The Legend of Koizumi

"That's right. Mahjong is man's attempt at recreating the Genesis."

- Pietro

"Ragnarok... The Mahjong of the Gods!"

- Koizumi

The Legend of Koizumi or Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku (Reform With No Wasted Draws), a manga by Hideki Oowada, is the story about how top country leaders battle it out with Mahjong to decide. Got an anime adaptation which premiered in February 2010.

"Taizo. All of mankind's greatest endeavors and achievements started off as impossible from the ground. If you don't do the impossible, you're less likely to succeed!"
 * Adaptation Dye Job: The Bushes are given blond hair in the anime, for whatever reason.
 * How else would we know they were American?
 * And Now for Someone Completely Different:
 * Art Shift: Most of the major characters get at least one. Tymoshenko gets two within the space of three pages.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Apparently being a current or former Head of State means you're awesome at mahjong.
 * Head of State is probably elected based on their mahjong power.
 * The Pope is elected solely based on who wins the mahjong conclave.
 * Badass Automaton:
 * Badass Grandpa: Junichiro Koizumi's grandfather, Japanese politician and cabinet minister Matajirō Koizumi, apparently taught his grandson how to play mahjong. Truth in Television: The real-life Matajirō Koizumi was known as the "tattoo minister" for the elaborate red dragon tattoo on his back -- a tattooing style more associated nowadays with Yakuza -- and the series plays up this fact.
 * He's only been shown in a short cameo, but
 * Badass Longcoat: Bush Jr. used to wear one in his college years, and decides to put it back on during the battle against the Nazis. Also, after his death, 's headstone gets its own badass longcoat.
 * Bait and Switch Boss:
 * Battle Aura: EVERYBODY gets a battle aura when they play a special hand. Papa Bush is able to do one that causes his shirt to spontaneously disintegrate.
 * Berserk Button: Do NOT diss the Pope in front of Hitler. You will regret it.
 * Big Bad:
 * Incidentally, the name he goes under while escaping from Germany is the surname he would have had
 * Big Good: The Pope.
 * Though he clearly has no problem playing mahjong as cut-throat as the rest of the characters.
 * Bishounen: Pietro, complete with Bishie Sparkle
 * Brain In a Jar:  hopes to cheat death with one.
 * Brown Note: It's noted by Nazi scientists that just looking at a person with a significantly higher mahjong power level can cause serious negative effects to your health.
 * Butt Monkey: Taizo. George Jr. qualifies as well.
 * According to Colin Powell, is the real, and the scoreboard even labeled him.
 * Yukio Hatoyama, Japanese prime minister September 2008-June 2009, gets picked on consistently in both the manga's omake scenes and the OVA.
 * And then he ends up being killed by Kim Jong-il of all people. After being possessed by a squid.
 * Nicolas Sarkozy's two appearances are made of this.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Everyone adds specialized names to their mahjong hands like "PATRIOT TSUMO" or "PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC RIICHI".
 * Card Sharp: Everyone of any importance.
 * Charm Person: Hitler.
 * Cloudcuckoolander:
 * Cold Sniper: Former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso, shown to be a crack shot with a high-powered rifle. Again, a hint of Truth in Television, since the real-life Taro Aso was on Japan's shooting team during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
 * Collapsing Lair: After dies, the entire  collapses since it was only being kept up by his sheer power.
 * Combat by Champion: The Fourth Reich asks for five of them to decide the fate of the Earth. They are:
 * Junichiro Koizumi
 * Papa Bush (partnered with his son)
 * Vladimir Putin (partnered with Dmitri Medvedev)
 * Yulia Tymoshenko (partnered with Eleonora Pavlichenko)
 * The Pope (partnered with Pietro)
 * Combat Clairvoyance:
 * Combat Pragmatist: A fair few antagonists have crafty tricks up their sleeves, like signaling snipers if they use the advantage, or tiles that extend neurotoxin-tipped needles.
 * Deranged Animation: The manga's artwork is crazy enough, but the anime takes it Up to Eleven.
 * Died Standing Up:
 * Dies Wide Open:
 * Disappeared Dad: Captain Sanada's father died before he was born,.
 * Doing It for the Art: The manga alone is chock-full of real-life details about the politicians, such as Taro Aso's Roman Catholic faith, that are used to build the characters and story development -- more so than you'd ever expect from a Widget Series.
 * Eagle Land: The story kind of goes back and forth on this. At first the Bush family (and thus America) is portrayed as Type 2 straight up, almost to ridiculous degrees. Both Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. get more sympathetic as time goes on, however, to the point that Chapter 19 is absolute, pure Type 1 (straight down to, no less), a massive Crowning Moment of Heartwarming,.
 * Eiffel Tower Effect: How do you know that George W Bush is in America (as if you didn't already know)? You can see the Statue of Liberty from his bedroom window. His bedroom... in the White House. In Washington DC. 200 miles from Liberty Island.
 * Eye Scream: When he realizes his ability to predict hands is being used against him, Tristan gouges out his own eyes.
 * And lying someplace between that and Fan Service, panty shots. Nazi panty shots.
 * Is this Mariel flashing her panties or it was Hitler and his goonies?
 * Isolde, thank god.
 * A Fate Worse Than Death: After he is defeated,
 * Fingore:.
 * Finishing Move: RISING SUN!!!
 * Everyone has one of these. Everything from "SIBERIAN EXPRESS!" to "THE BEGINNING OF THE COSMOS!"
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero: Junichiro Koizumi
 * The Lancer: Vladimir Putin
 * The Smart Guy: Pope Benedict XVI
 * The Big Guy: Papa Bush
 * The Chick: Yulia Tymoshenko, though her personality is closer to The Dark Chick
 * Tagalong Kid: Taizo Sugimura
 * Fling a Light Into the Future: Even though, he leaves behind a clue that proves critical in figuring out his weakness.
 * Gonk: Kim Jong-il. Hatoyama also counts.
 * Green Thumb: Mao Zedong, of all people. He causes Pol Pot to explode into grass by looking at him.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: there are many.
 * Putin himself declares that no country knows the meaning of Heroic Sacrifice better than Russia.
 * Hope Spot: His Holiness defeated ! And then suddenly
 * Hot-Blooded: Everybody. Except Putin.
 * Even he has his moments.
 * In the Blood: Played straight with the Bushes and with Koizumi and his grandfather. Averted when.
 * Incendiary Exponent: Four words: depleted uranium mahjong tiles.
 * Three words: PLUTONIUM mahjong tiles.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: 'Man shall not live by pon alone!!!'
 * Killed Off for Real: So far the Ragnarok battles have killed
 * Les Yay: Tymoshenko and Eleonora come across as... quite a bit more than just friends. They've occasionally been described as a "D/s couple", but that isn't quite accurate since Tymoshenko would never willingly hurt Eleonora... or let anyone else hurt her, either.
