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REVIEW: Kakegurui — Episodes 1-12 streaming


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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5294
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 10:45 am Reply with quote
I've never heard of Studio Anatole(the dubbing studio) before, are they new?
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kyokun47



Joined: 17 Feb 2008
Posts: 231
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:24 am Reply with quote
I, personally, thought that idol performance was one of the most striking animated scenes from 2017’s anime list. The fact that it never had to resort to CG while constantly moving and keeping such a degree of fluid motion was incredible to me. It also helps that I’m a sucker for Technoboys Pulcraft Green-Fund scores, and the song was a great piece from the OST.
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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:38 am Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
I've never heard of Studio Anatole(the dubbing studio) before, are they new?


You mean for the French dub? Yes - the only other anime they've done is Glitter Force Doki Doki. However, Bang Zoom did the English dub.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:39 am Reply with quote
Glad I finished up the show this morning, just in time for the review.

I feel similarly about Kakegurui as I did about Apocrypha in one regard, in that while it wouldn’t have been the top anime of its season, it would have livened up its season a bit more had it not been in Netflix limbo while it was airing in Japan. Summer of 2017 looks stronger now that we have actually seen all of it. Well almost all of it because we still don’t have Symphogear AXZ legally Evil or Very Mad Guess there are worse things than a show getting licensed by Netflix and not streamed until the next year.

kyokun47 wrote:
I, personally, thought that idol performance was one of the most striking animated scenes from 2017’s anime list. The fact that it never had to resort to CG while constantly moving and keeping such a degree of fluid motion was incredible to me.


I also thought it was well done and a remarkable effort given most idol anime has shifted to CG, understandably. It makes me think that MAPPA should make an idol anime...oh....right...
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5406
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:42 am Reply with quote
I watched parts of the first 3 episodes a while ago, but I thought the premise and characters were dumb. I have so little interest in watching this show that the Netflix delay never bothered me. This line from the review sums up my apathy towards Kakegurui: "the series is far more about sensationalism than plot or character development."


zrnzle500 wrote:
we still don’t have Symphogear AXZ legally Evil or Very Mad Guess there are worse things than a show getting licensed by Netflix and not streamed until the next year.

In my book it is okay to pirate shows unlicensed for legal streaming.
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G S Palmer



Joined: 02 Oct 2015
Posts: 246
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 12:23 pm Reply with quote
I've seen the first six episodes, and I like it so far. The only thing that bugs me is the fact that there are a number of grammatical errors in the subtitles (little things generally, but still) that Netflix really shouldn't have let happen considering they had over six months to get it right.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5294
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 1:36 pm Reply with quote
CatSword wrote:
MarshalBanana wrote:
I've never heard of Studio Anatole(the dubbing studio) before, are they new?


You mean for the French dub? Yes - the only other anime they've done is Glitter Force Doki Doki. However, Bang Zoom did the English dub.
Oh I feel stupid now, I just scrolled down and clicked on the first dub studio I saw listed Anime smile + sweatdrop
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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2061
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 2:22 pm Reply with quote
Great review, Mr. Martin. I too quite enjoyed Kakegurui for the reasons the review listed and that it’s definitely a series not to be taken so seriously. Those who hate over-the-top series will likely not enjoy this series, but for others, it’s definitely something to keep tabs on. Pure crazy fun is the series’ motto and it succeeds very well in that department. I found the characters to be interesting to follow and fun to watch gamble. Very glad to know that a second season is on the way as the ending of season one hinted at much more to come. I’m excited for it. Smile
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TasteyCookie



Joined: 19 Jan 2017
Posts: 421
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 3:57 pm Reply with quote
I absolutely love the Kakegurui manga so I didn't end up waiting for Netflix to FINALLY release the anime. With that said, it's going to be a definite purchase if someone releases it stateside, as the art and absurd antics are well worth re-watching.
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shadowmaksim



Joined: 01 Feb 2017
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 5:56 pm Reply with quote
To be honest, I wasn't a fan of it at all.

On one hand, I didn't really like any of the characters. Close to all of them felt like they were terrible people just for the sake of being terrible.

On the other, despite being a series about the wonders of gambling...very little actual gambling occurred. Practically every match, spoiler[there was always someone cheating...which completely goes against the spirit of gambling]. It just got boring for me after a while.

But yeah, needless to say, this just wasn't my cup of tea.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:07 pm Reply with quote
I never would've thought I'd enjoy a show about gambling with a bunch of extremely over the top psychotic characters being framed as sexy half the time and as human trash the rest of the time, but it was handled pretty well and I actually did enjoy it a lot. A couple of the characters were a bit too much for me, I really was not into the gun orgasm girl, but other than that, this was a pretty fun show. Yumeko herself was actually quite enjoyable as a character, and just sane enough and human enough to not gross me out or push the show over the edge. There is a fine balance between being sexy and being gross, and Kakegurui managed to straddle it pretty successfully. Prison School is the counterpart to this, because it didn't straddle the line at all, and just went full into gross, but was successful for other reasons, notably by being a comedy. This didn't have that luxury, so the fact that it managed to entertain me, and even endear me to a couple of characters was surprising. I feel like I'm discovering a new side of myself every time I watch that OP and ED too. God damn they are hawt! Embarassed


kyokun47 wrote:
I, personally, thought that idol performance was one of the most striking animated scenes from 2017’s anime list. The fact that it never had to resort to CG while constantly moving and keeping such a degree of fluid motion was incredible to me.


