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High Card Anime's 2nd Season Casts Ayumi Mano

The staff for the poker-themed High Card anime revealed on Friday that Ayumi Mano will join the cast of the anime's second season in the sixth episode on February 12. Mano plays a character named Chloe (seen below), a girl seeking help from the police chasing her.

The anime's previously announced new cast includes: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Zenon, Miyuki Sawashiro as Burst, Kaori Nazuka as Gao Wan, and Kenshō Ono as Sonic Move.

Publisher TMS, author Homura Kawamoto (Kakegurui franchise), and his younger brother Hikaru Muno (Kakegurui novel) are credited with the original work, and Ebimo is credited as the original character designer. Junichi Wada (The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Caligula, Sakugan) is directing the anime at Studio Hibari. Naoki Kuroyanagi is overseeing the series scripts, and Kenichi Yamashita, Kazuhiko Inukai, and Shingo Nagai are writing the scripts. Nozomi Kawano is designing the characters and is the chief animation director along with Mayumi Watanabe, and Ryō Takahashi is composing the music. TMS Entertainment is producing the anime.

FIVE NEW OLD is again performing the new season's opening theme song, and Raon is performing the ending theme song "Hakuchūmu" (Daydream).

Kadokawa describes the story:

After discovering that his orphanage was on the brink of closing due to financial stress, Finn, who was living freely on the streets, set out for a casino with the aim of making a fortune. However, nothing could have prepared Finn for the nightmare that was awaiting him. Once there, Finn encountered a car chase and bloody shootout caused by a man's “lucky” card. Finn will eventually learn what the shootout was about. The world order can be controlled by a set of 52 X-Playing cards with the power to bestow different superhuman powers and abilities to the ones that possess them. With these cards, people can access the hidden power of the “buddy” that can be found within themselves.

There is a secret group of players called High Card, who have been directly ordered by the king of Fourland to collect the cards that have been scattered throughout the kingdom, while moonlighting as employees of the luxury car maker Pinochle. Scouted to become the group's fifth member, Finn soon joins the players on a dangerous mission to find these cards.

"All you need in life are manners, dignity, and the will to bet on your own life."

However, Who's Who, the rival car maker obsessed with defeating Pinochle, and the Klondikes, the infamous Mafia family, stand in the way of the gang.

A frenzied battle amongst these card obsessed players, fueled by justice, desire, and revenge, is about to begin!

Are you ready?

It's Showdown!!

The High Card multimedia project also had a stage play titled HIGH CARD the STAGE – CRACK A HAND, which ran from January 19-29 in Tokyo.

The project shipped its first drama CD volume in December 2022. Publisher Kadokawa, anime studio TMS Entertainment, and entertainment company Sammy Corporation are presenting the poker-themed project. The companies previously revealed that the project will include anime, manga, and novels. The first anime season premiered in January 2023.

The High Card -♢9 No Mercy manga launched on Square Enix's Manga UP! service in August 2022. The project's original character designer Ebimo draws the manga. The High Card -♢7 Never No Dollars novel began serialization in the Monthly Newtype magazine also in August 2022. The project's second novel HIGH CARD–♧3Green Green&♡5Calories High began serialization in Monthly Newtype in September 2023.

Source: Press release