Kakegurui is a psychological dramatic anime released in 2017 on Netflix and it took the anime lover community by storm. Kakegurui brought on a new way anime is produced, taking the art style to the extreme. Mixing the normal anime style with more realistic proportions. Kakegurui is about a prestigious academy where the social hierarchy is determined by how well the student can gamble. Gambling takes place every day, every hour, and everyone has their place in the school. Whenever a student gambles, they have a chance of winning a truck load of money, or they go into billions of yen in debt to the student council, which they pay back by acting as a servant to the higher up students. The entire school lives in fear of one person: Kirari Momobami. The student council president. Kirari holds an insane amount of power as student council president. As president, she can change the school to however she pleases, which is where the servant debt system came into place. 

Kirari Momobami was born into the Momobami estate, alongside her twin sister Ririka. Already, the family decided they needed a new heir to the family. They did the rational thing to determine: gamble. The twins were assigned dice, and they had to roll it. The dice chose Kirari to become the heir to the family, and as a result, Ririka was told to hide in Kirari’s shadow by wearing a mask and not saying a word. Kirari quickly rose up to power through gambling, taking down a family member after she saw through his cheating. Kirari won the title of student council president after defeating the previous president, and Kirari immediately took action to build and shape the school’s “society” the way she saw fit: those who gambled and risked it all rose to the top, and those who lost were forced to be servants. Kirari saw the school and students as an aquarium, an aquarium that only she controlled. She roped in other students to join the student council, and they ended up becoming an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. No one ever dared to battle a student council member, because they knew how to win their way through every game. 

And that especially includes Kirari. 

Kirari gets her way by manipulation. In Episode 6, she tries to manipulate Mary Saotome into joining the student council after witnessing Mary’s cheating and victory in a previous match, and how much money Mary won as a result. Kirari tells Mary that she loves people like Mary, and that she wants Mary to join the council. Mary declines and refers to her distaste for the houspet system, to which Kirari tells Mary that Mary had no problem with the housepet system when Mary was the one on top. Another example is episode 11, where Kirari revealed herself posing as her sister Ririka, contrary to the belief that Kirari left the school to handle a family matter. The student council treasurer, Kaede Manyuda, had sure confidence he would win with his immense wealth alone. However, when the bet was raised to ten billion yen, his confidence started to falter and he started to panic. Kirari told him, “There is no more than you can raise, is there?” Then shortly after that, Kaede bet his life, just as Itsuki Sumeragi did with Kaede’s opponent, Yumeko Jabami. Thus, Kirari raised the final bet to ten billion yen, and whoever would win would take the life of the other. Kirari obviously wanted this to happen, so she said that one little sentence to make Kaede gamble his life.

Kirari thrives on making people feel small, and feeling superior to the other people around her. Despite her and her fellow classmates being the same as far as a student and in age, Kirari feels a certain power complex over them because of her position as student council president, and that Kirari can change the school however way she sees fit. Kirari shaped her society in a way that she wanted it, and made it to where it only interests her. 

Kirari shows a sick sadistic side as well. Kirari encourages bullying and discrimination all throughout the academy, and she takes great pleasure in watching people suffer as they try to fight their way to the top. She knows that it’s near impossible to reach the high ranks. You have to be an absolute top notch gambler in order to rise in the ranks. However, she is more than happy to stand aside and watch the gambling matches take place, even partaking in a few herself. Kirari enjoys the pain of others too. When gambling with Midari Ikishima, Kirari won. Kirari approaches Midari and asks her if Midari has ever seen the other side of the moon. Kirari explains that she’s always wanted to see the other side of the moon, before approaching Midari and gripping her face and saying that she’s always wanted to see the back of someone’s eye socket. Midari, feeling the rush, grabbed a pen and gouged her eye out. Kirari took a look at the inside of her eye, before telling Midari it wasn’t interesting and that Midari could leave. 

Kirari Momobami is without a doubt psychotic and has a severe god complex. She manipulates her way through everything and she does not take no for an answer. As student council president, Kirari will do what she wants, when she wants. There is no one or nothing that can stop her.