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When a studio as great as Kyoani has to resort to fan-service in the first episode in order to hook the viewer, you know that this show is going downhill pretty quickly.

This show begins like countless other LN adaptations, with some info-dumping expository dialogue (“it’s common knowledge, but I’ll tell you anyway!” quips the main character) telling us that there has been some major “incident” that has fundamentally changed the inner workings of the human brain, and now everyone can see possibly real, possibly imaginary “Phantoms” which provide much of the story complications throughout. I like the idea that there might be strange entities all ... around us that we simply cannot perceive, but this premise already becomes problematic when we see that the Phantoms are capable of physically damaging and interacting with objects in the real world, which makes you wonder why no one has noticed them already even without the ability to see them. This premise raises more questions than it can answers, and you shouldn’t expect any more elucidation on the backstory as it is suddenly brushed under the rug (cause the backstory really doesn’t matter, right?) and we are hurriedly introduced to our main cast. We have Haruhiko, who is slightly better than your run-of-the-mill LN protagonist but that’s not really saying much. He is much more tolerable than your standard LN protagonist as he spends very little time perving on girls and getting flustered, but instead we get to listen to him constantly drop useless titbits of knowledge throughout the series in a weak attempt to sell him as a ‘smart’ character. What could have been a totally tolerable character is spoiled by this obnoxious little detail which keeps cropping up in every single episode. An example of this is when the characters are searching for Phantom nicknamed “Enigma”. Haruhiko being Haruhiko, he chips in suddenly and explains the etymology of the word ‘enigma’ and also points out that it was also the name of a cipher machine developed in the Second World War. The real question here is, “who gives a fuck?” None of this information is relevant to anything that happens in the episode and and none of the other characters asked him for this information. Expect this to happen literally dozens of times throughout the series. Not only this, but the entire intro of every episode consists of Haruhiko posing as a sensei for 2 or 3 minutes which is also supposed to convince us that he is an intelligent character (and to also blatantly explain the theme of the episode to the brain-dead target audience, but that’s another matter). Here’s a tip for LN writers: if you want to sell a supposedly intelligent character, have them do things that are actually intelligent! Since the plot of most of the episodes usually contains a hint of mystery, the author have could have easily sold him as a smart character by having him deduce the answer to the mystery before everybody else. But instead the author takes the easy way out and we are left with a perfect example of how a “smart” shouldn’t be written.

The other characters introduced are merely additions to Haruhiko’s inevitable harem (cause who isn’t turned on by a living trivia machine?) We have Mai Kawakami, whose literal first presence on the screen is a shot of her jiggling tits. Yeah, don’t expect much depth out of this character. We also get Reina Izumi; whose only character traits are that she is soft-spoken and polite, she eats a lot and she likes the main character. Her character gets briefly interesting when it is discovered that she has some family issues going on, but this is only addressed for one episode and there is no real conclusion as to how she sorted all of that out.

The biggest wasted potential is the character of Ruru, the comedic relief of the show. Though I do admit that her antics occasionally brought a smile to my face, it’s painfully obvious that she could have been so much more than comedic relief. Ruru is a friendly Phantom, but the problem is that she is too much like the other characters, i.e, she is too human. This character could have been used effectively to provide a non-human entity’s perspective of all the odd-going-ons in this show, which would have highlighted the fundamental differences between a Phantom and a human. But…no. Ruru acts and reacts almost exactly like any another human despite being non-human in the first place, which feels lazy and uninspired. I didn’t hate this character but the waste of potential is palpable. Also, at certain points in the series when the characters are pondering the true nature of Phantoms, I can’t help but wonder why Ruru can’t offer some input on this matter. I mean, she herself is a Phantom, one capable of speech even, so shouldn’t she be able to elucidate on a few of these questions?

These generic cast members are all super-power wielders and they hence join a Phantom hunting club. The general plot (if you can call it that) is your standard, episodic monster-of-the-week formula with a sudden overarching plot crammed into the end. The monster-of-the-week episodes are consistently disappointing and poorly handled. The episodes usually begin with some idle comedic banter between the main cast in their clubroom, before they start noticing some odd-going-ons happening here and there; anything from students turning into cats to the main character turning to a child. As the audience, we immediately know that a Phantom must be responsible for whatever the calamity is (what else could it be?), but it certainly takes a long time for the cast of supposed experienced Phantom hunter to make the logical connection. It can be quite frustrating watching the cast bumble around for so long before they reach the obvious conclusion. After dicking about generously, the cast finally tracks down the Phantom responsible and we generally treated to highly lacklustre fights. The fights might seem somewhat impressive at first glance given the amount of quick movement, flashy attacks and motion blur used, but looking closely I found them to be gravely lacking in fight choreography and their general composition and framing. In the end they are just very colourful clusterfucks, and I feel like the animation wizards at KyoAni could have done much better on this front. These confrontations also usually come way too suddenly for us to get emotionally invested in the fight at all, and occasionally the Phantom designs are so silly-looking that it makes the battle harder to take seriously. Given that these battles often serve as the pay-off to usually boring and obvious mysteries, I feel like they should been done a lot better. One another thing I noticed is that the show seems uncertain whether or not it wants to audience to sympathize with the Phantoms. Occasionally, the mischief-making Phantoms are forgiven by the main characters and other times they are treated to an ass-kicking. It’s all very inconsistent so it’s hard for us to get a consistent message out of this show.

