天下制覇

Rock Paper Scissors…. Shoot!

Impressions:

The short version is that if you didn’t like Akagi, you probably won’t like this. Even if you did like Akagi, I’m not convinced that you’ll like this though. A big part of the charm of Akagi is how much of a sheer badass Akagi was and therein lies the major difference between the two shows. Kaiji is a lot more despondant and down on his luck in general. He’s basically a tramp. It’s easy to root for the genius underdog who never backs down… it’s not so easy to root for the sniveling and crying coward.

It’s kind of useless to talk about production values for the show. They’re pretty awful. There’s no two ways around it. The art is crisp but the animation minimal. Music is more or less the same as Akagi… functional, but nothing you’d ever dream of listening to outside of the show. The character designs retain their very blocky look with noses that would put Cyrano to shame. 

There’s also a change in perspective from Akagi. In Kaiji, there are no characters to act as the audience’s eyes and ears, there’s just Kaiji. Instead of watching the main character as an outsider and being amazed, it’s a lot more personal, which brings the character of Kaiji down a notch from the mysticsm that charged Akagi’s whole being.

It’s late and I’m probably rambling, but the gist is basically that while the games in Kaiji are a lot easier to grasp for a western audience (hell, the first game is rock-paper-scissors… starting next episode), Kaiji just lacks the ethereal nature of Akagi and is far more human of a character. It would be an improvement if Kaiji was a sympathetic one, but I couldn’t really empathize with him at all. Maybe as the actual gambling starts, things will improve and I’ll pay more attention, but as far as first episodes go, this one was pretty weak.

No summaries for the first episodes. I write as I watch, and I don’t know if I’ll care about a show until after the first episode.

Kaiji OP (yes, it’s only 50 seconds)