Akagi

Akagi
Alt title: The Legend of Mahjong: Akagi

Synopsis, Screenshots, Reviews, Recommendations ~ Add Your Own Recommendations

Discuss individual episodes and first impressions of this anime here. Full reviews should be posted here. Forum rules and post guidelines can be found here.
__________________________________________

My powers of deductive reasoning tell me that this thread does not exist yet. This is my first "Specific Anime Discussion" thread. Hopefully copying the format of the other threads will be good enough...

Well, anywho... I felt that the show was just sort of mediocre. It had it's moments, and it got pretty good towards the end. But on the whole it was just okay. But it's definitely good enough to have it's own thread, am I right?

Mediocre? MEDIOCRE!?! Sure Mahjong may be as boring as hell to watch (and probably play) and the ending sucked, but this show is all about how awesome Akagi is and how even straight men want to get down on their knees and fellate him.

Well, yes. I'll admit that Akagi's pure, unfiltered awesomeness made me more than a little gay for him.

However, I have based my decision mainly on the sudden ending and the fact that I had no clue what the hell was going on. So if this had been about poker, or if I had an elderly Chinese grandmother, I probably would have liked it much better.

I've got to agree with lagore on this one. I felt Akagi imploded at the end. The first two arcs were great, though, especially his game with Urabe. That had me on the edge of my seat -

And yes, Akagi Shigeru is indeed the genius who descended into darkness. He's Johan Liebert, if Johan played mah-jong instead of killing people.

Akagi kicked ass. The ending DID blow chunks though =/ was very anti-climactic...but Akagi as a character was awesome. Most intense Mahjong you can ever watch =)

Akagi was good. I didn't have much trouble with the Mahjong since I used to play it, but the scoring system was a bit hard to understand. Still, Akagi's VA also voiced the main characters in Kaiji and One Outs.

Uhm, I wanted to ask some information about this anime before watching it (but I think I'm not going to watch it very soon however). I read somewhere that the anime isn't finished, I mean, that the final scenes are left unfinished. Is it true? Apart from that, do I need to "study" how to play mahjong before watching it?

(finally, but it may be OT, does anyone know where I can find subtitles for the live action movie?)

Stumbled upon this anime by random luck. Was a lil bored so decided to watch it. Was extremely impressed. Each episode kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more. I'm very much into ninja and demon animes so me liking this kinda took me by surprise. Ending isn't my cup of tea but the buildup to it was pretty great. I would def recommend this to anyone who is curious about watching this!

I also have no clue how to play mahjog but still enjoyed the show

Not as good as Kaiji and the game is hard to follow if you don't know the rules but it was very suspenseful.

goddammit watching Akagi makes me sweaty, it makes the air is very heavy. even though i have absolutely freakin' no idea about mahjong and it rules, it still manages to make whatever happens to be a big deal. the gambles are not just "she can throw the dice to get the numbers she wants??!" like a certain failure gambling show. i'm actually glad the manga is nearing it's end, i'm gonna be munching at it as soon as i finish the adaption.

i guess the difference lies with the fact that there is actual tension, and it doesn't treat losing like a joke like kakegurui did. seriously having consequences can have a huge difference on the experience.

Something I'm happy about after rewatching the anime and reading through the manga is that now I legit know how to play mahjong. The first viewing of the anime plus Part 3 of Kaiji helped me to at least have a general idea, understand the most relevant key terms, etc., but it's all so much clearer now.

The thing about the Akagi anime, though, as you said, is that it's so suspenseful and well done that the matches are super engaging even if you're missing some of the game knowledge. Also, as my first contact ever with anything Fukumoto-related, I have a pretty soft spot for the series.

The soundtrack is on point to. I love all the soundtracks for this and Kaiji. Hell, the soundtracks are one of the reasons I want more Fukumoto stuff to get animated.


The music helps to add to the tension. I like listening to the soundtracks when I'm reading the manga.

Sadly, I read that the talent behind the Kaiji and Akagi OSTs, Hideki Taniuchi, has been in jail for a while due to smoking pot, so if they ever made another season of either we'd probably have to settle for something different. Like sucks sometimes.

Going back to the music in Akagi, it's indeed great, and I can tell you that I read most of the Washizu arc with Konton/Chaos on loop, because it just fits so damn well for every single moment of the thing.

that was very nice ride, my initial rating was 8/10, but the final arc is left incomplete sadly, so my final rating is a 7/5. i think i'll get down to the manga some time soon, or just wait until it's finished and binge it.
worth mentioning that i learned how to play mahjong, but i lose a lot, since it's impossible to rationalize a bot, and i'm also born with a natural Aqua-like luck stats :/

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I still fucking love Akagi, but the guy does feel a little too over powered and distant at times to me. I like and prefer Kaiji more actually, because he feels more like a real human being to me, and I relate to him more.

Definitely check it out, when you have the chance.

GenSan said:

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I still fucking love Akagi, but the guy does feel a little too over powered and distant at times to me. I like and prefer Kaiji more actually, because he feels more like a real human being to me, and I relate to him more.

Definitely check it out, when you have the chance.

Click to expand...

i was thinking of making a buddy group for that one, if i loved akagi this much, i'm sure o love that one even more. and i want to share the fun with everyone ^^

I think you might enjoy manga Akagi a bit more. He's still a genius, but he actually sweats and doesn't always get to play everything super cool. I still prefer Kaiji, but I do think manga Akagi is a pretty interesting character show at different stages in his life. I reeeeally like the portrayal of Akagi as an older wiser old dude with nothing left to prove.

Hard to go wrong with most of Fukumoto's well established work. He's had some bad one shots and shorter stories, but when it comes to gambling and thrillers he's hard to beat.

I'd recommend anyone to pick up the manga where the anime left off if they're eager for more. Not just because every match, twist and turn going forward is glorious, but also because there is plenty of development for Washizu in particular, who's a far more entertaining villain than I ever thought. Akagi also gets some and it's pretty engaging to see.

Grab chapter 108 or 109 of the manga and you're good to go.

Just now starting this. I vastly prefer Kaiji, mostly because Kaiji himself is a lot more likable and relatable. Akagi is just kind of an asshole and a bit of a mary sue with the whole "genius" thing.

I'm mostly enjoying this though because I really like riichi mahjong. I'm actually learning a lot through it about how to play better lol

Rascal said:

Just now starting this. I vastly prefer Kaiji, mostly because Kaiji himself is a lot more likable and relatable. Akagi is just kind of an asshole and a bit of a mary sue with the whole "genius" thing.

I'm mostly enjoying this though because I really like riichi mahjong. I'm actually learning a lot through it about how to play better lol

Click to expand...

Shame the anime doesn't get to the best Akagi.