Episode06 »

Episode 6 – The Talent of the Villain

Akagi is being outplayed and everybody knows it. Ichikawa has over 100,000 points, while Akagi’s have dwindled down to 23,000. Seeing that Akagi’s points are going down the toilet, Ichikawa begins to move in for the kill. They’re omitting two suits now, and the end is in sight. Unfortunately, Akagi has no momentum. Still, he manages to avoid dealing into Ichikawa’s killer hand. Ichikawa adapts quickly, though, and changes his waiting tile. He’s like a homing missile! Akagi sees it in time and dodges, discarding the dangerous tile he had before. He arrives at his Ten Pai against all odds. However, Akagi is waiting on the same tiles as Ichikawa and the old man knows it. Akagi needs a 1 or 4 Man. Ichikawa needs a 1, 4, or 7 Man.

Akagi reaches for the wall and draws a 7 Man, the Dora tile. He discards his 4 Man. Ichikawa wins the round.

Nangou and Yasuoka relax during the break, taking the opportunity to share their doubts. Are they doomed? Is Ichikawa too much for Akagi? No, that’s not necessarily the case, according to Boss Miyauchi. Though Ichikawa’s ability to follow Akagi’s tiles was almost superhuman, Akagi still managed to get to his 1 or 4 Man wait. More importantly, he chose to discard his 4 Man, breaking his Ten Pai and any chance at winning the round, rather than deal the 7 Man. Akagi didn’t discard the 7 Man, dismissing the possibility that it might’ve passed. He knew that if it didn’t, he would die because it was a Dora. Would a normal person have been able to take all that into consideration? Probably not.

The break is over, and the game resumes. Akagi is now at 5,000 points. Luck is not on his side; his hand is wretched, his draws suck, and, by Turn 6, Ichikawa is only two tiles away from Ten Pai. Is there nothing that Akagi can do about this? Yasuoka points out Akagi’s dealt tiles to Nangou. Akagi is, in fact, doing something about the situation. He’s discarding tiles so that it looks like he has a great hand. The other players aren’t intimidated by his bluff, though. Akagi isn’t bothered; he continues to boldly slam down insanely dangerous tiles, one after another. Maybe he isn’t bluffing… maybe Akagi has something so good that dealing such risky tiles is worth it… And the side players begin to doubt themselves. The atmosphere changes and they start dealing safe tiles only, just in case. They’re afraid. By risking everything, Akagi now controls the table with his trash hand.

Ichikawa draws and is now in Ten Pai… but he breaks it to deal into a side player’s hand, just in case Akagi actually has what he’s hinting at. Ichikawa doesn’t want Akagi to win the round and get out of killing range. He’d rather throw the game away to the side player. Akagi has managed to stop Ichikawa from winning and from being the dealer for the next game with his trash hand and bad draws. This… is Akagi’s Mahjong game.

Akagi’s dangerous dealing has turned the flow of the game around. His hand looks like he made a pact with the devil himself. It seems that Akagi’s fortune has reversed after coming back from near-death; the quality of his hand now is the opposite of what he had in the previous round. Five turns later, he Tsumos with a San Bai Man, a hand worth somewhere between 24,000 and 36,000 points. He then launches into a winning streak and makes it back to 47,100 points. However, he’s still not getting anything off of Ichikawa, and is therefore not winning. He tries waiting on all sorts of tiles, but nothing works.

Akagi finally sighs and declares that he’s had enough. They both have a lot of points, but the whole exercise is pointless unless they go head to head for them. What does he mean? Akagi wants to cut his 50,000 and Ichikawa’s 100,000 to 5000 and 10,000, respectively. It might seem like an idiotic thing to suggest, but it’s actually not a bad idea. It might bring Ichikawa within hitting distance.

Ichikawa refuses. He sees no reason why he should lower his chances of winning just so he can wipe out Akagi faster. Akagi calls him a stubborn old geezer. “Looks like I’ll have to do it by force,” says Akagi.

During the next game, Akagi seemingly makes a calling mistake. Once his error is pointed out to him, he puts the Man zi tiles back, making it seem that all the tiles from 6 to 9 Man are safe. It’s somewhat like the Kan trick he pulled in Episode 3. Yasuoka thinks that all the players are fooled, but Ichikawa is actually not. The blind master figures that the 9 Man is actually the most dangerous tile to deal, so he visualises everyone’s ponds to see which tile is the safest. There are already three Xias in the pond, so Ichikawa discards the fourth Xia.

Akagi chuckles. That was it. He wins from Ichikawa’s Xia. Yasuoka suddenly understands what happened. Akagi had stolen a Xia from the pond while he was screwing around with the Man zi tiles. Ichikawa realises this too, and knows that he’ll be at a greater and greater disadvantage the longer they play, thanks to Akagi’s cheating. Akagi leans forward and again offers to cut their points. This time, Ichikawa accepts. He’s going to make Akagi regret cheating against him… Akagi’s 68,000 and Ichikawa’s 81,700 are now 6,800 and 8,100. A sudden death match. Akagi gets his way, thanks to his evil, roguish nature.

OPINION

Miyauchi has a really cool cigarette case. If I smoked, I’d want one like that.

Akagi seems to have met his match, hasn’t he? Resorting to swiping tiles again, tsk tsk, what a naughty monkey boy… though “monkey boy” is not the first thought that comes to mind when I see him doing that chin-on-laced-fingers thing. That pose reminds me a bit of an American cartoon character. Mr. Burns, I believe, though I haven’t watched The Simpsons for ages.

You know, I’ve watched this episode three times, and I still don’t quite understand what Akagi did with the Man zi calling mistake. Yes, he swapped the Xia with the 9 Man, but all that safe tile business has left me a bit baffled. To sum it up: Akagi made that series of Man zi look like safe tiles so that Ichikawa would think they were actually risky tiles and deal the Xia, instead. I do hope that clears that up.

Ichikawa should not have accepted Akagi’s offer to cut their points down to a tenth. Yes, the game will end much more quickly now, but he’s lost his cushioning! Sudden death matches are never a good idea when going against someone with freak luck. Is there any reason why he couldn’t just say, “That weasel Akagi is a cheating bastard”? Yeah, yeah, I know, no proof. Not everybody can memorise all the discarded tiles. Just Ichikawa… and Akagi. Everyone else just sits around going, “Guh. Godly gameplay. What just happened?”

The Word of the Day is… Picaro!

From the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language…

Definition:
1. A rogue or adventurer
2. The main character in a picaresque work when that character is a man or boy

Okay… what’s picaresque?

Definition:
1. Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers
2. Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society

See, Akagi is educational! And picaresque! Good luck working “picaro” into everyday conversation, though.

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Comments

Eris_sama
21 Oct 2006, 13:57

Did they actually use “picaro” in Japanese? Will have to rewatch this ep.

Erik
20 Apr 2007, 14:45

After watching this episode, and reading this overview. I have indeed been trying very hard to work the word picaro into everday conversation, thus sounding intelligent and sophisticated… Most of my friends just looked at me in a funny way.

ddraggy
21 Apr 2007, 19:30

I’ll have to go check if “picaro” is used in the manga, too. It just seems like such a weird word to pull out of nowhere.

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