Kaiji - Ultimate Survivor S01E22-23 Review: Slave vs Emperor

Kaiji - Ultimate Survivor, Episode 22: Enforcement; Episode 23: Heresy

Finally, we get a name for the director -- Hyodo! We spent like, six? Seven? Episodes without knowing the old coot's name.

Of course, Kaiji ends up winning, with a pretty cool call-back with Kaiji talking about how the reason Tonegawa lost is that he keeps trying to think of 'what would Kaiji do', and ends up thinking about what he would do instead, and it's like a snake looking back onto himself. It's a triumphant victory for Kaiji, who wins 20 million yen, and is praised by all of the loser squad who had gathered for the past two or three episodes. Again, the loser squad, not having any names or personalities or motivations, falls absolutely flat the way that they just worship Kaiji like a god and how Kaiji ends up trusting them with, well, his life, basically.

The majority of episode 22's screentime is just the defeat of Tonegawa, however, where Hyodo forces him to kneel and apologize sincerely... on a burning metal plate. Hyodo gives this long speech about how so many people who borrowed money from him and refused to return (i.e. scum like the gambling brood that aren't responsible)all bow and beg without sincerity. And, well, we go through this horrifying description of how the burning metal plate will just cook you alive, and how no one is able to last for 10 seconds. Tonegawa is manly enough to last 12 seconds. It's absolutely brutal, and, yes, Tonegawa's a bit of a cunt, but this torture moment and how such a proud man is brutalized by the cackling madman Hyodo quickly makes Hyodo the target of our hatred this time around.

Tonegawa is removed from the equation, and episode 23 starts off our final arc for the season. I'll do episode 24-26 in one big review after this, but episode 23 is basically a setup. Disgusted with Hyodo, Kaiji makes up a plan to basically get back at the old man, talking with his little squad of yes-men about how this is the only chance he's going to get at getting back at Hyodo for all the atrocities he's done and how he's been using their lives as entertainment.

Kaiji then pulls out this huge plan about using a tissue box to cheat, how he's going to gamble with Hyodo by placing something from the outside -- basically playing a lottery and noting how he's going to win 100% of the time by cheating. It's somewhat at odds with how Kaiji has been playing fairly throughout the entire season, other than cutting off his own ear -- but that's more of a counter-measure against Tonegawa's cheating in the first place. I'm not entirely sure I approve of Kaiji's cheating proactively, but the show at least gives us something particularly good out of it.

Kaiji then returns to the center room and demands Hyodo to gamble with him with an even bigger sum of money than what he already has, noting to the old man that there's 'no shame losing once in a while'. It's pretty neat, how this time it's Kaiji that's trying to set up a cheating gamble of his own instead of being in the hands of the organization. Both 22 and 23 are slow episodes, although it certainly sets up the vileness of Hyodo (and the previous arc certainly isn't any slouch in doing that either) pretty well.