And it’s finally over. I’ve decided not to write a review about this series, though. I’ve watched this series the wrong way, and it turned out to be a big disappointment, save for four or five episodes. I feel that I’m way too biased to give an objective view about this series. It already was difficult to give this series a fair rating during my monthly summaries. Kaiji is a series that you need to marathon, in order to pump yourself up with adrenaline. It’s not something you can watch casually. Having said that, if you haven’t seen this episode yet, you might want to close this window, as SPOILERS will follow.

Overall, this episode disappointed, especially considering the enormous build-up that preceded it. This arc was in no way as intense as the E-card arc, simply because the creators refused to show Kaiji’s reaction after his hands got cut off. And to think that the gore was actually one of the best parts of this series. The raw emotions when seeing Kaiji, cutting off his own ear, and my favourite moment of the entire series: seeing Tonegawa punish himself: even though this series mostly bored me, I have to admit that these moments were truly unrivalled. It was a real downer that the screen just blacked out and we saw Kaiji’s hand wrapped in bondages.

What also disappointed me is that we never really got to look in the mind of Hyoudou, but that’s only natural, since the manga went on for much longer. This episode also hinted at a second season (although with Madhouse, you never know; yes, I’m looking at you, Shigurui), though it that ever comes, I don’t think I’ll end up blogging it.

Having said that, I at least like that this episode wrapped up this entire arc well enough. The aftermath wrapped up all of the loose ends of the storyline, and it didn’t really leave a bad taste behind, apart from what I just mentioned. At least we got to know a bit more about Hyoudou when Kaiji figured out how he won. I like how Kaiji himself figured it out, instead of in regular anime, where the opponent just brainlessly tells his opponent all of his plans. The guy is smarter than he looks, and I like that.

Yup, like expected: the entire success of this arc will depend on whether the final episode will deliver or not. Unfortunately, I’ve also been spoiled about it, so it’ll all depend on the execution. What I’m most curious about is the chairman himself. We know Kaiji by now and his fear is nothing new by now. But what I really want to see is the tricks up on the sleeve of this old master. He says that he’s a king and he can draw whatever he wants on a second turn, but it this just a bluff?

My guess is that he very well knew that Kaiji was cheating. I mean, what other idiot would just throw away his fingers? The guy checked out all possibilities, and probably found the second winning lot when he was checking every corner inside the box. He didn’t draw it, and instead mixed it with the other lots in order to make the gamble more “fun”, and make it last longer.

I admit that the choice to blog this series was a wrong one. During the past fall-season, I ended up blogging a lot of “wrong” shows. Shugo Chara, Suteki Tantei Labyrinth and Gundam 00 were also nice series and all, but I didn’t feel like blogging them was really interesting, especially with Shugo Chara. During the past Autumn-season, I really found out that I have the most fun in blogging a series that I can sing praises over and over about. Of course, making fun of bad series is fun as well once in a while, but you don’t want to do this for every episode. This is why the final episodes of Claymore and .Hack//Roots also felt such a chore for me to blog.

It’s the same as with Kaiji, although I don’t mean to say that this series isn’t good. This isn’t a show like Jigoku Shoujo that’s different with each single episode, so that I can have something to say for each single one of them. This is a series that is intended to be marathoned for entire arcs, just to beef you up with adrenaline for some kind of major sporting event or something.

When most other series build up for one big event, they usually have plenty of time with one episode that’s entirely meant to build up for that particular scene.

But Kaiji is different. Kaiji doesn’t need one episode, no. It needs three of them.

And so we’ve passed the second episode. All that’s left now is the final episode of building up, after which the episode where stuff actually happens will finally close off this series. The narrator was right: it has been a real night of lunacy, and I can expect someone to go crazy if you marathoned it entirely.

And although I admit that the pacing could have been a bit faster, I like the themes a lot. Here, people really try to outsmart each other, with carefully laid-out plans. This is much more interesting than a bunch of guys being scared to death on top of a beam that hangs 80 meters above the ground.

Okay, this’ll be a short entry, since all this episode did was building up anyway. Kaiji, while still under the influence of the adrenaline from his match with Tonegawa, is screwed in the head enough to abandon the 20 million he won, just for a shot to challenge the chairman. Even though the chairman claims that it doesn’t really hurt him whether or not he loses, Kaiji is still determined to gamble. This begs the question: how is Kaiji planning to take revenge on the chairman? The most obvious strategy would of course be for the guy to put all of his money on the line. If it’s one thing that rich people are terrified of, it’s getting poor. But this guy is a professional. He just isn’t crazy enough to just do it for the life of one measly ant.

