Anime like Touhai Densetsu Akagi: Yami ni Maiorita Tensai

Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

Also known as Kaiji - Ultimate Survivor.

Studio: MADHOUSE , VAP , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Psychological , Thriller

Itou Kaiji is a bum who steals car emblems and slashes tires on what seems to be a regular basis. This routine changes one day when he is paid a visit by a man in a trench-coat. Once the two get talking, it seems that the visitor (Calling himself Endou) is a debt collector. The reason for his visit is an unpaid loan which Kaiji had previously co-signed for a work-mate (Furuhata Takeshi). The original loan was 300,000 yen and once Takeshi had disappeared, the loan then fell on Kaiji.

Kaiji is then told of a way to clear the interest compounded debt (which stood at 3,850,000 yen), which involved getting on a boat with others in his position. Once on the boat the debtors would then have to gamble with loaned money, which would end with a few winning, and others getting into deeper debt and having to work to pay off their debts. After some coercion Kaiji accepts a position on the boat, in order to clear his debt and make a bit of money as well...

Tags: Gambling , Survival , Primarily Adult Cast , Primarily Male Cast , Seinen , Class Struggle , Male Protagonist , Death Game , Tragedy , Philosophy , Crime , Card Battle , Revenge , Yakuza , Torture , Ships , Anti-Hero , Urban , Athletics , Body Horror , Nudity , Work , Prison

Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Hakairoku-hen

Also known as Kaiji - Against All Rules.

Studio: MADHOUSE , VAP , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Psychological , Thriller

Several months after the events of the first season, Kaiji, with his appendages reattached and his debt now run up to 9.5 million yen, is still desperately seeking the elusive big score that will cancel all of his markers. Unbeknownst to him, Hyodo’s company, the Teiai Corporation, is actively searching for Kaiji, and have sent Kaiji’s old “friend” Endoh, who entered him in the high stakes games in the past, to find him.

The two meet when Kaiji chances to walk in front of Endoh’s car at a stop light, and thinking that he has found the answer to his prayers, Kaiji gets in the car with him. While Kaiji and Endoh are “happy” to see one another, and both want to see Kaiji’s debt repaid, their means to that goal couldn’t be more different.

Instead of leading Kaiji to the big score, Endoh delivers him drugged and docile to the Teiai Corporation’s secret underground labor camp where Kaiji will have an opportunity to repay his debt… with 15 years of hard labor.



Tags: Gambling , Seinen , Primarily Adult Cast , Primarily Male Cast , Male Protagonist , Class Struggle , Philosophy , Survival , Slavery , Card Battle , Crime , Torture , Bullying , Food , Tragedy

One Outs

Also known as One Outs.

Studio: MADHOUSE , VAP
Status: Finished
Genres: Psychological , Sports

The story begins when Hiromichi Kojima, the star batter of the fictional Lycaons in Japan's Pacific League, heads to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to train and bring himself out of a slump. There, he meets Toua Tokuchi, a 134-kmph (83 miles per hour) pitcher and the undisputed king of a gambling form of baseball called "One Out." At Kojima's urging, Tokuchi signs up with the Lycaons under an unusual contract: he gets 5,000,000 yen (about US$46,000) for every out he pitches, but loses 50,000,000 yen (US$460,000) for every point he gives up.



Tags: Baseball , Gambling , Philosophy , Seinen , Primarily Male Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Anti-Hero , Male Protagonist

Shoubushi Densetsu Tetsuya

Studio: Toei Video , TV Asahi , Toei Animation
Status: Finished
Genres: Sports

In the year 1947, the people of Shinjuku are down on their luck. With little money to buy food or necessities, some resort to gambling in order to survive. Traveling Tetsuya chooses to spend his time at Mahjong parlors where he is wiping the floor clean with his adversaries. However, when Tetsuya meets the intensely skilled Boushu-san, he realizes that his skills are still lacking.



Tags: Gambling , Mahjong , Historical , Shounen , Survival , Time Skip , Drugs , Primarily Adult Cast , Primarily Male Cast

Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa

Also known as Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues.

Studio: MADHOUSE , VAP , Sentai Filmworks , Nippon Television Network
Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Psychological

Teiai Group is one of Japan's largest firms. Yukio Tonegawa, a man with a larger-than-life presence and sharp intellect, works as the right-hand man of Chairman Kazutaka Hyodo. One day, the chairman commands Tonegawa to spearhead "Game of Death," an evil project that employs debtors. He rallies his direct reports and scrambles to form Team Tonegawa, only to encounter a barrage of challenges from the erratic chairman and his disloyal employees, ultimately leading to his demotion.

