Money Game (Jinsoo BAE) - Recommendations

• TV (26 eps)
• 2007 - 2008

Kaiji Ito is as pathetic a person as they come; a man who gambles his days away, only winning enough to lose significantly more. He hates himself, is riddled with envy for others, but is ultimately too weak to think of a way out of his massive debts. Then one day he is approached by a strange man who offers him what seems the solution of a lifetime – to take a short journey on a ship called Espoir, during which time he will be given the chance to win more cash than he can dream of in a card game like no other. Ever the desperate, Kaiji takes the gamble of his life; however, the game turns out to be far darker than he expected and the hard lessons pile on thick and fast. Now stuck in a closed world of unsavory characters willing to do anything to destroy him, can Kaiji gather enough courage to outwit them all?

• TV (12 eps)
• 2022

High school student Katagiri Yuichi, who values friendship above all else, enjoys a fulfilling life with his close friends Sawagiri Shiho, Mikasa Tenji, Shibe Makoto, and Kokorogi Yutori. However, after a particular incident, they're dragged into a debt repayment game. The only way to beat the "Tomodachi Game" is to not doubt their friends. Bound together by solid friendships, the game should've been easy, but– The hugely popular comic that sold over two million copies is finally becoming an anime! Will they trust or betray their precious friends? The true nature of humanity is exposed in the ultimate psychological game!

• TV (26 eps)
• 2011

Sunk deep in colossal debt, Kaiji must spend the next decades of his life working it off in an underground slave pit, shovelling dirt with other disgraced down-and-outs. But far be it for Kaiji to have learned his lesson from his experiences on the Espoir. Upon discovering that the only fast track out of gambling-induced slavery is to gamble even more in a dice game called chinchirorin, he throws caution – and presumably his senses – to the fickle winds of luck! As well as giving him plenty of reasons to weep, this takes him up against formidable foes like his supervisor, Ohtsuki, whose dirty delight is to ruin the workers psychologically as well as financially. As the saying goes, in a bet there's a fool and a thief, and Kaiji can only hope he will not end up the former.

• TV (12 eps)
• 2018

Descend into the dark world of SCM, where you are labeled either a master or servant based on your ability to win a game. What type of depravity will people reach to become the ultimate master?

• TV (12 eps)
• 2008

Takumi is a reclusive otaku who wants nothing more than to be left alone to play online games and watch anime. He only attends the minimum necessary to pass his classes, and rarely leaves his cramped room except to purchase the newest figurines. One evening, while Takumi is chatting online with his friend "Grim," a stranger called "Shogun" joins the channel and, after "Grim" leaves, posts a series of disturbing photographs depicting a man impaled to a wall with metal stakes. The following day, Takumi is horrified when he wanders into an alley and once again sees Shogun’s images – but this time, the gruesome scene is reality. From then on, Takumi sees the world through a new set of eyes; imaginary delusions meld with reality, and he isn't sure who he can trust. With suspicions and confusion at every turn, Takumi must struggle to determine what's going on - but most importantly, whose eyes are those eyes?

• OVA (1 ep)
• 2017

• TV Special (1 ep)
• 2016

The Hope Arc will serve as the "perfect ending" of the story.

• TV (12 eps)
• 2016

Makoto Naegi is under suspicion of treason after shielding a remnant of Despair. The Future Foundation, founded to save the world from chaos caused by Ultimate Despair, gathers to decide his punishment when they are captured by Monokuma. Thrusted into an ultimate death game, they must find the true traitor and kill him if they hope to survive. The tale of despair in which hope kills hope begins.

• TV (12 eps)
• 2019 - 2020

Zen Seizaki is a prosecutor with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors' Office. While investigating illegal acts by a certain pharmaceutical company, Seizaki stumbles across a conspiracy over an election for an autonomous "new zone" established in western Tokyo.

• TV (24 eps)
• 2005

Ten years have passed since the demise of the bubble economy, a time that polarized the world into two groups of people: the rich and the poor. In the present day, Saiga Tatsumi (a former war photographer) has been hired to investigate a secret club for the rich named the Roppongi Club, but he soon discovers secrets much darker than he’d ever imagined. With the help of a exploited goddess named Kagura, Saiga now possesses the power to kill by simply taking a photograph; but can he stay alive long enough to save her from her captors?