User reviews

Kaiji is about a low class bum who got into a debt due to him co signing for a co-worker he knew. The debt is 3,850,000 yen and there's no way someone like Kaiji could work off that much in so little time. When a debt collector came to see him, he gave Kaiji an opportunity in erasing his debt. And this involves Kaiji attending a game with other men that are in his position. If he wins he'll be able to live a more comfortable life. If he loses he'll be in deeper debt.

With an entirely original story featuring uniquely drawn characters. Kaiji is an anime that's never been done before. Very few others would include risky gambling or featuring torture to it's fullest. In fact the games of gamble are so intense that you'll be wanting to watch the series to the very end.

If you like an anime that has risky gambling or something that shows torture, then include Kaiji on your list of "Anime yet to be licensed in America".

For me it's the best gambling show I've ever seen, 10/10.. But in general it's 8.5.

What I realized about this show, in brief, it gives you hope, and take it away at the same moment you become hopeful, it takes it away in the most hurting and painful way. If you want to watch it, keep cool and don't have hope that anything good would happen, until it really happens.

There are many anime , whether about gambling or not, where the protagonist possess almost superhuman intellect,speed or powers. However in only a handful can the hero be.........human with all the weaknesses and flaws of a human being. That's Ito Kaiji, the main character, who is as flawed as anyone and yet so brilliant at times as to almost be out of this world. I really enjoyed the series and once i got used to the ,admittedly, uncommonly angular art style i was really drawn in. I can compare the real life lessons Kaiji has to offer to another great yet underrated anime: NHK ni Youkoso (Welcome to the N.H.K.). All in all , Kaiji is a food for thought type of anime that may demand the viewers undivided attention,to understand it fully, but rewards them with many hours of pure entertainment. My rating is 8/10.

I have seen lots of good movies and animes, filled with suspense and tension, but " Gambling Apocalypse" is on a whole different level. The nail bitting moments are intense and very well written. The script is A+. Never cheered for someone, so hard, in a movie before.

I can't believe something like SAO or Bleach or Naruto are so famous while Kaiji is so underrated even though it's about 700million times better (if you know what I mean), well here how good it is: I know a lot about gamblers and how they feel and act and this anime had me on the edge all the time like I was the one gambling and it dealt with a gambler MC in such a perfect way! it's like that character is a real life gambler in front of your eyes and sometimes it's like you are gambling yourself (only applies if you've gambled before and know the feelings) and then again it's a smart mind game and lots of puzzles for you to solve..some I guessed and some I couldn't so it just keeps you close to your screen the entire 2 seasons! I just loved it! so really if you haven't watch it yet then go watch it right now! definitely one of the best 5 animes I've ever seen!

Kaiji is the first anime of its kind. I did watch many many animes which had great storylines and plottwists, but kaiji seems to be more intense than any other before. I liked the unique art style, after a few episodes it became natural. What is really great about this piece of art is that its just so realistic, the thought process behind any character can be comprehended very easily. The second guessing about how u live ur life and what to do with it is very interesting and applies on everybody in this world, which is why it mad me think about mine as well, thats something great an anime can do with you.

I can only suggest anybody who thinks about watching it to do it!

Im kinda sad they didnt do a third and fourth season of this, so i guess im going to read the manga. Because the 2 anime seasons are like 20% of the whole manga.

Best TV animated series you could ever watch in your life.The moment you start watching it you can't STOP it is a MASTERPIECE

I definitely do not have the skills to explain how great this is. Just watch the video made by super eye patch wolf and skip the spoiler part. Go. Go. GO.

There is suspense no doubt, but the main character is amazing levels of thrash. The problem here is they want to make the main character as normal as possible but at certain times a genius and the back and forth of that unbalance makes for a very annoying and crappy main character.

Kaiji learns nothing from the beginning of this anime to the end of the anime. It's development of Kaiji is horrible at best. The gambling aspect is good and intense, except for the fact they spend 4-5 episodes on irrelevant nonsense it dulls the intensity of the gambles.

When it comes to gambling anime I haven't seen a lot but this is definitely ranked last out of the 3 I've seen and not even comparable to the other 2 in terms of intensity, artwork and plot.

If your a fan of One Outs and Kakegurui you'll understand. Kaiji Ultimate Survivor is decent at best, it's very overrated IMO. The ending is not satisfactory and you will feel like the character definitely never grows or learns, as is evident with the last gamble and episodes.

