HIGH CARD

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionHIGH CARD: ♢9 No Mercy
ANIME ActionHIGH CARD season 2

REVIEWS

• 

  Nothal

  78/100
  Well it's definitely a fun ride

  Warning, there might be some light spoilers.

  Homura Kawamoto striked again! This time, his love for suits and cards gets a fresh new twist: a deck of 52 cards that give special powers to gifted people. And no, this time there are no psycho girls that enjoy gambling, it's less weird.
  First, let's talk about the world building: i really enjoyed the London vibes that the city gives, from old cars to tailored suits, which were clearly inspired by The Kingsmen franchise. This first season takes its time to develop as much as it can, some episodes are slower, with lot of narration and explanations about the cards, the powers and their history, sometimes there's little to no battle and some action scenes are even skipped, which is kinda weird in a spy/ action anime.

  Now let's talk about the characters. I believe there are too many of them, like i was hoping they were being shown for just episode, like Chelsea or the bitchy policewoman, which i hope gets some sort of development in the future, otherwise she could be literally just a comedy relief, which doesn't belong to such a story. As far as the Pinochle team, all of them works beside the green guy, but we can wait for his redemption arc since a lot of time is spent for all the others. Chris, Finn, Leo and Wendy are well written: they are all complex characters, and their weaknesses are something that make them relatable and enjoyable. Finn, even though is considered the weakest because of his card is always trying his best, and he's also the one that will most likely have a huge power spike in the next episodes. Chris is the romantic killer, hiding his worries behind a smile, Leo is the leader but seem to not agree with the boss, and Wendy is the OP character that has yet to find a balance.
  As far as the bad guys, we only had a few chances to see them, this first part focuses on the gathering of the cards, but at least the final episodes have some decent battles, also showing some high-level cards (which also seem to be pretty unbalanced, like the woman that had a J could just pull things to her?? What kind of power is that? The gravity goth lady could literraly move everything everywhere).

  

  High Card has some potential, it reminded me of Bongou Stray Dogs: the first season was a bit slow, with lots of characters, and the protagonist is sometimes a side character. This time i didn't particularly enjoy the change of tones, that went darker for a few episodes, but at least the comedy is kept for some situations and not spat everywhere. You could say it's in between. I hope good things are coming, this was pretty much my favourite new Anime this winter, it's worth a shot. Best thing? The ending. It's the definition of "vibe", with all the characters singing together while driving.

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• 

  Wraithio

  21/100
  Disappointing And Non-Immersive

  I'll try to keep this as short and sweet as possible, and thus will not go into every single reason I don't think this show holds up. The show has a good 1-3 episodes in the beginning before it falls apart. It suffers from "I did not explain anything during the show's launching season and thus nothing makes sense without a second season" syndrome. You are left with far more questions unanswered than answered by the end of S1, despite it positioning itself as though it has wrapped everything in a nice, tidy bow at the end of the last episode. You should reasonably be able to watch any show with a villain and know exactly what their motivations are by the end of the first season. You should be able to know what the actual motivations of your protagonists are before the end of a season as well. With HC, you don't get either answered with certainty. You could argue that it draws you to an additional season, however there are several moments in the show that break the moment and make it difficult to get immersed once more. It moves with a fast pace (which some shows can do well without losing the impact), however you end up losing far more than you gain as a viewer because of it. Moments that should have more time, more emotion, more suspense do not get the luxury. We instead get drawn out scenes that, in the end, do not make a difference to the season as a whole. HC is like a poorly-stitched patchwork quilt; the episodes that the creators chose to make do not fit together nicely nor do they make sense on their own.
  There is no reason why we needed the backstory of Aya more than the backstory of Vijay or Leo. There is no reason why the motivation of the king to collect the cards should be weaker than that of the mafia. There is no reason why Finn is able to shoot as far as he did in the final episode, considering he has the aim of a Stormtrooper the rest of the show. There is no reason that the police are not informed as to what HC is considering it seems to operate with the PD similarly to the way the FBI would with PD in real life.
  I will give the show that the voice acting is pretty okay. However, the animation is absurd in moments that it needs to not be. Example: When Lindsay tells Finn he doesn't want to see him again. Why exactly does Finn look like the surprised Pikachu meme? Why is Finn completely emotionless after hearing this? The characters as shown to us in S1 were as bland as saltines without salt. It was painful to watch. I do not recommend watching this show past the 3rd episode and I, more than likely, will not be watching S2 (least not expecting to like it should I actually do so).

  TL;DR: The show breaks the moment for the viewer on multiple occasions. It gave a support character a background episode instead of a "main" character, it is woefully predicable regarding its twists because it's hard to immerse yourself again once the story pulls you out of focus, and the story as it sits at the end of S1 does NOT fit together cohesively.

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