Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
WitchFromMercury
It's a seinen but the morality of the main character is more like a shounen protagonist. He's way too naive and goes out of his way for strangers he has no reason to help, which is frustrating to see and seems like writing to create conflict for the sake of it. But maybe the writing's not so bad since the whole premise of the show is from Kaiji co-signing on a debt to help out a friend he had no reason to trust like that. That's just the way Kaiji has always been, even aside from the games.
I got the urge to watch it now since a lot of Kaiji fans called Squid Game a poor imitation of Kaiji. Squid Game is a lot like Kaiji, they even both had a bridge crossing game. But Squid Game's story is way more mature and impactful. The cheesy morality in Kaiji becomes irritating after a time.
And Ka…
Read at the sourceGsarthotegga
Kaiji is an insanely popular seinen, and it's one that might be a little hard to get into for those who are used to a more typical anime art style. Fukumoto, the author of the source material, has a fairly ugly, though quite geometrical--blocky and sharp--character design. It takes some getting used to, but it's manageable after a few episodes. It even has some degree of charm to the look, and the roughness of it MIGHT be perfect for a story about gamblers, shady characters, and swindlers. It's not a sakuga fest or anything even close, but all of the technical specs are fine and sufficient for the story at hand. The tunes add to the suspense or create a sinister atmosphere effectively. The writing is often pretty decent, and this is one of the most tense anime I've ever seen.
For most, I…
Read at the sourceOptigisa
Many say that slow Anime series are always the boring ones, and they might be right in what they say, because who has the nerve and patience to sit through a twenty minute length of an episode with barely any action and dialogue that keeps being shoved into their faces? This is what people usually think of when they think of slow paced Anime series: No excitement, no intriguing arcs and no endearing characters. All in all, most people think that slow paced Anime series are not enjoyable, until they watch Kaiji Ultimate Survivor. Kaiji Ultimate Survivor proves that a series that relies heavily on dialogue and moves at a snail pace can still be entertaining, amusing and even addictive to watch all the way through. This is an Anime series that is meant to be binged, so much so that one could…
Read at the sourcebasilevs27
---The review contains spoilers---
3/10. Explanation:
Starts off strange to say the least. A young man is deep in debt and is being given a chance to repay it by boarding a cruise ship to do the 'gambling' (?). At this point I was already a bit wary, because why would a loan company give an opportunity to repay the debt and get rich on top of that to somebody who owns them money? Surely that's not a profitable thing to do. Why not collect the money from them or make them repay somehow, idk. On the ship though, this series becomes amazing, and I mean top-tier material, the plot is well thought out, the mechanics of exploiting the faults of the restricted rock-paper-scissors are very well done, there's betrayal involved, competition is dynamic with worthy opponents, kaiji's brain is being…
Read at the sourcemxnu
Video Version : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vkAbdmdBkg
In this ever expanding world of Chinese Cartoons there are a few plots that seem to be recycled very often, happy go lucky high school kids with hair so pointy that it could gouge eye out, and random fanservice. So today i’ll be talking about about a show with a protagonist being a drifting deadbeat who has a nose so pointy that it could gouge your eye out and a cast that doesn’t have a single girl, well unless you don’t include Mikoko...Yep
So just because a show is popular [SAO] doesn't mean it’s good or just because a show is unpopular doesn't mean it’s bad and this is certainly the case with Kaiji. It is one of those series that has some how not caught the eye of too many even though it is one of the best series that I've s…
Read at the sourceDeXeTer
Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor is an amazing show and one of the best anime thrillers of all time up there with monster and death note well the first half of death note anyway on to the story
Story 9
A young man named kaiji is poor never has good luck when it comes to gambling as well as slashing care tires and stealing care emblems and putting them on his wall one afternoon being frustrated losing his latest card came with his neighbors does his usual routine of slashing cars and stealing their emblems once he does that he goes back to his room and crys about how bad his life is and hears a knock on his door opening it a man called endou he would like to have a chat about kaiji and notices his car being slashed kaiji being nervous invites him in and hides all his car emblems t…
Read at the sourcejkalyana
Kaiji is a good anime about the World of Gambling. Kaiji, the main character, himself is no hero, neither protagonist nor antagonist. How he is dragged into the world of Gambling and how he survives is the story which is very interesting, all the episodes. Very good watch for serious watchers. Just because it says Gambling don't expect any action like fighting and stuff. There is literally zero of it. Its all about the Brain Game Gambling.
