kisui is ranting about Bet (Netflix)
This rant contain spoilers.
This month, Netflix released a TV series based on Serial Hit Manga Kakegurui. The original materials is a story about a Yumeko Jabami, who transferred to Hyakkaou Private Academy which is a super elitist school where the children of world leaders and conglomerates attended. They have so much power, the school has turned a mini casino where standings are decided by gambling prowess which supposedly translates to analysis, risk judgement and decision making skills.
I wouldn't go that much into the original material but personally I loved it! The word Kakegurui roughly translates to "Really Crazed for Gambling". The main character Yumeko Jabami is the embodiment of the title, TOTAL gambling addict. Not for money. Not for standings. She gambled for the sake of gambling! The whole story resolved around how she gambled in various different games, with heavy emphasis on relation (not relationship) and politics of the academy. FYI, other than the OG manga, Kakegurui has multiple spinoffs, a Japanese Anime and a Japanese Live Action too (which I believe none of them was bad but also not as good as the OG manga), which shows how popular and good the original materials.
Now let's move on to Bet (Netflix). It has the same exact premise as it is based on Kakegurui. Watching the first episode, you can see some characters are racially swapped, which make sense since unlike Kakegurui, Bet is set in the US. And what I can see is, they stick to the source material. Even with racially swapped actors, they all act decently and the highlight is Yumeko herself which really embodies the manga Yumeko. The craziness, the loftiness, the exaggerated expression. In the OG manga, Yumeko really loves gambling (yes, I said this, but her love for gambling is far beyond any obsessions). In Bet, Yumeko is slightly different, she really loves gambling but at the same time, she has a mission in Hyakkaou, which is to find the murderer of her parents. The manga doesn't have this plot line. Which again, this is just different, not necessarily bad. But that's only the first episode....
Now that you understand the context, we proceed to the rant!
The characters in the manga all have their own quirk, but a lot of them are children of the elites who are calculating, cold blooded and politically adept. Some of them has gangsters personality but all of them are basically not stupid. NOW, in Bet, the netflix series, what bothers me the most is how the shift the character personality and quirks! They use same name as original but not the personality and DECONSTRUCT THEM into Reality TV people! A flamboyant metrosexual! A bitchy girl! And a mandatory token Black with 0 personality! All of the beloved smart brain warfare are gone, replaced with, Tiktok level kind of annoying exagerated comics. The worst hit personally comes from Kira, The Big Bad Evil (Kirari in Kakegurui). In Kakegurui, She is the leader of the academy. Embodiment of Otherworldly Beauty, Elegance and Cold Calculating Smart. She is always calm and has that cold subtle smile that can bring people to its knees. People fears her even though she did nothing. Like a James Bond villain. She seems like someone who rules the world from higher dimension, people can't even comprehend what she thinks. In Bet, ALL OF IT ARE DESTROYED! Kira becomes a bitchy, incompetent, openly sadistic! And ultimately USELESS! They can adapt however they want but when they turned one of the most epic villain into a useless crybaby! They deserved A BIG RANT!
Second! Remember the title? Kakegurui? Crazed for Gambling? Yes! In Kakegurui, there are various kind of gamble, from pure luck, to skill based and even teamwork play. In Bet, ALL OF THEM ARE REDUCED TO HIGH AND LOW! YES, YOU PICK A CARD FROM YOUR HAND, YOUR OPPONENT DO THE SAME! HIGHER CARD WINS! ALL GAMES ARE VARIATION OF THAT! LITERALLY 0 STRATEGY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE! IT REALLY INSULTED ME, THEY THINK THE AUDIENCE IS SO STUPID THEY CAN'T COMPREHEND SOMETHING OTHER THAN HIGH LOW! IT'S GAMBLING NOT CHILDREN GAME!
Connected to second rant! The OG Manga is all about gambling with side plot of backstory and politics. They heavily invested in strategy, psychology and risk judgement. In Bet, I CAN CONFIDENTLY SAYS THERE'S NO GAMBLING AND NO CONSEQUENCES! Gamble is just tools for drama. All kind of games (WHICH IS ONLY HIGH LOW) become montage for people to cry, how YUMEKO WINS and BAD PEOPLE LOSES BOOHOO! If you expected gambling series, THIS IS NOT IT! THIS IS TEENAGE SCHOOL DRAMA with GAMBLING as AFTERTHOUGHTS!
LASTLY THE THING THAT INSULTED ME IS THE PLOT! Kakegurui is originally Japanese. They have a concept there of "Face", a persona they show in public which highlight social subtleties. Many Japanese work have that and in Kakegurui, it becomes one of the core. As such, social death especially in higher strata is worse than actual death! One example of this is, when people loses they are not dead or hospitalized, they suffer social death! They become mentally crazy, empty shells, or even reduced to just an extra with no name. Nothing that can be punished by law, as no law is broken.
They keyword SUBTLE! In BET, IT IS DISCARDED FOR THE SAKE OF DRAMA! Yumeko becomes an ASSASSIN TERRORIST who is emotional and out for revenge! YES THEY EVEN DESTROYED HER CHARACTER! SHE USED POISONS TO TRY AND KILL PEOPLE AND EVEN AT THE END OF THE SEASON, SHE KILLED STAB SOMEONE TO DEATH BLOODILY! AND HERE WE HAVE ALL WORLD LEADERS, DECISION MAKER, PEOPLE WHO SUPPOSEDLY CLAIMED POWER USING COLD BLOODED TACTICS JUST GASPING WITHOUT A SINGLE BRAIN! KIRA TRIED TO KILL HER TWIN SISTER BY CHOKING HER IN FRONT OF HER PARENTS AND HER PARENTS DID NOTHING OTHER THAN HOLDING GLASS OF WINE! YUMEKO POISONED KIRA AND THEY BOTH ARE DYING IN ROOM FULL OF 20 ADULTS! AND NOBODY BATS AN EYE!
And these are just some sample. If you are a hardcore fan, you would find a lot of more things to complains, like the romance plot (Kakegurui doesn't have strong romance, since it focuses on CRAZE FOR GAMBLING). If you are new to the franchise, please don't take this as part of it. You would find stupid, generic, American Netflix teenage drama which is just carbon copy of all their teenage drama. If they think bitchy, snarky personality is cool, maybe... BUT NOT IF EVERYONE IS LIKE THAT!
To be honest, I like the first episode! It is really cool, like Americanized Kakegurui but still has the soul of Kakegurui! But it soon transforms into an amalgam of stupidity, trash, and deserved to be forever forgotten generic series. They turned psychological and tactical warfare gambling series into Bad Kill Bill revenge drama (without any actions and has 0 brain), and she doesn't even revenge successfully.
I would rate first episode 8/10 then with each episode reduce 1 until it reaches negatives/10.
That's it for today's rant. kisui out!