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Akagi is a manga that is just about playing mahjong. It's really good and cool but... you really gotta know how to play mahjong to appreciate it. Luckily my pal outer science sent me an insanely information PM that gave me the groundwork to dive into the manga and I've been enjoying it immensely ever since. I'm going to share that with ya'll now, and then let's talk about Akagi, mahjong, and hell just have a great time celebrating the demon of underworld gambling: Akagi. here you go GIANT MAHJONG RULES POST A lot of this is cribbed from my earlier mahjong thread linked in the OP which is now in archives. You should come into this post knowing absolutely nothing about the game, and come out of it realizing you need to reread it like three times to make sense of it. After those three times you should be perfectly capable of playing the game online. But rather than doing that, I'd recommend reading through the post once and understanding what you can, not really caring about what you can't. Then go play the vs. CPU flash game linked toward the bottom and refer back to anything that doesn't make sense to you as you play. Outside of very specific edge cases, this post contains pretty much everything you'll ever need to know regarding the rules of the game, so just use it as a reference. What exactly is mahjong? Unlike the tile matching game most Americans are familiar with, which is called mahjong solitaire, traditional mahjong originated in China and is a 4-player game not unlike rummy or poker. In fact, rummy traces its origin to mahjong. Culturally, the game fills a similar role to poker in America; most people are at least vaguely familiar with how to play it, but dedicated professionals and business establishments built just to play the game are dwindling. Even the skill vs. luck relationship is similar. If you're familiar with poker, keep it in mind as you read the rules and things should make more sense to you. One note here: the English terminology I'm going to use in this post is largely not standard; there basically is no standard. But I will define the terms I use such that any other resources you look at should be intelligible. The tiles, and how to win The game is played with a bunch of tiles basically equivalent to a deck of playing cards. There are three suits: the pinzu (dots), souzu (bamboo), and manzu (characters), numbered 1-9. Outside of the suited tiles are the winds, which are named for the cardinal directions. Their Japanese names are as follows: ton (East), nan (South), shaa (West), pei (North). We also have the dragons, colored and given the names haku (white), hatsu (green), and chun (red). The winds and dragons are collectively called the honors. There are four copies of every tile, for a total of 136. Players are dealt 13 tiles, and take turns drawing one tile and discarding one tile to complete a hand of 14. A complete hand consists of four sets of three tiles, and one pair of two tiles, for a total of 14. A set is either a run of three sequential, suited tiles, or a triple of three identical tiles. A pair is two identical tiles. You can also promote a triple into a quad of four tiles, while still only counting as one set, thus increasing the number of tiles in your winning hand to 15. There are two exceptions to this hand structure: a hand of seven different pairs counts as a win, as does a hand consisting of one of every honor and each suit's 1 and 9, with an extra one of any of those. When a person completes their hand, they declare their win and based on what tiles and tile structures or other special conditions are present in the winning hand, the hand is given a score and the other three players pay the winner a number of points according to that score. I will not go in-depth into scoring in this post; it's an arcane magic full of powers of two and terrifying memorization. What you actually need to care about regarding scoring will come later. Calling tiles When a person discards a tile, the other players may take it to complete a set in their hand, or even to complete their entire hand. We refer to this as "calling" a tile. When calling a tile, you reveal the set you are completing with it, take the tile, and put the set off to the side; you may no longer discard any tiles in the set. After doing so, you discard one tile from your hand and play resumes from the person after you, effectively skipping anyone in between. You may only call tiles as they are discarded; once the next player draws their next tile, the previous discard cannot be taken. There are various specific rules for each kind of call: Ron - Calling a tile to complete your hand and win the round. Takes precedence over all other calls. In this case, the person whose tile you called pays the full value of your hand and the other two players pay nothing. Depending on your local ruleset, multiple people may call ron on the same discard, or only the player who would play first after the discarding player may. Pon - Calling a tile to complete a triple. Takes precedence over chii. Kan - Calling a tile to complete a quad. You must also do this in order to promote a triple in your hand to a quad. A unique feature of kan is that before discarding, you first draw another tile from a special section of tiles called the dead wall, to replace the one you "lost" from having a four-tile set. Same priority as pon. Chii - Calling a tile to complete a run. You may only do this on the discard of the player to your left, who immediately precedes you in turn order. Lowest priority call. Here I will note a specific terminology issue: many different resources use the word meld to refer to a called set of tiles, or the act of calling tiles, or even to refer to what I call sets. I avoid the term entirely to prevent this confusion, but you may see it elsewhere. Yaku and Han Yaku are similar to poker hands. They are specific configurations or conditions of a winning hand that influence its score. Han are the "points" provided by the various yaku, though to avoid confusion with another type of points separate from what yaku provide, I may use the term "score multiplier", rather than "points", instead. Some example yaku and their han value: Tan'yao - All Simples - 1 han Having a hand consisting only of the suit tiles 2-8, collectively called the "simples". Hon'itsu - Half-flush - 3 han, 2 if hand is "open" (has any called tiles) Having a hand consisting only of one suit of tiles, plus any honors. Sanshoku Doujun - Three-Color Straight - 2 han, 1 if hand is open Having three runs of the same numbers, one in each suit. For example, 678 in each of the three suits. There are many many more yaku than this. Note that you can also stack yaku, and this is in fact a very important part of making high-scoring hands! For example, you can have a hand fulfilling the requirements for both tan'yao and sanshoku doujun, which gives you credit for both of them. An important part of Japanese mahjong is that any winning hand must fulfill at least one yaku providing at least one han. Other Japanese-specific rules There are several other rules specific to Japanese mahjong which are very very important. Here they are: Dora At the start of every round, the last fourteen tiles of the wall are separated from the rest and are called the "dead wall", so-called because play stops before reaching them so they are not drawn. Since tiles are in stacks of two, the top tile of the third stack is flipped over and becomes the dora indicator. The next tile in sequence is called the dora. For suited tiles, if the indicator is 2-sou for example, the dora is 3-sou, with 9 wrapping around to 1. For honors, the order is: winds - E>S>W>N>E, dragons - White > Green > Red > White. For every dora tile in the winning player's hand, that player gets an extra han (but note that this is not a yaku, so you can't win with just dora!). Whenever someone calls a quad, the next tile to the dora indicator is flipped over and becomes another indicator, increasing the number of dora. The replacement tile for the call is also drawn from the four tiles behind the original indicator. Riichi Commonly romanized to "reach" for phonetic reasons. If your hand is only one tile from completion, a state called tenpai ("ready"), and you have not called any tiles, you may declare riichi. This tells everyone else at the table that you are in tenpai. You also place 1000 of your points into the pot to be taken by the next winner--hopefully you. From now until the round ends, you must discard every tile you draw until the round ends (you may of course declare a win with your drawn tiles); you cannot change your hand. In exchange, you get two things. First, if you win, you get an additional han, and riichi is a yaku so you can win with otherwise non-winning hands. Additionally, if you win, for every dora indicator in play, you can use the tile directly beneath it as yet another dora indicator. So if one person forms a quad and someone wins under riichi, they get a total of four dora indicators with which to maybe get more points! Red dora Depending on ruleset, you may find that one of the fives of each suit is colored red. This is a totally normal five of that suit, but it counts as a dora regardless of the indicator--and can stack with the indicator if it's a four. Furiten When in tenpai, if any tile you've discarded this round could complete your hand--even if it doesn't give you a yaku--you cannot call ron at all, on any tile. If someone else discards such a tile, and you don't call ron (even if you can't due to it not giving a yaku!), you cannot call ron until after your next turn. If you pass on a chance to call ron while under riichi, you cannot call ron for the entire rest of the round. Collectively, these states where you cannot call ron are called furiten. If you start to play, this will gently caress you over without you realizing at least once. Start of the game and taking turns The four players sit in a square around the table. There are a few traditional ways to determine who sits where; for pretty much everyone in this thread "doing it randomly" or "letting the online client do it" is sufficient. One player is designated as dealer, and they are assigned the East position. The player to their right is South, then West, then North. For each player, getting a triple of the wind tile matching their seat position is a yaku worth one han, called yakuhai or fanpai. The players build two rows of 17 tiles stacked on top of each other in front of them, forming the wall of tiles. Each player is given 25,000 points. The dealer rolls a pair of two six-sided dice. He goes counter-clockwise along the table, starting with himself as 1, counting each player until reaching the result of the dice. This player then rolls the dice and counts from the right side of