what are you doing here...

1. MAIN MENU:

- The left button returns you to the Minigames Menu.

- The middle button shows you the instructions (Kind of useless if you can’t read Japanese :P)

- The right button opens the game.

2. GAME MENU:

Before playing, the game shuffles the play order of the brothers.  In this case, Ichimatsu is starting dealer (As seen by the red circle next to his name).  You can then see who will play next.

Press the circle button to start.  The menu may seem overwhelming, but we’ll break it down based on the screenshot.

Above Osomatsu, you have:

- ラウンド (Literally means Round) represents what round you are on.  There are four total rounds.

- 位 is your rank (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th), and 点 is how many points you start with.

- 46 shows how many tiles are in the deck.

- The tile next to it is like your dora tile.  If it is included in your winning hand, you get a bonus multiplier in your points tally. (2x)

Underneath Osomatsu, you have:

- The row of 8 tiles shows what's in your hand.  The 9th tile, highlighted with the arrow, is what you drew from the draw pile.

- The left button shows the catalog of combos you can do and what they are worth.

- The middle button shows what combos your hand qualifies for.

- The right button calls pon and discards the tile.

The top screen shows the starting dealer (The one with the red circle) and what tiles each player discarded.  It also shows their current rank and points.

The starting dealer will also have a 1.5x bonus multiplier.

3. GOAL OF THE GAME:

Each round consists of creating a hand out of the 9 tiles. (In sets divisible by 3.)

For example, you can play three 3-of-a-kinds (3 Ichi, 3 Kara, 3 Totty), one 6-of-a-kind and one 3-of-a-kind (6 Ichi, 3 Totty), or the best hand, a 9-of-a-kind (9 Karas).

*The brothers used are irrelevant for these types of hands; they are just examples.

You draw and trash tiles to create your hand.  This action is called Pon.  The first person to play their entire hand ends each round, with points being deducted by the losers.  Scores are compared and first place wins by the end of the fourth round OR when someone runs out of points!

*At this point, you may be able to play without the rest.  However, if you are unsure, feel free to continue reading.

4. COMBOS:

The majority of the game is spent creating hands out of various characters, white tiles, and numbers.  However, winning first place means having the most points.  With combos, you and your opponents can create the best match-up for points!

4a. THE COMBO CATALOG

The catalog shows a complete collection of combos you can create with your tiles.  The first entry is the basic number for three 3-of-a-kinds.  This means our hand is at least guaranteed to win 100 points.

Each entry can be read as such:

- The leftmost symbol.  Each Matsuno brother is depicted by their color, with Totoko represented as orange and Chibita represented as brown.  The yellow star depicts combos with two or more different characters and white tiles.  The blue star is miscellaneous. (Multipliers, basic points, etc…)

- The rightmost number.  This is how many points this combo rewards.

- The visual aid.  On the top screen, it shows you what character tile is used, the number of points, and what is required for that combo.  For example, we can see that we need three Ichimatsu tiles with the numbers 5, 6, and 4 in the screenshot.

All of the entries are shaded gray.  However, as you continue to play, they may turn blue to indicate that the combo has been played before.  (This is to help for the overall achievements in Matsu Matsuri, I assume.)

Now that we are familiar with combos, let’s see how we can actually check what combos we qualify for.

4b. QUALIFIED COMBOS

Simply put, it would take too long to scroll through the catalog for qualified combos.  Thus, the game automatically shows which combos your hand has.

*If you cannot tap the button for this menu, it means you have no combos. Yikes!

In the above example, we can see that the hand has three combos in place, with one being shown on the top screen.  This makes the hand worth 700 points for now.  This can, of course, change as you exchange and trash tiles.

So, how would you use this screen to help you?

In this case, you can see that this particular combo yields 300 points for a 5, 6, 4 pattern.  Even though there is another Ichimatsu combo, because it is only worth 200 points, I would disregard it and throw away the 3 Ichi tile.

The qualified combos screen can also depict multipliers.  As we can see, the blue star shows a 1.5 multiplier.  (As explained in part 2, this is from the starting dealer.)  This means the overall score has increased by 50%.

5. GAMEPLAY:

This section will play as a catch-all for other game mechanics, organized into sub-sections.

5a. RIICHI

The riichi menu is activated whenever the player is in tenpai; meaning when the player is a tile away from completing their hand.  (If you play chess, you might understand this better as being in check).

When this happens, the menu above is summoned.  It is read as followed:

The left button means yes.

The right button means no.

When you press yes, you have called riichi.  It lets all players know that you are in tenpai.  In return, you are allowed to steal tiles that have been discarded from then on.  Meaning, you cannot steal previous tiles, but future tiles are free game.

The person you steal a tile from will lose their points.  If you complete your hand without stealing, all players lose their points.

However, this mode comes with a caveat as well: You are not allowed to choose any other tile except the one that will complete the hand.  In this case, we can only steal or use Chibita tiles.  Sometimes, you may want to say no and call pon, just in case a better combo comes along. 

Beware; the other brothers can call riichi, too!  If you are not careful, your tile may end up stolen; you lose points!

5b. WINNING

When you are about to make the winning move, the menu above will appear. 

It is similar to the riichi menu, except for the middle button.  This goes to the qualified combos page.  The game is essentially asking: “Are you happy with your hand?”  If the tile does not create an appealing combo, you may choose no.

There are various win screens.  Here are some examples:

Here, Totty has won without stealing any tiles.  He will get points from all of the brothers.

Totty has stolen a tile from Ichimatsu.  Only Ichimatsu will lose points.

Here is a rare but possible wins screen; Nobody could make a hand before the tiles ran out.  There is no winner.

6. CONCLUSION:

Thank you so much for reading my game guide!!  This is my first time making anything of sorts, but I hope it was understandable.  I am thinking of making a video guide of the minigame for those who struggle with long text.

I will note again that I don’t understand real mahjong or Japanese; this is what I’ve come to terms with by playing and testing various moves!!  If you see any glaring errors or would like to specify a certain move or term, please let me know via DMs!

But they still kept playing with that concept of him being an unsociable beast. Just bc his brothers know he’s a softie doesn’t mean everyone else does! And just because he’s a softie doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his mean streaks! 

By the second season, Ichimatsu-sama was pretty much gone. Scrubbed clean of his unfriendly persona for whatever reason– but within canon there has to be some kind of explanation.

I like to think Ichimatsu got tired of doing it (pretending is hard when you’re a depressed introvert, even if you’re doing it for the bit).

So now he’s just some guy that likes cats and has social anxiety. He still keeps his thoughts and feelings to himself.

Initially, Karamatsu’s flamboyance was played up extremely. He was too confident for how tacky and loud he was. He legitimately couldn’t read the room. Karamatsu is met with different levels of exasperation (most notably from 110– the most self aware guys of the bunch).

This really really irritated Ichimatsu. S1e16 revealed he was jealous of him (and that osomatsu is a really good way to break their tension. If you’re ever stuck finishing an iro conversation, osomatsu’s like really annoying social lubricant).

He’s both jealous bc he wants that confidence and appalled because how can someone parade themselves like that? Karamatsu’s confidence is something that can be marveled at, but isn’t something a lot of people would realistically try to copy.

So what’s their deal?

I see a lot of people try to write iro bond over their shared struggles. They’re both easy to bulldoze and they try to hold their tongue until they can’t anymore. Funnily enough, they’ll still use each other when possible. They either haven’t realized how similar they are, or they just don’t care (most likely the latter).

What makes them the most similar is the fact that they’re avoidant of their problems. They’re shy. They’re introverted. They both prefer to be told what to do. They don’t like voicing their true opinion.

So what makes them different and unable to get along with each other? Their levels of self awareness and emotional intelligence. 

Ichimatsu can and will read the room. Karamatsu will choose to do it whenever it’s most convenient for him. He chose to read the room during the Ichimatsu incident, because he wanted to avoid embarrassing both himself and Ichimatsu. He chose not to see what was potentially going on when Choromatsu dyed his hair, because the situation doesn’t affect him at all. He couldn’t have known what was going on, but instead of taking a second to see if something was going on, he bulldozed the conversation and made everything worse. 

 More than anything though, it’s their preferred method of coping with their insecurities. 

So if they’re similar, why are they so awkward with each other?

The main reason why people have such a hard time making them relate to each other ( there are a lot of contrived fic ideas to make them bond) is bc they both would rather die than open up to someone like themselves.

Both of them already have a hard time opening up to others (esp nyanko; pizza) and if they’re going to go through the trouble of opening up to someone they’re not going to do it with someone who can’t or won’t help them.

Ichimatsu’s entirely too awkward to be of help to anyone and Karamatsu doesn’t have the emotional capacity to handle other people’s feelings in a sincere way. He might care, but caring isn’t always enough to make the situation better. People that are emotionally avoidant the way they are can’t help others out very much.

Karamatsu can help out if you’re having a bad day but he can’t help out if you’re depressed. He’s not the kind of person who can treat a root cause. Ichimatsu might give making your bad day better a shot, but he’s easily discouraged. He, too, is not equipped to handle something as permanent and prevalent as mental illness. 

Ichimatsu prefers extroverts (see: jyushimatsu, osomatsu) and karamatsu prefers people who are capable of socializing (see: totty, osomatsu, choromatsu). 

They’re also both passive characters and want to be led. Karamatsu wants to lead under very limited circumstances. He’ll lead when someone is below him on the hierarchy, even if they’re normally higher than him or more socially dominant (ep s1e24; s2 beach episode when they’re looking at girls). He would much rather be told what to do (within reason).

Ichimatsu steps up when there’s an opportunity and when he absolutely has to. Or he has to be fed up with the situation. Or there’s a chance to make fun of someone. He’s not immune to the hivemind and enjoys actively participating in it like everyone else. 

Otherwise he’d rather not be involved.

Tumblreddit: Also I mean like... The little weird subcommunities and echo Chambers... The rivalry and hatred of seeing yourself in someone and being unable to reconcile... Reddit as our refuge after the porn ban, us as their refuge after this api issue .. red coded x blue coded (or y'know orange and blue are complimentary colors)

We're just two weirdos (and there was only one bed)

Reddit keeping little framed photos of us in their house (r/tumblr and r/curated Tumblr)...

Primo yaoi material tbh

Atsushi/Yanagida: I know this is wild since they are both like nothing background characters but they’re so important to me. The essence of crackship/rarepair. I hc them as having dated because they’re both lgbt but they had a really bad break up so they hate each other’s guts now. Where am I getting this? From my brain. They’re basically like my OCs to me. I want to go on about it but I realize I’d have to explain a lot to you since I don’t think you know the source… So sorry…

Junta/makoto: Makoto fangirling over junta?? Junta is so humble he needs a cringefail hype man bf...

Makoto canonically isn't very interested in girls and junta is a jock (obviously gay... He plays baseball, the sport where you wear cute outfits and spank other men when you walk by them)