ReSeinen's Blog

Anime Relations: Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, Shoubushi Densetsu Tetsuya, Kakegurui

I think as a whole the gambling genre is one of the most thrilling ways to do story-telling, two opposing forces pitted against each other in a high-stakes game or just an underdog fighting against the odds of a rigged game always results in exciting matches and incredible twists, and as such exploring said the scenario in manga and anime bring about different results at the hands of various creators.

For me, it appears to be as if it's a harder sell to make a gambling anime than a manga, not because it's illegal in Japan (two people riding a bicycle is a normal occurrence in anime yet it's also an illegal thing to do) but mainly because its themes and characters aren't quite as marketable as other series. They have late-night airing time slots and are quite tense for someone who just wants to relax at that hour. That said, I don't specifically know of a date when gambling became a trend in manga, it may not have even surfaced because of it per se but because of mahjong manga which is still going strong to this day, with entire magazines dedicated to it.

Instead of "kinds" of gambling manga, it's more like a scale, two extremes: Death Game and Mahjong. What is in between is manga that deals with traditional or original games which can sometimes involve live or death scenarios while not necessarily being a Death Game manga. However, that leaves the question of what necessarily needs to be bet in order to be considered gambling with things like Yu-gi-Oh!, Hikaru no Go, Saki (though the website I went to classify it as a gambling manga, more on that website later), etc. I wouldn't categorize 'As the Gods Will' as a gambling manga anytime soon, I think being forced into a survival-of-the-fittest situation opposes a simple fact about gambling and that is the willingness from the participants to take part in a gamble, can they be coerced into it, yes they can, but I think what differentiates the genres the most is how realistic each one is portrayed. One way gambling manga manages to make the audience sympathize with the protagonists is being in a situation one can see could happen in the real world, how a simple game can be taken to its absolute limits just by the sheer value at stake which is a reality with things like casinos and all kinds of game tournaments.

But of course, realism is just a personal preference as the setting is just one of the many pieces for the series in that case I think one of the most important things is the gamble itself. Making an unpredictable outcome to a gamble requires a lot of effort and restraint by the author in the sense that they already know the answer but they need to build up to a glorious moment to release all of the tension thus far. I think a prime example of this is Kakegurui which, for me, is a decent gambling series. I saw a lot of shit thrown its way because of how fanservice-y it could get but it's the best example for what I'm trying to get at. Yumeko's gambles, at least in the first arc against the student council, go like this: Yumeko is invited to a challenge by an opponent who underestimates her, things initially seem to go rough for her but it's a set-up to her in-game strategy as well as kicking down her opponent's defenses, finally, a twist of events occur and we get info dumped all the intricacies behind the main character's thoughts we couldn't hear at convenient moments for the author to throw "hints" they later use for the final reveal.

Tweaks to the path to success or defeat are to be expected, be it by hearing the opponent's thoughts, the game being interrupted in some shape or form, the game having another stage after the main game ending, and so on. It's also no secret that most games played in gambling manga are rigged so the protagonists have to find loopholes in the games' system or be forced their way through, luck is an afterthought. I've rarely seen gambling manga where cheating isn't involved, even in mahjong manga such as Legendary Gambler Tetsuya there's cheating with changing one's wall or tiles being general strategies. I think a scene in that series with Boshu, where he challenges Tetsuya to make an egg stand still is the best example of a gambler's mindset, of course, you can't make an egg naturally stand still without it rolling around but you could push it to the ground, breaking its outer shell, making it stand then, the end justifies the means.


Aditional comments:

Now with all that out of the way let's talk about how many of said series actually get a following domestically or overseas. First of all, I do not think volume counts strictly represent a series success but you can't deny certain outliers within the gambling manga sphere such as with Tenpai (116 volumes), Kaiji (91 volumes, although it's debatable to call the sixth part gambling at all), Mukoubuchi (58 volumes), Usogui (49 volumes), Legendary Gambler Tetsuya (41 volumes), Akagi (36 volumes) and more series. Using the manga kingdom website, and sorting by genres, there are lots of gambling manga, some are concepts that I've seen a singular anime do (Pachislo Kizoku Gin) and that is slot machines, horse racing, one about Forex, but of course most of all is taken by mahjong, a bunch which even don't have entries on BakaUpdates, less of them translated. I think it's a niche that doesn't have as many secured readers/scanlation groups as other series, it's a struggle for translation teams for all the cleaning and redrawing needed to be paying attention to them rather than newer or more interesting concepts, and only a few sure-fire authors really get attention from them and said series have mostly consolidated fandoms by then.

I think one of the "newer" gambling series I want to check out is Junket Bank, it looks to appeal more to a female demographic with its ikemen designs but it's serializing where Usogui and Liar Game once did and the author already did other gambling manga (Enban Maze) but sadly it's got a chapter gap I can't really ignore. Apart from that, I don't know of any gambling manga apart from the already good selection of Fukumoto works and the available chapters of other series such as Mukoubuchi, Gambler's Parade, or Riman Gambler Mouse which is just hilarious to read, as well as checking out Gamble Fish after a long time of meaning to do so. Other than that I think a great alternative option to gambling has been crime manga such as Yamikin Ushijima-kun or Kurosagi, I think it embodies some of its despair-filled themes with things such as debts and swindling, and in that sense, I'm also looking forward to reading Uramiya Honpo.

Gambling Manga/Anime recommendations:
• Usogui
• Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor (Anime and Parts 1-5)
• Casino Gui
• 81 Diver (had some gambling at the beginning and became ridiculously fun, a lot of fanservice)
• Gin to Kin
• Legendary Gambler Tetsuya (Osaka-arc in the manga receives a chef's kiss)
• Tobaku Haouden Zero
• Liar Game
• One Outs

Anime Relations: Gantz, Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, Terra Formars

This is just a list made here because my profile wouldn't stop freezing because of the amount of YT links