Legend of Koizumi (Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku) - Twilight of the Gods Arc
The leaders of the world's superpowers team up to stop Hitler from taking over the Earth - by challenging him to a Mahjong tournament.
Even before I actually started reading manga, this one would always pop up in internet discussions. And how couldn't it, with a plot setup like that. So I figured it should give it a shot. But I was also pretty sceptical that it would be able to live up to its reputation.
Turns out I was wrong, because it totally does. It's every bit as ridiculous as the plot synopsis makes it sound, but it totally works somehow, thanks to great art, a pretty good sense of humour, and the fact that everyone in it is 100% badass. Even the Mahjong games themselves are entertaining, mostly because they rely almost purely on the characters coming up with creative and incredibly blatant ways to cheat their way to victory.
Art wise, the author is pretty good when it comes to drawing manly man, or Mahjong action. For example:
But on the other hand, every time there's a woman on screen, the artstyle completely changes, to the point where it's almost hard to believe you're reading the same manga.
Speaking of female characters, there's also a small amount of incredibly out of place and really contrived fanservice that makes absolutely zero sense.
And there was also another pretty big negative: it feels incredibly right-wing nationalistic, with its worship of Koizumi and its portrayal of pretty much every centre or left wing politician as completely weak and useless. It's not really that much of an issue in this arc, because at the end of the day at least Hitler is the bad guy here. But it becomes incredibly obnoxious in the arc right after, where a new centrist Japanese government is elected and immediately turns into the most comic book grotesque evil villain imaginable. It's so bad I just couldn't stand to keep on reading, which I guess makes this the second Japanese franchise that I had to drop because the author just couldn't keep his right-wing fetishes in check (the other one is Kino's Journey with its gun fetishism). But honestly, the end of this arc feels like as good of a stopping point as any. Because how could you ever top super-aryan space Hitler, really.
Overall, I enjoyed it up to the end of this arc, but it does have some pretty heavy flaws (particularly the political issues mentioned above). Obviously it gets carried pretty hard just by the concept alone, and the Mahjong matches themselves were surprisingly enjoyable.
