In early June, Episode 10 of 'Kaiji' aired.
In this episode, Kaiji faces off in a life-and-death showdown against the enemy from the Teiai Group.
Previously, during the E-card game, Kaiji noticed something suspicious in his opponent's overconfidence and realized that cheating was involved. He deduced from his opponent's wristwatch—different from the one he wore at the start—and the fact that he kept checking it during the match, that there was a hidden cheating mechanism.
He suspected that the drill device strapped to his head, the one that would pierce his eardrum if he lost it, also contained wireless sensors that monitored his blood pressure, heartbeat, and pulse. That would explain why every time he played the slave card, the enemy was able to counter it with a citizen card so precisely.
Once this mechanic was revealed, viewers were gripped by a sense of utter despair.
A match where winning seemed absolutely impossible.
After all, who can control their own heartbeat and pulse? It was as if Kaiji had a lie detector strapped to him—whether the card he played was a slave card or not could be inferred from his physiological reactions.
But in Episode 10…
Kaiji once again showed what it means to be a real man in a hopeless situation.
On the pretext of needing to use the bathroom, he smashed his head into the mirror, bashing himself until blood covered his face and body. Then, he picked up a shard of the glass.
Cut to the next scene—
Kaiji, with a towel pressed to his ear, declared, "This round, I bet 18 millimeters."
If he won, he could take a large sum of money from the opponent. If he lost, the drill clamped to his ear would pierce through his eardrum and into his brain.
And in this round, Kaiji finally… successfully tricked the enemy. He used a slave card in his hand to snipe the opponent's Emperor card.
"You finally noticed, huh?" Kaiji said, staring at his stunned opponent.
Then, he slowly pulled away the towel from his bloodied ear.
To win this round, Kaiji had cut off his own ear with a glass shard in the bathroom, removing the drill and the sensors that tracked his vitals, and handed them over to a friend hiding in the restroom.
So in this round, the data the opponent was reading wasn't Kaiji's—it was his friend's.
By the time the episode aired, this moment, fans of the show were speechless with awe at Kaiji's resolve.
"I'm blown away!"
"I take back what I said in episode one about him being a small-time punk. Kaiji really moves me!"
"He crossed a I-beam bridge, was betrayed out of his rightful reward, and now he's fighting the Teiai Group again just to get back what Ishida should've received."
"If it were me, I wouldn't have even noticed the cheating, let alone cut off my own ear just to bait the enemy and win."
"Heart-wrenching... If Kaiji loses, a drill goes into his eardrum. If he wins, he gets ¥50,000 per millimeter. Damn."
"That chairman of Teiai is disgusting."
"Wait, wait… What's Kaiji up to in the final round? He clearly won, cleared the danger, and took 900,000 yen. Why does he look like that?"
"Guys, I think he's about to go all in. He's not content with just the one million. That was just the reward he was owed for crossing the I-Beam bridge. He wants more—he wants to win for Ishida, who fell from the bridge without even a scream."
"His humanity, his insight, and the blood on that table…"
Kaiji looked at the cards on the table and the bloodstains from the previous round, while his opponent, Tonegawa, was still reeling from his loss.
"I can win... I can win the twelfth round too. Even if it's not a sure thing, even if I don't take the risk, I've already won three million yen. But… I've seized a chance at victory. How could I back down now, just because I'm afraid?"
Kaiji's inner monologue had every viewer holding their breath.
"Kaiji, you gambling dog. You're the real deal."
"You already lost an ear, and you're still not satisfied?"
"God, what is this guy made of? A I-Beam didn't scare him. A drill just a millimeter from his eardrum didn't either. Why not just make a safe bet and leave with your winnings?"
"This is the world of gambling dogs. If there's even a sliver of hope to win, they go all in."
"If he wants more, he'll have to stake his life again."
As Tonegawa and the chairman nervously apologized for their previous mistake, Kaiji subtly rearranged his cards under the table.
He placed three citizen cards on his thigh and left the slave card in front of him, making a show of hiding it.
Tonegawa, distracted by the chairman, glanced at Kaiji's hand but didn't pay much attention.
The rules of the E-game were simple. Each player had five cards: four citizens and one special card—Emperor or Slave. After both sides play a card:
Citizen vs Citizen = draw
Citizen vs Emperor = Citizen loses
Citizen vs Slave = Slave loses
Emperor vs Slave = Emperor loses
Five rounds per game. Kaiji's side, the slave side, was at a massive disadvantage. If the slave card isn't matched against the Emperor, it's an automatic loss. The odds: 80% for the Emperor side, only 20% for the slave.
But the reward for a slave is? Massive.
"Tonegawa, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself. A shot at reclaiming your honor and standing in Teiai—even cheating couldn't help you win against me."
