Medium: Anime
Length: 26 Episodes
Rating: PG-14
I had intended to review Hollow Fields this week, but power outages caused by inclement weather basically shut down my city for a couple days, so that'll be next week. Instead, between power outages, I had the chance to sit down and watch the first arc of something different called Kaiji.
Kaiji focuses on Itou Kaiji, a down-and-out street thug with debts he can't repay and no luck left. He's gambled his life away, and things only get worse when a yakuza representative shows up telling him that one of his former gambling buddies has evaded a certain debt for so long that it's fallen on Kaiji himself to pay it off. Freaked that he can't pay the enormous (multi-million yen) debt, the representative offers him another option- A ship full of debtors will soon be taking a four-hour cruise, and half of those aboard will win more than enough to pay off their debts in the outside world. What's one more round of gambling? Though he's reluctant to deal with anything the mafia has set up, Kaiji eventually agrees- After all, he doesn't see any other way to pay it off, and the idea of getting enough to break free from the downward spiral he's in is more temptation than he can take.
Let's start with the positives: Kaiji definitely succeeds in breaking free from the norm. The protagonist is a poor, punkish, foulmouthed gambler who breaks down into tears when he percieves something as unfair- The only thing that defines him as the hero is the fact that he has an honor code he tries to stick to. The character designs are way different- You will find no moe big-eyed anime girls here. Everything is extremely angular (look at that NOSE!) and the lines used to draw them are THICK, and it makes the art style stand out against the CG backgrounds. The overall theme is "human trash"- Kaiji recognizes himself as trash, he sees that the people around him are varying degrees of trash, and that the hosts of the events are about the trashiest of them all.
As for the negatives... Where do I start? The OP is hilariously bad and I haven't seen a show that takes so long to get to the point since the original cut of Dragonball Z. The narrator guy keeps butting in every five minutes with a recap, Kaiji's strategies, while generally sound, take a while to explain... I write a lot of dialogue but between all the melodrama, the narrator, Kaiji's inspirational speeches to his scared-as-shit teammates, and the gambling strategies, I'm completely out of my league. The show itself feels like Yu-Gi-Oh had a threesome with both Death Note and DBZ, and we're not actually sure who the father is. The constant pattern of resounding success-horrifying failure-resounding success-horrifying failure and Kaiji's frequent JUST AS PLANNEDs become predictable after the fifth episode, the foreshadowing is about as subtle as a brick to the face, and oh my GOD are all the characters wordy! I've put a lot of emphasis on how absolutely wordy it is, but I'm not sure I'm actually getting the point across. They talk. A lot. To the point that I almost want to scream "THINK LESS, STUPID" in hopes that he'll actually hear me and, you know, do something interesting. I'm not a shout-at-the-screen type of person, but for God's sakes... It's trying to be "deep" and "psychological", I get that. But there are much, much more effective ways.
That's... not to say that the show's entirely crap... just mostly. Some of the payoffs from Kaiji's risky gambling are extremely satisfying (like the ending of the first arc, where he gets to screw with the guy who nearly ruined him at the beginning), and the show manages to keep me watching, no matter how frustrated with it that I get. I'm not sure why. I don't like Kaiji (the character or the show), I don't like its message, I don't like how long it takes to get to the point, I don't like the characters (though their designs are pretty neat), and I don't like that constant ferking "SHEEREE SHEEREE" that accompanies any even slightly dramatic moment.
I'm failing this one, but I'll watch it to the end anyway, just to say I completed it.
Rating: 5/10
Pass/Fail?: Fail
I may report on the second half, if it gets any better... or if I find that I actually start to care.
Length: 26 Episodes
Rating: PG-14
I had intended to review Hollow Fields this week, but power outages caused by inclement weather basically shut down my city for a couple days, so that'll be next week. Instead, between power outages, I had the chance to sit down and watch the first arc of something different called Kaiji.
Kaiji focuses on Itou Kaiji, a down-and-out street thug with debts he can't repay and no luck left. He's gambled his life away, and things only get worse when a yakuza representative shows up telling him that one of his former gambling buddies has evaded a certain debt for so long that it's fallen on Kaiji himself to pay it off. Freaked that he can't pay the enormous (multi-million yen) debt, the representative offers him another option- A ship full of debtors will soon be taking a four-hour cruise, and half of those aboard will win more than enough to pay off their debts in the outside world. What's one more round of gambling? Though he's reluctant to deal with anything the mafia has set up, Kaiji eventually agrees- After all, he doesn't see any other way to pay it off, and the idea of getting enough to break free from the downward spiral he's in is more temptation than he can take.
 |
| Hairstyle?! This guy's nose alone could sink ships! |
As for the negatives... Where do I start? The OP is hilariously bad and I haven't seen a show that takes so long to get to the point since the original cut of Dragonball Z. The narrator guy keeps butting in every five minutes with a recap, Kaiji's strategies, while generally sound, take a while to explain... I write a lot of dialogue but between all the melodrama, the narrator, Kaiji's inspirational speeches to his scared-as-shit teammates, and the gambling strategies, I'm completely out of my league. The show itself feels like Yu-Gi-Oh had a threesome with both Death Note and DBZ, and we're not actually sure who the father is. The constant pattern of resounding success-horrifying failure-resounding success-horrifying failure and Kaiji's frequent JUST AS PLANNEDs become predictable after the fifth episode, the foreshadowing is about as subtle as a brick to the face, and oh my GOD are all the characters wordy! I've put a lot of emphasis on how absolutely wordy it is, but I'm not sure I'm actually getting the point across. They talk. A lot. To the point that I almost want to scream "THINK LESS, STUPID" in hopes that he'll actually hear me and, you know, do something interesting. I'm not a shout-at-the-screen type of person, but for God's sakes... It's trying to be "deep" and "psychological", I get that. But there are much, much more effective ways.
That's... not to say that the show's entirely crap... just mostly. Some of the payoffs from Kaiji's risky gambling are extremely satisfying (like the ending of the first arc, where he gets to screw with the guy who nearly ruined him at the beginning), and the show manages to keep me watching, no matter how frustrated with it that I get. I'm not sure why. I don't like Kaiji (the character or the show), I don't like its message, I don't like how long it takes to get to the point, I don't like the characters (though their designs are pretty neat), and I don't like that constant ferking "SHEEREE SHEEREE" that accompanies any even slightly dramatic moment.
I'm failing this one, but I'll watch it to the end anyway, just to say I completed it.
Rating: 5/10
Pass/Fail?: Fail
I may report on the second half, if it gets any better... or if I find that I actually start to care.
Comments
Post a Comment