In reality, shows people refer to as “gambling anime” are simply shonen battle anime with gambling characteristics - entertainment where the stories are all based around various characters resolving their conflicts with each other; only in these shows it’s not about superhuman martial arts masters or kids with superpowers fighting each other; but regular-ass human beings contriving more and more ways to play games of logic against each other, for the purpose of whatever plot-relevant stakes at hand at any given moment. Collective aesthetic dissimilarity, then, is what drives people to proclaim works like these to be in a separate genre; but it’s best to regard them as fundamentally no different from your Dragon Balls, your Attacks on Titan, your Chainsaw Men; or even your Revolutionary Girls Utena or Kills la Kill; because it gives you a much better understanding of the plot mechanics these works utilize to entertain you, but also a much broader range of comparison between works, to understand WHY these stories work.
Once you consider these stories not as part of a separate group of things that came out of nowhere but things with a lineage; you get to see what influences their creators had and where their ideas came from. All of which is to say that, generally, gambling anime are stories with the foundations of shonen battle manga with the mechanics of classical whodunnit murder mysteries thrown on top of them; except in these works the murder is turned into a game that the detective needs to win, and “figuring out the murderer by gathering evidence and deducing what happened” becomes “figuring out the true mechanics of the game/the moves the other player is making/the method the opponent uses to cheat by examining the game’s rules and the opponent’s actions and winning the game”. They are shonen battle stories because the protagonist faces a continuous stream of villains of ever-growing threat level; but they work like detective novels in that there is no violence and confrontations aren’t decided by who can overpower whom with whatever magic powers they have, but rather who can outsmart the other. It’s just that “gambling” is the best word we have so far to convey “murder mystery without the murder”; and “outsmarting” as a genre name sounds stupid.
I’m explaining all of this upfront because I need you to believe me when I tell you that one of the primary reasons to watch Kakegurui Twin, the prequel series to its parent series Kakegurui; is because its main character, Saotome Mary, is one of the greatest, most unique shonen anime protagonists of all-time.
So; Kakegurui. It’s that super popular cartoon series about all the kids of Japan’s rich and powerful going to the same elite high school to make connections with each other and definitely get into college, where all the kids are forced into playing gambling games with each other to win more money, because if they don’t have any, they become the slaves of the kids who do have money, to do whatever bidding they have. It’s a unique-enough setting and setup which even makes room for anti-capitalist messaging (if Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is the most libertarian anime ever made, this franchise is by far the most incidentally socialist), but more importantly it’s the perfect foundation for the utterly unique structure with which it tells its shonen battle manga plot, most of which structure is replicated in this spinoff series to a fantastic degree. As stated before, Kakegurui Twin is the prequel to mainline series Kakegurui: a one-off villain turned secondary protagonist in the main story, this prequel stars Saotome Mary, fresh-faced working class first year high school student looking to make it big in the elite high school she studied and lucked herself into attending alongside all the rich kids; forced to partake alongside her friends in a series of gambling games against rich and powerful students within the school in order to keep herself out of what is essentially human slavery.
If you watched Kakegurui and its sequel series (or read the manga) and liked it enough to even be reading a review about its spinoff, rest assured that all the things that make Kakegurui what it is are found just as well here. A student somehow forces the main character to take part in a gamble, which if the main character lost would mean her becoming a slave to the school’s system, but the main character figures out how the game REALLY works/figures out how the opponent is cheating, uses the game’s mechanics/the opponent’s cheating methods against the opponent, the main character wins; the opponent cries, rinse and repeat until the end credits of the last episode whereupon you beg Netflix for another season on Twitter until the story is complete; but it’s the way this is done and everything around it that makes Kakegurui Twin utterly compelling and wildly entertaining (just like its progenitor).
First, there are the gambles. These are not your everyday games that you would play in a casino (not that the kids in this school aren’t shown to be playing exactly those games all the time), but rather wholly unique and original games thought up exclusively for this story by original author Kawamoto Homura! You have your card and board games, sure; but nothing of its kind can touch Kakegurui when it comes to variety! This is a series where characters’ fates depend upon succeeding in games based on things as wildly diverse as speed dating and cryptic scavenger hunts! Every single one of these games has their rules explained in detail, and the show goes to great lengths to explain, step-by-step, every last decision made by every character involved in the game, oftentimes as a big dramatic reveal at the end. If you are smart enough, you can figure out the way to beat the game alongside Mary in real-time, but even if you aren’t, the explanations given at the end are always 100% purely logical - you can rewatch an episode after finding out how to beat it and see every character’s actions in a brand-new light! (And unlike certain other shows in the same vein, games here are far shorter than four real-life hours.)