his wall that many stacks of tiles, then separates the wall there. The seven stacks of tiles immediately to the right are the dead wall. Players take turns drawing four tiles at a time from the left side of the break, then one at the end, to form their starting hands of 13. This is the beginning of the round "East 1". We call East the "prevailing wind"; in addition to each person's seat assignments, a triple of the prevailing wind also counts for fanpai. Starting with the dealer, players draw one tile and discard one tile from their hands until either the edge of the dead wall is reached or someone wins. There's a small note here to make that if someone declares a quad, you stop one tile earlier. After that hand, if the East player won, or the round was a draw with East in tenpai, play another round with the same positions. Otherwise, wind assignments rotate so that East becomes North, South becomes East, etc. This is now "East 2". Repeat until the players' wind assignments rotate back to their original. At this point the game enters "South 1", and the prevailing wind changes to South. Play this South round as normal; after South 4, the game ends. Most rulesets specify that if no player is above 30,000 points at the end of South 4, the game continues into West 1, and ends as soon as any single player gets above 30,000. The most I've ever gotten to is North 2. Scoring There are two kinds of points. We've already discussed han. Additionally we have fu, sometimes called "minipoints", which are scored based on the individual sets and pair in your hand rather than overall configurations. A base 20 fu is given for winning a hand. Runs are worth no fu. Triples are worth some fu, more if they are of honors or 1s or 9s rather than simples. Quads are worth more than that. You get some fu if your pair is of non-simples. You get some more depending on what the shape of your final waiting tiles was, and differing amounts if you won by ron or by tsumo (drawing the tile yourself). At the end, round up your fu total to the next multiple of 10. Add up your yaku, and then follow an arcane formula to figure out your final score look up what a hand with that han/fu is worth on a scoring chart. Or just let the online client do it. That's what I do. The player sitting East wins 50% more points, but pays twice as much as the other players if he loses to a tsumo. At certain han values, hand score stops being calculated by the normal formula and stays at specific breakpoints: 40 fu / 4 han, or just 5 han - mangan, 8000/12000 points 6-7 han - haneman, 12000/16000 8-10 han - baiman, 16000/24000 11-12 han - sanbaiman, 24000/32000 13+ han - yakuman, 32000/48000 There is also a special class of extremely hard-to-get hands which are instantly worth yakuman value. I have only gotten one, ever. You can find that in the old thread, actually. At the end of the game, these raw scores are converted to more easily-managed two-digit scores which are often tied to money, since mahjong is a gambling game. Round everyone's score to the nearest thousand. Divide by a thousand. Subtract 30. Add 20 to the leader's score. Done*! (Certain rulesets may do additional things. For example, the usual online client gives an additional +20 points to first, +10 to second, -10 to third, and -20 to fourth). To help remember this, you can imagine everyone as starting with 30,000 points and initially setting aside 5,000 into a pot taken by the eventual winner. * Technically, to make sure everything sums to zero in the end, you round off everyone except the person in first, and then assign first place 120,000 points minus the sum of the other players' rounded scores. But thinking of it this way puts you off by one at most and is generally cleaner. ron - ロン tsumo - ツモ pon - ポン chii - チー kan - カン riichi - リーチ pass - パス Winds: East - 東 South - 南 West - 西 North - 北 Dragons: Haku - (blank tile) Hatsu - 發 Chun - 中 Characters suit: 1 - 一 2 - 二 3 - 三 4 - 四 5 - 五 6 - 六 7 - 七 8 - 八 9 - 九 Draw game - 九種九牌 (Available if you have a starting hand with 9 or more non-simples in it) 
Big Anime Fan Here fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Jan 11, 2015 |
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Jan 11, 2015 04:11
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 17:37 |
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Thank you. I can't wait to finally read Akagi, and Ten, and the four other Mahjong manga Fukomoto made, and hell maybe even ones done by other people if I feel adventurous.
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Jan 11, 2015 04:14
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if anyone has any mahjong questions i can answer them.
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Jan 11, 2015 04:16
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For people who want to watch this show, it and Kaiji are entirely on Crunchyroll in America if you pay for that sort of thing.
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Jan 11, 2015 04:18
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Outer Science posted:if anyone has any mahjong questions i can answer them. Yah this guy sent me the PM he is basically a very good and smart man
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Jan 11, 2015 04:25
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What about Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku, the king of mahjong mangas?
