More crying than 1 Litre of Tears.
Oh well, for the fourth review in less than a week, I’ve chosen Kaiji instead of Clannad (which I have slightly regretted downloading). Clannad will come after this, but now I present my mini-review of an anime that has a lot of crying involved.
A not-so-obvious rip-off of a certain TV show across the Pacific.
Story:-
Our hero that cries a lot, Kaiji was left in debt after the borrower he is co-signing for defaulted and goes missing. Unable to pay the exorbitant interest, he is forced to board a mysterious ship where he was told he can wipe out all his debt in one night by winning a strange card game that is held there…
Brilliant is the appropriate word that can be used to describe the story of this anime. It is definitely much better than any of the anime reviewed here in this current wave of reviews (take note to whoever wrote Hayate no Gotoku). The mind games and the psychological warfares that are abundant in this anime can easily be compared to those kinds of detective stories like Meitantei Conan or even other thrillers like Death Note. And if you ask me, Kaiji is better than those two mentioned when it comes to intricate and complex stories and plot twists. The ending is done very well too, and I hope this anime will have a richly-deserved second season.
Another aspect where this anime really shines is the presentation, which is one of the best for quite some time. Portrayals of human emotions; sadness in defeats, elation of winning and also the anger after being scammed is a major essence of this anime and contributes greatly to the quality of this anime. Characters development is also a good point of this anime, although with that small number of characters and most of them are not a recurring character, this is probably inevitable. Although, with most of the episodes happened only on two different nights, this is very commendable.
This anime has no weakness whatsoever in this section.
One of the key cliff-hanger scenes in this anime. Have to be seen to be believed.
Character Design:-
This anime seems to be aimed to older audiences just like Nodame Cantabile did, and the character design reflects that fact. It wasn’t exactly realistic, just different than those in titles aimed to younger demographic. Has plenty of black hair too, which is as realistic as it can be. Definitely a positive point of this anime.
Having to put with 2 retarded teammates can be fatal.
Voice acting:-
Another positive point of this anime, the voice acting for the relatively small cast for this anime is decent, but the main protagonist takes the cake. He is so immense and also one of the major reasons why this anime is that damn good. This dialogue-heavy title succeeded because the voice actor has done a very fine job, he is not far behind Ayako Kawasumi’s Noda Megumi.
There are no abuse of children here.
Music:-
This anime has good OST and OP theme, but unfortunately the ED theme is falling behind. It is very unfortunate that this happened, and you will know why later below.
Some of the violence in this anime, you may want to keep your children away from this title.
Animation/Direction:-
The animation is good as usual for a 2007 anime. There are little fast-paced scenes in this psychological thriller, but when it comes it does not disappoint. Choreography is almost non-existent due to the nature of the anime so no comment for me here. The directing is superb, with some clever camera tricks and angles and also what I have described in the Story section.
An ample explanation of the main protagonist.
Conclusion:-
A definite 10 out of 10. That is how good this anime is if you enjoy this kind of stories (and I do). But just like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kaiji failed to capture the Best Anime of The Year 2007 title from Nodame Cantabile, mainly because little things like inferior ED themes. When you got a perfect score, I will start to compare little things like this to see who is ahead and who will be left behind, and for now a slightly retarded pianist still managed to hold off a poor bum who cries a lot from getting the greatest prize of all. Hmm… somehow this reminds me about the ending of this anime. Clannad has a tough time following Kaiji’s footsteps here.
Still wondering why he loses to a pianist.
List of 10 out of 10 anime in this blog: Kaiji, Capeta, Nodame Cantabile, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Chocotto Sister and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
I forgot what caption should be put here.
