Kakegurui XX Episode 11 Review: The Woman Who Bears The X

I’m not gonna start by saying ‘da fuk did i just watch this time’. No, I’m not gonna complain. For better or worse, this episode provided me with the largest screen time of my favorite character of this season, so yeah, no, it’s fine, not sure if things make sense right now but I’ll let it slide.

Plot

Recapping from the previous episode, Suzui and Yumeko received a mysterious invitation to something called a voting auction. Even though Suzui does seem sceptical about this (that’s his whole RAISON D’ ETRE in this show anyway, if you know what I mean) he complies with Yumeko’s wish which, naturally, is to go to the auction and bet to a ridiculous extend.

And so they do. At the auction, they meet a bunch of other characters nobody really cares about like, what’s their name? Ikishima, the one-eyed weirdo, Nishinotoin, the traditionally-dressed-in-Japanese-attire weirdo, the vice president (who?), and Saotome Mary, who’s… alright I guess? Better than others. I like her cause she kind of has her own drive and doesn’t aim to please in the fan service-y way other characters do.

So the game starts. You’d think that people would take turns and all earn as much money as possible, but, they don’t. Yumeko is delighted that people are acting like bozos instead of trying to make a profit – nothing new here – but things seem to be getting increasingly worse. Mary manages to prove that Batsubami seems to be secretly taking part in the gamble and Batsubami offers to stop. However, they later realize that there’s not just Batsubami that’s in on this; other members of the Momobami clan are also hidden somewhere betting in concealed safety. For some reason I cannot really understand, Yumeko decides to attempt to fuck up the game by offering every single penny she earned in the previous season to buy the next 100 votes. It’s not like she needs the money anyway (we’ve had hints on the fact that Yumeko is filthy rich in the past). And there it goes, Batsubami gets way too excited by this BOLD MOVE that something within them awakens; something like their true self; and they are wearing suspenders and have a new, completely irrational, haircut.

What do we want?

Just because Batsubami is my favorite character, I feel like I don’t really need to say too much about anything else in this episode other that her weird and COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED transformation. First of all, maybe we should acknowledge the fact that too much time was spent on her in the background. She played in every single episode and had her own little school reputation building up as the rest of the show was moving on. So yeah, Batsubami had intentions and yeah, despite being the underdog and outcast of the Momobami clan, she had passion, obsession, and skill on gambling. However, I really don’t understand the necessity for her to dramatically change appearance – sexy as that may be. I can appreciate that there is a known tendency for this visual change to take place in order to illustrate a metaphysical one as an anime trope but… okay? I guess?

When do we want it?

I can accept all the shortcomings of this silly arc season but please, give us a proper gamble for once. One where the stakes are equally high, someone suffers a significant defeat, and for the love of god, not one where Batsubami starts spitting and screaming in despair; let’s keep her in high regard as a character.

How did you find this Kakegurui XX episode? Let us know in the comment section. And don’t forget to check the rest of the Winter 2019 anime reviews on MANGA.TOKYO!