This review is spoiler free unless stated otherwise.

Overview

Gambling is an unexplored art with boundless potential for thriller media— I mean, it pushes people to their most raw, unadulterated forms. Those who triumph are usually those who can keep a clear and rational state of mind; nothing exemplifies more than Gambling Emperor Legend Zero. I’m going to avoid mentioning Fukumoto’s other works throughout this review as I feel it would be cheap, but yes, it’s similar to Kaiji. It’s a bunch of high stakes gambling death games that force the psychology of the players into uncomfortable positions, ultimately creating an intense battle where you’re not sure as to where the outcome will lie. Well, even if you are sure, you won’t know how it’s going to happen.

Gambling Emperor Legend Zero has a rather on-the-nose, but ultimately strong premise. Some smart guy and his gang of suicidal lackies are invited to a death game for a trillion yen— I mean, boom, bucket loads of fun pretty much guranteed. For a quick comparison, the structure isn’t all that dissimilar to Yu-Gi-Oh. Players are forced onto this secular location where they visit various locations of their choosing, competing with or against other players to win the prize. For the specifics, however, we begin to vary. Within Dream Kingdom— where they choose to gamble— there are some very intentional set rules. To win the game, one must collect three rings. There are four total types of challenges: J or “Junior”, Safe, Mild, and Hard. If you lose any competition that isn’t Junior rank, you are automatically disqualified from the game. In mild games, you may win bigger rewards, but you’re almost guaranteed injury. In hard difficulty, it’s near certain death. Naturally, this leads to many ways different players tackle the challenge set in front of them; I won’t spoil it, but it’s pretty interesting.

Setting Stakes

The greatest problem many thrillers face is the natural element of plot armor. At the end of the day, your protagonist has to come out alive for the story to continue. This seems like it would make most high-stakes gambling boring and pointless, as you’ll always know the outcome— but there are many methods Gambling Emperor Legend Zero employs to get around this. The most immediately notable being in the puzzle format. If you turn your gamble into more of a mystery as you're forced to guess how the protagonist will solve the problem, that’s automatic curiosity and engagement. Even without stakes, the gamble will be satisfying as long as the answer subverts the viewer’s expectations. Zero does this in spades; though that’s not the core gimmick for those gambles, because it adds another layer. Exploring the psychology of characters in such a perilous situation is inherently intriguing, and the manga takes advantage of this. The character’s reactions and thought trains are fun to follow; in their own way, they add stakes by seeing how secondary characters will develop and fare. Which is another thing most of Fukumoto’s works know how to do: kill off secondary characters, and ruin the main character. If the gamble is life or death, it’s entirely possible for well developed side characters to get the axe— as is it possible for the protagonist to lose limbs or all of their progress. This unpredictability adds a sense of importance and thrill to every game, confounding upon the satisfaction of the conclusion.

However, a core, perforating issue remains with this strategy: the characters. If the writing isn’t strong enough to get you invested in the characters, then of course you won’t care about what happens to them or how they think.

The Characters

Fukumoto isn’t known for his incredibly nuanced and memorable characters, but most would agree his protagonists are always striking— so how does Zero hold up? Well, he’s damn entertaining. He’s a calm and rational genius who reigns over most in the battlefield, but he isn’t perfect to the point where he makes no mistakes, and he has a kind and self-sacrificial side to bolster his likability. Not to mention carry the theme of camaraderie. In a setting like this, you would expect a lot of betrayal, but they shockingly opt for more friendship-based endeavors. Fortunately, it isn’t beaten into the ground like your average battle Shounen, so it’s actually a nice and quaint addition to the themes. So, basically, Zero serves his purpose at both being compelling to watch and being a thematic vessel.

