Kaiji S02E21 Review: Negotiations

Kaiji, Season 2, Episode 21: Victory Secured

It's a bit of an interesting episode, where Kaiji is on a losing streak, if such a term is applicable in a game like pachinko. He's got everything figured out, sabotaged all three 'hurdles', but in the final stage it's still a gamble, and none of the balls he's sending through ends up even making it into the jackpot. And in Kaiji's utter desperation, he ends up running out of balls right at the moment that he sees one final glimpse of light.

It's interesting, as Kaiji walks into the bathroom and tries to negotiate -- albeit a bit too desperately -- with Endou. Kaiji knows that Endou and his nameless bodyguard is carrying some extra emergency funds for him to quickly escape should the need arise, and a good chunk of the episode is just Kaiji trying his best to convince Endou that he sees one final 'light' that is going to allow him to beat the odds one more time, and that even if Endou runs away right now, he's going to spend the rest of his life running away from debt collectors.

And the episode does take its time in trying to get Kaiji and Endou to convince each other, and Endou... actually prepared a contract for Kaiji to sign, showing that, yeah, Endou was fully prepared for Kaiji to actually need an extra boost of money. Faith, or just good business practices? A little of both? A wee bit too convenient, perhaps, but it's not like we haven't seen Endou be paranoid and duplicitous before.

And as Kaiji returns with a whole ton of money, Ichijou actually goes and tries and buy some time and starts actually counting the bills one by one, trying to buy time for whoever it is to find his "secret weapon",  a switch... but Kaiji (who's on the clock too) ends up demanding that he be allowed to play now. But then, one of Ichijou's nameless goons notes an observation that Ichijou picks up as another final weapon. It's neat that it's Kaiji's secret, undetermined weapon against Ichijou's own. Who knew a game of fucking Pachinko could be so complex?