Returning to this after reading Kaiji part 2 for the first time! I was surprised to see how much of their dynamic here, like Murakami's moments of more levelheaded judgement in support of Ichijou's fiery ambition, is actually discernible in the source material. From their sparse wiki entries, I had sort of assumed Murakami wasn't a very fleshed out character in the original series. Can't wait to see what else pops out on the second read through.