The dim, incandescent can light burns the back of your head from above. Your mouth is a desert, lips parched as you struggle to even swallow your own saliva. An irregular heart beat increases its oscillations, and your vision blurs as you attempt to read your own cards. You're a house pet, a term coined only for those drowning in the debt of the student council and this one hand of poker could either seal your fate for the rest of your life, or set you free of the shackles of your dues. Anger, guilt, nervousness and tension well up inside your brain, clouding any sense of strategy once present in your arsenal. The remaining cards are dealt, each one like a subsequent dagger being driven into the heart. Your fingers dig into the cheap felt table lining and begin to burn from the friction. As the last card approaches, thousands of scenarios race through your mind, and your opponents stoic appearance does nothing to ease the pressure. Will you survive? Will your reputation and existence be dismantled, succumbing to the hands of the tyrannical council?
The final card slams down with a thunderous echo…
Gambling is a subject rare to take center stage in the realm of anime. Kaiji, Death Parade and Liar Game are some of the only examples I can think of in the medium, until studio MAPPA’s (Zankyou no Terror, Yuri!! On Ice) Kakegurui landed this season. From a viewer’s perspective, for the gambling to really have an impact on our senses the scenes must comprise a balance of suspense, mind games and creativity. Kaiji the Gambler, arguably the best example I can think of features a main character literally gambling for his life, in games that are either very intricate or require a large degree of mental fortitude to participate in. The result is white-knuckle tension that has your finger hovering over the skip button, ready to binge through the entire anime in one sitting. Kakegurui attempts to mimic Kaiji’s critical success with a different target audience by introducing better animation and a more familiar setting, high school. Because, you know, that makes sense.
There is a “well visioned” setup, with taboo setting of school in which students engage in lavish betting and gambling once the last bell rings for the day. We witness firsthand the daunting effects of losing in this school: you're deemed a “house pet” and everyone treats you accordingly. This wouldn't be quite as ridiculous if it weren't for the fact that kids are ridiculed and treated like shit in high school to begin with. In essence, this significantly dilutes any ounce of realism with regards to the stakes these students are playing for, and ultimately the entire premise from the beginning. The “upside” is that IF you are successful at gambling and start raking in the dough, your family is already rich as fuck so…. none of this betting really even matters to begin with. See my point? From its inception, Kakegurui’s narrative is faulted. The whole premise of the anime seems pointless in that if you win, you'll be rich and if you lose, you'll still be rich but get treated like that awkward kid who frequently gets stuffed into lockers. The student council seeks to rule the school with an iron fist, but I'm not sure what they actually do; except cheat to win, fly in fancy helicopters and wear terrifying androgynous masks.
Unassuming transfer student Yumeko Jabami looks to shake things up at this school by winning any and every gambling match she's in. Countless opponents fall victim to her innate ability to see through tricks and deftly play each person for a fool. This can be frustratingly similar to the No Game no Life effect, in which Sora and Shiro’s victory was assumed prior to them even starting the game. To top it off, Jabami seems to get off on the thought of risking “everything” on each of her matches. Each of her mental orgasms is brought to our attention in exhausting detail, as her eyes leer red and her legs tremble with excitement. The anime progresses almost episodically with a “rinse, repeat” effect. New characters are introduced, Jabami challenges them, a new game is played and Jabami emerges victorious yet again. This process repeats over and over and over again in a due loop merry-go-round. There’s no sense of doubt, no uncertainty built into the script. It’s a perpetual nightmare from a scripting perspective.
With Jabami at the helm, we as viewers never really experience her thoughts about anything. Neither her strategy, intuition or objective ever becomes clear and the games themselves often end up narrated by her foes. Long, overthought monologues about what they “think” she is planning through each and every move, which began to take a toll on my attention span since I knew the eventual outcome prior to each match taking place. And since a majority of the anime is spent “in game” and we don’t catch a glimpse of what Jabami is thinking, her characterization is thrown out the window. The rare occurrence of a line of dialogue from our “heroine” is spent devilishly coercing another one of her pawns to help her with a bet in the game. The main protagonist in the anime doesn’t even have fucking character development… it’s embarrassing.
Did I mention how edgy Kakegurui is? I was legitimately interested to see where the plot would unfold when I started the series, but my supposition quickly dissolved when I uncovered the anime’s true nature. It’s 2017, so I’m not sure what I expected, but the initial consensus was that I was at least intrigued. So a girl gets her jollies by gambling, who cares? But, when EVERY character acts as if they’re on the verge of insanity? Now we have an inherent problem. Not to mention the horrifically unattractive adrenaline slut who gets wet thinking about having her head blown off from a game of Russian Roulette. It’s a sex scene away from being a dumpster fire Sundance film about how fucking “raw and gritty” some teenager’s life is. Again, it’s the tactical diversion producers craft to steer the audience away from how dreadfully written a show can be, simply because it’s dark or shocking. I don’t always mind this level of scheming when the veil is at least entertaining. But in Kakegurui, you get the worst of both worlds: badly written and boring.
