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The show that gave me a new term for a certain pet peeve.
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I have been watching anime for a long time. Actively I would say 11 years. Throughout that time I do not remember a situation where I was so fixated on one certain aspect that completely capitulated everything else. That is where I am with the faces in Kakugurui.
These issues with obnoxious faces is nothing new for me. I have the same feelings for Daily Lives of High School Boys and Drifters. But Kakegurui has achieved a level of obnoxious faces into a territory that has not been explored that I shall deem as egregious faces.

The show’s art style is presented in a way that resembles sadistic hentai with these faces. I for one am not a masochist nor a sadist that will get enjoyment from an entertainment medium that way. I also am not a hentai fan so when you add the sweat and the lips/drool that helps take it to that egregious level.

This shows theme is based on a school where gambling gets you to the top of the totem pole. I for one am someone who likes the game of poker. I watch the World Series of Poker every year. I even had a favorite poker player in Phil Hellmuth. So I was optimistic that at least like the action in Drifters I can find satisfaction in the gambling of the show.

Unfortunately the gambling we got was a mix of redundant themes and girls over-powering on masochism. But even if the gambling was more satisfactory it is hard to enjoy any battle of strategy when your bombarded by egregious faces left and right.

By this point I already had all these negative feelings towards Yumeko. Queue stage left a Yumeko on steroids named Midari Ikishima. During her dedicated episodes is where I just lost all hope for this show because when you put the theme of death into the show that changes everything. This isn’t about riding the economic train to the top of a gambling school. Your bringing in the theme that you can actually die in this school. That was the moment the stake went into the heart for the setting.

Midari is also apart of the student council that are the main villains of the show. They are a conglomerate of individuals that have come together to hold a monopoly on the school. The basis of the show is for Yumeko to take them down one by one. The entirety of the show continues to try and make the student council even more sadistic than Yumeko herself. They try to establish a higher-level sadism that is not accepted to make you not like these characters. But if you already have Yumeko pass that level the effect is just completely negated.

Basically every character was doing these gambling orgasms. It is the same issue the entire show. Even when they gave me an architype that I tend to enjoy in a villain in glasses. The enthusiasm dwindled away quite quickly thanks to once again from Yumeko’s orgasms. So I can confidently say that the Characters, Enjoyment, and Art are all a 1 out of 10.

I’ve already covered how the setting is decapitated. But we do have progression. There is an end game to the show. They do not waste much time with frivolous OVA content. That is something I can put up as a 2 out of 10. Now bringing it up to a 3 out of 10 is another story. There was a lot of empty transition from going to the next student council member. There also was never a proper hierarchy build out so I can understand the level of difficulty increasing. They don’t really have much time to build up to it though. Their goal seemed to be to have the main event match-up in this entry. I can settle of a borderline 3 out of 10 with the story.

So what it comes down to is music. I tend not to deviate my music score much from the rest of the show. I tend not to value it that highly. The ending song is okay but I do have major issues with the performance from Tia in the OP. There was a real turn-off for me listening to this nasally running on voice she used in the song. I’ve skipped the OP every time since episode 2. So with that I’d have to give another 1 out of 10.

I’ve never experienced something so off-putting in anime like Kakegurui and it is going to be a benchmark for me when it comes to off-putting themes. If anything is as off-putting as the egregious faces and gambling orgasms then it will be a contender for a 1 out of 10 on my rating scale. For Anilist I'll give the show a 10 out of 100. Because at least were not getting episodic themes. So the story will keep it at a base 1 out of 10.