Midari Ikishima (生志摩 妄) is a supporting character in Kakegurui, and the main protagonist of the spin-off series Kakegurui Midari. She is a second-year student at Hyakkaou Private Academy, a member of the student council and the president of the Beautification Council.
Appearance[]
Midari is pale skinned girl with short black hair, which was purple in the manga, that is styled in a concave-cut and extremely tiny pupil(s). In the anime, close-up shots of her eye indicate her eye color to be yellow-green (she has purple eyes in the manga).
She wears a rarely seen variation of the Hyakkaou Private Academy uniform; a sweater vest in the same colors as the school's black and red blazer, a white button-up dress shirt, a dark pleated skirt, purple underwear with a floral pattern, and black socks. She wears the academy's footwear, brown-colored loafers with black soles. She also sports purple lipstick and has purple painted fingernails. She forgoes the black tie and has on accessories such as a purple hairband with a heart-patterned bow attached, and purple wrist cuffs with stripes on either one. She has bandages wrapped on either forearm and wears a white medical eyepatch over her left eye. She is also shown to have two piercings under her mouth, on the left side, one piercing on either ear and a tongue piercing.
Personality[]
Midari's masochism
Midari is a character with masochistic and suicidal tendencies, which is stated obviously in one of the chapters in the manga in which she stabs her own eye out with an ink pen to pay off the debt to the president. She is shown to be very persistent and overbearing, intimidating or being weird to the other students, such as when playing a sadistic game of life or death with Yumeko Jabami. Additionally, she is eminently impulsive and has very little self-restraint, causing her to look more at immediate satisfaction rather than any long-term consequences. Due to the fact that no one wants to play sadistic games with her, she is desperate to gamble with anyone and constantly awaits to 'get off', as stated in a chapter of the manga, by creating dangerous games where one player ends up dead.
Midari excited to cut a thread of the guillotine
She even enjoys a game with Erimi Mushibami (one of the members from The Hundred Devouring Families) in which the risk is losing your finger, but turns out to be disappointed when the risk disappears. Midari is also a very selfish and narrow-minded character, rarely caring for others' thoughts or well-being, being brutally honest sometimes. She is never concerned with money when gambling, carelessly betting large sums with no worries about potential debt. She does not even clearly remember nor clarify before gambling how much money she owns. Instead, she says she seeks out the risk of being harmed. Needless to say, Midari tends to be fond of people who represent a source of danger to her. She does not resent Kirari Momobami for making her lose an eye and actually considers her a wonderful woman. Moreover, even when she is not personally affected, she hates people who consider suicide but are not ready to go through with it, as seen when she rescues Ayame Nureba.
Midari acting out her duty as Beautification president
It has also been noted that, despite her bizarre behaviour, Midari is intelligent in academics, as seen in her flashbacks where she had won numerous awards, medals, and achievements in her middle school and elementary days. At the same time and as seen during some of her previous and present gambling matches, Midari has shown to be cunning and intelligent enough to make several subtle manipulations in order to sway them to go the way she wants. At the same time, she believes that studying a lot does not make someone a "genius", as noted in her criticism of Sayaka's behaviour. Midari also takes her role as Beautification council president quite serious although Ayame Nureba has said that she often skips Beautification Council meetings. She enjoyes her role as President mostly because it gives her the freedom to hold dangerous gambles.
Midari shouting at Jun to shoot her
After her plan to be killed was ruined, Midari developed an infatuation for Yumeko. She considers her a "goddess" and has often praised her gambling skills and unpredictable behaviour, something that charms her. She was shown keeping photos of Yumeko on her phone and the mere thought of her gaze seems to send her in a frenzy of excitement. Every time they meet she tries to catch her attention, but her attempts are futile. In spite of her fondness for pain, Midari doesn't want to be hated by Yumeko and gets depressed every time she is ignored or berated by her. Midari also seems to believe that Ryota's relationship with Yumeko is one of "control", just like master and slave, and feels jealous of him for being close to her. At the same time, she acknowledges Ryota as one of Yumeko's friends and asked him for advice in the anime.
