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''Ten - The Blessed Way of the Nice Guy'' is an earlier series by the creator of ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' and ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'', Fukumoto Nobuyuki.
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''Ten - The Blessed Way of the Nice Guy'' is an earlier series by the creator of ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' and ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'', Fukumoto Nobuyuki. It was serialized in ''Kindai Mahjong Gold'' from 1989 to 2002, and compiled into 18 volumes.
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** ''Yamima no Mamiya'', another sequel to this that takes place in the "Reiwa" era, twenty years after the events of ''Ten''. Notable for two things, one a new mahjong variant game, and two the first female protagonist by Fukumoto.
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Badass Beard and Badass Mustache are being merged into Manly Facial Hair. Examples that don't fit or are zero-context are removed.
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* BadassMustache: Hitoshi Washio.
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* ALighterShadeOfGrey: the West side acts smug and is willing to cheat more often, so they are portrayed as the villains, though the East side is also made up of yakuza who are only in it for the money and would cheat when given half a chance. Nobody is a saint, but nobody is a monster either. At the end of the story, the West characters who were invited to [[spoiler: Akagi's planned funeral are also crying]].
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* ALighterShadeOfGrey: the West side acts smug and is willing to cheat more often, so they are portrayed as the villains, though the East side is also made up of yakuza who are only in it for the money and would cheat when given half a chance. Nobody is a saint, but nobody is a monster either. At the end of the story, the West characters who were invited to [[spoiler: Akagi's planned funeral are also crying]].trying to stop him, and are seen crying like everyone else when he dies]].
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* ALighterShadeOfGrey: the West side acts smug and is willing to cheat more often, so they are portrayed as the villains, though the East side is also made up of yakuza who are only in it for the money and would cheat when given half a chance. Nobody is a saint, but nobody is a monster either. At the end of the story, the West characters who were invited to [[spoiler: Akagi's planned funeral are also crying]].
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** ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' is the most famous one, as it got an anime adaptation. It provides backstory to, well, Akagi. The manga is still ongoing.
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** ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' is the most famous one, as it got an anime adaptation. It provides backstory to, well, Akagi. The manga is still ongoing.It ended many, many years after Ten was finished.
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[[quoteright:253:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2757_634593980346376250.jpg]]
''Ten - The Blessed Way of the Nice Guy'' is an earlier series by the creator of ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' and ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'', Fukumoto Nobuyuki.
Takashi Ten is called to a TabletopGame/{{Mahjong}} club one night to play against a young mahjong player. Having just robbed Ten's friends blind at mahjong, Ten arrives to take back his winnings. Ten's mahjong style becomes more apparent as the game progresses...amateurish! Ten cheats in the last round, using a move called the Tsubame Gaeshi, and winning with a Tenhou hand. Hiroyuki is angered once Ten admits he cheated after the game. Ten is a friendly guy who happens to be good at Mahjong. Or, more appropriately, good at cheating at Mahjong. If someone is betting on a Mahjong game and ends up in a pinch, they call Ten to win for them. He always does, and because he understands how frustrating it is, always has the courtesy to give the people he cheats against a chance to beat him up. With his friends Hiroyuki, Ken, Manga/{{Akagi}}, and others, he eventually decides to take on something much bigger than cheating in small gambles.
----
!!This manga provides examples of:
* AdventureRebuff: For Hiroyuki.
* AGoodWayToDie: Even though [[spoiler: Akagi]] takes his own life rather than waste away by a terminal illness, his method of death is painless and peaceful. Not only that he invites the men closest to him to see him individually one last time. Each man discussed how they felt about the situation but by and large received closure. In the end [[spoiler: Akagi]] died fulfilled with no regrets being able settle things with the people closest to him. If you are someone who fears death, you need to read this part of the manga. You will find that afterwards, death might just be a little less scary.
* AlwaysSecondBest: [[spoiler:Hiroyuki]] suffers from this to the point that it makes him utterly miserable for most of the series.
* AnimeHair: Ten, of course.
* ArtEvolution: The early chapters of ''Ten'' have "softer" lines than usual, and the characters look more "round" than "pointy" (for lack of better words); this changed as the series went on. Fukumoto would later re-use this early style in ''Atsuize Pen-chan'' since it was more fitting for the light-hearted story of that manga.
* BadassInANiceSuit: It's a series about ''{{Yakuza}}''. What did you expect?
* BadassMustache: Hitoshi Washio.
* BatmanGambit
* BittersweetEnding
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Ten does this in one of the earlier chapters.
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Averted.
* CardSharp: Ten. He starts to rely less on cheating later in the series.
* CerebusSyndrome: The manga starts out lightheartedly, in an almost slice-of-life way, though somewhat centered on Mahjong. Ten and his family do stupid things all day, Hiroyuki gets annoyed, etc. As the story goes on though, it gets more and more serious, with Yakuza and dangerous Mahjong matches becoming the main draw, Ten getting a character change and becoming all serious and actually very good at the game, and all the humor is stripped away to the point that there is not one single humorous panel in the later chapters. [[spoiler: And in the last arc, all the main characters are frantically trying to stop Akagi from committing suicide, and in the end they can't make it. A bit depressing, to say the least.]] That said, this was one of Fukumoto's first works. He was probably still looking for his own style in the earliest chapters.
