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This is the character page for Nobuyuki Fukumoto's Kaiji. Currently under construction, but feel free to contribute.


Characters in Kaiji:

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    Main characters 

Kaiji Itou

Voiced by: Masato Hagiwara (Japanese), Jeremy Gee (English)

  • Action Survivor: There's a reason why the series is called Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor. Kaiji ends up often getting put in life or death scenarios and his ability to survive through them and keep pressing forward is often what allows him to last in the cutthroat world of underground gambling.
  • Awesome by Analysis: Kaiji's ability to read the room and come up with new strategies on the fly is one of his greatest strengths along with sheer stubbornness.
  • Badass Normal: Sort of. Kaiji grows from a shrimp into a pretty competent gambler who acknowledges his weaknesses.
  • Being Good Sucks: Moral to a fault and always helps people at the detriment of himself.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Kaiji is initially presented as a down-on-his luck petty criminal whose compulsive gambling has left him penniless. But whenever he's thrust into one of Hyoudou's games, he demonstrates remarkable intelligence and skill at whatever game he's faced with — largely because failure usually ends up risking him his life.
  • Butt-Monkey: The series opens with Kaiji as a down on his luck gambler who hasn't worked since the new year and ends up in crippling debt with the Yakuza because of a loan he cooped. Suffice it to say things go From Bad to Worse.
  • Character Development:
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Often gets him into trouble. ESPECIALLY at the end of the first season.
  • Determinator: Even after losing over 60 million to the Bog, he continues going.
  • '80s Hair: A mullet.
  • Fatal Flaw: In another series, his Chronic Hero Syndrome might've been admirable. In a series crawling with dishonest backstabbers, it's one of the worst qualities you can have, and nearly all it does is screw Kaiji over.
  • The Gambling Addict: He already starts the plot with little money to his name after spending lots on gambling. Even after he makes it out of his predicaments, he's prone to spending his money on more gambling.
  • Genius Bruiser: Kaiji is shown to be a capable fighter on top of his gambling skill. To be fair, the people he is shown to beat up are nothing more than average but it is quite a feat to disable multiple people in a single punch as shown in the Mahjong arc.
  • Honor Before Reason: Always splits his winnings how he feels is fair, typically to the detriment of himself.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's something of a Lazy Bum and a jerk, but when push comes to shove, he proves himself a true hero in the face of danger.
  • Karmic Jackpot: Because Kaiji saved Mario’s and Chang’s lives when he didn’t have to, the two gladly put up their lives to allow Kaiji to continue his match with Kazuya. This allowed Kaiji to turn the tides of the game and let him win 2.4 billion yen.
  • NEET: By season 3 he's just leeching off of Sakazaki.
  • Nominal Hero: He's got morals and standards like anybody else, but in the end he constantly finds himself stuck in ridiculously high-staked gambles solely because he needs the money.
  • Rousing Speech: He frequently has to give those to his companions so that they as a collective can keep moving forward despite their dire straits.
  • Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Kaiji frequently gets offered very attractive deals that could get him out of his predicament then and there, but he refuses to take it if it also means sacrificing his companions in the process.
  • Suffering Builds Character: He starts off as a nobody who barely does anything with the life he's been given except indulge in petty gambling which has ended up locking him in severe debt. But put him in a situation where his life is literally on the line, and he turns dangerous.
  • Took a Level in Badass: While it's subdued since Kaiji is not an action series, Kaiji nevertheless gets increasingly clever as the series goes on, especially when it comes to when people are trying to swindle him. This ultimately pays off in Part 3 when Kaiji realizes that Miyoshi and Maeda are using him as the mark for the con, not Muraoka, and swiftly does damage control on the situation and Part 5 when he recognizes the exact instant that Kazuya has started cheating and then sees through to the second layer of cheating being done.
  • Trapped by Gambling Debts: It's not uncommon to see him break out of his latest predicament only to fall into another one because he spent all his money on gambling.
  • True Companions: Mario and Chang, as of the end of the Salvation Game.
  • Tsundere: Type A.

Yuuji Endou

Voiced by: Naoya Uchida (Japanese), David Matranga (English)

A debt collector who shows up at Kaiji's place one day to collect a defaulted loan that he's co-signed as guarantor. After disclosing the astronomical debt accumulated, he offers Kaiji one last hope: The Espoir, which promises enough prize money that can clear his debts with profit to spare.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Is regularly seen wearing one, even when off the job.
  • Cool Shades: He's rarely seen not wearing them. Unlike the rank-and-file Teiai employees, we do get to see his whole face behind the shades.
  • Evil Debt Collector: Given his ties to the yakuza, it goes without saying.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Later becomes this with Kaiji and Sakazaki as they take on the Bog together.
  • Gender Flip: "He's" a woman in the Live-Action Adaptation.
  • Heel–Face Turn: He ends up cooperating with Kaiji to take on the Bog as he, too, gets into debts of his own that he needs to clear.
  • Jerkass: He somehow has a way to screw over anyone who takes a loan from him, even if circumstances would benefit all parties.
  • Karma Houdini: For a Teiai employee who gets Kaiji into his first few predicaments, Endou doesn't receive very drastic on-screen repercussions.
  • Loan Shark: He starts the plot by chasing Kaiji down on a co-signed loan. In the second season, when Kaiji has to take a loan from him to enact his plan to take down the Bog, Endou doesn't relent on his interest rates.
  • Read the Fine Print:
    • Points out that the loan that Kaiji had co-signed with Furuhata before the start of the series also leaves him with the responsibility of paying it off when Furuhata disappears.
    • After Kaiji's victory over the Bog, he makes off with more than the agreed amount, because the last 10 million yen loan taken from him in desperation also had a crazy-high interest.
  • Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Though not necessarily on the side of "law", Endou takes on this role for the 6th series. Many chapters are entirely dedicated to his struggles to find clues about Kaiji's whereabouts. He usually gets close to the truth with sheer tenacity and quick wits, but the trope is fully in effect since his successes don't tend to stick.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In the second series, due to Tonegawa having been demoted or fired.

Kazutaka Hyoudou

Voiced by: Masane Tsukayama (Japanese), Marty Fleck (English)

The CEO of Teiai Corporation who delights in seeing the suffering of those around him.
  • Bad Boss: He's quite cruel to his subordinates, as seen in season 2. He abuses them for his own amusement and punishes them for the slightest offenses.
  • Beard of Evil: Has a pointy beard to go along with his twisted evil personality.
  • Big Bad: The mastermind behind the cruel games that Kaiji and the other debtors are forced to play.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's the CEO of the Teiai Corporation and an irredeemable monster to the core.
  • The Corrupter: Much of his conversations with Kaiji involve trying to "teach" him malefic, cynical wisdom and pointing out how they're not so different.
  • Evil Old Folks: Hyoudou is up there in years and age has only caused him to become even more wicked.
  • Expy: Of Washizu from Akagi, also by Fukumoto. They have quite similar looks and personalities, and they share a voice actor.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He may act jovial, but that's only because he enjoys the pain (both physical and mental) that he inflicts.
  • Giggling Villain: It's hard to ever see him not sneering over the cast's suffering.
  • Hate Sink: There is nothing good about Kazutaka, period. He's an incredibly cruel man who has no reason for the things he does other than his own amusement.
  • Hypocrite: When Kaiji accuses him of being afraid of losing to someone like Kaiji, he idly dismisses the claim, saying that if an amateur golfer played a professional often enough, he would eventually win. Because of this, he says that there would be no shame in losing to Kaiji. Kaiji inwardly reflects on how this doesn't match up with how Hyoudou had forced Tonegawa to kneel on a red hot plate for losing to Kaiji in E-Card, even though he had done well for the majority of the game.
  • Loves the Sound of Screaming: His form of entertainment involves watching others suffer, whether they're desperate debtors or his own subordinates.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Watching the worst of human nature is his favorite pastime.
  • Sanity Slippage: It was stated that he used to be far more sane, so he's had one prior to the beginning of the story leading to him being the man we know now. He's even willing to go so far as to build an underground "kingdom", then deliberately trigger nuclear war to hold onto his power, leaving the entirety of the lower classes to die in the initial bombings.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: As far as the public knows, he's a respectable businessman. It couldn't be farther from the truth.

    Part 1 

Takeshi Furuhata

Voiced by: Yasunori Matsumoto (Japanese), Tyler Galindo (English)

A former acquaintance of Kaiji who begged him to co-sign a loan as guarantor. After defaulting on his many loans and disappearing, Kaiji is sought out by the debt collectors, kickstarting the plot. Furuhata soon appears on the Espoir, and is recruited by Kaiji to try and turn their luck around.
  • Easily Forgiven: Despite having scammed Kaiji in the past, he gets off the hook pretty quickly.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Unlike Andou, who was planning to betray Kaiji from the start, Furuhata seemed like he genuinely wanted to buy Kaiji's freedom. Unfortunately once Andou gets into his head by telling him about the debt they will still be in if they help Kaiji, Furuhata betrays Kaiji for a 10 million Yen profit.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: His making Kaiji co-sign a loan starts the series after all.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: He accepts Andou's offer to betray Kaiji at the end of the Espoir arc. This is pretty horrible when you think about it, since Furuhata was responsible for Kaiji's debt in the first place.
  • Weak-Willed: Furuhata only ever does what someone else tells him to which is why it doesn't take much prompting from Andou to turn on Kaiji.

Mamoru Andou

Voiced by: Toshiharu Sakurai (Japanese), Sean Patrick Judge (English)

Another debtor encountered on the Espoir, recruited by Kaiji in an attempt to cooperate and turn their luck around.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He is in the story 4 hours in-universe, and betrays Kaiji twice during those hours.
  • The Corruptor: He's the one who forced Furuhata to betray Kaiji after he sacrificed himself for them.
  • Fat Bastard: The first of the overweight characters seen in the series, who proceeds to screw over Kaiji's plans to save his own skin.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Makes a good point that if they use their stars to save Kaiji, he and Furuhata won't be able to make enough money to pay off the debt they have, and end up with them leaving the ship with a debt of at least 3 million yen each.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: When he betrays Kaiji the second time.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: He has no problem leaving Kaiji to suffer at the hands of Teiei after he sacrificed himself for them.

Funai

Voiced by: Hideo Ishikawa (Japanese), Gabriel Regojo (English)

One of the first debtors Kaiji encounters on the Espoir. They first agree to intentionally draw all their matches so that they can proceed without worry of losing stars. Funai eventually betrays Kaiji at the last minute.
  • Break the Haughty: Kaiji does a masterful job in the final round of restricted Janken of first revealing his cheating to the remaining players so nobody would want to play with him, then forcing him into a final confrontation that Kaiji can't possibly lose in order to squeeze Funai of five out of his remaining nine chips, preventing him from making the profit he wanted from the game's losers.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He betrays Kaiji at the last minute after their initial plan to intentionally draw to exhaust their supply. This sets up Kaiji's main conflict for the rest of the arc.
  • The Heavy: For the Restricted Rock Paper Scissors arc. He singles out Kaiji early on, putting him in a desperate situation in the first 20 minutes, then comes back near the end to screw him over some more, and is ultimately Kaiji's final opponent.
  • Jerkass: After being called out for his betrayal, Funai unapologetically admits that he was simply using Kaiji all the while.
  • Obvious Trap: He offers to help Kaiji early on, and then stabs the guy in the back. In the manga, he's acting somewhat less shady, but the fact that the chapter's name is "Scam" is a tip-off.

Kitami

Voiced by: Kazuki Yao (Japanese), Scott Gibbs (English)

A debtor on board the Espoir, who had planned to hoard one type of card so that he and his subordinates could profit off easy wins and complete the Rock-Paper Scissors round safely by drawing off the excess cards. Kaiji came up with the same strategy first, though, and Kitami responds by hoarding the sole type of card that would beat Kaiji's stock.
  • Never My Fault: Blames his two subordinates for his loss against Kaiji, claiming that if they didn't rush him, he would have known that Kaiji knew which card he would use for their match. One of them is quick to point out that it was because of Kitami's words that Kaiji found out in the first place.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gets one from Kaiji for trying to back out of the gamble that he and Kanji set up after Kanji convinced Furuhata and Andou to wager their stars on the match.
  • Worthy Opponent: He calls Kaiji this, because they originally thought up the same strategy.

Yukio Tonegawa

Voiced by: Hakuryuu (Japanese), David Harbold (English)

The second-highest ranked executive in the Teiai Corporation. He oversees and manages the Restricted-Rock-Paper-Scissors and Brave Men Road games, and becomes Kaiji's opponent in E-Card.

In the spinoff, Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa, he takes the role of the protagonist as he tries to work with his subordinates in entertaining Hyoudou.


  • Arc Villain: Hyoudou is his boss and technically the overall villain of the series, but even when he physically appears during the Castle of Despair arc, he's relatively uninvolved in proceedings until Kaiji drags him into his final gamble, whereas Tonegawa is the most consistent opponent overseeing the various games that Kaiji participates in, being The Face of the Teiai group until Hyoudou reveals himself just before the card match against Tonegawa. Said match also serves as the Climax Boss fight for Kaiji and where he's able to finally exact punishment against his tormentor according to his own rules, with the last gamble against Hyoudou being more of a Post-Climax Confrontation as he also desires to use the golden opportunity he's been provided with to strike a personal blow against the head of the twisted corporation, aware he'll never likely get another chance and unwilling to allow Hyoudou to be a Karma Houdini after being made aware of how monstrous a man he is.
  • Awesome by Analysis: Deconstructed. His confidence as to how (questionably) good he is at studying his opposition is what Kaiji ultimately uses to turn the tables on him for the last time.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: As well-dressed as most employees of the Teiai Corporation, and very skilled at E-Card (or so he'd have you think).
  • Benevolent Boss: Tries his utmost to be one to his subordinates when planning out something to entertain Hyoudou.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: Much of Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa is about his attempts to satisfy Hyoudou's frequently impossible requests.
  • Breakout Villain: He proved popular enough to receive his own spin-off series, detailing his past before he met Kaiji.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: The epitome of this, right down to his Read the Fine Print moment after the Brave Men Road.
  • Defeat By Irony: His own analyses of Kaiji's tricks also lead to him second-guessing at the last moment, costing him the final round at E-Card.
  • The Dragon: To Hyoudou.
  • Dramatic Irony: In Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa, while on a company vacation with his employees, he discovers the giant iron plate used for "Roasting Kneeling", and not knowing what it is at that point, uses it for a barbecue. One of his employees does know what it is, though, but can't bring himself to tell anyone because they're enjoying themselves.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: At one point in the E-Card game, he is horrified when Kaiji bets the full length of 4.5 cm and tries to talk him out of it.
  • Good Victims, Bad Victims: His most sickening trait. He constantly twists the narrative and re-frames events to put the responsibility of the misfortunes the gamblers tormented in the games he oversees squarely on their shoulders, using the pretext that every game they've participated in, no matter how high the stakes, always had the opportunity for them to back out, and thus it was their own stubborn refusal to back away that lead to the misfortunes they suffered, and thus not something he can be held accountable for. Whilst he's not entirely wrong, that is not looking at the gambler's living situations outside the games, which have them trapped in a cycle of debt that bleeds them dry with no escape, and which the absurd prize money for the games is their only realistic option to break free from their entrapment. Additionally, Kaiji becomes incensed when he further tries this after the steel beam crossing, as despite him claiming that Kaiji gets nothing for his efforts despite successfully crossing because he yelled at Tonegawa that they'd all forfeit mid-way across if he cut the power, Kaiji just furiously retorts that he didn't cut the power immediately despite having the ability to do so, which lead to further needless deaths and the rest of his fellow gamblers pressing on under the impression the power was still live, leading to Kaiji being the Sole Survivor. Desiring to avenge them and pay Tonegawa back for continuing to brush off their deaths as being entirely their own fault is why Kaiji participates in the E-card match with him. His tendency to do this also slanders the gambler's characters, overlooking any nobler traits they demonstrated when at their breaking points in favour of highlighting the flaws that brought them down in the end, which cements Kaiji's fury against him, as he understood they could have been better men in different circumstances whereas Tonegawa just believes they were always destined for a misfortunate end by the kind of life they were born into.
  • Graceful Loser: While begrudgingly, he still accepts going through the "Roasting Kneeling" punishment all by himself, and holds on with his forehead on a red hot plate for 12 seconds (2 seconds more than he actually had to) before finally passing out.
  • Hero of Another Story: Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa, naturally, focuses on him and his life as middle management in the Teiai Corporation.
  • I Know You Know I Know: When Tonegawa faces off against Kaiji, the layers of outwitting pile on.
  • Large Ham: Oh yes. Tonegawa can be just as hammy as the Narrator, and he doesn't even raise his voice that often. Doesn't hurt that his voice actor is a singer, too.
  • No Poker Face: When the chips are down, so does his stoicism, and he becomes relatively easy to read and manipulate.
  • Precision F-Strike: Roars out a "F**k You!" in perfect English when the participants of the Espior cruise start demanding answers when he doesn't explain what would happen if they lose all their stars. This even made it into the live action film.
  • Pose of Supplication: After losing to Kaiji, Tonegawa is forced to do one of these to beg forgiveness from Hyoudou for failing him... on a red-hot iron plate.
  • Professional Butt-Kisser: Part of his resentment of gamblers is how he got to his current station via decades of hard work and brown-nosing, taking care to follow instructions to the letter and to not take many real risks himself.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The master. Whenever any of the participants of his games start getting uppity, he will throw it right back in their faces that they pretty much brought their predicaments on themselves because they were too lazy to get anywhere in life and squandered it by gambling, falling into debt and now trying to find an easy way out just to return to those lifestyles. Fittingly, Kaiji gets to turn this on him during the E-card game, firstly by taunting him for his 'cowardice' in hesitating to play his cards during the final round, which is the only 'true' round he's played on an equal and fair playing field, scared of making the wrong move whereas Kaiji himself has bet on much risker odds against Tonegawa's advantages, pointing out that it's proof that Hyoudou was right to state he's more suited to receiving orders than he is giving them. The second comes when he reveals the trick behind the bloodstained slave card, pointing out that a psychological battle of wits like they've been having is something that results in the player projecting their own perceptions onto their opponent, in effect acting as a mirror to their true character. When Tonegawa thinks he's seen through Kaiji's trick and calls him a snake in the grass, Kaiji just retorts that it's proof that Tonegawa himself is a serpent, and sincerely thanks him for being one, pointing out that he couldn't have pulled of his deception if Tonegawa wasn't exactly such a shrewd schemer.
  • Sincerity Mode: He applauds bravery and legitimately complimented Kaiji when he volunteered to do the Electric Steel Beam Crossing with no complaints. His speech also during the Espior cruise likewise seems to legit tell the men that he's more or less giving them a way out and if they truly want to clear their debts, then stop being babies and man up already.
  • Smug Snake: The one real game he actually plays reveals that for all his preening over his vast experience and his ability to read people, he shamelessly cheats with gadgets that would give anyone a humongous edge over their opponent. With that advantage lost to him, he fails to win even a single round against Kaiji.
  • Starter Villain: He winds up being almost pitiably awful when he has to gamble for real and the end of his duel with Kaiji is considerably lengthened by him constantly questioning his own decisions.
  • Too Clever by Half: His defeat comes about due to being attentive enough to notice some bloodstains on the cards, and assuming that Kaiji would swap his cards based on this observation alone. Kaiji reveals he knew that would happen, and faked the swap to get the upper hand.
  • Villain Has a Point: His speeches on society are disturbingly thought-provoking.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: After passing out from his punishment, his fate is unclear.

Kouji Ishida

Voiced by: Hiroshi Yanaka (Japanese), John Swasey (English)

  • Cool Old Guy: A man willing to put his life on the line to save his son from slavery.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While he's a spineless doormat for most of the series, his death implies he has a heroic side hidden very deep inside him.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: When faced with certain death at the Brave Men Road, he hands his money to Kaiji and trusts that the money will be used to free his family from debt, as it will otherwise be all for naught.
  • It's All My Fault: Blames himself for his wife being indebted.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Kaiji spends the money he has left from Rock-Paper-Scissors to save his life, only for him to die in the Human Derby. That said, he did manage to earn a ticket for ten million yen that he hands to Kaiji to save his family from debt... only for it to be made null and void by the Yakuza. That said, Kaiji swears to pay off their debt anyway, and eventually does.
  • Tears of Fear: As the other competitors on the Brave Men Road fall screaming to their death, the nerves get to him and he begins weeping for his life.
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: He is the first real ally Kaiji made, and he ends up falling to has doom.

Sahara

Voiced by: Masahiro Komoto (Japanese), Joe Daniels (English)

Nishio

Voiced by: Mami Sakamoto (Japanese), Ellen Evans (English)

  • Advertised Extra: She has only a handful of scenes as one of Kaiji's convenience store coworkers, but for being the first woman shown in a series with a scarcity of female characters she shows up in Kaiji pachinko machines along with Mikoko.
  • Ms. Fanservice: In the Pachinko machines she can be shown off either in a maid costume or her swimwear, showing off some impressive chest.
  • Nice Girl: With what little we see of her she is shown to be nothing but nice.

    Part 2 

Yoshihiro Kurosaki

After Tonegawa lost his position in the first part, he is elected as the replacement second-in-command.
  • Affably Evil: If you compare him to Tonegawa, sure.
  • Brutal Honesty: A trait Tonegawa hates is that Kurosaki can call out Hyoudou on his behavior (up to a point) and actually gain favor with him, whereas anyone else would be severely punished.
  • The Dragon: Replaces Tonegawa as Hyoudou's Dragon.
  • Mistaken for Gay: He sleeps in the same bed with Endou... while Jazz music is playing... and a aroma scenter is going off... all isolated in a RV van far away from prying eyes, and then tries to talk about feelings with him. It's all actually to hype himself up so that he can confess that he's just as scared as Kazutaka as Endou is despite everything. However, he isn't able to go through with it.
  • Villain Respect: He knows of Kaiji's accomplishments and has seen him take down Otsuki, so he calls Ichijou to be rightfully cautious.

The 45'ers

A group of five workers at the labor camp who have been cleared out of their money through Otsuki's rigged gambling game. Kaiji bonds with them as he enacts a plan to win their collective freedom through this same dice game.
  • Face–Heel Turn: In a particularly depressing turn of events, Miyoshi and Maeda betray Kaiji in series 3. It takes a long while for him to realize that they never really were on his side too.
  • Pull the Thread: It's Miyoshi's studious note-taking of the dice rolls each night that cause Kaiji to become suspicious and reveal Otsuki's cheating.
  • Secret Test of Character: In the manga, they offered more of Otsuki's money to Kaiji than anyone else; this was actually a test to see what a guy he really was. If he had accepted it, he wouldn't have gotten any at all. In the anime, they never mention this.

Hiromitsu Ishida

The son of the late Kouji Ishida from the first part. Having accumulated gambling debts of his own, he was relying on his father to bail him out — when that failed due to his death, Hiromitsu was sent to the labor camp to work it off.
  • Generation Xerox: He's the spitting image of his father, and despite swearing not to repeat his mistakes, he too becomes Trapped by Gambling Debts. The irony isn't lost on him.
  • Jerkass: Comes off as this (or at least a Jerkass Woobie) at first. He scoffs at Kaiji's attempts to rock the boat, believing it all to be futile.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: Kaiji buys him out of the "hellhole" along with the 45'ers at the end of season 2.

Taro Otsuki

The foreman leading Kaiji's crew at the start of season 2. He hosts underground gambling dice games, and after learning of Kaiji's great feats against Teiai, he approaches him with the intent of goading him into big wagers and cheating him out of them.
  • Arc Villain: The gambling match against him is the focus on the first section of Part 3, and Kaiji's victory against him is how he's able to earn his time above ground to take on the Bog in the latter half.
  • The Bully: He tricks the workers into poverty so that they become financially reliant on him. When the 45'ers try to save their way out of poverty, he and his cronies harass them for trying to defy him.
  • Eyes Always Shut: He does open his eyes every now and then but they're so small compared to the rest of his face that it's easy to mistake for this trope.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He gives off a friendly façade and even offers to help his impoverished workers so that the they are more eager to trust him.
  • Hero of Another Story: He gets a spinoff, Ichinichi Gaishutsuroku Hanchou, that focuses on his one-day trips above ground and attempts to live life to the fullest before he gets sent back to the underground.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The rules of his game, which he set up to help him cheat out more money, amplify his losses, allowing Kaiji to ruin him in one fell swoop. Kaiji's special dice? Made from a T-bone steak Otsuki ate.
  • Humiliation Conga: Kaiji starts a huge one ever since he discovers his cheat. Being blatantly disrespectful around him (throwing his drink on him and rudely opening his earning envelope in his presence) to provoke his anger, in the confrontation game Kaiji exposes his loaded dice, then proves that he did try to use the dice to win the last game (this really angers the crowd), gives him a Hope Spot trap by continuing the game with conditions that allow loaded dice and sharing with each other, uses dice made from a T-bone steak that Otsuki ate that is all ones (this means that he pays quintuple), then when trying to retreat Kaiji reminds Otsuki to finish his turn as a dealer (he goes twice and for more irony this rule is used to help him cheat), Yoshihiro Kurosaki intervenes to support Kaiji's decision, and in the end and in one night he lost 18 Million Perica and is utterly destroyed by Kaiji and the 45'ers.
  • Jerkass: By episode 5 you'll hate him so very hard.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He goads Kaiji into wasting his hard-earned daily wage on luxurious, overpriced foods, leaving him with little spare cash left and keeping him trapped in poverty. He offers loans to the impoverished but charges high interest to extort them, and he holds a rigged gambling game to profit off the hopes of the desperate. It's implied this has happened for many new workers in the underground.
  • Smug Snake: For a man who for all intents and purposes works as a slave, he sure is condescending.
  • Too Dumb to Live: When Yoshihiro interrupts their second game, he tells him to leave in a rude way. Never mind the fact that Yoshihiro is the only one there who wears fancy clothes instead of the standard laboring uniform, and that he's accompanied by several black suits.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Once Kurosaki comes into the mines and tells Otsuki he only has a 1/216 chance of not losing all his ill-earned Perica in the gamble he feebly looks at his two henchmen for help, and once it's made clear for him that there is no other way out of his situation, he breaks down crying. Otsuki can only look in horror as Kaiji's group wins his money away. After that, Otsuki couldn't even stand on his own two feet and has to be carried out the room by his henchmen.

Kotaro Sakazaki

A construction worker who meets with Kaiji and introduces him to Teiai's casino, intending to work with him to beat the Bog, an "unbeatable" pachinko machine.
  • Badass Longcoat: He wears one in a flashback.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Saves the day with money "borrowed" from his boss's safe near the end of series 2.
  • Determinator: He's hellbent on beating the Bog, and goes to great lengths with Kaiji to do it.
  • Cool Old Guy: He's introduced as an amicable character and despite the ups and downs while confronting the Bog no betrayal has ensued.
  • Heroic BSoD: When his plan backfires, he's shocked, resorts to magical thinking and nearly spends all his money at a horse racing track. Kaiji snaps him out of it.
  • Hypocrite Has a Point: Despite his own history with gambling and the fact his current life was only possible because he made a gamble and won, he calls out Kaiji on his gambling addiction and trying to find easy ways to succeed.
  • We Used to Be Friends: At the beginning of series 3 his friendship with Kaiji has completely eroded due to him becoming a penniless freeloader at his new house. At least he still respects what Kaiji did for him by offering 3 million yen to cut all ties with him forever instead of just kicking him out in the street. Kaiji giving his cut of Kaiji’s 1.2 billion yen helped Sakazuki forgive Kaiji for being a parasite and say Kaiji is welcome at his home again.

Seiya Ichijou

Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa

The young host of an illegal casino famous for its pachinko machine the Man-Eating Bog, which promises a really big payout, but is in fact impossible to win at. Without tricks, that is. He also works under Teiai and is voiced by Daisuke Namikawa.
  • Break the Haughty: Undergoes this a few times during Kaiji's final confrontation with The Bog, when he learns that Kaiji's outsmarted him on several fronts.
  • Evil Redhead: Anime only.
  • Longer-Than-Life Sentence: Is sentenced to work 1050 years underground after Kaiji beats the Bog and he costs Teiai 700 million Yen.
  • Slasher Smile: Ichijou loves doing these. One remarkable and truly creepy example is the grin he makes while torturing Kaiji.
  • Smug Snake: He takes pride in his unbeatable Bog, and silently mocks the players for daring to take it on. This pride gets used to goad him away from trying to weasel his way out of his drastic situations. Kurosaki even warns him up-front that his ego will be the cause of his downfall when Kaiji steps up for the final confrontation with the Bog.
  • Sycophantic Servant: Acts very submissive to Tonegawa when he visits the casino, not only setting up the Bog to guarantee him victory (something that only serves to annoy him) but also incessantly complimenting him on his mostly meaningless victory.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Loses his cool near the end of part 2 as Kaiji gets closer and closer to victory against the Bog.
  • We Will Meet Again: After his defeat, Ichijou gets sent to the "hellhole". Kaiji feels bad for him and calls him a Worthy Opponent, asking if he will get back to get revenge. Ichijou's answer is "Of course". At this point it's unknown if he will keep his promise though.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: He's waiting long and hard to invoke this trope against his old friends, who bullied him for not having a respectable job.

    Parts 3, 4, and 5 

Mikoko Sakazaki

Takashi Muraoka

  • Arc Villain: He's the Big Bad of Part 3, but even the Majong match against him only takes up part of the night that Kaiji spends gambling, and the remaining time is spent with him facing off with Kazuya throughout parts 4 and 5, who Muraoka makes it clear from his first appearance he's vastly inferior to.
  • Bad Boss: Even when one of his subordinates executes one of his commands perfectly, he's described as mentally giving them a "barely passing grade".
  • Boring, but Practical: Compared to Tonegawa's heart-rate detecting watch device, and Ichijou's complex pachinko machine, how Muraoka cheats in his game is exceedingly simple. He has Kaiji's former friends Miyoshi give him false signals and Maeda signal what Kaiji's hand is back to him. When Kaiji goes to use the bathroom Muraoka gets up and flips over his tiles to see what they are, then putting them back like nothing has happened. His ultimate cheat when Kaiji takes his tiles with him on another bathroom break to stop Muraoka from cheating again? He takes a picture of Kaiji's unfinished hand, and has his henchmen figure out what Kaiji's finished hand is in a backroom.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Muraoka hangs a poster in his bathroom that reads "See what can be seen – that is the essence of gambling! – Muraoka." The poster not only inspires Kaiji to construct a fake haku tile to fool him at the climax of their 17 Steps game, it gives him the paper and double-sided tape to do so.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: He might seem silly enough, but he's by no means incompetent. Which Kaiji eventually learns the hard way.
  • Quoting Myself: Hung up a poster in the bathroom of his underground casino with a saying of his.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Has an enormous one after Kaiji beats him in 17 Steps and he loses his casino to Kazuya that's implied to last for hours after the match.

Kazuya Hyoudou

  • Author Tract: In-universe example. Kazuya's book is one long story about betrayal and how you can't trust anyone. It's also a mostly true story, which makes it worse.
  • Cool Shades: Wears shades at night and inside.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Kazuya believes no one is good and that when push comes to shove, people will always reveal their selfish wicked natures. Selfless acts which cannot be explained away or twisted like Kaiji giving up 70 million of his own money to save Mario and Chang leave him dumbfounded and pisses him off as he tries to understand why.
  • Evil Redhead: Sort of. His hair is somewhere between red and brown. At first impression Kaiji notes that it's obviously dyed, but he also had the same hair color in flashbacks to his childhood.
  • Fatal Flaw: His tendency to twist everything to fit his Humans Are Bastards worldview. It leaves him unwilling to believe Kaiji when Kaiji tells him to just fold because his three will beat his two and lead to Kazuya losing his life if he bet his red statue. This unwillingness to believe Kaiji truthfully didn’t want to kill him leads Kazuya to call Kaiji’s raise. He then loses the match and realizes Kaiji was telling the truth.
  • Fair-Play Villain: Unlike the other opponents Kaiji's faced until now, Kazuya's only gambling to see how humans are at their core, so Kaiji reasons that he wouldn't cheat because that would make the gamble pointless, though he isn’t above abusing loopholes within those rules. It’s eventually revealed that he put some cheat mechanisms in Mother Sophie, but they’re only there to help in the absolute worst case scenario (and even then he feels some subconscious guilt while using them).
  • Freudian Excuse: If the way he treats the Mother Sophie machine and tells you that if it doesn't love you, you're going into DOWN-DOWN hell doesn't tip you off, a lot of his behaviour comes from several traumatic events he's experienced - Kaiji outright says the fucked up gambles he arranges is because he genuinely hasn't received any real love or affection from anyone.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Kazuya envies his older brother for having good looks and being favored by his parents over him.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Kaiji deduces Kazuya’s behavior is a result of wanting to have friends who would stick by his side and like him for him. Kazuya’s reaction to Kaiji explaining this proves Kaiji is correct.
  • Kavorka Man: He frequently has at least two women hanging on him, in spite of, er, inheriting his father's looks. The money probably helps.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Kazuya bemoans the fact that people only like him for his family's money and uses his writing (under a pen name) as an outlet to get honest evaluations of his skill.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Takes Kaiji first to a graveyard (complete with acting out a strangulation) and then to a torture/BDSM club. Nice.
    • Unlike most of Kaiji's other opponents, who run gambles in order to make money, Kazuya runs them specifically to see people's reactions after they're put in precarious situations.

Mitsuyama

  • Fatal Flaw: GREED. Rather than giving him and his friends 299,216.99 USD worth of yen each, he chooses to let them die when he's offered more, despite his reasons to need money are comparatively less dire. Mario and Chang both came from poor backgrounds, are implied to suffer racism. Meanwhile, he stands to lose a kidney, but is implied to be somewhat well off besides that, seeming to have a position as a manager in a resturant. He
  • Entitled Bastard: Despite him literally abandoning Mario and Chang to painful deaths, he thinks a mere one million yen (worth less than than 10,000$ in their time, worth less than 9000$ now) is enough to appease them, and is insulted when they reject the offer. When he then finds out that he's now the poorest among the trio, he envies them and tries to get them sent to Teiai.
  • Karma Houdini: His betrayal of Mario and Chang goes unpunished.

Mario And Chang

  • Dark and Troubled Past: Both come from very poor and miserable backgrounds and came to Japan in order to make enough money to turn their lives around.
  • I Owe You My Life: Mario and Chang gladly allow Kaiji to use their lives to continue the One Poker game when Kaiji loses all his lives, reasoning it’s the least they can do after Kaiji saved their lives after the Salvation Game finished.
  • Karmic Jackpot: Their decisions to save and let Kaiji bet their lives during the One Poker game paid off when Kaiji wins and Mario and Chang earn 600 million yen each of the winnings.
  • Oh, Crap!: Mario has one when he realizes he blanked out and wasn’t keeping track of the time during one round of the Salvation Game.
  • The Smart Guy: Chang is the smarter of the two and can somewhat keep up Kaiji’s and Kazuya’s moves.
  • True Companions: With Kaiji, after the events of the Salvation game.

    Part 6 

Arima Takeshi

  • Berserk Button: Telling him how to run his business, especially if it reminds him of his old days as an abused company employee.
  • Commonality Connection: Believes Kaiji, Mario, and Chang are fed up with society and want to leave it for a simpler life like he did. This is part of why he rents out a camper to Kaiji and keep it a secret from Teiai.
  • The Confidant: He keeps all information about Kaiji and the camper he rented from him secret from any Teiai employees asking.
  • The Hermit: He gave up on society at some point in the past and opened up a camper van depot in a relatively remote place, expecting there to be little to no business. He spends his days either maintaining his campers or sleeping in them.
  • Wrench Whack: Tries to use two wrenches to beat up Endou, including hurling one at his head.

Hatsue Itou

  • The Ditz: The lookouts assigned to watch her and the apartment she lives in have seen many times where Hatsue simply forgets things when she’s focused on something else, like chatting and walking away with a friend while leaving her bike behind. Kaiji’s exhausted reactions to her ditziness implies she was always like this and it’s not a sign of her increasing age.
  • Genius Ditz: Kaiji may have actually got his intelligence from his ditzy mother because on two separate occasions, she comes up with absolutely genius plans on the fly. The first time is when Teiai lookouts call her and try the old “it’s me” scam on her to trick her into revealing Kaiji’s with her in the apartment. Hatsue intentionally overreacts to their scam and does a bad Kaiji impression to fool them into thinking she’s just another dumb old lady, making them end the call out of frustration. The second time, Hatsue comes up with the plan for Kaiji to dress up like his childhood friend, who the Teiai lookouts know always goes to work wearing a motorcycle helmet, and said childhood friend’s mom puts on the disguise Kaiji wore to get into the building so the Teiai lookouts focus on her, completely missing Kaiji as he walks out of the building undetected.
  • Good Parents: She wants the best for her son and helps hide him from Teiai, even if Kaiji isn’t telling her the whole story.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: It’s likely because she doesn’t know the whole story but Hatsue figures any company that would hire her son can’t be that bad, not knowing the hell Teiai has put Kaiji through.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Kaiji has good reason not to tell his mother about Teiai, his gambling, his scars, and what has happened since they last met. Kaiji knows telling her would make her very worried about him and do things any mother would do if they found out their son is about to be harmed or even killed.
  • My Beloved Smother: She showers Kaiji with affection, no doubt because he barely visits her, when he shows up at her apartment and even tries to make Kaiji move back in with her. Hatsue, however, does know her son pretty well and figured out all this would do is encourage Kaiji’s Lazy Bum lifestyle.

The Taxi Driver

  • Catchphrase: "It's all gu'! It's all gu'!" ("It's all good!")
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: He randomly agrees to help Kaiji and Chang after passing them by in the street, and forgets for a while to ask them what exactly it is they need from him. He's had his license revoked twice, which is the same amount of times he's used his taxi in a car chase. When they discover that Teiai has reinforced the number of men trying to capture Mario, he still goes along with their plan, because "that's what pro drivers do." His plan if Teiai captures him? Play dead.
  • Dirty Old Man: He expresses bitter disappointment that one of the ladies he helped in a car chase wouldn't sleep with him.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: He's a lot smarter than he looks, but he pretends not to know what "accomplice" means when Teiai catches up to him. And that's not even mentioning his plan to play dead if they try to torture him.
  • Playing Possum: His plan if Teiai puts the screws to him. He claims that his body goes into suspended animation if he holds his breath for sixty seconds.
  • Save the Villain: Downplayed. When Endou furiously berates his subordinate for missing (he thinks) Kaiji and Co ditching the taxi and running for it, the taxi driver assures Endou that he stayed right behind the taxi the whole time; Kaiji and the others ditched the cab after the first turn and ran for their van. The cab was empty the whole time it was being followed.


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