itou kaiji
(いとう かいじ)
Itou Kaiji is the titular main character of Fukumoto Nobuyuki's gambling manga and anime series Kaiji. A young man with long black hair and later a scar on his left cheek, Kaiji is locked in perpetual poverty and debt. He resorts to gambling to improve his situation, but ends up facing odds he never bargained for. While not particularly bright, he has a knack for figuring out elaborate gambling schemes when cornered.
After finishing high school in 1996, Kaiji hopes to quickly get a job and moves to Tokyo, but stays unemployed due to harsh economic times. Depressed and miserable, Kaiji always thinks about getting money and wastes his time and money on small gambles, alcohol, cigarettes and pranks aimed at the rich. Two years later he is visited by Endou, a member of the Yakuza, who wants to collect a gigantic loan debt that Kaiji had co-signed with a former co-worker. Endou offers him two options: to repay the debt little by little by working for 10 years, or join a one-night illegal gambling cruise on the ship Espoir to make enough money to clear his debt. Kaiji chooses the latter option, and ends up in a game of rock-paper-scissors played with cards where the losers are sent away to be used as slaves. Kaiji forms alliances with other players but is betrayed, however he turns the tables at the last minute and survives, but leaves the Espoir with even further debt. Later Kaiji participates in other dangerous gambles, some conventional and others unconventional, and while he survives every time, his debt keeps increasing and has his left ear and left hand fingers sliced off. Despite his misery, Kaiji never loses his fighting spirit and ends up helping a lot of people in need while trying to serve himself only and tries his hand at big gambles again and again.