* CharacterDevelopment: Especially for Hiroyuki.
* CheatersNeverProsper: Actually they do in this series, with a few exceptions.
** In fact, Ten gives Hiroyuki [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech a scolding]], because Hiroyuki didn't cheat at a time when nobody could have caught him.
* CombatCommentator
* ContinuityNod: The last few chapters reference the events of ''Manga/{{Akagi}}''; we even get flashbacks of [[SmugSnake Urabe]] and [[BigBad Washizu]].
* CoolOldGuy: Akagi and Sawada. Souga deserves a mention, too.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Ten through and through, especially in the first part of the manga.
* DecoyProtagonist: Ten gets slightly overshadowed by Hiroyuki and Akagi.
* DirtyOldMonk: Kanamitsu. Priests are generally not involved in gambling between {{Yakuza}} gangs after all. He was also in Hawaii picking up chicks for some time along with several other characters, and takes a piece of [[spoiler:Akagi's]] tombstone hoping it will bring him luck.
* DrivenToSuicide:[[spoiler:Akagi chooses to go through medically-assisted suicide rather than have his mind deteriorate due to Alzheimer's. The fact that he was never afraid to face death makes it easier to digest...the fact that his mind was the greatest weapon he ever had and the fact that he was only in his early fifties doesn't.]]
* TheGambler: Especially Akagi.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Akagi, after coming to terms with his death wihout regrets]]
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Early on, Sawada uses one to cut Ten because the latter was caught cheating.
* TheLancer: Hiroyuki to Ten.
* TheMenInBlack
* {{Narrator}}: Hiroyuki at times, though the commentator takes over as it continues.
* OneWordTitle: Also a ProtagonistTitle.
* {{Prequel}}: ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' to this, and ''Manga/WashizuLordOfMahjongHell'' to ''Akagi''.
* ProtagonistTitle: Also a OneWordTitle.
* {{Polyamory}}: Ten has two wives. Yeah...
* ProfessionalGambler
* TimeSkip: The first one (two years) happens fairly early on. [[spoiler:After the final "battle" there's a nine year time skip. And after the TearJerker, there's an epilogue set three years after the death of Akagi.]]
* ScarsAreForever: Ten has a lot of scars on his face; he got them from allowing people to beat him up after he cheats in games with them.
* {{Seinen}}
* SliceOfLife: Early on.
* SpinOff: Several.
** ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' is the most famous one, as it got an anime adaptation. It provides backstory to, well, Akagi. The manga is still ongoing.
** ''Manga/WashizuLordOfMahjongHell'', which is about the BigBad from ''Akagi'' in his younger days. It wasn't written nor drawn by Fukumoto (although he is credited as an assistant since he owns the characters), so its canonical status is debatable. Creator/{{CLAMP}} also made a 4-page gag manga that was about Washizu.
** ''[=HERO=]'', which is a sequel to this and has Hiroyuki as the main character. Written but not drawn by Fukumoto. [[spoiler:An (even) older Ichikawa from ''Akagi'' makes an appearance]].
* TheIdiotFromOsaka: Ken, to a certain extent. He's young, brash and enthusiastic, even directly challenging Harada- who, despite also being from Osaka, is a much cooler, calmer character and thus accordingly loses his accent as the series progresses.
* TheRival: Harada to Ten.
* {{Yakuza}}
----
''Ten - The Blessed Way of the Nice Guy'' is an earlier series by the creator of ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' and ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'', Fukumoto Nobuyuki.
Takashi Ten is called to a TabletopGame/{{Mahjong}} club one night to play against a young mahjong player. Having just robbed Ten's friends blind at mahjong, Ten arrives to take back his winnings. Ten's mahjong style becomes more apparent as the game progresses...amateurish! Ten cheats in the last round, using a move called the Tsubame Gaeshi, and winning with a Tenhou hand. Hiroyuki is angered once Ten admits he cheated after the game. Ten is a friendly guy who happens to be good at Mahjong. Or, more appropriately, good at cheating at Mahjong. If someone is betting on a Mahjong game and ends up in a pinch, they call Ten to win for them. He always does, and because he understands how frustrating it is, always has the courtesy to give the people he cheats against a chance to beat him up. With his friends Hiroyuki, Ken, Manga/{{Akagi}}, and others, he eventually decides to take on something much bigger than cheating in small gambles.
----
!!This manga provides examples of:
* AdventureRebuff: For Hiroyuki.
* AGoodWayToDie: Even though [[spoiler: Akagi]] takes his own life rather than waste away by a terminal illness, his method of death is painless and peaceful. Not only that he invites the men closest to him to see him individually one last time. Each man discussed how they felt about the situation but by and large received closure. In the end [[spoiler: Akagi]] died fulfilled with no regrets being able settle things with the people closest to him. If you are someone who fears death, you need to read this part of the manga. You will find that afterwards, death might just be a little less scary.
