Kaiji- series overview and first episode

Kaiji is described as the suffering pariah in the title; actually he's not the only one to suffer, nor is he the only survivor out of his trials, but he's at the same time a pariah and a survivor, and this makes him alluring as a character.

  I'm about to engage in the  most pointless exercise known to man or beast: I'm going to try to convey, through normal language, how phantastical the Kaiji series is. There's no way someone will ever be able to say what the universe created by Nobuiki Fukumoto means to those who have experienced some of his
artistic output. I have watched this many years ago and since then have been feeling guilty about for not having written anything about it. It's true  I've watched it countless times, but this is the first time I'm potentially letting someone know about it. This is an overdue review for Kaiji, but at long last it's here.

Kaiji is being swallowed by a sea of gambling, where madness, fright and tactics intertwine imperceptibly.

While others enjoy their pimped-up lifestyle, I stand alone.

Morals? Pah, humbug.

Kaiji sticks to his guns, disregarding society's communiqués about what he should be. A run-down school intrudes from the background.

"I ain't aiming for petty gains. Hitting it big some day is all that matters"

"The debt collectors lunged at me. Too bad I'm broke"

"Tag along with me.You'll eventually find out how different from Akagi I am."

Bursting at the seams with enthusiasm, I still can hardly believe that I will watch it all over again, even if it's for the sake of writing an article that will not even come close to matching the quality with which Kaiji was produced. Onwards to the first episode:

Departure.
Ah, the opening sequence, Miraiwabokura no teno naka (the future is in our hands, per the subtitles from the series itself). It opens with what seems Kaiji being swallowed by an empty void from beyond,presumably a sea of madness and gambling after cards from Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors play on the screen. 

Neat way to learn another language.But having to read it upside down is harder.

Kaiji is written in Katakana, perhaps in order to avoid the childish message that might get across if it was written in Hiragana. We start off with an overview of kaiji's routines and it evolves around cheap gambles and liquor. The point is so well driven home that his basest vices will hardly bear any further mentioning. Kaiji is sitting along with a handful of mates, playing some kind of western card game. His draws seem to be bad, he gets a mess of a starting hand and presumably loses. Next we see him lying on the side and grieving over his loser life and why he always wants things that unreacheable for him, behind the fortress of display cases.

Kaiji's draws seem to be bad.

The pent-up feeling build up and he has to do something with his frustration over life. Once he's comfortably home again, he hears a knock at the door.Annoyed, he goes over to answer it and his vexed temper is cut short of displaying any rudeness upon realising the visitor's imposing frame and stern dead-pan expression. From then on, life as he knew it would take a new direction, sweeping along the viewer on an unforgetable ride through man's inner pains, aspirations and fears...

Please guys, let me win, just this one time.

"So, have you no aim in life?"

The first zawa-zawa moment in the show. This is an onomatopeia intended to represent the inner sound in people's minds, stemming from an uneasy situation, typically when the uneasiness sets in and the afflicted person becomes unsettled by something from which there is no foreseeable way out.

The ending theme. The point here is that you start out all pumped up and end up in the dumps, crushed by the weight of reality because you live in a system that is against the destitute and favour those of a higher social status and holders of worldly possessions. The segment highlights Kaiji's anonymity among the
passing parade of forgotten faces that is mankind. Passers-through flash by, worried with their own petty problems while pretending not to notice each other. They bore on towards Kaiji, and away from him, into the reaches of unknown destinations, lost for for ever.

Shrewd eyes kept sharp on his goals, never mind this eerie zawa-zawa feeling

The time for the underdogs to come out victorious might come soon, but Kaiji remains unaware of his potential.Not that he's a busted flush. His skills and insightful gambling schemes are still what makes Kaiji a resourceful man, prone to survival whenever his life is at stake. But still, Kaiji is left with no way out of his poverty, which frequently brings him to tears, but he somehow must endure it, oblivious to all potential possibilities to unfold should a mouthwatering turn of events beckon....