Profile[]
Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler[]
Midari confronting Jun Kiwatari
Midari first shows up to stop Jun Kiwatari from sexually harassing Yumeko Jabami. When she proposes to let him do anything he wants to her if he's able to win at Russian Roulette, he leaves, unable to understand her. Later she goes to the bathroom, thinking about how much Yumeko impresses her. She pulls the trigger on herself and shoots. When it doesn't fire, she gets aroused and screams in happiness, wanting to feel this thrill again.
Midari shocked after hearing Yumeko wants to challenge Kirari
Later, after finding out Yumeko is planning to challenge the Student council president, she gets upset at the thought of what Kirari may end up doing to her. Knowing she has to anticipate her, Midari arrests Yumeko and Ryota Suzui. She takes them to the school's basement, where the Beautification Council interrogates other students, and challenges Yumeko to a special game, "ESP game". Midari declares how she and Yumeko are both perverts, turned on by gambling and thus wants to gamble with her. The winner of each round of the game gets to shoot at the other player. When Ryota gets angry, Midari points the gun at him, but Yumeko stops her and agrees to the game. Yumeko asks for Ryota to be the dealer.
Midari and Yumeko are both excited to gamble
Midari gets to shoot at Yumeko once, but unfortunately for Midari, the gun never ends up shooting due to Yumeko's intelligence and ability to predict how her opponent will play. Yumeko explains that she knew Midari was aiming to lose on purpose in order to be killed by her from from the beginning. Midari becomes immensely aroused in the final round and cries out at Yumeko to murder her; Yumeko expresses immense disdain for her behaviour. This treatment, however, only makes Midari love Yumeko more. Impressed by her skills, she wants to feel agony inflicted by Yumeko and gamble with her again.
Midari begging Yumeko to shoot her
In a flashback, it is revealed Midari was a formidable gambler, but no victory ever made her happy. She recalls how she has always felt empty inside since childhood, with her various achievements and terror and respect she inflicted and achieved over her fellow students not satisfying her in the least. This, however, changed when she gambled against Kirari Momobami and lost. Since she was in debt and wouldn't be fit for a lifeplan, Kirari commanded her to instead pay with her own eye. She explained this idea by saying she had always wanted to see how the other side of a human eye looks like.
Midari stabbing her own eye out
Even though Kirari asked her to wait a day to have her surgery performed, Midari grabbed a pen from the table and gouged her eye out herself. Kirari was not very impressed, which made her upset. However, the physical and emotional pain she felt at that moment gave her a thrill she had never felt before. Midari realized that pain was the reason why people gamble.
Looking at Yumeko on her phone
Later, when Kaede Manyuda calls out Sayaka Igarashi for (according to him) not understanding how their school system works, Midari interrupts him and tells him to go challenge Yumeko himself. In front of his indifference for a “mere housepet”, Midari praises Yumeko for being clever, having guts, and trusting her friends. After remembering her eyes, though, she suddenly blushes and excuses herself, saying she has to "go to the bathroom”.
In Episode 12, Midari is briefly shown staring at a photograph of Yumeko on her phone, smiling and laughing maniacally inside a bathroom stall.
Kakegurui XX[]
After Yumeko told Midari how much she hates her
Midari was on board with the idea of the presidential election, but noted that the Hundred Devouring Families would probably lose against Yumeko Jabami. Later, Midari got paired up with Yumeko and the two were challenged by Erimi Mushibami to the Finger Cutting Guillotine, which made Midari excited for it as she would carelessly cut the threads without any fear. When Erimi got nervous, she shouted at her and mocked her for being such a coward; that drove Erimi to continue playing. When there were only two strings left, Midari cut them both at once. She got disqualified for that and Erimi pulled her finger out, meaning Yumeko won. However, Midari was extremely angry at Erimi for there not being any actual danger. Yumeko scolded her, saying she never wants to see her face again for ruining the thrill that the last two threads proposed. Midari ran off crying.
Midari and Sayaka in middle school
She was later seen talking with Yumemi Yumemite about how she would never get big as an idol and would never be able to catch up to the likes of a big Hollywood actress, which causes Yumemi angry and starts to wreck the room, after Midari left. Later she is jealous of Sayaka being able to gamble against Yumeko especially with their lives at stake. She tells Yuriko Nishinotouin about how Sayaka Igarashi used to be called a genius and rank first in all exams. But Midari never saw her as that, since she studied from morning until night just to be number one.