Perhaps reflecting Haruhiko’s pseudo-intellectual air, a few episodes in this series attempt to explore some genuine scientific concepts, such as Schrodinger’s Cat and collective consciousness. Unfortunately, these are always completely butchered by the show and they provide no food-for-thought of any kind; acting almost like Haruhiko’s irreverent fact-dropping. These scientific concepts are there simply for the sake of being there, and I doubt it really gets anyone’s brain juices flowing. These weak scientific connections annoyed me more than they should have.

There are only a few episodes that actually felt almost worthwhile, the only problem being is that the events of those episodes are basically forgotten as the series continues. I will be summarizing the events of some episodes so beware of spoilers. [spoilers begin] One example of an episode that was almost worthwhile was the episode where Kurumi (the show’s token loli) gets sucked into a surreal world of her own imagining. Whereas I had some issues with the episode’s aesthetics, it felt worthwhile (for a short time at least) because it felt like Kurumi’s character had developed somewhat. She learns to fend for herself and she seemingly gives up her childish emotional attachment to her teddy bear, Albrecht. This episode felt satisfying because it felt as if a previously useless character had matured significantly. The only problem is that this DOESN’T LAST AT ALL, which in the grand scheme of things makes this episode absolutely POINTLESS. In the next few episodes, Kurumi goes back to being dead weight AND she still retains the childish habits that she seemingly shed in the previous episode! Why in the hell would you write an episode that develops a character only to reverse it immediately afterwards? Another similar, less frustrating, episode is the one where Reina gets sucked into an idyllic, pastel-coloured world where she has everything that she lacks in the real world. As mentioned before, she has troublesome family life, and naturally this idyllic world is attractive to her. This episode has a good message about avoiding escapism and facing your real world problems. However, we never get to see how Reina ends up fixing her family issues; instead, we just hear a quip from her in the final episode about how her family life is now suddenly going well. This subplot was the most (actually, the only) interesting thing about Reina’s character and I would have loved to see some more development. But in the end, we don’t get to see how it’s resolved and exactly what her family issues actually were in the first place, which is a real let-down in the end. [spoilers end]

We do get a two-episode long story arc right towards the end of the series, which ends up being quite a bit better than the previous episode. It’s still nothing great, but at least it develops some characters further and reveals some backstory. At this point the show’s quality bumps up to at least a 5/10 but this arc isn’t enough to change my general feelings about the show. It's still full of stupidities and an has an uneven tone throughout.

KyoAni clearly knows that the source material they are working with is no good, so they attempt to breathe some life into it with their usual visual and aesthetic magic. I’d say it’s above average for the most part. The animation quality is consistent all the way throughout, and I find the character designs very pleasing (minus some of the Phantom designs). KyoAni experiments with a myriad of different colour schemes (sorry) and the end result is quite eye-popping. It certainly gives off the feeling that something significant has been changed about this world. Some episodes give off very different vibes than the others, with KyoAni even hiring out-of-house talent to give more variety to the visuals; a very rare move for this studio. Some episodes like the pastel-world are especially impressive, and thus I would have liked to have seen some more experimentation with the whole art style rather than just the colour scheme. The general shot composition is pretty great with each episode providing several standout shots, but typical of a KyoAni show directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, the sense of pacing with regards to the cuts is definitely problematic. Many times, the editing is far too rapid for us to truly soak in the details of each shot, which defeats the purpose of putting so much thought and detail into some of these shots. Another issue I had with the aesthetic of the show is the constant use of pixelation as a visual motif. This is heavily present in the OP and many of the Phantoms flicker like a dodgy computer screen when they take damage. Hard as I try, I fail to see the connection between the pixels and the Phantoms. It would have made sense if the show took place in cyberspace and they were fighting the virtualized manifestations of computer viruses or something, but the pixel motif really doesn’t work here at all. It comes across as a superfluous detail with little thought put into it, which makes the aesthetic of the show feel somewhat haphazard.

If I haven’t made it clear already, this show has quite a lot of fan-service. I won’t harp on about this too much like some fanatical Evangelist, as there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the existence of fan-service, but it is very, very, very, disappointing to see a studio such as KyoAni using much a method to make us like the characters more. KyoAni has proven time and time again that they are capable of creating very engaging female characters without the need for jiggling breasts or panty-shots. I have seen some people try to justify the fan-service as “we are seeing the world from Haruhiko’s eyes, so wherever he looks is where the camera looks!”, which is seriously one of the stupidest excuses I have ever heard. KyoAni was lazy this time around and opted for the cheapest method of keeping the viewers engaged. KyoAni’s usual flair for bringing their characters to life with little details is honestly drowned out by the booty screaming in your face. I want some character in my moeblobs, goddamnit.