 * Life Energy: During the Ragnarok battles, the players' life energy is directly connected to their mahjong score (which starts at 25,000, just as in real mahjong). When someone loses a round, his or her life energy drains away by the corresponding lost points. Once a player's score hits zero, he or she is dead -- and if the dead player's score went negative, his or her partner's life energy is drained to make up the remainder.
 * Life Meter: The mahjong scoreboard during the Ragnarok battles displays the remaining life of all four players at the table.
 * Light Is Not Good: . Full stop.
 * Manly Tears: Koizumi can be seen shedding these for.
 * Moe Moe: Yulia Tymoshenko usually looks and rather acts like this; scarily enough this portrayal is not that far off the mark, which makes it even funnier. If she doesn't do it for you, though, her assistant Eleonora (who is one of the few manga-original major characters) pretty much exists to fill this trope, complete with glasses.
 * Mariel is also this, in the deliberately-creepy-Rei-Ayanami kind of way.
 * Moscow Centre: The bonus chapter of the fourth manga volume features a younger Vladimir Putin, in his KGB days, visiting East Berlin in 1989....
 * Multinational Team: In this case, Earth's defense force against Those Wacky Nazis represents Japan, Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and the Vatican. (The United Kingdom would've been on this list instead of Ukraine, but Baroness Thatcher's ill health prevented it.)
 * My Greatest Failure: When he was younger, the Pope  He didn't realize what he was doing at the time, but it has haunted him ever since.
 * My Mahjong Is Stronger Than Yours: Koizumi needs to train to ensure that he's strong enough to  and save the world. So who does he train against to acquire truly legendary mahjong powers and defeat Those Wacky Nazis? , of course.
 * Names to Know in Anime: Arguably the entire cast.
 * Toshiyuki Morikawa: Junichiro Koizumi
 * Joji Nakata: Vladimir Putin
 * Kinryuu Arimoto: Taro Aso. (You probably know him as Patrick Zala.)
 * Nobuo Tobita: George Bush Jr.
 * Rina Sato: Yulia Tymoshenko
 * Jun Fukuyama: Taizo Sugimura. Relationship Voice Actor to the seiyuu below.
 * Shizuka Ito: MP Yukari Sato, AKA Yukari-tan.
 * Hitomi Nabatame: Miyuki Hatoyama, who turns up to be an alien who controlled her own husband and was arrested on Yukari-tan's orders. Cloudcuckoolander status somewhat present. Relationship Voice Actor with above.
 * Tessho Genda: George "Papa" Bush Sr.
 * Keiji Fujiwara: Yukio Hatoyama. Set to appear in the later episodes.
 * Wataru Takagi: Kim Jong-il's son Kim Jong-nam.
 * Banjo Ginga: Hu Jintao.
 * Rokuro Naya: Wen Jiabao.
 * No Export for You: It will be a frigid day in Hell before any publisher outside of Japan even thinks of trying to license this thing. Can you even imagine the shitstorm that would result?
 * Well, maybe not in America or Europe but here's the official licensed Thai version!
 * Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Invoked by Colin Powell during the match between Bush Jr. and Skorzeny, telling Skorzeny that he'll be shot by several snipers if he's caught cheating, but otherwise he can get away with it.
 * A good deal of characters engage in various cheating techniques, from quickly drawing four tiles and replacing three to make it seem like one was drawn to rubbing the faces off of tiles.
 * Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Averted several times, most notably with the depleted uranium tiles and.
 * I suppose it's okay to make Chernobyl jokes if you're Ukrainian.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Benedict XVI claimed this to be the case with (aka ) and that only  saw through it... on the other hand, everything before that reveal suggests otherwise, or at least that.
 * Oh Crap: Hitler has a series of these during his final match against Koizumi..
 * Older and Wiser: following the reboot in chapter 49.
 * Ominous Latin Chanting: Hilariously enough, a boy's choir sings in Latin while the Pope plays against Koizumi.
 * One Last Smoke:, just before his Facing the Bullets One-Liner
 * One-Way Trip: With Area 51 and Baikonur destroyed, which both contain the only spacecraft capable of traveling to the Moon, Koizumi instead opts to take one of Japan's rockets there. However, it only has enough life support capacity to get him to the Moon, making a return trip impossible.
 * One-Winged Angel:  
 * Only Sane Man: Taizo, while being the Butt Monkey, definitely qualifies.
 * Opposite Sex Clone: Mariel for Mengele.
 * Original Generation: The manga originally used only public figures, major or minor, as major characters (Taizo Sugimura is an actual Diet member in Japan, even today; "Yukari" isn't actually given a last name but is generally understood to be a generous portrayal of Yukari Sato, another minor Diet member). As the series went on, however, some of the world leaders didn't really have "seconds" most people would recognize (especially in the series' country of origin), so a few were invented expressly for the manga: Pietro for Pope Benedict, Eleonora Pavlichenko for Yulia Tymoshenko, and Mariel for and later . The Nazi side also picks up Tristan and Isolde later on, who are named for the characters in the legend (specifically Wagner's opera version) but are otherwise wholly original; they serve
 * Patriotic Fervor: to rival surpass Metal Wolf Chaos!
 * Power Limiter: You thought that the pope was strong before? Wait 'til you see him without his "Shackles of Golgotha"!
 * This is used in conventional mahjong rules so you don't get retarded scores off of one good hand. Guess what Putin proposes during his match with Koizumi? Over 900,000 doesn't even begin to describe it.
 * Psychic Nosebleed: Looking into one whose Mahjong Power is far greater than you can cause this.
 * Puppeteer Parasite: OVA only:  Yet another slight exaggeration of the truth, if the Other Wiki is to be believed.
 * Refuge in Audacity: The series is so over the top, it's hard to feel offended.
 * Hell, even if you disagree with many of these people in real life, it's hard not to cheer our heroes on.
 * Double hell,.
 * Rule of Cool
 * : How can you tell that the Pope is the Big Good?
 * Serial Escalation: How high stakes can the games of mahjong get? How utterly ridiculous can the situation get?
 * In the words of Koizumi himself:
 * This is used in conventional mahjong rules so you don't get retarded scores off of one good hand. Guess what Putin proposes during his match with Koizumi? Over 900,000 doesn't even begin to describe it.
 * Psychic Nosebleed: Looking into one whose Mahjong Power is far greater than you can cause this.
 * Puppeteer Parasite: OVA only:  Yet another slight exaggeration of the truth, if the Other Wiki is to be believed.
 * Refuge in Audacity: The series is so over the top, it's hard to feel offended.
 * Hell, even if you disagree with many of these people in real life, it's hard not to cheer our heroes on.
 * Double hell,.
 * Rule of Cool
 * : How can you tell that the Pope is the Big Good?
 * Serial Escalation: How high stakes can the games of mahjong get? How utterly ridiculous can the situation get?
 * In the words of Koizumi himself:

