With this episode closing off the Chinchiro Arc, it’s now a good time to look at this series. And overall, the Chinchiro arc was awesome: it took a while to get there, but it was focused, well built up and based around a carefully prepared plan. The climax was very short for Kaiji standards (in fact, that’s why I didn’t cover this show last week: I thought that there would be more than jut one episode), but very satisfying.
Now, all that’s left is to see whether this series can keep things up. I really watched the first season in the wrong way: because Kaiji took forever to get from A to B, it completely drained me from inspiration: I had hardly anything to say about episodes where only one or two things actually happened. Just whenever you thought that things would get interesting, it ended, or so it seemed at least. Instead, this is the series to watch right before punching an angry bear or something.
In any case, this episode was also the introduction of the Pachinko arc. And by god, I’ve heard some rumours about this thing. Especially the OP: it apart from the Chinchiro arc and the Pachinko arc… it doesn’t seem to foreshadow anything else aside from another confrontation with the old guy again. That means that the entire second season of Kaiji… will only have three arcs. How long is this pachinko arc going to be anyway? Especially because this episode made everything seem so simple. The key is probably going to be the same as with the previous arc: if Kaiji can take his time thinking and preparing then it’ll work out fine, however it will get tedious if it’s going to keep delaying the inevitable.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Since you asked…
The pachinko arc will indeed take up the rest of the season. But far from simple, this gamble/scam is an order of magnitude more complex than anything seen in the show so far… I mean, there is a reason why this is often considered the best arc in the manga.
Yes, the rest of the season will be covered by the pachinko arc unless they would make the season longer and integrate the third series into it which sadly seems unlikely.
But the arc is certainly a long boss battle 😀
Kaiji isn’t a fast series as they’ve already covered more than 40 chapters with 9 episodes.
The pachinko arc is kind of insane… I look forward to see how the anime will handle it, not sure if it will work as good animated, because it is a pretty wacky arc.
Psgels,in the first paragraph do you mean “it’s now a good time” instead of “it’s not a good time”?
Pretty obvious he did, me thinks.
Anyway, I’m having a blast watching Kaiji. Definitely one the series I stumbled onto by pure coincidence and completely fell in love with. Can’t wait for the next arc.
You’re indeed right c160. It’s a nasty typo that I didn’t notice. Fixed it now.
The Pachinko arc will take the rest of the series, and while very awesome, takes a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time to get into. This is more or less the how you’ll feel about it:
first two episodes will be insanely boring.
The next three episodes will be kind thrilling but pretty lame by kaiji standarts.
next few episodes wil be even boring then the starting episodes of this arc.
some 7+ last episodes: INSANELY REWARDING AWESOME ARC THAT WILL KEEP YOU AT THE AGE OF YOUR SEAT EACH WEEK AND WON’T LET YOU FORGET IT EASILY!!!
If you want to quit midway, just be sure to come back for the last part and watch.
The erliar parts are just planning and foreshadowing anyway, which are insanely awesome and VERY rewarding when you can retrace Kaiji’s steps as he made the preperations, but are otherwise pretty boring.