Well that was anticlimatic. At least it’s finally over. And it’s a shame because Rei was probably the most interesting character of this season but they shoehorned her entire backstory in one episode. Well, it was more like maybe five minutes dedicated to her backstory. But man the episode was rushed and it was an even worse ending than last season’s finale. But even in the end they set it up so a third season would be possible but my interest is basically dead.
Apparently the person in Rei’s life that was so important to her was Yumeko’s sister. Rei’s family lost a bet and became slaves basically of the main family and was treated like trash because these people seriously suck. But one day Yumeko’s sister puts a hairpin in Rei’s hair as she sweeps outside and says that the mark on her hand aren’t chains of her heart and whatnot. Her existence made Rei’s life a little brighter until one day she also lost a gamble and lost her name, ending up in the hospital. I was hoping we would get something, anything, related to Yumeko and her sister but this is the most we’ve gotten. And it seems from that little flashback that Yumeko’s had an obsession with gambling since she was young. But I was hoping we would get something that would add to Yumeko’s character, but nope. Instead this all tied in with Rei, which is an interesting direction as Rei is an anime original character. Makes me wonder if the mangaka is going to add her in. Either way, it makes sense why Rei got mad at Yumeko that one time she didn’t consider how she possibly ruined Manyuda’s life. It all comes back to her sister since she was important to Rei.
That was the only interesting thing to happen though. The rest of the gamble went by quickly as Yumeko started to make her move where she deliberately betted 101 votes and hoped to get an answer, which eventually led to one votes. One person bets one vote, no one else bets and they get 99 back, and eventually Rei lost all of her votes. Pretty easy solution when everyone stopped being greedy for votes.
But Midari and Yumeko egg Rei on about this not being their last gamble. They still have the billions, and Yumeko bets her name. And it’s all decided with a simple coin toss and of course Yumeko wins. All is well, and Rei has this transformation. Still being a Batsubami but not letting herself to be chained down, she walks in pride as she wears the girl’s uniform and the hairpin Yumeko’s sister gave her long ago. And the Mary and Ririka subplot I wanted gets teased as Ririka finally participates in her own gamble with one of the -bami girls, the one with the dog.
But the show ends abruptly and we’re left with nothing. Which is pretty disappointing. They made Rei out to be this last “boss” character and yet her defeat was so easy it was kind of laughable. She was also probably the most interesting character of the season and yet they dropped the ball with cramming her story and arc in these two episodes, the backstory in just one. There wasn’t any build up to it that made me excited for it or hinted at in any way. It just went by and that was it.
FINAL IMPRESSION
I’ve always had my problems with Kakegurui and this season just made those problems worse. Or at least there were new problems. I was worried after the first episode being, well…bad. But the premise of this student council election was pretty cool and I was looking forward to how this election would go and learning about the -bami family members. Unfortunately, the new characters ended up being forgettable and the show also brought back the student council members from last season that I never really cared for. With boring old characters and boring new characters, with sometimes boring gambles, this season ended up being very underwhelming.
Some of the same issues the show continued was how predictable everything was. There were high stakes (sometimes) but Yumeko would always pull through somehow and win in the end. Knowing how things will end makes the gambles not really fun to watch, and some of the games weren’t as exciting anyway. The Tower of Doors was my favorite by far with how intricate it all was, but even then the execution wasn’t too strong and that maybe had to do with me not liking Sayaka. And that’s the problem, it’s the characters.
The -bami characters were the ones I was looking forward to the most and the only one I can say I enjoyed was Sumika for that strange twist. Terano really catches my attention but she did almost nothing this season. We haven’t met with all of them yet but so far it’s been a bore. I think with Kakegurui, the main focus is how entertaining the characters are but also how entertaining the gambles are and it’s real bad when both are forgettable. Not even the crazy faces were entertaining save for a few.
Mary was the best thing about this show and she was barely in it. Honestly, by the time we hit the second half of the season, I was kind of tuning out and by these last few I was begging for it to end. I was hoping that this season would fix the issues I had with Kakegurui before, but it was only worse. At least I found the first season to be entertaining but I can’t even say that about this season. I felt like nothing was accomplished this season related to the plot, even more so when Rei was supposedly the last boss and her defeat happened so easily and quickly. Really, absolutely nothing was accomplished so what even was the point when this journey hasn’t even been fun?
The only thing I was looking forward to this season was the subplot with Mary and Ririka and I couldn’t even get that. Even if they make a third season eventually, I’m not going to even bother because I just know that Kakegurui isn’t for me. It’s as simple as that, it’s just not for me. I wasn’t entertained in the slightest and I don’t think I will later on either. I was hoping for something greater, more development in the plot and characters, but got nothing. That’s a shame.
5/10
