(Spoilers in this review) Picking up from where we last left off, Kaede is forced into accepting Yumeko’s challenge. The dealer will be the mysterious Student Council Vice-President, who announces that the game will be Choice Poker. It’s identical to regular poker except for 3 little rules:
- The Joker card is included
- There is no folding or calling – only making bets or raising.
- Whoever bets the most gets to decide whether the stronger hand or the weaker hand wins that round.
Yumeko’s groupies note that this game heavily favors the richer individual and is worried about Yumeko going up against the overly rich Student Council. And as they feared, Yumeko starts with 31 chips (310 million yen) where as Kaede starts with 100 chips (1 billion yen)
Yumeko ends up winning the first round by betting more than Kaede, which allows her to declare the stronger hand as the winning condition (both players had valueless hands but she happened to have an ace). However, Kaede notes that she isn’t playing logically and is raising too much for each round. As a result, he sees through her bluff and since Yumeko went all-in, she’s left penniless. He sarcastically thanks the other Student Council members for allowing him to peek at Yumeko’s illogical nature due to her earlier matches, as well.
Itsuki is devastated since she was hoping Yumeko would win so she could rejoin the Student Council. But then Yumeko turns to Itsuki and asks her for money since they’re friends. Kaede taunts her as a talentless person despite having grand ambitions like him and says she’ll be able to rejoin the Student Council if she walks away. Yumeko in turn says the only one who can decide Itsuki’s worth is Itsuki.
As a result, Itsuki has to choose between helping out Kaede or Yumeko. A flashback conveniently plays here and we’re shown that Itsuki had mistakenly thought Kaede was a kindred spirit who shared her ambition. Upset that he only saw her as a tool, she opts to bet on Yumeko and she gives her 100 chips (1 billion yen).
The episode title was rather clever once again. At first glance, it refers to Yumeko, who is a player in this public Choice Poker game and who has to decide the winning condition should she bet more than Kaede. However, the title also refers to Itsuki, who had to choose between helping Kaede (by walking away and leaving Yumeko unable to continue and thus the loser) or by helping Yumeko (by giving her money to continue the match). To support Kaede means she’s guaranteed a spot on the Student Council, but she would be admitting that she lacks the talent or worth to become the Student Council President. Betting on Yumeko is a lot riskier considering that she’ll be done for if Yumeko loses, but Yumeko isn’t interested in the affairs of the Student Council so Itsuki would be free to become the Student Council President once Kaede is out of the picture.
Yumeko has once again demonstrated that she would rather individuals demonstrate some sort of control over their lives rather than being forced to live according to someone else’s whims (see episode 5). That might be one of the reasons she asked Itsuki, but in the end Yumeko also used her for money which makes her not too different from Kaede. But at least she isn’t looking down on Itsuki unlike Kaede.
The game, Choice Poker, had its rules explained simply and cleanly, which is a welcome sight. I don’t see any way for there to be any sort of cheating, but maybe I’ll eat my words.
Kirari is meeting with some heads of important families while all of this is going on. The significance of this is unknown.
I sort of rolled my eyes while Kaede said that the academy’s alum basically controls the world, but we’re not here for realism, right?
All in all, it was a solid episode, especially considering the wreck that was the previous episode. It was also another example of a woman empowering another woman to rise above the jeering remarks made by a detestable man. You go, Yumeko!
The Lily Garden 