Hacker Cinema
Kaiji
逆境無頼カイジ
2007 · TV series · 23 min episodes · 2 seasons
Kaiji Itou is a good-for-nothing loiterer who spends his days drinking beer and stealing hubcaps—that is, until he ends up being tricked by his former co-worker. Unable to suddenly repay his friend's huge debt all by himself, Kaiji is offered a shady deal to participate in an illegal underground gamble on a cruise ship. This turns out to be nothing more than the beginning of his new life of hell—thrown headlong into a life-threatening roller coaster of mind games, cheating, and deceit.
3 positivefrom 3 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
> Squid Games is just Kaiji with better presentation.
The presentation comparison is apples to oranges. Kaiji just wouldn’t work as live action (although they tried with a movie) as it relays heavily on the affordances of anime/manga as a medium to present Kaiji’s inner world and show visual metaphors for his emotions. Without that you take away the substance. It’s fair to say Squid Game steals a lot of themes and ideas from Kaiji, but it’s certainly not just Kaiji with different wrapping (unless there is something I am missing having not read the manga).
> only real difference is the language
Kaiji is amount my favorite anime (I haven’t read the manga). It is very obvious the Squid Game creator borrowed heavily from Kaiji, and ripped off the overarching theme, but aside from the glass platform game was there really a lot else taken from Kaiji? Were there any other games or story arcs in the manga that were stolen?
(I haven’t seen season two of Squid Game yet btw).
And before Battle Royale, there was Kaiji.
It's identical. People with debt invited to a game and a chance at loads of cash. People die in the game and some get enslaved. Rich people sit in another room and laugh while they watch people suffer. There's even a game where the "contestants" walk high up and fall to their deaths.
Then the main character gets called back into the game and you get a season 2.
Love it. I would say "Mask no kamen (2005)" was the inflection point. Prior to that, I watched a bunch of shows and enjoyed some of them, but then I randomly stumbled onto this masterpiece. It is so good that I was motivated to lookup its director, Hamatsu Mamoru. It truly is unlike anything else you will watch.
When you see something that good, it makes you wonder what else is out there. Among the thousands of generic shows, there are true gems like Initial D. Did you know that Initial D continued with Season 5 after taking an 8 year break? Many fans don't know the new seasons exist.
How many even know that shows like Crest of the Stars exist? Its plot complexity resembles Babylon 5.
Then there's Kaiji. Kaiji is just... something else... Truly, truly something else. A simple game of rock/paper/scissors becomes a life or death experience when combined with gambling, greed, and group dynamics. Interestingly, they released a side story from the perspective of the villain's middle manager! It is absolutely insane how they apply corporate tactics to what happens to the hapless groups of gamblers.
Now there is such a masterpiece as Soul Land from China. Chinese donghua are taking animation to next level, although their stories tend to share the same plot. Soul Land makes you feel like you are inside a video game. Not everyone likes 3D anime, but this is done exceptionally well. Tencent is offering an official subtitled release through its YouTube channel, which recently became a paid offering and I paid for it.