Wow! Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor is one of the most intelligent anime I have seen in a while and it definitely knows how to keep its viewer hooked on it the whole time and of course, I will explain why I think it is.
Story: (8/10)
The story of Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor begins with a guy named Kaiji Itou who was just a normal guy who would spend most of his time gambling and stealing hubcaps off of cars until he is suddenly approached by a mysterious man who wants to collect the outstanding amount debt that his friend left onto him. Realizing that he cannot pay off all of the debt, the mysterious man gives him an option of participating in a underground gamble on a cruise ship called the Espoir that is able to clear off his debt in one night but soon enough Kaiji realizes that there is something even more sinister planed beyond this. One of the strong points to this story is how Kaiji overcomes most of these obstacles and twists and turns thrown at him by thinking up an unexpected strategy or plan that can leave you thinking of how he was able to come up with that with all the pressure put onto him or the amount of time he had and this type of events keeps the viewer immersed in the story. The unexpected strategies or plans he comes up with are all so well-thought-out whenever they come up which I thought that was very interesting because of how many other anime sometimes bring up something out of nowhere and never explain it and that we are supposed to take it as it is. Another strong point to this anime is how it delved into human emotions. The emotions that were shown like anger, regret, desperation, and many more were all well presented and the scenes that contained these emotions all felt very intense. The only problem I had with the story is how it would sometimes go a little overboard with the explanation of things and what I mean by this is how it would explain something once, then sometime later it would explain it again a second or third time like we didn't understand what happened the first time, so I thought it was a bit annoying.
Art and Animation: (8/10)
Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor's art style is definitely a unique one that may turn off some people because of how it uses thick outlines which is rare to see in anime and how it uses a different style of drawn teeth but I don't mind any of this at all, I think it's cool. The art also helps boosts the scenes with the characters showing any emotion and the anime also adds some very interesting things during these scenes which I like to call visual symbolism. An example of visual symbolism would be like if Kaiji is losing and is feeling hopeless he is sinking into the bottom of the ocean or if Kaiji is winning there is light shining on him. As for the animation, I think that the animation is average because there is really nothing that catches you by surprise in this animation wise.
Sound: (8/10)
This anime definitely has some good tracks to listen to and they all help make the scenes much more atmospheric and the little ZAWA ZAWA thing that they put in them are great. The OP and ED are good, I only wished that they could make the OP a little longer than just 47 seconds. The voice actors did great in this and the sound effects were good.
Characters: (8/10)
Kaiji is a really good main character due to how everything he has experienced like betrayal, regret, hopelessness, and seeing how cruel people can be just for money or to save themselves, he is still able to not break during these situations and overcomes them and the surprising thing is that he still puts his trust to people even after everything he has been through, so it really feels like he has been growing as a character. The villains in this anime are really nothing special but I do like how they all come up with all these different types of methods to deceive people that are all really well planed out.
Enjoyment: (9/10)
This anime always kept me on my toes with how Kaiji was going to overcome these obstacles while the stakes were getting higher and really immersed me to the point that I couldn't stop watching it.
Overall: (9/10)
Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor is an anime that I would highly recommend due to how intense scenes can get with its psychological mind games and how it knows how to immerse its viewer in its story.