So there you have it. An aimless, poorly-written mess built on clichés and repetitive formulas, providing no incentive to keep watching or even care about the resolution of whatever episode you happen to be watching. You may still enjoy it simply for the visuals and simplistic comedy, but even then, I doubt even the most die-hard KyoAni fans probably won’t have it high on their list. This show is an enormous waste of talent and I sincerely hope that KyoAni never makes anything like this ever again.

A bit about me. I am a fan of mind-games, gambling strategies and trickery. Knowing this, you can probably see why this unusually titled manga piqued my curiosity. I began racing through the series, bubbling with excitement and anticipation. However, after reading it, I must make a modification to those criteria. I am now a fan of mind-games, gambling strategies and trickery that make sense.

Yes, Gamble Fish is a very flawed attempt at creating a high octane manga centred around gambling, steadily getting more and more ridiculous until it begins to feel like a bizarre parody of the genre. It had potential until it became ... absolutely saturated with cheap gimmicks, hackneyed writing, awful characters and general ennui after the manga’s repetitive tricks lose their charm.

There is an overall plot here, which loosely strings together the gauntlet of gambling games the main characters must go through. It is simple and forgettable and mainly has to do with the protagonist, Shirasagi Tomu, trying to rescue his kidnapped father by joining an elite school known for its prowess for gambling. We can sense that Shirasagi cares about his father, but this set-up fails because it is never given any real emotional weight. Adding emotional weight to this scenario would have not been difficult at all; it could have been something as simple as showing a flashback of Shirasagi’s life before being traumatically separated from his dad, but the author only puts the bare minimum amount of effort into this whole set-up. This dictates to us that the author doesn’t want us to care at all about the overall plot; just sit back and enjoy the delicious, juicy, psychological gambling games. There is nothing particularly wrong about an underdeveloped set-up in a genre like this, as the quality of the games should be able to compensate for this. The problem is that the games are nowhere near as juicy as they should be. On the surface they look very appetising and you will be eager to sink your teeth into them, but you’ll be disappointed to find that they are dry, undercooked and will probably end up leaving a bad taste in your mouth. I’m not sure why I went for an extended food-related metaphor here, but it seems to summarize my feelings about the games the author has devised.

The games are at least quite varied. We get a lot of card-games and dice-games, some of them rigged in interesting ways, and others played straight. Not every game is played at a table-top, with one of the more ambitious games being essentially a massive game of Capture the Flag; allowing for a change in scenery and change in tactics. In short, the author knows not to stay on one type of game for too long, he thankfully experiments greatly with all the possibilities which works in this manga’s favour. Unfortunately, none of these games are stellar. They essentially range from “good-enough” to “absolute garbage”. You will often find interesting tricks and strategies being used to win, but most of these, if not all, are riddled with massive holes that make the believability take a serious hit. The tricks are certainly creative and it is interesting to ponder how one author can come up with so many weird strategies, but the fatal issue is that they simply do not hold water. They are revealed in flashy ways but about two-seconds of thinking will uncover the overall silliness of the strategies. It feels like the author thought up many interesting strategies and winning tricks, but he invested zero thought into making them seem probable. For every strategy presented there are always unconsidered variables and plenty of things that could have gone wrong, which definitely make the clever gimmicks go to waste. At some points, the games forget to even include any kind of gimmicky strategy; instead we have to watch Shirasagi get a ridiculous winning streak with absolutely no kind of strategy to it at all. On the extreme end, Shirasagi can sometimes bend the rules so badly that we wonder why the adjudicators would ever allow it. Towards the second half especially, nearly every game suffers from shoehorned fan-service and/or artificial ways of increasing the level of danger the characters are facing. Fan-service wise, the author really does go out of his way to include it in any way possible. From the female characters having to bet their clothes, or female characters being paralysed and having their naked bodies used as a card-table, or female characters having to stand in a pool full of orgasm-inducing fish (yes, that actually happens), the fan-service is forced into the games in any way possible. Now I have no problem with fan-service, as long as it does not disrupt the tone or the plot. Unfortunately, the ridiculous fan-service DOES affect the tone greatly; turning games that could have been genuinely suspenseful into grotesque wank-material, leaving us no room to get emotionally invested into the drama of the game. Perhaps in a weak attempt to salvage the ruined suspense, the author always makes sure to write some gruesome way for the characters to die should they fail. Again, these constantly come across as artificial and contrived, and get increasingly goofy. A good example of a life-threatening game is E-Card from Kaiji, where the amount of danger is proportional to the reward and the danger arises naturally from the scenario. The deadly traps that Gamble Fish comes up with feels like an 11 year old marathoned the Saw franchise and tried coming up with own cheesy traps while on an energy drink buzz. In short, they are pretty bad. Additionally, the author never explains why these deadly gambling competitions are even legal, and what kind of people would be flocking to an arena to see this stuff. In general, it is disappointing to see the quality of the games rapidly beginning to go into a death spiral as the series continues. The games will still manage to impress you with their grandiose set-ups and overall flair, but in the end they all came across as underwhelming in various ways.