Escaping the narrow view of the protagonist, many would argue Fukumoto’s works begin to falter— but I would argue that isn’t the case here. The secondary cast all have their own traits that make them unique and compelling. Zero’s friends may at first seem one-note, and in many ways they are, but they provide for good commentary. They latch on to Zero and support him, even if they can’t ultimately do much for him, which is really pleasant. Hiroshi has his own arc separate to Zero, and Yuuki ends up proving his worth in ways. This way each character has their individual story purpose, making the writing more cohesive as a whole. However, I would be remiss not to mention the most striking characters: Zenzou, Mr.Kotarou, and Suezaki. The antagonist being a batshit crazy, egotistical, near pointlessly rich, and sadistic old bastard is great. Not only does it serve as some fun semi-commentary on how the rich abuse and exploit the poor, but his senile behavior has a rich presence to it. He’s a pretty fucking scary dude— this leads to natural character intrigue. Mr.Kotarou, the antagonist for the quiz show game, has a different appeal. While he is not necessarily threatening, his wild design and wacky personality harbors a unique charisma you can only see in characters like that. His dialogue is perfectly constructed to accentuate a live-show tone, doubling his characterization. Finally, Suezaki isn’t an antagonist, but fuck is he cool. He’s just a slimy sort of snake that somehow keeps finding himself in Zero-related positions, which is inherently epic. I can’t really say much as to his writing, but you’ll see what I mean when reading.

Finally, the tertiary cast can be pretty great. Characters like Itakura, Shirube, and Gotou have moments of their own which add to the character drama. Even if you likely won’t remember them long after reading the manga, they add much needed flavor to Dream Kingdom. I would go over their individual feats, but I’m not here to waste your time— so I’ll go over the more interesting shit individually instead. Obviously being the games.

Individual Gambles

Each gamble is pretty unique, with every single one presenting some sort of mysterious tribulation to overcome for our protagonist— and at times the viewer. This segment will analyze each game with spoilers, so feel free to skip below.

Numbered Balls

As a starter gamble, this is rather simple, but it’s the perfect lesson in critical thinking and sets the tone for what’s to come. Not only is the gamble threatening and actually effective and weeding out half-hearted losers, but it hoists the theme of logic and rationality being the key to solving problems. The solution is simple, but no one blinded by fear or greed would think of such a thing. Which is also a nice sheet to introduce Shirube as a genius, while retaining the mystery he had for earlier chapters. Finally, the closing statement of the game was quite nice. Mitsuru’s death provided ample motivation for Zero to move forward, while setting up how dangerous this world can be. Pretty much a perfect intro gamble, though the latter half of the series doesn’t bring up Mitsuru, which spoils this slightly in retrospect. Hopefully we will get a mention in part two.

Chisel Hands

This gamble pulls back the stakes and risks only Zero’s fingers, which makes a real threat present for our protagonist as opposed to later ones which only offer death. This also further established how dangerous a place Dream Kingdom is, using the guy who played before as an indicator. Speaking of indicators, the signs for the gamble were laid out pretty cleverly. Peppering enough clues for the viewer to have an idea themselves, while leaving it obscure enough to not be easily findable is ideal— and they delivered. I never would have even thought about the fridge, even if Zero’s earlier dialogue lines aroused suspicion around the finger-cutter’s face. Having him shy away from the face confounds upon his niceness as well, subtly building upon his character. On top of this, it also showed that the game runners are not above cheating, which will come into play later. Fantastic game for establishing Dream Kingdom as a setting.

Mystery of the Triangle Rooms

Calling upon basic mathematics is something Zero does often, and fuck, does it make me feel stupid. I mean, c’mon— I would never even think to calculate the angle of a triangular room, much less be able to calculate it accurately. Despite my own ineptitude, this is what makes games like this fun. The solutions are incredibly creative and out there, but logical and simple when you get down to it. It’s just within the situation you’re clouded by your own perception, which is what most of these games test you for. Can you get past your own emotions and bias to think critically? Though it takes him a while to figure things out, Zero usually can— which is just fun to see. The last-minute factor can be a bit repetitive, but is still ultimately satisfying for each outcome. I think the other teams added a fair amount of interesting completion to the gamble as well, so yeah. Pretty great follow-up to the last two.

