Kakegurui Twin Season 1: Review
Episode Guide
Mary Saotome, a Girl
Targeted Girl
A Traitorous Girl
Confessing Girls
An Honest Girl
A Resolute Girl Review Score 3/5| Review Score – 3/5
If you enjoyed Kakegurui, chances are you’re going to enjoy this prequel spin-off. If you didn’t enjoy the anime or manga, you’re unlikely to find much to grab onto here. Kakegurui’s simplest form is a six-episode series that follows Mary Saotome. We’re a year before Yumeko’s arrival at Hyakkou and Mary has just enrolled at the gambling-addicted school herself. She’s immediately enamored by the surroundings and decides to jump head-first into this world, complete with numerous matches against different students.
If the story sounds familiar to Kakegurui then you’d be right. The story is basically a retelling, but Mary is now in new shoes. In doing so, Mary’s character is vastly different to that depicted in the original, which is going to irk some people. While you could argue that it allows time for character growth, I’m guessing there’s a pretty big shift that happens off-screen for that because what we get here is almost a completely different character.
The 6 episodes have a pretty simple archetype and present a “rags to riches” story for Mary as she gambles her way through different competitors to get to the top. There’s a different game each episode, eventually culminating in a final showdown with Full Bloom (more on that in a second) member Sakura. While the ending does include the usual “gotcha!” twists along the way, there’s a constant feeling of deja vu while watching this.
This structure is similar to the original series, but it was difficult to shake. The episodes rely on manipulations, cheating, and last-minute faux-outs to surprise the audience. While that’s good when used sparingly, Kakegurui has always gone a bit overboard with the way it uses these.
The mystery around Full Bloom is the real meat of the story and unfortunately these 6 episodes don’t quite do enough to bite into the tasty potential inside. This series could have explored more of the group and made it more interesting. It may have also given us a chance to explore areas that were left unexplored. Mibuomi Ooi is a good example. He shows up in episode 2 and remains an integral part of the story, establishing himself as the antagonist but never quite showing his hand to see what he’s planning.
Visually, the show is great. The main theme of the series perfectly fits the tone. It’s not quite the banger used for Kakegurui, but it’s a decent instrumental all the same. It’s a nice touch to tie that in with the unpredictable nature of jazz music.
The animation is hand-drawn and looks great. Every episode has a new set of vibrant colours, which makes it stand out from the crowd.
Ultimately, Kakegurui Twin is a rather average prequel series to an anime and manga that’s garnered a pretty healthy cult following over the years. With a lot of repetition and some questionable character changes for Mary, Kakegurui Twin retreads familiar ground – for better or worse. It’s hard to shake off the feeling of Deja vu while watching, but if you’re looking for more of the same, diehard fans should find enough to enjoy here. You’ll likely feel a little indifferent about this one.