Kakegurui Episode 10 Review: Selective Woman

Episode 10 of Kakegurui takes one of the most common gambling games, poker, and gives it a very interesting twist. Yet, the most interesting twist was not the one that happened on the game but the one Yumeko kept for the end. This was another episode focused on one of Yuemko’s newest harem additions. What would you have done in Sumeragi’s position?

Japanese Title: 選択する女

Plot

In an episode as fast-paced as the games it’s featuring, Yumeko uses her right to challenge a council member to a match to sit on a public game against Kaede Manyuda, the genius male member of the student council. Unlike the rest of the members, he uses his superhuman statistical and math powers to calculate every little detail that can help him win. Every loss and every win, every match that Yumeko took part in, even this last miscalculated loss with Yumemite, gave him the necessary stats to prepare himself for the game ahead.

His first deduction: Yumeko is an addict. She doesn’t care about the money or the power. She cares only about the thrill of the game. She is an addict to gambling, and that kind of addict Manyuda can easily beat.

His aspirations to become president have probably not taken lightly by the council because as soon as a dealer was needed for the game, the masked vice-president, Ririka, appeared almost out of nowhere and with a game to play.

The game is a modified standard poker game. It plays like a regular game of poker – five cards dealt, one change – but with a slight change in rules that gives the game the name ‘Choice Poker.’ Players can’t fold, and the player with the biggest bet in each round can choose whether the winning hand will be the weakest or the strongest. Without the chance to fold, each round will have to have a winner. Yumeko is at a clear disadvantage from the very beginning, since she bets her debt, 310 million yen, to buy 31 chips of 10 million each. On the other hand, Manyuda takes 100 chips – a billion yen. In a game where one chip above the current raise can give you the choice, the one with the most money has more chances on choosing based on his hand.

Yumeko’s win in the first round was both a game of luck and risk. She could have easily lost from the first round, if not for her ace. Yet, Manuyda’s calculations – which took more than one scene to properly unfold, to the point where Ririka had to bring him back to the game (a nice touch that showed how all that thinking was happening in real time) – brought him a decisive victory. After revealing gall his cards in response to Yumeko discarding a pair, he called for the biggest risk in the game: either Yumeko gets the choice and wins the game or she risks losing the game. Yumeko bets all her chips and Manyuda with just raising one chip gets the choice. He chooses strong and Yumeko loses the match. That doesn’t mean that she couldn’t have won. Manyuda played with chances and won the game. But the game, despite what most of the viewers have thought, wasn’t over.

There is no rule that says that Yumeko can’t bet more money, either from her personal stash or by borrowing money from one of her classmates. And that’s where the real game begun for Yumeko. As if she had prepared this whole ordeal from the start, she unveiled who the ‘Selective Woman’ of the episode was: Sumeragi. The same Sumeragi who was chosen in the Student Council for her ambitions. Sumeragi who felt that in Manyuda she had found a kindred spirit, even a friend. Sumeragi who has come to realize that she was nothing but a pawn. There can only be one ‘king’ and the only one who defended her was Yumeko. That loyalty, that ‘friendship’ is what got Yumeko 100 chips to continue playing.

Episode Highlights

No Cheating: I think Manyuda is the only player until now who haven’t tried to cheat. He relied on his calculation to give him an advantage. Can his genius be considered cheating? Nah, I don’t think so.

Batman: Ok, she does look more like Vega from Street Fighter, but what is wrong with her voice? Is she having a Batman-like voice-changer in there? If not for the boobs, I would have definitely called the trap card.

Comments

‘Who cares about grads or people who don’t like me?’ said Sumeragi but in reality, she craved for companionship and friendship. We all do, villains and heroes alike. ‘I thought I was being recognized, as a friend who had the same goal and the same secrets.’ Yet, that peaceful face that we saw Sumeragi having after joining the student council was nothing but the calm before the storm. She longed for something that she could never have. She had mistaken ambition for something else, more noble and less sinister. ‘Ambition lies at the heart of self-growth and struggle,’ says Manyuda and has Sumeragi realize that their ‘friendship’ was nothing but a lie. On the other hand, Yumeko, the addict Yumeko, the mentor Yumeko, gave her something she had never experienced before: true respect. ‘The only one who can decide her self-worth is Sumeragi herself.’ She then turns to her new friend and tells her the one truth she already knew but had decided to ignore for the sake of the council: ‘if you want something you need to reach for it. To make your ambitions come true, you have to take risks. The bigger your ambition, the greater the risk.’ Sumeragi decided to take the biggest risk of her life and side with Yumeko. Another girl added to our protagonist’s harem.

100 Chips Please

I think we are witnessing the assembly of the new student council here. One by one, the new leaders of the academy are flocking around the leader that is going to change (?) things around here. Will these 100 chips be enough for Yumeko to win this match? We’ll find out in the next episode.

Did you like Episode 10 of Kakegurui? Let us know in the comments below by using either the forum or the Facebook tab! Join us in our new forum and let’s talk about our favorite series!

NEXT TIME: The Woman Who Bets Her Life (人生を賭ける女)