Kakegurui××

Ever thought of taking a risk, a risk that’d even put your freedom, life into jeopardy just for the sake of THRILL? Well, anyone who’s sane enough wouldn’t do such a thing, that’s what the majority of people would think/say. BUT what if the word sanity itself didn’t exist among the most privileged/rich/ruling families of the world? And everything was just decided on a single game of chance? Kakegurui features a similar setting in the form of a unique school that prepares its students for such upcoming reality they’d face in their world, that is gambling, while also teaching basic education like normal schools. However,this isn’t it! Kakegurui undoubtedly has one of the best “realistic” facial expressions that normally people wouldn’t make in front of you, and you know precisely why ;). But this show is honest, straightforward and amusing. Plus, those expressions completely add to the mood and make the series more enjoyable. Moreover, it has an impressive execution, and the soundtracks totally enhance the experience! The details included to the expressions like the visual effects in the eyes, etc. further contribute to the experience. And the facial expressions of the characters are very well expressed. Furthermore, the show is very innovative when it comes to the games played during a match. And the mind games and cheatings performed during those matches are very enjoyable. And the games played are pretty straightforward and easy to understand. Alright, now to the important events that took place prior to this season... THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS Jabami Yumeko, the main protagonist, transfers to the Hyakkao Academy, a school that prides itself on tradition and prestige, being more than 100 years old is a school where money and your gambling skills are all that matter. And once you’re down on money, you instantly cease being a human and are taken as a “housepet” according to the school rules. And once you’ve plunged to these depths, you can never climb up again and remain the same for the rest of your life. And on her first day, she is challenged by Saotome Mary, the best gambler in her class, to a “friendly” gambling game. Who is later defeated by Jabami, after she figures out the whole scheme behind the game and becomes a housepet after being indebted to her for about 9 million yen. And later she frees Ryouta Suzui, Saotome’s housepet and who helped Saotome during the whole game as to make her win against Jabami, as a slight token of gratitude for making that game stimulating for her. Now the system of the school works like this, that is... all of the student body donates money to the student council which regulates the gambling throughout the school. The amount you contribute determines your rank, and the rankings are typically announced on an irregular basis. And if you’re in the bottom 100 of the 3,000 student body, you become a housepet. Hence, why the skilled gamblers are the most popular and those who aren’t become the object of oppression. And this all began two years prior to the transfer of Jabami, when Kirari Momobami, the current student council president, took office after transferring to the school and defeating the previous president by gambling for the position. All the elite gamblers were taken into the student council. And by pushing through reforms, the donation and the housepet systems were created. Thus, explaining as to why and how Ryouta and Saotome became house pets. While Saotome’s case being severe, since she was defeated by Jabami on the same day as the donation deadlines. Itsuki Sumeragi, the only first-year member of the student council and the daughter of one of Japan’s biggest toy makers, who contributed a lot of money to the student council to become a member, takes notice of Jabami after her win against Saotome right after transferring to the school. And challenges Jabami to a card game with the stakes being 20 million yen. But Jabami is defeated and had to pay 20 million yen to her which was impossible for her to and so she again challenges Sumeragi. However, this time the stakes being all of her fingernails and toenails! Nonetheless, Jabami wins this time and also exposes her trickery. Now with the defeat of Sumeragi, the student council takes notice of Jabami and begins to see her as a threat. And shortly, Jabami challenges Yuriko Nishinotoin, one of the members of the student council and also the president of Traditional Culture Research Club, to a game. But in the end, Jabami losses the game due to an alteration caused by the student council president. And now having a debt of 300 million yen she becomes a house pet. Noting how she was intentionally defeated, Jabami decides to gamble with the mighty president. And soon after, all of the housepets are given their life plans by the student council. However, they’re once again given an opportunity to repay their debt by participating in the “Debt Swap Game”. For the game Jabami gets paired with Saotome, who had been further debted to 49.6 million yen after her defeat against Yuriko in the same game which took place right before Jabami’s match with Yuriko. Sayaka Igarashi, the secretary of the student council, becomes the judge for their match. Jabami and Saotome play against Kiwatari, who had assaulted Jabami earlier as she was a housepet, and Tsubomi, another housepet, who also used to get bullied by Kiwatari. After an intense mind game, Kiwatari losses and gets 310 million yen in debt to the student council. Which he has no choice but to pay or become a housepet. After receiving the money they had won from the Debt Settlement Party, Saotome becomes a “human” again, however, holds a grudge against the student council for what they had done to her. Meanwhile, Jabami doesn’t repay the debt and decides to remain as a housepet. Midari Ikishima, one of the members of the student council and who somewhat saved Jabami from getting raped by Kiwatari, challenges Jabami to a gamble before she could challenge the student council president, which ends up in a tie. Meanwhile, we also see the student council president trying to persuade Saotome to join the student council. Which she outrightly refuses to accept. After the match between Ikishima and Jabami, Kirari leaves the school for the time being to resolve some matters