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High Card Anime's 2nd Season Reveals New Cast, Opening Theme Song Artist

The staff for the poker-themed High Card anime revealed on Thursday the second season's second key visual and additional cast members. The anime's staff also revealed that FIVE NEW OLD will perform again the new season's opening theme song.

The newly announced cast are:

The anime's second season will premiere in January, with a returning cast and staff.

The anime's returning cast includes:

• Gen Sato as Finn Oldman
• Toshiki Masuda as Chris Redgrave
• Shun Horie as Leo Constantine Pinochle
• Haruka Shiraishi as Wendy Satō
• Yuichiro Umehara as Vijay Kumar Singh
• Kazuhiro Yamaji as Bernard Symons
• Daisuke Ono as Theodore Constantine Pinochle
• Nobunaga Shimazaki as Owen Alldays
• Toshihiko Seki as Norman Kingstadt
• Shunsuke Takeuchi as Brist Blitz Broadhurst
• Mie Sonozaki as Brandy Blumenthal
• Tomokazu Seki as Ban Klondike
• Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Tilt
• Toshiyuki Morikawa as Greg Young
• Rie Takahashi as Sugar Peas

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.

Additional staff includes:

• Key Animators/Action Animation Directors: Shunpei Mochizuki, Junichi Hayama, Mitsuo Tano
• Key Animator/Effect Drawing Director: Takashi Hashimoto
• Color Design: Yumi Nagi
• Art Directors: Minoru Ōnishi (BIC Studio), Teruhiko Niita (J.C. Staff)
• Compositing Director of Photography: Tomoyuki Kunii
• CG Director: Masafumi Uchiyama
• Editing: Rie Itō (Morita Editing Room)
• Card Design: BALCOLONY.
• Concept Art: reoen (FLAT STUDIO)
• Sound Director: Shōji Hata
• Sound Effects: Hiromune Kurahashi

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 is also getting a stage play titled HIGH CARD the STAGE – CRACK A HAND, which will run 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 on January 9.

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 on September 8.

Source: Press release