Akagi (manga)


Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. First published in 1991 in Takeshobo's weekly magazine Kindai Mahjong, it is a spin-off of the author's previous work, Ten. It revolves around Shigeru Akagi, a boy who defeats yakuza members well versed in mahjong at 13. He returns to the game six years later, carrying a mythical status and still impresses his opponents.
In Japan, Akagi has sold over 12 million copies. It was adapted as two V-Cinema live-action films in 1995 and 1997. A 26-episode anime television series covering roughly 13 volumes of the manga was produced by Madhouse and broadcast on Japanese television network Nippon Television from October 2005 to March 2006. Two live-action television dramas aired on BS SKY PerfecTV! between July and September 2015 and October and November 2017, with a third series aired in 2018. The series has also spawned several companion books, spin-off manga, video games, and other merchandise.

Plot

The story begins with Nangō, an indebted man who is playing a mahjong gamble with the wicked yakuza named Ryūzaki and losing badly. Just then, a junior high school student appears at the mahjong parlor. The boy, Shigeru Akagi, survived a game of chicken between juvenile delinquents and is taken in by Nangō, who wishes to change the tides. Akagi, despite not understanding mahjong, gives Nangō perplexing "advice" that allows him to rethink the situation and win immediately. Nangō senses something in Akagi and entrusts him to play for him. Akagi shows his extraordinary talent and demands another "double or nothing" match when he beats Ryūzaki and his rep player Keiji Yagi. It is then when Detective Yasuoka, who has been chasing Akagi, acts as an intermediary and introduces him to Ichikawa, a blind rep player summoned by Kawada clan's young subordinate leader Kurosaki.
After the battle with Ichikawa, Akagi disappears for several years. Kawada, the leader of the Kawada clan who was looking for a rep player, is introduced to Akagi by Yasuoka. However, this Akagi is in fact an impersonator named Yukio Hirayama, and the real Akagi works at a factory. Akagi ends up briefly confronting the fake Akagi and shows off his overwhelming talent once again. He then earns money from the fight and saves his coworker Osamu Nozaki from being duped by his colleagues at the factory. At the same time, a showdown between the fake Akagi and Urabe, the rep player of the Fujisawa clan, was about to take place in the Kawada clan.
A few months after Akagi's disappearance from Osamu's life, Osamu goes on to attend one of the mahjong parlors. Nakai, who was there at the time, is seeking Akagi and asks Osamu where he is. Later, an inexplicable series of mysterious deaths occur in Tokyo, where the corpses of young men with their blood drained from their bodies are found in large numbers. It was the result of life-or-death gambles carried out by Iwao Washizu, the so-called king of the modern era. Fake Akagi was among his victims. Yasuoka and Takeshi Ōgi look for Akagi in an attempt to defeat Washizu, whose mahjong games involve betting one's blood and most of the tiles being replaced with transparent glass tiles that alter the rules in many ways.
Three years after the Washizu Mahjong showdown, Akagi is last seen winning big in Tehonbiki, a gambling game that leaves no room for chance, and wandering around local gambling dens with Osamu.

Characters

Key Persons

;Shigeru Akagi
;Nangō
;Yasuoka
;Takeshi Ōgi
;Iwao Washizu

Yakuza and Rep Players

;Ryūzaki
;Keiji Yagi
;Ichikawa
;Fake Akagi / Yukio Hirayama
;Urabe

Miscellaneous

;Osamu Nozaki
;Junpei Nakai

Media

Manga

Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai, written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto, is a spin-off of Fukumoto's 1989 manga, Ten: Tenhōdōri no Kaidanji. Its first chapter was published in Takeshobo's magazine Kindai Mahjong on June 1, 1991. The manga's first tankōbon was released by Takeshobo on April 24, 1992. Some volumes—26 and 28—were published both on a regular and a special edition. The former had a 13-year-old Akagi plush doll as a bonus and the latter included a Zippo lighter in the format of a mahjong tile engraved with Akagi's and Washizu's faces. Its latest volume—the 36th—was published on June 27, 2018.
In February 2017, Takeshobo started to display eight different posters at 15 major railway stations on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo to announce the series planned conclusion on February 1, 2018. However, the series editor said it did not mean the manga would really reach its conclusion but that it would continue irregularly. To announce it one year before the ending was in fact a marketing strategy to attract the readers who quit reading the series and those who did not read it yet. A shinsōban three-on-one edition featuring new cover illustrations started to be published on February 15, 2017, and marked the start of what the editor called their one-year "grace period" as part of their tactic to attract readers. The 33rd and latest volume of this edition was published on December 26, 2017.

