Watching 'Kakegurui' Season 2 Episode 4

The penultimate episode of the season spent its time gearing up for the finale of the season. The original characters that were brought in, in the second episode, make a return for all of a few seconds and a couple of lines between all of them. At this point I am predicting that they would be making their grand appearance once the gambling battle between Yumeko and Kaede is done. I would be surprised if they come into more prominence beforehand, and if they do I hope it would be to tell us who they are, because at the moment all I think about when they are on screen is Andrew Garfield in Silence, only it is a whole parish this time around. Considering the imagery, I am hoping that this new group is not simply a group of fanatics.

While writing I just realized that we are yet to see a single member of school staff in this school at all. We see that they do in fact go to class, and even then we see no teachers. In fact, the more I try to think about this ridiculous school, the more the logic of it starts to fall apart like a half eaten burrito that you are attempting to hold together with one hand. I am quite thankful that I have the ability to switch off the thinking part of my brain entirely when watching this show as bringing any semblance of logic would not help in the enjoyment of the show.

Plus the games that they play are, quite frankly, moronic, and unlike something like Kaiji, the students throw numbers around left and right, almost as if we care. The show tries to build up some drama here, although we as viewers know exactly what it is that was going to happen, and so thankfully they did not linger on the point for too long. There was an introduction to an original character in this episode that is on the side of the plain clothes students, and I know they are students because they also wear the same branding tag that the other students have to wear when they lose their status as a person. Anyway, this kid was annoying, and I was glad that she was only on screen for a couple of seconds in the entirety of the episode.

The game itself went as expected, when compared to the rest of the battles that had taken place up to this point. The two play their mind games, the opponent is confident, and Yumeko makes a heroic come back. What is interesting about the game though is the location that it is held at. Unlike the anime where the game was held on the stage itself, here they move to a completely different location, and the stage really sets the mood of the battle. What I really like about this show is that the sets are all incredibly well done, and there is a lot of skill being displayed here. Plus the contrast in the locations really show off the difference in the type of gambler that Yumeko is facing.

The anime tropes are thankfully all here, with the character blatantly telling the camera what his plan is when it is quite clear that we can all see him and hear him. It is actually fascinating to watch a live action show that is really trying to adhere to the rules that are only ever really found in anime.

Regardless, there is only one more episode left to go in this season, and I am looking forward to the season ending with a bang. Unfortunately, that means I now have to wait for the live action film to be available to stream, and yes I will stream, because despite how much I am loving the show, that does not necessarily mean I want to own a physical copy of it.