My Review will be in 5 Main Parts: 1- The Goal (10 out of 10): The Anime have several goals like "Never give up, Think Then decide, Fulfillment, Teamwork, ..... etc" And all of those goals positive and the anime delivered it to the viewer in a clear way. The main goal is That "Gambling is Bad", It is obviously that the anime all about gambling and how it's risky and that the hard work is the way to what you want because that gambling is for lazy men who will end up dead, bankrupt or indebted and the lucky one will be rich, but it's a lust in the end so he will continue Gambling and fall in the same problem (it is a cycle that not end). 2- The Excitement: (10 out of 10) It found here in hard situations when kaiji make a decision, And that was done very good and make me feel that Difficulty. 3- The influence: (8 out of 10) The anime make me interact with every scene of win, lose, sadness, happiness *BUT* the sad scenes was less influence that not made me full interact. 4- The Vital (7 out of 10) The anime make me watch it in 4 days only -season 1 in 3 days and season 2 in two days- Every new episode take me to the next one *BUT* season 2 made me bored in some episodes where i think There was unnecessary lengthening. 5- Overview (7 out of 10) As general it was very good anime *BUT* these are some of the points where the anime did not succeed in my view: 1- The scenes of full nudity of the characters in the room of losers it wasn't should to be like this, They could have been partially naked until they go to the permanent punishment, specially that some of them went out from the room. 2- The girl that didn't showed in the anime but mentioned only, why her picture in bikini showed every episode in season 2? "the episode end was enough for her story with kaiji". My Rating: 42/50 == 8/10

Kaiji is an anime that revolves around a man named Kaiji who is in his early 20s. He is poverty striken and lives in an apartment. He is very greedy after money, he doesn't choose any fair means to earn it but through his habit of gambling. Apart from being greedy, he is also very jealous of rich and higher class people. He has a lot of symbols of cars at his home which he stealed from luxurious cars of the rich people on the streets. This indicates towards his jealousy. One day a man who is a debt collector shows at his home. Kaiji had taken nearly half a million yen of loan from various loan agencies. When the debt collector asked him for the money, he couldn't gave him as he didn't had any because he spend all that in gambling. The debt collector offered him a gambling opportunity. The gambling game was to be held at a ship. On that ship there were various people who were also indebted with money. Kaiji agreed and from there his roller coaster journey started. This was all about the plot. Now about the anime, it is a very thrilling 52 episodes (2 seasons) story in which the viewer will get glued to the screen. This anime series can give anyone a massive amount of adrenaline rush. The story, voice acting, animation, soundtrack everything combined will give you a edge-of-the-seat experience. This story is about how gambling can be extremely addictive habit and Kaiji falls right into the trap of it. The art style is not something like a typical anime but the art style is something which suits to the theme of this anime which is dark and greedy nature of the world in which the Anime is set in. This and Death Note have the best soundtrack so no disappointment their also. Overall, highly recommended series to watch.

My brother told me about this anime and after some months, i decided to give it a try.

Why the animation could be better (their faces looked carved), with how engaging it is, i did not care after a while.

It's so engaging, and it will have you at the edge of your seat from start to finish. This is better than most anime out there and i've seen many. It's better than Demon Slayer, Jujutsu kaisen, FMA (overrated), Hunter x Hunter (overrated and childish). This anime should be more popular based on how good it is.

And I can't forget to mention how the story is similar to squid game. I heard squid game drew inspiration from this.

Highly recommend if these are your tastes in anime: Naruto, Attack on titan, Fate stay Night/Unlimited Bladeworks.

This series is incredible. Our titular character Kaiji is a 20-something loser who reads manga all day, works a dead-end job, and enjoys defacing property of those who he things are better than him. Kaiji is also incredibly intelligent, however he just has no drive but to do the bare minimum. Everything changes on one fateful day however as, in a brief moment of compassion, he agrees to co-sign a Yakuza loan for a friend of his and the friend defaults on the debt. Kaiji is now millions of Yen in debt to the Yakuza and would have to spend decades paying them back with interest.

Or he could erase all the debt in one night if he agrees to play some games...

That is all you need to know going into this. Everything from Squid Game to Alice in Borderland are no doubt influenced by this series and Kaiji is a series that is a 10/10 the entire time. The games are easy to understand and brutally terrifying and we get to see how Kaiji can finally use his intelligence to find ways out of seemingly hopeless situations.

This is a cant-miss series. There is nothing like it out there and it is intense every step of the way.

Highest recommendation to watch.

I couldn't believe myself that i stopped at 3 eps like normally if i find an anime crappy, i would leave it after the 1st episode. Even though I thought the anime wasn't great at being clear on what the message was about and why exactly involving the main character Kaiji. I know hes a thief but same time, what is the exact outcome for him? Still it is addicting to watch for no apparent reason. I suppose its kinda a popular anime and I just wanna get a proper idea if I like it or not, who knows lol?

The art I have to say was pretty bad but good enough. If the storyline wasn't in knots the whole time, I would've liked this anime more. However i didn't. I suppose if youre a big gambler, you'd know what the fun is with this type of card game they were doing on this series...

Yeah I think this type of series would be better recommended for gambling experts...