Akagi is the best series that I can’t actually recommend, because if you don’t know anything about Mahjong it will be completely incomprehensible. Or if you do know anything about Mahjong, you’ve already read it and didn’t need me to recommend it to you. Akagi is peak, but only for a very specific niche audience.
Kaiji is the one I can recommend. Kaiji gets conned by shady loan sharks and forced to gamble his way out of crippling debt, playing all kinds of bizarre games with high stakes. It’s the same style of intense psychological warfare, but, like, accessible to the average reader.
He’s written a lot of other great stuff, and most of it is more Mahjong, but those are the big two from him.
I’m a huge fan of Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s work.
Akagi is the best series that I can’t actually recommend, because if you don’t know anything about Mahjong it will be completely incomprehensible. Or if you do know anything about Mahjong, you’ve already read it and didn’t need me to recommend it to you. Akagi is peak, but only for a very specific niche audience.
Kaiji is the one I can recommend. Kaiji gets conned by shady loan sharks and forced to gamble his way out of crippling debt, playing all kinds of bizarre games with high stakes. It’s the same style of intense psychological warfare, but, like, accessible to the average reader.
He’s written a lot of other great stuff, and most of it is more Mahjong, but those are the big two from him.