Kaiji season 2 episode 9 – Urraah!

I knew the suits would get involved.

In Kaiji season 2 episode 9, Kaiji gets to feel sunlight on his face once more. The reasons this show has been so great, as far as I am concerned, is the combination of the powerlessness of the hero with the smarmy, lie to your face, despicability of the villain.

I laughed so hard at Ohtsuki's utter destruction.

Ohtsuki can’t weasel his way out of this one. I really did enjoy him as a villain, though. As I said before, his voice actor, Cho (formerly Yuuichi Nagashima), nailed this role. Most of the time he has a soft, high-pitched tone that works perfectly for Ohtsuki’s passive-aggressive bullshit, but when he delivers interior monologues, and, in this episode, as he bawls his eyes out, he has a deep, gruff sound that matches his physical appearance. Seeing Ohtsuki cry with the distortion filter and everything had me laughing out loud. Not only because he had it coming, but because all that happened was he lost his money, which is exactly the same situation that ALL OF THE OTHER PRISONERS ARE IN. Suck it up Ohtsuki! At least you don’t have a foreman who will be stealing your money month after month.

And this is why Kaiji IS the man.

I was wondering where Kaiji came up with his set of dice. I was really glad to see that it wasn’t just explained, but had some delicious irony, being carved from the bone of a steak Ohtsuki was eating in front of them, and had pips dyed red with Kaiji’s own blood. That’s the sort of obsessive level of detail that makes Kaiji a great character, and that makes the stories of Nobuyuki Fukumoto so engrossing.

Yoshihiro Kurosaki, a man of Teiai's highest management.

As usual, people in suits and fancy ties swoop in when it entertains them (that is when they smell human misery). Kaiji secures a promise that he can buy the day pass he fought so hard to obtain. Even with the odds stacked against him Kaiji intends to gamble everything to buy his way to freedom. With the trust of his peers, he has to win over 60 million yen in just 20 days, and with his current seed, that is a payout of roughly 75:1.

What a nice man!

So Kaiji meets someone willing to help him out. Sakazaki brings Kaiji to an illegal casino and shows him their special high-payout pachinko machines. Wait, pachinko? Isn’t that like throwing money away? Not according to Nicholas Cage: