that completes another person's hand allows that person to instantly win), but still kept him in the game. That was one of his pair tiles (2 of circles), which meant he still had another in his hand. Akagi predicted this because he had seen his opponent do a similar thing earlier in the game. This was the tile Akagi was waiting for in the end.
After that, Akagi had to predict that the opponent would actually discard it. The show explains why the discard was the best choice by going over every other tile he had in his hand. Specifically:
He couldn't discard the tile he just drew, because Akagi could have cheated and put it the wall himself, causing the opponent to draw it (Akagi cheats a lot throughout the show).
He couldn't discard the green dragon because Akagi was looking to be going for a Tanyao hand (a hand with no dragons, winds or terminals) for most of the hand, which would have made it a safe discard. His opponent was planning on keeping the dragon in hand for the last turn so that he could safely finish the round. However, Akagi later called on a north wind discard, showing that he was not going for Tanyao. This made it a possibility Akagi predicted his opponent was holding a dragon or wind tile for the last discard and was specifically aiming for that.
He couldn't discard his 6, 8, 9 of bamboo because they were close to the kan Akagi had called (which was 7 of bamboo). Assuming Akagi was playing efficiently, those were rather unlikely to be in his hand. Since Akagi had called a kan on the 7 of bamboo, 8 and 9 of bamboo were not desirable since they could no longer be used to make a sequence (both 789 and 678 were impossible with no sevens left in play). 6 of bamboo could still form the 456 sequence but became less desirable because the 567 sequence was impossible. From an efficiency standpoint, Akagi was unlikely to keep either. Thinking like this is a technique known as kabe (http://arcturus.su/wiki/Kabe), which is often used in defensive play. However, this also made them likely to be used as traps, which his opponent was naturally very cautious of.
The same goes for his 5, 6 of circles, which were close to the 7 of circles Akagi had called earlier.
He couldn't discard the 7 of characters, because Akagi might have been going for sanshoku doukou (3 triplets of the same number in 3 different suits). Since he had called both a kan on the 7 of bamboo and a pon on the 7 of circles, this was a very real possibility. In that case, Akagi was likely to have a 7 of characters in his hand.
4 and 5 of characters are close to Akagi's last discard (3 of characters). This makes them dangerous because if Akagi was playing efficiently, he was likely to have a desirable shape like 34 (side/ryanmen wait) or 35 (closed/kanchan wait) before he discarded the 3, which would make it likely he had one of the two in his hand.
For the 4 of bamboo, it was close to the 5 of bamboo Akagi had discarded after the kan, and as before this possibly came from an open shape 45. This was safer than everything else, but still a bit fishy.
Meanwhile, the 2 of circles Akagi was waiting for didn't have anything obvious pointing to it. Akagi had discarded close-by tiles earlier, but they were all discarded immediately after they were drawn (tsumogiri), which means they were unlikely to be part of Akagi's plan. It was also unlikely that they came from any meaningful shape. The 2 of circles was therefore both unremarkable and safe. Akagi therefore chose this for his wait to trap his opponent.
Another thing that makes this believable is that Akagi was intentionally aiming for a single (tanki) wait. Unlike other waits, this one does not require much luck to specifically choose. As long as Akagi had drawn the tile beforehand, he could wait for it in the end.
And, because the show wouldn't be satisfied with just the above, it also notes that Akagi was not even close to completion for most of the hand. However, Akagi still wanted his opponent to play defensively so that he would discard his safe tiles as soon as possible. He did this by calling a pon shortly after the kan, which revealed that his hand was not strong enough to win on a self-draw. Therefore, as long as his opponent managed to avoid dealing into Akagi, he would win the game. This caused him to play completely defensively and made Akagi's plan work.
This likely made 0 sense for anyone unfamiliar with the rules of mahjong (handy link: https://mahjong.guide/a-beginners-guide-to-riichi-mahjong/) but it should hopefully still demonstrate just how much effort this show goes to in order to make Akagi's wins believable.
This is why the writing in this show is so great. The move by Akagi was obviously way to crazy to work in the real world. Any other show would just hand-wave it away as Akagi being lucky or by saying he just read his opponent's mind or something. Instead, this show spends almost an entire episode explaining his logic using stuff that is actually based on mahjong strategy. The show cares equally as much about showing Akagi destroy his opponents in an entertaining manner as it does about showing interesting mahjong stuff, and it succeeds at both. The result is that the show contains both outrageous mind games and psychological battles, as well as actual mahjong strategy with comprehensive explanations.
The show also understands that high-scoring hands aren't the only exciting part of mahjong. Some of the most memorable moments come from Akagi winning really crappy hands, or often even losing a particular hand. The best part of the show isn't Akagi pulling a surprise 48,000 point hand out of nowhere (in non-mahjong terminology, that's enough points to win you the game single-handedly). Instead, it's
Akagi intentionally letting someone else win to avoid a high-scoring hand from his opponent
In fact, the show seems to really like avoiding high-scoring hands in general. Those often only occur due to cheating and don't change the outcome of the match. There's even this particular moment:
Which is followed by Akagi getting an incredibly high-scoring hand purely by luck, only for him to throw it away and go for something with a much lower score. It's as if the show is saying it's not interested in having to rely on luck.
This extreme focus on mahjong is why I really love the show. When anime tackle traditional board games like mahjong, they don't often focus deeply on the actual act of playing the game itself, which often leaves me disappointed. I find games like go and shogi fascinating, so whenever March Comes in Like a Lion briefly showed off the latter, I always wished it treated it as something more than just background flavor. I understand why this is so common: focusing deeply on a complicated game doesn't appeal to people who aren't interested in said game. It also makes the show quite unwatchable to people who aren't familiar with the game's rules (I've heard some people say they still enjoyed Akagi even without any mahjong knowledge, but there's no doubt you'll miss a significant amount of what makes the show great that way.
Another thing that really deserves a lot of credit is Crunchyroll's translation, especially considering how often people criticize their subs. The anime is full of mahjong terminology and the show does a really good job translating it using terms that match some of the most popular English mahjong resources. The nice thing is that they didn't really need to do that. A lot of English-speaking mahjong players seem perfectly fine with using Japanese terms, but translating them makes the anime much more approachable to beginner players who might not be on top of all the terminology. There are even helpful explanations for some terms:
They aren't nearly enough for people with no knowledge of mahjong, but they are very helpful for those who have just started learning the game. Considering Saki (another mahjong manga/anime) and Akagi genuinely seem to be the main reasons non-japanese people start playing mahjong, this is really nice. The game is confusing enough as is, so it's nice to see the translation trying to make it a bit easier on people. Granted, the explanations shown above are not 100% correct, but they are about as good as you can do with a single subtitle that will only be on screen for a couple of seconds.
The sanshoku explanation merges two distinct yaku: Sanshoku doukou (triplets) and Sanshoku doujun (sequences). Since the latter is much more common, the short form sanshoku mostly refers to that one. This is also the case in the picture, where it refers to a hand with a 123 sequence in each suit.
Pinfu hands also can't contain dragon pairs or pairs of seat/round winds. Additionally, the hand must actually be won on a side wait. Saying "2 or more sided wait" could lead to confusion with people thinking it refers to any wait with 2 or more possible tiles.
If only two players are not in tenpai, each pays 1500 to one of the players in tenpai.
The translation also omits the term furiten whenever it comes up, which is a bit unfortunate considering how important it is to the game. It's hard to explain properly though, so I can understand why they did it. All in all, I don't think I've ever seen an anime with so much effort put into its translation. The translators were clearly familiar both with the rules and with the best translations for each term.
However, good writing probably isn't enough to make this one of the best anime of all time. After all, if the writing is the only good thing about the show, you might as well go read the manga. What this rewatch really made clear to me is just now good everything surrounding the writing is, which you definitely wouldn't expect from such an ugly show. The voice acting deserves a lot of praise. Akagi's voice actor is incredible, perfectly capturing his twisted personality and apparent lack of emotions. It's just perfect in every way. The other standout is Akagi's last opponent, Washizu. He's an evil, insane old man whose only hobby is killing anyone who loses to him in mahjong:
In a weaker adaptation he'd be played by Wakamoto, who would ham it up a bit and it would have probably been fine. Instead, this show gives his role to Masane Tsukayama, who pulls off the most memorable voice-acting performance I've ever heard in anime. Similarly, the soundtrack works quite well. It's nothing spectacular, but it's quite efficient at creating a sense of tension that often occurs in the matches (plus the OP is incredible). There's also some hefty sound effects, which work well with the extremely dramatic tone of the show.
