Kaiji/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


This is the character page for Nobuyuki Fukumoto's Kaiji.

Itou Kaiji

The main character. Kaiji is a young punk with economy problems who spends his days playing poker and puncturing cars. He gets tricked to board Espoir, a cruise ship, where he is forced to gamble to pay off his debts. Kaiji is moody, but has a strong sense of justice and is willing to go to extreme lengths to reach his goals.

Yuuji Endou

A loan shark with ties to Teiai. After Kaiji sabotages his car, they have a talk which leads to him giving Kaiji an invitation to Espoir, a gambling cruise.

Takeshi Furuhata

An old co-worker of Kaiji's, who made the latter co-sign a loan contract, leaving him with a debt. When they meet again on Espoir, they decide to team up to get out of the ship with as much money as possible.

  • Easily Forgiven - Like mentioned above, Kaiji lets him off the hook pretty quickly. Not so much when he betrays him though.
  • 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 is responsible for Kaiji's debt in the first place.

Mamoru Andou

A chubby bespectacled man who joins Kaiji and Furuhata.

Funai

A con man who has been on Espoir before. Very good at scamming newcomers.

Kitami

One of Kaiji's opponents in Restricted Rock Paper Scissor. He bought all the paper cards to counter Kaiji's strategy of buying rock cards.

Yukio Tonegawa

The host of Espoir and an important member of the Teiai organization.

Mitsuzi Ishida

A weak-willed old man on Espoir. Gets tricked by another contestant and sent to the "loser room". Kaiji buys him out of said room, and he later participates in the gamble of the next arc; Human Derby.

Sahara

Works at a store with Kaiji. When Endou invites the former to a second gamble, he decides to join as well, since he isn't going anywhere in his life.

The Chairman

(real name: Kazutaka Hyoudou)

The Big Bad of the series, and the leader of Teiai Corporation. His son appears in series 3.

The 45'ers

Kaiji's co-workers in the chinchiro arc. They form a union of sorts to take down Otsuki after they realize that he's cheating. At the end of series 2 , they are released from the laboring camp along with Ishida's son and decide to start their lives anew. Two of them, Miyoshi and Maeda, re-appear as black suits in series 3 after being freed, although they have no ties to Teiai and are still on Kaiji's side. Except not really.

  • Cry Cute - Especially Miyoshi.
  • Determinator
  • 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.
  • Nakama
  • The Power of Friendship
  • 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 Mitsuzi Ishida. He was sent to the underground labour camp because of his debts, but partially his dad is to blame as well.

Taro Otsuki

The foreman of the labouring group that Kaiji is in. Otsuki's dirty delight is to ruin the workers economically and psychologically by tricking them into buying snacks on payday and then gambling the rest of their money away in Hell Cee-lo, a game that he invented. His two henchmen are named Numakuwa and Isawa.

Yoshihiro Kurosaki

Tonegawa's replacement in the second part. He is in charge of the forced laboring camp, and is in line to take over Hyoudou's position as the Chairman.

Kotaro Sakazaki

A former construction worker (now a security guard) whose daughter (see below) and wife left him because of his economical problems. Since then, he has been looking for a young gambler willing to help him beat a pimped-out pachinko machine called the Man-Eating Bog.

Mikoko Sakazaki

Sakazaki's beloved daughter. She is seen in a photo in series 2 and appears in person at the start of series 3, where she's having a picnic with Kaiji.

Ichijou

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.

Takashi Muraoka

A shady man who owns a casino. He's the boss of Miyoshi and Maeda, and they ask Kaiji to take him down in a rigged game call Minefield Mahjong in series 3.

Kazuya Hyoudou

A mysterious young man who Muraoka seems to respect because he's the son of the Chairman.

  • Author Tract: In-universe example. Kazuya's book is one long story about betrayal and how you can't trust anyone.
  • Celebrity Resemblance: His looks were based on S. Korean actor Bae Yong Joon, who Fukumoto's wife is a fan of.
  • Cool Shades: Wears shades at night and inside.
  • Evil Redhead: Sort of. His hair is somewhere between red and brown.
  • Foe Yay: At times he seems almost obsessed with Kaiji.
  • Giggling Villain
  • Kavorka Man: He frequently has at least three 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.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Takes Kaiji first to a graveyard (complete with acting out a strangulation) and then to a torture/ BDSM club. Nice.
  • Self Fanservice: While this has happened to many Fukumoto characters in fanart, Kazuya is one of the worst (best?) examples.
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