Kaiji: the tissue box raffle
There’s a good reason why, at the end of the series, I’m not doing one of my customary ‘Final Thoughts’ posts on Kaiji. It is indeed the end of the series run without an official announcement regarding any sequel TV shows or OAVs but I can’t bring myself to view this as the end. The manga’s ongoing of course but this is no indicator of any animated sequels; the fact is, as a series end it’s unsatisfying and lacking in resolution. The final scene, in which the Mulleted One is being driven away from the hotel and swearing vengeance on Hyoudou suggests so much unfinished business that it might as well have a ‘To be Continued’ caption to go with it. I’m hoping we haven’t seen the last of Kaiji, but in all honesty there’s a fair chance that we haven’t - the second season may come along in a couple of months, or more likely, a year or so, but I won’t be surprised if it does.
As an end to the series, it was pretty poor; as the mere end to an arc, it’s still not quite as gripping as earlier arcs but fares well nevertheless. After the brilliance of E-card, complete with a brilliantly twisted Apologetic Tonegawa Barbecue Grill to round things off, the Tissue Box Raffle was weaker in terms of premise, even though Kaiji’s trademark tension-building plot devices were all out in force. Because it wasn’t as strong as the earlier arcs, I daresay I’d view the nature of the ending in a better light if, say, E-card had taken place after the Tissue Box stunt to round of the twenty-six outings. Therefore I’d say it’s more of a patchy content issue than a crappy ending; not to mention Unfinished Manga Syndrome, obviously.
My main beef with the Tissue Box Raffle was that Kaiji went into it knowingly cheating. Disregarding his honest motives and the fact that Hyoudou cheated too, Kaiji no longer holds the moral high ground that helped earn him the viewer’s respect earlier on in the series. In the previous three arcs he was the honest loser fighting against odds that were stacked against him; in the TBR he was the one calling the shots initially and was lowering himself closer to his opponents’ dishonest level.
Incientally, the sheer number of tissue boxes in that bathroom baffled me - unless the Chairman was preparing himself for a Kanokon viewing marathon or something. Seriously, what’s with all those?
I suppose it’s possible to accept his rigging of the game at the beginning by arguing that he’d played three games in which it was unfairly geared against him so was now playing the first where the reverse was the case; ultimately though a victory would not have felt as sweet as in earlier games. As it turned out Kaiji did actually lose but still…it felt too much like an easy win and lacking in tension until Hyoudou’s eventual drawing of the winning ticket.
Instead of thinking “Will our hero win out against adversity?” the TBR was making me ask “Will our hero’s scam pay off?” The tension is still there I suppose but it doesn’t sound quite as worthy of admiration in my view. That’s not to say that I didn’t feel sorry for Kaiji of course - he’d lost four of his fingers for crying out loud! - but I had feeling of, well, not so much “he had it coming,” but more of “he’s bitten off more than he can chew.”
There is also, I guess, an element of repetition breeding contempt here, or more accurately, a case of the story setting itself very high standards. Each successive arc adds something more because it has to outdo its predecessor - the Restricted Rock, Paper, Scissors set the pace; the Human Derby added an element of humiliation and physical peril; the second set of bridges offered the threat of instant death; E-card drilled into the hapless player’s skull to shred an eyeball or eardrum. Apart from the obvious element of the finger guillotine, the Tissue Box Raffle was just some scraps of paper and a cardboard box with little scope for cheating (apart from the initial box rigging) or strategy to get the viewer guessing. Somehow the tame nature of the TBR felt anticlimatic and almost dull in comparison with what went before.
When I view these episodes as the conclusion of a less impressive arc and not the end of the story as a whole, it’s makes me look upon them more kindly - not even a mediocre set of episodes can detract from the quality of the rest of the material when there’s the promise of more to come. What that will be I’m not sure but I think even a game of Extreme Scrabble (taking place on bungee ropes with Kaiji’s testicles held in a vice or similar) will be entertaining. Mullet Power lost this time but I have a strange feeling we’ll be seeing that pointy nose again in the future.
Posted on April 24th, 2008 @ 11:29 pm
Not far from my own views - though I expected that Kaiji’s cheating would lead to his defeat, and I think his remarks on the fact that he prayed rather than thinking when he discovered the lot’s absence are relevant here: cheating or praying, both were essentially instances of Kaiji appealing to something outside of himself. Maybe.
Here’s hoping that Kaiji does get a sequel (actually, it’d be nice if they could wrap Akagi up sometime, as well).
Posted on April 26th, 2008 @ 9:08 am
There will be a sequel, actually — see this link for further details. The author (the old guy on the left) mentions something about a new season a year from now, so I guess we just have to wait patiently for more zawazawa.
Posted on April 28th, 2008 @ 6:43 pm
@IKnight: I think you’re onto something in regards to ‘appealing to something outside himself’ - every time he mined his reserves of 1337 gambling skillz instead of just hoping or cheating, he pulled through somehow. This time his plan was fail, sadly.
@Owen S: I didn’t understand a word of that clip (I got distracted by the cuteness of the gal in the swimsuit and the oddness of the ‘HUSTLE LOYALTY RESPECT’ baseball hat anyway) so I’ll take your word for it. Also because I want to believe it’s true. ^_^