Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler Vol. 2 Review

Title: Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler Volume 2
Author: Homura Kawamoto (story), Toru Naomura (art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Chapters: 4
Pages: 175
Genre: Shounen Drama

This manga doesn’t exactly pick up where Volume 1 left off. It does, but it doesn’t.  The cliffhanger that they left the reader on is touched upon briefly only to get sidetracked by the Debt Forgiveness arc.  Essentially, Yumeko finds a flyer where the student council is holding an assembly for students who owe too much money from their losses with gambling.  It is here where they will be given a second chance by having their debt erased, granted if they can win a game involving gambling.

The first chapter of the volume sets this up while the three remaining chapters take use through the game being played, which is Indian Poker.  We are also introduced to a couple of supporting characters in Tsubomi and her classmate Kiwatari.. each with their own personalities.  We even get a little bit of a look into Tsubomi’s background as well!  The volume ends on another cliffhanger, so you’ll have to wait until volume three to see just what the outcome truly is!

Final Word
I like the fact that they went into the background of a character, but I don’t like the fact that it was a support character. We still have two main characters with little to no history and little to no character development and we’re eight chapters in. There isn’t even any subtle hints or tidbits that would suggest anything about Meami or Yumeko. The fact that they placed an emphasis on Tsubomi is a little disappointing. I can only hope that the rest of the series doesn’t end up like this. It’s fine for the author to give their characters a history, but to put support characters ahead of main characters is kind of baffling. I had no reason to care about Tsubomi’s past before the poker game and unless she becomes a mainstay in the series, I’m not really going to care about her afterwards. Her back story didn’t even aid the main characters or the main plot at all so it felt like it wasn’t even really needed.

Just like in the first volume, the theme of cheating prevailed here once again and I’m already getting tired and bored of it. It’s really showing the creator’s lack of imagination because there is a lot of potential for the manga to be amazing, but it’s not going to get there if the creator is just going to rehash the same mechanic over and over again. I understand the premise though… nobody wants to be in debt. Debt is a soul crushing feeling and people will do anything to avoid it or to get out of it… even if they have to cheat. I get that’s the message that the author is trying to send here, but when we’ve had a total of four different games over two volumes and the theme has been cheating every single time, it gets tiresome.

I will await Volume three to see if they take this in another direction that is more interesting, but if this is par for the course for the rest of the series, then this is probably a manga best suited to skip.

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