Quarter Jump

Out of pure curiosity, Zenzo pit Zero against Shirube; fuck does this set up Zenzo’s wild card element well, which will be perfected by the ending. Bar the awesome introduction, the gamble itself is incredibly unique and creative. A blindfolded battle where the player is forced to choose between four voices calling him to each side. That’s just an awesome premise, as it provides for some psychological leeway as each person does their best to tempt Zero over. As a viewer of the game, we hold an omniscient perspective and get to see the behind the scenes of the tricks employed as well, which I believe was the right call. It’s just interesting to see how Zero dismantles each and every possible answer systematically, and within the time limit. From Goudo’s temptation to the antics with the mirror, every conclusion Zero comes to makes perfect logical sense and avoids relying on intuition. It was a battle hard fought; Shirube clearing it in under a minute sets him up as a real threat, even more so than before. Not to mention it bolsters Zero’s trait of kindness, as he gives Shirube a hint beforehand. Overall, though there’s not much to analyze, the game was pretty thrilling and had a variety of interesting strategies to unveil while supporting the character’s core traits. Likely my favorite game overall.

The Witches’ Massacre

This one purely exists to exemplify mob mentality and how fear in one person can bring an entire group of people down. While this can be seen in plenty of shows that entail a group of normal people fighting a larger entity, it’s done really well here. Zero’s deepens mistrust and makes you think some of them may actually be killed, as the stakes of what exactly will happen are unsure. The games themselves weren’t super interesting as they were just mathematics, but it was easily made up for by the reactions of the crowd around them. Itakura and Suezaki get to show off their guile by wheeling the crowds within this round as well. So, yet another thrilling ride with some unexpected twists and turns that will keep you wanting more.

Quiz Show

As a game, some view this as rather lacking— which is somewhat justified. Though the concept of the main questions putting points into either raising or lowering and having anchor questions decide whether it gets lowered or raised is cool, some of the questions are simply inane and pointless. Sometimes that’s the point, like with Kotarou’s hair— but why the hell does Zero know about a ramen bowl? I ultimately can’t complain however, for as discussed earlier, damn does Kotarou steal the show. His pathetic jabs and jibes are hilarious to see, along with watching Zero slowly dismantle his sadistic nature. I mean, he literally psychoanalyzes the fact that he was bullied in the fight. Zero fucking destroyed Kotarou’s ego, which provided for good comedy while making a compelling dynamic, especially considering Kotarou held power in the situation. Another thing they bothered expanding upon here was how every individual mind helps in some way, highlighting Zero’s naive but commendable philosophy of helping people if possible. Suezaki and Yuuki may not have been great, but they ultimately did their best and helped the team in some way. While not as dark and grim as it could have been, I think this somewhat more optimistic message is pleasant.

Ring Finding

Ending on a rather weak competition, the solution for this one was a bit gimmicky and intuition-based. The stuff surrounding it makes up for it, however. Zero’s self-sacrificial strategy to get into the challenge was rather smart, while once again showing how kind he can be. Not to mention his triumphant exit with the three ringlets in tow was incredibly gratifying to see after all that happened- for, once again, he had won at the last minute. That kind of wraps it up nicely in its own way.

Thematics and Ending

While Zero is a more Shounen-esque approach to Fukumoto’s usual Seinen formula, it still explored gambling as an art in plenty of nuanced ways. Mostly showing the danger of mob mentality and true genius lying in one’s ability to stay calm, not letting your emotions cloud your judgment— you can see what I mean if you read the gambles above. While Zero doesn’t abandon a logical thinking path, he also cares deeply about the people around him and retains his sense of morale. That’s pretty cute as a theme, and manages to give off friendship in a non-hamfisted way. I wish they would have leaned a little bit harder into the rich abusing the poor and what that implicated, however. There’s plenty of ways to explore that, but I suppose that’s for Fukumoto’s other works.

As for the ending, yeah, it was a massive fucking cliffhanger— but it was nice. It’s a good set-up for the next part, and it really cements Zenzo’s character to be as bat shit crazy as he is. Cool shit.

Conclusion

While not every gamble was perfect, each one had its own unique idea to put on the table, ultimately creating for an entertaining thrill-ride that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats. The characters were developed well for their short amount of time, and I could not be happier with the product overall. This is an easy recommendation from me, so make sure to check it out. See you guys in the next review.