The point where the games really go down the gutter is when super-natural abilities are introduced out of nowhere. It completely disrupts the established tone of the manga and ruins the main thing it had going for it. Before then, the manga was tolerable because the strategies and gimmicks that author came up with, despite being improbable and contrived, at least felt creative. Shoehorning in characters with bullshit abilities ruins this element, and subsequently these parts become the worst bits of the entire manga. Thankfully, these moments are few and far between.

Probably the biggest problem with this series is the god-awful characters. I will begin with the main character, Shirasagi Tomu, who ends up being an unconvincing portrayal of a “genius gambler”. Shirasagi is supposed to be the fearless badass who does not flinch at the prospect of betting his life on various gambles. This kind of character has been pulled off successfully in the past, the best example being Akagi Shigeru from the titular Mahjong centred series. You would expect a character with such little regard for his own life to be somewhat mentally unhinged, and as expected, Akagi Shigeru is an asocial, potentially sociopathic recluse; character traits that bring believability to this kind of nihilistic personality. Shirasagi seemingly does not care much at all about his own life, but the rest of his character does nothing to sell the former aspect. He is a normal looking and normal acting guy for the most part, and has enough social functionality to constantly be adding members to his harem of groupies (more on this later). We don’t even get a sense of why he is okay with being so careless with his life, another strike against the believability of his character. In Akagi, we see that Akagi gets a rush out of betting his own life on Mahjong. Here, it keeps happening just to make him look cool and edgy. The writer treats his “edginess” like a tap that he can turn on and off as it suits him and the story. Normal guy one second, insane edge-lord the very next. There is absolutely zero consistency in Shirasagi’s character and it really makes the manga suffer. Similar to his edginess, Shirasagi has a certain cocky self-assuredness to his character, which works to a degree but also is very inconsistent. He often taunts and challenges his opponents, which can be fun to watch, but at the beginning of the manga he only does it if he actually has some kind of good plan up his sleeve. Later on in the manga, he literally tells a character who is pointing a gun at his head to “go ahead, shoot, I bet it will misfire!” There is absolutely no reason for him to believe that the gun will misfire, so moments like this come across as absolutely idiotic, and only serve as a cheap way to rile up the audience and make Shirasagi look cooler.

If Shirasagi is not betting his own life on a game, he is likely instead betting either huge amounts of money or even his own body parts. Neither of these are handled well at all, in the end just coming across as cheap thrills. Allow me to elucidate. Almost from the get-go, Shirasagi is betting large amounts of money on these games; something that should at the very least result in sweaty palms and a slightly elevated heart-rate. The problem is that we never get a good sense of how much money Shirasagi has in the first place, so we don’t know if losing a million yen is even an issue for him. The money being wagered in this series has absolutely no weight to it, a massive oversight for a series that wants us to feel the tension of each and every gamble. When the series begins to introduce bodily mutilation as a consequence of losing, the games get interesting again…but only briefly. Again, the series does not give enough weight to the idea of being physically mutilated, and when it does happen there are no long term consequences for the characters. It is frustrating to see punctured ear-drums and severed fingers being shrugged off so easily in this series, essentially doing nothing to increase the tension or to make the games more interesting. In the end, this element simply comes across as cheap gore and shock factor.

The rest of the cast is no better. We have a generic self-insert side-kick who gets bullied by other characters but then completely trounces some of these bullies in various gambles, sure to make the beta 14-year-olds cream in their pants. We have Abidani, a villain so cartoonishly monstrous and over-the-top that he actually looks like a monster; with goblin ears, a pointy nose and shark-like teeth. I could rant about this character for at least a few paragraphs, but instead I will focus on an even more asinine aspect of the cast: Shirasagi’s harem. This only consists of boring one-dimensional characters but somehow the very existence of this harem causes tectonic shifts that cause massive cracks and holes all across the rest of the series, in unpredictable locations. Most of these females begin as Shirasagi’s sworn enemies (for pretty arbitrary reasons), and being the gamblers they are, they don’t hesitate to challenge him to various games. After being invariably beaten by Shirasagi, they inexplicably become completely infatuated with him and are literally willing to lay down their lives for him. No, really. These girls are completely okay with, no, they actually BEG to be used as his betting chips. We never get a sense of why they love him so goddamn much, and it feels goddamn stupid every time one of them says she’s okay with giving up her own life for him. At one point in the series, Shirasagi has a dramatic speech where he proclaims that he would never put anyone else’s life in danger with his gambles. Well, that rule is kind of constantly broken throughout the series, but I guess it’s okay if those people consent? Screw it; this series is consistently inconsistent, why stop now? This harem element means that Shirasagi is constantly getting involved in gambles that have nothing to do with his main goal; they simply serve to add a gambling girl to his harem so he can use them as betting chips or so that he can benefit at convenient times from their assorted Chekov’s Skills. This element of the series definitely needed some better execution behind it or outright removal.