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Jan 11, 2015 05:25
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one day a fuckin miracle will happen and akagi season 2 will exist
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Jan 11, 2015 05:49
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aers posted:one day a fuckin miracle will happen and akagi season 2 will exist You should just read the manga, because that will of course never happen and you know this
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Jan 11, 2015 06:08
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Between this, Kaiji, Kurosawa, and all the other poo poo Fukumoto has done, I feel pretty comfortable saying that he is easily one of the greatest manga artists/writers that has ever existed. edit: Just to be clear, I'm not exaggerating in the slightest
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Jan 11, 2015 07:29
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someone needs to translate all those loving weird rear end romcoms and proto-kurosawas fukumoto was writing during the 80's before he hit it big with ten Ringo Roadagain fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Jan 11, 2015 |
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Jan 11, 2015 07:45
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Please let that wait until we aren't like 2 years behind Kaiji and probably even more so behind in Akagi.
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Jan 11, 2015 07:47
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I watched about 3/4 of the first season of Kaiji but stopped when I ran out of subbed episodes (obviously this was a pretty long time ago) but never went back to it. I didn't really like Kaiji as a character and the only thing that got me that far through it was wanting to know how he was going to pull out of it, but eventually just read a summary and never felt like going back to it. I'd been meaning to watch Akagi though because I like when the protagonist is more in control and pulling a big fast one on the opponent or just manipulating the poo poo out of them vs just sweating and crying through it. Anyway this thread reminded me that Akagi was on CR and I was bored tonight so I watched like 10 eps and like it a lot more than Kaiji. I'm not like a super huge fan of Fukumoto though. The art is fun; I like stuff with unusual art styles and I really like the sharpness and energy in his linework but I read some of Gin to Kin and that Kurosawa thing everyone was all over a while back and just didn't care for them. Watching Akagi will probably be enough for me.
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Jan 11, 2015 08:33
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Big Anime Fan Here posted:You should just read the manga, because that will of course never happen and you know this yeah i know. the problem is the producer at madhouse who was responsible for getting funding for all their projects that didn't do that great back then like akagi etc is gone now (he went and created mappa) so now madhouse doesnt do anything risky
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Jan 11, 2015 08:53
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 Akagi is badass, but I disagree with the OP a bit. I watched the whole anime without knowing anything about mahjong, and it was still really cool. I since rewatched it with proper mahjong knowledge, which is of course the best way to watch it, but if anyone is intimidated by the long list of mahjong rules but would still be interested in just checking Akagi out, just watch away imo.
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Jan 11, 2015 10:30
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Why is the Washizu game so long? It takes up over 3/4ths of the manga.
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Jan 11, 2015 14:37
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K. Flaps posted:Akagi is badass, but I disagree with the OP a bit. I watched the whole anime without knowing anything about mahjong, and it was still really cool. I since rewatched it with proper mahjong knowledge, which is of course the best way to watch it, but if anyone is intimidated by the long list of mahjong rules but would still be interested in just checking Akagi out, just watch away imo. I watched the original anime as well without knowing about mahjong and enjoyed it, but I'm reading the manga after learning the rules and it's several magnitudes more enjoyable. Without mahjong knowledge you're kind of missing out on 3/4 of the manga even if you don't realize it
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Jan 11, 2015 15:33
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I've placed a magic spell... on this single wait tile
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Jan 12, 2015 17:47
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Look at Akagi's hosed up butt
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Jan 12, 2015 17:53
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Ringo Roadagain posted:someone needs to translate all those loving weird rear end romcoms and proto-kurosawas fukumoto was writing during the 80's before he hit it big with ten Yeah. This is my favorite Fukomoto after kurosawa http://bato.to/comic/_/comics/ikenai-kacchan-love-story-r11591
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Jan 12, 2015 17:56
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Big Anime Fan Here posted:Look at Akagi's hosed up butt Fukomoto's more early stuff looks insanely cool 
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Jan 12, 2015 17:57
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That shirt is badass
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Jan 12, 2015 17:59
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Fake Akagi has more style than Akagi.
