Kakegurui somewhat pigeonholes itself into this structure. As a result, the narrative does succumb to a repetitive format: Yumeko is challenged to a game of some kind, she starts to lose badly, she turns her luck around completely, and then she moves on to the next cycle. That’s even after the audience realizes that Yumeko will somehow come out victorious regardless of the absurdity (because there wouldn’t be a story to tell otherwise). Naturally, this anime is neither for the squeamish nor the sensitive. Threats of rape and potential accidental suicide turn these games from simple bouts of fun into life-altering scenarios. The latter must be seen to be believed: the ridiculously ridiculous becomes the norm.

A variant of rock-paper-scissors, memorization, forced deception. The former is easy to understand: students take part in games that revolve around gambling in some fashion. For, as this info hints at, the content contained in this anime has two goals in mind: gambling and absurdity. That’s all the info required to setup Kakegurui.

Yumeko Jabami, however, is not like most people. Most wouldn’t enter such a backwards place. Kakegurui takes this thrill-of-the-gamble concept to the absolute extreme, gambling with some of its own decisions that earn more wins than losses.Ī school structured around a gambling system where bets consist of millions of yen and the students most in debt become slaves with no rights. The maybe-it-will-happen ideology and the there’s-always-a-chance buildup. I don’t always win of course, but part of the fun comes from that thrill. And I’ll throw in ten dollars or so to get some easy picks for the mega lotteries if they get high enough to make it worth the risk. “Texas Hold ‘Em” is my card game of choice because I grew up playing it and watching it.

Kakegurui episode 3 discussion