Akagi

Mahjong may be a familiar pastime, but for Nangou it’s played where debts are collected in blood. A compulsive gambler owing more than three million yen, he makes a final, reckless bid to erase what he owes by sitting down with the mafia—staking his life on the outcome. As the hands unfold, the odds tighten and Nangou drifts steadily away from salvation and toward a fatal end.

The balance shifts when Shigeru Akagi, a teenage fugitive fleeing the police, bursts into the parlor. With nothing left to lose, Nangou pushes Akagi into the seat after hurriedly explaining the basics. The mob initially treats the newcomer as an easy mark, only to discover a cold, instinctive talent: a player who reads the table with unnerving clarity and meets death without blinking—an emerging legend in the shadows of high-stakes mahjong.