For me, Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji has turned out into the best series of the season so far. There are other good series this season, but they all have their weakness: Mokke could have had better writing, the characters in Blue Drop are a tad too adolescent, Shugo Chara is too cheesy at times and Labyrinth has a few too many maids and strangely clothed females for its setting.

Kaiji, however, is perfect so far, and it’s looking really interesting. I’m seriously going to check out Akagi as soon as the series is over. I may have said it before, but I really like anime where the main characters aren’t the only ones who are special, and this is really emphasized here in this series: every single person in the game is in a worst situation possible. Everyone is a loser who somehow ended up with debt. This really is a survival of the fittest.

And the thing I love about Kaiji is how he learns of his mistakes. There are indeed a few people who look at the game in a smart way, and try to trick others into believing them, and Kaiji is one of these victims. The plan is quite simple:
- Find someone who is stupid enough to be tricked, and Kaiji fitted that role perfectly. After all, after everyone requested one million, and he was the first one to request the maximum of ten million, Kaiji was the first one to follow him. That shows that he quickly goes along with others, and that incidentally fits Kaiji’s personality perfectly. It also helps if you make this guy think that he’s smart.
- Then you just need to explain how the plan works: just keep cancelling each other out, and nobody loses any of the stars you need to win.
- Go along with the plan for nine rounds, until both parties have just three cards left out of the original twelve. Then claim your victory when the victim thinks that everything is going according to plan by placing down the paper-card instead of the rock-one. Repeat this, and you’ve got five stars, while the other has just one.

The beautiful thing is that if Kaiji used his brains, he wouldn’t have fallen for it, and it really seems like he’s got a plan to get out of everything: working actually together. The nasty thing about the rock-paper-scissors game is that it’s easy to win, but it’s just as easy to lose, and because of this, people will underestimate the potential of it. Because of this, the yakuza ends up with quite a few stupid slaves who won’t be smart enough to betray them.

I really wonder how he’s going to pull it off, though. Basically, he has three people, one with relatively many stars, one with relatively many cards, and one with relatively much money. Together, there are four stars, five cards and 14 million yen. How the heck is he going to get to nine stars, 0 cards and 19,6 million yen?

This was a truly amazing episode, probably one of the best ones of the series yet. Finally Yasako has the time to really shine. It all starts when Mega-baa and Tamako manage to save Yasako and the others, after which both Tamako and Yasako learn that Haraken ran off with Kanna’s glasses. After that, we get an interesting fact about Tamako: four years ago, she nearly went to the other side herself, if it wasn’t for Mega-baa. I like how that one explains why she works at the cyber-agency at the age of only seventeen. It seems that this is the Denou Coil that Nekome warned Haraken about in episode 14 (at least, I think it is; correct me if I’m wrong): being taken to the other side by the humanoid illegals.

When they arrive at the place where Haraken went to, he already has been “Dennou Coiled”, and it seems that Isako also went after him. Yasako then lets herself get captured by the humanoid illegals, and gets taken to the other side herself in an attempt to get Kanna back. What follows was a magnificent scene, where Haraken finally meets with the remains of Kanna, and Yasako confesses to him, before bringing his body back with some code from Isako.

And so this concludes another arc of this series, and it indeed looks like the final six episodes will centre on 4423, and Takeru will also probably return. I somehow feel that 4423 is more than just another child, taken to the other side. After all, Isako is basically trying to do something even more dangerous than what Haraken’s been doing: getting an actual Dennou Coiled person back to the normal world. I also hope Daiichi will return; I miss the guy.

And this episode finally gives Takano her background. I was able to tolerate her evil cackling of the previous episodes because I knew that the current arc would develop her, and this episode makes a good start, showing how she came to her position. Now all that’s left is why she’s doing everything, which I think will be answered in the next episode.

This episode could have been done better, though. My biggest problem was with the owner of the orphanage Takano ended up in. What the creators basically did was make an underdeveloped character developed while using yet another underdeveloped character. Seriously, the guy just beats up the orphans in his orphanage for no apparent reason: just to be evil, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be getting any more screen-time, since Takano managed to run away at the end of the episode. To be honest, I expected more of Higurashi at this point.

Still, I’ve got hopes. Higurashi’s highlights never were in its first episodes, apart from the first arc, perhaps. This also promises to be the longest arc yet, so there has to happen more than just that.

Well, one of my predictions came true: this arc is much more fast-paced than the previous one. In only four episodes, the case of the counterfeiters has been solved. Compare that to Eigetsu, being stuck inside that cave for roughly ten episodes. I think the largest purpose of that arc was to introduce Tantan-kun, who looks like he’s going to play a major role in the final parts of this anime. I indeed had a feeling that it was his father who was behind the counterfeiting and the abduction of Kailing’s child. It seems that someone made him do it, though, which hints to a connection with Riou.

In any case, this episode was as heart-warming as ever, and I’m really glad to see that Saiunkoku Monogatari is catching steam again. And I think that we can only expect even better things from now on, as Shouka, small Riou and big Riou should be getting some more attention again. You can especially see that in the very last scene of the episode: I’ll be darned if that wasn’t some kind of foreshadowing, with the newly sprouting flowers of the tree being subjected to a gust of wind.

I’m also glad that I’m warming up more and more to the comedy, which has returned with the beginning of this arc. Especially Seiran’s impression of Shuurei was priceless.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t been picking up many shows in the past week, it’s because of three reasons:
- I am not planning to blog as many series as I did with the previous season. My studies allowed a bit more free time in the past few months, though I’m about to enter some of the busiest months of the year, so that means less time for blogging.
- This season isn’t that good in the first place.
- Nearly all of the god series are concentrated on either Wednesday or in the weekend.

Ah well, a bad season once in a while isn’t bad either. It helps lower your standards a bit. I really noticed that with the past Winter-season as well. I’ve got sorted out the shows I’m planning to blog, so they should arrive shortly. And regarding the series I’m not blogging:
- Clannad is 50% enjoyable, but 50% obnoxious.
- Shakugan no Shana II is getting really pointless right now.
- Dragonaut has the potential; it just doesn’t know how to use it.
- Kodomo no Jikan has just one major flaw: the excessive fanservice, and this flaw can potentially ruin the entire series. I want to remember this series because of the characters, not as”that pedo-show”.
- And Goshushou-sama Ninomiya-kun is just bad.

Shugo Chara is fun, though. After Master of Epic and Otogi Juushi Akazukin ended, there hasn’t really been any new worthwhile sweet series, so I’m glad that this series showed up. It is cheesy here and there, but that does fit the style. What I especially liked was the symbolism in this episode. Everyone is down-hearted once in a while, and it seems that the bad guys use that to turn the egg inside their hearts to evil eggs. It’s nothing new, but it’s solid enough. The thing this series now needs to focus on is finding interesting cases and characters, though I think we need to wait till the introductions are over until we get to see the full potential of this series.

Still, overall this series is fun enough to blog. The blue Shugo Chara that makes her appearance in this episode was really cute as well, and it seems that she symbolizes everything our heroine wants to be. I just wonder why she was the only one who got three eggs… is that because she has more worries than anyone else?