Kakegurui XX Episode 12 (Final) Review: The Null Woman

Uhhh… season over, I guess?

Plot

I suppose that if you’ve been following my reviews on this season’s Kakegurui you may have probably figured out that there was a number of things I did not appreciate: the stakes were too high the whole time, the new season didn’t bring much more to the table, the gambles made no sense, the purpose of it all was not compelling enough… among others. I like Season 1 a lot better because it was refreshing and had a chaotic neutral character like Jabami Yumeko as a protagonist. You know, the type of person who just wants to fuck shit up.

So a few things went wrong. I personally don’t like the ‘race you to the top’ type of arcs so that was a bit exhausting for me from the very first episode. After watching the finale, the only thing I could tell myself was ‘Well, what did you expect? Nothing ever changes.’ Unfortunately, for me, this has really become a thing I have come to sincerely dislike in anime. The structure is so canonical, always. There are no significant changes in the quality of characters and it’s pretty easy to accurately guess what the outcome of a show is going to be. Even my all time (mainstream) favorites do that. The protagonist will claw themselves all the way to the end of the storyline and prevail. Their losses are like accessories; they don’t reduce their sense of being.

What do I mean by that? I mean, what if Yumeko just lost the final bet? It was, after all, the flip of a coin. Nothing can be more arbitrary than that. So what if it did happen? Yumeko would become a Batsubami slave to the Momobami clam. And you know what – that would be FUCKING EPIC. No, seriously, it would. Think about a season where Yumeko is not someone’s talented rich kid that messes around playing gambles, but a slave to what she brought upon herself! But we don’t get to see that. I am not sure why. I would personally watch the shit out of that show. It’s more challenging. I suppose, however, that it is equally challenging for someone to stop writing episode after episode based on the same basic concept that has a stable format that doesn’t need to change. Sprinkle some oversized tits and funky haircuts on that, and you got yourself a hit. What happened to the story? Well, who the hell cares.

Bleh

I’m not even gonna go into the fact that Batsubami suddenly became all polished up and effeminate the moment the president decided to allow her to change their name to something more respectable and revoke their slavery status (at least I think that’s what happened… right?). Here goes the boys’ uniform, here goes the modest no makeup look – Batsubami is their own person now so they can become the lip-gloss smeared woman they always dreamed of being, but don’t worry; their heart still belongs to them, and that can bet on that. Mommy, I wanna go home now.

Whatever

I’ve seen worse shows. A bit of a bummer though as I had moderate to high expectations out of Kakegurui XX as it comes out of a studio with some pretty good samples of work. But I guess it’s just gotta go down the drain as yet another show of little importance.

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!