Kakegurui Episode 3 Review – “Slit-Eyed Woman”

Alas…alas!

(Spoilers in this review) 

After Yumeko and Suzui watch Mary’s crushing defeat to Yuriko, who is the head of the Traditional Culture Research Society and a member of the student council, Yumeko accepts Yuriko’s challenge. It turns out that Yuriko runs a game called “Life or Death” that is similar to roulette and makes uses of 10 tiny swords as well as numbered holes. If the sword lands blade down in the number you had bet on, you lose. If the sword lands handle down in the number you had bet on, you win.

After the first match (which ended with no one winning) Yumeko insults Yuriko for taking advantage of Mary and agitates Yuriko to the point that she accepts Yumeko’s offer of betting all 40 chips. Yuriko puts 5 chips across several numbers while Yumeko places all of her remaining chips on 24.

Yumeko then reveals how she knows the dealer is helping Yuriko win since the dealer’s hand has been pierced by magnets. As a result, she can subtly influence the results, but it’s still not 100% guaranteed that Yuriko would win. Yumeko dubs this as an uncertain cheat that escapes notice yet will tilt the odds towards Yuriko’s favor across many games. Yuriko is also relying on the large amount of money she has access to. Yumeko surmises that Yuriko doesn’t even bat an eyelid over losing 10 million yen, but potentially losing 2 billion yen all at once, should a sword land handle-down on 24, is simply too much.

Yuriko is freaked out and the viewers learn that she is using her position as a student council member in order to protect the livestock members within the Traditional Culture Research Society from being abused. Aw, geez, the opponent suddenly has a sob story.

The student council president walks in and tells the dealer to flip the cup. Yuriko ends up winning and Yumeko falls into debt. Alas, Yumeko’s first on-screen loss…!

Afterwards, Yumeko hypothesizes that someone was beneath the floor and helped Yuriko win. To do that, however, means the building was altered to enable this to happen. Yumeko comes to the conclusion that the student council president was behind this architectural change and decides she would want to challenge her to a gamble!

unfortunately for Yumeko, she’s now livestock, just like Mary. The end of the episode ends with the student council president reaching for the contracts concerning Mary and Yumeko. I guess livestock have contracts?

And thus Yumeko’s streak comes to an end. Her fall from grace was bound to happen – after all, gambling does involve luck (or, if her hypothesis is correct, the game was rigged beyond her initial estimates).

I wonder if the other student council members have reasons for ruining people’s lives. I sure do hope they don’t, since it’ll make it hard to root for Yumeko who only exists to gamble and gamble and gamble.

The series continues the trend established from previous episodes, namely insane gambles and grotesque faces, but Yumeko has been proven to not be invincible. It should make the rest of the series interesting since she could fail at any time in her pursuit of happiness via gambling. How she’ll climb out of this dire situation is a great hook and incentive for me to continue watching this fascinating show.