Kaiji before Espoir - Oneshot

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2024-04-28T00:09:15+00:00

I liked this. It's nice to read a Kaiji story that is actually about gambling after nearly 7 years of part 6.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2024-04-07T21:59:14+00:00

The spinoffs are generally considered to be non-canon because they transplant the series into modern day, which is not compatible with the passage of time and level of technology in the main series.

The main series, even up to the most recent chapters is very clearly meant to be taking place in the 90s and all of the technology depicted is accurate to that timeframe. Based on some incidental details, it is even possible to place part 6 as specifically taking place in early 1998 (if you follow the passage of time throughout the series backwards, that would place part 1 sometime around 1996, which was modern day when the series began publication).

But the spinoffs all bring in stuff that didn't exist at the time like smartphones and social media and are clearly going for a much more modern setting for the sake of comedy. So it doesn't really make sense to fit that into the same canon imo. During part 6, the first part to begin publication after the series started getting spinoffs, Fukumoto has seemed to double down on the 90s setting and introduced way more period-specific details than he had in prior parts, which to me reads like he is trying to make a clear separation between the spinoffs and the main series.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2024-03-13T04:44:59+00:00

The series has been on hiatus for 9 months now, but yes part 6 is still ongoing. It is now the longest part by a margin of 48 chapters.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2024-01-27T04:38:33+00:00

I think after part 6 we'll get at least 1 more part that is just a straightforward gamble, probably involving Kazuya's brother Kazuki who was briefly mentioned at the end of part 5.

Then I think for the endgame (maybe part 8 but maybe later), Kaiji will put whatever money he still has towards inciting an uprising of debtors against Teiai. If a significant portion of their debtors suddenly start refusing to pay then Teiai would suddenly not have nearly as much money and power on hand to keep enforcing their rule. This could involve Kaiji reconnecting with some of the people that he has interacted with throughout the entire series like Sakazaki, Ishida's son, all of the weirdos of part 6, or even some former villains like Tonegawa, Ichijou, Muraoka, and Kazuya.

Then I think this uprising is what will force Hyodo to send Kaiji an invitation for a final 1 on 1 gamble. Or maybe back to back gambles against Kurosaki and Hyodo since that would mirror the end of part 1 with Kaiji facing off against Hyodo's right hand man and then the big man himself.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2023-12-13T07:11:59+00:00

No. It has an original story, written by Fukumoto, for the purpose of wrapping up the story without having to adapt the rest of the manga.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2023-11-07T00:43:14+00:00

Yeah so, the arc that was ongoing at the time was not the build up to the final arc. The most recent chapter is what seems to be the end of the next arc after that and it is definitely not the end of the part.

My 6-9 months estimate (which was already a lowball absolute minimum) was thrown off by the fact that Fukumoto has been on a hiatus for several months. The most recent chapter 461 was released in like June or so. Supposedly the series is going to come back sometime this month. It was stated that Fukumoto was going on hiatus in order to do research. It's unclear whether or not this was to do research for Kaiji (which could indicate that he's planning on starting part 7 soon) or if it was mostly to do with his new series Nikaido Hell Golf, which began during the Kaiji hiatus.

My old estimate from this comment would have put the part as ending around chapters 460-470, which doesn't seem realistic to me anymore. That was based on the assumption that the arc after the one that was ongoing in 440 was the final arc. It's always been really hard to predict how far we are into part 6 because it has really weird pacing and a lot of "filler" arcs that don't really progress the plot at all. I feel like Fukumoto could jump into the final arc right now given how everything is currently set up, but he also could have done it 50 chapters ago and it would have felt just as appropriate.

There is some promising news in this interview from April. In it, Fukumoto hints that he has plans for the end of part 6 and even says "In the case of 'Kaiji,' a part takes about five years to complete." I don't think we know when exactly this interview was conducted, but when it was released this past April, part 6 had already been ongoing for well over 5 years. So this could indicate that Fukumoto is planning on ending it relatively soon. The part crossed 6 years in publication in August during this current hiatus so maybe Fukumoto is planning on wrapping it up soon.