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Jan 12, 2015 18:01
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K. Flaps posted:Fake Akagi has more style than Akagi. of course he does, True Akagi is basically gambling talent made corporeal. he has no time for looking rad when he has magic sand in the depths of hell
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Jan 12, 2015 18:06
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I don't understand online mahjong because Akagi has taught me that half the game is just cheating with the tiles
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Jan 12, 2015 20:40
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What is the cool mahjong app for chill people to play now that janryumon is dead
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Jan 12, 2015 21:11
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good news everyone, steam is getting a mahjong game http://store.steampowered.com/app/338060/
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Jan 12, 2015 21:43
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Davincie posted:good news everyone, steam is getting a mahjong game I'm going to kill the mothereffer who brought a sexy babe mahjong game to steam but didn't bother adding multiplayer.
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Jan 12, 2015 21:44
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Davincie posted:good news everyone, steam is getting a mahjong game Ayame Kirishima unyielding high school girl Tsubasa Sasaki sexy Harajuku girl Ayumi Sakura funny school girl Rui Shiina domineering high school princess Akari Suzumura she loves to make boys happy Airi Sakurai foul mouthed elder Sakurai sister Chise Sakurai more proper younger Sakurai sister Kanon Amagi famous idol band member, a bit of an oddball Yuuki Asakura famous idol band member, very genki! Miyu originally a rabbit, in human form for your pleasure Ren Akizuki Sexy swordsgirl, hates to be bent out of shape Yuuko Fox goddess in human form Kirika Minazuki Sexy fighter, is Mahjong a game of bullets? Shizune Kakei Sexy Ninja girl, avenging evil under the cover of darkness Anisu Pious nun, where did she learn Mahjong?? Elsa Princess who coined Sword of light! My strength to fight! Roux Devil child, things she has done cannot be spoken Resabell Sexy devil, attracts men in the world Felicite Mahjong goddess, her sexy behaviour will captivate you Char Mahjong goddess, likes to be seen by men not by boys Aila Mahjong goddess, speaks like a guy but acts like a romantic lady Satie Mahjong goddess, shy until you get to know her Ester Mahjong goddess, ladylike and motherly Can someone please add the Mahjong pretty girls to the OP with pictures.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:31
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Yes, if you can PM me pictures of them I'll pepper them in to highlight the different sections
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Jan 12, 2015 23:41
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Big Anime Fan Here posted:But rather than doing that, I'd recommend reading through the post once and understanding what you can, not really caring about what you can't. Then go play the vs. CPU flash game linked toward the bottom and refer back to anything that doesn't make sense to you as you play. Outside of very specific edge cases, this post contains pretty much everything you'll ever need to know regarding the rules of the game, so just use it as a reference. Where's the link?
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Jan 13, 2015 00:04
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BattleHamster posted:Where's the link? here you go g http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/mahjong/mahjong_e.html
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Jan 13, 2015 00:13
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As soon as I realized that mahjong was just Chinese Rummy* but with 3 suits instead of 4 and a bunch of random bonus cards, it became really easy to understand. I'll forever be grateful that my dad brought me up playing Canasta. (yes I realize that it's actually the other way around and that rummy came from mahjong)
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Jan 13, 2015 01:41
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things left out of my original OP that got copy/pasted into a PM to this OP who copy/pasted it into his OP: Complete Beginner's Guide to Online Mahjong - read this if you want another source or to play online Japanese Mahjong Flash Game - practice against AIs Japanese Mahjong yaku - all the yaku in the game Some Reference PDF - quick reference, is not completely accurate to normal japanese rules but close enough
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Jan 13, 2015 02:33
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Thanks, they didn't format good when i was copying and pasting them so I deleted them to save me the trouble, but I'll reassemble it later
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Jan 13, 2015 02:41
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Thanks!
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Jan 13, 2015 06:21
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I watched the anime years ago and recently rewatched on Crunchyroll. Someone spoil me what the gently caress happens in the remaining fight because I've been waiting years to figure that out. Who wins and how? My guess was he was faking his blood with red colored energy drink.
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Jan 13, 2015 16:17
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He drank the energy drink for extra electroylyets and he had a doctor infuse extra blood into him as well
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Jan 13, 2015 16:32
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I'm the flattop and sunglasses henchman that shows up in every fukumoto manga looking surprised
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Jan 13, 2015 20:44
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Big Anime Fan Here posted:I'm the flattop and sunglasses henchman that shows up in every fukumoto manga looking surprised Greetings.
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Jan 13, 2015 20:45
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 17:37 |
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Jan 13, 2015 20:54
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