Episode 6 of Kakegurui brought us the most exciting and potentially lethal game of the series. The two most psychopathic gamblers of the series face each other in a reverse Russian Roulette where Yumeko must not only win, but also end the game with her life intact.
Yumeko wants to fight the president of the Student Council, but before she has the chance to make an official request, she is kidnapped by the psychopathic Midari. In the course of this episode, we learned more about Yumeko, Mary, and Suzui, as their inevitable fellowship will try to bring the council down.
Yumeko’s Past: At last, we learned more about Yukemo. She is an orphan and incredibly rich. She is so rich that her older sister who is hospitalized for a long time is making paper cranes from 10,000-yen bills (almost like 100 dollar bills). Now that we know she has an ulterior motive for getting a lot of money, it’s easier to empathize with her character. She is crazy but she is also just and loving.
ESP Game: The game is based on luck and the only way to get all cards correct is either to leave it to the stars or try and cheat. The two players attempt to match five cards with various shapes to the cards dealt by the dealer on the next room that is soundproof. Of course, Midari who believes that the ultimate bet is one’s own life, adds her precious revolvers into the mix. The winner gets to shoot the other player with one of two revolvers that are given to the players by chance. Before the game, the two players load the guns with 0 to 6 bullets; real bullets; the kind that kill people. Then the guns are places below the gaming table and attributed by chance to each player. The winner gets to fire as many shots as the difference between the correct guesses. For instance, if Midari gets 4 right and Yumeko gets 2 right, Midari gets to fire two shots. After a teary sequence where Midari is practically crying on top of Suzui, Yumeko agrees to the game as long as Midari agrees to three conditions: Suzui will be the dealer. They will only play three rounds. The winner gets 1 billion yen. Midari adds a last rule: the loser gets to fire back at the winner if the winner misses. I don’t get why Yumeko agreed to that last rule, but the game was on.
Fake Friends: There is something to be said about the way people treat you depending on your social status. The bitches that treated Mary as though she was worse than an insect, now asked for her forgiveness. After all, she was a pet and that’s how the school expects them to treat pets. No hard feelings, right? I admit that I expected Mary to kick them in the face, but she was smarter than that. She knows how the world works, and deceit goes both ways. Instead of breaking their teeth, she makes them believe that everything is fine. I don’t think that any of them believe that they are true friends, but ‘friendship’ is another word for ‘favorable relationship.’ If there is a true friendship in the series, Suzui, Mary, and Yumeko are the closest we’ll get.
We are friends, right?
Against the Student Council: Mary is keen on destroying the student council. Her hatred for it doesn’t waver as the mad president offers her a place in it. While an inside position might mean either a way for the student council to control her or a way for Mary to destroy them from the inside (or both), Mary is so terrified by the president’s infatuation with her insubordination that she can’t even answer her request. I am not more pumped for the final match between the president and Yumeko.
School Dungeon: The school has an underground correction facility that is used from Midari’s faction in interrogations. I know this is a fictional setting and these things are not happening in real schools (at least I hope they don’t) but this went a bit too far. At least the guards were wearing matching lingerie. They were like twin goons from side-scrolling beat-em-up games. Only sexier.
Paper Cranes: Yumeko’s sister made an army of cranes worth millions in yen, but the significance of the origami paper cranes is rooted in Japanese culture. According to an ancient Japanese legend, anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by the gods. Depending on the story, you can be granted from eternal happiness and good luck to long life and recovery from an illness. I am guessing that Yumeko’s sister is wishing for the second. A crane is said to live for a thousand years, and that’s why the legend speaks for a thousand cranes: one for each year. Unlike the games played in Kakegurui, one who wants his wish to be granted must not cheat: he must make the cranes himself and within one year.
If Yumeko was searching for a kindred spirit, she would have probably found part of it in Midari. They are both crazy and seek cheap thrills that can validate that they are alive. It’s all in the excitement of the moment. It’s all in the moment. No matter how much the series focuses on the different characters who make the student council, Kakegurui is exploring first and foremost Yumeko. She is the central character and the one who is to be compared to the rest of the characters. Even though we learned a few things about her past, she is mostly a mystery, and one that is deliberately kept a mystery from the creators. We know next to nothing about her but we are deeply aware of her most intriguing qualities.
What a game! I haven’t felt such excitement for a cliffhanger in a long time. It’s not the question whether the gun was loaded; it wasn’t. The real question is how Yumeko is going to use her chance to shoot Midari now that she knows she has a loaded gun.
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The first season of the new year is just one month away from its finale. It was a great start with many amazing titles that made these past months worth the extra hours we put in front of our sets. Now, it is time for the cold wind to give way to the pink hues of the sakura tree and for the Winter 2018 season to give the anime baton to Spring 2018.
