Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor (Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor)

After one of his coworkers fails to repay a debt, apathetic bum Kaiji Itou is pressured by loan sharks to settle the large sum of cash. Since Kaiji has little money and no future prospects of his own, he is unable to return what his colleague borrowed. Faced with massive financial burdens, Kaiji is given an offer to board the illustrious Espoir—it is said that "one night aboard the ship, and all of your debts will be paid."

What seems like a simple night of gambling quickly turns into a game of strategy and betrayal. With the losers of the tournament being subjected to a backbreaking life of indebted servitude, Kaiji must choose his actions—and allies—carefully. However, this is only the beginning of a series of gambles that will wager Kaiji's life, testing the full extent of his wits and will to survive.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

In a February 2015 poll conducted by Japanese website Goo Ranking, Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor placed second for "Best Cerebral Anime." The series was released on Blu-ray by Sentai Filmworks on April 20, 2021.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji
Sequel:	Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Hakairoku-hen
Spin-off:	Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Itou, Kaiji

Main

Hagiwara, Masato
Japanese

Tonegawa, Yukio

Supporting

Hakuryuu
Japanese

Narrator

Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko
Japanese

Hyoudou, Kazutaka

Supporting

Tsukayama, Masane
Japanese

Ishida, Kouji

Supporting

Yanaka, Hiroshi
Japanese

Endou, Yuuji

Supporting

Uchida, Naoya
Japanese

Sahara, Makoto

Supporting

Komoto, Masahiro
Japanese

Andou, Mamoru

Supporting

Sakurai, Toshiharu
Japanese

Kitami

Supporting

Yao, Kazuki
Japanese

Funai, Jouji

Supporting

Ishikawa, Hideo
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Tamura, Manabu

Producer

Nakatani, Toshio

Producer

Takahashi, Ryouhei

Producer

Kobayashi, Mikiko

Assistant Producer

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Opening Theme

"Mirai wa Bokura no Te no Naka" by Kaiji with Redbourn Cherries

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Ending Theme

""Makeinu-tachi no Requiem (負け犬達のレクイエム)" by Hakuryuu

Reviews

Mar 18, 2024

mbarseru

Recommended

An absolute fucking blast of emotions

A lot of depth and relatability can be grasped from this anime, maybe not in the sense of gambling related per say, but in the sense of personal struggle and wishing to get a fresh start.

I absolutely loved this anime, if not for my friends recommendation, I would have kept sleeping on this masterpiece.

It is an absolutely gorgeous anime story wise, as unlike a good deal of other anime, it does not let neither the fact who the main character is nor the fact that he is the main character NOR the fact that there are more episodes ...

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Mar 23, 2022

WitchFromMercury

Mixed Feelings

It's a seinen but the morality of the main character is more like a shounen protagonist. He's way too naive and goes out of his way for strangers he has no reason to help, which is frustrating to see and seems like writing to create conflict for the sake of it. But maybe the writing's not so bad since the whole premise of the show is from Kaiji co-signing on a debt to help out a friend he had no reason to trust like that. That's just the way Kaiji has always been, even aside from the games.

I got the urge to watch it now ...

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Feb 12, 2022

Gsarthotegga

Not Recommended

Kaiji is an insanely popular seinen, and it's one that might be a little hard to get into for those who are used to a more typical anime art style. Fukumoto, the author of the source material, has a fairly ugly, though quite geometrical--blocky and sharp--character design. It takes some getting used to, but it's manageable after a few episodes. It even has some degree of charm to the look, and the roughness of it MIGHT be perfect for a story about gamblers, shady characters, and swindlers. It's not a sakuga fest or anything even close, but all of the technical specs are fine and ... sufficient for the story at hand. The tunes add to the suspense or create a sinister atmosphere effectively. The writing is often pretty decent, and this is one of the most tense anime I've ever seen.

For most, I think this could muster at least a 5 for general solidity, if not higher, as can be seen from the average rating, but maintaining constant tension--especially via simple luck-based competitions, doesn't really make for the most captivating art in the longterm. Yes, the ingredients tend to be average enough, if not good, but this doesn't offer much beyond the cinematic thrill of what an adrenaline junkie might get out of a roller coaster ride. Constant tension, then it's over. Sure, it's fun while it lasts, but it's ultimately rather shallow.

One aspect that should be singled out is the narration. This seems to be a narrative device that's not very common in anime. Given the nature of these games, a little bit probably is necessary, but they really overdo it in this show. The pacing is already an issue, and part of the way they pad the show out are still shots or closeups with copious amounts of narration. I think this show is a very good example of over-narrating or how easily such a device can cheapen the material.

