Reviews

After striving to find an engaging anime for a few months, coming up with only 'alright' or 'good' shows, Kaiji was one that broke from the pack. The ingenious creation of several unique games allows for hundreds of opportunities for Kaiji and his allies to try and find a way to survive by the thinnest breadth. However, as the viewer becomes accustomed to Kaiji worming his way out of situations, this pushes the viewer to take this as an inevitability that the protag will find a way to a happy ending, or at least one with less suffering. This is where the show's excellent ability to create suspense shows itself, due to the *spoilers* events at the end of the first series when Kaiji loses and is badly injured, the potential for Kaiji to be hurt or killed is not outwith possibility. Beside constantly changing advantages between Kaiji and his opponents, the tide of each contest is thrown back and forth with each episode, keeping the viewer desperately wishing for the result to be shown. Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji is up there with my favourites, and deserves another sequel, as unlikely as it seems, so it's definitely worth a watch.