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Life’s full of its ups and downs, ain’t it? The fact that our hero is still hanging around with the losers Furuhawa and Andou and shows no intent of stabbing them in the back is proof of his undeniable awesomeness I reckon - he understands that even when he’s surrounded by idiots, sticking together is [...]
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  Careful, Kaiji’s a biter.
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Holy flipping heck! I know I’ve been complaining about Kaiji for the past few episodes… but seriously… this episode was just plain crazy, and I mean that in a good way! If there was anything this series needed, it was betrayal, and this episode features lots of it. I love episodes like these, where everything [...]
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Now this is more what I’m talking about. The pacing of this episode was quite a bit faster than the previous episodes and the amount of times where this series kept repeating itself has greatly decreased. On the other hand, though, the creators have somehow managed to stretch turn 8 minutes into twenty of them, [...]
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I switch over from the tiresome Labyrinth and end up seeing naked men.
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ZAA PAY-PAAAH!* In gambling, even the best laid plans can go awry. Fortunately it seems as though Kaiji is pretty good at thinking on his feet. * Kudos if you get that reference. What I enjoy about this series is that even though there are multiple twists and turns you never really feel gypped. For example, [...]
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Kurai! Final attack, Dai-Zidane Headbutt-o! After escaping from the Ship of Hope, Kaiji will go on to pursue a promising career as a: A. French Soccer Player B. Motivational Speaker C. Hood Ornament Salesman D. Mullet Model You have to love how Andou and Furuhata never fully appreciate Kaiji’s strategy until after it has unfolded. They always have this, “No [...]
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Synopsis: Andou takes a card from Furuhata and loses pushing him, Furuhata and Kaiji into a corner. But Kaiji has a plan. Furuhata tells Kaiji that he is starting to have hope. Kaiji, however, thinks that nothing has changed. He notices Furuhata's cards. It looks fewer than it was before. Furuhata tells Kaiji that Andou wanted to hold on to one so he gave it to him. Kaiji is shocked. Andou currently has two stars and no cards. With one card, the situation could change for him. Kaiji tells Furuhata that they have to find him. They manage to find Furuhata but he is about to go on a match. Kaiji calls out to him but a guard tells him not to interrupt. Andou's opponent shows a scissor. Kaiji thinks it would be a draw but the card that Furuhata gave Andou was their sole paper card. Andou loses and is stripped of a star. [ This is only an excerpt for the post! Go the the website for the full content + pictures + links. ]
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Hmm, I’m feeling myself to more and more inclined to agree with Kacpy… Sure, Kaiji is intriguing and exciting. This episode again showed some pretty interesting plot-twists and clever plans. But I’m noticing more and more about how slow this series actually is. I remember watching the first arc of Akagi, which took up just [...]
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Basing a series on a tyre-slashing, out of work bum who attempts to pay off his debts through high-stakes gambling might not sound like the most auspicious character to use; however that’s exactly what Kaiji does and even at the ends of society, the show exudes a manly fragrance that’s hard to [...]
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The thick plottens! *zawa zawa* Oh, just as an added note, I never, ever want to get into a situation that requires me to lock myself in a toilet with two other men. Especially a pink toilet. If they hadn’t already realized from the whole insurmountable gambling debt thing, this would surely be the sign that [...]
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Synopsis: The games begin and Kaiji is at the brink of losing. Tonegawa instructs the participants to open their envelopes. Inside it are three stars which will be attached to the plates they're wearing. As they play the Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors, they will wager those stars. Once two persons want to play, they go into "Check", preparing a single card each. Then into "Open" where the cards' faces are revealed. If it's a draw, none of them loses or gains a star but if someone wins, he will gain the opponent's star. Contestants can freely choose their opponents and repeat the process. Cards that have been used will be discarded. They will be tallied by an electronic scoreboard. Since each person has four rocks, papers and scissors each and there are 103 participants, there are 412 cards of each kind. As long as one can maintain three stars regardless of the means he uses, he wins. However, one must use up all of their cards. Simply disposing it is not allowed. At the end of... [ This is only an excerpt for the post! Go the the website for the full content + pictures + links. ]
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It’s strange… usually I can think of witty introductions for my posts, but for this one… I can’t. This episode was really good, and I love how Kaiji came out of it, but it’s hard to explain why. The best part was the part about the title of this episode, though: desperation. Kitami and his [...]
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Wow… just wow… I was already under the impression that the previous episode showed a worst-case scenario. And then this episode comes along…. seriously, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei has some serious competition! Basically, Kaiji gets the idea to buy up all of the Rocks, because the papers were lowest of all. It then seems that others were [...]
