Kakegurui Twin

Her name is Mary Saotome—she is brazen, insolent, and defiant, yet highly intelligent. Upon transferring to Hyakkaou Private Academy, where a student's worth is determined by their wits through gambling, she seizes a glorious win against a classmate and immediately captures the attention of the devious student council members.

With the bottom of Hyakkaou's rigorous hierarchy determined by least gambling winnings, the future for Tsuzura Hanatemari looks grim. As Tsuzura's childhood friend, Mary resolves to rise through the ranks and secure enough money to free Tsuzura from the shackles of the unjust system. Mary's perseverance and refusal to lose drive her to surpass and humiliate even the strongest opponents, but certain student council members seem to have greater plans for her.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Saotome, Mary Main

Tanaka, Minami Japanese

Hanatemari, Tsuzura Main

Honizumi, Rina Japanese

Ikishima, Midari Supporting

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Momobami, Kirari Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Yomozuki, Runa Supporting

Udono, Mayu Japanese

Momobami, Ririka Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Igarashi, Sayaka Supporting

Fukuhara, Ayaka Japanese

Juraku, Sachiko Supporting

Kaida, Yuuko Japanese

Sado, Mikura Supporting

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Mibuomi, Aoi Supporting

Yamashita, Seiichirou Japanese

Ootsuka, Manabu Producer

Ogawa, Takahiro Producer

Hayashi, Yuuichirou Director, Storyboard

Makita, Kaori Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Nov 2, 2023

1ncoley

Recommended

- - SPOILER FREE - -
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Kakegurui twin was easily the best entry in the series. As a whole, Kakegurui twin focuses on Mary Saotome as a First-year student at Hyakkaou Academy accompanied by her friend Tsuzura Hanatemari. This is a Canon prequel to the main Kakegurui series.

Animation:
The team was guided by Mappa and Netflix, and to be honest, the animation was a bit better simplified in Twin.
The opening animation was by far my favorite in terms of looks. The color scheme, the matte look, it all looked really nice and pleasing. The ending animation was also very satisfying with its pastel colors and ... smooth frames. They tried lip-syncing again as they tried in the opening in Kakegurui XX, and this time it actually works and doesn't look uncanny/creepy. Although, I was not a fan of the chibis that represent Mary and Tsuzura. They look like something out of Disney, which displeased me A LOT. Altogether, I'm going to give the animation a 7/10.

Music:
The Background / Accompanying music had a substantial upgrade in Twin compared to the other entries. I don't know why, or how it got better, but it somehow fit the themes of the show and sounded very pleasing. The opening was much simpler, High tempo Jazz just like OP 1 of Kakegurui, but no lyrics. I saw that many people did not like the change of no lyrics, but I personally enjoyed it! I do wish that the opening was a bit longer, but all-in-all it was a very nice opening. The ending was also very enjoyable. Queens Bluff by i☆Ris fit perfectly with the theme of the show and the pastel ending. With the upbeat tempo and bright melodies, this song was perfect for the animation. I wouldn't say this is the best ED in the series (lay-on-the-line is literally perfect) but it comes in at an EXTREMELY close second. I'd say that the music is a 9.5/10.

Story:
To keep this review Spoiler-Free I am going to keep this section short. The story was very solid for a six-episode anime. The first five episodes made perfect sense and even was better than the main Kakegurui series. The ending to the story though, not quite. This ending felt rushed. It did fit as a prequel and did end the story well, but still felt rushed and required a bit of brainpower to understand. Overall, I'm going to give the story an 8/10.

Character Design:
Oh my god. Ten out of fucking ten. Mary was so much better designed than how she was in the main series, her friends Tsuzura and Yukimi also seemed like amazing friends, and had really good development. What's also really good is that villains Like Inui and Aoi were perfect villains and just pissed you off in the right areas. Mary's character development also was really good, towards the end of the anime she seemed like her true self, just like in the main Kakegurui seasons. 10/10.

I give Kakegurui Twin a 9/10. Easily the best in the series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Aug 4, 2022

R_2_R

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Before going into Review;
"Kakegurui Twin" is pretty stand alone.
You don't really have to watch the main series to understand what's happening here. Also, it's incomplete.

Though Kakegurui only had 2 seasons, I didn't wanted to watch given the slightly mixed reception it got and some scenes I watched on YT made me wonder if gambling is really the point of the show. But I was still curious to see what made Kakegurui one of the popular gambling anime as it is so I checked Twin and.. I have some mixed opinions.