Then there is Kakegurui Twin’s supporting cast. Let’s not mince words: the Kakegurui franchise as a whole has one of the greatest casts of characters in anime history, and Kakegurui Twin’s cast is no exception. Internal monologue is the name of the game here (hehe); as not only are these used to explain what happens in the game, rather the games themselves are used as reflections of the characters participating in them! This allows the runtime to provide incredibly vivid and detailed insights into the personalities of these characters! There is barely a single throwaway named character in Kakegurui: every character in the series has his/her own unique view of the world, unique ideology, unique desires and unique relationship to every other member of the cast; and these relationships are in constant flux! Every single game is posed as a psychological battle between characters; where their entire personalities and worldviews are pit against Saotome Mary; and every game is mined for every last shred of possible characterization, be it a deep dive into one of the characters’ personality and beliefs, as reflected through their actions in games, or the character development that comes after a game is over. What puts it over the top is that, like I said, this is not a story about superpowered characters, these are regular kids who live the same lives as you and I do. And because we spend so much time with them during the games; because we are privy to every last one of their thoughts and feelings; few anime make the viewer so empathetic towards its characters as Kakegurui! From childhood friend Hanatemari Tsuzura’s unwavering admiration of Mary, to Mikura Sado’s sexual submission and unending idolization of principal villain Juraku Sachiko (an overbearing, domineering, sadistic presence matched by few other characters), you FEEL for these kids, their triumphs, their despair, their desperation! And because these kids ultimately have to still go to the same school once their conflict is over, you get to watch what happens to them in the aftermath! Other series have used this kind of device to have a recurring cast of villains before; that is true. But none of those series had a cast of characters this dynamic, none of those series make the viewer want to see what happens to the characters THIS much! When you start watching Kakegurui Twin, you think the main draw of the series is getting to see the games play out, once it’s drawn you in, you understand that what keeps you coming back is that you want to see what happens to EVERYBODY in this story!
Finally; Saotome Mary. As I said, she is one of the greatest, most unique shonen protagonists of all-time. Other main characters facing similar challenges all have an intrinsic quality to them that is commonly associated with positive qualities. They’re generally protective of others, love adventure and having a friendly fight, they never give up and always trust their friends. They are never shown to have any vices, and even the very notion of them having any interest in the opposite sex tends to be verboten (stories like these never allow a main character to have any kind of sexuality). You know the type; you’ve seen a million shonen anime with main characters like this by now (at least it’s better than the milquetoast non-entities of the isekai genre). Even within its similar group of stories; as far as main characters go, Madarame Baku of Usogui fame is the smartest man in the world who has everything planned out years in advance, and Itou Kaiji of… Kaiji wins because of his indomitable will to survive. Even in the main Kakegurui series, protagonist Jabami Yumeko’s sole character flaw is her compulsive addiction to gambling; and even that is shown as mostly being a danger to herself as opposed to others.
Saotome Mary’s strength comes from the pride she takes in herself.
Throughout the series, Saotome Mary’s triumphs come not from a will to defend others, not from a need to save the world or all else is lost, not even out of desperate self-preservation, but simply from an utter and absolute refusal to bow to her enemies! In every gesture, in every frame, in every line of dialog, the audience gets the sense that this is a woman with infinite self-regard, who’s ingenuity, daring, inventiveness and brilliance stems out of her single-minded dedication to the idea that she. Will. Not. Lose. This is a character who becomes a gambling genius out of pure spite against people who think they’re smarter than her and want to fuck her over! Yet she never succumbs to petty sadism like her enemies, her infinite self-confidence is always secondary to her sense of righteousness! Where, if you were a villain, other battle manga protagonists would, after defeating you, offer you a helping hand and give you a speech about how you can turn over a new leaf and be a good person from now on; in Kakeguru Twin, Saotome Mary will publicly dress you down, utterly destroy your ego, call you a bitch, and essentially dare you to quit being a bitch! She will get you to start getting character development and become a better person through the sheer power of what can only be called weaponized smugness!
It’s this sense of tempered ruthlessness that makes Saotome Mary stand out as one of the all-time great lead characters in anime. Whether it's her thinking hard about her next move in order to make it in her school, whether it's her being upset and exasperated over what the school does to it's students, or when she is panicking over betrayal, this is a woman impossibly admirable, yet more human and more relatable than most other lead characters in the entire medium; an absolute showstopper of a performance that few will ever forget! Here's a comparison that you will probably understand: Imagine if Seto Kaiba from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series was gender swapped and given a show to star in, defeating villains who have no idea who they are messing with, and you will know what Kakegurui Twin is like.
(Special mention must go to other principal villain Mibuomi Aoi; possibly the scariest, most horrifying sociopath in anime; a terrifying piece of shit who you get the sense doesn’t even live in reality, and only begrudgingly treats the people around him as humans because they’re easier to order around that way; one of the greatest anime villains, period.)
And of course, the entire thing is gorgeous. The series trademark of making the characters faces extremely distorted and ugly in order to portray their deranged emotions on screen remains, but so much of this thing is infused with so much style, so many different styles of filmmaking and animation is used all throughout the show. The music is still the same freeform jazz, so that's still a plus. And in general, the drawings are superbly beautiful, and Dolby Vision gives the series top notch image quality.
That is to say: Kakegurui Twin is more Kakegurui. It's one of the absolute best things on TV today, adapted from one of the absolute best things on shelves today; a new perspective and fresh addition to a group of the most enthralling characters you've ever seen. The only reason the overall rating is a 9 is because the story is not finished yet (this will be amended eventually, lesz the world should perish prior); but trust me: this thing is a fucking masterpiece!