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Choki! Finally the first glimpses of Kaiji’s inner demon are revealed. . . And the moment we’ve all been waiting for arrives. Kaiji’s fish takes the bait and he’s taken in…hook, line, and scissors. It was most excellent to finally see Kaiji’s shrewd gambling cunning come into play and his accompanying RON face. In this respect, Kaiji is completely [...]
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  Maybe its Rock-Paper-Scissors arc wouldn’t be so damn dull.
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Double crosses! Despair! Manly tears! Kaiji is proving to be a real rollercoaster ride as he finds himself duped, spat on and left out on his own…only to meet Furahawa (the guy whose irresponsible cosigning got him there in the first place) and seek out a way to win the first game. It’s a TRAP! It’s easy [...]
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If there's one bad thing I can say about Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji it's that it didn't cause me suddenly grow hair from my chest and give me urges to stand on my chair and utter primal screams.On the flip side, it didn't send me fleeing into a corner, shaking and quivering and searching for Shiori pictures in order to replenish healthy moe levels. In fact, my first guys'-orientated show in quite a while was refreshing and quite enjoyable.This is probably due to the fact that Kaiji isn't a "guys" show in the typical sense of the word, which conveys the image of shows with random action, filler, and over-9000 episodes length. Kaiji is more of a thinking show, a mind game; I'd liken it to Battle Royale, except instead of playing with physical lives, they are playing with figurative (yet still very real) lives.It's not a mind-render in any case, being still mostly predictable, but one can derive a certain joy, perhaps in a slightly sadistic manner, by seeing the expert interaction, or, more likely, manipulation, of characters.Even, or perhaps, especially, for one whose typical plate of character interactions consists of 'blush', 'stammer' and 'fall on floor in provocative position', the playing of characters like a fiddle in the free-for-all world of Kaiji is quite refreshing.Still, Kaiji shouldn't be expected to leave a good first impression, at least during the first few minutes. Kanon 2002 can finally breathe easy that another show has come along to usurp the title of 'Faces Most Likely to Point an Eye Out', and the rest of the art of Kaiji is, to put it one way, ugly.99% of this can be chalked up to the character design, from extremely thick faces to huge lips to noses the size of small third-world countries. There's not really a looker, or, surprisingly, even a pair of X-chromosomes in the bunch.Yet, somehow, the art style almost fits with the show. Kaiji (the show) deals with a lot of bums down on their luck (like Kaiji, the guy) desperate for one last shot at life, and one wouldn't expect the crowd to be filled with handsome, good-looking people.It's not like the characters are exaggerated ugly either, like a lot of 'not good looking' characters in other shows filled with bishonens and bishoujos. They're just kind of there, a little scruffy, a little beat-up, worn out mentally and physically. Their crude look matches a crude personality; none of these characters have been treated kindly by life, and as such they pass on the seeming disregard that the world has shown them.The ways that the characters adapt to the situation, and the quite large amount of straight emotion that they show is a great strength of the show. Kaiji is a very plausible character who acts in a realistic if not stupid manner.He acts like most people down on their luck in clinging on to any last shard of hope that is offered to him; whether it's the phony alliance with the Ten Million Yen Man, or going to hold tight to his last star in the Break Room of Despair, he's alternatingly a follower and depressive, showing both naive hope and an inability to hold strong under pressure.Yet Kaiji doesn't have that air of 'loser' to him. Perhaps it's the 'anti-hero', delinquent personality built up in the first episode, but he feels like the kind of person who just got tossed a few bad breaks, that really could work their way out if they just tried.Sure, he whines when he gets two stars conned out of him. But like a good male lead, he gets his resolve up to work out of the corner; with his back to the wall he finally unleashes the determined side of him. It's better than the usual near-flawless character that pwns everyone into the ground.The game of Restricted Rock Paper Scissors is surprisingly intriguing as well. It's beauty lies in its simplicity and complexion at the same time. It's not a game that lies on luck, or even skill, but on sheer cunning.It, more than any other game, is a game of wits, of out-smarting and conning your opponent. Analyzing what cards your opponent has or doesn't have, trying to think whether your opponent will counter the 'logical' move, or counter the counter, and just trying to talk your opponent into slipping up like Kaiji had happen to him, it's a deep game hidden beneath a shallow surface.How much of this meta-game we'll see will be pivotal to the series, as I look forward to seeing Kaiji connive and master his way to the 5 stars his coalition needs to make it to round 2. Certainly if he can do it in a plausible way rather than deux ex-ing his way through the Power of The Paper-Scissors-Rock or whatever, or if the Mastermind Plot by the boss yakuza works its way in the situation, it could be a very intriguing cruise.If the storytelling keeps up, this simple game, and even simple show,could turn out to be a captivating story of the sheer amount of nearly sadistic entertainment that ensues when a hundred desperate humans are let loose against each other in a direct battle for financial survival. I'm betting on it.-CCY
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