Kaede Manyuda is an antagonist in Kakegurui. He is the manipulative treasurer of the student council.
Design
Manyuda is a tall male student with pale skin, well-kept black hair, and dark eyes. He wears black-framed glasses with his Hyakkaou Private Academy issued uniform; a red blazer with black trim lining the cuffs and collar, a white button up dress shirt, a black neck tie and dark, plaid pants. He also wears the academy's issued footwear. After his traumatic defeat at the hands of Yumeko Jabami, his hair turns white, assuming he suffers from Marie Antoinette syndrome.
Personality
Manyuda appears to be a cold, ruthless, and calculating person. He is an extremely prudent and observant gambler, as he always takes the high road, which he himself often notes. His mindfulness allows for him to predict his opponent's actions and he often wins due to this. However, it is revealed he has insecurities, specifically, a deep fear of being deemed worthless and discarded. He won't allow for that to happen, no matter what the circumstance. In this aspect, he and Itsuki Sumeragi are very similar and he shows a bit of appreciation for her tenacity when he recommended that she join the student council.
Profile
Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler
Kaede appears with the student council, discussing the recent defeat of Itsuki Sumeragi at the hands of Yumeko Jabami. It is revealed that he was the one who recommended Itsuki Sumeragi to the student council. Later, he appears after Yumeko Jabami loses to Nishinotouin. He comments on the fact that it was barely a win for the latter. After Jabami draws with Midari Ikishima, he once again comments on the fact that it is ignoble for the student council that two student council members have been baffled and nonplussed by Jabami, one ruthlessly rejected and played and the other lost badly if not for the interference of the student council president.
He is later seen along with the student council after the president leaves for some place kept secret, having not told the student council secretary Sayaka nor the vice president about this. Due to this, the student council is in commotion and starts planning ahead in order to bout with Jabami. They approve Yumemi's suggestion that she take on Jabami, and Kaede later helps organize the event where Yumemi and Jabami would gamble.
After Yumemi loses to Jabami, it is revealed how someone sent a torn letter's fan along with a recorder to Jabami and told her to use it against Yumemi. The event resorts to lynching and fingers are later pointed at Kaede. He is coalesced into coming up the stage after Yumemi's fans call him out.
Coming up the stage, he immediately denies the allegations (which appear to be actually false) and abruptly announce his bid to the student council president's seat. As it goes on, he is later challenged by Jabami, only for him to reject her challenge. He nonchalantly confirms to himself that he simply has to not nod to the challenge. In response to this, Jabami calls for right as a house pet for a public match against Kaede, wherein he can refuse. Manyuda is forced to accept the challenge, and in the quandary, the student council vice president comes up the stage declaring herself to be the dealer of the match about to happen, and announces the game to be played: Choice Poker, an original card game.
Manyuda listens as the vice president announces the rules as follows:
- It has the same rules with common poker, five of a kind being the strongest hand and high card being the weakest hand.
- You are allowed to exchange your card unlimitedly once. (You can exchange one to five cards)
- The joker is incorporated and is considered the strongest card instead of A, and goes down with 2 being the weakest card 2, making the deck contain 52 cards.
- However, the strongest hand doesn't necessarily win, the higher bidder of chips in the betting round is given the choice to select whether stronger or weaker wins.
- The gamble also has no bet limit.
- Each chip is worth 10 million yen.
Agreeing to these conditions, Manyuda agrees to the match with insouciance. As the match starts, Jabami chooses to have 31 chips to bet, while Manyuda immediately placing 100 chips to bet. The match begins with Manyuda exchanging 1 card and Yumeko exchanging 2, with Manyuda losing 10 chips to Yumeko. Manyuda then considers Jabami's "madness" in gambling, factoring it into his winning equation and later wins against Jabami in the second match, knowingly showing his whole hand before betting, then raises Jabami's bet of 41 chips (her whole stack) by 1, winning the choice, and finally revealing Jabami's high card to his stronger hand.
Thinking he already won, Jabami suddenly calls out to Sumeragi as a patron, asking her to bet for her. A persuading battle ensues, revealing Manyuda's calculation and condescending look on Sumeragi. Jabami successfully convinces Sumeragi to bet for her, due to Sumeragi wanting to defeat Manyuda for looking down on her. The third match starts with Jabami again discarding a pair like the earlier match (where she lost). Thinking she is vying for a weaker hand, another battle ensues, this time betting from 20 chips, 100 chips, then raising 10 and more, until it reaches 2 billion. The climax happens when Manyuda raises 100 chips, or 1 billion more, and Sumeragi has run out of money to bet. At this point, Jabami tries to talk Sumeragi into betting for her life, in which she succeeds. However, Manyuda would reject the proposal and wanting to go on and reveal. The dealer however accepts the bet. This does not sit well with Manyuda as he questions her authority to approve the bet. Suddenly, the dealer, the masked vice president removes her guise, revealing to actually be the president.
Manyuda is pushed to the edge as he too, goes ahead to bet for his own life, thus finally winning the choice. He chooses strongest and reveals his hand, a three of a kind with 8s. Despite his confidence, Jabami later victoriously reveals a three of a kind with Js (notably a not very strong card) once again showcasing her "madness" in gambling. Manyuda is distraught by this, as the president seals the cap with the cold words, "You're fired." We see Manyuda later unconscious, his hair turned completely white due to shock. He is seen in a hospital afterwards.
Relationships
Itsuki Sumeragi
Manyuda is the one who recommended Itsuki to the student council, and it is revealed that he actually looked down on her for lacking talent. However, he also developed some type of empathy towards her, having been placed in pressure of not being a failure. In their bout he outright underestimates her which proves to be his undoing.
Despite the shared antagonism with each other, it is seen that Sumeragi respects him and remembers the time they spent together in the student council, bowing her head towards him as he is carried away unconscious.
Yumeko Jabami
Manyuda has a lot of respect towards her despite being enemies. While he completely believes her to be below him, he recognizes the fact that she can be a useful pawn when he becomes the student council president.
Jabami knows him better however, one to always take the high road and try to win only with his strongest hand. She uses this against him later on to defeat him.
Kirari Momobami
Kaede aspires to dethrone and place himself in the place of Kirari Momobami, the student council president. He recognizes her authority and strength however he believes that one day he will beat her. This does not stand the same for Momobami. She is completely apathetic to threats he puts up and later comments on his worthlessness, finally firing him from the student council.