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Episode 4 – The True Pariah
Nangou, Yasuoka, and Akagi all meet up in a seedy bar to discuss the coming match. Yasuoka has everything set up: the match will be held in three days’ time, on Friday, at 8PM, at the Sasagawa Restaurant. He’s called in Takeyoshi Group Boss Miyauchi to witness it. He’s also decided how to best split the winnings… Yasuoka: 20%, Expenses: 10%, Akagi: 20%, and Nangou: 50%. Akagi takes exception at Yasuoka getting 20% for risking nothing, but doesn’t want any of the detective’s share. Instead, he wants Yasuoka to bump the wager up to 8 million yen, making the cop pay for the extra 2 million out of his own pocket. Yasuoka is understandably reluctant to do so. Akagi threatens to quit if he doesn’t do it, so Yasuoka downs his beer and concedes to Akagi’s will. Nangou freaks out over this insane sum, especially since he can’t pay it if Akagi happens to lose, but Akagi explains that the very insanity of it is what makes it good. The yakuza are afraid of their (read “his”) insanity.
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Akagi then tells them what happened that rainy night, during the chicken race that Yasuoka is supposed to be investigating. Turns out he was gambling with some street punks. It was a dangerous game of chicken. It was rigged in the punks’ favour; they knew where to brake, and they chose to drive on the right side so the guy could jump out of the car. There was no way for Akagi to win normally.
So he hit the gas and flew off the cliff at full speed, not braking at all. Akagi didn’t care if he lived or died.
Fortunately for him, the water was significantly deeper a distance from the cliff, softening the impact. However, the other guy forgot to jump out of his car, braked, and crashed into the rocks on his way down. Everybody is momentarily stunned by Akagi’s balls, but Nangou still doesn’t want to increase the wager because, guess what, he’s not Akagi. Akagi goes on to explain that the risky tile that Nangou dealt against Ryuuzaki when they first met was exactly the same as hitting the gas as you headed off a cliff. If that tile hadn’t passed, Nangou would’ve died back then. Apparently swayed by this logic, they end up increasing the wager to 8 million.
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The day of the match, the gangsters call Akagi over to a small eatery to talk. Nangou doesn’t want him to go in, but Akagi comforts him by saying that they could all die tonight, so there’s no point in being afraid now. Plus, the yakuza have something that Akagi wants. He goes into the shop while Nangou waits outside.
The shop is packed full of yakuza and is completely under their control. Akagi is led to underboss Kurosaki, who explains that anything that happens inside will never see the light of day. Akagi is, of course, not intimidated, and says so. Kurosaki then gets to point; he offers Akagi a chance to join the gang and live if he forfeits the match. As an added bonus, he’ll also let Akagi throw in a few conditions. Akagi considers it, and says that he wants half. Kurosaki takes that to mean that he wants 4 million, but no, what he really wants is half the worth of the gang. Akagi wants to destroy them all, so he won’t even consider forfeiting for anything less than about 50 million. Kurosaki interprets that as a “no, I won’t forfeit”, and agrees to gamble until one of them dies. With nothing left to discuss, Akagi then gets up to leave and holds out his hand for the “thing” they promised him. A gangster walks up and gives him a gun. Why does a junior high school kid need a gun? Apparently, he’s involved in an “incident”. He shoves the gun down the front of his pants and walks towards the exit.
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Akagi suddenly stops. An old man in sunglasses, sitting nearby, attracts his attention. Somehow, he knows that this will be his opponent for tonight. The very air almost feels colder around the man and he is nothing like the yakuza. Intrigued, Akagi loads a single bullet into his new revolver, spins the chamber, and aims it at the old man’s head. He wants to see if his opponent is really as expressionless as he seems. Akagi slowly pulls the trigger and…
Click. The old man lives. The man chuckles, saying that even an amateur could’ve heard how many times the chamber had spun. Akagi would’ve known that the gun wouldn’t fire when he pulled the trigger by counting the spins. Akagi doesn’t scare him with his seemingly reckless behaviour.
