“It’s always the darkest under the lighthouse,” says a Japanese proverb very aptly. The purpose of this text is to advance to the top of the lighthouse and illuminate with a top 5 how the Japanese culture is dedicated to gambling in the form of “anime” and is influenced by the worldwide success model of non GamStop casinos. “Animes” are cartoons in the style of “manga”, the popular Japanese comics. Gambling themes around the world and in all cultures as well as the best online casinos can only be found here.
Kaiji: Always on Top!
Who is Kaiji, and what sets him apart as an indestructible roly-poly as the title suggests? At first glance and in the first few scenes, nothing. He’s quite the loser, has a lot of personal problems and even moving to Tokyo doesn’t solve them. He is also drawn into the calamities of an acquaintance who has a gambling debt to settle with the Japanese underworld. This puts Kaiji aboard a casino ship, and what happens next is not to be revealed here.
The creator of this outstanding manga series, Nobuyuki Fukumoto, has been spinning his yarn since 1996. It was adapted for television in 2007-2008. There was even a real feature film in 2009 that had a sequel in 2011. The story made the leap to the US, where it has been published since this year. The original title in Japanese is “Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji”, which translates to something like “Kaiji’s Gambler Apocalypse”. promising…
Kakegurui – The Epitome of the Gamer
The title says it all: the sole aim of the private academy Hyakkaou is to train high-risk gamblers. All graduates come from wealthy and influential families. If you fail, you have to work off your debts for the academy. One day, a newcomer named Yumeko Jabami, a gifted boy, messes up the perfidious system and becomes its greatest threat…
This is a new generation manga created by lyricist Homura Kawamoto and illustrator Toru Naomura. Her story was released in 2018 as both an anime and a real-life TV series, which saw its second season in 2019.
Akagi
The original title is “Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai” and means “descent of a genius into darkness”. The descent is preceded by a salvation: the humble gambler Nangou is about to play mahjong for head and neck with underworld greats on a stormy night of mahjong when his assistant Akagi shows up with the police after him. Akagi knocks out Nangou and wins big money, but that’s just where the story begins…
Written and drawn by Nobuyuki Fukumoto, the creator of Kaiji, this manga comic first appeared in 1991 and has since had an amazing career, selling more than 12 million copies in Japan. It went into anime form in 2005, having previously made two feature films in 1995 and 1997. In 2015 and 2017 TV adaptations were to be examined. The plot is branched and has many sub-levels.
Tetsuya – The Legend
The plot: Against the backdrop of World War II, one player wins everything. Tetsuya has nothing but luck and makes a fortune while everything around him falls to pieces. But he, too, finally experiences his zero hour. A devastating defeat teaches him humility and lets him rediscover the secrets of mahjong.
The series, first published in 1997 by lyricist Fumei Sai and illustrator Yasushi Hoshino, was awarded the Kodansha Prize for manga and was shown in a television adaptation from 2000 to 2001. She is attached to the classic narrative and representational forms of the genre.
One Outs
Many manga revolve around mahjong, the ancient Asian game of chance and strategy. This one is an exception and is dedicated to sports betting. The main character is Toua Tokuchi, an expert on the baseball variant “One Outs”. Of all things, he takes part in the fate of the weakest baseball team in the country and surprises bettors and bookmakers alike.
Shinobu Kaitani developed the story from 1998 to 2006. The series made a comeback in 2008 and also appeared as an anime.
More Gambling Animes From the Manga Universe
Anime relies on computer graphics. The originally purely Japanese form of representation has also influenced Western artists. It has subcategories for kids (“Kodomo”), girls (“Shoujo”), boys (“Shounen”), and adults (“Hentai”); in the latter there are also pornographic elements (which we neglect here in favor of the gambling component, sorry). Three other series feature gambling, although not as a main theme:
- Death Note: The main character, Light Yagami, a maladaptive genius, must engage in a high-risk, all-or-nothing game with a demon.
- Food Wars: Under the original Japanese title Shokugeki no Souma, top chefs compete in a culinary competition.
- Naruto: Tsunande, one of the main characters in this series, is more gifted at healing than at playing. She regularly triumphs over death, but loses her bets undeterred.
So much for our overview of online gambling with anime. Words are hardly enough to capture the fascination of this art form.