The visuals and direction also deserve praise. At a glance, the show is unquestionably ugly with few redeeming features. However, this re-watch made me realize that this show does a lot of things really well. The most distinct aspect of the show is how much it loves extreme close-ups. They are everywhere:
In particular, this works really well when focusing on the reactions of the players. It's effective at showing how frustrating playing against Akagi is:
It's unusual, but works really well in the context of the show since most of it is heated battles between Akagi and his opponents. There's also a noticeable aversion to wide or zoomed out shows. The camera (nearly) always stays close to the action, often at eye-level. It's a bit unusual, but it works really well. It almost feels like the camera is trying to mimic the viewpoint of a spectator to the match. Despite that, the show does a good job of keeping things fresh with some shots that are quite inventive. I like this one in particular:
Not because it's tilted or because the camera is in an unusual spot at the middle of the table, but because it still keeps in mind that what makes the show great is the mahjong. The shot shows almost every discard of the player so that the viewer can see what's going on. This approach is evident throughout the entire show, with the camera nicely showing important game-related information:
The shot above shows that the player is in furiten (the Japanese VO explicitly says this, but as mentioned earlier the translation avoids using the term) by focusing on both the 5 of bamboo in his hand and his discard, and it does so without using some unnatural angle and taking the viewer out of the action. You also get a lot of shots showing people's hands, but the show keeps using different ways to do so. Considering how much of the show's runtime is spent looking at peoples' hands, this is a welcome touch:
From a visual perspective, the show manages to work really well, especially considering the actual animation is basically non-existent. Additionally, in the last story-arc, something really incredible happens:
The show's storyboarding suddenly becomes really good. It's a nice change of direction that truly emphasizes how different the match in the last arc is to everything that has come before. Specifically, the episodes storyboarded by Hiroyuki Tanaka (6, 16, 25) are really impressive. Episode 25, in particular, contains one of the best moments in anime. I was also surprised to learn that Tanaka was also the episode director for Attack on Titan season 2, episode 6, which is another one of those all-time great moments. I have to say I'm impressed by his skills.
Overall, I'm really impressed with what the show manages to do with basically zero animation. The voice acting, music and strong direction add so much to the source material that reading the manga afterward simply wasn't any fun. A show like this probably won't happen again. Combining the insane mind games and all the out-there strategies that Akagi pulls with an in-depth focus on mahjong is simply too crazy, and managing to do it as well as this show is pretty much impossible. There's a small number of shows that are similar (Kaiji, One Outs), but none have managed to work nearly as well for me.
I always felt like people writing articles like these when shows only have one to two episodes out feel like they are jumping the gun a bit.
Its like when people write [insert show of interest] is the smartest show in years, when theres only been a few episodes out, yet four seasons later they are ashamed to have written such an article and most people see it as a joke piece.
That being said writers should do like Crunchyroll does with BLack Clover and continually update their feelings on the matter:
I get why Ikuhara is always compared to Lynch just by interest in the surreal and being a high-profile auteur but Anno always seemed to me like his themes carry the "Lynch of Japan" title better. Dunno that any western director is really doing the same thing as Ikuni just because of how distinctively Japanese a lot of his influences are.
Oh boy, the production has officially hit bottom. Every face that wasn't in extreme close up was just two dots and a line. And that cut of Hyakkimaru running through the woods.........
Eridani Years ago I learned Mahjong because Akagi.. I already forgot most of hand now.. but watching Akagi with mahjong knowledge is incredible. Its goddamn great.
I have some hot take regarding mahjong anime btw.. Saki is very basic and unfortunate pedophile bait.. but first season of Achiga hen have incredible mahjong content that can compared to Akagi.
First season of Sakì achiga hen is genuinely exciting for the mahjong.
Oh boy, the production has officially hit bottom. Every face that wasn't in extreme close up was just two dots and a line. And that cut of Hyakkimaru running through the woods.........
In this case, the look of this episode is primarily due to idiosyncratic animator Osamu Kobayashi, who served as its storyboarder and episode director. (Kobayashi also solo animated the first ED for the show.) His style tends to get a poor reaction from many viewers - probably the most infamous episode he handled was episode 4 of Gurren Lagann.
In this case, the look of this episode is primarily due to idiosyncratic animator Osamu Kobayashi, who served as its storyboarder and episode director. (Kobayashi also solo animated the first ED for the show.) His style tends to get a poor reaction from many viewers - probably the most infamous episode he handled was episode 4 of Gurren Lagann.
Just as I struggled with in Yuri Kuma, I can't get excited about the oddities and symbolism that's probably all over the place if I don't care about the baseline characters and plot. By all means, the setting and characters seem more grounded than Yuri Kuma, but if these guys only develop piecemeal because 3/4th of the episodes are filled with, for the time being. tangentially relevant bits and canned animation sequences then I'll likely burn out quickly. For instance, I currently just don't care for e.g. the police couple's antics.
In this case, the look of this episode is primarily due to idiosyncratic animator Osamu Kobayashi, who served as its storyboarder and episode director. (Kobayashi also solo animated the first ED for the show.) His style tends to get a poor reaction from many viewers - probably the most infamous episode he handled was episode 4 of Gurren Lagann.
its worse because the reason for most part is not money, its the concept that netflix have because its on netflix its can only be available if you can binge it
Im 40 episodes into Fairy Tail and I'm really happy I gave this a shot. its very cliche and predictable but its such a chill/fun time that I don't mind it. also how god damn cute are the kid versions of each character!, even annoying ass Natsu was cute :P. Erza is also an awesome character.
don't know if ill make it to 300 episodes or not but ill definitely finish this first season.
