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I feel really bad for shoujo manga and light novel fans. They hardly get any decent adaptations of recent properties and really have to either get into manga or settle for less then stellar works. But SAFT is really bad, to the point of being indefensible. Yes, Im talking about the slavery shit.

Its an unwritten rule in these types of fantasy shows that if for some reason there is slavery its very downplayed or the slavery feels nothing like real world slavery. However, SAFT goes out of its way to present slavery in a very realistic way with the fairies being an underclass, the property ... value that's assigned to it, the violence inflected against them, the way in which even decent humans can end up embodying the society's privileges when certain situations arise... Its uncomfortable. In a better show this would be fleshed upon and make for an interesting fantasy show about prejudices and societal hierarches. But here its played dead fucking straight with no meaningful commentary. To the point they just end up treating the situation as mundane, and inadvertency condones slavery through its carelessness.

While this show is not going to being back slavery, this is the kind of show that alienates communities and ethnicities that still feel the effects of slavery, specifically black anime fans. Yes, the fairies are not a one to one analogy for black slaves in the US but how are black fans supposed to feel safe and welcome when this show just shits on the system that they still feel the echo's of in their everyday life?

In conclusion, the anime community needs to be harsher on these kind of shows. This kind of explicit depiction of slavery while not challenging the system it presents shouldn't be expected. And for the anime industry, we deserve better shoujo then this. There is no shortage of great fantasy shoujo out there, and the market is ready for it. But do better.

2/10

(Update 2023- Yeah I wrote this when I was like 17/16? I am leaving this review up but it dosent represent 100% of my opinion's on kakegurui or my current writing style)

Wow, again, we seem to have people who love a manga about crazy people in a school with a dumb premise. This must be one of the worst trends ever, the trend of having a special school which makes people insane and exploring their psyche. Oh, and by Psyche, I mean seeing them be crazy. So why is this Bad?

THE PREMISE IS THE WORST- A school built on ILLEGAL acts, aka gambling, which has ... people who are rich betting MILLIONS of yen to build a social class that only lasts for about, like, 3 years? Except the money and SLAVERY which continues outside of school. Sure, the world wont shut down the school, and the politicians and media (SOME OF THEIR KIDS GO THEIR!!) wont jump and say anything on the school which the MC says has been rumored, aka people know it exists. this premise is broken just because no one with 3 brain cells will ever let this school exists, let alone lend millions of yen, or even entire companies to their high school kids. I thought Caste Heaven had a dumb school, but at least it makes some sense why the school is built in its way or HAS TEACHERS.

TWO DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS FTW!!!- Good god are the characters bland. They have two modes (some at least, others only get the first one): 'Insert a type of personality here' and crazy. Our MC also gets a third one - sadism. The manga cant be taken seriously because it doesn't show how the school effects the people there, because they are always in cray cray mode. Except blonde pigtails who, even with her minimal development (that is just a privilege here) she still has these two modes. At times characters may have panic attacks but that's not development, that's just nothing.

ITS ABOUT...?- There is no theme to this story. Well, it may be a "commentary" of the human condition and the sin of pride and greed, but with such deep, complex and grounded characters, this message makes as much sense as chocolate in clam chowder.

EDGY- good lord is this edgy. If they didn't have pools of blood I would have thought this was by the guy who wrote Mirai Nikki or any other over the top horror. Sure the art is detailed, but it only makes the characters look more crazy, instead of giving nuance to their body language, everyone is just CRAZY FACE MODE ALL THE TIME.

In conclusion, it didn't offend me, but its dumb. Everything here has been done better elsewhere. After all, why read a complex story instead of pretending to read a story that is complex. Lets say its deep and imaginative compared to other manga and lets make it so good manga and anime with a complex story, characters and ideas, with real heart and passion be thrown away so we can see crazy girls gamble. .

Holy shit. I have never seen a more offensive and angering manga i have ever seen. And to believe that this manga has a astronomically high 7.82 and is the 10th most viewed yaoi series in manga here. But i will try to explain why I despise this manga more then any other piece of fiction in a countdown.

1.PLOT HOLES- why the authorities are utterly useless? why is azusa enjoying his position in ch 4(and dont give me the crap about Stockholm syndrome that shit is wack)? Why does the card in ch 1 is a jack and in ch 5 is a 8? ... why doesn't any student at all call the fucking police? Well thats enough for now. You see what I mean? why i find that this story feels so uncared and stupid? I swear the author didn't know her own story when releasing.

Edit: 1.5-THE CONCEPT- after rereading the manga I realized that the concept itself is stupid and full of plotholes. Why does the game exsist? I am not sure. I dont think the manga will explain how the game started because it is dumb for someone to want to be in a game where you might go and become a victim. Also why would the popular kids agree to the game, it obviously a danger to their status, so why would they agree for the game. Unless they wanted to have SEX! Which in that case why did anyone agree to this????? WHY WOULD THEY WANT TO LIVE IN A LITERAL RAPE CULTURE! Jesus, I never knew the day would come where a story is literal about a rape culture...

2. NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS- did i mention that ch 1-4 are the only time when the manga has the time to move? yes after ch 4 the manga focuses on not one, but three different couples for no reason which happen in the time of ch 1-4. This trope is so common in manga nowadays that it is ridiculous. I dont minf having side characters or multiple stories colliding, but this is so much of a cliche, not to mention that the formulaic approach to this is so bad, that they may as well have 4 different couples at once. Oh wait. If the characters were good i would be interested but...

3. THE CHARACTERS- while not the worst, the characters are complete archetypes. karino- rapist seme, azusa- "badass" straight uke , kuze- the nice romantic seme(subverted to overprotective seme), kuskabe- nerd uke and so on... You may find cliches fun, but since yaoi in genrel has many cliches in a medium that is nutritious for having many cliches, the bare minimum should be to not have them seen like cliches. Oh, did I mention that the character designs are kind of attractive? yeah, its not that their concept is bad, Their story development on paper isn't the stupidist thing ever, it is just that i cant take their story and suffering seriously if i am supposed to have a boner reading this.

4. THE TONE- the tone is messy as hell. i dont get why this serious manga which wants to be a character exploration is also an attractive porn. This is a problem with all yaoi, but here it is overly noticeable. if u wanna be porn, be porn. The art isnt that bad. if u wanna be an edgy story then be that. but dont mix togther because it dosent work.

5. HOMOPHOBIA AND SEXISM- the sexism part i dont need to talk about, anyone with half a brain could see where it is presented. but the homophobia is kind of weird. while i normally forgive yaoi for having the idea of being gay not a thing, but this is where i draw the line. being gay is represented as such a terrible thing. either you're a rapist or a slut or an overprotective little shit. and you know why this angers me? well its because stuff like this make the gay community look like a bunch of rapist and sluts. this is why we are jokes, monsters or disgusting. Also, dont go on and say "its just in this manga". You know that there are plenty of yaoi manga which do the same thing as in here, albeit less offensive. So if you want to defend this by saying that i should turn my brain off,well, i cant. i dont mind most yaoi's if they have the characters have sex every chapter. its porn. but when stuff like this comes out and people defend it,then i cant handle it.

so, i actually do recommend this manga, so that you will see the horror of this. and hey, if you like it, that is just fine. but for me, i will stick with classmates and ten count.

1/10