The art is... different. You might even call it bad by normal standards. The animation, however, was quite superb. If you think the art looks silly and that you're in for some childish gambles where the main character wins every round, you're in for a big surprise. Quite the contrary, this series is quite serious. It's filled with psychological suspense and interesting philosophy; read no further if you want to hear it from the anime first.
You can live a dull life of working in convenience stores, fast food, and/or other crappy jobs, sucking up to your boss in some desperate attempt to climb up higher by pushing others down. I mean, you can't all get promoted; in this society, the higher ups rely on having those worthless pawns at the bottom. You'll be spending the majority of your life working a meaningless job, and for what?
Now, you're given a chance to get out of that... A way to get rich quick. You could finally live your own life the way you want to - really be in control of it rather than selling half of it to your employer for peanuts and spending a good portion of your free time asleep. Nothing comes that easy, though... In exchange for that opportunity, you've got to risk your life. Which is worse, struggling through life with that worthless job you hate, being unable to do anything you want to do, or death? How far would people go for money? Watch Kaiji to find the answers to these questions and more!
