Netflix Renews ‘Kakegurui’ Adaptation ‘Bet’ Despite Low Ratings, Showrunner Admits Changing Source Material Because He Saw “No Point In Trying To Reproduce The Original”
Even though all of the odds suggested that the winning move was not to play, Netflix has doubled-down on their latest butchering of a Japanese work and officially renewed their live-action adaptation of Homura Kawamoto and Toru Naomura’s Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler manga, Bet, for a second season.
The streaming platform’s decision to ante up on Bet was first confirmed on June 24th, a little over a month after the May 15th premiere of its ten-episode first season.
In a video message uploaded to Netflix‘s various social media accounts, Yumeko actress Miku Martineau broke the news by revealing a two-of-hearts card before subsequently declaring, “You see that? Bet is officially getting renewed for season two and I bet you are going to love it. I’m so excited. I’ll see you there.”
News of the series renewal baffled independent Netflix news website What’s on Netflix. The online news outlet compiled Bet viewership numbers for its first two weeks on the streaming platform and compared them to various Netflix original shows including the recently renewed lose adaption of Judy Blume’s novel Forever (10.4 million views) as well as the streaming platform’s canceled adaptation of DC Comic series Dead Boy Detectives (7.8 million views). Based on the numbers, all the odds were against Bet favor of receiving a second season.
As noted above, what makes Netflix’s continued seat at the Bet table so eye-brow raising is the fact that the first season just did not perform that well with audiences.
Per an analysis of Netflix’s own reported numbers provided by platform-centric news site What’s on Netflix, “In its first week, BET debuted as the ninth biggest show, with 2.4 million views (13.7 million hours watched globally), which is an incredibly weak debut for the show and instantly makes it a prime candidate for cancellation.”
“Viewing hours did increase dramatically in week 2,” they added, “rising 110% to 28.80 million hours watched and an additional 5M views bringing the total after two weeks to 7.4M views.”
Following up on their original read of the situation via their official Twitter account, What’s on Netflix later acknowledged their own bewilderment towards the news, admitting “We’ve got to take an L on this one obviously. We lined it up against other shows and while the show still didn’t perform well – it must have been enough to get a renewal (or it had an upfront order of some description).”
Interestingly, though Bet has faced a constant and particularly strong stream of criticism due to its lack of fealty to Kawamoto and Naomura’s original manga, the series’ renewal announcement also saw showrunner and director Simon Berry reveal that he never intended for source material accuracy because, in his opinion, the original was already damn near perfect.
“When the Bet creative team set out to develop a series inspired by Kakegurui, we knew there was no point trying to reproduce the original, as it stands on its own and works perfectly,” he told Netflix. “Instead, we chose to be directed by the spirit Kakegurui inhabits in tone, audaciousness, and fun. To that end, we made something ‘birthed’ from the source material that inspired a new take — one that pays homage to it and doesn’t try to replace it.”
Unfortunately for Berry, like the majority of Western-produced, live-action adaptations of Japanese properties (including, hilariously enough, Netflix’s own Death Note film), what he and his creative team “birthed” with Bet comes off as less of an homage to the source material and more like something that holds complete disdain for everything related to its premise.
From various race- and gender-swaps, to the hard Westernizing of Japanese names, to rewriting the entirety of protagonist Yumeko’s motivations, truly the only thing Bet has to do with the original manga is its premise – and even that’s barely kept in tact.
For those who are some curious as to the absolute trainwreck that is Bet, its first season is now available for streaming exclusively on Netflix.
