And it's sad, Kakegurui has all the elements to be a great show. It's intro has our main Jabami going trough a buffet with a fork and knife and all the meals on the table are the opponents in the show. as if she actually means to devour them. great visualization and a very addictive song.
Jabami herself is a very interesting character. while underneath her gentle and polite exterior hides a near psychotic and highly intelligent gambling addict. ultimately she means well. winning or losing isn't her concern, She's she loves the feeling of "risk" that comes with gambling and respects people who throw away their logic and sensibility for that feeling of risk. wether she wins or loses she'll look upon anyone who can give her a satisfying experience as a friend.
Sadly I don't have much to say about the rest of the characters or villains. most of em are very run of the mill or one trick pony's.
then again the music and visualization in the show is phenomenal, the bright glowing eyes, the shadows, the overly superior smacktalk, the ugly and distorted gamble faces the characters make when they're losing it, On that note! I'm also very surprised that Kakegurui is brave enough to depict it's female characters with the "ugly" gamble faces. also Orgambles...many many... Orgambles.
I'd say the only thing where it falls flat is keeping the tension high. the first...8 or so episodes really build up the ever increasing stakes of the gambles in question but then it reached a point of stagnation where they couldn't go any further. because once gambles revolve about life or death you can't really go any further. and anything after that feels underwhelming.
just as an example; you can't follow up a game of Russian roulette, with a regular poker game in which a loss means getting expelled from school. You could almost call this the "power-ceiling" for gambling, and unless you can figure out creative way's to make the "lesser stakes" really mean something for your story things start to become boring really fast.
Which is why I still hold Akagi and Kaiji in higher regard as the more superior gambling-anime.
