Kakegurui××

As Yumeko Jabami's fame grows and the reputation of the student council dwindles, Kirari Momobami decides to revolutionize the group. To this end, she announces an election for its next president. The rules are simple: each student in the school receives one chip. Whoever has the most chips by the end of thirty days becomes both the new president and the head of the Momobami clan.

Upon receiving news of this development, the Momobami branch families spring into action. Eleven transfer students arrive at Hyakkao Private Academy, each aiming to lead both the school and the Momobami clan. Equipped with unique talents, they will compete to get as many chips as possible—but their chips are not the only things on the line.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Jabami, Yumeko Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Saotome, Mary Main

Tanaka, Minami Japanese

Suzui, Ryouta Main

Tokutake, Tatsuya Japanese

Ikishima, Midari Supporting

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Momobami, Kirari Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Yomozuki, Runa Supporting

Udono, Mayu Japanese

Momobami, Ririka Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Batsubami, Rei Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Yumemite, Yumemi Supporting

Serizawa, Yuu Japanese

Manyuda, Kaede Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Ogawa, Takahiro Producer

Komatsu, Shouta Producer

Hasegawa, Yoshinori Producer

Momoda, Hideo Producer

Reviews

Jan 19, 2024

JJMFREAP

Recommended

Kakegurui is a wild ride and the second season confidently delivers on that. This is really just more of the same, so if you liked the first season, this will give you more of what you enjoyed. Overly dramatic gambling series like this aren't usually my cup of tea, but I definitely enjoyed this and I think a lot of people will too.

Firstly, let's just reiterate what makes Kakegurui fun - the visuals are basically the same, meaning they're super expressive, dynamic and over the top, with the overly detailed eyes and mouths being a very unique and distinctive aspect. The sounds and music are ... very dramatic and serve to accentuate the tension of all the scenarios. The voice acting is superb and really captures the outlandish minds of these fascinating characters. There's some mildly ecchi moments with some fanservice but they are presented in a way that doesn't detract from the story. The story is exciting and full of intensity, making these gambles feel more dangerous than the life or death sword fights in other anime.

Now there are some improvements over season one. For example the fanservice is somewhat toned down and I think I like it better this way. Don't get me wrong, I like big oppai as much as the next guy, but the touchy-feely moments of the first season got pretty wild at times. This time round, they're still there, but are more reasonable. The characters however remain anything but reasonable.

The other improvement is the more focused story. The first season was, for all intents and purposes, episodic. There was some connecting plotline, but it was mostly isolated gambles without much impact on one another. This time, there is a strong overarching plot holding everything together and moving things along. The new characters are quite engaging and get to come back at multiple points over the various episodes, so everything feels more connected, which makes sense, this all takes place within the same school they all attend every day after all. The various characters are given enough time to shine and present something different.

I do still have some criticisms though. For starters, although I haven't read the manga, I've found out that this season differs from the source material quite a bit. Now, I don't mind this per se, but the way this has been done may present problems in future. The ending of the season is completely different and is brought about by a character that is not present in the manga. Said manga is also still ongoing and there is more than enough material for a third season, but these alterations to the plot will make it troublesome to flow into the next events.

Speaking of which, I think the ending itself was not the best. All of the major subplots were addressed, sure, but I feel like the final episode felt incomplete somehow. There were plenty of unanswered questions and unresolved problems and yet I noticed that the episode was halfway done and none were getting addressed. The latter half of said episode felt kind of rushed, like the studio just realized how much they have to go through, so they just sprinted through everything in the time they had left. I felt like they could've used maybe one or two more episodes. I know that's atypical but it would've made sense for the story.

Overall, xx delivers on everything the first Kakegurui started and is fun for much the same reasons. There is just some plot jank and some questionable decisions that keep it from true greatness. Also, this series in general is a bit of an acquired taste so not everyone is going to find the appeal. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend giving the first season a watch and if you like it, then xx and twin will be right up your alley as well.

