Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Mahjong Legend Akagi

Japanese: アカギ～闇に降り立った天才～

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 36

Chapters: 306

Status: Finished

Published: Jun 1991 to Feb 1, 2018

Genres: Action, Drama

Themes: Adult Cast, Organized Crime, Psychological, Strategy Game

Serialization: Kindai Mahjong

Authors: Fukumoto, Nobuyuki (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.20¹ (scored by 3,637 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #438²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1624

Members: 12,258

Favorites: 406

Resources

Wikipedia

Write a Review
Reviews

Filtered Results: 4 / 5

Sort

Suggested
Most voted
Newest
Oldest

Filter Preliminary Spoiler

Oct 13, 2013

korisnik2007a

Recommended

Preliminary (160/306 chp)

Akagi is a manga about a youngster that willingly discards his life and safety for a gamble. In general it is a great manga, but some arcs simply seem too drawn out and slow. The art isn't very good meaning that, even though that all the characters look fairly different, you can get confused sometimes (the same thing sometimes happens with the plot). Still - it's a great manga, by my standards much better than Kaiji, therefore I recommend it to all of you who like mystery and gamble/mahjong manga with a lot of seinen elements.

Open

Gift

Dec 30, 2022

Joshhhp

Recommended

"Akagi... it was a long hard fought battle... for me you were the most incredible, most extreme, the greatest foe I've ever fought! A unique gleaming diamond in the rough! So parting with you will be such sweet sorrow!"

Now I will explain the full picture of the manga in a few words before jumping to what I think it is really essential to do a little review about it. The story is about a young genius named Akagi, a strange individual with a clear obsession with gambling and the game he'll spend doing gamble for most of the manga is Mahjong. His incredible and non-human ... skills will lead him to gamble against the villain of the story, Washizu. This experience has been one of the most unique I've come across to read in a really long time. Going off with the anime I felt weirded out that there would never be a sequel and that they had cut the anime off during the last battle, a judgment I think most would have agreed with. But the feeling of curiosity that Akagi left me led me to read the manga, I was at all costs ready to know what would happen after the legendary battle between Akagi and Washizu. To my astonishment nothing happened after the final arc, and even more unbelievable to find out was that the fight in the anime was not even halfway to the end… not even close! The mastermind mangaka Fukumoto continued the arc for 225 chapters to be exact, spending over 20 years from start to finish, possibly making the battle the longest-running of all battles that occurred in manga history.

To say I was dumbfounded would be an understatement, I didn't know what to think about it and had already wondered if I would ever be able to finish the whole story considering I've never been much of a Mahjong expert so I feared I'd get so bored to the point of not being able to finish. The results well... they were the opposite of what I imagined. I read the entire manga twice, in the same year, never disappointed by what was about to happen. And it's mainly thanks to this battle that I've gotten to love the series even more. I must specify that before reading Akagi I was never a fan of battles that needlessly dragged on for a large number of episodes/chapters for the purpose of entertaining the audience. A clear example are some certain Battle Shounen series like Dragon Ball... fights that last for so many episodes without having much action to show on the screen, because we know that in anime, at least during the 90's and 00's, they had to broadcast episodes in step with the chapters of the manga that were coming out, and therefore events that were supposed to last for a few episodes expand double or triple in length therefore making the pace irritably slow and having characters doing nothing to the point of killing your interest. This is the essential key to any story that tries to entertain: pacing. Does this series keep up its pace well? Yes, but in a method that not many would understand. That's not to say that games come and go quickly from each other. The all arc consists of six sessions and in its 20 years spam the final session is the one that lasted the longest, i.e. THIRTEEN years which is more than half the battle. And let's not forget that an entire volume was spent of how they create their hands, ONLY their hands! So it's safe to say that the matches drag on for a very long time but what makes them interesting is how they are presented. The war between the two protagonists is full of moments of tension, anxiety, anguish, trauma and strategies. Fukumoto is a master in creating horrific panels where Washizu, despite simply playing a board game, remains under pressure, and out of control at certain moments considering that in a sense he keeps on being on the edge of death. The way the mangaka can immerses you in his works is captivating, never gets a moment to retain situations calm but instead it's all filled with distressing scenes until one of the two opponents will eventually collapse. A fundamental change that is easily noticed if you read most of the volumes is how Washizu goes from villain to a sort of "protagonist" for the arc considering that most of the attention is directed towards him and his strategies to have hope with the demon sitting before him, Akagi. And with this Akagi himself changes as well, this time from protagonist to antagonist... not being afraid to descend into hell, he always remains passive and gives himself a great presence of danger for the opponent. Oh and another little fundamental change is the art design, I mean… with two decades gone by while making the match obviously Fukumoto's style would have gone through some changes. Washizu in particular looks like he melted by the end with his eyes now covering almost half of his face! Although it's surely nothing to be bother with.

There is no real explanation as to why it took 20 years to reach conclusion. I would assume that Fukumoto had an unimaginable motive that wanted him to make the battle unforgettable for the readers. Whatever his motivations are I appreciate it because while some may struggle and lack the patience to read the full match up, it has given me so much inspiration and hope that many magaka will have the opportunity to finish their projects, knowing that it isn't always the case nowdays. Should I recommend the manga to you? Well yeah you might have very good time with it, but mostly if you know the rules of Mahjong and have enough endurance to overtake what I would call the legendary battle between Akagi and Washizu. Final score is a perfect 10. I don't care if it stretches for too long, I would have continued even if it was thousands and thousands of chapters long. Best piece of entertainment ever, will re-read it again.

Open

Gift

Jan 14, 2021

Royal_Conquest

Recommended

AKAGI, THE GENIUS WHO DESCENDED INTO DARKNESS is a lot of fun. I used this manga while I was learning to play Riichi Mahjong. It is not at all helpful for any kind of actual play but it is extremely nice for familiarizing yourself with specific tiles and different Yaku. In turn, it was kind of cool to slowly be able to understand what the hell anyone was talking about at any given time. Learning what Yaku you can get becomes very important once you get passed the first steps of learning to play if you don't want to just blindly play into whatever works ...

Open

Gift

Sep 19, 2021

Gatsu-chan

Recommended

Akagi, a truly in depth world of mahjong. Akagi is a great read and well worth it for fans of gambling stories and very detailed psychological conflicts. Akagi is a great way to get into Mahjong or just enjoy a story centering on Mahjong's mechanics and techniques. Going into Akagi I had little exposure to mahjong. The little exposure I have includes Mahjong Solitaire online games I played when i was younger and scenes of it in different manga. Now, you do not really need exposure to enjoy this story, it explains some details and its relatively safe to figure it out as you read ...

Open

Gift

Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Resources

Write a Review
Reviews

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Resources

Write a Review Reviews

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Write a Review
Reviews