Buraiden Gai Chapter 34 Discussion

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                        I want to clarify that I do think the characters work very well for the narrative even if in my mind they are rather simplistic!  I feel I may have come off more negative than I’d meant to in previous threads, I have no problems with them, except maybe Hirata as I’d want more from him as the big bad.  Hyoudou may be pretty unexplored in Kaiji but you’ll be darned if you ever forget some of the things he did, especially in the tissue box raffle.  Anyways, that’s besides the point, just something I’d wanted to clarify as I loved seeing everyone culminating here in this scene.



Speaking of this chapter, it was a lot of fun.  When Gai poked Hirata I was expecting him to say that he poked him with poison yet in reality he would have actually poked him with the box cutter, although that could still happen.  Either way I was expecting a more concrete plan than “hope he tells the truth and steal his phone”, but what’s super cool is that I doubt Gai could have expected all of that and instead acted in the moment!  That is pretty incredible if so!  I adored the page of them tearing out of the sofa and Sawai realizing what was happening, as did I love the final “I WIN!” page.  Gai was quick to grab Sawai but if only the call went through it could possibly not be enough so Hirata may want to take Gai out before the tape can pile on top of that.  I can’t imagine Hirata cares about Sawai that much, Sawai thought he would be killed anyways, so this may be where the potential poisoning is posited.



I also want to comment on one of Sawai’s men saying “It’s starting to rain outside, what about the students?”.  Little moments like that humanize these guys.  I like it.  I also remember them looking nervous and sweating predominantly in the dog scene when they were electrocuting the kids.  I don’t exactly know how they got into the life, whether handpicked by Hirata or what, but it’s nice to see that they aren’t robots.



Also Sawai knows the truth now so his morals are challenged more than ever!  Gai is innocent!