Related books and spin-offs

Several related books and spin-off manga have been released. A series of three mahjong commentary books illustrated by Makoto Fukuchi and titled Akagi Akuma no Senjutsu were released between May 17, 1999, and January 27, 2001. An anthology written by several other manga artists, including CLAMP, Shinobu Kaitani and Mikio Igarashi, was released on July 27, 2011. An Akagi-themed mahjong introduction guide was released on two parts on July 27, 2011, and July 17, 2013. A character book was released on July 17, 2012, and an anthology compiling dōjinshi written at 2013 Comiket was released by Broccoli Books. Several crossovers between Akagi and Ten as well as between Akagi and Hero, another series by Fukumoto, have also been published by Takeshobo.
, a spin-off manga written and illustrated by Keiichirō Hara focusing on Iwao Washizu's past escapades, was serialized in Monthly Kindai Mahjong Original starting on June 28, 2008. The series spawned eight volumes released between February 17, 2009, and January 26, 2013. Washizu: Enma no Tōhai was also published as two "B6 Series" released on October 27, 2012, and January 17, 2013. A one-shot on Washizu was also drawn by CLAMP for Monthly Kindai Mahjong Original and released on August 8, 2008. On November 8, 2012, Monthly Kindai Mahjong Original published the first chapter of, a sequel to Enma no Tōhai, and it moved to the magazine Kindai Manga in May 2014. The spin-off series concluded as the fourth volume was released on May 15, 2015.
In 2019, a "chapter 0" of a new manga entitled written by Fukumoto, was published in the June issue of Kindai Mahjong, released on May 1, 2019. The story is set 20 years after the events of Akagi. The series started a regular serialization since the August issue of Kindai Mahjong published on July 1, 2019. The first collected volume of it was published by Takeshobo on December 6, 2019.

Anime

An anime adaptation of the manga, titled, premiered in Japan on Nippon Television on October 5, 2005, and ran for 26 episodes until March 29, 2006. Produced by NTV, VAP, Forecast Communications and Madhouse, the series is directed by Yūzō Satō, with Hideo Takayashiki handling series composition, Takahiro Umehara designing the characters and Hideki Taniuchi composing the music. The anime is narrated by Tōru Furuya. In September 2013, streaming service Crunchyroll announced the licensing of the anime in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbeans, and South and Central America. The first six episodes were available in these countries from September 10, 2013, with five more episodes streamed every week thereafter.
VAP compiled the series and released it as two DVD box sets on March 24, and May 24, 2006. Several types of tie-ins merchandise were released, such as an official guidebook published by Takeshobo on March 29, 2006 and an official soundtrack album composed by Hideki Taniuchi released on January 25, 2006. Produced by VAP, the soundtrack featured 35 tracks, including the anime's opening theme, by Furuido and its two ending themes, "Akagi" by Maximum the Hormone and "S.T.S." by Animals.

V-Cinema

Kenzō Maihara directed two V-Cinema films adaptations of Akagi starring Takashi Kashiwabara:, released November 11, 1995, and, released July 25, 1997. Takeshobo rereleased both films in DVD format on January 27, 2006. A video game based on the first film was released by Micronet for PlayStation on January 19, 1996.

