Holy flipping heck! I know I’ve been complaining about Kaiji for the past few episodes… but seriously… this episode was just plain crazy, and I mean that in a good way! If there was anything this series needed, it was betrayal, and this episode features lots of it. I love episodes like these, where everything comes together like that.
So in the end, there was no Mr. X. I should have guessed this: the guy who flushed his cards down the toilet threw away three scissors. He probably ended up with a wrong hand and fell in despair. The matter is, though, that these cards weren’t counted off the scoreboard. Because of assuming this, Funai ended up being the final person with a card, along with Kaiji and the others. Because of that, he just had to throw away five of his nine stars just to survive. The thing is that because he’s a repeater, he needed to have four stars to survive. Because of this, he still has a debt of 4 million yen after this, because he was stupid enough to borrow the maximum limit and he can’t sell any of his stars.
The second half of the episode is dedicated to another problem: because said three cards have been flushed, there is no way for Kaiji and the others to cancel out each other’s cards. Kaiji then sacrifices himself to the other room, where the final pieces of the puzzle come together. The old man indeed has been tricked by a repeater, and now he’s been abandoned while said repeater is celebrating happily in the winner’s room. Then there’s another character (Okabayashi) who gets introduced, and I really like this guy for his realistic view on life. Both the old man and Okabayashi have been working for their partners. Which makes me wonder, where did Okabayashi’s partner go? I recall that Furuhata and Andou were the only ones with more than two stars left.
Which brings me to the next point: Andou is about to betray Kaiji! It is logical if you look at it one way. There’s a huge trust between Kaiji and Furuhata: they knew each other before going on the ship, Furuhata feels extremely guilty for what he did to Kaiji and Kaiji has been way too moralistic to doubt him. Andou is a different case, however. He was basically saved by Kaiji because he happened to have two stars. Kaiji made a temporarily impression on him, though apart from that, he doesn’t know anything about the guy. There are people who trust easily and there are people who are always afraid to make friends and always keep an emotional distance from people. Apparently, Andou belongs to the later part.
Again on a side-note: if the screenshots don’t show up: let me know]]>
Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 08
I might be wrong about this but I’m pretty sure Okabayashi is a cross-over character from Akagi. He ended up with a 30 million yen or so debt after his game with Akagi during one of the arcs, and that’s more than likely why he’s on the ship.
Socrat, he just has similiar teeth, not the same person. Would have been funny though
I think the betrayal was inevitable. Kaiji unluckiness and gullibility creates horrid situations for him. Also the fact that most these guys on the ship, given their desperation and down and out of luck, if someone gave them an inch for their freedom, unhindered, they will take a mile and more. I can see why one wouldn’t feel bad for Andou as Kaiji, once again got himself in a situation which he didn’t have a trump card (as usual). And that to each other, they are nothing but pawns in a sense. But going with the story itself, I can’t help going against the underdog.
Sorry, I meant to comment going ‘WITH’ the underdog, as Kaiji’s relentless denial to admit defeat is what gave Furuhata and Andou life. And the fact Andou’s greed can inevitably lead to his own downfall. And its very human to have someone succumb to short term guarantees.