The story follows "Saotame Mary" in Hyakkaou Academy where not a single day passes without someone ... in school loosing their shit. Money, virginity, dignity, anything can be a prize and nothing matters in this school, as long as it's an end result of gambling. What makes this is even more f-ked up is that "cheating is allowed", which is the biggest problem here. Because when you allow cheating, you're basically distinguishing the characters, not based how intelligent they are but based on how stupid they are. The moment you hear a character inner monoluging about their plan as an attempt to hook the viewer, it pretty much tells why the said character will end up ridiculed later down the game, and this basically what happens through out this Anime and so it does in many of these kind of Anime that have been lately popular. Now one would argue, "Well, Kaiji also does the same thing" for which I agree. Kaiji becomes predictable but there's an underlying theme in Kaiji, which what makes it a great psycological Anime, and one Twin didn't had. That is;

"GAMBLING IS FUCKED"
Kaiji draws you into its gambles, mainly because it constantly reminds you why gambling is so fucked and it takes a realistic approach to do it. Kakegurui Twin doesn't have this. Most of the 'Gambling' part went into its mind games complexity which I applaud for but it doesn't work either because if you remember correctly, "Cheating is a-OK". The reason I repeat this is because the show repeats this too. "No one said [insert convenient loophole in rule], so you lose/win", that's the underlying structure of all explanations at the end of every game but it does have some interesting character antiques to look forward to. The underlying theme in Kakegurui Twin is just "Gambling is fun, and hot-crazy-yurified chicks are cool", that's basically it. But, Is Twin a bad show?

With all my rambling about why Twin don't hold a candle towards my favourite Anime makes it seem like I'm hating the show, which I don't because "Kakegurui Twin" is definitely a fun show. As I said, its underlying theme is "Fun with crazy Anime girls" and it does that part great. As over the top as it is, it is confident in its mind game elements, and it does with style. MAPPA trademark visual flair can be found in it's Jazzy opening, absolutely bop of an ending and the over the top characters does their job to deliver the fun you want to see. I personally thought characters weren't bad, they're pretty one dimensional except Mary, who's two dimensional (Wow, who would've guessed your waifu is 2D xD) and the whole Yuri element is.. well, it is charming, except *that* pet, if you know what I mean.

Want to watch some CGDCG (Cute girls doing crazy gambling) with some Yuri in the mix?
Well, this is for you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 7, 2023

SethFromTheWest

Not Recommended

Kakegurui Twin, a shaved down version of Kakegurui.

It's the prequel to Kakegurui, but imo it does not add much new information/lore/plot/whatever you wanna call it to the anime show of Kakegurui. You follow Mary as a starting nobody in the gamble school, and just as with Kakegurui, she (and others) try to win games or gain advantages through some kind of scheme or cheating. This is the first shave down in my opinion. I might have different impressions, and I don't know if it is just the source material for this prequel, but the games and the schemes are really not interesting. Sometimes they are ... simple enough that the regular viewer figures it out if they think about it for a second, or the scheme/game is done at such a bullshit level that it doesn't even matter, the plot and story just move in favor of Mary by the power of bullshit.

The second shave down are the characters. Although they use the same or similar characters from Kakegurui, Mary feels very different(as it should since she is yet to experience everything), but she is at the level of a boring average character in the anime's world with a little bit more braincells and desire. Supporting characters that become her friends are medicore as well. One is just simping for her all the time without much reason, the other is also an average character which has little depth. I hate to say it, but I think the character I found so annoying and over the top in Kakegurui such as Yumeko, carried that show. If the voicing is less energetic and dramatic, it doesn't work. They need to be full on crazy.

The "crazy" shots are also shaved down. Where in Kakegurui you can see quite the number of dramatic close ups with sometimes glowing eyes and idiotic facial expressions, that is present in this prequel, but to a much lesser degree, and they are less dramatic. And that's a shame since those dramatic emotional moments went quite well with the ethically gray characters who would do anything to gain money when everything is on the line. Touching on that, that also slightly bothers me in this anime. Morals and ethics were almost nowhere to be found in Kakegurui. Yumeko was an addict that wants to satiate her lust for gambling, Mary was a bitch in it for herself most of the time, and you saw all that through the eyes of a wimpy MC. But in Kakegurui Twin, Mary has a feel of morality at times, a conscience for her friends, almost to wash her from the shit behaviour in Kakegurui. It's weird to see some good guys where first everyone had no moral compass, especially after you have seen regular Kakegurui. She and her one friend, maybe the other one too, for some reason have some kind of decency, but everyone else is just the worst, girls and boys, but especially the few boys in the show are just the scumbags of the earth.

Is this anime for you? This anime might have one purpose, and one purpose only, and that is to please the cosplayers that overrated Kakegurui, and give them more material and characters to group cosplay as some pseudo lesbians with suggestive kinks. Otherwise, you are better of just watching Kakegurui, the Kakegurui in its full glory, rather than this shaved down version.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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