The Manga Netflix's 'Squid Game' Seemingly Swiped

When Netflix dropped Squid Game this summer, it quickly became the apple of the internet’s eye. The memes flowed, the think pieces piled up, and every aspect of the show was broken down to explain how and why it had become the most-watched Netflix show ever. Maybe it was the casting? Or the cinematography? The writing? No one’s sure- the only thing universally acknowledged is Squid Game was set apart by its original, genius premise. 

Which was a bit of a shock for anime nerds because to us, Squid Game sounded, to be polite, pretty familiar. 

If I may quote its Wikipedia entry, the premise of Squid Game is a lowlife “festers in his apartment, biding his time with cheap pranks, gambling, liquor and cigarettes” until “he is paid an unexpected visit from a loan shark” who offers him one chance to completely pay off his debt. The show then turns into a series of “ingenious games…devilishly clever depend as much on the psychology of the players as … strategy”. You could say that “the theme of the series is the rich always screw over the poor and the games could be seen as a direct form of social commentary.” Yeah, that about sums it up, I’d say.

Except that’s not from Squid Game’s Wikipedia … it’s all from Kaiji’s. 

Kaiji is a long-running manga first published in 1996 (with an anime adaptation in 2007) and follows Kaiji Ito, a gambler who seeks to pay off his debts by playing childish games way out in the ocean where if you lose, you die, all for the entertainment of the rich. Hwang Dong-hyuk has even talked about reading Kaiji while conceiving Squid Game. Which is kind of like conceiving Legos while playing with Mega Bloks.

The Manga Netflix's 'Squid Game' Seemingly Swiped
Source: Pinoy Daily News