Manga Review: Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji #1 by Nobuyuki Fukumoto
February 1996, Tokyo: Kaiji Ito is a loser. He’s long-term unemployed, isn’t taking any classes, and doesn’t have the grit to put in effort to improve his life. Kaiji’s also a gambling addict, which is unfortunate for someone who doesn’t have the money to spare. His main hobby is vandalizing luxury cars. That last comes back to bite him when a loan shark shows up. Turns out Kaiji co-signed a loan for a friend a few years back, and that friend has vanished. Not only is Kaiji on the hook for big bucks, but he’s damaged the loan shark’s car!
But all is not lost. Seems that the loan shark is recruiting for a special event, a night of gambling on a cruise ship. If Kaiji wins big, he can wipe out all his debt in a few hours. If not, well, welcome to a slave labor camp! It sounds kind of fishy, but the loan shark knows how to reel in the suckers, and soon Kaiji signs up for this offer.
Once on board and the ship is safely outside the Coast Guard patrol zone, the rules are revealed. The game is Limited Rock Paper Scissors using a small number of playing cards. The game seems simple at first, but there are a number of unspoken details, and every time Kaiji thinks he’s got a handle on things, the metagame changes.
It’s pretty clear that Kaiji’s going to need allies, but on a ship full of loser gambling addicts, who can he trust?
This seinen (young men’s) manga is part of the gambling subgenre popular among slightly older readers in Japan. Indeed, there’s an entire sub-subgenre devoted to the game of mahjong that the creator did a popular series, Akagi, for. But the subtleties of that tile game are a bit esoteric for Western audiences, so this is Fukumoto’s first work brought to America.
Good: The rock-paper-scissors game is simple enough that the audience can follow along with ease, but with the constant changes in the metagame, there are enough twists to keep interest up.
While Kaiji isn’t exactly a likable guy, he does have a straightforward personality and just enough naivete to be sympathetic. He doesn’t resort to betrayals and double-crosses, but uses “fair” trickery and strategy and plays honestly with his allies even when they’re more of a burden than an asset. I soon became invested in the question of whether he really can turn his life around, or if his half-assed attitude would sabotage his play.
The angular art style, especially for faces, is kind of ugly but works well to tell the characters apart. (Hard to tell if women would have the same variety, there’s not a single one in this first omnibus volume.)
Less good: The entire setup of the ship and its gamblers’ cruise seems needlessly elaborate and implausible. Thanks to spoilers, I know why this is happening, but in the moment it kept taking me out of the story.
Content note: some swearing, implied torture. Most senior high students should be able to handle this story.
Recommended to those who enjoy tense stories of high-stakes gambling.
Oh, and there was an anime version:
