This review will be about the first season only. I will talk about the second season separately and then maybe make a combine review but probably not because it sounds pointless.
To sum up the review in case you don't want to read all of it just to get to the point, I feel that while Kakegurui has flaws with the plot and some moments, the pros such as the music, animation, characters, acting and many others just overshadow the flaws and makes it very enjoyable for newbies, veterans or just looking for an anime to binge watch.
Also before going into the details, there
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will be some bias in this because this is the first ever anime I watched (unless you include pokemon and all that) but hopefully my points will justify it. Now with all of that done, lets go into the good and bad of Kakegurui and why it's my favourite anime.
STORY/PLOT- The story for Kakegurui is ok but has flaws and could be way better. The story is basically the main character, Yumeko Jabami, attends a school where she gambles with other characters in order gamble with the school president. While the story is good for the character and gambling part of Kakegurui which I'll explain later, the main issue with the plot personally is how it forces the story into a linear path and they cannot break out of it. An example of this is how there is always gambling going on an nothing else. The closes we see is when either the student council or Yumeko, Mary, Ryota and/or other characters are just talking buts that's only for half an episode before it cuts to gambling. I would really like to see an episode or 2 where the characters are just talking and there's no gambling going on. While that would kinda ignore the whole gamble part of a gambling anime, it could help with the world building and characters. The story does have pros, like the way the school operates with how gambling is the main priority if living in the school and how if you are the bottom 100, then you get treated worse. That helps show how life is different in the school and how it affects the characters which I will explain later.
ART/ANIMATION- With the manga having a good art style and MAPPA being the studio behind Kakegurui, the animation is amazing. The character design, the colour, the movement, the background, all of it is amazing. Where Kakegurui shines with their animation is the detail on the eyes and face expression. The combination of these two help express how crazy the characters really are because of gambling and helps stand out from other anime. My only gripe with the animation is how they would repeat scenes, mainly during gambling when cards are getting hand out for example as it kind of puts you out of the experience as you seen the scene before but I do understand why and it still exist in season 2 so its more than a nit pick then an actual flaw with the animation.
SOUND/MUSIC- The sound in Kakegurui is pretty good. Most of the time the sound matches with the scene whether that be background noises like a crowd of people talking or the main focus of the scene such as steps or chips being placed down and I can't say when the oppoite occurs. The music is amazing and is has personally one of the best soundtrack in anime. Almost every music piece matches the scene whether its a calm scene where characters are talking or something more thrilling. The music works best with the gambling as it matches with the atmosphere where something is going on but it looks/sounds like something is about to happen but you don't know what until it does happen and it catches you off guard. The only issue with some of the music is that most are either just unforgettable or just weird (mainly the song where it's just a boing noise) but it doesn't ruin the soundtrack
CHARACTER/ACTING- This is where Kakegurui shines. The characters as a whole are just outstanding. There a no bad characters (apart from Jun) but there are weak characters compared to others such as Ryota who is your mid anime protagonist. However, most other characters are just a wonder to watch such as Yumeko Jabami who is the other protagonist who goes crazy when she gambles, Kirari Momobami who is the school president, Mary Saotome who is a classmate of Yumeko and many others. They way each character acts with others both in and out of gambling is simply amazing, building on how gambling has become their life and how their personalities are built around it. This also plays into the acting. Now before I continue, I will be talking about the dub version but this still applies for sub as I have watched both and the point I will be getting across is still the same for both. Each character's voice actor matches them perfectly and helps us see how each character acts such as Mary being a confident women, Ryota being more cautious, Midari being insane and horney, Kira being both calm and cunning, and Yumeko being an normal girl until gambling enters her mind where she's a combination of Midari and Kirari. There are many more characters I could talk about but I think you get the point. The characters and their acting in Kakegurui are one of if not the best in anime
OTHERS- This will just be others bits and pieces that don't fit with the other categories that I want to talk about. First is the gambling games represented. These are clever as there are either spins on existing games such as rock paper scissors but you only can only use a card with either rock, paper or scissors, or entirely new games such as the one with the 5 swords. Next is how characters explain how the game works and their strategy. I personally like this a lot as it reminds me of Sherlock Holmes with how he would explain how he solved the mystery instead it's either 'how can I win' or 'how you lost' relating it back to gambling. And finally, the intro and outro. While I could of talked about it in the music part, I wanted to talk about it as a whole. The intro is pretty good, the song is catchy and matches with the theme of Kakegurui and represents the characters pretty well. The outro is pretty good too. The songs is a jam and the sequence is pretty good. I wish it was less simple but if you've seen it you know why it's good.
OVERALL- While some aspects could of been changed or improved like some songs and characters and some stuff relating to the story, everything else about Kakegurui is amazing from characters to music, animation to acting, it is fun enjoyment for new and old anime fans and is my favourite anime. 10/10
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May 28, 2022
This review will be about the first season only. I will talk about the second season separately and then maybe make a combine review but probably not because it sounds pointless.
To sum up the review in case you don't want to read all of it just to get to the point, I feel that while Kakegurui has flaws with the plot and some moments, the pros such as the music, animation, characters, acting and many others just overshadow the flaws and makes it very enjoyable for newbies, veterans or just looking for an anime to binge watch. Also before going into the details, there ... |
