Tobaku Datenroku Kaiji: One Poker-hen

The follow-up to the abstract gamble of part four is a rehash of E-Card from part one. While many may praise the stakes and mind-games between Kaiji and Kazuya, there is really not much difference between the similar stakes and mind-games present in part one. E-Card held up because it was a short arc that complimented a game with such trivial mechanics. The meta-game and twists revealed themselves quickly and resolved themselves quick enough to not lose steam. This rehash suffers by repeating the same game with a blackjack veneer. The gamble is repetative and lacking in any ingenious or imaginitive cheats or meta-game. Thecheats and meta-game are exactly what you'd predict in a blackjack themed card game and the stakes can't really hold much suspense since the maximum stakes have already been played since part one. What kept me reading Kaiji after the adrenaline-fueled stakes of part one have been the puzzle-like nature of the gambles and the imaginitive cleverness of the meta-game, such as the rock paper scissors twist, defeating the bog, or part four's psychological game. Dedicating an entire part to a gamble that is as dull as you'd expect watching a blackjack game to be was a total misstep in the series. Fortunately, there is some interesting backstory for Kazuya to break up the monotony and it does set the stage for part six which would break this tired formula with a refreshing deconstruction of the gamble by making life itself a gamble.