In any case, interesting comment!

NOW LOTS OF SPOILERS ON HELLSING MANGA AND OVA’S:
Yup! while Akagi played with death Alucard actually seeks Death!! (fro a human since he is a monster and he wants to be defeated and redeemed by the so called human strength)
also from what I realized from the hellsing manga is that Alucard has sinned and he regrets it, Alucard as a count (if I remember corectly) also seems to regret losing to the helsing master at his time and seeks death from someone with similar strength!
while I don’t see Akagi having any regrets, redemption seeking or actually seeking something! He just likes the danger!
Comparing him to the merciless Alucard in the anime might fit at first look but if you dig up deeper they are not similar at all ^^

[This is the difficulty and the joy of being descriptive rather than prescriptive: you don't have to come up with your own ideas, but you have to accomodate some decidedly odd ones.]

I think what I’m trying to convey by the term ‘amoral’ is not that Akagi’s enjoyment of suffering is morally neutral, but rather that he has stepped outside a normal human moral framework. He – and the series Akagi as a whole – doesn’t operate morally. We’re never really asked to consider his actions from a moral standpoint (though we should). ‘Amoral’ may not be the best word, of course, but ‘meta-moral’ or ‘extra-moral’ would require extra explanation.

I think there’s a difference you didn’t properly underline between immoral GAR and amoral GAR. Amoral does not mean enjoying killing people and so on, it’s a lack of caring about it. Suddenly I can’t think of many examples off the top of my head: maybe the black dude from Black Lagoon whose name I forget. That’s amoral GAR – I could respect that guy as a pro who mostly didn’t go out of his way to be a bastard. Apart from that one time with the nazi leader, I guess? Even that was kind of giving him an out.

Compare the described Akagi or Alucard: these guys actively take pleasure in watching suffering. This is decidedly immoral, not amoral, and I think you have to consider it badass rather than really GAR.

@ Demian: Possibly part of the problem is that I’ve only seen the anime adaption of Akagi, in which – while yes, Akagi is not physically immortal – he’s undefeatable. I agree with you that Alucard’s physical immortality makes it hard for him to be GAR, and in a sense I think his search for an opponent who can properly threaten him is also a search for an opportunity to be GAR.

Regarding your last sentence, I wonder if we could classify Akagi as an Alucard-esque soul searching for challenge and wanting to savour life or not have it at all, but in a human body which obviously does degenerate and can be killed.

Spoilers here now for Akagi (manga):

It’s also interesting to note that in the author of Akagi’s previous story, Ten, a full two volumes are devoted to showing Akagi’s death later in life. This link, under manga, has a good summary of what happens to him: http://www.truepariah.net/ Basically, Akagi chooses to end his life rather than live a wasted life with Alzheimer’s. That could be called a moral courage in its own right, but it also shows that Akagi is human, though perhaps it is his life philosophy which should be called inhuman.

Incidentally, I’ve actually only seen the first episode of Akagi so far, and was nonplussed due to the as-mentioned type of GAR Akagi sports. (The mahjong-head-explode-itude didn’t help either) I’m assuming it improves and has better mind-game and perhaps some emotional-wracking fun later on, but does it come close to Kaiji?