* AlwaysSecondBest: [[spoiler:Hiroyuki]] suffers from this to the point that it makes him utterly miserable for most of the series.
* AnimeHair: Ten, of course.
* ArtEvolution: The early chapters of ''Ten'' have "softer" lines than usual, and the characters look more "round" than "pointy" (for lack of better words); this changed as the series went on. Fukumoto would later re-use this early style in ''Atsuize Pen-chan'' since it was more fitting for the light-hearted story of that manga.
* BadassInANiceSuit: It's a series about ''{{Yakuza}}''. What did you expect?
* BadassMustache: Hitoshi Washio.
* BatmanGambit
* BittersweetEnding
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Ten does this in one of the earlier chapters.
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Averted.
* CardSharp: Ten. He starts to rely less on cheating later in the series.
* CerebusSyndrome: The manga starts out lightheartedly, in an almost slice-of-life way, though somewhat centered on Mahjong. Ten and his family do stupid things all day, Hiroyuki gets annoyed, etc. As the story goes on though, it gets more and more serious, with Yakuza and dangerous Mahjong matches becoming the main draw, Ten getting a character change and becoming all serious and actually very good at the game, and all the humor is stripped away to the point that there is not one single humorous panel in the later chapters. [[spoiler: And in the last arc, all the main characters are frantically trying to stop Akagi from committing suicide, and in the end they can't make it. A bit depressing, to say the least.]] That said, this was one of Fukumoto's first works. He was probably still looking for his own style in the earliest chapters.
* CharacterDevelopment: Especially for Hiroyuki.
* CheatersNeverProsper: Actually they do in this series, with a few exceptions.
** In fact, Ten gives Hiroyuki [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech a scolding]], because Hiroyuki didn't cheat at a time when nobody could have caught him.
* CombatCommentator
* ContinuityNod: The last few chapters reference the events of ''Manga/{{Akagi}}''; we even get flashbacks of [[SmugSnake Urabe]] and [[BigBad Washizu]].
* CoolOldGuy: Akagi and Sawada. Souga deserves a mention, too.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Ten through and through, especially in the first part of the manga.
* DecoyProtagonist: Ten gets slightly overshadowed by Hiroyuki and Akagi.
* DirtyOldMonk: Kanamitsu. Priests are generally not involved in gambling between {{Yakuza}} gangs after all. He was also in Hawaii picking up chicks for some time along with several other characters, and takes a piece of [[spoiler:Akagi's]] tombstone hoping it will bring him luck.
* DrivenToSuicide:[[spoiler:Akagi chooses to go through medically-assisted suicide rather than have his mind deteriorate due to Alzheimer's. The fact that he was never afraid to face death makes it easier to digest...the fact that his mind was the greatest weapon he ever had and the fact that he was only in his early fifties doesn't.]]
* TheGambler: Especially Akagi.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Akagi, after coming to terms with his death wihout regrets]]
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Early on, Sawada uses one to cut Ten because the latter was caught cheating.
* TheLancer: Hiroyuki to Ten.
* TheMenInBlack
* {{Narrator}}: Hiroyuki at times, though the commentator takes over as it continues.
* OneWordTitle: Also a ProtagonistTitle.
* {{Prequel}}: ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' to this, and ''Manga/WashizuLordOfMahjongHell'' to ''Akagi''.
* ProtagonistTitle: Also a OneWordTitle.
* {{Polyamory}}: Ten has two wives. Yeah...
* ProfessionalGambler
* TimeSkip: The first one (two years) happens fairly early on. [[spoiler:After the final "battle" there's a nine year time skip. And after the TearJerker, there's an epilogue set three years after the death of Akagi.]]
* ScarsAreForever: Ten has a lot of scars on his face; he got them from allowing people to beat him up after he cheats in games with them.
* {{Seinen}}
* SliceOfLife: Early on.
* SpinOff: Several.
** ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' is the most famous one, as it got an anime adaptation. It provides backstory to, well, Akagi. The manga is still ongoing.
** ''Manga/WashizuLordOfMahjongHell'', which is about the BigBad from ''Akagi'' in his younger days. It wasn't written nor drawn by Fukumoto (although he is credited as an assistant since he owns the characters), so its canonical status is debatable. Creator/{{CLAMP}} also made a 4-page gag manga that was about Washizu.
** ''[=HERO=]'', which is a sequel to this and has Hiroyuki as the main character. Written but not drawn by Fukumoto. [[spoiler:An (even) older Ichikawa from ''Akagi'' makes an appearance]].
* TheIdiotFromOsaka: Ken, to a certain extent. He's young, brash and enthusiastic, even directly challenging Harada- who, despite also being from Osaka, is a much cooler, calmer character and thus accordingly loses his accent as the series progresses.
* TheRival: Harada to Ten.
* {{Yakuza}}
----