Team Tonegawa is bombarded with an onslaught of wide-ranging problems! "Mr. Tonegawa - Middle Management Blues -" is a spinoff of "Kaiji," the hit manga series that boasts a total circulation of over 20 million printed copies.



Note: Episode 14-15, parts of 18, and parts of 20-23 of this entry adapts the Kaiji spin-off manga Ichinichi Gaishutsuroku Hanchou.

Tags: Work , Primarily Adult Cast , Primarily Male Cast , Male Protagonist , Parody , Seinen , Office , Food , Card Battle , Episodic , Bowling , Slavery , Mahjong , Pandemic , Acting , Camping , Memory Manipulation

Hikaru no Go

Also known as Hikaru no Go.

Studio: Studio Pierrot , TV Tokyo , Dentsu , Viz Media , Dream Force
Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Sports , Supernatural

With a two-tone hairstyle and a streak of immaturity, Hikaru Shindou finds an old Go board with a hidden surprise - trapped within the Go Board is Fujiwara-no-Sai, the ghost of an ancient Go master! In the blink of an eye, Sai becomes part of Hikaru's consciousness and soon begins to learn the true essence behind this ancient game of skill and strategy.



Tags: Go , Coming of Age , Primarily Male Cast , Shounen , Ghost , Board Game , Male Protagonist , School Club , Foreign

Pon no Michi

Also known as Pon no Michi.

Studio: OLM , Kodansha , DMM.com , Mainichi Broadcasting System , Good Smile Company , Myrica Music , SUPA LOVE , OLM , SANKYO , Yostar , AQUA ARIS , Bit Grooove Promotion
Status: Finished
Genres: Slice of Life

The anime is set in Hiroshima Prefecture's Onomichi City, where a high school student Nashiko Jippensha was kicked out of her house. Without a place to play with her friends, she learns that the mahjong parlor that her father used to run is now vacant. She fixes the mahjong parlor and turns it into a place where she and her friends can have fun, cook, have tea, and sometimes play mahjong.



Tags: Primarily Female Cast , Mahjong , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , Female Protagonist , Food , Primarily Teen Cast , Advertisement , CGI , Board Game

Touhai: Ura Rate Mahjong Touhai Roku

Studio: East Fish Studio , Pony Canyon , Akita Shoten , Sotsu , Mainichi Broadcasting System
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Sports

Money, women, organs. Kei, a high school boy, frequents the underground mahjong parlor teeming with desires, earning him the moniker 'K of Ice' in the underworld due to his cold-hearted strategy and stylish gameplay. Rumors also circulate that he keeps a girl at his home.



Tags: Mahjong , Yakuza , Seinen , Gambling , Criminal Organization , Gangs , Fugitive , Board Game , Crime , Slavery , Torture , Death Game , Bullying , Delinquents , Drugs , Gore , Disability

Mahjong Hishou-den Naki no Ryuu

Studio: Bandai , Gainax
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

The protagonist, Ryuu or Crying Dragon, is a mysterious man who often plays games with the gang members. He only wins by "ron", a move in which one needs to wait for the opponent's tile to complete the win.

'Ron' is also called 'Naki' in mahjong, which has the same pronunciation as 'Crying' in Japanese.

Mahjong Hishouden Naki no Ryuu is a mahjong anime based on a manga by Nojo Junichi in 1980s-90s.


Tags: Mahjong , Gambling , Yakuza , Mafia , Gangs

Kakegurui

Also known as Kakegurui.

Studio: MAPPA , Square Enix , Dentsu , Movic , DIVE II Entertainment , Netflix , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological

During daylight hours, an exclusive, elite private school prepares its illustrious students for careers in business, politics, and high society. But when darkness falls, the halls of this esteemed establishment transform into an underground gambling den where bright-eyed youngsters learn the timeless art of bluffing, backdoor dealings and social manipulation. In this school for the rich and elite, money is power, and the tyrant of the betting books rules with an iron fist. So when the beautiful Yumeko Jabami upsets the academy hierarchy with her voracious appetite for the thrill of the gamble, the entire student body mobilizes to send her house of cards tumbling down.



Tags: Gambling , Female Protagonist , School , Primarily Female Cast , Body Horror , Masochism , CGI , Primarily Teen Cast , Poker , Ojou-sama , School Club , LGBTQ+ Themes , Anti-Hero , Shounen , Yuri , Bullying , Villainess , Slavery , Death Game , Yandere , Idol , Delinquents , Guns , Battle Royale , Male Protagonist