Kakegurui (Live Action)

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Synopsis: A prestigious high school where gambling forms the main focus of the curriculum, welcomes a student with an intense obsession for the thrill that games of risk bring. She chases this thrill by participating in games against her peers and the more elite members of the student council, working her way up to an eventual match-up with the student council president.

Raise

Kakegurui is a Japanese live-action drama on Netflix based on the anime of the same name. The series takes place at a prestigious high school where only the financially elite are allowed to attend, or more accurately, the children of the financially elite. However, this particular institution boasts a somewhat unique curriculum as it is not academic, sporting, or cultural acumen that guarantees success, but rather the honing of a unique set of hard and soft skills tailored towards the mastery of gambling.

You certainly heard that correctly, this particularly unorthodox school creates the environment for their students to engage in all manner of activities that have to do with games of chance and risk. From blackjack and poker to various hybrid games and everything in between. Naturally, a hierarchy develops that separates the wheat from the chaff which is reflected on official rankings displayed around the school. The best gamblers and those with a generally high social standing, make up the student council which is headed by the student council president. While the council is in charge of organizing and overseeing formal events and maintaining order as a whole, games usually happen on a fairly impromptu basis in which any student can challenge another or join in on games in progress.

The students are obligated to pay the student council a share of their earnings, and those who fall outside of the top 100 in the rankings are those who are incapable of paying due to debt and as a result are relegated to the status of house pets. Boys are given the unflattering title of dogs and the girls are called cats, brandished with tags to make them easily identifiable to the rest of the school. The house pets are treated like slaves by those that possess superior rankings. Apart from daily abuse, house pets can also be used by wealthier gamblers to rig games and therefore maintain standing within the school hierarchy, and the only way a house pet can regain their humanity is by gambling more, either winning back their freedom or falling deeper into the abyss of debt, forfeiting their futures to the student council.

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The Shark In the Fish Tank

On a rather average day, the protagonist of the series steps into the classroom and introduces herself as Jabami Yumeko. A young, pretty, and very polite student whose demeanor seems to suggest that she will just be another lamb to the slaughter. However, despite appearances, Jabami hides a deep and dark fondness for gambling, something her classmates learn the hard way. Jabami is shown around by a fellow student and "house pet" named Suzui, an otherwise mediocre gambler who attempts to dissuade Jabami from taking part in the primary activities at school, fearful of her falling into the jaws of many of the sharks that prowl around the premises.

When Jabami finally does get her chance to take part in a few high stakes games, she transforms from the cute, coy, and slightly naive new girl, to a cold, calculating, and somewhat crazy gambling obsessed pro, getting off on the exhilarating feeling that comes from putting large sums of money, and even life on the line. Jabami impresses with her keen skills of observation and inference, demonstrating an unparalleled ability to read the state of affairs and her opponents while expertly spotting betting patterns, and seeing through deceptions and foul play as they happen.

Her skill gains the attention of various students at school, including the members of the student council, who each attempt to challenge and knock her down a peg, but Jabami's ambition goes well beyond the lowly grunts of the school and student council, rather preferring the prospect of taking on the student council president, a match-up she believes to be the most fulfilling of all.

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All In

A live-action adaptation is always hit and miss. It can either greatly compliment the source material, or drag it through the mud, leaving a garbled mess that is completely unrecognizable (Cough, Dragon Ball Z, cough). I'm happy to report that I felt like Kakegurui fell into the former category, and stayed as true to the anime as it could. I was quite impressed by the individual performances of Minami Hamabe in her role as Jabami Yumeko as well as Aoi Morikawa who played Saotome Mary, although all the characters go above and beyond in their representation of their respective characters/anime counterparts.

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While I felt Suzui could've dialed his antics down a notch, he remained one of the endearing characters to provide good onscreen chemistry with Jabami, along with her best frienemy, Saotome Mary. I liked how the series remained cartoony, the bulging eyes of surprised players, and the exaggerated reactions blended well with the general tone that still took itself seriously, or at least as seriously as you can be when you have a school with girls sporting purple hair.

Every interaction from both leading, and supporting character set entertaining and dynamic scenarios which greatly compliment the plethora of games on display. The characters give the audience access to their malevolent plots, sometimes even freezing the scenes themselves to revel in their nefarious schemes, demonstrating how deception and calculated foul play is just as big a part of the overall experience at the school.

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Speaking of the school, I felt the concept in itself to be interesting as far as approaches to education are concerned. While naturally absurd, the idea of a school that gives learners the autonomy to hone skills that have real-world application and transference is not something to be sneezed at. Practical learning takes the lion share as far as the learning experience is concerned, learners inadvertently demonstrating skills in complex arithmetic and probability, psychology, and a variety of other skills at an academy where courage and cunning are given ample space to grow.

Kakegurui is an entertaining series where each episode offers new and exhilarating challenges for Jabami to overcome. She proves time and time again that she walks a higher path than her peers. for while they simply value the utility of gambling for the sake of position and power, Jabami sees the act of gambling as an end in and of itself, the thrill of putting it all on the line and letting destiny decide the fate of its players provides a high that she chases after with a subtle obsession. It's this attitude that makes the journey to the big face-off between Jabami and the student president all the more mouth-watering.

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Season one boasts 10 episodes with the second season currently sitting on five at the time of writing. The characters also reprise their roles in the film which will have a sequel drop this year. While I feel that the live-action drama is a great entry point, I would nonetheless still recommend checking out the anime as a good point of reference. While it sometimes isn't always possible to effectively transfer the uniquely surreal elements of an anime to its live-action, this one sure manages well to retain the essence of the anime while still finding it own identity, and if there's one particular area where the drama outshines the anime, it would be in the intro song. If you are looking for an anime and/or live-action drama that appeals to a more mature audience then this is one to go all-in on. Happy viewing.