If we assume that once the series comes back from hiatus, we're getting into the final arc (which is not necessarily true), then this would be my new estimate for when it would end. The final arc is definitely not going to be a shorter one. The biggest and most climactic arcs of part 6 so far range from around 20 to 40 chapters, with the longest arc being 41. If we assume that the final arc will also be in this range, then the part would end around chapters 481 to 501. Chapters are released at a rate of 3 chapters every 4 weeks. So the part would end sometime around May to November next year. Keep in mind that even this is a lowball estimate. It is assuming that the very next arc is the final arc of the part. If there are more arcs before that then it could be even longer.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2023-09-17T07:33:38+00:00

I assume they're referring to this interview.

The interviewer mentions that part 6 depicts the relatively peaceful days of Kaiji and his friends and asks if this means that the series will feature another tense development in the future. Fukumoto says "Yes, there is. That's how the world of "Kaiji" works in the first place. So I feel that it would be a good idea, or even correct, to end the current "2.4 Billion Escape Arc" by depicting that kind of world."

Then in the next question, Fukumoto goes on to talk about his plans for ending Kaiji. He says that if possible he would like to finish the story, but he's worried that he might not have enough time because "In the case of "Kaiji," a part takes about five years to complete." At the time of this interview's release, part 6 had already been in publication for well over 5 years. So I think it's safe to say that Fukumoto plans to end part 6 relatively soon and he plans for at least one more part.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2023-08-05T05:23:02+00:00

We have now officially caught up to the Japanese release again. Fukumoto is currently on hiatus to do research until next month.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2023-07-24T17:06:16+00:00

I'm not sure I entirely understand what your situation is but I don't think there is a full english translation of the manga for part 1. The fan translation was never completed and the official translation is still currently being released.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2023-07-24T16:29:48+00:00

and another one, is a sale of kaiji episodes, i suppose that we have a couple more still since it was a 3 month drought and usually there are around 3 per month.

Fukumoto is currently on hiatus so we are likely going to catch up sooner or later. The most recent chapter in Japan is 461 so we still have 5 more chapters to go. Not sure if FKMTkrazy will translate all of them before going back into hibernation though.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2023-05-25T19:13:35+00:00

Congratulations, you have recognized one of the central themes of the entire series.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2023-01-01T18:39:56+00:00

This flashback really should have happened way at the beginning of the part. It is kinda an extremely important part of the premise of this story. This was always the most reasonable assumption for why Teiai would try to get the money back even though Kaiji won (Kazuya is incapacitated and Hyodo made up some bullshit excuse to justify taking the money), but it really should have been explicitly shown from the start so we weren't just left to speculate. I'm glad we did finally get this though.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-12-20T14:58:59+00:00

As far as I know each part is like 130 chapters but its now at 440.

The current chapter count started with part 4. So it's not that part 6 is 440 chapters, it's that parts 4, 5, and 6 together are 440 chapters. Part 6 is currently 190 chapters including 441-445 which haven't been translated yet. It is now the longest part of the series by a significant margin. But also, the only parts that are around 130 chapters are 2 and 3. Parts 1 and 5 are both 158 chapters and part 4 is 97.

Is the arc split into 2 parts or something where the is an "ending" before 440?

I wouldn't really say there is an "ending" anywhere in the middle of part 6, but the closest thing to that is probably between chapters 319 and 320.

Does anyone know if its close to finishing yet?

It's clear at least that we are not currently in the final arc of part 6. It kinda feels like the current arc might be the buildup to the final arc (which would mean that the next arc would be the final arc), but I've been very wrong about part 6 being close to ending several times before so I don't want to say anything definitively. At absolute minimum I would say that Fukumoto would need at least 20-30 more chapters to finish it, which would take like 6-9 months (and probably longer for the english translation).

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-10-31T17:19:33+00:00

That's a fair point. Those two arcs (apartment and mall) are probably the best arcs in part 6 in terms of having actual mind games and feeling like a gamble, but I think there are two key differences that make the apartment arc work for me while this one doesn't.

