As the audience had expected, the outcome was predictable.
Funai betrayed him.
At first, everything went smoothly—they played their cards as planned. But midway through, Funai "accidentally" played the wrong card and won one of Kaiji's stars.
They agreed Kaiji could "win it back" in the next round and continue with their tie strategy.
But in the next rock-paper-scissors round—
Well, everyone could guess the outcome!
"So dumb. This protagonist. I'm crying from the stupidity."
"Seriously? Gambling with your life on rock-paper-scissors, and he actually trusted the other guy to tie?"
"Three stars down to one—brutal."
"Wait, what happens if you lose your last star?"
"I think… according to the trailer, you get sent to an illegal underground facility to mine. Unless you pay off your debts, you can never return to society."
"No way… do places like that even exist?"
"Why not? It's a drama. What kind of shady company or organization doesn't exist in TV?"
Later, in the quarters for the broken-down gamblers who only had one star left, Kaiji ran into the colleague who'd tricked him into co-signing the original 30,000 loan—Furuhata.
Even though that guy had screwed him over… at times like this, you had to team up with whoever you could.
At least this former colleague had cards—and stars.
"Right… the stars…"
The show cut to a dramatic narration.
Some had used all their cards but only had one or two stars—fewer than the three required to leave the ship.
Others had burned through their cards and racked up six, seven, or even more stars, waiting for the game to end so they could sell them.
In that moment, Kaiji realized the borrowed money could be used—
His stars and cards could be used—
Everything could be bought and sold with money, the ultimate currency.
Some people had stars but no cards left.
Some had cards but no stars.
Some only had one star and didn't dare play another round.
The link between all of them?
Money.
That was the real beauty of Limited Rock-Paper-Scissors.
Once you factored in the borrowed money, the complexity and strategy of the game exploded.
For these players—one step away from ruin, on the brink of being dragged into lifelong underground forced labor—
In that moment, they could form a team!
Kaiji and Furuhata both had one star and cards.
Andou, a chubby shut-in type, had finished all his cards but only had two stars.
The three teamed up.
"The three of us… are bound by fate."
In the depths of desperation, Kaiji formed his team.
And thus, episode one of 'Kaiji' came to an end.
Tang Tao blinked.
"So that's the kind of drama this is."
From the protagonist's entrance up until this midpoint, he had been played over and over. But after being tricked by Funai, it seemed… he'd woken up.
To be honest, it was a subtly powerful ending.
Kaiji hadn't actually done anything heroic yet—but the vibe that he was about to rise to the occasion had been firmly established.
Three people.
Four stars.
That meant they could only afford to lose once more. After that, every single loss would mean one of them would be sent to solitary confinement, doomed to a life of underground forced labor.
A brutal fate of illegal imprisonment and debt bondage.
"Now this is interesting."
"I've never seen a show like this before. Honestly, I'm hooked."
"Suddenly, rock-paper-scissors feels intense!"
"Stars are life. Cards are an opportunity. And with money, you can buy both. But if you're too afraid of interest to borrow money early on, you'll lose even the chance to trade for opportunity later."
"Still… can a last-minute team like this even work? Those other two guys don't seem trustworthy."
"I feel the same. But I gotta say—the first episode was pretty solid. That ¥1.50 didn't go to waste."
"It just feels weird not seeing Jing Yu in the starring role."
It was just the first episode. 'Kaiji' hadn't yet fully explored its themes of human nature, betrayal, adversity, and awakening. Most fans just thought it was interesting—but it hadn't gone beyond that.
Yindou Net's web drama score: 8.8.
Mainly because the protagonist Kaiji was just too off-putting—his debut image was rough. If not for Jing Yu's reputation, the rating would've been even lower.
On day one, the show sold 3.1 million paid streams.
A solid result.
But how much it could grow depended on whether word-of-mouth picked up.
As things stood, Jing Yu's series didn't appear significantly more influential than the summer flagship shows airing on the top three networks.
Online forums and discussion boards showed that 'Kaiji' and the top three network dramas were getting roughly equal buzz.
Then, another day passed.
Sunday, 8 PM.
'Clannad' aired its first episode.
This drama's debut was weaker than 'Kaiji'.
It drew fewer than 3 million paid views on day one—only 2.8 million.
To be fair, 'Clannad''s opening episode didn't really have any big attention-grabbing moments.
It wasn't like 'Your Lie in April' or 'White Album 2', where a distinct female lead immediately made an impression.
Nor did it have the sweet emotional hook of 'Kimi ni Todoke' in its first episode.
It was just… very calm.
Over ten characters appeared, each getting just a few minutes of screen time.
Nagisa Furukawa, Tomoyo Sakagami, Fuko, Kotomi—
These heroines from the later routes all showed up briefly.
Jing Yu didn't want to follow the galgame format and cram all the introductions into one messy soup of a debut.
But that's how game adaptations worked. The early "common route" content might feel dull, but it was essential.
Most of the major story arcs' foreshadowing had to be laid out in episode one.
That setup meant the first episode naturally lacked any strong appeal.
The potential lead, Nagisa Furukawa, was played adorably by Yu Youqing—but that was all.
She was visually cute, but her character—a timid, insecure girl with no confidence—really wasn't the type Great Zhou audiences liked.
Under such circumstances, if people thought 'Kaiji' was "interesting," then 'Clannad' was just… bland.
You couldn't say episode one was bad—just that it was flat.
And that sentiment echoed across the internet.
"Feels like… Jing Yu's new shows this season aren't as good as his old ones."
"It's just the first week—why panic?"
"Clannad honestly felt boring. Kaiji was better."
"This isn't like Jing Yu! Romance dramas are his bread and butter. Even if Clannad is a first-season setup, it shouldn't be this slow! The dorm lady, Loli Fuko, quiet bookworm Kotomi, cool beauty Tomoyo, and the Fujibayashi twins—every one of them could be a lead heroine! So why cram them all into one episode? It just feels… off."
"Too crowded. This isn't a harem anime. Why so many girls?"
"It's just episode one. People said the same thing during Steins;Gate, and look how that turned out."
"It's been years, and Jing Yu's haters have been proven wrong millions of times. How are people still judging his shows after one episode?"
"We're just discussing the story. No one's saying Jing Yu isn't good—don't get so defensive."
"Exactly. Everyone has off-seasons. It doesn't mean Jing Yu lost his touch—sometimes even the best creators make something that doesn't fit current trends."
"It's not that bad. Yeah, it's not as engaging as 'Kimi ni Todoke' or 'Initial D' from the get-go, but 'Clannad' isn't terrible either. At the very least, it's well-shot, the cast is attractive, and for ¥1.50, watching pretty faces is worth it."
Week one of April.
Jing Yu's two new shows launched on Qingyun Video.
But clearly, 'Clannad' had a weaker reception than the first episode of 'Kaiji'.