P.S. Takehito Koyasu gets a hilarious cameo in this episode, voicing a character with only two lines in total. I just find that so funny, I feel like he was just in the office visiting friends or something and they just decided to drag him into the booth for this throwaway character just for the hell of it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 18, 2022

IgnitedJesus

Mixed Feelings

"Money won is twice as sweet as money earned"

I feel as if there needs to be more Gambling related anime that perform better than Kakegurui ever did.

That being said, I don't think that this anime was very poorly executed, I just think that it missed base on a lot of specific areas.

Story: The story could have been more gripping and interesting, but in the long run I feel like it really amounted to nothing and that the ending didn't really mean much of anything, but in this pseudo-slice of life, I guess there's not much I could be expecting.

Art: Was for the most ... part pretty well done. I think they used a lot of very interesting and captivating graphics and animations that draw you in, but at the same time they had a lot of very uncomfortable facial expressions that just absolutely ruined it for me. I know this is the biggest meme about the anime but it is so unbearable having to cringe through those faces and seeing them be engraved into the viewers mind over and over again.

Sound: Was very typical as to most anime. I actually thoroughly enjoyed the OST which is what made me slide it to a 6 for sound design, but other than that, nothing to brag about

Characters: A lot of them are pretty unbearable. Just a bunch of rich kids who act like they're better than everyone else because they have the money to do so. Looking down on people is never a trope I care to watch in any show let alone anime. I enjoyed Jabami as a shtick of just enjoying the thrill of the gamble, but alot of that tends to drown out when you realize they just sexualize the hell out of her desire to gamble.

Overall: This anime could have been much much better. I like the concept of gambling anime but this, for lack of better words, is just not something that has life behind face value

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 22, 2024

Supersonic_Pain

Not Recommended

IMO this season just... wasn't interesting.

The games felt inferior and like half of them involved the threat of physical harm/death which they are too chickenshit to ever pull the trigger on so I wasn't really anticipating who'd win because, like, who cares?

That's really a big problem with the whole concept of this season anyway. This season, it's based around the student council president election and, like, I guess it's been established that that's very important, but it's up against one of the most forgettable groups of antagonists I've ever seen.

Some of the antagonists don't even get their own gamble, it's a struggle to remember their ... names, they just aren't very interesting.

The only one I really liked was the last villain but even then, I wanted her to WIN because who else would win? Kirari, the sociopath who's already president? Yumeko, the agent of chaos who'd destroy the entire academy (which would presumably destabilize Japan because this academy is just SO important) because she was bored? Some other jackass from the branch families nobody cares about? ...I dunno, Mary?

They do try to work on humanizing the student council members to... varying effects. Itsuki grew on me a lot, here's to well wishes in her romantic endeavors. Yuriko, lmao, sorry if you wanted screen time. Midari is mostly a butt monkey because Yumeko doesn't like Midari which honestly just made me like Yumeko less and, again, you need me to like Yumeko for this series to work. Kaede gets something nice to work on, which I am happy to see. Runa... she's still very annoying but I liked when she ate the spicy macaron and suffered. Sayaka, the secretary, I thought her part was one of the best in the season, even if I hated the game and outcome.

...unfortunately, Yumemi gets another arc. I guess it wasn't the worst arc of the season but that's less of a positive for Yumemi and more a condemnation of the whole season considering the game was less interesting than S1's and Yumemi continues to be uninteresting at best.

So who wins the election?

Oh... I'm sorry... you'd like to know that, wouldn't you?

It doesn't say, we're still in the middle of the election when the season ends.

Did I mention Suzui, the token male?

No?

Yeah, he's not really important except for one gamble.

There are entire gambles where he's busy playing Fortnite or whatever while Yumeko's actually gambling and his presence wasn't really missed but it proves how much of an absolute nothing he is.

The OP was a huge upgrade (and the ED was pretty good too) musically and I liked how a couple of the student council members progressed, but it ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, it has way less interesting games, and the antagonists are kinda boring.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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