Tobaku Hakairoku Kaiji

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This is my first review. I simply had to get my thoughts out about this. I can safely say this is the best thing I have ever read, and that includes all other manga, novels, etc.

So, I'm just going to get to the point and tell you why this was so great-

-The story was really engaging, even from the beginning. I became hooked fast, and ended up finishing all 13 volumes in 2 days. The story is filled with twists, and the outcome is never determinable... you just have to keep reading in order to find out! It definitely had me hooked, and I doubt ... I'd be the only one.

-The art. Very good style, the grittiness is perfect. It goes along so well with the feel of the story. Even if you don't like the style, upon reading you would agree that the art is very fitting, and couldn't be better!

These factors alone made the enjoyment factor an absolute 10. I have no idea what the rating would be if you rated it objectively based on the different factors involved... that's not how I do things. I was blown away, so it deserves a 10 in my book. I loved every second I spent reading.

If you are a Kaiji fan, definitely read this. And if you aren't, and just happened to stumble upon this review, then I highly recommend you watch the anime and then read this manga. It is an experience like no other.

After the first Kaiji manga I had some issues, mostly the number of extreme closeups on Kaiji's face to almost pass time in a manga.

The sequel, Tobaku Hakairoku Kaiji, is slightly better, however if you look closely you can see the same character, layouts and panels used multiple times in a chapter, even on opposite pages.

However similarly the best thing in the original, the fact it was based on three games that went on for entirely too long but felt compelling the entire time is pushed to the limit in Tobaku Hakairoku Kaiji. There's really two games in the entire ... manga, and some plot development, and while the plot development really helps, the games just don't have the same draw. Where the original manga has a number of clever tricks that kept the reader engaged with the manga, it felts like the first game was a bit too obvious of a game, and the final game had a few too many asspulls just to drive up the tension.

And that's not a miscount, there's really two games at the core of Tobaku Hakairoku Kaiji over the same number of chapters as the original game, not even evolved games, but just "two challenges". Many of the chapters go too quickly and have almost no real movement in the story. Kaiji might do something over and over for a full chapter, and then his opponent will do something, and so on.

But in reality where the first manga felt like the pacing really developed the challenge or the time being taken, Tobaku Hakairoku Kaiji feels like it is entirely too slow. You can read the manga faster, and ultimately that's what I did, but if I was paying for the manga instead of reading it from a library, I'd be more upset that this manga probably could have been half the length or less with a lot of the filler removed.

Ultimately Tobaku Hakairoku Kaiji isn't as good as the first Kaiji manga, it doesn't mean I'm done with the series, but ultimately, I struggle to really recommend this manga because of the very low signal to noise ratio. There's one compelling game, that lingers far longer than it should have and while Kaiji is an interesting character, even he feels like he's lacking a lot of development here for most of the manga.