Kaiji had ridiculous stakes. Liar Game had brilliant strategy. Then nothing happened for a while. Now the gambling genre is back in full force with the sadism of Kakegurui.
Kakegurui is about a bunch of psychotic lesbians shit-talking each other as they gamble. The main chick is your typical Mamiko Noto character, except they got someone younger, hotter, and more talented to do her voice for probably much less money. The pacing is excellent, as games never take more than two episodes to complete.
The drawbacks are minor but several. There’s a useless male self-insert character. A lot of the top-ranked gamblers are one-trick ponies who display little talent outside of their own rigged games. The games aren’t as clever as those you’ll find in other gambling anime, but it’s an acceptable trade-off to move things along quicker.
I couldn’t really get behind Kakegurui. I tried, but I felt pretty underwhelmed by the gambling. I saw maybe two or three episodes, and the antagonists only seemed to get by via cheating instead of strategy, luck, and guts. I thought the OP was well done, though. The music, visuals, and overall vibe was pretty sexy, but it wasn’t enough to make me want to set aside the time for it.
The main character hits the softballs out of the park. It would only bother me if the main character were presented as having difficulty with the admittedly underwhelming cheating.