[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Kaiji: the human derby of the Starside Hotel
Man, that was intense! Although the Starside Hotel arc lacked the complex logic and backstabbing of the Espoir episodes, it pretty much made up for this through sheer palm-wringing tension. This was the first time that I had to hit the pause button and leave the room to wash my hands because they were literally dripping with sweat. Nice. In this arc, as with the Restricted Rock, Paper, Scissors section, Kaiji proved to be a masterful observation of human nature when placed under extreme duress - it’s hard to imagine how any of us would react if our backs were to the wall like this. Our hero was once again forced to make a choice between one terrifying path and one which is infinitely worse, all to get ahead and make something of his life at last. If you think about the options that were open to him, there is no choice at all: he can either take his chances and push ahead or go back to the life he had before and waste all the time and effort so far.
The return to a dead-end job…and what could well be the first female to appear in the show
I was all too aware of how Kaiji was little more than a plaything in the sick game: his debt was erased all right, but the effort he made on board the Espoir was all for nothing, bar the amusement on the part of Tonegawa and co. The the false hope of the chance to play again and pay off this new debt that they forced upon him was little more than an inevitability really - every time he makes any sort of progress, the goalposts are moved again. How long this can be repeated before it gets old I don’t know, but for now it’s still absolutely fascinating.
The sight of twelve grown men numbered, boxed up like animals and forced to walk on narrow metal beams for money with the threat of serious injury below was made even more abhorrent with the cheering mob of the filthy rich tucking into a buffet and making bets on their progress. It had a marvellously sick and surreal atmosphere as the desperate attempts to win the game were turned into entertainment for the elite. Kaiji’s humanity shone through once again though, as he refused to push others to one side in order to win. How anyone can keep their dignity or even their humanity when the powers that be are making such a thorough job of stripping it away from them is a miracle in itself - a fact firmly hammered home when poor old Ishida wins a personal victory before his final fall later on. In that round, Ishida beat the system - but paid for it with his life.
This is a recurring theme I’m getting with Kaiji: it’s all about the insignificant everyman clawing back a bit of pride and standing his ground within the confines of a manipulative situation that presents tough decisions and plenty of zawa zawas. It’s also about facing up to the harsh realities of a world that can be cruel and unfair: as much as I was disgusted with the mafia guys and their callous attitude, the speeches Tonegawa made contained a lot of truth about society today. Most of the guys risking life and limb on the bridges were indeed hapless losers who had squandered or missed what chances life had offered them, so were left with no option but to dance to the tune of those who have the means to level off their debts.
The first set of bridges was bad enough, with its metaphorical kill-or-be-killed ethos, but the second was harsh even by Kaiji’s standards because it shows how some people believe that money is worth risking even their very lives for. The participants were to suffer more than pain and humiliation if they lost (did anyone else wince in the first round when the beam flew up into one man’s crotch before he slipped off completely? >_< ): this is the first time in this show in which failure actually amounts to a certain death. I was quite shocked actually at this development because it ups the stakes to the ultimate gamble: the cinematography and art style were constantly reminding us that their very lives are on the line. It was also the first time when, as Kaiji himself points out, it’s not a dog-eat-dog competition; rather, it’s a test to see if the will to succeed transcends one’s own fears and inner demons.
This provides the VAs with some real challenges in terms of vocal performances but also the effects, camera angles and the visuals in general up the drama factor and portray the gravity (sic) of the situation in increasingly inventive ways. The hands of Death physically reaching out to a man about to fall, the crackle of electricity, the beams warping and swaying like something from a Salvador Dali painting, using the test as an analogy for the isolation of human strife…in any other show I’d say this and the narration are overdoing it a bit, but somehow all this and the flowing rivers of Manly Tears come across as totally convincing and affecting. Every failure, every fatal fall, was delivered with a kick to the gut that we rarely see in anime, or anywhere else for that matter. Kaiji’s the victim of a twisted game of Battle Royale proportions, but Mullet Power wins again…just. I can’t even hazard a guess as to what the e-card game could involve.
Posted on January 20th, 2008 @ 11:27 pm
I’ve no idea if the show can keep it up, but so far Kaiji really has been excellent. And I’m completely with you on the sweaty hands - even though we know there are plenty more episodes to come, you can’t help feeling a deathly chill when the ‘zawa-zawa’ kicks in.
I think the social-commentary-via-situation in the show is becoming more and more overt, judging by the conversation between Evil Rich Man and Kaiji at the end of the fifteenth episode, by the three cards involved in E-Card and by the paintings on the walls of the E-Card room. (Henry VIII and Elizabeth I! In anime! Shock! Horror! Tudors!)