Mahjong Diva Obaka Miiko Chapter 1

Well it's been 2 months since I quit FKMTkrazy but my life has been empty without translating so when my old friend that helped translate Datenroku Kaiji with me, Skutieos, got back in contact with me and asked if there were any series I wanted him to help with now that I have more time, my mind immediately went to series by Katayama Masayuki, one of the most prestigious writers for Kindai Mahjong, since his series typically involve very real strategies that high-level Mahjong pros actually use. My absolute favorite work by him is "No Mark Bakuhaitou", one of the funniest and most unique manga I've ever read period, but as far as series that will actually be useful for people wanting to learn how to play mahjong at a higher level, there's no better series than this one, Utahime Obaka Miiko, which I stylized as "Mahjong Diva Obaka Miiko".

The Obaka part means "Big Dummy", and the series is about a girl named Miiko who becomes a mahjong pro but has no idea how to play mahjong, so when she runs into an A-League pro named Namidame she asks him to teach her how to play, which at the same time teaches the reader some very useful tips for playing at the highest level! Each and every chapter has a mahjong lesson worked in, and the story is also very good. I'm sure you all will get something out of this "Mahjong for Dummies" series, and I hope you take its lessons to heart and learn from it! It's going to take some time for the manga to really delve into the deepest secrets of playing mahjong well, but bear with us as we crank out these chapters with love!

Obaka 1

"How many times have I climbed this hill, I wonder?"

This first chapter just serves to set the scene for the story, the mahjong lesson is a pretty obvious one but the part about keeping shapes like 4567 and 4556 around to help make Ryanmen waits I'm sure is useful for a lot of people. I also decided to leave a lot of the Japanese terms in and add translator's notes to teach people what they mean, since this is more of an "informative" series anyway. Thanks so much to Skutieos for helping me bring this series to you, I can't wait to hear what you all think!