Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 23

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


Okay, this’ll be a short entry, since all this episode did was building up anyway. Kaiji, while still under the influence of the adrenaline from his match with Tonegawa, is screwed in the head enough to abandon the 20 million he won, just for a shot to challenge the chairman. Even though the chairman claims that it doesn’t really hurt him whether or not he loses, Kaiji is still determined to gamble. This begs the question: how is Kaiji planning to take revenge on the chairman? The most obvious strategy would of course be for the guy to put all of his money on the line. If it’s one thing that rich people are terrified of, it’s getting poor. But this guy is a professional. He just isn’t crazy enough to just do it for the life of one measly ant.

Apart from that, the pacing was as slow as usual, which isn’t the most exciting thing when this series isn’t in one of its climaxes, so I’ll withhold my judgement until the next episode.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 11

by psgels, posted in Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter


Ah, of course. Shigofumi wouldn’t be Shigofumi without a deliciously over-the-top finale. What else could you expect for a series with the subtlety of an African elephant? Thankfully, this was yet another terrific episode for this series. I must say that I really had my doubts when I found out that the guy behind Code Geass behind the series composition, but this really turned out to be the perfect series for this guy, especially when the series is directed by a very talented director. They really brought this series to life.

So, basically, in this episode Fumi wakes up. Because of this, Mika wants to kill herself to accept her punishment, so most of the episode shows attempts as the shy Fumi gets kept away from the reaches of Fumi. Obviously, this can’t last forever, and the two run into each other at one point. Fumi then goes through an entire personality-switch when she found out that Mika shot the father she loved so much, and shoots Mika.

Obviously, because of one of the big rules of anime (a character is only dead when confirmed dead, and this isn’t the kind of series to try and diverge from this cliché :P), but still, Fumi is turning into an actual villain! The best thing is that she doesn’t even realize how much everyone has worried about her. And what was her plan at the end of the episode? To actually kill her father for real? And the blonde woman… could she be Fumika’s mother?

That twist with the dog was also nicely found, and it shows that already back then Fumi was more than just the shy and scared girl that Mika came to know. That look on her face when she chased away that dog explains a lot. And interestingly enough, it was that look that caused Kaname to develop his crush on her.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 10

by psgels, posted in Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter


This episode featured a regular case again, and boy, was it a great one! Basically, a guy hears from his doctor that he only has a very limited time left to live, and he ends up spending time with a naive little girl. The creators did a wonderful job of bringing the guy and his anxieties to live. After all, it’s easy to think of what you would do if you only had a limited time to live, but what if this fantasy turns out to be a reality?

This episode still featured the standard Shigofumi-subtlety (that random truck, coming from out of nowhere). Little kids also usually turn very whiny during the evening, at the end of a day out, so where the little girl in this episode got her energy from is beyond me. Still, these details didn’t stop this episode from being a success. It lays an interesting parallel to the desire to fit into society. Look at how the policeman got surprised when he found out that the main character for this episode had no job (which he quit, because it had no point at all).

One thing that the creators did nail perfectly about little girls is their ignorance of death. At such a young age, it’s perfectly understandable that you don’t get why all the adults are getting so worked up about somebody dying. When the main character for this episode died, she didn’t even cry. She just realized that she’d never be able to play with the guy again.

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 22

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


One thing that I do want to praise this series about is the balls that it has to go really extreme. After the Boat-arc, for a minute I feared that Kaiji would try to stop the punishment of Tonegawa. Instead, Tonegawa has proven that he’s a real man this time, even though he lost. He was just unable to escape the clutches of the employer he worked for for decades. His final moments were truly terrific, and I’m glad to say that this series now has two well-developed characters. And with a bit of luck, the chairman will make this count three, but that depends entirely on what’s going to happen for the final four episodes.

At the moment, I still don’t regard Kaiji as a flawless series. The boat-arc and especially the beam-arc dragged on, were a tad predictable and lacked engaging characters to keep me interested. And yet, the past few episodes, ever since Kaiji cut off his ear, have been absolutely amazing. I guess that that’s the time since the characters clicked with me.

The chairman has been an interesting character so far, with an interesting philosophy, but he still lacks development a bit. This episode told a bit of his background, but the final episodes still do have a bit of work to do. It would be a bit of a shame for Kaiji to just defeat the guy and make an end to his twisted ideas.

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 21

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


Oh god… as it stands now, reviewing Kaiji when it’s finally over is going to be a incredibly difficult. At the moment, I have no idea whether to classify it as just good or excellent. All the commenters on the previous episode made me see this series in a new light, but on the other hand I still remain convinced that the beam-arc was just way too long and drawn-out. I hope that the final episodes will either back up how amazing this series is, or how flawed it is.

