Forum - View topicTohai: Ura Rate Mahjong Tohai Roku (TV).
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Harleyquin
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#15
As expected, Ai relies on manipulating others on the table to seize momentum and build points. Knowing Kei is immune to her normal ability to read players, she decides to work on others instead. Her mental breakdown is actually really fun to watch since it's so unlike her, but when she regains control she very nearly accomplishes her aim of taking Kei down. Unfortunately for her, the person she was manipulating was actually playing along and had planned to steal the match at the death having calculated the likelihood of available tiles thanks to the table's quirks and Kei's deliberate manipulation of the available tiles in the preceding round. Kei himself simply decided to let Ai have her way, and having calculated the same result as the Seven Pair Prince decided to take advantage of what he was going for on his draw (had he not build in the 5-sou as his winning tile he would have dealt in to the Prince). Ootsuji is an absolute beast. Not only is he infuriatingly obstructive, his ability to rub it in will drive even players like Doujima crazy with frustration. Knowing what Doujima was going on AND knowing he could stop it by dealing into the other player on the table with the wait is something only the best players can do. Having witnessed it firsthand, no wonder Kei is nervous and is doing research based on the table as it stood. The man himself coming in to strike a psychological blow might well be the chance for Kei to get some intelligence on him, otherwise he's not going to beat him when experience and skill are in the old man's favour. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3053 |
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#16
If Kei didn't know the scale of what faces him, he certainly does after this episode. Not a small price to pay either, having lost an adult tooth to Oosuji's strike. The geezer is easily the worst specimen of homo sapiens to walk this earth, but in Mahjong terms alone he is almost unbeatable. He didn't lie either: with a win rate of 80% and the number of times he'd bet his teeth in this gamble it's no wonder he no longer has any of his own to stake. Although Kei did everything possible to increase his chances of getting the tile he wanted, there's nothing he can do when faced with someone who's Doujima on steroids AND will cheat without hesitation given the opportunity. Squeezing out that information from Oosuji was worth the tooth though, at least with that intelligence Takatsu has a lead he can work with using his Yakuza connections. Amina's secret is finally out: without proper medical aid she will die no matter what Kei does. Having her fears played to this extent by Seki, she really believes Kei is going to abandon her to her fate. We know he won't as everything he's worked for to date is for her sake (and indirectly his), so he'll have to beg Takatsu for assistance once more. It's another distraction he can't afford as the tournament enters its next round. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3053 |
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#17
What started off as participation in a civilian tournament has snowballed into something bigger than anything Kei has gambled to date. If he doesn't win and get the notebook Takatsu is eyeing, Amina will definitely die and the Yakuza will have Kei in debt for the rest of his life. No pressure, but for the first time all adaptation Kei is actually feeling it and it has adversely impacted his play. It doesn't help scheduling has made Kei's task so much harder. Getting hit by Maekawa at the start wasn't great, but getting Oosuji after that was brutal since he has no reason to let Kei qualify and can easily manipulate the table to suit his circumstances. And after all that, the last person Kei wants to take on when he's at a deficit is Doujima. And it looks like Kei is going out because he has no answer to Doujima's play in the mental state he's in. Even with a literal kick to the face, does Kei have enough in him to make up the huge deficit staring him down with just two rounds remaining and no chance of consecutive rounds? Amina is definitely Kei's biggest weakness, and her physical state affects his play so badly that any of the other major players can run rings around him. It was different when Yuu was the one under the pump, at that point Kei did feel he was betrayed and knew he had to win regardless to have any chance of bailing her out. In this tournament he has no outside help except his own skills, but has he left it too late to make it to the final? |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3053 |
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#18
