Kakegurui the Movie: Zettai Zetsumei Russian Roulette

This sequel to the movie that follows the television series about a Japanese academy that thrives on gambling is a darker version of the previous storylines. The darkness, typical of many Samurai movies, is even heavier and more prolonged allowing the emotive suppressed audience anger to build and build more so than in most movies. The story arch is built around this singular darkness brought on by the sinister behavior of a rather evil and dramatic performance by Ryusei Fujii as Shikigami. At some point all the outlandish behavior of Ryota Suzui as the lead character Yumeko Jabami gets to be by this time tedious and overly extended to be really compelling and enjoyable - his performance becomes worn out. While the ending credit song has a potential as a nice James Bond theme, the single musical scene in this movie and the only one in the whole television and movie series is a lame clone attempt from Les Miserable (2012). The selectively few musical song and dance scenes from The Magicians (2015) are much to be preferred as a model to be built around. Overall, the latest Kakegurui version lacks the cute, balanced nature of gambling of earlier story plots and instead offers the audience a dour drawn out version that wears on the audience patience have a tone more like The Dark Knight (2008). This movie is worth watching, but the distinctive Japanese character of this series is now going down the road towards more a cliched parody of itself.