DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA DramaTobaku Datenroku Kaiji: Kazuya-hen
MANGA DramaTobaku Datenroku Kaiji: 24-oku Dasshutsu-hen

REVIEWS

• 

  MyNameIsPOW3R

  100/100
  "without a doubt the BEST arc in all of the Kaiji series"

  BEFORE READING THIS REVIEW MAKE SURE YOU READ MY REVIEW PREVIOUS REVIEW ON THE SERIES: https://anilist.co/review/17004

  also share it on your page if you can,I want to push the Kaiji agenda even further

  **(not so spoiler-free!)**

  well this is without a doubt the BEST arc in all of the Kaiji series,feels like everything was a build up just for this arc, Kaiji and Kazuya's dynamic of yin and yang was done materfully as expected and even if the arc was pretty long for a 1 match arc I enjoyed it from start to finish

  

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  KAZUYA IS FREAKING AMAZING

  When I say that a specific antagonist is amazing I'd say that they achieved something that other antagonists simply don't like how Tsurumi from Golden Kamuy or Griffith from Berserk are very charismatic or characters like Askeladd from VInland Saga who had a long history with the protagonist Kazuya has any of these criteria in fact on paper Kazuya is fairly simplistic similar to most of Fukumoto's antagonists but what makes him so unique and incredible is how real he is,he might acts a little too overboard most of the time but even through he has a massive twisted ego, thirst for blood and in general a really shitty person he's still a character that no one can really hate.
  The idea of a gambling antagonist is someone who who's opposed to the ideology of the protagonist or a character that was bond to face against him like Souichi from the mange Usogui for example, Kazuya's ideology is always clashed with Kaiji's and that brings me to the next topic of my review

  

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  KAIJI AND KAZUYA'S DYNAMIC

  After the events of the arc and Kaiji's victory Kaiji relates to Kazuya because he was in the exacts same situation as him, doesn't sound that interesting but when you think about it Kaiji for the past 2 arcs wanted Kazuya dead because of how horrible of a person he is but then again after some time he understand that Kazuya isn't at fault and what truly made Kazuya such an evil person is his power,position and childhood trauma.

  

  Kazuya as someone who was never been loved wanted to seek out and experience what he has never received in his life through seeing the love and affliction of the people he tortured and how their strong bond was slowly tearing in the process, Kazuya was sure that love isn't something real and people only "love" each other just in order to get something but just moments before Kazuya's execution he realized how great of a man Kaiji really is, the man who wished for his death is now saving his enemy without expecting something in return, a man who sweared to never let Kazuya get away after he caused so many deaths let his true nemesis get away because he knew that doing nothing will make him sort of a murderer.

  

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  MOTHER SOPHIE, A REINCARNATION OF A REAL MOTHER

  The machine we're introduced to is called Sophie and Kazuya always talks to her like she's alive and breathing later do we know about the tragic events that made Kazuya choose and act this way.
  After a utter defeat in a battle of wits against Kaiji he realized that his life full of hatred and distrust of people was over, when Kazuya fell for what he thought was his death he fainted mid-air and finally forgives his one and only mother, whom he stopped trusting after what happened, he knows it's too late to see the truth but he still except it nonetheless, his mother was the only real person in his life in whom he could put his trust.

  

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  CONCLUCION

  PROS:
  -Kazuya is an amazingly well written and unique antagonist
  -The madness and fear in this arc make it's long chap count fairly bingable
  -Expressive as always
  -Kaiji's development is showing especially in this arc
  -Kazuya and Kaiji share one of the greatest dynamics in manga

  CONS:
  -Literally none, I don't want to suck on Fukumoto's but it's as of now the only single work I've read from him that I consider flawless

  

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  This review took so much time to be published because of a specific reason with the site's rules, like I said before in my previous reviews if you see any typo or you just want to help me make my reviews more aesthetically appealing you can always shoot me a DM and I'll answer when I'm online :)

  Continue on AniList
• 

  polykhroma

  100/100
  Emotional rambling about Fukumoto's One Poker-Hen

  This is my favorite manga. For you to understand why I care so much about One Poker-Hen, I first need to show you who Mother Sophie is. Looking at the Greek etymology of the word Sophia, it means “wisdom.” In the tradition of Pistis Sophia, Sophia is attributed to Mary, and more generally, in Gnostic myth, she plays a very important role in the creation of the universe. You’re probably reading what I’m writing with some disdain, but I ask that when you read the manga, you think about what I’m saying. At the beginning of the story, Kazuya compares Mother Sophie to a goddess who will decide the fate of Kaiji and himself. We actually have evidence of what Fukumoto is pointing to—it’s not simply a coincidence of names. Even if Fukumoto didn’t consciously use this symbolism, Sophia did it.

  Now I need you to pay attention to the story I’m about to tell, because it’s important. In The Republic, Plato introduced the Allegory of the Cave. In this allegory, some prisoners, chained since childhood, can only look forward and see objects by their shadows. Socrates then theorizes that if one of those prisoners were freed and taken outside, forced to interact with the world beyond his knowledge, even if he returned to the cave, he would never again be able to see the shadows as the original objects. This would happen because he would have seen, for the first time, the objects of the material world and experienced the light of the sun, realizing that it is the sun that illuminates the world. In the analogy, knowledge is identified as the force that leads us toward the perfect forms—especially the Form of the Good, represented by the sun. According to Plato, the Good is the master of reason and truth, the most difficult category for the soul to perceive in its ascent to the intelligible world.

  So, why is this story of the cave important? Because the moment I read it, something very obvious came to mind. If we try to understand Sophia—“knowledge”— we must also understand what the Good is. And well, there is a character in this manga who has a very obvious difficulty grasping that concept :). If you’re familiar with Fukumoto’s works, you’ll notice that, partly due to the cultural background of Mahjong, he often makes use of Chinese concepts as symbolism. Kaiji, in my view, it’s no different. If we see the machine as an oracle, like the Book of Changes, even more connections start to appear in my mind. At the beginning, Kazuya says that Mother Sophie is cruel and indifferent—and that’s exactly why you have to read this manga: so you can decide for yourself whether this machine is really that cruel, and once and for all, decipher who Mother Sophie truly is in your heart.

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