5 Best Anime About Gambling

 

In recent years Japanese anime has taken the Western world by storm. 

The genre first began to gain a small foothold in the West during the 1990s and its popularity soon began to grow. 

Streaming platforms such as Netflix have made anime easily accessible to wide audiences and broken down barriers that once existed. Anime titles like Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Demon Slayer have been a big hit in US and UK box offices and other box offices around the globe.

Due to its rapidly growing popularity, creatives are looking at how anime can be incorporated into other types of entertainment and industries. For example, you can now find many online casino games that feature anime, with lots of slot games incorporating its art style.

Anime is a very distinctive platform to express ideas and convey messages. Though its characters have mystical and superhuman tendencies, they have relatable and highly likable sides. The design of every aspect is well-planned and symbolizes many real-life situations.

Many anime shows revolve around the importance of friendship and loyalty, while some include graphical depictions of violence, and some have sexual undertones.

Gambling has also inspired several anime plot lines and features in many anime titles that are popular in the Western world. Here is a look at five of the most highly rated and well-known anime featuring gambling as a theme.

Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

Fans of Death Note Live Action must have been thrilled to know that the actors who played Kira and L have collaborated in another LA adaptation of a successful manga series.

Kaiji made its first appearance in a manga by the creator Nobuyuki Fukumoto in the mid-1990s and lasted until 2017. Due to its loyal fanbase, it was picked up by a television production company called Madhouse and reimagined in the 26-episode television series Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor. 

Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor explores some pretty hard-hitting themes. In the beginning, a coworker of Kaiji fails to repay a debt he owes, and Kaiji is challenged by loan sharks to settle a large amount of money.

The protagonist is without much wealth and does not see how he will be able to repay the money on the coworker's behalf. He feels he may have found an answer when he is invited to board the Espoir ship for a night of gambling.

Kaiji, at first, failed to understand that those who are unsuccessful in the gambling tournament are subjected to lifelong indebted servitude. He must carefully plan his strategy and choose who he can trust wisely to secure his freedom. 

The series is highly rated online and was released on Blu-ray DVD in April 2021 by Sentai Filmworks.

Usogui

Usogui takes an extreme look at the topic of gambling. In this universe, the gambling world is moderated by an organization known as Kagerou, which ensures that no one cheats.

The plot follows a man named Bak Madarame, or The Lie Eater, as he risks against some bad men who plan to kill him in the ultimate gambling match. They partake in harsh bets, including Escape the Abandoned Building, Hangman, and the Old Maid.

Bak is on a mission to survive and wants to take control of Kagerou. This anime explores some dark storylines and has intense fighting scenes with graphic injuries. It is a psychological thriller not for the faint-hearted.

Usogui is a well-known manga, but in 2022, it was also adapted into a live-action movie.

Dorei-ku The Animation

There are many versions of Dorei-ku: a series of novels, a manga, a live-action film, and an animated television series. The anime series was animated by provided by Zero-G and TNK and released in 2018.

One of the central characters in this series is a woman named Eiya Arakawa. She wants to know why one of her best friend’s boyfriends dumped them for another man. In a meeting at a cafe where she tries to seek this information, Yuuga Oota only agrees to give answers if Eiya can correctly guess the relationship a couple sitting nearby has. 

Impressed by her intuition, he invites her to a private meeting to introduce the concept of the Slave Control Method and SCM duels. SCM forces the loser of the duel to bend to the will of their new master, and Yuuga wants Eiya to get him out of the situation if he loses an upcoming duel.

Eiya finds herself embroiled in the world of SCM and learns how dangerous the game can become.

Saki

High school drama anime Saki focuses on the gambling game of Mahjong and the unusual play style of a girl named Saki. At first, she managed to keep her score of zero throughout the game, a position that neither wins nor loses.

This skill caught the attention of the school's Mahjong team. However, they wanted her to win all the games, which she easily did. As a result, the school decided to enter an inter-high mahjong tournament with the goal of winning the national championship.

Tomodachi Game 

Also worth a mention is the Tomodachi Game. This anime is also set in high school. A group of classmates find themselves owing a huge debt and must compete in difficult games to escape this tough situation. 

Yutori Kokorogi, Shiho Sawaragi, Makoto Shibe, and Tenji Mikasa must endure these psychological games that will reveal their true nature and test their friendship. 

But as their masked feelings and disturbing pasts surface, while making a gamble, their seemingly indestructible bond may soon bust into irreparable pieces.