.hack//G.U. Returner

Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa is a non-canon spin-off series to Kaiji. Written not by the master himself, but by two of his die hard fans. The series focuses around a man named Tonegawa, who was introduced in the first anime season.

From its settings, CKT is the polar opposite of Fukumoto Nobuyuki's (the author of Kaiji) gambling series for the reason that the main lead is not a person taking part in the gambling games, but instead working for the man who is behind these events. For that matter, recognizing this series to be even part of the same universe with Kaiji would be impossible if ... it wasn't for Madhouse giving it an anime adaptation with identical production values and characters as in Kaiji. Similar ideas have been executed with great success in the past, such as Full Metal Panic Fumoffu which was also the 3rd season to FMP franchise, and the polar opposite of its first 2 seasons.

Despite the vastly different setup, the biggest difference between CKT and Kaiji lies within the series' approach. There where Kaiji was a game - thriller from its genres, CKT is a slice of life comedy series. Those who expected this to be anything like Kaiji are now disappointed, which somewhat can explain the low mean score the series currently has. Personally, I have the ability to appreciate series for more than one reason, and have been laughing my butt sore with CKT.

The comedy is badass and manly beyond belief, and focuses around the challenges Tonegawa meets in his daily job. This one time, bunch of people loaned money from the wrong folks, more specifically, from Tonegawa's boss. This is okay, of course, but now it's time to pay back, bitches! Tonegawa and his lackeys want to get their money and there is no escaping the manliness. They are literally everywhere and own everything in Japan, apparently. They go to your work, random car backseats, any alley in Chinatown. Just name it and they are there, and oh, you will pay no matter how small the sum you owe, is.

This other time, Tonekawa got mad at another dude for having too complicated of a last name (which he later forgot). How anyone can even write comedy like this is beyond me. "Apologize to me for having such a complex name." Arrogance like this tends to create good comedy moments, and here they truly shine. Most of our scenes are similarly amazing, and will appeal to manly men, such as myself, unconditionally. It's no secret that people with less money have no value in the eyes of society and CKT promotes this shamelessly with scenes such as these.

The characters are one of our selling points, and the main reason why the comedy works so well. The president dude (Tonegawa's boss), is a real philosopher. Lays on bed made of his employees (yes, you read correctly), telling how humans are being fed with money like animals with food. Apparently, the biggest mistake citizens make is think of society as their mother. Our manly men are here to show what real men are about.. by taking everything these pathetic people in debt own and making their life miserable while making sure that they understand how this is, indeed, their own fault for not understanding how money works. I must admit I love it when dudes who never understood what dollar is worth, get what is coming. The comedy is beyond great. It always treats trash people like the trash they are. I appreciate dudes like these when it comes to comedic content.

This series will most likely not appeal all that well to extremely sympathetic people, or those who forget that this is all just comedy centering around very brutal and illegal gambling business... or are also very poor and in debt themselves.. or further have yet to acknowledge that this is how the world works, like it or not.

The narrator is also a highly visible character, and an epic one for that matter. Whenever he says anything, it's like UFC fighter introductions in Japanese, except he does it with every word no matter the subject and how anti-climatic the event he describes, is. I also die of laughter when ever he introduces Tonekawa Yukio and pronounces his name "yu-gi-oh".

The production is practically identical to the Kaiji anime series from 10 years ago. Same, cute, moe art style and character design. Manly, badass voices for dudeouses, and awe-inspiring sound effects when anything dramatic happens. Madhouse has done great many questionable choices in the recent years, but this is not one of them.

As a person who enjoys manly and bro stuff, and liked both Kaiji seasons, as well as most of the manga series by the original creator, there is no reason for me to not love this show. The comedy is superb and all the dudes are awesome. Don't be fooled by the mean score that is a complete mystery to everyone as this is, indeed, the best show airing this season.. or at least in top 5.

"Bu...b... bu--but does it have zawa?" Well of fucking course it has zawa.

zawa zawa
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Before i start my review i would like to point out i have actually never played the game and in my personal opinion you don't need to have played the game to understand what the series is about.

Story:
The story is a nice character meet-up episode ,it's like those special episodes or scenes that come after the anime's end showing us what happened after. It's nothing too big or special but it is highly needed as leaving us in the dark would make us wonder what happened and even drive some people to hate the series.

Art:
It has the typical art,nothing extremely nice but it's not bad ... either,I was thinking of giving it an 8 but the battle scene was pretty well done so im giving it a 9.

Sound:
I'm not that fond of anime soundtracks i usually just love/hate the opening/ending and ignore the rest but this is where .hack differs,it's music is just astounding and specially "Dwindled Bible" I'm giving it a 10 for music due to it being very well made and brings sparks of emotion into the scene.

Character:
We get to see alot of the old faces we didn't see in Trilogy ,I don't want to spoil out who we see so ill just say its nice to see alot of the characters returning.There is also some character development betwean Haseo and what seems to be almost all the girls around him.

Enjoyment:
I loved this episode it's amazing but im only giving it a 9 because im not a big fan of the short stuff,one 25 min OVA episode isn't enouth to please me completely :P

Overall:
A good episode,we get to see a little bit of action ,character development and the likes. A nice watch for most and a must for .hack fans

This review is coming from the point of a view of a person who has played only a bit of .Hack//Infection but has seen all the .Hack animes in chronological order. And I can honestly say I regret watching this anime with no knowledge of the game...what a mess...

Story: 8 - Very Good

The story is very simple and a good wrapping up of the anime and the video games. After our heroes have finished their journey they receive a message from Ovan inviting them to a festival. Even with my lack of knowledge from the game I can somewhat understand that something happened to Ovan ... in past events and this was an important event for Haseo and the new game characters we are introduced to. As events develop we are introduced to emotions which are well grasped in nostalgia. Overall I'd say it does a pretty good job as it gives us enough to guess what happened in the game but leaves many holes unanswered which make anime only viewers crave for the video games plot.

Art: 7 - Good

For an OVA the quality is lower than the considered 'Standard Quality'. Many scenes were drawn rather poorly. The colors were appropriate and the movements were OK but that's about where it goes.

Sound: 6 - Fair

The sound set the correct mood for the events but were not memorable in any way.

Character: 6 - Fair


The characters were the downfall of this OVA. They just popped up, we have no idea who they are. More or less we can guess how the characters get along with each other via the interactions but it's not enough to scream: "I love this character!" or make them memorable. Then again that's not the point of this OVA anyways as we are supposed to know them already so slash that comment.

Enjoyment: 6 - Fair


Many of the scenes were boring and throughout most of it my head hurt and all I could think of was that I wanted it to end already. The random monster that appeared was very confusing and felt more like a desperate attempt from the producers part failing in an epic way. The OVA would had been just fine with the characters exchanging conversations and recalling nostalgic feelings or simply getting back to date with their buddies. Like the rest of Roots the OVA would had been just fine without the random Ovan thing as he had always been a cliche unlikable character who somehow was supposed to be Haseo's "seme".


Overall: 6 - Fair

This OVA is simply a mess full of unwanted spoilers and one of the many OVA's that ruin the main plots ending. I warn you if you have no knowledge of the game don't watch it. It's a waste of time but if you're like me and simply enjoy finishing all the animes of a franchise go ahead but be warned this will give you a huge headache. And I repeat none of what I said is relevant for the fans that have played the video games.