Video games

adapted Akagi into a PlayStation 2 game released by D3 Publisher on December 12, 2002. It was rereleased as part of the budget-priced "Simple series" on October 14, 2004. In 2006, Taito Corporation released two mobile games based on the anime. Two video games based on the anime series were developed by Culture Brain and published by Nintendo. The first, a Game Boy Advance game, was released on March 3, 2006, and the second, for Nintendo DS, was released on August 9, 2007. Fujishoji released a pachislot machine in 2008, which was adapted by Sunsoft into a mobile version released in 2009. Okumura Yuuki released its first pachinko machine in 2008, which was followed by another in 2012. A smartphone game was developed by Imagineer and made available from March 5, 2014, while Gloops released a social network game for Mobage on August 1 of the same year.

Drama

A Japanese television drama that adapts the manga starting from its eighth volume aired on the channel BS SKY PerfecTV!. A ten-episode first season, directed by Mitsuru Kubota, Hitoshi Iwamoto and Hiroshi Itō, produced by Itō and Atsushi Nagauchi, and written by Mitsuru Tanabe and Eizo Kobayashi, was broadcast from July 17, 2015 to September 18, 2015. Kanata Hongou and Masahiko Tsugawa play Akagi and Washizu respectively, while its theme song, "Don't Be Afraid," is performed by Shōnan no Kaze. Crunchyroll licensed the drama for streaming it in about 150 countries. Pony Canyon released the series into a DVD box on March 2, 2016.
A five-episode sequel, Akagi: Ryūzaki–Yagi-hen / Ichikawa-hen, directed and produced by the same staff and written only by Tanabe, was broadcast on the same channel from October 13, 2017 to November 11, 2017. A three-episode sequel titled Akagi: Washizu Mahjong Kanketsu-hen was directed by Kubota, produced by Nagauchi and Itō, and written by Tanabe. Shōnan no Kaze announced a different theme song,, for the second sequel. The latter started on May 25, 2018, and ended on June 8, 2018. A DVD box containing this two latter series was released on August 17, 2018 by Pony Canyon.

Reception

Public response

As of 2017, the Akagi manga had over 12 million copies in circulation worldwide. Individual volumes have been featured in Oricon's weekly charts of best-selling manga in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016. The series has a cult following, and has aroused interest for mahjong in the West, especially in Russia, where it "ignited a boom". Nevertheless, Akagi has been surpassed in popularity by Fukumoto's other work, Kaiji.

Critical response

English-language reviewers have analyzed the anime adaptation more than the manga. David Cabrera of Otaku USA called Akagi a "nihilistic badass," highlighting how he can "psychologically dismantle a man." Both John Oppliger of AnimeNation and Anime News Network's Michael Toole compared it to Kaiji. Oppliger, however, stated that Kaiji relies on deus ex machina events but Akagi is based on "skilled gamesmanship." He opined that the series is "engrossing and addicting because of its smart, suspenseful writing." Toole found it reminiscent of a period piece due to the 1950–60's setting, calling it a "cool series" because of this. He also declared that "Akagi isn't about whether or not the title character will win—he will definitely win. It's about the joy of seeing how he wins, about observing a young man who seriously does not give a fuck relentlessly picking off bad guy after bad guy."
Bradley Meek wrote for THEM Anime Reviews how it differed from traditional sports anime, describing it as a "hard-boiled, grimy" anime in which "there's a tangible sense of danger". However, he was most critical of it, concluding that "it has an appealing package, but not a lot of entertainment value." His critiques were directed towards the fact that one layperson cannot understand the jargon of the mahjong matches; that Akagi is an unrelatable character as he makes no mistakes; and that the Washizu arc was "contrived, long" and "does not get a satisfying conclusion". UK Anime Network's Elliot Page argued mahjong's understanding was not necessary, as the entertainment is not provided by the mahjong itself, but by the characters' attitudes, and highlighted how the narrator provides further tension in the events. Page praised the uncommon animation style that, "while not amazing by any metric, are tuned to be highly expressive, dragging you into the action and the intensity of the moment". He also criticized the last arc as it compromised the series' pacing and does not end, but concluded, "arguably this isn't very important in the grand scheme - as... the main joy of the series is watching the mind games on display as the opponents try and mentally dismantle each other, which it does still deliver in spades".