The current episode was just amazing, though. This is really what I’ve been hoping for: mind-games without cheating. Tonegawa was absolutely amazing this time, because for once he has to use his head. He’s now going through the same as Kaiji was, back in round one. The creators also switched the viewpoint for this episode: the entire episode was told from the perspective of Tonegawa. We never get to see any of the worries that play into Kaiji’s head.

There’s one thing I do know for sure about this series: I absolutely HATE the cliff-hangers. They work fine if you’re marathoning this thing, but when you watch it on a weekly basis like I’m currently doing, they leave me every episode with a bad taste in my mouth, just because I’m too eager to find out what’s happening next.

I’m really interested to find out where Tonegawa’s thinking-error lies. Obviously, Kaiji can’t die yet; there are still five episodes left. But this also means that the final arc is going to be a relatively small one. The next episode will probably be enough to conclude the E-Card arc and introduce the final one, leaving just four episodes for the real action. If I had to guess (and hope), then Kaiji will be taking on the big boss himself. At the moment, I see Kaiji crazy enough to challenge that guy for something around 20 billion yen. Bleeding ear or no bleeding ear.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 09

by psgels, posted in Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter


Well… that wasn’t one of the most exciting episodes…

This could be just me, but whenever the major crew of an anime heads off to another resort or hotel, it just feels horribly bland and uninspired. Especially since EVERY SINGLE ONE of these episodes has to have some kind of hot-spring sequence. It’s not necessarily the fanservice that gets me, but the fact that every single episode looks like each other. It feels just like the creators were in a “well, we need one more episode to fill but we’ve run out of ideas so let’s just send the cast off to a resort so that they can enter hot springs”-mood. Such an episode SO doesn’t belong in this series, especially after I praised it for feeling so refreshing!

So, basically this episode was meant to give Chiaki a bit of development, but I feel that it would have been better if it didn’t spend half of its time on pointless chatter. We’ve enough other series for that! It turns out that she too was a normal human, fifty years ago. She was in love with a guy who was about a decade older than she was, and just as the two were about to propose, they got in a car-crash and Chiaki died. Now, fifty years later the guy also finally passed on, and used the Shigofumi to talk to Chiaki one final time. It turns out that she’s always been on his mind.

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 20

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


Oh my god… I’m speechless. I know I have been whining against this series, but that doesn’t matter for this episode. All I know that these were 20 of the most disturbing minutes of anime I’ve seen. Let me warn you: do not watch this episode if you can’t stand gore. I still can’t call this series great, but damn… this episode was so worth it.

I’m going to keep this entry short, because even though it was an awesome episode, it’s also one that I’d like to forget as soon as possible. In this sense, the gore is even worse than in Shigurui because there, you can see it coming. I didn’t expect for Kaiji to be this screwed in the mind to just cut off his ENTIRE EAR.

Shigofumi – Stories of the Last Letter – 08

by psgels, posted in Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter


Haha, this was the best episode of Shigofumi yet. The creators did an excellent job for the episode on Fumika’s past. It was really over-the-top, but at the end you can really understand why Fumika shot her father. I’m glad to see that Shigofumi has found its own style, and kept with it, and it’s a great example of combining calm storytelling with extreme themes.

So, we already knew that Fumika’s father was insane, but there’s more to this story than just that. Her mother immediately divorced the guy as soon as she gave birth to Fumika, and now she’s remarried to another guy and lives in another country. Ever since then, she spent her childhood just with her father. In the beginning, he was really nice to her, though at one point, he started drawing on her, just like what he did in the last episode, but much more extreme. It was his way of getting inspiration for his books, but he was never content with it, and released all his anger about this on Fumika.

It was at this point where Fumika started developing an alternative personality: Mika, while she herself became Fumi. By talking to herself, she found peace between the horrible tortures of her father, and this continued until Fumika went to middle school, and she finally met other people, including Kaname and Kasumi. Meanwhile, though, the abuse continued, and at one point, it was Mika who couldn’t take it anymore to see Fumi being abused like that, and shot her father.

What’s interesting is how Fumi continued to love her father, no matter what he did to her. After her father was shot, I believe that the shock of seeing her father shot caused her to go into coma, and ever since, Mika became unable to contact her.

The question will now be: what do the creators have in mind for the final third of this series? There are four episodes left, and Fumika’s back-story seems to be resolved now. If I had to guess, then the final episode ends with Fumi, waking up again, though I’m interested to see how the creators are planning to do this.

