[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Kaiji episodes 2 and 3
Double crosses! Despair! Manly tears! Kaiji is proving to be a real rollercoaster ride as he finds himself duped, spat on and left out on his own…only to meet Furahawa (the guy whose irresponsible cosigning got him there in the first place) and seek out a way to win the first game.
It’s a TRAP!
It’s easy to let things get on top of you when you’re in such a desparate situation but what’s really fun to watch is feeling the tension as our hero pulls himself together and bounces back: as one of the guys in the suits points out, he’s a soldier on a battlefield who’s been stabbed in the back. I can’t emphasise enough the importance of how he comes to his senses: seeing a grown man in floods of tears for his past mistakes made me feel his shame and regret - followed by a decision to fight on. It proves to me that he’s going to be a hero who gets knocked back repeatedly but comes back for more every time. Great stuff.
And thou shalt shed manly tears. Owned
After learning a harsh lesson at the hands of Furai (did he look trustworthy to you?! Ah, hindsight) it’s really interesting to see him bump into Furahawa. While lesser men would continue to mope - or, indeed, give Furahawa the thorough pounding he deserves - Kaiji comes up with a plan to get not just himself but Furuhawa and another guy, Andou, through the game - a ‘united we stand’ type of thing. After the hopelessness of the earlier scenes, Kaiji seems to dig into his 1337 shrewdness reserves and behaves very pragmatically by the end of the third episode. Even when Andou does something stupid, or when it appears the situation isn’t in his favour, Kaiji shows what seems to me to be good strategy and keeps a cool head; these two sides of his character make him to be more complex and, ultimately, more human.
You can’t keep a good man down
The turnaround and the teaming up with Furahawa and Andou ensures that this show explores the painful lows and exhilerating highs of Kaiji’s exploits. I was sitting aghast when he was losing but grinning inanely when he fought back and finally took it upon himself to change the course of things. This is gripping and surprisingly clever television - you can really root for the hero and the pace never misses a beat. Kaiji could be the winner of the season: pointy-nosed, suspenseful brilliance. Zawa zawa!
Posted on November 4th, 2007 @ 5:11 am
No doubt that Kaiji is the winner of the season, at least in my book. The art style and subject matter seem off-putting to many, but in my mind they’re great strengths that make it stand out from all the other moe garbage floating around this season.
And really, a good storyteller could draw plots and characters from a hat and still make a masterpiece story out of it, and that’s exactly what Fukumoto does with this show.
It’s excellent in ways you wouldn’t have expected.
Posted on November 4th, 2007 @ 11:44 pm
@Orion: I never really expected a show like this to be so enjoyable but it’s not the subject matter as such that makes it entertaining - it’s how the characters react. Another good example is Ping Pong (currently sitting on my shelf demanding a re-watch), a cool film with characters I found really engaging…despite having zero experience with table tennis!
I can only guess at what’s in store for our hero in the next few episodes…