TV-Series
Description
Yuji Endo presides over Endō Finance, a Teiai Group subsidiary specializing in predatory lending with exorbitant and illegal interest rates, targeting desperate individuals and maintaining ties to yakuza organizations. He serves as a significant antagonist within Teiai's financial ecosystem. Endo first encounters Kaiji Itō while pursuing a debt cosigned by Kaiji for the vanished Takeshi Furuhata. Recognizing Kaiji's inability to repay, Endo manipulates him into boarding the gambling ship Espoir under false pretenses of debt relief. Following Kaiji's loss, Endo offers participation in an undisclosed gamble at the Starside Hotel, later revealed as the deadly Human Derby and Electric Current Steel Frame Crossing events. After the Human Derby, Endo scolds Kaiji and Nakayama for failing to secure second place, promising another opportunity he has no intention of fulfilling due to the games' high mortality rate.
Endo belongs to Yukio Tonegawa's faction within Teiai. His standing diminishes significantly after Tonegawa's defeat by Kaiji and subsequent demotion. When Kaiji reemerges after escaping the Teiai underground labor camp, Endo provides a 50 million yen loan for equipment to challenge The Bog, forming a contractual alliance with Kaiji and Kōtarō Sakazaki. During this venture, he additionally loans 10 million yen at a severely exploitative interest rate compounded every ten minutes, capitalizing on Kaiji's desperate state. Following their victory over The Bog, Endo drugs Kaiji and Sakazaki to seize the winnings. He strictly enforces the contract to claim only Kaiji's share plus the accrued interest, justifying this by expressing contempt for Kaiji's "pointless code of chivalry" while asserting his own adherence to a personal code by not confiscating Sakazaki's portion.
In the 24-Oku Dasshutsu-Hen arc, Endo regains prominence within Teiai, now leading the pursuit team tasked with capturing Kaiji, Chang, and Mario Garcia and recovering 2.4 billion yen stolen during One Poker. His approach reflects overconfidence in predicting Kaiji's movements, leading to repeated failures. Strategies include stationing blacksuits at railway stations based on incorrect assumptions of train travel, surveilling banks and hotels after misjudging the trio's gold-conversion plans, and investigating RV rental shops. After tracking Kaiji to his mother's apartment, Endo orchestrates a break-in during her absence but fails to locate Kaiji. Later, he assaults rental shop owner Takeshi Arima for refusing to disclose rental records and illegally searches Arima's office at night, finding nothing.
Within the *Chūkan Kanriroku Tonegawa* spin-off, Endo appears during Tonegawa's preparation for the Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors event, volunteering assistance for a rehearsal but misunderstanding Tonegawa's objectives and worsening the situation. In a separate storyline, Endo abandons Masayasu Honda—a Hyōdō lookalike recruited by Tonegawa—on a roadside after Chairman Hyōdō loses interest. Additionally, Endo encounters Tonegawa on a train while transporting debtors to the Espoir. When the debtors riot, Endo appropriates a speech Tonegawa prepared to pacify them, inadvertently leaving Tonegawa without material for an identical subsequent situation.
Endo belongs to Yukio Tonegawa's faction within Teiai. His standing diminishes significantly after Tonegawa's defeat by Kaiji and subsequent demotion. When Kaiji reemerges after escaping the Teiai underground labor camp, Endo provides a 50 million yen loan for equipment to challenge The Bog, forming a contractual alliance with Kaiji and Kōtarō Sakazaki. During this venture, he additionally loans 10 million yen at a severely exploitative interest rate compounded every ten minutes, capitalizing on Kaiji's desperate state. Following their victory over The Bog, Endo drugs Kaiji and Sakazaki to seize the winnings. He strictly enforces the contract to claim only Kaiji's share plus the accrued interest, justifying this by expressing contempt for Kaiji's "pointless code of chivalry" while asserting his own adherence to a personal code by not confiscating Sakazaki's portion.
In the 24-Oku Dasshutsu-Hen arc, Endo regains prominence within Teiai, now leading the pursuit team tasked with capturing Kaiji, Chang, and Mario Garcia and recovering 2.4 billion yen stolen during One Poker. His approach reflects overconfidence in predicting Kaiji's movements, leading to repeated failures. Strategies include stationing blacksuits at railway stations based on incorrect assumptions of train travel, surveilling banks and hotels after misjudging the trio's gold-conversion plans, and investigating RV rental shops. After tracking Kaiji to his mother's apartment, Endo orchestrates a break-in during her absence but fails to locate Kaiji. Later, he assaults rental shop owner Takeshi Arima for refusing to disclose rental records and illegally searches Arima's office at night, finding nothing.
Within the *Chūkan Kanriroku Tonegawa* spin-off, Endo appears during Tonegawa's preparation for the Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors event, volunteering assistance for a rehearsal but misunderstanding Tonegawa's objectives and worsening the situation. In a separate storyline, Endo abandons Masayasu Honda—a Hyōdō lookalike recruited by Tonegawa—on a roadside after Chairman Hyōdō loses interest. Additionally, Endo encounters Tonegawa on a train while transporting debtors to the Espoir. When the debtors riot, Endo appropriates a speech Tonegawa prepared to pacify them, inadvertently leaving Tonegawa without material for an identical subsequent situation.