Okay I've been learning mahjong so @matsu-nomi recc'd I watch Season 1 Episode 21 Skit 1 where the boys play Mahjong. I did my best to explain what I can understand of the game and how the boys play it to her and she thought osotumblr would appreciate this
Enjoy half mahjong explanations and half Oso explanations. I bolded the more Oso related parts in case you already understand Mahjong or something
To start, we see Oso building the two tile high walls and the rolling of two die to determine who is in the East position and the starting dealer- Choro
The short of Mahjong is you're using tiles by both drawing them and taking discarded ones from other players to build a winning hand, and if you have a complete hand you can call Mahjong which ends the round. Hands should be 13 tiles and there are many different winning hands and different Yaku- win conditions to call Mahjong, usually made from different tile combinations (often times pairs or 3 or 4 of a kind, or 3 in a row)- that score you different points. Even if you do not call Mahjong, you can still earn points in the round, or lose them to other players. There are 3 suits- Numbers, Circles/Plates, and Bamboo that are 1-9, and 2 types of Honour tiles- East North South and West Winds, and White Green and Red Dragons. there are four of each tile.
Oso calls Riichi which you declare when you're one tile from victory and you're willing to bet more points on your victory- you place a Riichi 1000 point stick (Tenbou) on the table to show your call and you can only win now by drawing the last tile you need- you cannot take it from another player if it is discarded.
I would love it if they sold Osomatsu Mahjong sets, as we can see the circles/plates have the Osomatsu tree shape in them, and instead of regular Bamboo, Oden is used.
Choro reports Oso is probably going for a Tanpin aka Tanyou+Pinfu. Tanyou- a valid hand with no Terminal tiles- the 1 and 9 of each suit. Pinfu- Hand has no Waits, Melds or Pair Fu. Waits are having 1-2 tiles that need one more for a set- i.e. 4+5 can wait for a 6 or 3, one east waits for a second east, 2+4 waits for a 3 ect. Meld is when you take someones discord tile that completes a set but you have to reveal the tiles from your hand that go with the claimed tile and this reduces some of the ways you can claim victory at the end of the round. Fu is one of the ways you calculate the points from your hand. Pair Fu means you gain points from a pair of tiles.
We see 3 north winds in discard so while there are some victorious hands that could still use the single remaining North Wind like 13 orphans- 1+9 plates bamboos and numbers, and one of each for the honours- it is unlikely Oso is going for a hand that required a North Wind.
Tenpai- Meaning you have a ready hand and are one tile away from victory. Required for calling Riichi. Suji- Discarding tiles from your hand that should be safe to discard because you're opponent shouldn't need them.
Choro likes to play it safe because if someone takes a tile you discard you will lose more points at the end of the hand. Choro's hand has 3 green dragons, 2 west winds, a pair of 2 plates, a sequence of 4 5 6 plates, and the numbers 2 3 7 9 implying he's waiting for 1 4 or 8. as far as i can tell, this hand isn't great cause it looks like lots of mine.
Totty has 5 and 6 for numbers, 7 and 9 of plates- waiting for an 8?, 1 and 3 oden and a pair of 4 oden and pair of 6 oden, a white dragon, and 2 red dragons.
[A bunch of stuff about the dealer and their win conditions being slightly different that I don't get] Jyushi is looking for the Dora which is a special revealed tile that can get you a lot of extra points and I don't understand it much. Chiitoi is a victorious hand possibility where you have a bunch of pairs Menpin- Riichi+Pinfu without Tanyao- no Terminals or Honours Mangan is when you have 5 Han or more. Han is a scoring system- counted with the Fu scoring- and based on the assigned value of each Yaku. Yaku are the victory conditions and at least one is required to be a winning hand. There are 26 Yaku, 11 Yakuman which score high, one special one based off your discards.
While no one managed to call mahjong the first round, Oso has a pair of west winds, three 8s, three 7Odens, a sequence of 3 4 5 Oden, and with a 1 and 2 of circles, he had an Edge Wait of the 3 of circles to declare victory. This hand... I think.,... sucks. Oso's playing is reckless and not that good mostly to put the others on edge
Jyushi calls Ron- What you call when you claim a tile discarded by another player that allows you to declare mahjong. This fucks the person who discarded that tile because they lose a lot of points for giving you the winning tile.
Totty calls Pon- claiming someone's discard to Meld three of a kind. This can only be ignored if someone else can use that same tile to declare Mahjong.
Chi- calls the discard of Only The Player To Your Left (who plays before you) to complete a sequence- 3 in a row. Takes lowest priority to Mahjong and Pon.
Seems like Totty doesn't lose many points, but isn't good at actually winning. Oso starts strong but always ends up loosing by the end.
When Choro calls Riichi, we can assume he has 5 and 6 plate tiles, meaning he has an almost victorious hand and a Wait for an Edge of a 4 or 7 Plate- as we can see in his eyes. He is an open book when it comes to what tiles he needs for victory, making it easy for his brothers to not let him take his victory.
Far as I can see that was a nothing hand Jyushi, you're probably better at this than I am. Jyushi keeps calling Tsumo which is what you call when you self draw your winning tile- counts as a Yaku. This shows Jyushi has really good luck at the game.
Furiten is when a player cannot declare victory from another player's discard, hence the Tsumos. (Also Jyushi sucks at this game- he is missing tiles??? how.)
Kara insists on only going for the most complicated hands that /do/ net the most points, but he's not getting them cause he sucks.
Oso's face is a Kaiji parody which is a popular gambling manga.
Safe tile- Totty discards a tile he knows Oso won't be able to Ron off of him.
Choro is willing to cheat by drawing on (probably on a White Dragon Tile but maybe an extra blank) Red Dragon
Karamatsu plays the Yaku Godhand Jyushimatsu which consists of a 13 of the first Bamboo tile. Seeing how there are only 4 of a tile in a set, this is clearly cheating A Spectacular Move
Naked Wait- Would be a very real move if i have anything to say about it. Likewise anyone able to make Shonosuke with their tiles I think should win.
Daisangenj is when you have a winning hand with triplets or quads of all three dragons, also called big three dragons- it is worth a lot and is a hard hand to get. Tsuuiisou is when your victory hand has all honour tiles- the Winds and Dragons. Also hard to pull off and worth a lot of points
Why doesn't Oso.... bet at Mahjong Parlors? My understanding is most parlors don't allow betting but I'm /sure/ there are some and if he can rack up 50k Tenbou he must be somewhat decent? That or his brothers are just that bad.
