Kakegurui XX Series Review

Kakegurui returned with a second season in Winter 2019. Let’s see how that went.

Synopsis

Kakegurui is the rather absurd story of a girl in a school where all students are gambling. Jabami Yumeko shows up at the Shiritsu Hyakkaou Academy, Japan’s most prestigious school, where rich kids gamble their lives away, while hopeless normies join aspiring to become rich kids and end up being slaves to the rich kids, and learning very little. If it sounds a bit of a rat race to you, that’s because it is one. Jabami Yumeko joins seeming overly confident and completely oblivious to both sides. She starts by being a slave and climbs her way to the top, becoming the most prestigious gambler in the school, albeit not the most reasonable one. She is literally willing to put everything on the line for a gambler’s thrill.

The first season seems to be examining the very mechanics of the school society’s structure, the highs and the lows, the people in control, the victims, and overall the crazies who can either afford to be in a school where they learn about nothing gambling and the ones who think this is gonna benefit them somehow. I liked the first season, maybe because the structure was so abstract. There was not really something anyone was really aspiring to, and that allowed the characters to unfold comfortable.

The second season revolves around the school elections, which are of course determined by no other thing but gambling. Naturally, the elections are mostly being led by the student elite, wealthy kids that are borderline psychopaths. In this season, the school council’s president’s extended family join in; they are the Momobami clan, and they are rich, bored, and hungry for power. All the students gamble and the one with the most tokens gets to be president. If you’re not seeing where the analysis is going with this review, let me give you a brief taste: this show is literally an extravagant microcosm of contemporary society.

Plot & Story

I don’t really feel like over-analyzing the details of what happens in this season. Everyone gambles. The elite gambles better than everyone else. Some characters are more interesting than others and some are just irritating (and boy, there is a lot of those, but more on that later). There is an affluence of short skirts and massive tits flapping around. But somehow the show doesn’t deliver this time. Why?

I personally think that it is because of the stakes. I found it exhausting watching a whole season of rich kids fighting each other to pick a new leader, while knowing that nobody will get hurt or, in fact, learn anything from the whole process. Each gamble was more extreme and absurd than the previous one. The participants were always from the same little clique – Momobami and the council, plus Suzui and Saotome Mary, who by the way, despite claiming she would become the president, didn’t exactly amount to much in the end. I was actually rooting for her as she was a bit of an outsider and seemed confident and intelligent. But nah. Nah. The rest of the students – or plebs, if you like, were just powerless tools to the plan of a very confused person called Batsubami Rei, who was a ‘fallen’ Momobami, and who used all the people they helped in some way or another for their own benefit, then failed.

Basically, the whole season was about a group of extremely privileged people who exercised their power on a much larger group of much weaker people, with stakes that made little sense as they all seemed pretty well off and all the bets had very ‘safe’ outcomes. It is a very good allegory on social structure. Now, there are two ways to look at this. And that’s either seeing it as a critique OR as fetishizing of that class of students who are just ‘better’ than everyone else. I see it as the latter and here is why:

Nobody gives two shits about the normies. We don’t care cause their lives are not exciting and insignificant. But look at that crazy girl with the eyepatch who longs to be mutilated in a gamble, sure she’s interesting. What about that little loli kid who claims to come from a family of professional torturers? Sure, she’s interesting. Her eyes have two different colours. And what about the vice president, yeah, she’s actually a sensitive little girl but walks around in a mask to boost her confidence and lives in the shadow of her superior sister. That’s cool.

But what about the normies? Well, nobody cares. Nobody cares! They’re not important enough to be part of the student council or the Momobami clan, and that’s because they’re average. They’re scared. They can’t afford to put everything on the line, and trust what little they have with someone who uses them to rise to power. And that is of course, their fault, for not being good enough, or maybe, for not being complete psychopaths. Sorry!

Art & Music

The art and music of the show are pretty good, but, I mean, come on, it is a MAPPA studio production, can you really expect anything less from them? I am personally in awe of both this season’s opening and the previous one. They have a beautiful distinct style, contemporary with the right pinch of flatness that makes it look like it was made in Japanese-style screen prints, and the color palette is on point. The show itself is a different story. While the quality of the animation itself is very high, we get across a few hiccups of poorly animated CGI shots that just don’t need to be there. And I know I’ve said it again, and again and again: PLEASE STAHP WITH THE CGI, IT IS NOT COOL. It’s awkward, it’s cheap, it’s ugly, it’s a dealbreaker, it’s like a bad mood killer. STAHP. I hate it. Finally, it would be impossible to not mention the horrendous faces the characters pull when in distress, and I think they are the show’s signature move. You either love it or hate it. I’m not a fan, cause I like nice things, but I think it works well and successfully serves its purpose. Oh and the upset Yumeko face. That is hilarious, love that. The ED makes zero sense and makes me sad and confused.

As for the music, much as I’ve had it up to here with anime jingles, I have to say, I enjoyed it, and have been singing it at random times during the day. It’s pretty good. In fact, I’m listening to Kono Yubi Tomare right now. The voice actors are doing a great job, with my favorites being Saori Hayami (Yumeko) and Kirari Momobami (Miyuki Sawashiro).

And here goes the coin flip

Plus:

Animation
The OP
Yumeko hating on Midari

Minus:

Fetishizing of upper class wealth and skill (fight me)
Gambles that don’t really go anywhere
Super anti-climactic ending, what the hell was that?

Should you watch it? Uhm. I don’t know. I didn’t feel like my experience of Kakegurui improved with this season. It was badly structured and a bit useless. I’d rather rewatch the first one. I’m personally taking this as an example of how shows can become less interesting rather than improve.

What did you think of Kakegurui XX? Let us know in the comment section, and don’t forget to check more anime reviews on MANGA.TOKYO!