Trying to get Yumeko's attention
Midari gets invited to the Hundred Votes Auction and gladly agrees, since Yumeko is there. She asks Ryota Suzui on how she can make up with Yumeko. But she outright ignores her and pretends as if she cant see or hear Midari. During the game, Midari tries to bet a lot of votes in order to make the game more exciting for Yumeko and get her to notice her. She keeps ignoring her however. After the game, Midari storms up to Rei Batsubami and Midari is angry because she acts all enlightened, even though the real gamble hasn't even started yet.
Manga[]
Midari is invited to the tournament and has 16 votes at the beginning of it. She immediately shows disappointment when she is not paired up with Yumeko during the first round. When facing Yuriko in Rock Paper Scissors Poker, after she tells her that she can't afford to lose, Midari replies that it's the same for her. With the same hand that Yumeko used in her own match, five scissors, she defeats Yuriko, who reacts angrily and believes she has to be cheating. Midari comments that she'll make Yuriko her assistant if she becomes president, but as she leaves she adds that it would never happen.
Midari overexcited to face Yumeko again
Midari faces Yumeko in the second round. She's excited to be able to play against her again, while Yumeko reacts coldly and states she does not want to gamble with her. Initially, Midari makes her waste time by exchanging five cards, then folding; then she raises and wins. Yumeko says that she intends to go all-in and Midari accepts - they will bet their 64 and 65 votes. She comments that they're taking ridiculous, pointless risks and that's what gambling is all about, but Yumeko disagrees. In the showdown, Midari has four rocks and Yumeko five, thus she is declared the winner, much to Midari's shock. Yumeko admits she cheated back at her: Midari was, in fact, hiding some of her discards to be able to use them in the next turn.
Midari surprised because Yumeko smiled at her
Seeing that Yumeko is angry, Midari tries to explain herself and says that she had a more intricate cheat that she would have appreciated, but since she went all-in she couldn't do it. Yumeko, however, is disappointed and says that it's always the same with her, because to Midari "gambling is just a means to an end". She tells her goodbye, but as she's leaving Midari shouts at her, saying that she doesn't give a damn and she does what she wants. She adds she swears to make Yumeko take it all from her. Yumeko turns and says she truly is an utter enigma to her, making a light smile. Midari is surprised and rejoices.
Kakegurui Twin[]
Midari still had both of her eyes in Twin. She's shown in Volume 3 when Sakura Miharutaki confronted her for not paying the Student Council. At first, Midari had no intention to give her any money and pretended not to have any.
Midari in Twin, still having both eyes
However, when Sakura reminded her that as the Beautification council president she was authorized to arrest them all, Midari decided to challenge her to a quick dice game. Although Sakura won, she accused her of cheating by rigging the dice. Her intelligence captured Midari's interest. Before Sakura left, she asked her to play again, offering 30 million yen as the reward. The other Beautification council members were baffled and commented that she must be out of her mind. In front of Midari's insistence, Sakura harshly refused. While disappointed, Midari is last seen with a grin, reflecting on the fact Sakura is too honest for her taste, a trait that will eventually ruin her.
Kakegurui Midari[]
Midari taking a liking to Ayame
Midari was just recently declared president of the Beautification office and became part of the council. She spots a girl named Ayame Nureba, who tries to commit suicide. She stops her and then tells her she is a coward. She later sees Ayame playing Blackjack against Nana Ootori, whom she owes a large sum. Midari points out how Nana cheats and suggests another gamble. Midari offers a game known as 'the knife game' or 'pinfinger,' in which one places the palm of one's hand down on a table with fingers apart and stabs back and forth between one's fingers, trying not to hit one's fingers. Although, in the form Midari offers, the goal is to stab faster than your opponent rather than to prevent stabbing fingers. Ayame wins, but ends up stabbing Midari's hand a lot. Midari naturally became aroused by the pain and later states that she enjoyed the gamble and was 'up all night' with the pain of the injuries that Ayame inflicted on her.
She then asks Ayame to join the Beautification council. She finds that Ayame also seemed to enjoy piercing Midari's fingers. Ayame is hesitant, but agrees. The Vice-president of the Beautification office doesn't want another member however. She states that she despises Midari. Then Midari proposes a gamble to decide that and even puts her own presidents seat on the line. Naoe Habakiri agrees to that. They then gamble and Midari discovers Naoe's cheating and thus Ayame joins the Council.
