Otakuism

Seeing Kaiji unveil his scissors card and the grand strategy behind it was as satisfying as any ron Akagi pulled off. While Akagi is still the Supreme Badass King of Games, it’s been really great to see Kaiji grow in these first five episodes. He’s gone from a whiny nobody to a team leader who knows how to use good ideas and take the logical risks. He already knew everything he needed to succeed, he just had to be put in the fires of hell first to really forge him into a badass. Furuhata and Andou are annoying as hell, however. Whiny, useless cockroaches who cling onto Kaiji’s success. Would of been a lot better if Kaiji left them when he had three stars. Still, he’s a man of his word and I’ll respect that.

Kaiji has really made rock, paper, scissors an exciting game of strategy and deceit. With mahjong that was easy, it’s a complicated game anyways, but to make rock, paper, scissors such an intense game to watch is really masterful storytelling. All the little visual metaphors, like strings ripping apart and water boiling, really help illustrate the mental situations of the characters. Which, really, is what Kaiji is all about, how these characters react to the stresses of life. It looks like this arc will end soon, with the guy who first ripped Kaiji off being a suitable final boss, but that could still take a couple episodes to finish. I have no idea what the next game will be, but I’m sure it will be bizarre, intense, and completely awesome.