Not a bad comeback from Kei, bringing it to the last round against Doujima. Unfortunately, he took too much of a risk going for a win to keep his win and Doujima was able to sneak in through the back door. Logically if Kei was taking anyone other than Doujima on with the stakes this high he wouldn't have gone for the Kan, but previous experience against Doujima effectively forced his hand because of the calibre of the opposition. In the end, Kei had to admit defeat and put it up to the tiles not falling in his favour. Cutting off his finger didn't do much other than give him a lot of pain for the next few days, but his involvement in the tournament continues thanks to more external interference. It takes a lot to bring down Doujima, and although he had to concede due to injuries to his eyes and hands he took down a fair number of assailants with him. He's lucky to be alive, but his withdrawal allows Kei back in as the lucky loser and vengeance may still be his. As stated, if he doesn't win the tournament he's as good as dead as he'll kill Oosuji on stage and lose everything after that. If he does intend to defeat Oosuji on the table, he has a big ask as each and every person who is on that final table has played Oosuji and failed to even claim a direct hit off him let alone beat him on points. Oosuji himself was wary of Doujima's ability to occasionally go big and win on his own steam, so it's no surprise he singled him out as the biggest threat. He can read the hand completely and play the best possible defence (even dealing into other players to stop Doujima from winning), but Mahjong is still a game of luck and if the tiles fall in Doujima's favour there's nothing he can do to stop a self-draw win. Having Kei as the replacement is good for Oosuji, since he's played him multiple times and knows what his strengths and weaknesses are. Threats like the one in the toilet don't faze him either; he's not joking when he boasts a winning record of decades with plenty of experience in life-and-death gambles. At least casual viewers now know which Yakuza group is his sponsor, no doubt putting him up for the same reason Takatsu desperately wants Kei to win. As for the Mahjong proper, quiet start with no player able to get any momentum from their small points wins. It's only when Kei tries to force the issue with a declared Kokushi Tenpai that the action starts to heat up. Bluffs don't work against Oosuji since he has a perfect read of what players are waiting on, but Takatsu thinks Kei is on to something with his current approach. For now Kei loses this hand and the points, but there's a long road ahead and all of the participants know the table's momentum can do crazy things. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3053 |
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#19
Apart from a few surprises, this episode is the first time in a while where the focus is all about the Mahjong, both legal and illegal. Oosuji unwittingly gave a hint to viewers two weeks ago when he feared Doujima for his ability to come up with huge hands, which the others termed "a lucky punch". In other words, beginner's luck is something he has trouble against because it's not a style of play someone like him faces so he has no defence. Kei's plan is thus to play like a beginner (including deliberately losing a huge hand in the making) to divert Oosuji's attention away from the rest of the table and onto him exclusively. Obviously he can't do it alone, and in this respect Ai and Maekawa are more than happy to back him up having lost to him in previous rounds and knowing that their own chances of victory are at zero unless they can force Oosuji off his perch. Ai came up with the goods there, the unlikely 1-pin wait on a Yakuman hand taking advantage of Oosuji completely forgetting to read what she and Maekawa have because he's distracted by Kei's deliberate obfuscation. Unfortunately, making him deal in to a Yakuman appears to have poked the hornet's nest. No professional, legal or underground, likes dealing in to a Yakuman hand (contrived or not) and Oosuji's pride won't stand for it. When he goes all out, it is a showcase of a lifetime's practice of tile switching and outright cheating. So good, that only the seasoned professionals notice what he has done in full public view, yet they cannot say anything because it would destroy the integrity of the tournament. The only way to stop him lies with the other three players, and because Oosuji has been showing off his skills every opportunity he has during these consecutive dealer rounds they now understand he can "see" specific tiles (1, 9 and word tiles) but do not know the mechanism through which he does it. Next week is all or nothing for the remaining players to counterattack; if they do not stop him accumulating points while he is dealer the difference will be too great for them to overcome in the remaining three rounds. Besides the action on the table, the big surprise is learning Seki survived his encounter with the Takatsu group and has changed his appearance and voice (kudos to the VA). He is effectively holding Amina hostage, and no one is any the wiser that he's just a random visitor. Kei can't do much since he's at the tournament, so the only people who can stop Seki would be the Takatsu group, yet the boss and his right hand are in the office watching the tournament. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3053 |
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#20
