Kakegurui (賭ケグルイ) (also known as Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler) is a 2017 television anime series based on Homura Kawamoto’s manga series of the same name. It was produced by studio MAPPA with director Yuichiro Hayashi, writer Yuichiro Hayashi and music composed by Technoboys Pulcraft Green-Fund. The series first broadcast in Japan on July 2017 as part of the Summer season.
Background:
“During daylight hours, an exclusive, elite private school prepares its illustrious students for careers in business, politics, and high society. But when darkness falls, the halls of this esteemed establishment transform into an underground gambling den where bright-eyed youngsters learn the timeless art of bluffing, backdoor dealings and social manipulation. In this school for the rich and elite, money is power, and the tyrant of the betting books rules with an iron fist. So when the beautiful Yumeko Jabami upsets the academy hierarchy with her voracious appetite for the thrill of the gamble, the entire student body mobilizes to send her house of cards tumbling down.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, January 2022
MAPPA got to a point in which they pretty much would adapt or produce an original series and still get the attention of the anime community. I do enjoy a lot of their works like Jujutsu Kaisen and Terror in Resonance, but early on they also adapted Kakegurui which managed to receive two seasons and an upcoming adaptation of the spin-off Kakegurui Twins. Kakegurui‘s first season does end on a non-canon note, but performed well enough to continue adapting the source material with the second season.
Kakegurui also ended up being one of the few shows that got picked up by Netflix for their platform, so the international audience had to wait many months before they would be able to watch it legally. That said, the benefit of Netflix is that many languages will have a dub and subtitle translation, and the English dub was very well-received amongst the fans in the community.
However, Netflix doesn’t like to play nice. Anime Limited managed to acquire the UK & Ireland home video rights back in February 2018 but its release plans got delayed because of the challenges of trying to get access to the Netflix English dub. It is also quite poor timing considering it was roughly around the same point in which the Netflix dubs started to become much harder to acquire, and unfortunately they weren’t able to get it due to high costs.
Sentai Filmworks licensed the series in August 2021 and because of the same reasons as Anime Limited, they weren’t able to get their hands on the Netflix dub so they decided to make their own, which they have also done for other Netflix exclusives like BAKI and Hero Mask. The Sentai dub is not as well received, but that’s likely because the Netflix dub was highly regarded as one of the best dubs of recent memory so they tried their best I suppose.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
While North American fans had to deal with a regular release, Anime Limited offered UK fans of Kakegurui a collector’s edition package.
The package is presented as a rigid box with a digipack to house the discs and alongside the case is a 36-page booklet and 4 rounded art cards. The booklet features character designs and artwork from the series. A certain number of units also came included with a set of Kakegurui themed playing cards which are exclusive to the AllTheAnime store.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £59.99.
The series was one of the 11 anime titles made available for pre-order as an Early Bird during Anime Limited’s 12 Days of Christmas 2021 sale. It was on offer for £34.99, but with the Anime (Un)Limited discount lowered the price to £31.50.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork and Digipack packaging
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 36-page Booklet
- 4 Art Cards
- Kakegurui-themed Playing Cards
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 31st January 2022
The collector’s edition release for Kakegurui contains all 12 episodes across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode and authoring produced by Sentai Filmworks. Because Netflix is not playing nice (i.e. their dubs are too expensive to license), Sentai produced their own English dub for the series and that is what’s included on the UK disc to go alongside the Japanese audio with English subtitles.
The yellow subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are playable to Blu-ray players set to A & B, though as it’s based on the Sentai disc which was geolocked it’s likely to be the same effect here.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 (1 BD-50, 1 BD-25) |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- Clean Opening “Deal with the Devil”
- Clean Closing “LAYon-theLINE”
- Maid Cafe Hyakkao Shorts
- Sentai Trailers
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Kakegurui is available to order across multiple retailers in the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition Blu-ray can be acquired on Amazon.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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