There are many genres of Anime and styles that usually go unnoticed because the most popular anime falls under the generic action or Shonen category. One category that is interesting to explore is the gambling/thriller genre within anime. There are many anime that focus on the thrill of gambling and the implication of risking your life on a game. One anime that plays on this relatively common trope is Kakegurui. It is a relatively short anime on Netflix that revolves around a hierarchy of gambling and what effect it has on a person when they lose.
Attending Hyakkaou Private Academy prepares students for their time in the real world. Since many of the students are the children of the richest people in the world, the academy at night, it turns into a gambling den, educating them in the art of dealing with money and manipulating people. Money is power; those who come out on top in the games stand at the top of the school. The best gamblers are treated like gods while the worst gamblers are treated as less than human Yumeko Jabami, a seemingly naive transfer student, is ready to try her hand at Hyakkaou’s gambling. Unlike the rest, she doesn’t play to win, but for the thrill of the gamble, and her borderline insane way of gambling might just bring too many new cards to the table. Once she joins the school she immediately starts to gamble as much as possible completely shaking up the hierarchy of the school in an irrational and insane way. This show plays upon the insanity of gambling addiction to the extreme where the thrill of the gamble becomes the only thing that keeps Yumeko going.
The animation is done extremely well, as most Netflix anime are. Whenever Netflix adopts an anime the animation and arty style is usually done at an extremely high quality. This helps to add emotion and make the viewer also feel the thrill of the gamble. Every game has increasingly dangerous consequences that seem almost otherworldly so having the detailed animation helps feel the same danger that the characters in the show feel.
The show overall is good, not excellent but has some entertainment factors. The animation and initial premise is quite good. Where it falls is the execution of the plot. It becomes almost monotonous because you know that the main character would win every time so it took away from the shock factor of each game. If there were some chances of the main characters losing then it would be a more compelling anime to watch. I do recommend it but if you are just getting to anime this would not be a good one to start with.