Or, as the episode title says, The Suffering Pariah Kaiji Ultimate Survivor. Personally, I think Gambling Apocalypse is the most badass title evar. Kaiji is the story of Kaiji the ultimate loser. He always loses his bets and keys cars to vent his frustration. His failure of a life gets even worse when the Yakuza show up demanding money for a loan he signed. There’s only one way out for Kaiji: board the special ship Epoir with other debtors and place life or death bets to come out on top and get rid of his debt. Having nothing else to lose besides maybe his freedom, Kaiji boards the ship. The first game: RESTRICTED ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS!

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Kaiji was written by the same mangaka, made by the same company, and has the same staff as Akagi. However, Kaiji is not Akagi. The same way Akagi went out of its way to show how godly Akagi was, Kaiji goes out of its way to show how much of a loser Kaiji is. Kaiji and Akagi are complete polar opposites of each other. It does look like Kaiji may have some redemptive qualities to him, though. He was at least smart enough to realize ten million was a better starting hand even if he has to pay back more. The games are different, too. Kaiji looks to focus on a series of different gambling games, the first one being the almost innocent rock, paper, scissors. Not so innocent when you’re betting your life on it however. As over-the-top and silly as restricted rock, paper, scissors sounds, I’m sure Kaiji will make it look as badass as possible.

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The only people who will like Kaiji are the people who liked Akagi; who like something unconventional in their anime. The animation is still bold lines and huge noses. While some may say it all looks ugly, it has its own kind of serious charm to me. Anime about men gambling don’t need bright colors or to look pretty. I greatly enjoyed the first episode and will probably enjoy the rest. The plot is creative and the games the mangaka creates always have interesting twists. Kaiji won’t see everyone’s tastes but I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can.