Akagi Episode 2

And the suspense continues with this episode. I may be a sucker for anime involving the development of some tensai (genius), but the objective side of my brain still finds Akagi pretty good so far. In this episode, Akagi’s very first Mahjong session against the Yakuza continues (at the 5th game, I think) - with the detective that barged in earlier watching that is.

In the last episode, we saw Akagi simultaneously handle the police (with an excellently executed alibi) and the Yakuza Mahjong players (by stealing tiles with the police watching). In this episode, however, we see no more of that hanky-panky Akagi is capable of. Instead, we witness the Awakening of the Genius, which happens to be the title of the episode too. With super-risky move after super-risky move, Akagi wins the next Mahjong games hands down, to the extent that the Yakuza ends up calling their rep player (pro player), Yagi.

Yagi is no slouch either. He immediately recognizes Akagi’s talent in Mahjong and prefers to sit out and observe Akagi’s games rather than rush in with zero prep like overly arrogant pros tend to do. When Yagi starts playing, his first super-move is a full-blown psychological attack on Akagi by attempting to cause Akagi to lose trust in his judgment. And, of course, we not only see Akagi standing tall against that pressure, but deflecting the same tactic back at Yagi. With that ends the 2nd subbed episode of Akagi.

Conclusion:
Like all anime series of this kind, detailed explanation of every wonder-move that the genius (and his opponents) makes is given to allow appreciation of the skill involved. But unlike series like Prince of Tennis - where a super-move can easily be recognized as one (well, a ball that never bounces and a ball that changes spin in mid-air are clearly super-moves) - the super-moves in Akagi are far more difficult to understand, especially for a Mahjong newbie like me. This does turn me off a little.

But I suppose the converse is also true. Those who are proficient in Mahjong should appreciate the super-moves even more. The greater problem at hand is probably the slow subbing for Akagi. I can’t blame Triad (they have relatively few staff), but being at episode 2 with the epiosde 13 raw already out is pretty sucky. Now, this is when I wish my Japanese studies were more advanced.

anime, animation, summaries, akagi

Related Articles:

• Akagi Episode 1

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