ZERO -The Bravest Money Game-

Kaiji Itou is a good-for-nothing loiterer who spends his days drinking beer and stealing hubcaps—that is, until he ends up being tricked by his former co-worker. Unable to suddenly repay his friend's huge debt all by himself, Kaiji is offered a shady deal to participate in an illegal underground gamble on a cruise ship. This turns out to be nothing more than the beginning of his new life of hell—thrown headlong into a life-threatening roller coaster of mind games, cheating, and deceit.

Nangou is a compulsive gambler who has accumulated debt over three million yen. In a last ditch attempt to clear his record, he decides to wager his life on a game of mahjong with the mafia. Unfortunately, as the game progresses, Nangou only moves further from the prize and closer to death. When all hope seems lost, the game parlor is suddenly intruded upon by Shigeru Akagi, a young boy on the run from the police. Desperate to turn the game around, Nangou hands the game over to Akagi after teaching him a few of the rules. The mafia can only smirk as Akagi sits down to play. However, they soon come to learn that Akagi is a natural born gambler. An imposing figure who does not fear death. One who is destined to become a legend.

Akagi Shigeru is a young, white-haired mahjong genius. One summer in 1965, he ends up facing off against Washizu Iwao, Japan’s King of Darkness who has amassed enormous fortune and power, at the request of his acquaintance, the rogue detective Yasuoka. As the observer, Ogi Takeshi, a leader of the henchmen of Inada-gumi watches over them, mahjong with special rules called Washizu Mahjong begins. It is a life or death struggle with Akagi’s fresh blood and Washizu’s entire fortune at stake.

Kaiji is about to have his life changed. The thrill is beyond anything he, or most people, have experienced. The adventure is not without risk and danger however. He is given four games, which are challenges, and include life and death situations.

Backed into a corner by mounting debts, a youth agrees to submit himself to a high stakes game of chance in international waters aboard a disused warship.

A suspense thriller about two men, one of whom tells his darkest secret to the other, and the ensuing fight for survival between the two in a snowbound hut.

Kaiji Ito moves to Japan after graduating from high school. Unable to find a job and frustrated with society at large, Kaiji spends his days gambling, vandalizing cars, and drinking booze. Two years later and his life is no better. A debt collector named Endo arrives to collect money owed. The debt collector offers two choices to Kaiji: spend 10 years paying off his loan or board a gambling boat for one night to repay his debt & possibly make a boat load of money. Could the debt collector Endo actually be setting up Kaiji? One way or another, for Kaiji it's going to be the night of his life.

Morita, a man who never succeeds in anything, takes his anger out in gambling. He meets an underworld fixer named Ginji Hirai, who introduces him to the underworld trade, where billions of yen changes hands every moment, and speculators and other influential people bet their lives for greed.

3 years after the ultimate life-or-death game with Teiai Group, Kaiji was entrapped by Teiai and again back in the underground, forced to do hard labour. One day, Kaiji wins a bet to get out of the underground with 1 million yen, and promises the other workers that he will save them. But to do so, he only has 14 days and needs 200 million yen! Kaiji meets his former rival Tonegawa and learns that there is a chance to turn the tables in the game. It was a monster casino machine that will make 1 billion yen if you win...

After a death-defying game of chicken one evening in 1958, Akagi nonchalantly enters a Yakuza Mahjong parlor to shake the cops' trail. Even unfamiliar with the rules of Mahjong, his gambling intuition is enough to save a small time gambler, Nangou, and grant him a seat at the gambling table. As the night progresses, the stakes are raised both within the game and for Akagi, who is under the suspicion of local police. However, Akagi overcomes the situation with his tactics, defiant of both life and chance. When he leaves the gambling house, no one present is in doubt of his genius.

Akagi appears again one year after the night where he first played mahjong.

Burdened by debt, Kaiji Itou is forced into a series of high-stakes gambling games where he must risk everything to survive and take control of his future.

Three years after Tozai Ikusa (mahjong tournament), Hiroyuki Igawa receives a letter that Shigeru Akagi’s funeral ceremony will be held. Hiroyuki Igawa attends the funeral, but he is surprised when Shigeru Akagi appears at his own funeral ceremony. Shigeru Akagi states that he is ready to die in a few hours. He then faces the people, including Takashi Ten, whom he played at Tozai Ikusa.

Ginji (Kiyoshi Nakajo), a man who made a huge fortune by taking advantage of the fierce competition for survival in the Japanese political and business world. Under him, the president of the Japan Horse Racing Promotion Association came to ask for help. Kawai, the former president of the Liberal Democratic Party, who is aiming for a comeback in the presidential election, has demanded 30 billion election funds. So Ginji offers Kawai a horse race for Sashi, who bets 30 billion. What is the whereabouts of a one-shot game in which Ryohei, who has outstanding memory, and Keisuke, who has excellent programming ability, are brought in and bet on Ginji's dark gold life?

A man Tetsuo (Kosuke Toyohara) met at a racetrack offered him a job of 100,000 yen per diem, and although he was suspicious, he was urged by the amount of money and decided to take over. What's more, all he has to do is carry a huge cardboard box to the man's apartment. The contents of the cardboard are 1 billion yen in cash. It is said that this will be used to make a back loan. In front of the apartment, men line up for the money. Who on earth is Ginji Hirai and what is his motive? And what kind of fate will Tetsuo be involved in from now on ...?

Tetsuo was suddenly told goodbye by Ginji. As for the farewell, only one of the tables was a real wad of bills and a full trunk. And, in that, there is a letter saying "Replace all this with the real thing!" Tetsuo is at a loss and one day meets Emi who works at the gallery. She endures the gallery owner of an amorous artist and aspires to be a painter. Tetsuo learns from her that a painting of Cezanne with a market value of 600 million yen has been sold to a Japanese person, and contacts the owner, Domon, the president of Teijin Bank. Inspire the desires of collection enthusiasts and imitation art dealers, and come up with a large-scale money game that opens up ambitions!