If there's one complaint about this episode, it's how quickly the tables are turned against Oosuji once the secret behind his uncanny ability to win off the Rin-shan draw is revealed. To be fair, Oosuji not needing to cheat because he can tell what certain tiles are from the miniscule differences in weight alone is almost impossible. The problem was he did it too blatantly and too often against one of the keenest observers in Kei and then assumed that even if Kei knew the secret he couldn't do much about it. Kei with his photographic memory in turn realises Oosuji can identify not one by two tiles by touch, and then promptly uses it against him through a combination of observation, inference and a calculated gamble. It pays off handsomely with Kei scoring the highest out of the final up to that point. In addition, because Kei willingly shares what he figured out about Oosuji's special talent with the rest of the table, the other two players can use the same knowledge against him. Once Oosuji loses his consecutive dealer hands it all goes downhill from there. The 3 vs 1 is set and Oosuji is so rattled by Kei's counterattack he has lost his composure and can no longer do the tile swapping which won him rounds last week. Without momentum and no way to change it naturally or artificially, he is forced to take risks at the very last for the big hand he needs to finish in overall first place. Unfortunately, Kei and Ai have the same idea and Oosuji has the unenviable position of deciding who the winner is in the most humiliating fashion possible for a professional Mahjong player. Can't say he didn't have it coming, but keeping true to Kei's insight into his cowardice he tries to cut a deal to escape with his life intact. But even he wouldn't have expected his backers to move so quickly. It was a hard journey, but Kei has his victory and the bargaining chip he needs to provide Amina with the life-saving surgery she needs. Unfortunately for him he is powerless against Seki's opportunism, so Takatsu and his group will need to front up and pay back Kei for fulfilling his side of the bargain. Two straight weeks of pure Mahjong action on the tables, unfortunately the franchise has to change tack now that the tournament has concluded. Not many episodes to go, so a good finish will keep the source material fans happy and increase the chances of a continuation, small as those odds are. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3053 |
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#21
The OP animation has changed, now that Oosuji is gone and the Ryuuou tournament has ended in Kei's victory. For casual viewers, the significance of Kei putting a rope around his neck in the first OP is now clear. So is the identity of the red-haired man who was sitting next to Seki in Amina's hospital ward. The whole Ryuuou tournament was predicated on being the ticket to entry for another Mahjong match against the owner of the top-secret notebook. Takatsu wasn't too sure what it was without Kei's earlier intelligence from the qualifying rounds, but after Kei won it's clear the instructions were sent regarding the funds for payment as well as the identity of the notebook's owner. Oosuji's public rescinding of Takatsu's enforced early retirement as a competitive Mahjong player means he is the only person who can partner Kei in this final gamble (both Takatsu and his backer have effectively staked their lives and careers on gathering 50 billion Yen, so if they lose it they're finished). Neither of them suspected that the gamble wouldn't just be over huge sums of money which they're used to, since the owner of the notebook has a personality just as twisted (if not worse) than the late Oosuji. The rules are heavily lopsided in favour of Hatori, who has Seki as his partner. Seki isn't as skilled as Takatsu, so it's down to whether Kei can defeat an opponent he has never played before and has no prior knowledge with regards to playing ability. In addition to his twisted personality, he's also no slouch at the Mahjong table. A very steady and logical playing style which is more than capable of seizing momentum when it comes and converting it into winning hands. Not too different from Kei himself, which means the other factor which will decide this contest is playing experience. Hatori isn't rated even by his Yakuza lackies, so it's Kei who has the advantage in life-and-death duels on the table. Is that going to be enough though given how disadvantageous the rules are? Personally I had expected this to be adapted because of the OP spoiler, but I didn't expect it to be the final story arc of this adaptation. I had thought it would be an OVA to be aired after the regular broadcast because watching people get publicly hanged for no good reason would be a hard no for the broadcasting censors. It seems Amazon and company are fine with this, so here we are. I liked last week's denouement, and am looking forward to seeing this arc to its conclusion because it's a typical high-stakes gamble which this series has portrayed many times and it has an opponent more detestable than even Oosuji who I'd like to see getting his just desserts. |
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