One year before Yumeko Jabami transfers into Hyakkao Private Academy, Mary Saotome enrolls in the elite gambling school. Follow Mary’s adventures in gambling, friendship, and high-stakes wagering.
Yumeko Jabami took the elite gambling school, Hyakkao Private Academy, by storm when she transferred into it in the middle of her second year. Kakegurui, published in Gangan Joker serially since 2014, has two seasons of anime adaptation on Netflix. A year later, Mary Saotome’s story of suspense and gambling as a first-year student at Hyakkao began its serial run at Gangan Joker under Kakegurui Twin. Both Kakegurui and Kakagurui Twin manga are currently releasing. People love Yumeko and Mary, so what’s the problem?
Remember, Mary’s story happens before Yumeko arrives, and Mary’s a primary supporting character during Yumeko’s subsequent tale. What happened to Mary in the past matters to her character in the present. Just how much retroactive continuity occurs between the two titles? It helps that the same author, Homura Kawamoto, writes both Kakegurui mangas, so we can have more confidence that he keeps the details straight. But what happens when the prequel becomes an anime three years after the second season of the original anime’s adaptation?
Kakegurui Twin: Why Should We Care About the Missing Characters?
The closest analog to Kakegurui Twin’s situation comes from the first six movies of the Star Wars cinematic series. The first Star Wars trilogy begins in the middle of the saga describing Anakin Skywalker’s rise, fall, and redemption as a Jedi Knight. Sixteen years after the premiere of Return of the Jedi, we find ourselves looking at Darth Vader as a child. The only characters we know are Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Sheev Palpatine. There are dozens of characters whom we know are already dead in A New Hope. If we know their ultimate fates, then Star Wars had a high hurdle to clear to make the audience interested in how they got there. Whether emo Darth Vader convinced you that he was a redeemable character is up to you.
The difference between Star Wars and Kakegurui is that the original space opera trilogy ended its saga before the prequels had begun showing. The Kakegurui original and prequel are concurrently running. The problem with Kakekgurui Twin is that we know it has a defined timespan. It needs to end before Yumeko transfers into Hyakkao. Mary’s closest supporting characters and main antagonists will be gone by the time Yumeko drops a gambling cyclone into the school’s socio-political structure.
The characters animating the suspense and drama are on the student council with the same president who loves Yumeko. By the time Yumeko enters the school, the dominatrix Sachiko and conniving Aoi are gone. It’s unclear if they graduated or if something else happened to them. Kakegurui Twin only has six episodes to build our curiosity.
Mary’s best friends, Tsuzura and Yukimi, are notably absent in Kakegurui and Kakegurui xx. Kakegurui Twin needs to quickly develop these two girls’ characters so the audience will be curious about what happened to them. That’s a defined constraint that most open-ended series do not have. How will Mary’s relationship with her girlfriends from the past make us care more about her complicated rivalry with Yumeko? Yuri. Lots and lots of yuri vibes!
Sensuality vs. Pure Yuri
Not only is Yumeko gambling chaos incarnate, but she is also a neutron sex bomb. Her dripping horniness when the gambling stakes get higher is one of the draws for the Kakegurui anime. She draws both girls and boys to her high-energy joy of gaming. Yumeko is a walking, gambling orgasm. The psychological tension in Kakegurui Twin is different. Mary’s type of gambling is analytical, tactical, and strategic. She has monetary motives for gambling instead of the sensual compulsion that drives Yumeko. The flirtatious spice the audience gets from Mary and her friends is the airy, innocent fantasies of Tsuzura marrying her prince, Mary. That’s an all-girls school yuri atmosphere, which fits the triad of Mary, Tsuzura, and Yukimi well.
Yumeko’s Big Three included herself, Suzui, and Mary. Yumeko’s indiscriminate sensuality fits coed energy. This led to an odd rivalry between Suzui and Mary for Yumeko’s attention. The whole school vied for her attention! That undercurrent of sexual tension is still around in Kakegurui Twin, which we see in several characters. Midari appears in the prequel, but she has yet to develop the self-harm fetish we saw in the original anime. The new antagonists, Sachiko and Mikura, take the master and pet roles to steamy depths.
Kakegurui Twin stays true to its roots with sexy fanservice. Mary gets her friends to wear maid outfits for their gambling den. The gal Kurumi gives us a lot of eye candy during the dating game arc. The rules and subterfuge were boringly explained with much standing around talking, so Kurumi’s sexpot vibe helped.
The six-episode season of Kakegurui Twin dropped on Netflix on August 4th. The cast of the original Kakegurui seasons reprises their roles, with Minami Tanaka voicing Mary Saotome and Mariya Ise voicing Midari Ikishima (Reg from Made in Abyss). New castmates include:
- Tsuzura Hanatemari (voiced by Rina Honizumi – Saaya Yakushiji from Precure) is Mary’s childhood friend.
- Yukimi Togakushi (voiced by You Taichi – Akane Ryuuzouji from World’s End Harem) is the literature club president.
- Sachiko Juraku (voiced by Yuuko Kaida – Sylvia Sherwood from Spy x Family) is the student council vice president. She takes an interest in Mary’s activities.
Do you plan to watch Kakegurui Twin? Are you curious about what happened to Mary’s friends before Yumeko arrived? Let us know in the comments or on social media. And check out Mary in the J-List store today!
