Kaiji/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Episode 14 of Kaiji registers with many viewers as a Tear Jerker: Kaiji and co. are crossing the electrified bridge, and nearly everyone's dead except for Kaiji, Ishida, and Sahara. Ishida realizes he is not cut out to cross the bridge and hands Kaiji his ticket for 10 million yen. We learn that the reason that Ishida gambled in the first place was to save his wife from his own debts. He asks Kaiji to win and give that money to her. Ishida then remarks how his life was pointless and how he lost, and falls off the bridge in silence so as to not agitate Kaiji. Kaiji's paraphrased response "In your final moments, you were concerned about someone else from the bottom of your heart. You didn't lose! You won a brilliant victory!" makes this troper tear up every time.
    • Oh god. As if that isn't bad enough. This troper was already wibbling from Ishida's death, but when Kaiji and Sahara finally make it across the bridge, triumphant at their victory... and Sahara is pushed off the ledge by the wind from behind the door? I don't know a single person who wasn't completely broken by this scene.
  • Series 2, episode 21: "Endou... I promise you. If we end up trapped in that hell... Every month on payday, I will buy you two beers. Every month, until the day you die."

Back to Kaiji