What's in an OP? - Kakegurui's "Plot" Decoded

from the moment the first episode aired you guys have been asking me to cover kakei's opening and I really can't blame you this sco Yamamoto directed opening is a wild bombastic psychosexual trip not to mention packed to the brim with manga references it manages to encapsulate the first six volumes of the manga into just a minute and a half giving Jojo and MOB psycho 100 a run for their money obviously that means this video is going to contain manga spoilers but if you want to get caught up in a hurry book ER kadokawa's manga and light novel ebook store is releasing this manga simultaneously in English as it comes out in Japan 40-page chapters are just two bucks a pop and by using the promo code basement for a 600 Yen discount you can get the first volume for just over a Dollar by the way if you're a fan of No Game No Life then you're going to want to stick around to the end of this video to find out how using the promo code basement on bookwalker could win you a beautiful No Game No Life poster or a gorgeous PVC figurine of she but for now without further Ado let's get into analyzing things kakei's opening kicks off literally with the legs of three different girls doing a little dance in front of a trippy background through the science of zetti ryoki analysis we can determine that these are yumo Mary Chan and kirar momobami the student council president let's get the elephant in the room or should I say the fish out of the way immediately all of the fish and fruits floating around in the background of the opening are also references specifically to kirari's perception of hako private Academy at multiple points the student council president refers to the school as both her personal Garden of Eden and a private aquarium full of exotic fish that she gets to watch devour each other which goes a long way toward explaining all of the dinner table imagery in this op as well on a pair of these tables we see Mary and kirari laid out and ready to be eaten which yo looks all too eager to do this series is known for its AA Expressions that would be sex faces for the uninitiated so it's good to see that they kept those in the open as well before we move on I just want to pause for a second to appreciate the way that this op uses its titles having them fall in and out of place chaotically and twitch erratically along with the music is a nice touch that adds to the crazy atmosphere of this op on top of that the animation of yode dancing between the tables is really slick which it should be cuz they use it twice and it gives you an immediate sense of her playful and incurably hedonistic personality as she dances off screen we jump to the title overlaid with a pair of suggested outstretched legs this op has a real thing for conflating the pleasures of gambling eating and sex speaking of sex from the title we jump to an upskirt shot of Salto Mary using riota who is her pet at the start of the story as a chair Gigi wanted me to provide an in-depth analysis of this shot in particular if you know what I mean but I think the meaning is actually pretty obvious this shot connects the concept of gambling once again to titilation as does this next highly suggestive between leg shot of you looking at Mary in just about any film this kind of shot typically suggests two things first that the person with the legs is in a position of power over the person between them and secondly that they're about to [ __ ] which they kind of do as long as you consider gambling to be sex which yo certainly does and yo is certainly in a position of power here considering that she plays Mary for the entire game without her realizing it's happening something really interesting about this shot is that Mary is framed underneath one of the Arches that surr rounds them while yumo stands between two other arches her head uncovered these arches show up around every major character in this op and they're quite the interesting symbol arches are frequently seen at the entrances to casinos so they have an entrenched association with gambling but traditionally they also represent Divine protection of the people underneath them which is why they're frequently used in weddings all of the antagonists are framed under an arch made from their gambling Implements of choice symbolizing the protection May gain from cheating with those implements the first time we see Yo she's standing without that protection showing her willingness to take true risks where other people don't yo picks out one of the rock paper scissors cards from the first game that she plays against Mary riota knows that Mary is cheating and gives yo a worried look but Mary socks him in the back of the head to keep him in line as we pan up to her face we briefly see her glancing deviously at her own hand before giving more of an innocent look to the camera again confirming that she's cheating next up we see II kissing Yo's foot specifically her toenail which is just dense with double meaning firstly the more obvious meaning is that iuki collects other people's nails and gambles yumo for the right to ripers off her fingers which would be pretty [ __ ] up if she actually did it unfortunately for iy she loses this match which eventually leads to the second meaning of this shot later in the story during the idol Showdown Arc iy ends up switching sides from the student council and pledging her allegiance to yo hoping that she'll overthrow the council president and take over the school II eventually puts her life on the line for yumo over a hand of Poker which makes this positioning very appropriate this also gives extra meaning to the double arch of cards behind the two of them which you'd initially think is simply a symbolic representation of the two decks of rigged cards that ety uses in her memory game during the poker game against Kay though their intertwined Fates are put up as collateral with the cards being the only thing that can protect them we Zoom away from the pair through the Opera