Story: 9/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 8/10 (There is nothing much to say about sound, its not an action anime).
Character: 8/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Read at the sourceTHEAnimeHERO
Kaiji Ultimate Survivor explores human vices, the temptation of evil & the shattering of hope all through the usage of gambling. Kaiji is a psychological thriller building much tension as Kaiji's thoughts on society & goodwill are put into question.
The story of Kaiji begins when he takes a massive debt from this friend forcing him to resort to gambling on a secluded cruise called Espoir. (French for Hope) From this point onwards, Kaiji enters the gambling world where games cost millions of money & where a person's life matter less than money. Throughout the series, there's many challenges that emphasizes hope being nothing than a dream; that human beings will backstab each other for the sake of their survival. Half of the anime follows this grim realistic concept as Kaiji learns society'…
Read at the sourceKynov
Kaiji, maybe is one of the genius anime that would be rarely be consumed these days. Many reasons for it, like people these days are just loooking for anime which have cute girls (or we can said seeking for MOE). Cant blame on it since anime industry now are using cute girls for their sales and of course for seeking profit. Anyway, there is no cute girls in Kaiji so please step out if you’re looking for it. But honestly you would miss a show that would make hold your breath from the beginning to the end.
Kaiji itself have a simple story, Its about a man named Kaiji who is a thief but then his life changed when he is being visited by a debt collector. The debt collector said Kaiji has an unpaid loan which Kaiji had previously co-signed for a work-mate. But his work-mate had disappeared, th…
Read at the sourceKurano
Money is a very important part of our lives. To even do anything, you need money. Food? Money. Anime? buy a computer, which costs money. Clothes? Money. The only thing I can think of that won't cost money to build or maintain is yourself. So what do you do when you desperately need money, fast? Kaiji's answer to this question is to gamble for it. And damn, there's a hell of a lot of gambles in this anime.
Basically, the story revolves around Itou Kaiji, who's broke and also in debt for about 3 million yen. Some black suits come and talks him into gambling on a ship to pay off his debt. There's a catch, however. Fail, and he will be forced to do manual labor on an island for 1-2 years. Getting 3 wins (stars) allows him to get off the ship. However, a star will be taken away for each loss.…
Read at the sourceSton3_FreeN7
"Money, it makes the world go 'round."
It seems people, in general, will do all kinds of illogical and stupid things just for a little bit of cash. And, people who are well off generally find that amusing. But, when someone has their back against the wall in most cases they will do anything to make it out. Kaiji, a series about a man up to his neck in debt and who is forced to participate in all kinds of twisted "games" with the stakes seemingly much higher and repercussions much more sever each time he plays, gives the viewer a surprising and quite truthful look at the darker side of human nature.
Fukumoto Nobuyuki seems to run on the belief that people can, and will, screw over each other when their back is against the wall. This is shown quite early, as Kaiji is tricked at the begin…
Read at the sourceDarklonestrife
Kaiji is another gambling series done by the same people who made Akagi. If you happened to read my review on Akagi, you will notice how disappointed I was. But the same cannot be said about Kaiji. This time the producers realized their mistakes and fixed it. Now, this is a gambling series done right. Thumbs up.
STORY... The plot revolves around a man named Kaiji, who is in his early twenties and is debt-ridden. It doesn't seem he will ever be able to pay off his debts, but as if sent from the heavens or hell, a messenger comes to him with an "once in a lifetime" opportunity to pay off his debts... There are 3 story arcs and that's basically how each arc starts. But what keeps things certainly interesting and fresh is how with each arc, there is a new means of gambling for Kaiji, meaning…
Read at the sourceExDeath
Kaiji was a very interesting series for me, in that I found it to be so incredibly hit-or-miss, it's difficult to review.
First, there are many pros. The art is the first thing you will notice, but don't let the cover fool you; this anime is pretty well-drawn. The style fits, and you won't even notice anything unusual after 5-10 minutes of watching. The music and ambient sounds are some of the best I've come across, as well as most (but definitely not all) of the voice acting. This comes across to give the series a very creepy and believable atmosphere.