Apart from that, the pacing was as slow as usual, which isn’t the most exciting thing when this series isn’t in one of its climaxes, so I’ll withhold my judgement until the next episode.

One thing that I do want to praise this series about is the balls that it has to go really extreme. After the Boat-arc, for a minute I feared that Kaiji would try to stop the punishment of Tonegawa. Instead, Tonegawa has proven that he’s a real man this time, even though he lost. He was just unable to escape the clutches of the employer he worked for for decades. His final moments were truly terrific, and I’m glad to say that this series now has two well-developed characters. And with a bit of luck, the chairman will make this count three, but that depends entirely on what’s going to happen for the final four episodes.

At the moment, I still don’t regard Kaiji as a flawless series. The boat-arc and especially the beam-arc dragged on, were a tad predictable and lacked engaging characters to keep me interested. And yet, the past few episodes, ever since Kaiji cut off his ear, have been absolutely amazing. I guess that that’s the time since the characters clicked with me.

The chairman has been an interesting character so far, with an interesting philosophy, but he still lacks development a bit. This episode told a bit of his background, but the final episodes still do have a bit of work to do. It would be a bit of a shame for Kaiji to just defeat the guy and make an end to his twisted ideas.

Oh god… as it stands now, reviewing Kaiji when it’s finally over is going to be a incredibly difficult. At the moment, I have no idea whether to classify it as just good or excellent. All the commenters on the previous episode made me see this series in a new light, but on the other hand I still remain convinced that the beam-arc was just way too long and drawn-out. I hope that the final episodes will either back up how amazing this series is, or how flawed it is.

The current episode was just amazing, though. This is really what I’ve been hoping for: mind-games without cheating. Tonegawa was absolutely amazing this time, because for once he has to use his head. He’s now going through the same as Kaiji was, back in round one. The creators also switched the viewpoint for this episode: the entire episode was told from the perspective of Tonegawa. We never get to see any of the worries that play into Kaiji’s head.

There’s one thing I do know for sure about this series: I absolutely HATE the cliff-hangers. They work fine if you’re marathoning this thing, but when you watch it on a weekly basis like I’m currently doing, they leave me every episode with a bad taste in my mouth, just because I’m too eager to find out what’s happening next.

I’m really interested to find out where Tonegawa’s thinking-error lies. Obviously, Kaiji can’t die yet; there are still five episodes left. But this also means that the final arc is going to be a relatively small one. The next episode will probably be enough to conclude the E-Card arc and introduce the final one, leaving just four episodes for the real action. If I had to guess (and hope), then Kaiji will be taking on the big boss himself. At the moment, I see Kaiji crazy enough to challenge that guy for something around 20 billion yen. Bleeding ear or no bleeding ear.

Oh my god… I’m speechless. I know I have been whining against this series, but that doesn’t matter for this episode. All I know that these were 20 of the most disturbing minutes of anime I’ve seen. Let me warn you: do not watch this episode if you can’t stand gore. I still can’t call this series great, but damn… this episode was so worth it.

I’m going to keep this entry short, because even though it was an awesome episode, it’s also one that I’d like to forget as soon as possible. In this sense, the gore is even worse than in Shigurui because there, you can see it coming. I didn’t expect for Kaiji to be this screwed in the mind to just cut off his ENTIRE EAR.

Call me gullible, but I’m not really pleased to find out that my praises for the E-Card arc of a few episodes ago, where I finally hoped to see some complex mind-games between two masterminds, turned out to be one big mistake. How I hoped to see both Tonegawa and Kaiji outsmart each other with complex tactics… well, it now turns out that Tonegawa has been cheating. Sigh. The episode was quite intense, and it wasn’t bad at all, actually, but it’s the whole attitude of this series that bothers me.

I finally think that I know where my problems for this series lie: with those cursed expectations again. A couple of years ago, I watched the first arc of Akagi. I’m still not sure why I didn’t continue it, but I loved the complex tactics that it brought into Mah-jong. Shion no Ou is currently doing a similar thing with complex and character-based tactics. So yes, I was hoping for the same kind of experience, where Kaiji would use his head while gambling, and come up with nice ideas to win money. It was even advertised, how Kaiji would “enter the dangerous world of gambling”.

