Kakegurui: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Kakegurui: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Kakegurui: Season 1 is an action-packed anime. Created by Homura Kawamoto and Tōru Naomura, the anime series explores the world of elite card playing and the stakes of slavery. Released on streaming service Netflix, the series is distributed on home media by Anime Limited in the United Kingdom. The anime is dark and grittier compared to most anime series.

Yumeko Jabami (Saori Hayami) enrolls in the wealthy and elite Hyakkaou Private Academy. The school is expensive and one that most students can never dream to ever afford and won’t be able to attend. This might be a good thing for those lucky students as the school has a reputation for corruption and danger for the student body. Yikes!

Students must play high stake card games that could lead to enslavement to their “debt holder” owner: becoming the servants of the winners. Yet the stakes are sometimes even more dangerous than that as students can stand to risk their lives. The dangers ahead are ominous and only the best card players can make it to the next semester. Can Yumeko manage her hand as a new transfer student?

The central protagonist is a compelling character. Yumeko is certainly an interesting lead and has plenty of spunk as the lead. The character is taken on quite the journey as she attends the elite Hyakkaou Private Academy. Fighting for her life, the girl has all the right moves to stay ahead of the curve.

The animation is one of the strengths of Kakegurui: Season 1. The animation is hypnotic and compelling. The production showcases a creative art style that makes the high stakes world of the elite school all the more fascinating. Under the art direction of Haruka Matsuda (Jujutsu Kaisen) and Masanobu Nomura (Hyperdimension Neptunia), Kakegurui: Season 1 is a success. The art style evokes drama and fits the series.

The character designs by Manabu Akita (The God of High School, Garo: Vanishing Line) manage to bring these characters to life. Akita provided strong designs for each of the students and the design effort on lead character Yumeko is especially memorable and compelling. The aesthetic is gothic in style and fits the genre of the series.

The cinematography by Takashi Yanagida (Dusk maiden of Amnesia, Samurai Warriors) provides a lushly visual quality to the production. The cinematographic approach provides bright and colorful lensing by Yanagida while exploring the foundations of the animation. A solid effort by Yanagida and one that fits the style of the series well.

The score by TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND (Beautiful Bones: Sakurako’s Investigation, Witch Craft Works) is reasonably engaging and a decent backdrop to the production. The music isn’t the greatest part of the series but it is serviceable and fits the mood. The score has fun with the genre elements.

Written by Yasuko Kobayashi (Attack on Titan, Casshern Sins), Kakegurui: Season 1 has fun playing with the genre concept. Kobayashi enjoys exploring the dark side of anime and this is an example of how concepts in the genre can be dark and entertaining at the same time. Kobayashi remembers that exploring the characters is a part of the key to the success of the program and the lead character certainly conveys these fundamentals.

Directed by Yuichiro Hayashi (Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Garo: Divine Flame), Kakegurui: Season 1 is a darker-than-usual anime series. The production has some interesting creative concepts and the filmmaking is certainly something that pushes the envelope for the animators involved on the series production. The anime has some compelling elements and audiences looking for a dark and grim series should find it worthwhile.

Kakegurui: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Anime Limited, Kakegurui: Season 1 is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The picture quality on the release is superb. The animation looks colorful and crisp on the release. The background art is well reproduced. The encoding capably handles the action scenes and the dark and gothic tones of the series. A solid effort and sourced from the same material used from North America distributor Sentai Filmworks (as licensed for the United Kingdom by Anime Limited).

Kakegurui: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo (with English subtitles). The high-resolution audio provides the production with crisp and dynamic audio and the soundtrack is well reproduced (with the music providing depth and excitement to the production).

Kakegurui: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Clean Opening Animation (HD, 1:38)

Clean Closing Animation (HD, 1:32)

Maid Café Hyakkaou (HD, 7:38) is a bonus short anime film which fans of the series won't want to miss.

The release also includes a selection of trailers promoting other releases available from Sentai Filmworks: High School of the Dead (HD, 00:32), Kaiji (HD, 00:52), Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time (HD, 1:34), and Alice in Borderland (HD, 1:32).

Kakegurui: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kakegurui: Season 1 is a darker than usual anime and it has plenty of atmosphere to boot. The production has a grim take on "school" woes and the adrenaline that comes from that environment: the stakes of becoming a slave to a master are high. Can Yumeko avoid becoming a slave? Fighting for her freedom, Yumeko pushes herself to be the best student at the school. The Blu-ray release features a strong video and audio presentation. The set also includes a short animated special entitled Maid Café Hyakkaou. Fans of the series will want to pick up the set for the included short film and the excellent presentation quality. Director Yuichiro Hayashi (Attack on Titan: The Final Season) provides the series with the dark atmosphere needed to tell the story. The production certainly finds the right tone for a dark and gritty series. The Anime Limited release is sourced from the master used by North America distributor Sentai Filmworks. Recommended.