goggles of Yuro and into her culture club's gambling Den the arch behind her encircles the rigged sword roulette board that she uses to build up her club's coffers with a wicked smile and an equally Wicked twang of the Bas we zoom out to see yurio's dealer holding her dice cup as well as umaru standin Runa playing games and eating snacks in her karumi over in the corner The Forest of trees behind yuo picked almost bare save for a handful of ripe fruits is a visual metaphor for the way that she's amassed wealth by cheating the people who come to gamble with her following this we cut to midari the head of the beautification committee holding a revolver to the head of some faceless girl who's been strung up upside down this is something that happens after the debt meeting that's currently happening in the anime which the op skips over because it's only really interested in showing us the student council not the minor villain of that Arc the arch above her is inlay with the symbol cards used to play the ESP game that she plays against yo while the lattice behind her is reminiscent of the grid that they actually play that game on while the upside down girl's face is replaced with a strawberry it's pretty easy to tell from the way that she's dressed that she's actually also midari so when midari splatters her head with the revolver which is totally okay to show on TV because you know it's a strawberry it actually shows us her near suicidal fetish for putting herself in danger rather than any sort of violent impulses the stage that we see next and the arch of detend around Yi are both references to the idol competition that she holds to take down yo with the d10 being used to decide which Idol contest they'll play next both of these shots are mostly just straightforward references but she sure looks cute don't she Kay seems nonplused by her cuteness as he sits in the back of the auditorium between Runa and the vice president both of whom have had their heads replaced with limes this could be a reference to the fact that the president is secretly wearing the vice president's mask as a disguise in this scene while Runa secretly betrayed umi's plans behind the scene Kay is also sitting underneath an arch of limes and playing cards which are color negative because the poker game that he plays with them allows for the lowest hand to win instead of the highest hand pulling out we see Mary looking back at kaday she's framed alone in the audience because she as a non-member of the fan club is the random element that throws a wrench into Yi and kade's plant next we see a beautifully animated shot of Yo and Yi dancing together which syncs up perfectly with the music and represents a key plot point you mayi and yo teaming up against Kay after their competition also it must be said that Idol yo is Bay the next shot of Student Council secretary saaka falling into water followed by President kirari seems like a straightforward Yuri bait shot on the surface and they totally are in lesbians with each other in the show but there's more to it than that it's actually a reference to the end of the Tower of doors's Arc where saaka jumps off the tower as part of losing her bet and the president jumps after her once they hit the crash mat hidden under the field at the foot of the tower the president licks a bloody bruise on sayaka's forehead pretty much exactly like she does here this has led a lot of manga readers to suspect that the anime will go all the way to the end of volume 6 which would be a nice conclusive place to end the series but also kind of crazy since that would mean covering 18 40-page chapters in the next eight episodes of the show however it could end a lot earlier since the next shot of all of the girls indulging in cocktails while midari indulges in a mock suicide contains an image of Mary and ety sharing a glass that's very similar to a panel from chapter 42 of the manga which came out right before the show started airing now that may not be a reference at all but if it is the show obviously isn't going to go that far and it may not get as far as the character shots sneakily summarize either though as we're about to see it probably will now as for the drinking shot itself it's pretty simple and it mainly serves just to give us a cute creative snapshot of the alliances that form over the course of the story and build up to the confrontation between yo and the president following this we see yumo running excitedly to eat something with the exact same animation they used at the start of the op only this time it's herself on the table she climbs up to dig in with another one of those Ultra suggestive between the leg shots that we mentioned earlier and then buries her face in her own breasts this shot demonstrates that umo's allc consuming need to gamble is at once self-destructive and self-gratifying and is maybe the best masturbation metaphor I've ever seen especially from a show that's not afraid to put the real thing on screen I have a sneaking suspicion that yo might be replaced by the President and Vice President in a later revision of this op as well once it's revealed that the two of them are twins this is a perfect place to put that plot twist next up it's a nervous ryota's turn on the table as almost all of the girls we've seen previously line up to take a bite of him this neatly sums up his position at the start of the story as everyone's Whipping Boy and the mixing of gambling cards and poker chips with the food on the table is a nice little touch their meal is interrupted as yo crawls across the table to devour riota herself and several of them seem to be upset that she's taking him away most notably Mary riota doesn't look too happy about this either but as she starts digging in she instead loosens his tie which seems to be more than a little sexually gratifying for the both of them especially yo who likes it so much that she explodes into bubbles this shot highlights rota's sexual attraction to Yo as well as the way that she encourages him