is a Japanese

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written by Fūmei Sai and illustrated by Yasushi Hoshino. It was serialized in ''

Weekly Shōnen Magazine is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male high ...

'' from July 1997 to January 2005. It was adapted by

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' ''GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' ''Mazinger Z'', ''Galaxy Express 999'', ''Cutie Honey'', ''Dr. Slump'', ' ...

into a 20-episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series, broadcast on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Compan ...

from October 2000 to March 2001. The manga was heavily influenced by the novels of

Takehiro Irokawa was a noted Japanese people, Japanese writer who published both serious literature and light fiction under a variety of pseudonyms including Asada Tetsuya (阿佐田哲也) and Budai Irokawa (色川武大). Many of his works were autobiographical ...

and features many of his characters. One of Irokawa’s pseudonyms was Asada Tetsuya, and the main character of his most famous autobiographical work, Mahjong Drifters Chronicles ( ja, 麻雀放浪記) was named Boya Tetsu. In 2000, ''The Legend of the Gambler: Tetsuya'' won the 23rd

Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially w ...

in the '' shōnen'' category.

Plot

In 1944, Tetsuya Asada was 15 years old. Three years after the attack on

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, Tetsuya was mobilized to work at a munitions factory. One day, he was with one of his lunch break friends and was being taught how to gamble by his colleague's uncle. At that time, an old man who survived without escaping in the tragedy of an air raid that turns the whole area into a burnt field teaches him that "unlucky people die". The following year, Japan lost the war and was in a poor situation. Tetsuya, who managed to get a job, is gambling at his workplace and was driven to the last minute by losing consecutively, showed his talent as a gamer. After meeting Inami at a gambling hall, Tetsuya heads for

Yokosuka is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

after hearing that he can make money by playing

mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-play ...

against American soldiers in Yokosuka.

Media

Manga

''Shōbushi Densetsu Tetsuya'' is written by Fūmei Sai and illustrated by Yasushi Hoshino. It was serialized in

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

's ''

'' from July 30, 1997 to January 12, 2005. Kodansha compiled the series' individual chapters into forty-one ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes published from December 13, 1997 to February 17, 2005.

Anime

The manga was adapted into a 20-episode anime television series produced by

and broadcast on

from October 6, 2000 to March 23, 2001. The anime was originally intended to be broadcast nationwide on Saturday nights in the 6:30 timeslot. However, in episodes 8 to 11 Tetsuya’s rival is a gambler who uses methamphetamines called Hiropon, in order to cheat by remembering the backs of the tiles. This resulted in the show being moved to the midnight slot and not being broadcast nationally. Additionally, an anti-drug warning was added to the end of the relevant episodes.

Reception

''The Legend of the Gambler: Tetsuya'' won the 23rd

for the '' shōnen'' category in 2000.

References

External links

Official Anime website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Legend Of The Gambler Tetsuya 1997 manga 2000 anime television series debuts Gambling in anime and manga Kodansha manga Mahjong in anime and manga Shōnen manga Toei Animation television Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (Shōnen)