Ten: Tenhōdōri No Kaidanji is a mahjong-centric Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. It was first published in 1989 during Japan's economic boom, when gambling manga became popular. Considered a hit in Japan, it was followed by a prequel focusing on one of the supporting characters Akagi in 1991. Initially, the series began as a slice-of-life drama with mahjong elements, but gradually shifted to a full mahjong gambling series. With this work, Fukumoto distanced away from the traditional human drama mold and broke new ground.
Plot
The story begins when Hiroyuki Igawa, who has a deep knowledge of the "logic" of mahjong, meets Takashi Ten, who runs a mahjong contracting business. Ten is a rep player with an unrivaled competitive edge and a strong will to win, and Hiroyuki begins to admire Ten and immerse himself in the world of mahjong. Eventually, Ten and Hiroyuki meet legendary mahjong player Shigeru Akagi, known as the "Man of the Divine Realm," as well as some of the best current mahjong players in the Kansai area, Katsumi Harada and Mitsui Soga, as they take on the challenge of fighting to determine the top of the Japanese underground mahjong world.
Ten: Tenhōdōri No Kaidanji is written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. The manga was serialized in Takeshobo's magazine Kindai Mahjong from 1989 to 2002. Takeshobo compiled its individual chapters into eighteen tankōbon volumes published from August 21, 1989 to April 27, 2002. Takeshobo re-released the series into thirteen volumes published from July 31, 2015 to July 27, 2016. A spin-off series focusing on Hiroyuki and taking place 3 years after the events of the main story, HERO: A man who succeeds dying wishes of AKAGI, written and illustrated by Jirō Maeda, began serialization in 2009. A sequel taking place 20 years after the events of the main story, Yami-Mahjong Fighter: Mamiya, began serialization in 2019.
Drama
A Japanese television drama adaptation starring Gorō Kishitani as Ten ran for 12 episodes on TV Tokyo from October 3 to December 19, 2018. Immediately after the first episode aired, all episodes were distributed in advance on the video distribution service Paravi, with an original episode taking place between episodes 11 and 12 releasing exclusively on the service on November 1. The East-West preliminary match does not take place in this series. Just like in the live action adaptations of the Kaiji series, the original manga author Fukumoto makes a special cameo appearance as one of the blacksuits. A sequel adaptation of the last 3 volumes of the manga has been announced to premiere on TV Tokyo at the end of 2019. The mini-series, known as "Ten: Akagi Shigeru Funeral Arc", was broadcast on December 29 as a 2 hour special, while the full unedited 5-episode version was pre-distributed on Paravi on November 11.