among her family. Acknowledging Jabami as a huge threat to the current student council and the whole school system, and due to the disappearance of Kirari, Yumemi Yumemite, one of the members of the student council and who also works as an idol, takes on the task to crush Jabami with Manyuda Kaede’s assistance, the accountant of the student council. And she soon sends Jabami a letter of challenge… After the dismissal of Itsuki Sumeragi from the student council due to her loss against Jabami, she joins Jabami after hearing the rumors that she was going to challenge Kirari Momobami and asks her to let her be a member of the student council after she becomes the president due to her own personal reasons. After the meeting between Yumemite and Jabami, the stakes are decided that is, if Yumemite won Jabami would’ve had to become an idol while if Jabami won she’d reveal Yumemite’s true personality towards her fans by making them listen to her conversation between both of them, which would end her career as an idol. After a close match Jabami defeats Yumemite and reveals her true personality towards her fans. However, the fans accept her... And then Jabami asks the culprit, who had delivered her the things to threaten Yumemite, to show up. For which Yumemite accuses Manyuda. To which he refuses and urges Jabami to prove it and stakes his position if proven guilty. And then Jabami demands Manyuda to settle it by gambling with the winner being the correct one, which he declines. However, Jabami, who had remained as a house pet, now challenges him to a formal match; a formal match is the one right given to a house pet. With this right, a pet can challenge anyone to a match once, which happens to be a tradition for members of the student council to accept. Manyuda accepts the offer, admitting he had underestimated her and would no longer make the same mistake. The vice president of the student council becomes the judge and decides on playing “Choice Poker”. A game similar to the normal poker, but the one betting more money would get to choose the winning hand, the weaker or the stronger. And placing no limit to how much money one could bet. After winning the first turn, Jabami loses all of her chips on the second turn. To continue the game, Jabami asks Sumeragi for help, since they were “friends”. After an intense betting to win the choosing decision, both Sumeragi and Manyuda end up betting their own lives, both for the game’s sake being worth 10 billion yen. Which is decided by Kirari herself, and it’s revealed that the vice president, the judge, was Kirari all along. Hence, Manyuda decides to choose the winning hand, but ends up falling into Jabami’s “manipulation” and loses. And thus, the match concludes with him being fired from the student council. And as a result of owing more than 10 billion yen, he becomes a house pet. And going through all of this, Jabami and Kirari finally end up gambling with the condition being that the one who loses leaves the academy. With Yomozuki Runa, the best loli in the whole series (and one of the best lolis in anime), being the judge. And the match ends up with a tie. After this Kirari dissolves the student council. Now the second season directly picks up from where the first season ended…That is with the defeat of more than half of the members of the student council (5 members) and a tie between Jabami and Kirari. Kirari dissolves the student council and decides to conduct elections for the seat of the student council president, of course through the traditional way i.e. gambling. Moreover, the one becoming the student council president would also rule the Momobami, the chief family of the Momobami clan. And in this election, everyone’s offered an equal chance. Even the human pets can participate. And since ruling the Hyakkao Academy also means ruling the nation, all of the heads of the -bami families that form the Momobami clan send representatives to take part in the battle. Thus, an all-out battle among all the students begins! In addition, we get to see more of Yomozuki Runa! What more could one ask for?! And we also get to know a bit more about the vice president <3. And the second season retains all of the elements of the first season which made it great to watch, and it even reassures its viewers by featuring Ikishima in the first episode. And the whole season only focuses on the elections. And the show doesn’t forget about its characters from the previous season. However, some are in detail and for some we only get a glimpse of what they’re doing, which I do think is alright since it’d be unnecessary anyway. And the show tells us all the necessary details we need to know regarding the characters, new or the old ones, and the school. And doesn’t tell us anything which it deems irrelevant like the normal education system in the school, what the teachers do after teaching the students, the adults in this world, etc. And I do think there’s nothing wrong with this, since those details are rather unrequired and add nothing to the plot. So now is the plot the issue? I wouldn’t say so. Since, like I’ve said before, students from powerful families in the political and financial world attend this school and since Momobami Kirari’s family is the ruler of the nation, while she herself being the head of the clan. It’d make sense about the funds of the academy or the rules, etc. Not only this, in Hyakkao Academy students are evaluated through their social status, since studies and extracurriculars aren’t necessary for people who are destined to have power over others. For them it’s rather important to be well versed in tactics, reading an opponent, etc. which are abilities they have to prove and obtain through gambling. So such details are unnecessary and not needed, and criticizing the show because it doesn’t provide these details about something/someone is rather stupid and indicates you never paid attention to the show. Furthermore, the new characters are reasonably decent. And if you like the characters of Kakegurui, in general, you’ll certainly like the new characters as well. And the character development is also decent. It doesn’t leave any of the characters introduced previously behind, but doesn’t show them much either unless they’re involved with something which would somewhat have a significant impact on