The story is basically what you would expect. It's probably the reason you want to watch Kaiji, if you're a fan of Battle Royale or Shadow Star Narutaru-type tragidrama. It also has many elements of a mystery or puzzle-solving anime that…
Read at the sourceMrOnsen
Kaiji is an anime you would probably avoid at first glance. To be honest, I did too when I first saw it. It stayed in the back of my mind for a few months until a friend told me it was great and I found out that the artist and creator was Korean. So, with a bit of reluctance, I started viewing Kaiji and I was blown away. The artstyle quickly became very enjoyable and I didn't mind the pointy noses or weird eyes after the first episode. If you are avoiding this anime due to the odd artstyle, do yourself a favor and stop being so picky. The art is only a small portion of an anime and it can be easily overlooked if an anime has a great cast and a good plot. Please read the following review and try to muster up the enthusiasm to watch this series.
Characters-
The cast of Kaiji is relatively s…
Read at the sourceSplendiferous
First off, the reason that I am writing this review is that I feel this series is too overrated, the two current reviews here are both exemplary of that.
Summarized review:
Story had the potential to be great 9-10/10, however, after a while it gets really old, and all the cleverness is taken away, leaving a big sob show.
Art - I am a big fan of this style of art, the huge noses, 2D characters, angular character design etc.
Sound - Nothing memorable, nothing to complain about.
Same goes for characters and enjoyment, will get into more detail in full review.
Overall : 6, vastly overrated due to people saying it deals with the evils of humans in such great depth, and is shocking realistic, etc.
However, I feel that the majority of a viewing audience will realism that the real world is no u…
Read at the sourceIcehawkDown
Murphy's Law, whatever can go wrong WILL go wrong. This is the basic premise surrounding almost any anime related to games. As you watch a show like Kaiji, you already know that over the course of whatever game they are playing, things will go badly. The key to these shows it to surprise you anyway, to be caught off guard by the things that go wrong, and to be impressed when the good guys overcome the odds.
Kaiji (mostly) accomplishes this. The main character, Kaiji, plays several different games in which he risks his life/body parts, etc. Some of the games he plays are extraordinarily clever. The first arc especially, has one twist after another, and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
From there, the show is more off and on. A few of the games don't have any clever aspects…
Read at the sourcenoteDhero
What happens when you take the "No one win's but I" attitude and you place it into the hands of a bunch of desperate, shameless losers? Why, you get Kaiji of course!
Art - 7
I understand that the art style was supposed to echo the tone and content of the story. Many will say that the character design is supposed to depict “real-life, gritty” characters. I would disagree. I think that Kaiji is a very stylized, over-exaggeration of “gritty, real-life.” If this is supposed to indeed be a more realistic art style, I just don’t think everyone has pointy chins, noses, and eyes, even if you are Asian. What especially throws everything over into the hyper stylized corner is the very harsh, thick, black lines and angular nature of character designs. It just wasn't my…
Read at the sourceQuizerno
This series does not get alot of love. If you don't enjoy enjoy thinking alot about your anime, you will not like this.
However if you can think about it alot, you will enjoy this alittle or very much.
First of all the story deserves it's credit. Gambling is not interesting unless it is presented in a interesting way. The original author of the manga (Noboyuki Fukumoto) has created series based on gambling, finances, detective work, and basic struggle of surviving. And he does his work with perfection in psychological description.
Kaiji is a character you see grow. By the end of the series you will see this.
Kaiji himself gives this series 10/10 in character.
Human nature is a very core part of the story, and it is described through the use of a narrator. Without the narrator the sto…
Read at the sourceslpless
Edit: added more stuff and reworded some things
What drew me to Kaiji was the interesting premise, gambling. Considering the manga had over 30+ volumes, there had to be something to this. However, the question pops in my mind “how is one able to make an anime about gambling?” In the end, I found that a more important question is “how can one make a good anime about gambling?” and Kaiji isn’t a very good example.
Itoh Kaiji owes 3 million yen to the yakuza and is forced to go into a special cruise ship to gamble his way out of debt. The gamble is based on rock, paper, scissor, while simple at first there is quite a bit flexibility to mess with the system in your favor. This is what makes the first arc so interesting. My roommate and I discussed the many poss…
Read at the sourceTorisunanohokori
This review was originally written after the first arc, and has since been revised to cover my opinions of the entire show, with minimal spoilers.
Story: Itoh Kaiji, a bum with 3 million yen worth of debt gets into a gambling cruise to pay off his debts. The game played on the cruise is Gentei Janken (Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors), where the players get four cards of each type and battle it out. What's the catch? Several things; each card can only be used once, cards can be bought off of other players, con men abound, and losing forces one into the vaguely established but horrible "other room". Also, one must not only break even in the actual matches, but also earn enough through the buying and selling of "stars" (3 of which equate a trip off the ship) to pay off their debts. A simple p…
Read at the source