Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler (Japanese: ?????, Hepburn: Kakegurui) is a Japanese manga series written by Homura Kawamoto and illustrated by T?ru Naomura, which began serialization in Square Enix's Gangan Joker from 2014 and is licensed in English by Yen Press. A prequel spin-off manga, Kakegurui Twin, began serialization in Gangan Joker from 2015. An anime television adaptation by MAPPA aired in Japan from July 1 to September 23, 2017 and a live-action drama adaptation aired in Japan in 2018. A second season called Kakegurui XX will premiere in January 2019.
Video Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler
Plot
Hyakkaou Private Academy houses the children of wealthy and influential businessmen and politicians in Japan, with many future leaders and professionals among the student body. In the school, the student hierarchy is determined by contributions to the student council that are fueled by an intricate gambling system in which students bet their fortunes against one another. Those who are unable to contribute because of their debts become "house pets": slaves to the whims of those who hold their debts. Those who do not clear their debts at the end of their time at the school receive Life Schedules which dictate their career and with whom they have to marry and have children.
Transfer student Yumeko Jabami is excited to start participating, but it is soon revealed she is one who gambles for the thrill of it rather than the financial or social gain. With an exceptional ability to see through gambling scams, she quickly disrupts the hierarchy of the school, and the student council frantically tries to find ways to shut her down.
Maps Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler
Characters
Main characters
- Yumeko Jabami (?? ??, Jabami Yumeko)
- Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese); Erika Harlacher (English)Ep. 1 credits
- Played by: Minami Hamabe
- Yumeko is a beautiful and mysterious transfer student to Hyakkaou Private Academy who initially appears modest, but shows a maniacal passion for high stakes gambling, as shown when her eyes glow red. She is said to be very attractive by a lot of male students at Hyakkaou Private Academy. She has long, straight black hair with a hime-cut style bangs She wears a silver ring around her left thumb. Although she dislikes games where the outcome is predetermined, she can quickly deduce how such games are being manipulated in her opponents' favor and, by doing so, she devises strategies that more often than not turn the tables on her foes.Ch. 1 Her increasing wagers and activities soon draws the attention of the student council. She lives alone as her sole relative, her older sister, has been hospitalized long-term.Ch. 10 When she is reduced to pet status, although she could easily pay her debts due to her family wealth or from her winnings, she chooses not to, so as to be involved in more games and so she can also freely challenge the student council president.Vol. 2, 3
- Ry?ta Suzui (?? ??, Suzui Ry?ta)
- Voiced by: Tatsuya Tokutake (Japanese); Griffin Burns (English)Ep. 1 credits
- Played by: Mahiro Takasugi
- A student with good grades but very poor at gambling. At the beginning of the series, although he is the class president, he has a massive debt to Mary and serves as her pet. He is forced to help Mary manipulate a game against Yumeko,Ch. 1 but when Yumeko catches the scam and thanks him by paying off his debt and wanting to be friends,Ch. 1 Ry?ta becomes fiercely loyal and supporting to Yumeko, possibly even liking her. He tries to talk her out of engaging in high stakes gambling, but Yumeko hardly ever listens.
- Mary Saotome (??? ???, Saotome Meari)
- Voiced by: Minami Tanaka (Japanese); Kira Buckland (English)Ep. 1 credits
- Played by: Aoi Morikawa
- A student in Yumeko and Ryota's class who begins the series as one of the school's top gamblers and Ryota's master. However, she is quickly humbled in a jankenpon (rock-paper-scissors)-styled game, losing to Yumeko and having to become a pet herself.Ch. 1 Despite their initial antagonism, she later becomes Yumeko's ally.Vol. 2 Unlike Yumeko, Mary aims for victory in every gamble and cares more for her social and monetary standing within the school. After learning how the student council president perceives the pets, Mary forms a grudge against her and aims to become the next Student Council president.Vol. 3 In the prequel story Kakegurui Twin, it is revealed that Mary's family is not as well off as her peers, but she transfers to the school and learns how to survive and thrive in the school's gambling system. She manages to win a school space from the former student council vice president in which she then sets up a gambling den. In the manga and anime she has blonde hair styled in twin tails, whereas in the drama she has light brown hair and the tails.
Supporting characters
- Itsuki Sumeragi (? ??, Sumeragi Itsuki)
- Voiced by: Y?ki Wakai (Japanese); Erica Mendez (English)Ep. 1 credits
- Played by: Ruka Matsuda
- Itsuki is an expert at card games. As the daughter of a toy company CEO, she became a student council member in her first year after having donated a large amount of money. After she financially drains her opponents, she influences them to wager and lose their fingernails and toenails, and as a result, has amassed quite a collection of nail art. After Yumeko figures out how Itsuki is able to cheat in a game of Double Concentration, Itsuki suffers a humiliating loss, and her seat on the council is revoked.Ch. 2
- Kirari Momobami (?? ???, Momobami Kirari)
- Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese); Michelle Ruff (English)Ep. 1 credits
- The Student Council President, Kirari had defeated the former president in a high-stakes game two years prior to the story. She has light blonde hair styled as two pigtails shaped in rings, and wears blue lipstick. Upon taking office, she created the hierarchy that turns the students with the largest debts into house pets.Ch. 2 In the drama, her face is not revealed; she appears with light behind her as a silhouette.Ep. D2, D10
- Sayaka Igarashi (??? ??, Igarashi Sayaka)
- Voiced by: Ayaka Fukuhara (Japanese); Erica Lindbeck (English)Ep. 1 credits
- Played by: Yurika Nakamura
- Secretary of the Student Council and a close ally of the President.Ch. 2
- Runa Yomozuki (??? ??, Yomozuki Runa)
- Voiced by: Mayu Udono (Japanese); Kayli Mills (English)Ep. 1 credits
- Played by: Natsume Mito
- A student council member who likes video games and is always seen wearing a hoodie with rabbit ears and sucking on a lollipop. She spends her time taunting various students. Her skills and preferences as a gambler have yet to be revealed. She showed herself to be an impartial mediator during the manga's 'Re-Election' arc.