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD:

We can divide the series into what amounts to four separate arcs: Rock-paper-scissors on the Espoir cruise ship; steel frame crossing; e-card; tissue box.

The first is the best. There's more downtime for the characters to chat and plan everything out. While it is thick with tension at various points, there is a relief to this tension, or at least our characters are momentarily distracted from it. Rock-paper-scissors is a simple game, but the methodology used at various points is elaborate and about as complex and well-written as you could hope to get for something like this. Many of the characters bend the rules and cheat, and there's a lot to take in and numerous ways the characters could approach the game, as opposed to the much more static and straightforward later scenarios. Kaiji makes for an underdog that is easy to root for, though the naivety of his philosophy and his stubbornness first appear in this arc, and this facet of his personality becomes much worse later on to the point that I'm left groaning at how idiotic Kaiji is. There are plenty of temporary alliances and betrayals here, and this is the only segment with nuanced drama and some much needed breathing room. The characters here are a bit more well-rounded than later segments, aside from subsequent villains, like Tonegawa or Hyoudou.

The remaining three arcs are high-stakes, and now Kaiji becomes something of a non-stop tension death (or serious injury) game. It gets kind of ridiculous in the steel frame crossing arc. There's (warranted, though the boomers need some hate, too) commentary about how useless millennials are and how they might improve their plight, along with a bit of class commentary that extends into the next arc; it presents the perspective of both the prey and the predators, and acts as decent incentive for the men to try their best. The emotions are meant to be pretty high here, and I think I've seen more manly looking men crying here than in any other anime ever. lol. Unfortunately, none of these characters, other than Kaiji have much of a presence. Ishida and Sahara aren't bad, but we aren't given much time to get to know them, and they remain very archetypal and relatively flat.

This is where the series' pacing goes down the tubes and it becomes SLOW. It manages to be pretty tense, but when I reflected on these episodes afterwards, they probably spent like 3-4 episodes for all of the characters to get halfway across the steel beams. That's more audacious padding than even DBZ! There are lots of closeups, crying, more crying + snot, visual metaphors, drawn-out narration, and whatever else the staff could use to extend the episodes. Don't get me wrong, these are some nail biters, but there's not much substance, and if you think about it at all, it's quite disenchanting how dull this actually is. A few moments are surprisingly quite impactful despite the undeveloped characters.

The e-card segment is just as drawn out, but it's a little less simple, and Tonegawa is a good nemesis to challenge Kaiji, who even manages to be a bit sympathetic by the end. There are several risks on Kaiji's part that seem game-breaking, and I'm surprised the yakuza (or whatever they are) would let that slide. The remaining participants in the steel frame crossing become fast buddies with Kaiji and are rooting for him at this point. It makes sense that they would share common ground because they feel they've been wronged by their usurious exploiters, but they're way too buddy-buddy. You keep expecting them to steal Kaiji's money at this point, but they've become softies, despite seeming like complete wolves who would do anything for a dollar in previous segments. The writing here is silly, and these characters all look generic, are flat, and I don't think any of them even have names!

The last arc is easily the worst. Like, Hyoudou says, the tissue box game, which involves drawing lottery tickets, is BORING. It's also dragged out for as long as possible, though this is the shortest arc. Seriously, couldn't the creator have come up with a more interesting game? The point was for Kaiji to come up with a spontaneous game that he could rig and that the opponent couldn't rig, but his strategy is pretty obvious, and it's amazing he'd even go through with this, given the risks, and the many issues with his plan.

This is where Kaiji becomes another irritating character. Instead of knowing when to quit, he turns this into a battle of good versus evil, he's unbelievably stubborn, ridiculously moralistic, and, honestly, quite stupid. They telegraph what the results will be, so the outcome is what you'd expect, and the whole thing is a waste of time. It leaves me grimacing with pain that part of his motivation for this last game is that he won't have enough money leftover after "keeping his promise" with Ishida, which should already be null and void because that part of the game is over. I've enjoyed many portrayals of characters who are very unlikable, immoral, flawed, etc., but it's hard not to be annoyed at a character who is written to be this stupid.

I'd honestly recommend the first arc, as that's the sole part I enjoyed when reflecting on the series. The 2nd and 3rd arc have good moments, but they're a lot more basic overall, and way too padded. The last arc is terrible.

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Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

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Characters & Voice Actors

Itou, Kaiji

Tonegawa, Yukio

Narrator

Hyoudou, Kazutaka

Ishida, Kouji

Endou, Yuuji

Sahara, Makoto

Andou, Mamoru

Kitami

Funai, Jouji

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Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

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Episode Videos

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