Instead, we get 26 episodes of bunch of yakuza who like to bully a bunch of defenceless young adults. It’s nice and all, but it’s so different and less interesting (in my opinion, at least) from what I expected from this series. I also see no reason why this couldn’t be cut into just thirteen episodes. That would have been the perfect length for a concept such as this one. Each arc thus far has featured Kaiji enter a challenge full of confidence, dive into the deepest pit of despair imaginable, only to rise up again and survive with one masterful insight. In that way, the Boat-arc has so far been the best arc so far, because at least that one did have a bit more than just the formula I described.

Now I also understand why I’m so bothered with the slow pacing of this series, even though I usually don’t have this problem at all. The arcs are just so formulaic that I find myself thinking “just get on with it”. I mean, the creators really try to keep the episodes interesting, but the fact that Kaiji will rise from his despair and will at least do something that wasn’t part of Tonegawa’s plans are just way too apparent. It doesn’t even matter whether Kaiji wins or loses, because by the nature of this series I’m already expecting that Kaiji will walk away without any money, yet again, and that the creators will find another way to keep Kaiji on their leash so that he can enter the fourth and final arc of this series.

So, how is it that Shion no Ou is currently my absolute favourite series, even though it too is in the middle of a tournament-arc with a similar premise as that of Kaiji? Well, Shion no Ou makes sure that there’s enough going on for me not to care. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like every character there has his or her own goals and morals. In Kaiji, it just feels like they exist to carry Kaiji through the storyline.

SO, this was clearly a building-up episode. It’s a bit disappointing, as I was hoping that Kaiji would turn the tables already with the seventh round, but instead the creators decided to use these rounds to bring Kaiji more and more in despair. Kaiji has now lost six times in a row, and due to his recklessness he will now lose his ear if he doesn’t win at least once, even while betting 1mm at a time.

It’s a bit of a pity to see Kaiji in despair this way. What I really fear is going to happen is that Kaiji is going to lose even more after this, after which he miraculously wins once on the twelfth round and saves his ear. I’d rather see a more… evenly matched battle between the two of them, and I hope that Kaiji can grab himself together early enough to not make his survival depend on the very last match.

I’m surprised that Kaiji didn’t figure out that Tonegawa can only use Kaiji’s body language when Kaiji is the first to deal his card. After Tonegawa revealed how he knows exactly when Kaiji deals his emperor, based on his body-language, you’d expect Kaiji to go for either the fourth or the second card, but instead he chose the first and the fifth. With that, Tonegawa doesn’t even have to break a sweat, and just put down his slave whenever he sees that Kaiji puts the emperor down. Come to think of it, the only time that Tonegawa really had to think was in the third round, which was the only one where he won and was the first one to deal. Come on, Kaiji. Stop being emo and realize this!

Well, the same complaints as usual. We’re one episode further, and exactly two and a half rounds have taken place. Considering how one round just consists of putting up to five cards on the table (in this case two or less), you can’t deny that Kaiji is slow. Still, unlike the beam-arc and the ship-arc, I found myself not distracted by this at all. This episode is really what I’ve been waiting for with this series: mind-games, between two people who aren’t just a bunch of idiots, plucked off the streets.

I’m no Tonegawa, but this episode did a terrific job in showing Kaiji’s thought-patterns to the viewer, and I was actually able to predict some of his moves, just as Tonegawa did this with Kaiji. Like expected, in this episode Kaiji tried to use very basic knowledge to try and outsmart Tonegawa, which didn’t really work. I expect that every time Kaiji and Tonegawa change sides, the game will get more intense. After all, after the sixth round, Tonegawa really has the chance to prove how much he sees through Kaiji, and after the ninth round, it’s Kaiji’s turn to outsmart him, when everything depends on him, winning as much on the slave-side.

I’m just a bit worried about the role of the guys who fell off the beam earlier. Their significance in this series stopped entirely ever since Kaiji rose above them (which was quite early). The fact that they got through the door, and into the room that Kaiji and Tonegawa have been playing in (these guys have healed quite fast, by the way) must mean that they’ll have some kind of role later on. I really hope it’s something better than being idiots, like they usually are.