This contains full spoilers.

I’ve now watched every version of Kakegurui available; the Japanese Anime, the Japanese adaption, and now the Canadian adaption. Nothing is ever going to top the Anime adaption of the Manga, but I must confess that I actually liked parts of this way more than the Japanese adaption. The Japanese adaption is largely a 1:1 copy of the Anime in a shortened microcosm with the male lead being a bit more obnoxious for the purpose of comedy. The Canadian adaption diverges into its own plot and events, but with the same general themes. In the original story, Yumeko represents more of a metaphor than an in-depth character which is why many anime fans preferred Kakegurui Twin with Saotome Mary displaying far more introspective depth, flaws, and goals like an actual person. The Japanese adaption keeps the original intent in mind and the actress for the Japanese adaption didn’t stray from that idea, while trying to add a dash of personality to a character representing a metaphor. The Canadian version fuses the original concept of Yumeko with the thoughts, feelings, and struggles of Mary from the Anime. She actually feels like a person now and retains what makes Yumeko special; her insatiable drive to keep gambling on fair chance bets.

After how embarrassed Netflix producers seemed by Anime, I’m surprised the housepet system was part of the plot, especially by Canadians who aren’t known for as firm a faith in Free Speech as we Americans, yet this show proved that to be an incorrect notion on my part. A significant change is that Ryota’s Canadian counterpart named Ryan actually has a personality, a background, and a clearer relationship with Yumeko beyond just a crush in this character iteration; whereas the Japanese live-action version tried to emphasize comedy that fell flat to try to give the character more depth. The biggest divergence is the Canadian iteration of Kirari (named Kira). I have no problems with her being made a descendant of Russian oligarchs, but this feels more like a reimagining of Sayaka, who is Kirari’s personal assistant, than Kirari herself. In fairness, the Anime adaption has shown Yumeko and Sayaka’s personality clash more clearly and repeatedly and the Canadian writers may have felt that Kira’s original personality just wouldn’t work because she’s literally just the same as Yumeko with the sole difference being that she doesn’t believe in equal rights like Yumeko does. Both Anime versions of Yumeko and Kirari are metaphors for greed instead of fully-fleshed out characters. The Canadian writers changed this by fusing different character traits into one character. The Canadian adaption of Momobami Kirari, named Kira Timurov, tries to present an outer disposition of the Kirari that we know from the Anime, but internally and gradually to the audience is revealed to have the same personality as the anime version of Igarashi Sayaka. Kira Timurov seeks control over all things to prove her worth in inheriting her family legacy. I found this change to be interesting and even refreshing, because it helped build a thorough personality clash between the more thrill-seeking and risk-loving Yumeko. The clash feels real just like the clashes between Sayaka and Yumeko in the Anime, whereas the clash between Kirari and Yumeko in the Anime had build-up but they always need the focus to be on a supporting character’s growth from Ryota in Season 1 to Sayaka in Season 2, because the anime versions have the same personality. The ending of season one being a team-up between Yumeko and Kira seems really interesting to me and I hope to see how that dynamic plays out.

As far as the other characters: when comparing Ryan and Ryota . . . I’ve watched both the Anime and Japanese live-action, and I honestly have to say that Ryan is probably the best version of Ryota, solely because . . . he has a personality. The Japanese live-action revolved around jokes and the Anime version basically gets dumped into tertiary character status once Mary gets more character development and works with Yumeko in the anime. Unfortunately, the live-action Japanese adaption and the anime adaption of Mary are way better than the Canadian adaption. The Canadian version doesn’t get as much focus and basically takes the role of Ryota from the Anime, where she’s more a tertiary character outside of love-triangle jealousy that I had no interest in. Basically, the Canadian live-action version of Yumeko is actually a fusion of Anime Yumeko’s thrill-seeking and fun-loving personality with anime Saotome Mary’s doubts, apprehensions, and feelings of betrayal and abandonment. Yumeko has an arc where she gets betrayed by Ryan, Mary, and the Canadian adaption of Manyuda Kaeda. Thus, the Canadian live-action version of Yumeko is really fun to watch, but it is at the expense of Canadian Live-action Saotome Mary having any real character depth outside of a love-triangle plot point. Her personality is there, but she’s a character who is repeatedly overshadowed by the conflict of Canadian Live-Action Yumeko vs Kira or Ryan’s personal growth. I ended-up really liking the outcome, to my surprise. The Canadian Yumeko is a fusion of Yumeko and Mary versus the Canadian adaption of Kira being a fusion of Kirari and Sayaka; this makes it a rather refreshing conflict, but the Saotome Mary character is just tertiary to it. I would argue that it is mainly because the character of Ryan is a vastly improved version of Ryota and thus overshadows her too, on top of the changes already mentioned. I feel really surprised admitting this, but . . . this is probably my favorite version of Yumeko and Kira, because the conflict feels earned and genuine. This Yumeko feels more like a person trying her best to work out obstacles, but gets repeatedly betrayed and trampled over by people who want to keep their heads down due to their own fears and insecurities. The all-knowing, all-powerful Yumeko of the Anime that represents a metaphor for greed is replaced by someone with actual thoughts, goals, and who can have their feelings hurt by being letdown or betrayed. Ryan letting Yumeko down in this version, becomes a character arc where has to apologize and make it up for what was essentially cowardice with the results being Yumeko getting mistreated by the school. It helped to give both their characters compelling story arcs.

Riri Timurov’s differences from Momobami Ririka was interesting and I hope there’s more revealed behind it, because it seems like she could play a stronger role in Season 2 of the Canadian Live-action with her plausibly taking up the villain role. I thought what they did with Kaeda’s counterpart was interesting and time constraints being what they are, I understood why the change occurred. I thought he was fine. The Canadian versions of Itsuki Sumeragi and Ikishima Midari are worthless abominations that don’t reflect anything like the original characters and I make no defense for them. In fact, the Tsuki gay guy’s arc was so fucking stupid with the whole “I pretended to die” crap that weakened the story in my opinion. The “why can’t I be normal!?” scene by the abomination that replaced Midari was such forced cringe that I was bored watching it. Enough said.

I don’t know what to rate it, I’m a bit skeptical of one of the latter plot points of Yumeko’s mother rumored to have survived the car explosion, but so far it seems good and I am looking forward to Season 2. A lot of it seems to hinge on Season 2, so I’ll refrain from rating it until Season 2 is out and I can marathon it. But overall, I did enjoy watching this Canadian live-action adaption of Kakegurui. I can understand being annoyed if it didn’t follow the Japanese anime as closely as possible, but that is literally what the Japanese-live action adaption is and that is one of the reasons I wasn’t annoyed by the changes. I would say this is worth watching for anyone on the fence about it.