Less raunchy and more fun with Netflix's adaptation of 'Kakegurui'

TimesLIVE

03-06-2025

When it comes to Netflix's new show Bet, it is important to understand that it's subjectively bad. It's just another teen drama that doesn't move the genre forward in any way and doesn't bring anything in terms of its main plot that hasn't been done in local and international counterparts like Young Royals and Blood & Water. However, the series shines as an adaptation of its anime original.
Alongside the 'book is better than the movie' arguments that are debated often by fans of both genres, manga (Japanese comics) and anime have had the same relationship among their fans — especially when anime adaptations water down the original content due to censorship or for marketing reasons. This was the fate of one of the original gambling manga, Yu-Gi-Oh, which was adapted for screen with its in-story monster card game rather than the wars waged over deadly parlour and board games.
This brings us to Netflix's latest anime adaptation, Bet, which follows Yumeko Jabami, a childish savant who becomes fixated with gambling in her attempt to avenge her dead parents. Eclipsed by the success of One Piece, the series has big shoes to fill in what was deemed as the best anime adaptation by fans of the genre. Except One Piece was not an adaptation but a retelling. Bet shuffled a new deck of cards, and it was good.
Since the popularity of shows like 2007's Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars (also adaptations), the teen drama genre has held onto an obsession with affluent teens and their dark, mysterious lives. While the latter two thrived thanks to unmasking lifestyles of the young and affluent or creating programmes that are a canvas for young viewers to project their wildest fantasies, their successors like Riverdale, Elite and 13 Reasons Why have not achieved the same critical and commercial success.
Bet suffers from the same problem, leaning into stereotypes rather than the creative liberties taken in the anime. And while it certainly won't garner critical acclaim, it does not fail to explore the people and stories of its counterparts in a genre that has long since lost the ability to tell a riveting story.
In the anime original, Yumeko has no revenge story but is something of a demonic entity with sexually charged dispositions whenever she faces an opponent. In both adaptations, the story takes place at an expensive school for the children of the 1%, where the student body has full control to gamble and learn life skills that would turn them into the sharks that their parents have become.
The anime version of Yumeko is not greatly affected by the clan system that comes to define many of the characters' positions at the school, but on the surface, her wins and losses become cautionary tales about the greed that defines the affluent children she faces.
The series escapes this shallow exploration and goes for a deeper exploration of the adults. Extramural activities are not highly regarded and are treated as an anecdotal hobby to gloat about. In its place, how one gambles is rewarded with much fanfare by children and adults alike.
Through scholar debts and a cut-throat top 10 system, the school mirrors the real world and pushes Yumeko and others to be ruthless in their pursuit of staying above the debt line with other house pets (students who have gambled too much and owe money to the top 10).
Through Yumeko and the other characters, we learn more about their parents, their time at the school, how the system has continued and the pressures on the nepo babies who will do anything to protect their problematic mothers and fathers.
A commendable change is seen in their approach to the main antagonist, Kira Timurov. Named Kirari Momobami in the anime, she is cool, calm and rarely distressed by any challenge she encounters. She uses those around her for amusement rather than a grander scheme.
The more human Kira is subjected to high amounts of pressure, buckling under the pressure of her ice queen exterior and runs herself into a wall countless times in an attempt to thwart Yumeko, who is the exact opposite, driven by blood lust.
The clear contrasts between the two drives the divisive anime, when looking past the fan service (anime term referring to hypersexualised details of how women are drawn, speak or behave) that plagues the production. Yumeko and Kirari's love for gambling creates this fantastical world and its bizarre storylines while Bet escapes this through both characters having to understand what drives many of their friends and foes to either cheat or truly break their backs trying to earn a win.
Bringing nothing spectacular to watching experiences, Bet is another superficial exploration of teen drama tropes, but shines in escaping the conventions that have made it cringeworthy.