Despite the multitude of flaws I have pointed out in this review (I am only scratching the surface here), I think it is still possible to get a lot of enjoyment out of this manga, and that is if you try to enjoy it in a tongue-in-cheek manner. As I mentioned before, there are points where this manga can begin to feel like a bizarre parody of gambling manga. At points like these, it’s wholly possible to switch off your brain and try to soak in all the unintentional comedy that this series offers. Unfortunately, this method had limited mileage for me. I’d just like to end this rather negative review by instilling the reader with a small glimmer of hope; it IS definitely possible to squeeze quite a bit of enjoyment out of this manga with the right mindset. In fact, there were bits in this manga where I was laughing quite heartily by taking on this mindset; which surprisingly increases my overall rating of this manga by at least a point. Still, that’s not nearly enough to salvage this train-wreck.

NOTE: This review only covers Part I of the Zero saga.

Tobaku Haouden Zero is Fukumoto's attempt at bringing a more shonenized, fast-paced gauntlet of deadly gambling games to life in his distinctive style, and it results in a quite enjoyable; though somewhat bumpy ride throughout.

In terms of characters, the poster-boy and titular protagonist Zero warrants a full paragraph written about him. While he is definitely not the most "memorable" of characters crafted by Fukumoto, he is still an interesting character to observe and root for. Zero is a genius, but he is not a cold, unfeeling machine like we are used to. Zero, fitting the ... shonen demographic of this manga, is a far more moralistic character than Fukumoto readers may be used to. His altruistic nature often results in a handicap for him, with many other characters leeching off him or trying to take advantage of his smarts. We often get the sense that these games would be a breeze for him to handle if he let his morals slide, but this is an interesting addition to his character and works quite well. Due to his tendency to help out stragglers in need of saving, we occasionally get to see Zero having to flex his leadership muscles in times of danger, which is very fun to see. Whether or not they listen to him is something I will not divulge here. He is a character reminiscent of Robin Hood, and he shows enough emotion throughout the series to humanize him plenty. Despite the fact that Zero fits comfortably into many tired old shonen character tropes, it still interesting to see what Fukumoto does with this character and results in some quite unique drama throughout the series.

The set-up for the games is nothing special but provides enough context for the crazy games to begin. Without spoiling anything, it involves collecting stars, one trillion dollars, a ticking time-limit and a sadistic old geezer. Fukumoto has rehashed elements that he has used before, and none of it feels like an improvement on his previous manga. These elements are just "good enough" to give the games context, and it is really the games that are the selling point of this series. The games are short and have great variety, but unfortunately some of them do not feel like they had as much effort put into them as others.

The very best games of Tobaku Hauoden Zero are simple and incredibly devious (wait until the Quarter Jump, my favourite game). There is a LOT of cheating and underhanded methods used by the villains in this series, and while some of it may feel a little over the top, I think it is excusable because of the way that it pushes Zero to his limit and allows us to see him trying to think in a state of panic. Some of the games have multiple possible solutions, and it is especially interesting to see what they are.

Other games are quite different from what Fukumoto has delivered before and may not be to everyone's liking. Some games are based off simple high-school maths, but still deliver enough twists to be worthwhile. Other games are based off Japanese riddles, which may prove to be a slog for non-Japanese readers. Unfortunately, Fukumoto occasionally tries to ramp up the tension in some rather cliche ways. Whereas in his other manga body parts and lives are often at stake, these additional dangers usually feel appropriate to the situation or occasionally work to the benefit of the main character. In this manga, a lot of danger is simply peppered in for the sake of it, and it can often come across as goofy. We see some eye-roll inducing traps such as spiked walls closing in on the characters, or a character walking into a game partnered up with Zero only to become a hostage later on just to give Zero more of an incentive to complete the game on time. The "danger" presented in this series rarely feels natural, and as a result makes the games as a whole feel "dumbed down" in comparison to Fukumoto's other work.

Unfortunately, the later games in this series feel like a real buzzkill, taking a noticeable nosedive in quality and ingenuity. The last few games are overly simplistic in premise and could be cobbled together by anyone without much effort. One basically amounts to quiz show and the other is an extremely unfair scavenger hunt. These two are resolved in hasty and unbelievable ways where instead of solid logic, Zero employs bullshit levels of intuition to worm his way out of the situation. These two games left a bad taste in my mouth and affected my overall enjoyment of the series.

Overall, Tobaku Haouden Zero is a solid entry in Fukumoto's line of high-stakes gambling manga that explores new territory despite being comprised of familiar elements. The roster of games has its ups and downs, to the point where I could say that there is one mediocre game for every good one. It is no masterpiece but it whets the appetite and makes you eager to delve into future installments in this series.

Despite a deliciously devious death-trap being the focus of this entire arc, I can't help but feel that this was the weakest arc in the Kaiji series so far. It is still a good, fairly suspenseful read, but this arc displays some rather uncharacteristic shortcomings which are disappointing to see in a series as excellent as Kaiji.

