There is some charm to a fast-paced battle or even a sappy confession of pent-up feelings, but that isn’t the only kind rush that anime can deal out. Sometimes, the most enthralling plots are when the characters put everything on the line in one big gamble. While they might not capture that heady adrenaline rush of gambling in real life, watching characters bring all their cunning to bear in order to manipulate opponents makes for some of the the most clever moments in anime. Whether you have a crippling gambling addiction yourself or just have a passion for clever characters, these gambling anime recommendations can help you scratch the itch.
Best Gambling Anime
Kakegurui
When it comes to gambling anime, Kakegurui must always be mentioned first because it is, quite honestly, the very best. The series follows a school for the wealthy where their favorite pastime is wildly high stakes gambling games. It can ruin a person or place them on a pedestal above all others. What is most charming about Kakegurui is that it takes everything to the most extremest of extremes, as demonstrated by its passion of alluring facial expressions.
No Game No Life
This series takes two top-tier online gaming siblings and transports them to a world where every single dispute is settled by playing a game. Marital argument? Play a game. Business acquisition? Game. Sovereignty of a country? You guessed it, games! That last one is mostly what the series focuses on as the gaming duo decide to conquer the world for humanity, a kingdom that has floundered in that world.
Rio: Rainbow Gate
This series comes at gambling from another angle, but it is all still gambles in the end. Rio takes place in a casino and follows a dealer. She is trying to collect certain cards from players and other dealers in order to be named a very top dealer and get closer to her mother who currently holds that title.
If your other gambling anime is lacking a certain quota for hot anime girls, beach episodes, and general other ecchi tropes, this is your go-to series.
Kaiji
Before Kakegurui charmed our pants off, Kaiji was king of the gambling anime. It is still a fantastic watch, though those pointy chins take some getting used to. It follows a standard scumbag that is shouldered with his friend’s large debt. To pay it off, he boards a gambling boat. While the games are often simple and for the highest of stakes, cheating on board is rampant. This isn’t a place for the aboveboard gambler.
Akagi
From the same creator as Kaiji, Akagi is less about the main character being kind of scummy and more about him just being a badass. This series follows a gambler who ends up taking over a man’s mafia debt in order to slip away from the police. He then proceeds to try and pay it off with mahjong, which his has a great talent for. If you enjoy shady individuals and wildly complex mahjong strategy – and can handle the distinct art style – it is an excellent psychological watch.
One Outs
While gambling in and of itself is kind of like a sport, One Outs combines an actual sport with big, big bets. While the series is about a fictional sport called One Outs, it is quite a bit similar to baseball with just a pitcher going against a batter. After being forced to join a weak professional team due to his skill, he bets on himself in a contract that states every out he earns gets him five million yen, but every hit costs him fifty million. It is a series different than most sports anime in that it is laser focused on manipulating the psychology of your opponent. It’s a thinking – and betting – man’s sport.
Saki
While mahjong is a popular gambling game, Saki is perhaps the lowest stakes of all the other series here. It follows a girl that is unexpectedly good at mahjong who is forced to join the mahjong club by the members. That is the standard cute girls doing cute things plot for this standard cute girls doing cute things anime. It’s moe, but not exactly adrenaline pumping.
Legendary Gambler Tetsuya
This older anime also focuses on an older time. After World War II, people flocked to illegal mahjong parlors in order to gamble and earn a living. Tetsuya, a beginner, quickly learns that in these gambling den’s, skill is more valuable than luck. Of course, by “skill,” they mean wildly rampant cheating. This series may be older, but it really shines a spotlight on the many ways someone can cheat while gambling. The way that it wields deception makes it even better than some of the more shiny and new entries on this list.
C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
Gambling anime is often painted as action, despite very little actually happening, but C actually does have quite a bit going on visually. It follows people desperate for money who head to a special district. There they play weekly games for large sums of cash, but losing has even worse consequences. If you like your gambling-type games to be more battles than dramatically laying cards on the table, this is for you.
Dorei-ku The Animation
This series doesn’t gamble with money or even life itself, instead it gambles with freedom. The series is based around dueling between those with SCM devices that have powerful influence over the brain. If you are able to bend people to your will, the device forces the loser to become a slave.
The series has a whole plot beyond that concept, but like any good gambling anime, it ends with the main character deeply in over her head.
Tomodachi Game
While Tomodachi Game follows friends being forced to play a series of games in order to remove a substantial debt they were given, it places a major emphasis on betrayal. The players are all part of the same friend group, and all they need to do to succeed is often cooperate in the game. However, someone is sabotaging the game and causing them to lose. It adds an extra element of mystery to a series whose games are rather basic.
Kengan Ashura
Whereas many of these series take place around betting on games, Kengan Ashura brings forth betting on good old-fashioned blood sport. The series follows a fighter in a modern gladiatorial arena in which businessmen and other wildly wealthy parties place bets on the fighters within. It’s high stakes for those placing the bets monetarily, but also high stakes for the fighters about to pummel each other.
Yugioh
Yugioh is more than just a child’s card game. It is often betting on a child’s card game. For many of the arcs, you find that the characters are betting some sort of token in order to advance in some sort of tournament. As things go on, they become more extreme with the bets being about sending someone to the shadow realm, which is a nice kids-friendly version of saying that they die.
Yugioh will get darker still as you explore the more extreme bets that the Pharaoh possessing the main character did back in his day.
Death Parade
There have been some pretty extreme bets in the above gambling anime. It’s more than just money, and it is even more than just your life in Death Parade. This series is based around placing bets on your very soul. In this series, everyone has already died. They are invited to play a game in which they will either win and reincarnate or lose and be tossed into the void. While that sounds rather basic on its own, the exploration of the emotions of the deceased is really where Death Parade shines.
Do you have more gambling anime recommendations? Let fans know in the comments section below.