Midari and her friends
Midari and Ayame also go to play against Kurimu Terasumi, because she still has a debt to pay. They play Russian Roulette and Ayame is scared. But Midari realizes, that there are no bullets in the chamber at all and is very disappointed in Kurimu and gets angry. Later, some of Midari's friends want to join the Council. Naoe wants to refuse, but Midari then suggests another gamble. Midari's friends are shady gamblers and thus not fit for the Beautification Council. But they win and Naoe accepts them, making Midari very happy.
Midari excited after being hanged
Later, Midari challenges Nana to a special version of bingo involving hanging. The person who gets a bingo first gets suspended by her neck from a certain height, depending on the current total score, and has to resist for five minutes. Nana is afraid of the possibility, but she swears to defeat Midari. Midari then has to get hang. After she stops moving, Nana is exultant and thinks she managed to kill her. However, Midari is actually still alive thanks to her feet touching the floor and starts coughing, praising Nana and saying she got excited. Because she survived, they have to continue for another round. Nana is horrified and starts to scream for help, irritating Midari's friends. Midari, however, keeps her cool and incites Nana to kill her, taking back what's hers.
Kakegurui (Kakkokari)[]
Midari in Kakkokari
Midari is often present in the spinoff manga. Like in the main series, her attempts at being noticed by Yumeko Jabami are often played for laughs. However, sometimes she's able to gamble with her: in a chapter, the two girls make a bet on who is going to recover from a cold sooner between Ryota Suzui and Mary Saotome; in a different chapter, the two play Vote Rock-Paper-Scissors and after losing Midari is forced to wear a maid uniform, which embarrasses her greatly. One time she accidentally handcuffs Yumeko and Ryota together and loses the key.
In various chapters, Midari is shown to love animals, even referring to them with the "-san" honorific. She also uses "-san" to refer to the flowers she takes care of, although Yumemi is more perplexed about the fact Midari enjoys talking dirty to said flowers while watering them. She is also revealed to be "super sweet" in a romantic relationship. In a chapter where Mary is mistaken for Ririka Momobami after putting her mask on, Midari immediately states there's something weird about the Vice president. It turns out, however, that she had only noticed that her legs are more exposed than usual (due to Mary wearing socks and not pantyhose like Ririka). Midari says she finds her sexy and is quickly reprimanded by Kaede Manyuda.
Drama[]
Midari in the drama
In the live action, Midari is played by Miki Yanagi. While her hair is brown and she does not have her tongue pierced.
There are some minor differences in her role.
- In the drama, Midari spends most of her time sitting in a cell inside of the Student Council room, although said cell does not appear to be locked. She's introduced for the first time with Sayaka Igarashi and Kaede Manyuda after Yumeko gambles against Yuriko Nishinotouin and loses. Midari asks Sayaka if she can challenge Yumeko herself, but when she tells her she can't, she points her gun at her own head. Clearly worried, Sayaka tries to stop her, but Midari presses the trigger anyway, laughing when no bullet is shot.
- Midari doesn't rescue Yumeko from Jun Kiwatari and his friends (Ryota does). While their first official meeting is when Yumeko is arrested, Midari shows interest in her as soon as she hears about her huge debt.
- When Kaede reflects on the reason why Yumeko has not repaid her debt yet and comes to the conclusion she wants to have an official match against Kirari, Midari suddenly assaults him, throwing him on the floor. Angrily she shouts at him that the President belongs to her, only to start giggling and rolling on the floor, praising Yumeko, too. Kaede gets up and fixes his jacket, irritated by her irrational behavior.
- Although Midari personally arrests Yumeko and Ryota in the manga/anime, in the drama she sends her friends after them and waits for their arrival in the Beautification Council room alone. During this scene, she loads her gun and starts touching herself while pointing the weapon at her temple, calling Yumeko's name. As she's finishing she presses the trigger, but the gun doesn't shoot. When Yumeko arrives, she excitedly greets her saying "hey there, you big pervert!"
- In Season two, it is revealed that she was interviewed by Kyuu Nitobe.
