(Spoilers in this review)
Summary
Itsuki confirms that she’s placing her bets on Yumeko and that she’s taking revenge on Kaede for looking down on her. The student council accountant believes that Yumeko is aiming for a weak hand again after she discards a pair of queens. As a result, he in turn abandons the careful playstyle he described in the previous episode so he can win the match with a single round. Kaede and Itsuki continuously raise the stakes until they’ve both wagered around 2 billion yen. Itsuki ends up running out of funds, but Yumeko convinces her to wage her life (aka she’ll become a livestock for the rest of her life should she lose) for 10 billion yen.
Kaede tries to dispute the monetary value of Itsuki’s life, but the dealer says she’ll accept it. In response to Kaede’s protests, the dealer/vice-president takes off her mask and reveals herself to actually be Kirari! Kaede in turn answers by wagering his own life – since he’s projected to become the vice-minister of France, Kirari places the value of his life at around 10 billion yen, too.
Kaede thus has placed more on the table and gets to choose. He opts for Stronger – the hand with the higher value wins everything. His hand is a 3-ofa-kind (8’s) – but Yumeko actually has a 3-of-a-kind, too (Jack). Itsuki, who was pretending to lament, taunts Kaede as he falls into shock. The episode ends with Kirari and Yumeko both saying that they would like to have a gambling match with each other.
Thoughts
- With Kirari’s reveal, it seems like the actual vice-president is the one “talking” to the other family members at the beginning of the episode. She acts so much and looks so much like Kirari that I’m inclined to believe they are twins.
- I didn’t expect Itsuki to go so far as to rip off her finger nails in order to demonstrate her resolve. But her doing so was a sign of character development, considering that she was too afraid to challenge Yumeko when she brought up that option, and her way of showcasing her faith in Yumeko and her own abilities. I’m very queasy about those sort of finger nail scenes, by the way. But having her fingers wrapped up like that after the bloody aftermath was cool.
- It seems like Kaede is desperately trying to earn his father’s approval. As a young child, Kaede was told that he was to become the vice-minister of France and that he would be considered useless if he fails in doing so. Great parenting, Kaede’s father!
- While Kaede was having his life’s path laid out for him as a mere boy, he was clutching onto a book about piloting and airplanes. It seems like he had actually wanted to be a pilot, but that’s not the occupation his father wanted him to have. Another example of a childhood dream crushed. As such, it’s very fitting for a plane to fly across the sky on-screen after the match concludes. The aircraft is flying away as with Kaede’s life and long-term goals.
- I’m pretty sure Itsuki did like Kaede to some degree. Too bad things had to end up this way between them.
- Now the climatic fight between Yumeko and Kirari is about to begin – but is a single episode enough to capture everything?
- The reaction shared between Suzui and Mary when Kirari said their ordinary lives lack monetary value and couldn’t be used as collateral was hilarious, by the way.
- I rather enjoyed this episode. It felt like actual gambling occurred for once. No cheating, but plenty of mind games! I mean, Yumeko threw away a full house in order to make Kaede think she was going for a weak hand, but she was risking it with a 3-of-a-kind Jack! It was a thrilling episode (although hard to look at sometimes) – mainly because I really enjoyed seeing Kaede fall from grace despite being competent. Smug snakes slither in the ground spineless!
The Lily Garden 