The Legend of Koizumi

January 8, 2010 9:08 PM

You’ve read about the best friggin’ manga ever on Mutantfrog and Wikipedia. Now watch it in Anime form (via Japan Probe)

The premise of the manga is that international diplomacy is settled on the mahjong table, with real-life politicians depicted as masters of mahjong. The Japanese title is a parody of Junichiro Koizumi's slogan, "Reform with no Sanctuary" (聖域無き改革 Seiiki Naki Kaikaku).

posted by KokuRyu (13 comments total)

How had I MISSED this?
posted by strixus at 9:41 PM on January 8, 2010

I have no idea what I just watched....that was.....wow. I think I need a nap.
posted by Isosceles at 10:34 PM on January 8, 2010

Wow, by best friggin' manga ever you mean most racist friggin' manga ever, right?
posted by aspo at 10:36 PM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh my God, it's like a glorious game of "spot the anime trope."
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:37 PM on January 8, 2010

Wow, by best friggin' manga ever you mean most racist friggin' manga ever, right?

Do you have any specific examples?
posted by KokuRyu at 10:40 PM on January 8, 2010

The best part was when I thought Koizumi was dead, but then he wasn't. Which oddly seemed to happen several times in the space of less than seven minutes.

Mah-jong totally is like this, though. My nanna used to play a weekly game with some ladies from her church, and it always ended in screaming and threats of nuclear annihilation. So this was like nostalgia for me.
posted by eatyourcellphone at 10:53 PM on January 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

You can go read it, as well:

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mudazumo_naki_kaikaku/v01/c001/
posted by halcy at 2:58 AM on January 9, 2010

I have been meaning to learn to play Mah jong for a while, but now I wonder if I can scrape together the GNP to really compete....
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:36 AM on January 9, 2010

Most unrealistic part of this episode: Aso actually making himself useful.
posted by No-sword at 4:57 AM on January 9, 2010 [6 favorites]

Now my life is truly complete.

I always knew, deep in my heart, that somebody needed to do an anime rendition of Bush falling off a Segway.
posted by specialagentwebb at 6:34 AM on January 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

FINALLY. And I was just complaining that there've been no good series turned out this season.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:44 AM on January 9, 2010

Ooh boy, can't wait until the Chinese get into the mix!

I love the sheer concept of Mahjong movies/cartoons, since luck plays a much greater role in the game than skill, yet in the movies the most skilled players are always shown getting extraordinarily rare hands like "13 whatevers", all four winds, etc.
posted by pravit at 7:44 AM on January 9, 2010

Also see: Akagi - another over the top mahjong animu
posted by clockworkjoe at 4:41 PM on January 9, 2010 [1 favorite]