Im 40 episodes into Fairy Tail and I'm really happy I gave this a shot. its very cliche and predictable but its such a chill/fun time that I don't mind it. also how god damn cute are the kid versions of each character!, even annoying ass Natsu was cute :P. Erza is also an awesome character.
don't know if ill make it to 300 episodes or not but ill definitely finish this first season.
Had to pause the episode for a bit because I was laughing to hard at the scene of Hyakkimaru running through the woods. It looked like something out of a Hannah-Barbera show.
It looks like they are actually giving all characters more depth, I watched the two movies and I can't even remember their names or if they actually did anything. Can't say I cared much for this dude, but wake me up when it's *search their names on google*... Taiga and Kakeru's turns.
As far as pranks go, tricking Maika or Ema that one of them will go to space is reasonable and clever enough, even if it's an obvious bluff. The Moon Twins are just braindead for not seeing through the deception when the 2nd (4th?) twin appeared. Mio is also an idiot for believing fake-Penne, but she's long had a weakness for the penguin, so I can let that slide. Aine is somehow the only competent person this episode. And that includes Hibiki. She kept pestering Alicia for 5 years about reforming their Friends and never talked about anything else? That's not devoted friendship. That's being a creepy yandere stalker. Alicia was totally right to cut off ties from what I'm seeing.
Im 40 episodes into Fairy Tail and I'm really happy I gave this a shot. its very cliche and predictable but its such a chill/fun time that I don't mind it. also how god damn cute are the kid versions of each character!, even annoying ass Natsu was cute :P. Erza is also an awesome character.
don't know if ill make it to 300 episodes or not but ill definitely finish this first season.
I'm watching like 10 shows this season and 8 of them are completely forgettable to the point that I can barely remember singular vague events, but no characters or story
It looks like they are actually giving all characters more depth, I watched the two movies and I can't even remember their names or if they actually did anything. Can't say I cared much for this dude, but wake me up when it's *search their names on google*... Taiga and Kakeru's turns.
Am I the only one that feels that binging these shows really devalues their impact? Like I watched so many Netflix originals last year and I can count on one hand the stuff that stuck with me. It almost feels like that these shows are being treated like they are fast food.
Am I the only one that feels that binging these shows really devalues their impact? Like I watched so many Netflix originals last year and I can count on one hand the stuff that stuck with me. It almost feels like that these shows are being treated like they are fast food.
tbf I "binge" most backlog stuff, but for seasonal stuff the suffering of the weekly wait (if the show is good) or the episodes themselves (if the show is bad) is essential
Am I the only one that feels that binging these shows really devalues their impact? Like I watched so many Netflix originals last year and I can count on one hand the stuff that stuck with me. It almost feels like that these shows are being treated like they are fast food.
I'm watching like 10 shows this season and 8 of them are completely forgettable to the point that I can barely remember singular vague events, but no characters or story
I thought Dororo was sublime this week. Like, it impressed me for real. I was actually going to come in here and frantically urge everyone to brace themselves. It was a surreal, frankly diet psychedelic experience. I want more.
I'm watching Karakuri Circus and just got about halfway and
Is this show supposed to be like twice this length? Everything feels like it's moving at lightning speed. But it also feels like I'm about to reach the end so I'm dreading the second half being incredibly drawn out.
It's so bizarre and unique and honestly I love the conceit, but this seems like a really rushed version of a better story. In the span of like seven or eight episodes, Narumi went from dead to revived with no memories to flying over Japan to crashing to hiking in China to fighting puppets in the middle of the Sahara and back to dead.
Meanwhile the other characters from the beginning of the show have all but disappeared.
This is so weird.
EDIT: Ah okay they pulled the old bait and switch. So at least i know it won't drag. BUT NOW THIS IS HAPPENING, C'MON.
Is this show supposed to be like twice this length? Everything feels like it's moving at lightning speed. But it also feels like I'm about to reach the end so I'm dreading the second half being incredibly drawn out.
As for the speed, the author was given the opportunity to do anime adaption of his work, but was only given a finite amount of episodes. He knew this was the only chance he would have, so he dicided to rush it, by adapting all 48 manga volumes into 36 episodes.
Is anyone here aware of any anime that blends great comedy and action together? I'm not talking about action shows with comedic elements but rather a show that seamlessly weaves comedy into its action scenes like a Jackie Chan movie.
As for the speed, the author was given the opportunity to do anime adaption of his work, but was only given a finite amount of episodes. He knew this was the only chance he would have, so he dicided to rush it, by adapting all 48 manga volumes into 36 episodes.