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Akagi is quite pleased that his opponent is of such a higher caliber compared to Yagi, but the old man says that they aren’t done yet. Akagi pulled the trigger at him, so he must do the same to himself to end things peacefully. Akagi wholeheartedly agrees to this, but insists that the old man be the one to pull the trigger. Kurosaki tells Ichikawa, the old man, not to do it, but Ichikawa replies with this: “In this world, the more reckless and insane things make it all the more intriguing”. He then feels the table for Akagi’s gun, revealing that he is, in fact, blind. Ichikawa played around with guns when he was younger, too. It misfired and took away his sight.
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Ichikawa asks for patience and then grabs Akagi by the neck, shoving the gun barrel right into his mouth. He claims that he has to do that in order to aim the gun properly. Now that the shot is nicely lined up, Akagi will go straight to hell if it fires. Ichikawa asks him how he feels about it. Akagi’s reply mirrors Ichikawa’s: “It’s interesting. The more insane, the more interesting it is”. Akagi is clearly thrilled and enjoying the whole situation, if that grin is anything to go by. Kurosaki is extremely worried, but Ichikawa claims that Akagi’s destiny won’t allow the gun to fire. He pulls the trigger and…
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Click. Akagi lives. Ichikawa says that apparently it was his destiny to not die, but Akagi scoffs at that, saying that Ichikawa himself counted the number of chamber spins when they first started their little game. There’s an extra turn left. Blind Ichikawa wouldn’t have heard it wrong because he depends on his sense of hearing. He doesn’t believe in luck nor destiny; only in his own superior abilities. Akagi smiles and says that he is the same.
Nangou is still standing outside waiting for Akagi, and is quite relieved when the boy comes back out alive and unharmed. As they walk away from the shop, Akagi stops, wondering if Ichikawa is one of his kind. He dismisses the idea. There is no one like himself. One of them is a fake. The fake pariah.
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We cut to Sasagawa Restaurant, the place of the match. It’s 7:50PM. Akagi is late. Nangou and Yasuoka are at a loss. Where is Akagi? Did the Kawada Group kidnap him because he wouldn’t compromise?
Nope, Akagi is having a confrontation with three of the street punks involved in the chicken race incident. The guy Akagi raced against, Takeru, isn’t dead, but he may never look the same again… and his buddies are out for revenge. Revenge in the form of big planks of wood, perfectly sized for Akagi bashing. The ringleader takes a few swings at Akagi’s head and shoulders, making him bleed. Akagi continues to provoke him, making him hit him with greater and greater violence. Akagi even claims that they need to hit him more… so he can get away with killing three people in self-defence. Pissed at Akagi’s cockiness, the ringleader goes into a rage, viciously beating Akagi until his two buddies drag him back. One of them yells at Akagi to apologise, but Akagi, still on his hands and knees from the assault, simply laughs at them.
The ringleader snaps, wanting to “just kill this fucker”. He breaks away from his buddies, raises his stick up high, and…
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A gunshot echoes in the night air. Akagi has drawn his pistol and blown a hole in the ringleader’s thigh. The leader clutches at his leg in shock. Akagi calmly gets up and, as the ringleader tries to stand, shoots the other thigh. He then reaches down, grabs the leader by the hair, and shoves his gun into the guy’s mouth. Eyes glinting, Akagi tells him that saying “just kill this fucker” means that you don’t mind being killed yourself. Akagi continues to grin as he explains that he squashed some bugs when he was small… and that he feels the exact same way now. The ringleader is crying and begging, shaking in terror. Akagi pulls the trigger. Click. And again. Click. And again. Click. And keeps doing it until the leader mercifully passes out from fear. The street punks are utterly terrified of Akagi. He tells them to go away. He’ll kill them…
Akagi wanders off, talking to himself. Apparently, he only loaded two bullets. Fake rage, fake words, fake fights. That’s all the confrontation was to him, and he didn’t come away satisfied. Such things will never satisfy him. Akagi remembers that there’s a life-and-death Mahjong match at the Sasagawa Restaurant waiting for him. He decides to go.
