Movie number 8 was basically a re-telling of the Alabaster section of the main story in movie form. No major differences. So, I started it but decided to skip it.

Movie number 9, however, was a re-telling of w main story, but out of sequence. It was the story about how Chopper joined the crew. But, both Robin and Franky were part of the movie. Those two didn’t join the crew in the main story until artery Chopper was already part of the crew.

It was interesting seeing the progression of animation styles. The first movie was in the style of the beginning of the anime. The rest are done in q style similar to the current anime, except for the sixth movie. The sixth is done in a bit more retro or a style. I reminds me a bit of Cowboy Bebop.

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Title: カイジ (Kaiji)
Original Creator: 福本伸行 (Fukumoto, Nobuyuki)
Number of Episodes: 1-26

Kaiji is a gambling anime centered around psychological warfare. The anime is base on the manga. The first series of the mang is depicted in the 26 episodes of the anime. There is a total of three manga series. A synopsis of the TV show from AnimeNewsNetwork.com:

Itou Kaiji is a bum who steals car emblems and slashes tires on what seems to be a regular basis. This routine changes one day when he is paid a visit by a man in a trench-coat. Once the two get talking, it seems that the visitor (Calling himself Endou) is a debt collector. The reason for his visit is an unpaid loan which kaiji had previously co-signed for a work-mate (Furuhata Takeshi). The original loan was 30000 yen and once Takeshi had disappeared, the loan then fell on Kaiji. Kaiji is then told of a way to clear the interest compounded debt (which stood at 3,850,000 yen), which involved getting on a boat with others in his position. Once on the boat the debtors would then have to gamble with loaned money, which would end with a few winning, and others getting into deeper debt and having to work to pay of their debts. After some coercing kaiji accepts a position on the boat, in order to clear himself and make a bit of money as well…

Overall I enjoyed this anime a great deal. In fact, I watched all 26 episodes within 2 days. The part that felt me feeling uneasy is depiction of how dark humans are/can be deep down inside of them. But, that is what drives the anime (and I can’t say that all of us our “happy-shiny-people”). I recommend it for those who wanted to jump into anime, but don’t like the kiddy-ness of most pop-anime (ie: Pokemon, Hamtaro, hell even Sailor Moon). I would  have to classify it under “psychological thriller.” It’s similar to watching movies like Saw Series (risk and return), 21 (gambling dynamics), and Seven (psychology).

The voice-actor for Kaiji, 萩原 聖人 (Hagiwara, Masato) is also the voice-actor for the character of Toua Tokuchi from the anime One Outs.

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