"Let's bet another 18 millimeters in Round 12. Life or death, one last round."
"Kaiji's gonna cheat again, right?"
"Did he mark the cards with blood?"
"Did Tonegawa notice?"
"He glanced at it earlier but was being scolded… maybe he didn't think too much of it."
"Kaiji, are you serious? Can he really fool Tonegawa again?"
"I don't know. Tonegawa has always relied on cheating and philosophical lectures. Doesn't seem all that strong. If he were in Kaiji's shoes, he'd be dead already."
In the second half of Episode 10, the twelfth round of the E-game began.
Without his cheating tools, Tonegawa was clearly rattled. He hesitated with his card order.
First card? Play the Emperor right away? Or would Kaiji be expecting that?
He spiraled into an infinite loop of mind games.
Round one: Citizen vs Citizen. Draw.
Round two: Kaiji confidently placed a card face down.
Tonegawa, overwhelmed with anxiety about losing his status, suddenly noticed something—
A faint bloodstain on the back of Kaiji's card.
What's that?
He recalled the scene where Kaiji's blood splattered onto the table and possibly onto two cards.
Those cards… were used in Round 11. Which means one of them…
…was the Slave card.
The serpent of suspicion hissed in Tonegawa's mind.
He believed he had grasped the key to victory.
"Damn…"
"I'm losing track of this!"
"What was that sneaky move Kaiji made earlier?"
"It's a layered trap, a psychological mille-feuille!"
"Tonegawa thinks the blood-marked card is either a citizen or a slave. So if he avoids playing the Emperor against those, he's safe."
"This is brain-melting…"
Round two: another draw—Citizen vs Citizen.
Wait, maybe only the Citizen card had blood. What if Kaiji wiped the blood off the Slave card?
He put all the cards under the table, and I couldn't see them. What if the Slave card is clean now?
Paranoia mounted. Tonegawa, hesitant, played a Citizen in round three. Another draw.
Then came Round Four—the decisive final round.
Kaiji's card had visible blood on the back.
He didn't wipe it off. That has to be the Slave.
Tonegawa smiled.
As he prepared to counter Kaiji's Slave card with a Citizen, the serpent whispered again:
Would Kaiji really overlook such an obvious flaw in a life-or-death match?
He wiped the blood earlier. He knows the back is stained. Would he really miss that?
This is a final, deadly round. Would a man who crossed the bridge, fought back from the brink, make such a rookie mistake—especially when he's betting 18 millimeters of his life?
That bastard... laced this match with poison!
He remembered Kaiji's earlier subtle hand movements on the table while being scolded.
He switched the card back then. He let the blood stain it later, then pretended to wipe it, just to make me think the Slave was one of the marked ones, to bait me into playing a Citizen!
What followed was a psychological war so tense that viewers were on the edge of their seats.
After all, the show had shown Kaiji subtly holding a Citizen card and moving toward the Slave card.
"It's over… Kaiji's doomed."
"God, everyone in this show is a freaking genius!"
"If he loses this round, he loses everything."
"I'm speechless. These gambling dogs are too smart. If it were me, I'd be dead in round one."
"Director Jing Yu is a genius. How does he even come up with this stuff?"
"It's over. Tonegawa played the Emperor in Round Four."
Kaiji saw Tonegawa's play…
"Tonegawa… thank you. Thank you for doubting me. Thank you, you snake. Thank you… for your suspicion." Kaiji whispered as he held the blood-soaked towel to his ear.
He flipped his card.
It was the Slave.
"Kaiji! Didn't you swap it earlier? Wasn't that the Citizen?" Tonegawa cried, part terrified, part enraged.
"I faked it. I had the time and did the motion—but I didn't actually switch it. It was a bluff."
"You idiot! What if I had noticed the blood but not the switch? You would've dug your own grave! Why… why?"
"Simple. Because I believe in you. I believe you're excellent. Very excellent," Kaiji said, gazing at the middle-aged man across from him with a glint of mutual respect.
"A man like you wouldn't miss the blood. And a man like you wouldn't truly believe that the bloodstain was an actual oversight in a life-or-death game."
"Because you're brilliant, you noticed my fake card switch. And because you're brilliant, you thought you saw through me. You sneered in your heart, thinking you had me figured out. After all, I'm just scum, a thug, a loser. Naturally, you'd see through someone like me."
"Because you're brilliant, you're arrogant. That arrogance has carried you this far. And now, it has made you blind to the truth."
Kaiji's eyes burned with resolve.
That gaze pierced the hearts of the audience.
They were dumbfounded.
So this… was a trap for the clever?
The characters in the show only saw the first layer. Viewers reached the second. Tonegawa uncovered the third. Kaiji was playing in the fourth.
And writer Jing Yu?
He was operating on the fifth.