the plot. Although the new characters are appealing, in general, they aren’t as good as compared to the previously introduced characters. Unlike them, most of these don’t leave any significant impact on you and are there just for the “sake of gambling”. And once they lose, it’s over, they become irrelevant as if they were never there. And despite having entertaining games the thrill factor has quite dropped compared to its prequel. Moreover, Jabami’s character has been reduced to a “gambling freak” which wasn’t the case in the first season. Despite her love for gambling she did have some other motives too which now have been completely ignored. There’s no depth to her character, and she’s there just so she can gamble and experience the “thrill” and nothing else. The second season, just like its previous season, has impressive soundtracks and voice acting. Especially the voice acting, the way they instantly change their tones with respect to the situation and convey the character’s feelings is really remarkable and astounding. And if there’s something memorable from this show, it’s definitely the voice acting. Plus, the OSTs played during a gambling match or at any situation completely intensify and compliment the mood. Moreover, the opening and the ending of the show don’t disappoint either. The animation of the show is of a decent quality and doesn’t have any negative effect on your enjoyment. However, the amounts of details on the faces and other such aspects are impressive. Like the extra little details they add on the faces to make them look more realistic like the nose, the wrinkles, the shading, etc. And this even goes for the eyes. And it’s not frequent when you see these aspects in an anime series. And such detailed faces really add to the excitement and the enjoyment of the viewers, and they can sometimes be really hilarious. However, those insane faces are not for everyone. But simply discarding the show by using buzzwords like “edgy”, etc. is rather stupid and immature to some extent. And I’d recommend you to pay such people no mind unless they are able to explain how and why it’s bad, etc. I recommend watching Kakegurui to those who enjoy psychological thrillers. And to those who can handle savagery/sadism to some extent and as explained before, to the people who highly appreciate soundtracks, visual effects, etc. And if you liked the first season, you’ll definitely like this one too.

GAMBLING ECSTASY CONTINUES... So with the retconed first season's final episode, we continue on with Yumeko Jabami's gambling journey, but with the stakes even higher and a new threat that disrupts Hyakkaou Private Academy's student council, the Momobami clan. The price?, the throne to the whole school and everyone is vying for that spot....with Yumeko just wanting to gamble more of course. The Momobami clan's inclusion to this second season does change this up a bit especially for the previously "fallen" student council members as they have a chance to redeem themselves to Kirari. So because of the Mombami clan, Kirari setup a voting election, but thevotes are collected through what..of course gambling and the Momobami clan are mostly seen as the rivals in most of the gambles Yumeko partakes with one of the student council members joining in as it's their chance of showing Kirari their worth as well as taking down both Yumeko and the Momobami clan all at once to change things up a bit. Of course some fo the student council members are allies towards Yumeko, like Itsuki Sumeragi, Yumemi Yumemite and Midari Ikushima and they all have their reasoning in participating, like Midari trying to get back into Yumeko's good graces for instances. If anything the second season greatly develops what happened to the student council members during the first season and fleshes out their motives of the election but also their personal problems and dilemmas if they lose...heck even the secretary of Kirari, Sayaka Igaarashi gets a whole episode to herself. So LA talked ALOT about the characters, how are the gambling aspects?, well to say that the stakes are higher is an understatement but hell Yumeko's winning streak doesn't really come into play, it's pretty much the same as her beliefs about gambling in the first season but her motivations and lust for the gamble is somewhat amplified and solidified here in the second season, such as her utter disgust towards Midari during one of the games as it missed her chance for a 50/50 chance of "something amazing" yet Midari killed that chance. If the first season was to show the hierarchical society of the school can be slowly upheaved and broken down by Yumeko, then this second season gets more personal and the games Yumeko goes through, she wants to see the person in their entirety as they gamble their lives away, their motives, their aspirations into the game and apt as whoever wins, wins the entire school and governs it however they want. The animation done once again by MAPPA, felt slightly like a downgrade in some aspects, LA doesn't know it seemed like the animation dipped at times, but then suddenly have the detailed amazing animation the next, however to say that this is Kakegurui, it still has the same flavour and the crazed faces it's soo well known for and that is mostly helped by... The voice cast is back and has a new roster of voice actors from the Momobami clan and they have some veterans helping with the cast. For the most part the majority of the new voice cast did well from Yumi Uchiyama, Ayana Taketatsu, Romi Park and Megumi Han. Of course the most notable voice actor within this new extended cast, Saori Hayami still tops them with her crazed long monologues for gambling and add in Minami Tanaka as Mary and we have a pretty hammy voice cast anyways....again expected from Kakegurui. Great voice cast. Kakegurui XX is what a sequel does well, escalation and development of it's cast and it did just that, LA was a fan of the first season so it's a no brainer that the second season would interest LA. As a sequel, it wasn't the best from Winter 2019, as another sequel absolutely dominated that title, but Kakegurui XX was nonetheless a gambling thrill ride with higher stakes, decent animation, hammy voice cast and progression of both plot and characters that the journey Yumeko went through was well worth it.

