Mar 31, 2016
Kaiji is an extremely solid series, and I wanted to give it a 9 or 10. The thing stopping me from labeling it as a masterpiece is the show's pacing. Out of a total 52 episodes, probably around 20 (possibly even more) play out the tension of a scene to its limit without advancing the plot. The episodes that do advance things can move very quickly, making for an odd mixture of rapidity and sluggishness.
An example of this is during the Pachinko arc (I won't spoil it for people who haven't seen the series yet). When Kaiji steps up to play a large machine with
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a huge pay out collected from the losses of other gamblers, you feel the tension along with him to succeed. That is a GREAT hook to keep people watching, and I can personally attest to staying up way too late to see how things would resolve. The problem is that it would take 5+ episodes for everything to play out, and in some of these episodes almost no progress was made at all.
Kaiji would benefit from cutting its episode count in half. The audience would still feel the suspense of high stakes gambling, but wouldn't need to sit for hours on end to reach the conclusion.
Aside from that critique, Kaiji is a truly wonderful show. While the art may seem wonky, it has a very distinctive retro feel, and is instantly recognizable. The show tackles complexities in a realistic fashion, pulling no punches on the vicious cycle of addiction, the legitimate woes and also unique attitude of youth in modern capitalistic society, the harshness of organized crime and the both positive and negative extremes people will go to when desperate to save themselves.
Unlike many protagonists of anime of any genre, Kaiji himself is genuinely intelligent. If he had been diligent in school, he could very well be a lower level executive by the time the series starts (and he's only 21). Like many young people, he falls into the typecast of "smart but lazy" (how true that is varies from person to person). When the series starts he is an unemployed delinquent, but throughout the story he wins enough fortunes that if he could find it in him to quit gambling, he could invest and never have to work again. While I am singing the protagonist's praises, I should give an example of how grounded that character, and every character for that matter is. Kaiji is intelligent, but very immature and overall naive (he is only 21 after all). He is duped easily, reflecting his youth and optimism of systems such as debt and employment.
Other characters share a similar balance of value. One higher up mobster is incurably smug in his attitude toward the youth he has gotten into gambling, however he himself is seen as a poor employee due to his lack of innate aggression or initiative and is demoted as a result. One family man genuinely wants to rid himself of debt, but is too cowardly to act.
Wrapping things up, Kaiji is incredibly enjoyable. From the hard suspense to the surprisingly acute social commentary, this series should not be missed by people who enjoy an anime that can be both deathly serious and amusingly absurd.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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