Kazuya, whom you will remember as a spectator in the Minefield Mahjong game, now invites Kaiji as a spectator for a new, three-player death-trap; the Salvation Game. More on the game later. This entire arc is built around a central theme, which is the nature of friendships. Kazuya believes ... that even the closest human friendships are all superficial at best, and "best friends" will betray each other if the scenario is right for it. Kaiji, despite being the victim of many betrayals, refutes this viewpoint and plays the optimist. So there are really two 'games' being played out in this arc, the Salvation Game itself and a battle between Kazuya and Kaiji's respective philosophies on the nature of humans.

The premise of the Salvation Game is one of the best things about this arc, and thus I will give a vague description as to avoid spoilers. The Salvation Game is the first true "group" game since Human Derby, and we acutely feel the danger posed by the possibility of a betrayal or simple slip-up. The game is a deadly twist on the classic "Prisoners with Hats" puzzle; resulting in a game riddled with confusion and uncertainty, where good communication is absolutely vital. Fukumoto does a fantastic job of making us care about the three unfortunate individuals playing Kazuya's devious game, and he makes it easy for us to relate to their moments of sheer panic and desperation. Despite entering into the game willingly and with consent, the three players really do begin to feel like "prisoners" trapped in Kazuya's deadly snare.

The problem with this arc is that the initial thrill of the Salvation Game wears off quite quickly. Once the initial problem with communication is solved, no particularly "smart" strategy is devised by the three players, and the rest of the challenges of the game are mainly 'solved' through luck. These other "challenges" are artificially created by Kazuya's underhanded methods, and there is no real solution to them other than lucking out or overcoming emotions. I really feel like the game needed more fundamental difficulties beyond the lack of communication between players, and there needed to be more challenges that were raised naturally by the mechanics of the game, not through Kazuya's increasingly contrived meddling. The game itself becomes less and less interesting due to the lack of strategy and repetitive contrived methods of creating suspense and difficulties for the trio to deal with, and as a result the moral battle between Kazuya and Kaiji actually becomes more interesting than the game itself. This is obviously not right, because the star of the show SHOULD be the game itself, and the battle of philosophies should be an underpinning theme.

I may be coming across as if I hate this arc and the game, but I really don't. It is still a suspenseful and intriguing game, especially if marathoned. It simply does not feel as tightly planned as all the other games devised by Fukumoto, and many twists and turns do not feel like they arise naturally at all. These twists are still unpredictable in nature, but they still lose their effect over the duration of this arc. Fukumoto teases certain developments later on to keep readers reading, but these usually turn out disappointing. We can sense that Kaiji will potentially become more than just a mere spectator to this game, but when this does happen, it is extremely minimal and disappointing. Honestly, Kaiji as a character in this arc is reduced to a screaming, panicking crybaby. Well, Kaiji has always been like that, but we are usually given some moments of genius and badassery to serve as the satisfying antithesis of this. In this arc he contributes no such noteworthy moments. Perhaps his presence was diluted so we could drink in the deliciously evil nature of Kazuya, who is really the man of this arc. Kazuya is simultaneously honest and duplicitous, simultaneously generous and unforgiving, simultaneously fair and unfair. Though his meddling with the game was not always to my liking, Kazuya's paradoxical nature makes him a very interesting character to add to Fukumoto's roster of excellent villains. Despite being a spoiled scumbag, Kazuya is a highly entertaining character, even providing us with some very memorable reaction faces in this arc.

So, this is unarguably the worst Kaiji arc by far. Still, this does not mean it is bad; it is just bad by Fukumoto-standards. I recommend marathoning it to get the most out of Fukumoto's suspense building.

Luckily, it seems the One Poker Hen is rectifying many of these faults already.

Plastic Memories is an anime that quickly works itself into a bit of a kerfuffle. It is an anime that, after finishing the first episode, you will know exactly where it is headed and how it will end. Now some might be turned off by a story with such a predictable and inevitable conclusion, but I think this kind of set-up is not always a bad thing; because sometimes the journey is more important than the destination. The question that now arises, is the journey worth it?