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 19

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


Call me gullible, but I’m not really pleased to find out that my praises for the E-Card arc of a few episodes ago, where I finally hoped to see some complex mind-games between two masterminds, turned out to be one big mistake. How I hoped to see both Tonegawa and Kaiji outsmart each other with complex tactics… well, it now turns out that Tonegawa has been cheating. Sigh. The episode was quite intense, and it wasn’t bad at all, actually, but it’s the whole attitude of this series that bothers me.

I finally think that I know where my problems for this series lie: with those cursed expectations again. A couple of years ago, I watched the first arc of Akagi. I’m still not sure why I didn’t continue it, but I loved the complex tactics that it brought into Mah-jong. Shion no Ou is currently doing a similar thing with complex and character-based tactics. So yes, I was hoping for the same kind of experience, where Kaiji would use his head while gambling, and come up with nice ideas to win money. It was even advertised, how Kaiji would “enter the dangerous world of gambling”.

Instead, we get 26 episodes of bunch of yakuza who like to bully a bunch of defenceless young adults. It’s nice and all, but it’s so different and less interesting (in my opinion, at least) from what I expected from this series. I also see no reason why this couldn’t be cut into just thirteen episodes. That would have been the perfect length for a concept such as this one. Each arc thus far has featured Kaiji enter a challenge full of confidence, dive into the deepest pit of despair imaginable, only to rise up again and survive with one masterful insight. In that way, the Boat-arc has so far been the best arc so far, because at least that one did have a bit more than just the formula I described.

Now I also understand why I’m so bothered with the slow pacing of this series, even though I usually don’t have this problem at all. The arcs are just so formulaic that I find myself thinking “just get on with it”. I mean, the creators really try to keep the episodes interesting, but the fact that Kaiji will rise from his despair and will at least do something that wasn’t part of Tonegawa’s plans are just way too apparent. It doesn’t even matter whether Kaiji wins or loses, because by the nature of this series I’m already expecting that Kaiji will walk away without any money, yet again, and that the creators will find another way to keep Kaiji on their leash so that he can enter the fourth and final arc of this series.

So, how is it that Shion no Ou is currently my absolute favourite series, even though it too is in the middle of a tournament-arc with a similar premise as that of Kaiji? Well, Shion no Ou makes sure that there’s enough going on for me not to care. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like every character there has his or her own goals and morals. In Kaiji, it just feels like they exist to carry Kaiji through the storyline.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 07

by psgels, posted in Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter


This episode goes back to Fumikas background, as we get to know her father a bit more. Kaname’s meets up with his old school-friend, whose sister seems to be an admirer of Fumika’s father, who turns out to be a famous novelist (his name is Kirameki Mikawa, by the way). The sister also works for a newspaper-company, and coincidentally at the same day where Kaname pays a visit, she got an assignment to interview Mikawa. Coincidentally, at the same day Fumika also gets another Shigofumi from one of his obsessed fans who committed suicide because of one of his books. Yes, this was a tad too coincidental…

Thankfully, the rest of the storytelling more than made up for this. Mikawa is really messed up in the head, which is probably also why his books sell so much. He lives in a really eccentric house, full of glass, and because of the themes he uses in his books, people commit suicide. Apparently, this seems to happen more often, because he seems to have turned burning the Shigofumi he receives as some kind of weird ritual, and I can imagine how you can go crazy because of this as a daughter. I guess then at one point, he did something unforgivable to her, so she shot him. I’m not exactly sure why she ended up in a coma afterwards, but I suspect that the future episodes will shed light on this.

Interestingly enough, because apparently the guy didn’t die when Fumika shot him, Fumika plans to shoot the guy yet again. However, thanks to some meddling by Kaname she loses her gun, Mikawa picks it up, and mercilessly shoots his daughter instead. Now, I really wonder what will happen. She obviously won’t die completely, otherwise we’d have a bunch of very boring final episodes, but the matter isn’t so simple that she’ll either die or keep living. Her Shigofumi-form may be immortal, and just come back to live as long as her body in coma remains alive. It could also cause her coma-body to wake up again.

Those were some pretty interesting camera-angles, by the way. Especially when Mikawa was in the picture, the entire frame became more and more distorted, probably symbolizing his own twisted personality. What would be interesting is an episode, dedicated to the guy’s past. How did he become the famous writer anyway, and how did he find a woman, crazy enough to marry him and have a child? One thing I like about Shigofumi is that although it reminds me of a bunch of other series, it really managed to set itself apart from all the other series with its type of storytelling.