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OPINION
An episode with no Mahjong in it! Plus, this just so happens to be the episode that the website is named after. If this is what Akagi gets up to during his off time, then the world is probably safer when he’s stuck in a room playing Mahjong. The kid is just fucking scary. He must be a terror at school. And he’s only thirteen!
Yasuoka finally shows his true colours. Looks like being a cop is only his side job. I guess making friends in the yakuza is where the real money is. He’s not much of a cop, is he?
Lots of gun-in-mouth action in this episode. Rather phallic, and I doubt I’m the only one who picked up on it. Seems to be inevitable whenever guns are involved. And Akagi was enjoying it an awful lot. An unhealthy and ill-advised sort of enjoyment, to be sure, but enjoyment nevertheless. Well, he’s the sort that would enjoy anything, as long as it could get him killed. I do hope Akagi remembered to wipe off the barrel before he stuffed it back into his pants. All that saliva can’t be good for the mechanism. And did he check to make sure that the safety was on? Well, I’m not male; maybe sticking a big gun down the front of your pants isn’t as uncomfortable as it sounds. Still, I would think that the barrel would be pushing against some very sensitive bits.
Gunplay aside, Ichikawa was cool. He seems pretty tough and isn’t scared of Akagi like everybody else. If Ichikawa isn’t fazed by Akagi’s “My talent is unnatural. Fear me” aura, then Akagi is in for an uphill battle. In other words, he may very well be screwed.
The second half of the episode was incredible, too. My summary just doesn’t do it justice (not that my summaries do justice to any of the eps). Akagi is just so casually violent, so insane… a predator through and through. I’d call him a psychopath if he actually had any of the social skill that usually comes along with it. Not the kind of protagonist you usually find in anime. He’s the kind of guy you wouldn’t want to meet on a deserted street at night. The kind of guy that talks to himself while blood drips down his face. The kind of guy that doesn’t bother to show up on time for a Mahjong match that was set up especially for him, for crying out loud! Factor in the time it’ll take Akagi to patch himself up and actually get to the restaurant, and Nangou can expect him sometime tomorrow. If the yakuza haven’t killed the poor man by then.
Poor Nangou. He is so dead.
Comments
Eris_sama
21 Oct 2006, 13:45
I’ll have to rewatch your episodes with your site as a guide 🙂
Erik
20 Apr 2007, 14:33
Great episode overview, very funny and well-written, and the comments that accompany the pictures are also incredibly humorous.
Erik
20 Apr 2007, 14:37
On a side-note. Knowing Akagi, he probably kept the safety off while carrying the gun in his pants, after all, what’s life without some high-stake gambling.
ddraggy
21 Apr 2007, 19:11
Thanks! Hmm, I wonder what he did with the gun afterwards…
Erik
30 Apr 2007, 19:01
One can only hope he threw it away, as he is frighteningly effective without one as it is.
But he probably used it in a high-stake Mahjong game as an elaborate bluff to completely mess with his opponent(s). And after utterly destroying the poor dupe(s), he left the gun as a souvenir.
pie
27 Jun 2007, 08:12
holy cow,hes only 13, what guts =_=
btw nice overviews
sir_seagill
23 Jul 2007, 03:43
I thought putting the gun in his pants was cool, but now that I think of it… 😛
My friend laughed when he saw it.
It probably makes him feel good (no not in that way) in that he’s risking his life even as he walks about.
ddraggy
24 Jul 2007, 20:41
Ah, but it’s not his life he’s risking, it’s the family jewels! (Unless, of course, the gun goes off and Akagi just lies there in horrible pain and quietly bleeds to death. Can’t see Akagi wanting to die like *that*, though.)
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