There are 3 major issues with Kakeuguri Season 2: A:Most uninteresting gang of antagonists I have ever seen. B:Irrelevant story C:absurd of amount of plot armor on everyone Starting with A: Everything up until ending , Season 1 of Kakegurui was great, Show was new so You didn't know how far it would push gambling, characters were absolutely freaky, girl obsessed with human nails, Revolver lady, the idol, The president. Even if the they were not most developed characters, it was fun to watch them fall. Now welcome to season 2, please choose between these amazing cast of villains: A edgy looking lady, edgy looking ladywith buns, edgy looking lady but this one is in wheel chair and last but not least our most creative villains of them all edgy looking GUY with shark teeth. I think you get the point, all the new characters are so pathetic and uninspired that you could prob take any semi edgy character from any show and there wouldn't be much of difference, highkey entire tokyo ghoul cast would be perfect for this show. B: This isn't helped by trash story.So instead of gambling for money they are gambling to see who will become new school president and leader of bami clan. But issue is since none of characters ever developed, showed any ambition or desire and fact that show does very little to explain what being leader of "bami" clan means, who becomes president is so irrelevant that it could just be decided by a single dice roll and where wouldn't be much of difference from viewers point of view. C: Plot armor was getting rather annoying in Season 1 especially in final gamble which ended in a tie. But it becomes comically ridiculous in second season. In Season 1 we had girl ripping her nails of, a guy going into a coma after losing. What does Season 2 have? nothing.... Stakes are made eather so ridiculous(I.E Yumeko will die) or everyone is conveniently bailed from getting harmed that every gambling game loses any sense of risk. So now any risk is superficial, the crazy face expressions which suppose to making everything more intense turn into a glorified up-close face porn, which become so cliche and predictable that You can start playing a game with yourself trying to predict when next upclose face scene will be. TL;DR Kakegurui is so afraid of taking risks that it padded the floor, walls , roof and locked it self in a room , so that nothing can ever harm it or go wrong. final score: Plot armor/10 If you liked season 1, do not watch season 2, it is a waste of your time

I was off-handedly recommended this show last season and it quickly became one of my favorite series. Each gamble is an exquisite test of adaptability, awareness and psychological warfare punctuated by feverish lust and unexpectedly tender emotion. Its episodic nature is used to even better effect in this season. I never thought I could get so gutted by an idol episode but there you have it. OP and ED are absolute 10/10s. But it's the characters that shine the most. Yumeko's perfect countenance is disfigured as you're slowly exposed to how actually crazy she might be. Mary is a sublime foil to her, cruel whereYumeko is gentle, determined while her rival is whimsical, the both of them showing how many different ways a girl can be hot and cold. My heart is still beating from Ikishima's bathroom scene from last season and her role as the turgid, suicidal representation of Yumeko's lust for risk is again some sublime characterization. The rest of the cast are just as poignant and make the most of their time in the spotlight. I don't think the comparisons to Kaiji are at all warranted. Kaiji is insanely good and you could (uselessly) debate the quality of the gambles between the two, but they share very little else in common. This is a really beautiful show about girls with massive tits playing hilariously rigged games and deliriously triumphing, and it should be regarded on its own. If the first season wasn't your jam, this probably isn't going to change your mind, but for those of us in love with Hyakkaou Academy it couldn't have been a better continuation.