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 the votes 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.
