Inquiring Minds Want To Know #5

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Question: I’d like to hear your thoughts on Kakegurui, From Josie

Recently this became available on Netflix and I was fairly keen to watch it. Reviews had been pretty mixed when it was airing but it looked kind of interesting enough and in fairness, the basic idea of a school where gambling is used as a way of preparing for the future could fundamentally work. However…

I didn’t make it through the first episode of this. From the very first scene where the guy faces off with the girl and they lay down their hands, it is just so over-hyped and exaggerated with the ridiculous reaction faces and then the treatment of students as pets (the girl is using the guy as a foot-stool) just does not work. While the school might use gambling and might have consequences for kids who go bust, there are limits to the suspension of disbelief and this show just sailed right over them (much like Classroom of the Elite did for me).

So I was almost ready to check out at the opening scene but held on. I watched the opening which was equally over the top in its excesses but gritted my teeth and kept watching. Then we met the new transfer student who was being so incredibly sickly sweet and just waiting for the mask to drop was really quite frustrating. Anyway, needless to say I eventually decided I had better things to do with my weekend then to persist in watching something I was not enjoying any part of.

At least with Devilman Crybaby, there was the potential for something to happen that would make it worth while and thematically the show was quite interesting. With this one, I wasn’t even really interested in where it went because the whole set up was just pushed too far past the realm of plausibility.

Needless to say, I won’t be reviewing the series because I won’t finish watching it. I have got it on my list to try again in three or six months and maybe when I’m in a different mood I’ll catch something that I missed the first time, or maybe I’ll drop it even faster.

Alright, so what did you all think of Kakegurui?

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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