to loosen up and take more risks as the series goes on and the way that she disappears right at this moment of release mirrors how the president whisks her away to the Tower of doors right as rioto realizes that he has feelings for her right after this we see the president bemusedly watching Yo's bubbles Ascend in a spiral representing the ascent of the spiral staircase that she takes up the tower of doors which does lend a lot of credence to the idea that the anime might end at that point the last little vignette shows yo dancing with the president and both of them seem to be really enjoying it ultimately both characters are encourageable gamblers who Delight in the simple thrill of risk for themselves and others and they really just want to gamble with each other for the fun of it not for any particular Vendetta or sense of animosity that we know of yet although that won't stop them from destroying each other in the process in the Final Shots the president Whispers something seductively into Yo's ear probably a proposal for the Tower of doors Gamble and yo seems to be really into it we end on a repeat of the dancing feet that kicked off the op only this time one pair vanishes in a puff of bubbles since both yumo and the president wear identical socks it's left up to our interpretation who those feet belong to just as it's uncertain which of them will end up destroying the other at the end of the story it's also uncertain whether those feet that cut in between them are still marri's they could also be sakas since she also wears n Soxs which is another hint that the anime could end on her confrontation with yo at the tower of doors I hope that they don't rush to that point though as the series strongest point so far has been its impeccable pacing regardless of where the anime goes though it's remarkable how much of the story they manag to sneak into this op all while making it look cool trippy and exciting this is a strong Contender for the best op of the year so far I just wish that the story itself actually lived up to the op's hype now I don't think Kake goui is a bad show or a bad manga for that matter like I said I read the whole thing for this video on bookwalker and as a quirky hypersexual High School dramedy it was a good read I enjoyed it a lot it's just that other anime handily beat it at the whole actual gambling thing shows like kaii and No Game No Life are just better at making game strategies exciting and creating high stakes that's a topic for another video but speaking of No Game No Life it's available on the bookwalker store as well and from now until August 8th they're celebrating the release of the feature film prequel No Game No Life zero as well as the English launch of volume 6 with a giveaway for anyone who buys one of the light novels up for grabs are a $100 PVC figurine from aquamarine of shirou in a swimsuit and 10 exclusive posters of jibril and shuvi from the film and if you use the coupon code basement at checkout for a 600 Yen discount not only will you be able to enter this contest for Just Two Bucks not only will you be able to pick up where the anime left off and start reading the light novels you'll also be given an extra chance to win one of two more No Game No Life posters that book Walker is giving away exclusively to viewers of Mother's basement now bear in mind that that coupon will only work for accounts that have been created within the last few months and will only work once but obviously if you're creating a new bookwalker account for the sake of entering the contest you don't have to worry about those restrictions at all it's also worth noting that you'll be entered to win one of those posters if you use that coupon to buy any book on the store that cost more than 600 Yen before August 8th now with that said a bunch of kodona manga including chihaya furu great teacher onuka Sur D children Altier and giant killing are on sale for 620 Yen a pop which means that you can get any one of those for the equivalent of 15 cents and win a poster that is a crazy easy deal or if you buy volume 6 of No Game No Life you can get that poster as a beautiful 1920x 1200 desktop wallpaper ready to be blown up with waifu 2x for your 4K screen enjoyment no matter what you buy though remember that even if you lose you get to read whatever manga or light novel you buy which is exactly the kind of win-win gamble that would probably bore you makeo jabami to tears how's that for a return segue let me know in the comments below which girl from Kake goui is your favorite or if that's not your jam what other Ops you'd like to see me cover because I'm about to get back on the what's in an OP train in a big way now that I'm settled into my new place and while you're down there you should know that it is not a gamble to hit the Subscribe button you are guaranteed to get great videos about anime and sometimes video games sent to your inbox every single week if you're itching to see more of me right now and you want to hear me talk about another Sayo Yamamoto production then you should check out my discussion of how yurian ice could potentially be improved right up here or if you're interested in more money related schemes then you should check out this comparison between the first volume of spice and Wolf's light novel and the anime if this is the last I see of you today though I'm Jeff th professional [ __ ] signing out from my mother's basement

Channel: Mother's Basement

Views: 516,252

Keywords: Mother's Basement, What's in an OP?, Anime, Anime Analysis, Kakegurui, Compulsive Gambler, Kadokawa, Studio MAPPA, Deal With the Devil, Kakegurui OP, Kakegurui Opening, Anime Opening Analysis, Kakegurui Analysis, Kakegurui OP analysis, Yumeko Jyabami, Sexy Gambling Anime, anime (tv genre), op, what's in an op, theme song, manga, criticism, opening, critique, opening analysis, netflix, bookwalker, No Game No Life, Contest, Giveaway

Id: DkbpNu0xDcA

Length: 16min 15sec (975 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 29 2017