"Skorzeny: Even though you made a promise, you didn't hesitate for a moment...you've certainly surpassed Mengele in villainy."
 * Serious Business: Mahjong is used for everything from negotiation to deciding the next pope to
 * It should be. It's THE Genesis.
 * Sequel Hook: Even though the Nazis are defeated in the end, some of manage to escape into deep space.
 * Special Guest: Kobayashi Ritz appears in the second bonus chapter
 * Shout-Out:
 * It can hardly be coincidental that Putin's SIBERIAN EXPRESS ends with three nines. It's an actual yakuman hand called Nine Gates (or, if you like, Nine Lanterns), but the train motif makes you wonder...
 * Mengele also mentions the Ark of the Covenant before he dies.
 * Now rushing to A zone!
 * A huge battleship is approaching fast!
 * Two words :
 * On the DBZ note, Mariel's power scanner looks suspiciously familiar...
 * To push the Shout-Out home, one of the Nazis even asked if it was broken, and it also went OVER 9000.
 * On the more literary side,
 * You cannot grasp the true form of  attack!
 * George Bush Jr.'s premonition scene from the OVA is almost a straight transcription of a similar scene from AKIRA. "Many, many people die, then we get to meet Akira/Mao again. . ."
 * The author is a huge Gundam fan who previously worked on Gundam parodies, so there's no surprise for some Gundam ShoutOuts.
 * Margaret Thatcher predicted the outcome of the match between Koizumi (dressed in all white) vs. Putin (in black suits) with a Lalah Sune quote: "The white one will win."
 * Skorzeny debuted with a Char quote: "As you can see, I'm a soldier."
 * "Honey Bunny" and "Pumpkin" make an appearance in a car outside Area 51.
 * The pirate king in chapter 49 is wearing a very recognizable straw hat.
 * Strawman Political: Yukio Hatoyama, the insane puppet of Chinese interests. It's a safe bet that Oowada votes LDP.
 * Sympathy for the Devil: Even though he rebelled against Hitler, after is killed, Hitler and his followers can clearly be seen crying over his death.
 * Thanatos Gambit:
 * The Chew Toy: Taizo wavers between this and Butt Monkeydom.
 * The Final Temptation:  tries to pull this on the Pope, only to get blasted by SAINTE TRINITE!!! and an incredibly lame pon.
 * And then the Pope turns around and does some sort of reverse-temptation to him. Wait, huh?
 * Those Wacky Nazis:
 * They also have
 * To sum it up, the Nazis have perfected human cloning, DNA-based resurrection, functional immortality, orbital bombardment, short-range space travel and antigravity. No occult-based powers... YET. (At least, not until Hitler's )
 * Token Evil Teammate: Yulia. Putin calls her "a gas witch" FOR A REASON.
 * To sum it up, the Nazis have perfected human cloning, DNA-based resurrection, functional immortality, orbital bombardment, short-range space travel and antigravity. No occult-based powers... YET. (At least, not until Hitler's )
 * Token Evil Teammate: Yulia. Putin calls her "a gas witch" FOR A REASON.