It could be worth it if the elements that this show comprises of weren’t so mediocre or sub-par. One ... big selling point of the show is the romance element, which is a crucial element in making the viewer want to watch through the rest of the series. The biggest problem with the romance presented by Plastic Memories is the two main characters. For a romance to be engaging, the viewer should at least like the two characters, the viewer should want the two characters to be happy and it should be clear to the viewer why the two characters like one another. So how does the romance in Plastic Memories fare? Well, we have Tsukasa and Isla, and I did not like either one of them in the slightest. It’s not just me being sour; it is a fact that the show gives us very little reason to like either one of these characters. Tsukasa is the generic ‘nice-guy’ character who, in the pantheon of romance anime protagonists available, is an absolute bore to watch. I really don’t understand why writers don’t try just a little bit harder to make a character (the main character, no less), just a tiny bit more memorable. Give him an attitude. Give him an unusual personality trait. Give him something inspired and unique, for the love of god. But nope. We quickly form an opinion of him and it does not change much at all in the 13 episode run of Plastic Memories. Isla is another uninteresting character whose only appeal is the fact that she occasionally acts cute, often tripping over and acting moe. That’s it. We never get a good sense of why these two bricks feel affection for each other. The very first scene of the anime shows us a crappy ‘love at first sight’ scenario, which I think is supposed to explain away why Tsukasa loves Isla. But, because Isla is an emotionally detached can opener, she seemingly does not return his feelings at this exact moment and goes on to act uninterested in him for a good span of episodes. When she suddenly DOES fall in love with him, it feels extremely unnatural and again, we are left with no sense of why she actually likes him. There is actually a scene in the final episode where the two characters are on telling each other what they like about each other. The reasons they come up with are incredibly plain and stupid (‘I like the way you are always smiling, I like how you are so clumsy’), which continues to cement the artificiality of the romance. It is a trite and bland romance which is, for some reason, egged on by the even more trite and bland supporting cast (who are so trite and bland that I do not think they even deserve a paragraph written about them). The romance element is nothing but sub-par, and is not a good incentive at all to not drop the show after one episode.

Despite being a massive component of the show, one could always try to turn a blind eye to the flawed romance and attempt to enjoy some other element of Plastic Memories. However, such an action would also result in disappointment. Plastic Memories takes place in a sci-fi setting, and its premise is something that actually piqued my interest. However, if the science fiction elements were judged by usual science fiction standards, Plastic Memories ends up being undeniably abysmal in this respect. Plastic Memories depicts a world where advanced AIs called Giftias have integrated into societies (don’t ask why they exist in the first place, they seem like more trouble than they’re worth) and the main characters engage in Retrievals, which is when you basically euthanize a Giftia before their AI goes haywire and turns them into dangerous berserkers. It is not long before any astute viewer will be able to pick holes in nearly every aspect of this premise, rendering it improbable to the point of spoiling any enjoyment or intrigue presented by this world. There is no clear reason for the existence of Giftas, other than to act as stand-ins for family members or to act as ‘love-bots’, for the lack of a better term. If this is truly the reason for their existence, the show does not explore the deeper ethical concerns of commodifying love. Beyond thematic shallowness, you can find more evidence of a poorly thought-out plot devices. There is no reason for their ‘berserk’ state to exist, as any forward-thinking person would program the Giftias with a timed deactivate, in preparation for the extremely likely event that someone will try running away with a Giftia (so likely that it happens all the time). In one of these ‘gone berserk’ scenes, we clearly see that these Giftias have superhuman strength, given the way that they can leap around cityscapes effortlessly. Again, this begs the question, what is their purpose? If they are really just stand-ins for people, why do they have the strength and dexterity of some kind of combat cyborg? If they will inevitably go berserk, why give them such dangerous latent strength? These things are ticking time-bombs, raising further questions as to why anyone would want to make a business out of creating these, and even if they choose to do so, why they weren’t designed with a fail-safe to stop the berserk phase, and FURTHERMORE, why such a small and inefficient department is taking care of this extremely important Retrieval process. Occasionally, the show tries to make us empathize with the ‘gone-berserk’ Giftias, which doesn’t work at all. We are clearly shown how dangerous they are, and how they urgently need to be put down. However, whenever a character does perform this highly necessary action, they are generally depicted as evil grunts with no humanity. It can become difficult to root for who they want us to root for when the 'baddies' seem to be absolutely correct in their choices.

World-building is also woefully lacking, an essential element of science fiction. Not only is the setting already unconvincing, but it teases us with potentially interestingly elements that are never developed any further. One example is the black market collectors who try to kidnap Giftias right before their scheduled Retrieval, but we never see why they would do such a thing in the first place. We are left to guess. Are they harvesting the robotic parts of Giftias? If so, why do it so close to the Retrieval date, where they are literally less than a day away from going berserk? Many interesting ideas are simply skimmed over, making the world of Plastic Memories extremely underdeveloped and a real waste of potential. Other sci-fi build and develop their worlds to the point where the setting itself reflects the central themes of the story. I am not asking for such an insane level of world-building, but I am definitely not satisfied with the scraps that Plastic Memories offered me. Plastic Memories only develops its sci-fi world and setting just enough to please the ones who aren’t really watching it for the sci-fi world and setting.