It would be a disservice to anime fans everywhere if I didn’t at least attempt to address the comparisons between Kaiji and Kakegurui. Kaiji as a protagonist is someone you can really root for. His awful luck is inviting, in a sympathetic manner. He basically starts from nothing, and risks his actual life for a chance at redemption. Jabami comes from out of nowhere, with no clear motive and little to no relatability. Kaiji’s gambling games are fewer, but are better explained and have a more intricate explanation. Kakegurui falters, partially due to a shorter run time, and that the games are changed so quickly that less attention is given to their development. It feels like the writers are more focused on getting through everything vice making an impact on what they introduce. Kaiji is primarily a male cast, making it harder to attract female viewers but ideal for a seinen genre. Kakegurui has more females than you can shake a stick at: loli’s, tsunderes and yanderes to boot. Hence my opening statement in the review. Lastly, as I mentioned previously, most of Kakegurui’s dialogue comes from the opposition, creating a wall between the viewer and the character appearing to be the main protagonist (Jabami). In Kaiji, this internalizing is shared between he and his adversaries. It creates an equilibrium that helps the viewer rationalize either end of the gamble.
I think it’d come off as redundant if I expounded any more about the characters in Kakegurui. Despite having significantly less screen time, Ryouta and Meari receive significantly more development than Jabami, inflating my unpopular opinion of her ten-fold. We do get some back story on a few minor characters, but nothing short of a plot device in order to propel the story forward. Possibly the most interesting character from the entire cast is Manyuda, who actually has a clearly defined motive, is cutthroat and calculating and doesn’t seem to break character as much to partake in edgy escapades. Oh yeah, and he’s the only member of the student council who actually gambled fairly, at least in his own game. If you’re looking for relatable or enticing characters, Kakegurui may not be the anime for you.
If there’s anything I learned from watching Kakegurui, it’s that facial expressions are apparently everything. In an environment where maintaining a “poker face” is often sought after, the animators in this anime decided to do the exact opposite and emblazon a crazy face on almost every character in the cast. It’s brilliant in some respects because it helps distract the viewer from the rest of the anime’s inadequacies by giving them a fresh dose of ADHD, but is entirely unnecessary. It does helps manifest some false suspense, only it ends up making some of the scenes more irritating. The rest of the animation is quite good, and the overall tone it sets for the show works well for the subject matter. The character models are attractive and proportional, and the flashier scenes with dialogue-heavy moments please the eye. One major blemish on the art side would be the complete lack of animation with the Jabami idol karaoke scene. It came across as complete laziness, with the still image of Jabami fading out into the completion of her song. I’m not sure if this was intentional, but it was jarring to say the least. To help make up for it, they at least added a completely random duet between her and Yumemi to close the episode.
I’ll be honest, I absolutely love the OP for the show. It’s a psychedelic, sexy acid trip with a risque’ jazz track narrating the visuals. If you look closely, it even tells a small story relating to the story progression of the anime itself. The ED on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired, sans the mystery of what’s underneath Jabami’s outer layer of clothing. The song isn’t even catchy, a quality I can at least cling to in an ED. The rest of the soundtrack existed to create false tension and accentuate the mood of its corresponding scenes, and I can’t recall it being necessarily bad. Voice acting in Kakegurui is one of its strong points, and I can only imagine how much fun the seiyuus had considering how edgy the series can be. The actors actually had a chance to break character and have a good time.
From an entertainment perspective, Kakegurui hits all the wickets. It has hot girls, great animation and an almost avant-garde approach to storytelling that could be incredibly appealing to young, impressionable audiences (aka, most of the anime community). This being said, I can’t be baffled by how well the show was received, even if I didn’t agree with it. This is the main purpose of a reviewer or critic, to point out enjoyment as well as flaws. I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t enjoy Kakegurui. But is it a good gambling anime? Hardly. It suffers from a severe lack of character development/relatability and has an edgy stigma about it I can’t shake. The previous negatives coupled with the unrealistic premise can create some harsh criticisms and overall disappointment. I’d recommend this to fans of shows like Re:Zero, No Game No Life or any other similar series, due in part to it being edgy and appealing to a certain audience. Thank you to all for reading this review, and be sure to check out the rest of my Summer 17 ones!
Story-2
Art-7
Sound-7.5
Character-3
Enjoyment-5
Overall-4.45