 * Took a Level In Badass: Taizo gets one of these when he's trying to re-awaken, and Bush Jr. practically goes Super-Saiyan when
 * Chapter 20 has confirmed it -
 * Villainous Valour: Despite being a Nazi, Rommel proves to be a very pragmatic and honorable man. He
 * Wave Motion Gun: The Schwerer Gustav is turned into one by the Fourth Reich.
 * Wearing a Flag on Your Head: George W. Bush sleeps in Confederate flag pajamas under an American flag blanket.
 * We Can Rebuild Him:
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Everyone seems to play Mahjong in an unnecessarily epic way.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Pretty much the Pope's style of play. In the words of one of the Vatican members, "Mahjong is man's attempt at recreating the Genesis. What happened to the universe in the beginning is happening on the Mahjong table."
 * "GOD MOUPAI!"
 * Widget Series: This could only exist in Japan.
 * Winged Humanoid:  temporarily becomes one in an Eleventh-Hour Superpower.
 * Worf Effect: Pope Benedict XVI, so far the only man who has been able to beat Koizumi,
 * Worthy Opponent: Hitler holds Pope Benedict in such high esteem that he
 * X Japan: During, the lyrics to X Japan's hit song "Forever Love" are written in as background music. This is especially hilarious and/or heartwarming if you know that real-life Junichiro Koizumi is a huge fan of X Japan, and used "Forever Love" as background music for several political campaign ads for the Liberal Democratic Party during the 2001 elections.
 * X Meets Y: Politics meets mahjong meets Yu-Gi-Oh!-styled duels on whatever cocktail of drugs gave us Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Isolde wears thigh boots (ZR type A).
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Isolde wears thigh boots (ZR type A).