To Further commentate, I'd like to mention that I'm very-definitely-beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt biased towards liking Akagi as a character. Why? Because while this might sound childish to put so much emotional weight in an anime, Akagi puts into words a feeling that I've had for years and years.
Akagi had agreed to step in as a replacement for a Yakuza boss' rep Mahjong player, since 32 million yen is on the line. The opponent is rep player from a rival gang named Urabe. The actual content of the match is unimportant, except for the last part where Akagi gets up, declares his victory over Urabe, and walks away before Urabe had even taken his turn. He explains that he knows Urabe will deal into his hand, and kill himself, so there's no need for Akagi to remain at the table. Urabe is infuriated at this arrogance, only to be completely and utterly awestruck when he does exactly what Akagi had said he would do. It is a crushing defeat for Urabe, and another legendary win for Akagi.
When confronted about it by the Yakuza boss, he calmly explains the long, but stable line of logic that allowed him to completely predict what his opponent was going to do, and then crush his opponent accordingly. Little did he know though, was that Urabe was hiding in an unused room nearby, listening in. He busts into maniacal laughter upon learning how he was defeated, drawing everyone to him, revealing him in a wreck. Now not only is Urabe saddled with the task of paying back every yen he lost to his boss, all 32 million, but now every one of his fingers are smashed and broken in retribution for his failure.
Urabe looks like he's on the edge of insanity, and he vows revenge against Akagi, that he'll get revenge after his hands are healed, and he's paid back his debt. He swears with all his might that he will get his revenge.
Akagi, however, gets right up in his face, and this exchange happens, paraphrased:
"Why later? Why not get revenge now?"
"Huh?!"
"Let me make you a deal. We'll play a rematch, with a new bet. If you win, I'll shoulder your entire 32 million yen debt. If I win, I cut off your hands. How about it?"
All of Akagi's buddy's look at him like he's stupid, because it's such a large risk, with nothing to gain, but Urabe shuts up, and backs down from the challenge. When confronted about it later, Akagi says.
"I knew he'd turn the offer down. That's just the way his kind is. He's always thinking rationally, weighing the risks with the rewards. He's trapped that way, his years of experience have pinned his entire being to this way of thinking, and thanks to this, he's never once felt true anger. Nothing can make this man lash out at the world, nothing can make him make an irrational decision, and thanks to that, he'll always be stuck at the bottom, in the rational world he built himself."
And this really got to me, because that's how I feel. Akagi really flows against convention. You see, character design almost stipulates that you make a character that viewers can relate with, but it's the opposite with Akagi. I don't identify with him, I can't.
What rings true though, is that I identify with Urabe. I mean that, with all his impotent rage at the people that have wronged him, even when given chance, however small, to get back at them, he can't take it because the odds are woefully against him. He can't break out of the mindset he's built for himself. The cage of rationality and reason that he's trapped in, prevents him from rising above his lot in life.
And it's pitiful that I identify so strongly with that. That said, you could also say I want to be like Akagi, who is the epitome of don't-give-a-fuck. He's willing to bet his entire life and more to do the things he wants to do. He tears down social moors and throw them back in the face for the decisive advantage he needs. He's the kind of crazy that everyone, deep down, thinks they can be; but tragically have no clue how deeply entrenched we are in our docile, calm way of life to actually be that way. When death stares him in the face, he doesn't recoil in fear, nor does he laugh like many idiot wannabes that just throw away their life, he just remains calm and figures out how to beat it on it's own terms. It's a huge gap in rationale between that and the common person, a chasm so huge that it's literally unimaginable to cross, but it's the difference between the mundane and the extraordinary.
This is just something I thought up in the last episodes, since I've basically been rooting for Akagi to beat Washizu, but stunned by his lack self-preservation. I keep thinking to myself, even if not consciously, "When's he going to transfuse the blood back into himself? He can do it! It'll give him the breathing room he needs! How can anyone insist on playing, knowing that just a glancing blow means certain death?" And then when he takes his vials of blood, his very last life lines, and purposefully ruins them, effectively throwing them away, before challenging Washizu to the last two Han Chans... and knowing that that was the only way to get him to not give up and go into the final face off... just the effect of that was so profound to me. That that was the difference between a legend, and normal, lesser people. A normal person at that point would have taken their prodigal earnings and ran, happy in their amazing success, but Akagi was running by different priorities, it wasn't the money he was measuring his success by, it was by how thoroughly he crushed his opponent, and when opportunity to obtain complete, unambiguous greatness stands in front of him, he'll risk everything and more to try to get it. That actually... got to me.
This isn't the place for emotional diatribes, so I'll just stop here. I just wanted to throw that out there.
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Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3145892 times)