After having read Akagi, Kaiji was surprising—the main character could hardly be more different (a nice change of pace!) and it immediately demanded a much higher suspension of disbelief than Akagi ever did. Yes, even as of the blood gambling chapters, none of those were as silly as the rock-paper-scissors gambling boat.
Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji is silly. Like, it's very serious, but the plots Fukumoto goes with are so absurdist and outlandish. Akagi felt like it took place in an underground that could exist, but Kaiji abandons any and all realism as of its first arc.
And honestly? I loved that throughout Mokushiroku. Once you're along for the ride, it's easy to get invested in Kaiji's plight and growth as a gambler and as a schemer. The second gambling game—the bridges—genuinely caused me some anxiety as I read them. The stakes felt high and anything could happen. I mean, aside from Kaiji dying, seeing how many sequels this has… But everything else was fair game. Anyone can die, miserably, anyone can betray anyone else… it's a classic mind game scenario, with a good twist on the gambling concept it established on the rock-paper-scissors boat.
It keeps this momentum up for its 13-volume run, culminating in a brutal gamble with the big bads of the gambling ring, with a surprising conclusion…! Which was… completely ruined by the immediate sequel, in my opinion.
Kaiji gambles his fingers in return for a good 100 mil, and—genuinely, shockingly, upsettlingly—loses. The four fingers on his left hand (sans thumb) are chopped off. He considers bargaining, but swallows his fear in favor of his pride, accepting that despite his attempts to rig the game, he lost, and he needs to accept responsibility. This is after he chopped off his ear to win a different game (long story), so he's down four digits and an ear.
But Hyodo just… lets him take his fingers home? On ice? The characters say they can probably get them reattached, which feels like it beats the purpose of the gamble (shouldn't Hyoudo have kept the fingers as part of his winnings?) but they clarify that they'll probably never function properly again. Same with the ear—it'll be stitched back on, but considering the brutal circumstances under which he sawed it off, it'll never look the same.
Only, starting with Hakairoku, all his fingers are reattached and his ear looks like it was never chopped off. No scars or anything. His fingers seem to function just fine, gripping the shovel he's forced to use, and there's not even a mention of what he went through prior. What was the point of gambling his fingers if he could just get them put back on like Lego limbs?
Why should I care about Kaiji from this point onward, knowing that they can gamble just about anything and it ultimately doesn't matter? No visceral scenes of dismemberment will mean anything from here on out. Even Akagi, with its silly blood-draining antics, tries to stick to its rules and shows the effects of blood loss. But Kaiji doesn't even seem to have any issues with blood loss at all. I'm not sure what the point is of losing if it can be reversed with no repercussions.
It just feels silly and noncommittal. If it ended where it did—or at the very least, if the sequel committed to its predecessor, I'd respect it. But it just feels meaningless.
(-165)