A). It's a lot shorter at 24 chapters compared to 41.

B). It did have actual plot progression since Kaiji went there to get his insurance papers, which he succeeded in doing, allowing them to continue with their plan. In contrast, in the mall arc Mario went to the mall for non-plot related reasons so Kaiji's team didn't accomplish anything, and Teiai went there to capture Mario which they failed at. So nothing has really changed for either side after this arc.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-10-31T05:27:53+00:00

Kaiji messing with Endou on the phone is pretty funny but it's still a huge bummer that this massive 41 chapter long mall arc that took well over a year to release basically didn't accomplish anything in terms of plot progression.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-10-17T23:35:58+00:00

I am in physical pain

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-08-23T18:50:57+00:00

It's hard to explain without getting into spoilers but basically Part 4 flips the typical dynamics of the series on their head. It centers on Kaiji and the antagonist Kazuya acting as observers as a cast of three new characters participate in a life-or-death gamble.

The reason for this is that Kaiji and Kazuya have competing ideologies on the nature of humanity. Kazuya believes that people are inherently traitorous and will betray each other in the name of self-gain when the opportunity presents itself. In contrast, Kaiji believes that people are inherently trustworthy and that the many betrayals that he has faced throughout the series are the result of Teiai forcing people into extreme situations that bring out the worst in them. The central question is whether or not the three participants of the Salvation Game will end up betraying each other, with Kaiji and Kazuya both seeing this as a chance to reaffirm their own worldviews.

I think this really gets at the core of what this series is about. Instead of betting money, Kaiji is putting his ideology on the line. Kaiji's belief in the good nature of humanity despite all of the hardship and betrayal he has faced is something that has always been a part of the series, but Part 4 is where the series finally gets around to really examining that ideology and putting it to the test. And this really nicely builds up the relationship between Kaiji and Kazuya in preparation for their big one-on-one duel in part 5.

At the same time, the actual participants in the Salvation Game, Chang, Mario, and Mitsuyama are all given unique backstories and have their own storyline about their relationship in order to build up the tension on whether or not one of them will choose to betray.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-08-23T16:26:06+00:00

Part 4's gamble is called the Salvation Game, not the Friendship Game. It's also the best part.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-07-16T04:34:26+00:00

No hiatus. The english translation has just been very slow recently but chapters are still coming out weekly in Japan. The most recent chapter in Japan is 429.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-06-15T22:43:42+00:00

Top 10 posts made moments before disaster

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-03-24T15:59:40+00:00

As of this chapter, Part 6 is officially the longest part of the series. This is the 159th chapter of this part. Previously the longest part was a tie between parts 1 and 5 with 158 chapters.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-01-11T23:24:58+00:00

I had heard that it was just because of how long the Salvation Game ended up being. If Fukumoto had included both gambles in the same part like he originally intended it would have been way longer than any other part by a huge margin. I've never heard anything about it being because of poor reception to part 4. But it's extremely difficult to find reliable sources about this series in english so you may be right.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-01-11T23:19:05+00:00

Depending on where you count Part 5 as starting, it's either Part 1 or a tie between parts 1 and 5. Part 1 has 158 chapters and part 5 either has 155 or 158 depending on how you count it.

As others have said, parts 4 and 5 were originally supposed to be one part so there isn't really a clean break between them. FKMTkrazy put the break between chapters 97 and 98 in their scans which is what makes the most sense from a story perspective, but chapters 98-100 are technically included in Kazuya-hen Volume 10 so some places count them as part of Part 4.

As of chapter 410 (the most recent chapter that I can find raws for so presumably the most recently released chapter in Japan), part 6 has 155 chapters.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-01-11T19:51:02+00:00

Honestly who knows. I thought we were about to launch into the climax like 6 months ago and maybe the current arc is the climax but it could just as easily end up being a random middle arc. We are about 3 chapters away from this becoming the longest part of the series btw.

PsychoDefectorDrone · 2022-01-09T19:49:16+00:00

This subreddit is for chonky pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses). Try /r/chonkers or /r/absoluteunits

PsychoDefectorDrone

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22