Episodes[]
Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler[]
- A Boring Woman
- The Slit-Eyed Girl (Non-Speaking)
- The Women Who Became Livestock
- Tempting Woman
- Refusing Women
- Love-Dancing Woman
- The Woman Who Bets Her Life (Cameo)
- Gambling Woman
Kakegurui XX[]
- Gambling Women Again
- The Women of Momobami Clan
- The Connected Woman
- The Woman By Her Side
- The Woman Who Bears The X
- The Null Woman
Kakegurui Twin[]
Chapters[]
Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler[]
- A Boring Girl
- The Girl Who Is Now A Housepet
- The Girls Fighting Their Way Back Up
- Inviting Girl
- Excited Girl
- Open Girl
- Delighted Girl
- Ideal Girl
- Overpowering Girl
- Refusing Girls
- The Targeted Girl
- The Witnessing Girl
- Shine, Girls
- Clan Girl
- Confronting Girls
- Attempted Girl
- Enraged Girls
- Changing Girl
- Gathering Girls
- Fighting Girls
- The Girl Who Only Smiles
Kakegurui - Twin[]
Kakegurui - Midari[]
- Every chapter
Relationships[]
Yumeko Jabami[]
When Ikishima met Yumeko, she challenged her to a game where she wanted to see how the two of them were alike. After finishing the bet with Yumeko as the winner, Ikishima idolized her to the point that she wanted her to kill her. However, later in the game of the Cutthroat Guillotine she broke the rules, causing Yumeko to feel even more detached from her.
Kirari Momobami[]
The first time Ikishima saw Kirari, it was to settle her debts. Seeing that she could not pay, Kirari offered him another method to pay, removing one eye (Kirari claimed that she wanted to see the back). This made Ikishima remove it herself without thinking, making Kirari want her as a member of the School Council.
Quotes[]
- "Pain is what true gambling is about!" - to Kirari Momobami
- "I finally understood why people gamble. We want to avoid pain. We're afraid to die. But that's why it's so good!" - to Yumeko Jabami
- "Ever since I was a kid, I felt out of place. Winning and praise... fear... even when I won money at the Academy... something was wrong. Nothing ever made me feel happy from the bottom of my heart. I only felt that way once. Because of... gambling. One more time. I just want to feel it one more time. To feel that way..."
- "I'm kinda jealous of you two. I want you to have the same relationship with me. I will do everything for you. I'll entrust everything to you... I want you to control everything about me..." - to Yumeko Jabami
- " Even people who die must get hurt. It's an inevitable instinct to grab a hand as soon as you reach it. The problem is... I acted... On my own. If If you took a hand, would you pull? How did you get the strength!? As expected, you didn't want to die!? You just wanted to involve the others!? Don't be stupid... I'll kill you! You're not doing it right!" -To Ayame Nureba
List of Gambles[]
| Opponents | Gambles |
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Etymology[]
- The name Midari means "delusion, unnecessarily, without authority, reckless, chaotic" (妄).
- Midari's surname Ikishima means "living" (生) (iki), "aspire, hopes, intention, motive, plan, resolve, shilling" (志) (shi) and "wear" (摩) (ma).
- It is also derived from "Iki Shini" (生き死に, "life or death"). This has been revealed by the author Homura Kawamoto himself in the official fanbook, Kakegurui Love. Ikishima can also be interpreted as "loss of living will" as it is written with the characters for "life" (生), "will" (志), and "scrape" (摩).
Trivia[]
- The guns that Midari uses are a Smith & Wesson revolver gun or Colt King Cobra gun, they are also provided by the Student Council.
- Midari is left-handed.
- The author has commented that he didn't originally plan to include Midari in the Finger Cutting Guillotine arc, however, his characters, "act on their own" now. He says the same thing happened in Twin, probably referring to Midari's gamble with Sakura Miharutaki.
- Midari is the only character who has prominent appearances in every medium of Kakegurui.
- When asked about her favorite character (excluding Yumeko), Saori Hayami, Yumeko's voice actress, said Midari. She mentioned how, during the Finger Cutting Guillotine gamble, Midari adores Yumeko so much that she makes the same expression as a puppy waiting for its owner. The author Kawamoto said he also found her cute.[1]