The best part about digging around the vast world of fansubs of unlicensed series is finding all the hidden treasures waiting for someone to find them and press play. The worst part is seeing how many great shows will never make it over.
Over the last few years, a sort of trilogy of semi-connected anime has been developing that I’ve come to call The Gambler Trilogy: Mahjong Legend Akagi, Kaiji, and One Outs. I say only semi-connected because of the similar nature of the subject matter and the staff behind the shows. Kaiji and Akagi actually come from the same mangaka, while all three share a mostly identical production staff. The three shows have been some of my favorites and they’re also the type of show you’d never expect to see on our shores.
Mahjong Legend Akagi
It should be obvious why this one isn’t coming out here just from the title. It’s about mahjong, a rare game in America. If you could swap in a deck of cards, it’d be a sure-fire license, what with the pokermania going on.
Mahjong Legend Akagi (or just Akagi for short) is about a genius-level Mahjong player, a teenager named—you guessed it—Akagi. He also has almost disturbing luck.
It quickly becomes apparent that this show is not about mahjong. Just like Initial D is not about racing, and Hajime no Ippo is not about boxing. No, Akagi is about its very namesake. Talking to friends, I’ve compared Akagi himself to some of the more deeply evil characters I’ve met watching anime. Berserk’s Griffith and Monster’s Johan both come to mind. The evil Akagi represents isn’t madness; It’s too well-thought out. It’s also not the GI Joe kind of madness of a villain desiring world control. It’s more like Akagi can see through everything, and he wants to expose how stupid and weak everyone and everything is. He sees every angle at once. After his first tense match, you never doubt whether he’s going to win, and you never wonder whether his opponent is going to come out sane on the other end. He is, and they’re not.
As the art above demonstrates, the show doesn’t have the typical look you expect from anime. The art of the show borders on ugly a lot of the time. This is off-putting to many fans, but here’s how I see it: Just like you might expect a romantic drama to be full of beautiful women and strong men, a show about an evil gambler is going to be packed from end to end with ugly, corrupt people. Those people will inhabit smoke-filled rooms with glaring overhead lights, and see more sunrises than most good people will ever see.
I’m getting a bit over descriptive there, but you get the point. I loved the mood of this show and the character is one of the more interesting I’ve seen in anime. The funky art and specifically Japanese subject-matter will keep it from coming over here. Would I change it to see it come over? Not in a million years. But if I were a producer, I’d sure as shit have someone working on a script for a poker variant.
Kaiji
Time for a 180. Kaiji, despite having the same goofy art as Akagi and the same subject matter, is a very different show. Mahjong has been swapped out for a more basic gamble. Things like paper-rock-scissors and simple visual tricks make up the games.
After watching Akagi do his thing, meeting a guy like Kaiji feels like being on the other side of the table. This is the kind of guy Akagi would rip apart, it seems. Whereas Akagi lived for the gamble and had no understanding of the concept of hesitation, Kaiji is a miserable bum.
Kaiji’s in a bad place. Locked in a dead-end minimum wage job, he takes his anger out on expensive cars by ripping off their hood ornaments. Now he’s suddenly saddled with a debt he cosigned on for a friend who disappeared shortly after. However, he has a way out. Spend a night on a cruise ship and play a game. Sounds fun, right? Well, until you find out that no one knows what happens to the losers after they’re stripped naked and stuffed in a room.
I said before that Kaiji seemed like the kind of guy Akagi would tear apart, but that’s not quite right. He comes off that way, but when the going gets tough, Kaiji’s brain turns on. He doesn’t see things from every direction right away, but he CAN see when he starts looking. But his victory is never as clear as Akagi’s. In fact, Kaiji always seems to be scraping and clawing to get out of the bottomless pit he keeps getting pushed into.
Once he makes it off the boat, he finds out that his debt has actually increased despite making it out with his clothes and his freedom. Seeing an easy way out, Kaiji takes the bait again and finds himself in an even crazier situation. Walk across the increasingly skinny beam, or fall a good twenty feet. Oh, and you you’ve got a line behind you of guys that want to make it across first so THEY can get the money.
The show ends with a truly surprising turn of events that make it worth watching. Keep in mind though, that the show is not for the squeamish. It’s not a gore-fest by any means, but there are some uncomfortably painful moments. Again, the funky art will play a primary role in the show staying where it is. The barrier of a very Japanese thing like Mahjong isn’t there, but it’s not typical US license fodder.
One Outs
And back around again. This show’s a bit more like the first.
One Outs is about Tokuchi Toua, pitching phenom and brilliant strategist. The tone of the show is a bit closer to that of Akagi, but on the baseball field. That said, it’s definitely not the same show.
Like Akagi, Tokuchi is the kind of person that can see every angle and play the ones that are going to work for him. He’s not quite as omniscient as his white-haired predecessor, but he’s very perceptive in his own right. Hired on by a star hitter desperate for a championship run and an owner that thinks he can get a star player for free (or better, make HIM pay), Tokuchi joins the Lycaons (essentially the Hyenas) to pitch for them. It quickly becomes apparent that his pitches don’t possess the same level of variety that you’d expect out of a star pitcher, but at the same time he’s no less effective.
Even more than Akagi, One Outs becomes a show about manipulation. Everything Tokuchi is doing on the field has a purpose. From a dropped catch to a time-out or slipped bat. Every action is meant to manipulate the opponent or his teammates. Used to losing, the Lycaons typically have a pretty negative outlook when things don’t go their way. They depend on their star player and league icon Kojima (think Derek Jeter here) to bring them wins. Their new pitcher isn’t the type to tolerate weakness and doesn’t hesitate to point their weaknesses out. It’s also clear that he’s not doing this to bring them down, either. He’s on a team and he needs his team to win. He reminds them they’re entirely capable of winning if they’d stop acting like a bunch of failures, and move their eyes off the ground and onto the other team.
Another thing I like about One Outs is that it’s well aware of the fact that it’s about a team sport. While Tokuchi is the main character, he’s not the only one. A few of his teammates are willing to have their eyes opened, allowing Tokuchi to not just use them but actually involve them in his strategies. He still seems to think everyone weaker, but his willingness to, well, play well with others, makes him a more interesting character to watch than he might be otherwise.
One Outs is much prettier than Akagi or Kaiji, and it’s also about baseball. Those factors make it a more appealing American release, I would think. However, Americans don’t really take to kindly to animated representations of their sports. Sports anime pretty much flatline here. Slam Dunk needed to be released free to come out to completion here.
All three shows are awesome shows that offer something rarely seen in anime or television. They’re tense, mature thrillers about interesting characters, that don’t depend on violence, action, or fantasy for their hard hits. They’re cerebral and engaging – even if they’re a bit predictable at times.
