[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Kaiji: the E-card arc
Yeah, it’s been quiet here due to RL commitments, blah, blah, e/n, tl;dr. Hey, at least I wasn’t the poor bugger whose blog mysteriously died on him. Or the guys who got real Hiatus Disease. I did find the time to watch the next arc of Kaiji though, which made me wonder just why I let my viewing slip in the first place - it’s a gripping new arc and a new hurdle for our hero, who winds up facing none other than Tonegawa himself. It’s epic, it’s gar and it’s awesome: I’d expect nothing less from the chief purveyor of Mullet Power, even when he’s reduced to Manly Tears. It wouldn’t be Kaiji without them, after all.
It has to be said that the odds are not on his side
The rules of E-card make for a slightly different game in comparison with the restricted Rock Paper Scissors, which involved mental arithmatic regarding strategy and the laws of probability; it’s also really different from the straight-up nailbiting test of courage that was the Human Derby. There is a lot strategy and luck involved in E-card of course, but there’s more of an element of psychology: the players have to read the opponent and second-guess their way of thinking, while maintaining a poker face to keep their own MO hidden. The expressiveness and relative honesty that have earned Kaiji my respect in earlier episodes put him at a disadvantage here, since Tonegawa’s extensive experience of playing against the likes of him offer an instant head start. All Kaiji has in his favour here is a drive to win but since he has more to lose and is a novice to the game, it’s a real challenge indeed.
The addition of the torture device attached to his left lug also adds a grisly edge of danger that wouldn’t look out of place in a Park Chan-wook or Quentin Tarantino movie; Fukumoto is one of those writers who explores the darker sides of human nature so we don’t have to. The first visual reconstruction sequences show the drill moving inexorably closer to the eardrum but as the game progresses and tension mounts, these cross-section mind’s eye cuts begin to show the drill bit chewing into the organ and sending crimson goo everywhere. Nice touch.
Of course, the whole psychology aspect is bollocks because Tonegawa has been cheating all the way through (see why I left this fact after the MOAR tag?). It takes away one important side of things that means that in this particular E-card game, Kaiji’s chances of winning are ‘nonexistent’ instead of merely ‘very slim’ and most of the cerebral side of the affair was all academic. Retrospectively it means that Tonegawa was toying with him in the first couple of rounds, rather than getting a grasp on Kaiji’s playing style before going about pwing him with his superior experience and insight (my initial impression). In a way it makes the mechanics of the rounds I’d been watching much simpler, which made me feel cheated just as Kaiji did. On the other hand, his measures to counter it are, ahem, extreme.
I was thinking of various ways of beating the monitoring devices, but didn’t come up with anything beyond bleeding oneself to skew the heart rate/blood pressure readings, or possibly dowsing oneself with water to interfere with perspiration monitors and possibly frazzle the device in the process. Alternatively (a theory I came up with before the explanation of Tonegawa’s cheating) I suppose Kaiji could have taunted Tonegawa into a situation where he trips up over his own confidence. Such an approach would however involve playing on the fact that Tonegawa has pressure of his own in terms of his superior demanding an entertaining game, and would all have to be carried out with a relatively clear and sharp mind - a tall order when there’s a drill bit slowly but surely making its way into your ear. Kaiji’s solution was a pretty surefire one though, which I guess was the preferable choice given the situation he was in - I’m sure he was grateful he chose to gamble his ear over his eye at this point.
Click for full sized version
What’s interesting in this show is that, no matter how unpleasant the situations are, the participants enter them through their own volition. I don’t have the 1337 philosophical skillz to critique Kaiji’s portrayal of the nature of free will, but it didn’t go unnoticed by me that Kaiji has some degree of control over his ordeal. He is allowed to balance the amount of pain and risk against the potential rewards, all for the amusement of his opponents of course. In this setting most players will be out to gamble their eardrum for LOADSAMONEY but what endears the Mulleted One over the poor chumps who look on is that his desire for the said LOADSAMONEY is to clear his debt: the rest of it is in the name of revenge for the Human Derby companions who died. He repeatedly weighs up the progress of the drill, the searing agony that results, the overwhelming badness of the gangsters and the rewards that can get him out of his financial mess…and get one over the cheating, murderous bastards at the same time.
At the time of writing (ep #20) the series has six episodes to run which will either stretch E-card out even further (which I doubt - even by this show’s standards of eking out every ounce of tension from a given setup, we’re almost at an end for this arc) or squeeze in another arc before the end of the run. I can see an annoyingly tantalising cliff-hanger before a second season, a rushed final arc or a slower cooldown from E-card, which are all options that are less than ideal.
Winnar…for now at least
A final showdown with the boss is something that can be done in five or six episodes but at the end of it all I guess I’m just waiting for Kaiji’s ultimate payback. With every hard knock he’s getting one step away from being the pathetic bum he was and one step closer to being a more respectable character; whether this is a financial payout or a different kind of personal/physical victory I wouldn’t hazard a guess. It’ll be epic and gar either way, of course.
Posted on March 6th, 2008 @ 2:55 pm
lol @ the comment about saturine, 0rion and Guff.
Kaiji sounds so great… need to start watching soon =/
Posted on March 6th, 2008 @ 11:15 pm
Nice summary of the E-Card arc.
Somehow I doubt that Kaiji is really weighing the pros and cons of continuing on with E-Card, or at least in a sane manner, as it seems a lot to me like he’s just hellbent on revenge right now. Either that, or “one-up these cheating bastards” takes priority over “not dying or collapsing of blood loss”.
And regarding ear vs. eye, I wonder if the sensor readouts work with the eye - it might be a purposeful contrast to give a reason for players to pick the ear (like I think IKnight said in another post) instead of just forcing it on them, to get rid of suspicion. Although, having something covering half your field of vision would intimidate you more in other, more obvious ways…
But I can’t claim to be the expert here, speaking from the 21st episode where things don’t seem resolved just yet. We’ll see where the last few episodes take us in terms of that ‘payback’ you mention. It’s gonna be one sweet victory.
(Of course it’s a victory, right? >_>)
Posted on March 8th, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
@IcyStorm: Saturnine’s blog has got as far as the maintenance page so I’m guessing whatever was wrong is at least part way to being fixed. Sadly Orion and Guff are still MIA, although the fact that I’m moving house this week and haven’t even decided on a new ISP, let alone set my connection up, means this place will go on temporary hiatus in the next few days too. *sigh*
@CCY: thanks. ^_^ Ep #21 ends on a cliff hanger and #22 is taking ages to download so I still don’t know how it’ll pan out. I did notice that Kaiji exploited the pressure that the chairman is putting on Tonegawa though, because the cheating bastard was getting really unsettled and was actually *thinking* about a strategy rather than cheating and watching Kaiji go to pieces. Man, this series is getting to be really, really EPIC.
Posted on March 13th, 2008 @ 4:08 pm
Am I the only person who finds this entire arc predictable?
Hell most of the series you could tell what his ‘revelations’ were before they actually happened. Based upon the number of clues, it’s pretty obvious what was going to happen. The only difference here was the beam-walk, where there was really nothing to it than guts and balance.
Posted on March 24th, 2008 @ 7:33 am
When you watch the first half of episode 23 I recommend trying to imagine that Kaiji has simply gone delerious from blood loss and stress and started obsessing over tissue boxes for no reason. I kept imagining him making a little tissue-box man with pens for arms and legs, drawing a scary face on it, and using it to confront a bemused-but-puzzled chairman.
Seriously, try it. It’s the most hilarious thing ever.
Posted on September 4th, 2008 @ 6:30 pm
some1 has the printable e-cards ?