Accidental Aesop: Although it's long since moved past it thanks to Serial Escalation, the first arc also serves as a cautionary tale reminding readers and viewers to not co-sign for a loan that you can't pay off yourself.
Anvilicious: The manga keeps driving the point to not rely on luck. The gambling industry is not trying to help you. It only wants your money and will take advantage of your hopes and desperation.
Arc Fatigue: Can happen at times. Most notable during the Bog Machine arc due to the gambles of that arc revolving around a pachinko machine, which takes away the face to face confrontations that make the other arcs so exciting.
Yugo Kanno of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Psycho-Pass fame was the one to helm the three live-action films, and his main theme just fills you with hope for our protagonist to achieve a victory of some magnitude.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In Chapter 7 of Series 3, we are left on a cliffhanger with Kaiji staring at a box of Uno cards in a way that suggests it may be the next game. The President talks about it in a way that also suggests it, but Kaiji quickly declines, and by the third page of Chapter 8, it is a distant memory, never to be mentioned again.
Some of the Proverbs of Kaiji segments in season 2 come off as this, due to the way said proverbs can sound out of context.
Complete Monster: Kazutaka Hyōdō is a sadistic and greedy monster of a man who orchestrates many of the horrors in the story to satisfy his own depraved love for seeing others suffer. Taking advantage of gamblers and other people in deep debt, Hyōdō offers them the chance to win their way out of debt by engaging in a variety of "games" that range from harmless card activities to tightrope walking across high buildings on electrified posts. Hyōdō forces the participants to risk body parts, organs, and even their very lives in service of his challenges, ensuring that the dozens of losers of his games either die in the process or are enslaved and worked in horrible conditions for years or until death, and doles out similar punishments to his own minions for often absurd reasoning. Hyōdō also subjects even the loyal Yukio Tonegawa to burning his head on a boiling plate for failure; corrupts his son Kazuya into becoming a similar monster as himself; and schemes to one day hold the key to survival for all life on Earth, planning to only save those who can pay him or who he will find amusement in tormenting.
Cry for the Devil: Kaiji himself invokes this trope for Kazuya at the end of the One Poker arc, lamenting his wish to be around other people he can trust and be friends with. The audience is further shown the moment in his childhood where he loses all trust he has in other people, when his mother chooses to save his brother instead while they're both drowning. The real Tearjerker is that it was a big misunderstanding.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Averted. While the gambling is very entertaining to watch, Kaiji so often ends up losing everything he won, frequently ending up worse than how he started. It hardly is presented as something worth imitating.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Mikoko Sakazaki has become really popular on the Internet, which the creators are apparently aware of. Tonegawa also qualifies because of his badass speeches on society, and for being a Manipulative Bastard in general. Then there's the narrator...
Faux Symbolism: The finale of the first series uses this to some extent.
Jerkass Woobie: Hiromitsu Ishida is quite rude and unpleasant with how he constantly tells Kaiji that his plans to excape are pointless, but he's still meant to be sympathetic and one of the big questions of the Bog arc is if he'll be able to improve himself. Thankfully, at the end, the 45'ers put their money together to buy his freedom.
During the Brave Man's Road gamble, Tonegawa compares the participants' refusal to take the situation seriously with them pretending to be in a virtual reality. Years later, the gamble itself received a video game adaptation. In Virtual Reality. A trailer for the game can be seen here.
It's never explicitly stated what happens to people who get sent to the other room aboard Espoir. The Playstation 1 Kaiji game takes a guess in its game over, showing people getting strapped down on a restraining table and chopped up to sell their body parts for profit. Years later in Part 3, it turns out Kazuya uses the exact same method to make people repay their debts to him.
Ho Yay: Murakami's undying loyalty to Ichijou has made them a popular pairing among fans.
ざわ。。ざわ。。ざわ。。(ZAWA... ZAWA... ZAWA...) Explanation A japanese onomatopoeia meaning uneasy atmosphere, used a lot both in manga and anime (to the point of being incorporated into soundtrack). Basically, an equivalent of ゴゴゴゴゴ from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Expect a lot of those being thrown around whenever somebody discusses the series.
Comparing Taro Otsuki's resemblance to Hugo Chávez is pretty common.
"Squid Game before Squid Game!Explanation The premise of people in debt due to horrible economic conditions agreeing to compete in a Deadly Game is very very similar to Squid Game - with some people not realising Kaiji actually came first.
Related to the above, people familiar with the series have often imagined Kaiji in other Deadly Games to imagine how he would beat them.
Sakazaki wetting himself after losing all his money to the Bog. Bog players have to sit barefoot on a pile of all the prize balls, so one can only imagine what it smells like by the time Kaiji takes on the Bog at the end of the arc.
One of Hyoudou's hobbies is to force his subordinates to drink wine from a bowl after he's done something very unhygienic, such as licking up some of the wine with his tongue or standing barefoot in the bowl.
Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page, because it seriously deserves one with the horrors shown.
Padding: Way more than even your usual primetime game show. Even Deal or No Deal can't compare.
The Scrappy: The number of people who unironically like Andou can probably be counted on one hand. To a lesser extent, Furuhata.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: With most (if not all) Kaiji's victories being either temporary or too nominal and costly to be celebrated, and most losses resulting in permanent injury or unrecoverable consequences, many viewers wonder if it's reasonable to cheer for a protagonist who appears to be doomed from the start. The story starts to become more optimistic in the later parts, as Kaiji begins to succeed in his goals more and more, giving viewers the idea that he may actually stand a chance thanks to his willpower and morality.
The Woobie: Some will argue that the whole point of this series is to see Kaiji lose tremendously, get back up in an inspiring and heart-winning manner...then lose even more tremendously. In the end, you just want to give him a hug or buy him some drinks after all that's happened to him (losing scads of money, betrayal and bullying, maiming, losing his comrades, being forced into slave labor, being harassed by a girl he doesn't like...the list goes on). Many fans will argue that Kaiji is indeed "moe", or moeGAR.
, Kaiji's Theme