So if Plastic Memories is not using its time to world-build, then what is it doing? What element could be so important that everything else must be put on hold? I’ll tell you what. Plastic Memories is trying its hardest to split your sides with its 'comedic' relief. The cardboard cut-out cast spew repetitive punch-lines constantly, none of which are unexpected or particularly well-delivered. Not only is this humour unfunny and a real waste of screen-time (remember, this is only one-cour), but the comedic relief on multiple occasions can even ruin the tone set by a preceding scene. A perfect example is at the end of the first episode, where a teary-eyed Retrieval sequence is absolutely put to waste by starkly appearing and absolutely unnecessary toilet humour. Yep, TOILET HUMOUR. Most of the other ‘humour’ is Isla making funny faces after making a funny mistake (ha ha), Tsukasa being accused of being a pervert (lol rofl lmao) , or Isla and Tsukasa being forced into embarrassing, ecchi-type misunderstandings (oh stop my sides are about to split). Lather, rinse and blatantly repeat. Some may say that the comedy of Plastic Memories makes the characters more likeable or stops the tone from becoming too dark, but to me the only thing it adds is immersion shattering tonal dissonance. And this is needless to say, not a good thing at all
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There are only a few aspects of Plastic Memories that keep it just barely watchable. When watching Plastic Memories, I did feel like there was some level of care put into how this anime was directed, and a good amount of thought put into some of the visual motifs present. A good example is the chair that Isla sits in throughout the series (https://imgur.com/gallery/iyGXqsI/new). Given that the Retrieval process involves sitting down in a chair, a visual motif such as this serves as a constant reminder of what is to come, and how the characters are aware of this impending inevitability. There were a handful of other meaningful, memorable shots that again, quite well, reflected what the characters may be feeling at that particular time. The finale was also a pleasant surprise. Throughout the series, I was expecting it to be an irritating, over-the-top scream-fest like the ending of AnoHana. But to my delight, it was remarkably subdued and communicated what it needed to without ever becoming too sappy or too melodramatic. No tears were shed, as I did not particularly like or care about either of these characters, but I would say that the final few episodes were a tasteful departure and something of a small reward for sitting through the rest of the show.

Plastic Memories delivers just enough sci-fi to count as a sci-fi, just enough romance to count as a romance, far too much comedic relief, and a few tearjerker/heart warmer scenes that, unfortunately, do not wash away the aforementioned sins. If you are a sucker for romance and melodrama, no matter how average it may be, then by all means proceed beyond the first episode. If you are anyone else, there is no good reason to complete the entirety of this half-baked anime.

What can I say about Gantz? This dark seinen has been hailed a masterpiece by some, and utter trash by others. I would say that it is a bit of both, having some extremely good qualities and some glaring flaws which is enough to warrant the hate that it gets. However, it is not a bad manga at all, and I'll do my best to point out its pros and cons.

The thing that really stands out for me in this manga is the level of creativity on display. Seriously. It's goddamned glorious, from monster designs to all the crazy situations our characters find themselves in. ... This is a rare and fascinating glimpse into an extremely inventive mind, and I guarantee you that some of these vivid images will stay with you. Crazy, crazy things happen in this manga that you will not soon forget, and some of the monster designs seen will undoubtedly crop up in your nightmares sometime. It's that remarkable.

Another great strength is the art. A lot of it is done digitally, and this creates a unique feel not seen in many other manga. Environments, faces, monster designs, everything looks pretty amazing, especially towards the end. There is the occasional visual clutter or stuff-up of human proportions, but overall the art is really really great.

I also liked the characters, which is something of a controversial opinion, given that many of the complaints regarding this manga has to do with the characters. Protagonist Kei Kurono is a complete douche-nozzle, but we see him evolve greatly and change as the story goes on, until he's a pretty great dude. Many other douche-bag characters exist, but I believe that these are deliberate social commentaries made by the author. He is trying to bring out the worst in people, highlighting the kind of scum that exists in society. I don't want to bring out any specific examples, but overall the use of characters in this manga is very good.

Now let's get to the story, which is the most bumpy element of this manga. At first, it was amazing. It genuinely felt like a horror to me, with shocking unpredictable moments at every turn. The social commentary was in full swing, and there were plenty of moments of complete badassery. I consider this the best stage of the manga, a kind of social horror that is full of moral choices and dilemmas that make even the reader question their own morality. The social commentary and badassery continue for a long time, but after a while you begin to notice the bad planning of this manga. Many story threads are picked up and then suddenly dropped, creating plot holes and too many unanswered questions. Things are left poorly explained or simply not explained at all. After a while, it feels like the author was really just freestyling the story. Sure, a lot of creativity and badassery remains, but it never recovers fully to the standard of the earlier chapters. I kept reading for the sake of it, frequently getting bored and not feeling the same kind of excitement I did before. Eventually it loses its horror edge and becomes more like a Michael Bay film in the last hundred or so chapters, which allows for some great action but overall is quite dull. Some extremely awesome moments still remain, but you'll likely be yawning frequently, despite the badassery on display. At this point the series has lost it's edge, becoming nothing more than dull gore and occasional sex.

Now don't get me wrong. This is still a great manga. However, given the length and the dullness of the later chapters, it does become kind of hard to recommend. This series contains some of the most awesome, creative monster designs, chaotic, mindblowing situations and really gripping, emotional drama, but it becomes increasingly more 'meh' as the series comes to a close. It's still pretty cool, just nowhere near as gripping as it used to be. Despite ending this review on a quite negative note, the manga's good parts are enough to warrant this a solid 8/10.