- Midari Ikishima (??? ?, Ikishima Midari)
- Voiced by: Mariya Ise (Japanese); Sarah Anne Williams (English)Ep. 1 credits
- Played by: Miki Yanagi
- Third-year student and head of the Beautification Committee.Ch. 5 Midari wears an eyepatch after stabbing her own eye out to pay her gambling debt to Kirari, but remains loyal to the Student Council when Kirari promised to kill her in the future. She is aroused by violence, and often challenges opponents to increasingly violent gambles where the participants can either be maimed or killed, favoring modified versions of Russian roulette. After Yumeko forces their seemingly deadly game into a bloodless draw, she becomes infatuated with her.Ch. 5, Vol. 3 In the drama, she is typically chained up in a jail cell.
- Yuriko Nishinot?in (??? ???, Nishinot?in Yuriko)
- Voiced by: Karin Nanami (Japanese); Cristina Vee (English)Ep. 1 credits
- Played by: Natsumi Okamoto
- Head of the Traditional Culture Research Society and a member of the student council, who quietly uses her position to shield her club's girls from being enslaved by others. She runs a rigged roulette-style game called "Life or Death." She is known for her narrowed eyes, never widening them until Yumeko reveals her cheating methods.Ch. 3-4
- Yumemi Yumemite (??? ???, Yumemite Yumemi)
- Voiced by: Y? Serizawa (Japanese); Faye Mata (English)Ep. 1 credits
- Played by: Sayuri Matsumura
- In public, a part-time idol hoping to make it big and the Student Council's head of public relations. Secretly hopes to be an Academy Award-winning actress in Hollywood in the future and hates having to deal with her Japanese fans, viewing them as disgusting and perverted. She challenges Yumeko to a game of tic-tac-toe with a variety show challenge. After losing to Yumeko and having her secrets revealed to her fans, it is turns out that her fans are fine with the way she is and she decides to continue her career as an idol.
- Kaede Many?da (??? ?, Many?da Kaede)
- Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese); Chris Niosi (English)Ep. 1 credits
- The ambitious Student Council Treasurer who seeks to become the President at the earliest opportunity. He has short hair and wears glasses that he is always pushing up with his middle finger when speaking to someone. After losing a game to Yumeko, he is hospitalized and his hair turns white due to his great shock. He makes a come back in 'Re-Election Arc' of the manga and becomes Yumeko's ally. In the drama, he attempts to recruit Mary to join the student council in order to go after the president,Ch. D10 rather than the president recruiting Mary.Vol. 3
- Ririka Momobami (?? ???, Momobami Ririka)
- The nondescript masked Student Council Vice-President, who is frequently seen with Kirari. She is later revealed to be Kirari's identical twin sister.
Media
Manga
Kawamoto and Naomura launched the manga in 2014 in Square Enix's Gangan Joker anthology magazine. At Anime Expo 2015, Yen Press announced that they had licensed the manga.
In addition, there have been multiple spin-off manga that take place within the same franchise: Kakegurui -Twin- (????? ?-???-), a manga that focuses on Mary Saotome prior to the main story, is illustrated by Kei Saiki and serialized in Square Enix's Gangan Joker since 2015. A 4-panel comedy spinoff manga written by Taku Kawamura titled Kakegurui (Kakkokari) launched in 2016 and also runs in Gangan Joker. Kakegurui Midari (????? ?), which focuses on the history of Midari Ikishima, is illustrated by Yuuichi Hiiragi and serialized in another Square Enix-owned magazine, Manga UP!, since 2017.
Anime
An anime television series animated by MAPPA aired from July 1 to September 23, 2017 on Tokyo MX, MBS and other channels. Yuichiro Hayashi directed the series, Yasuko Kobayashi handled the scripts, and Manabu Akita handled the character designs. TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND composed the music for the series. The opening theme, "Deal with the Devil", is performed by Tia. D-Selections performed the ending theme "LAYon-theLINE". The series ran for 12 episodes, it is licensed and streamed by Netflix. A second season has been announced. The second season, titled Kakegurui XX, will air in January 2019. The cast will reprise their roles, and the staff will return for the next season. Kiyoshi Matsuda will join Yuichiro Hayashi as director for the next season. Anime Limited acquired the series for release on home video in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Live-action drama
The live-action drama adaptation was first announced on November 21, 2017. The drama first broadcast on MBS on January 14, 2018 and TBS' slot Dramaism on January 16, 2018. The opening theme is sung by Re:versed titled "Ichi ka Bachi ka" (????) while the theme song titled "Strawberry Feels" is sung by BIGMAMA. Tsutomu Hanabusa is directing the drama. The drama was streamed on Netflix in Japanese with subtitles including English, Spanish, and Chinese in May 2018.
Works cited
- ^ "Ch." is shortened form for chapter and refers to a chapter number of the Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler manga
- ^ "Ep." is shortened form for episode and refers to an episode number of the Kakegurui anime with "Ep. D" referring to an episode in the drama
Reception
As of February 2018, the manga had over 4 million copies in print.
Notes
References
External links
- Official website (in Japanese)
- Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
Source of article : Wikipedia
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