Legendary Gambler Tetsuya – 02 [Final Episode]

I mean final episode here in the sense that it's the only episodes I've seen in the Internet to be subbed or otherwise. Winny doesn't have any Legendary Gambler Tetsuya raws anymore, as far as my searches have taken me yesterday, and United Anime did not sub beyond episode two, so this may as well be the final episode and the series in its entirety.

Jokes aside, episode two did end on a more or less final note (somewhat a culmination of the opening arc, so it could be taken as an open ending).

The second episode is entitled The Law of Bainin.

With only 50 yen as his own money, Tetsuya remains at Shinjuku and still keeps on winning. The money keeps on piling up, but Tetsuya wants more. Tetsuya is still disturbed with losing to Boushu so much that he seeks playing against him. In a crowd full of people he sees him, and he tries to muscle his way around these people to get near Boushu. He finally tracks him down to a temple, but Tetsuya doesn't find him and curses because he disappears.

However, Boushu is behind him. Tetsuya wants to play Boushu again but Boushu does not agree with him. Boushu then tells Tetsuya that he can't win against him, but doesn't answer why; rather, he challenges Tetsuya to a bet: since they are near a temple, they bet on if the next person who'd come by the Temple will give money. An old man comes by and is about to drop money; Tetsuya feels luck is going his way, and that he'll win the bet. As the money is about to drop into the box, Boushu tells Tetsuya why he can't win. He then grabs the coin as the man says his prayers. Boushu then tells Tetsuya he wins. (He implies, of course, that one musn't depend on luck in gambling. One should depend on what one can do, on rationality.) No matter how Tetsuya looks at it, he tells Tetsuya, he won.

Tetsuya seems to have an idealistic picture of gambling: he says that it was taking other people's luck after battling it out. Boushu quickly retorts that Tetsuya's wrong, that he doesn't understand at all. He then tells Tetsuya that Tetsuya couldn't win against him if he solely depended on luck alone to triumph. 'How does one win, then?' Tetsuya asks. Boushu replies that it's strength. Strength to do what is needed. He then berates Tetsuya that it's all play for him – it's not gambling at all. In gambling, one does everything to win. He then warns Tetsuya not to sink too deep in their world.

Tetsuya then begs Boushu to show him the way, because there's nowhere else he can go. Boushu accedes, and tells Tetsuya to follow him. They stop at a Mahjong parlor where Boushu takes all of his money, and tells Tetsuya to play. He then tells Tetsuya not to worry about things; he wants him to think only about winning, because that's how he's going to pay for everything. Boushu then walks away.

Tetsuya enters the parlor, and notices that the only open table is the most dangerous one. The rules are different here: with every winning hand the players have to pay, and with every tile that makes one of the opposing players win, one has to pay also. Tetsuya gets an ugly hand. Tetsuya isn't allowed to draw by the opposing players: they in cahoots with one another. The other players switch tiles and replace their draws with tiles they don't need. Tetsuya sees one of them about to change a useless tile with a quick draw, and he tries catching that guy to no avail. There was nothing in his hand.

Tetsuya loses to Tobi (that's the guy's name as introduced) with a Dai San Gen from his tiles. He has to pay a big amount of money, but he tells them that he doesn't have any. He gets punched by Tobi, but before doing so tells Tetsuya to not think badly of him, because those are the rules. He then gets beaten up badly. Tetsuya then realizes what Boushu has been trying to get through to him: that he plays a weak style of Mahjong.

Tetsuya, in a battered condition, then talks to Boushu. Boushu tells him that Bainin (professional Mahjong players) team up when they sense weak prey. He then explains that until that time, Tetsuya was protected by money. He's a weak Mahjong player because he doesn't know how to put his life on the line, to risk it all. To get rid of that weakness is what is to discover strength.

There's enough closure here. He won't give up – and he'll keep on playing. 😉 That's it.