Kaiji S02E16 Review: Kaiji versus the Bog

Kaiji, Season 2, Episode 16: The Curtain Rises

We pick up right where we left off in episode 15, with Kaiji challenging the Bog, and interestingly, Ichijou has a chance to shut this all down. Force Kaiji to play baccarat or something, but he's extremely confident that the Bog will not be defeated, and that he's made sure that it wouldn't be. But then he gets a call from Kurosaki, telling Ichijou to not be careless because there's no way for Kaiji to be so adamant about challenging the Bog if he doesn't have some sort of a trick to get past it. Ichijou's pride ends up being his downfall, of course, as he lets Kaiji play... even with the warning that "your fate will be worse than Kaiji if you lose".


And then Kaiji continues to play, but the balls are getting through the first obstacle, the 'forest of pins', and everyone's just confused. Ichijou initially didn't want to turn on the block for the flippers, because he wants to at least make the Bog seem fair to the other patrons, but then he thinks that he figures out Kaiji's trick -- using slightly smaller balls. Which would make a whole lot of sense, but upon inspection with the casino's tray, it's, of course, proven false. It's actually quite neat, especially since we know that whatever Kaiji does to get past the first hurdle has something to do with the room he's snuck into at the end of episode 12.

Ichijou would later realize as he runs back to his office that Kaiji's snuck into the room above his, figured out where the tools to calibrate the Bog are at, and tinkered with them enough, swapping out the settings for "C" and "A" by sneaking in an electromagnet from the room above, so that Ichijou has been accidentally callibrating the Bog for A all along, making it so much easier for Kaiji's balls to get through. It's actually neat, and reveals that Kaiji wasn't staring at the Bog for nothing, but rather just waiting for Ichijou to perform maintenance there.

And then Ichijou activates the block, and reveals that the bouncer that Sakazaki used to bounce the balls in his attempt has been modified and tightened, meaning that it's going to be a challenge between just how much of Kaiji's preparations are  going to match up against Ichijou's reactions towards Kaiji.