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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | If the poor unite and rebel, declaring that they don't need money, the king will be vanquished. But the poor pursue money in the hopes of becoming king. This strengthens the existence of the current king. As long you don't break out of that fruitless paradox of wanting money, you can never overthrow the king but be chained forever. | „ |
| ~ Kazutaka Hyodo |
Kazutaka Hyōdō is the main antagonist of the manga series Kaiji.
He is the president of a powerful consulting firm and the sponsor of various underground gambling tournaments and games. He is so wealthy that he cannot be entertained by conventional hobbies, so for this reason, he funds these underground games so that he can watch the participants compete against each other, as this is what brings him pleasure. He is also Kaiji Itō's archenemy.
He is voiced by Masane Tsukayama in the anime. In the English dub, he is voiced by Marty Fleck.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- In his games, the punishment for losing is either death, being sentenced to an underground labor camp with abysmal working conditions and next to no health care, or amputation of body parts and/or removal of internal organs. Torture is almost always involved to a degree, and such torture sometimes involves stripping the victims naked. In the manga, it is implied that forced prostitution is also a possible outcome of losing, though the anime omits this.
- The games are often set up in such a way that even winning the game does not get you very much money, so the winners remain poor even after the gambling tournaments are over. It's also possible to "win", but to leave with less money than you had before.
- In one instance, Hyōdō refused to grant money after a fair victory because of a loophole which he abused. In another instance, Hyōdō refused to grant money after a fair victory because he did not want to accept the reality of the outcome, and decided that the winner should be punished anyways.
- Directly cooperates with the yakuza in order to coerce destitute people into participating in his underground gambling games. This coercion includes lying about the amount of money that can be made, deliberately omitting details about the games, and even threatening to target the families of the to-be participants should they initially refuse to participate.
- All of his games are either rigged or encourage cheating and deception in order to generate distrust and fear among the participants.
- His games are designed with wealthy spectators in mind. He looks down on poor people and considers them unworthy of life, so he makes the games as terrifying as possible for the players.
- Will even torture his own men if they disappoint him somehow. In one instance, he made his right-hand man Yukio Tonegawa apologize to him by having him prostrate himself on a massive smoldering iron plate to the point where he lost consciousness from the heat, then proceeded to demote him afterwards. He also condemned another one of his employees to life in the underground labor camps.
- Forces his subordinates to indulge him in his strange activities, such as forcing them to drink from a bowl of wine that he dipped his feet in. Should his subordinates refuse, they will be punished. He also doesn't permit his subordinates to laugh without his permission.
- He is an emotionally distant father who reprimands his sons for things that are beyond their control.
- Influences his sons with his harmful ideologies and gets his sons involved in hosting their own death games.
- In one of the games hosted by one of his sons, one of the victims was as young as 15. Though this game was not technically Hyōdō's game (though he may have been the one who came up with the idea), we can assume that he has no qualms about it.
- The games and tournaments he organizes take up the vast majority of the manga, so almost every death in the manga can either be attributed to him or attributed to his sons (in which case, one could argue that the deaths would still be attributed to him). His capability to commit evil acts is unmatched by any other villain in the series.
- Even his highest-ranking subordinates fear being in his presence. Though he is human, the level of fear he arouses is comparable to that of a monster or a demon.
- None of his vast riches are ever shown going towards a noble cause, it would seem that most of his wealth goes towards funding his games.
- We can assume he's been running these games long enough for his death count to be at least in the hundreds, potentially in the thousands.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- Although he is an emotionally distant father, he at least seems to care for the physical wellbeing of his family (though this could just be because he wants heirs to continue his business).
- In a flashback, he expressed concern over a children's toy being too violent, which was oddly uncharacteristic of him and seems to imply that he may have actually been a nice person at one point. It is possible that old age is partially responsible for his derangement. However, he is still mentally sharp, so it is questionable how much age has affected him.
- In one instance, he was directly involved in one of his own games as a player, and he seemed to be somewhat tolerant of cheating done against him. In this sense, it can be said that he is "fair". In this instance, he opted for amputation rather than death as the punishment for losing, though the punishment only applied to the opponent and not himself.
- Though, as a counter to this point, there is one instance where someone went against the rules of one of his games and won, but he refused to give money to the winner and instead decided to punish the player because he rationalized that the winner had violated the integrity of the game. It could be the case that he puts up a front and merely pretends to tolerate cheating done against him, but only if the cheating is unfruitful.
- Seems to have a tiny degree of respect for the protagonist, enough to acknowledge him as someone worth remembering by name, although he still continues to target the protagonist and makes his life a living hell nonetheless.
External LInks[]
- Kazutaka Hyōdō on the Villains Wiki
- Kazutaka Hyōdō on the Kaiji Wiki