I think he might have been referring to the beginning part before the really well animated sequence where it is literally two frames of Yumemi being slid across the screen for a solid 15 seconds.
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Raikuro



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 347
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:15 pm Reply with quote
Eh, I enjoyed it. Basically like what Yugioh would have been if it didn't latch onto children's card games, except everyone is Seto Kaiba.
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MiloTheFirst



Joined: 10 Dec 2014
Posts: 429
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:31 pm Reply with quote
how about that, this was actually a great dub. well, as it should have been. it is filled with A-list jrpg-experienced voice actors left and right. the lines flow naturally and the localization is compelling enough without going too off the course, I give them props for having several distinct "rich people articulation and lexicon" for each character, just as the Japanese version did

Kira Buckland does a great job with her lower pitch seraphina (Disgaea 5) as Mary's voice, which in a sense fits the character well specially for a western audience in which she is expected to sound more self-indulgent at expressing her emotions, however it is just not what I was expecting, whenever she is acting nice it fits her perfectly but whenever she goes through her ego rushes it doesn't hit the mark for me, maybe because I liked the japanese Mary´s condescending tone so much, I rather it over the psycho-bitchy one we end up getting.

Erika Harlacher does a very interesting Yumeko, I actually prefer her take in the character, her translation from shy traditional japanese household ojousama to the more western diplomatic sheltered girl (whenever she isn't in lust mode) was handled extremely well. I wish the japanese voice would have sounded more mature as the work Erika did here, surprisingly she doesn't sound like Ann (persona 5) at all, I didn't recognize her until I looked up the cast list.

Griffin Burns Sounds excellent despite his low experience in anime, at times the word "discount Johnny Young Bosch" pops to mind while listening to him, but I consider it a merit rather than a insult

The cake however goes to Chris Niosi as kaede Manyuda, he owns that character. Also Michelle Ruff sounds very seductive as Kirari, but that might just be because of my personal taste
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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2061
PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:48 pm Reply with quote
shadowmaksim wrote:
Close to all of them felt like they were terrible people just for the sake of being terrible.

On the other, despite being a series about the wonders of gambling...very little actual gambling occurred. Practically every match, spoiler[there was always someone cheating...which completely goes against the spirit of gambling]. It just got boring for me after a while.

I don’t get these two statements considering that what goes against the spirit of gambling is lack of risk and not necessarily cheating. In that respect, plenty of gambling occurred throughout the series. I personally would call Kakegurui less of a full-on gambling show and more of an indirect power fantasy that contains gambling science and provides catharsis. I would like to point out that the execution of the series’ structure more than makes up for its’ absurd story/setting. Plus, it wouldn’t be nearly as fun to watch good people lose in gambling than it is to terrible people losing, so I like to think that was part of the appeal and/or intent of this series as its’ cast is handled well enough to still be very enjoyable. But eh, different strokes for different folks.
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Silent_Ninja





PostPosted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 12:24 am Reply with quote
MiloTheFirst wrote:
how about that, this was actually a great dub. well, as it should have been. it is filled with A-list jrpg-experienced voice actors left and right. the lines flow naturally and the localization is compelling enough without going too off the course, I give them props for having several distinct "rich people articulation and lexicon" for each character, just as the Japanese version did

Kira Buckland does a great job with her lower pitch seraphina (Disgaea 5) as Mary's voice, which in a sense fits the character well specially for a western audience in which she is expected to sound more self-indulgent at expressing her emotions, however it is just not what I was expecting, whenever she is acting nice it fits her perfectly but whenever she goes through her ego rushes it doesn't hit the mark for me, maybe because I liked the japanese Mary´s condescending tone so much, I rather it over the psycho-bitchy one we end up getting.

Erika Harlacher does a very interesting Yumeko, I actually prefer her take in the character, her translation from shy traditional japanese household ojousama to the more western diplomatic sheltered girl (whenever she isn't in lust mode) was handled extremely well. I wish the japanese voice would have sounded more mature as the work Erika did here, surprisingly she doesn't sound like Ann (persona 5) at all, I didn't recognize her until I looked up the cast list.

Griffin Burns Sounds excellent despite his low experience in anime, at times the word "discount Johnny Young Bosch" pops to mind while listening to him, but I consider it a merit rather than a insult

The cake however goes to Chris Niosi as kaede Manyuda, he owns that character. Also Michelle Ruff sounds very seductive as Kirari, but that might just be because of my personal taste


Glad I'm not the only one who has this opinion. Out of all the Netflix's English dubs I've checked out until now: this is probably the first and only one I consider to be legitimately great so far imo. Unfortunately, I was unable to watch Kakegurui strictly in Japanese due to my busy personal schedule. So, I've decided to go with the dub after watching the first episode in Japanese and English. To add a little bit to your commentary on the English voice cast: even the dub made great use of newcomer VA's like Kayli Mills who sounds adorably bratty as Runa Yomozuki and Austin Lee Matthews who makes Jun Kiwatari a character I just love to hate.

Having said my thoughts on the dub, what are my overall thoughts on the show itself? While I don't consider the show to be critically great, but I can certainly say it's very fun and entertaining to watch. Not having read the manga at all, I had zero idea that the first season's finale was an anime-original ending. I can't help but be curious as to how Studio Mappa will tackle the second season.
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