In June 2021, an announcement hit the news wires that made fans around the world buzz (including myself). In the initial announcement, fans learned that a new poker-themed mixed media project titled High Card that would include a television anime, a manga series, a novel series, and drama CDs was being spearheaded by the team of TMS Entertainment, KADOKAWA, and Sammy Corporation. While details were scarce, some names involved were eye-grabbing, with the new original story being credited to Kakegurui creator, Homura Kawamoto. Unfortunately, the project went mostly silent for over a year afterward until Saturday, November 19th, when additional details were posted on the internet, including a new promotional video, story details, and a January 2023 premiere date.
As announced in the promotional video, the anime portion of this project will air on Japanese television starting on January 9th, 2023. On the production side of things, Studio Hibari is producing the animation for High Card with Junichi Wada serving as the director. Interestingly, while they credit Homura Kawamoto as the original creator, the actual writing duties are being handled by Naoki Kuroyanagi, who is in charge of the series composition with Kenichi Yamashita, Kazuhiko Inukai, and Shingo Nagai writing the scripts. Also worth noting is that the original character designs are being credited to artist Ebimo, but the anime character designs are being drawn by Nozomi Kawano. Finally, Ryo Takahashi is composing the background music, and the band Five New Old is performing the opening theme song, Trickster.
As previously announced, the cast list for the series reads as follows (character names first):
Finn Oldman: Gen Sato
Chris Redgrave: Toshiki Masuda
Leo Constantine Pinochle: Shun Horie
Wendy Satō: Haruka Shiraishi
Vijay Kumar Singh: Yuichiro Umehara
Bernard Symons: Kazuhiro Yamaji
Theodore Constantine Pinochle: Daisuke Ono
Owen Alldays: Nobunaga Shimazaki
Norman Kingstadt: Toshihiko Seki
Brist Blitz Broadhurst: Shunsuke Takeuchi
Brandy Blumenthal: Mie Sonozaki
Ban Klondike: Tomokazu Seki
Tilt: Toshiyuki Toyonaga
Bobby Ball: Chiharu Sawashiro
Greg Young: Toshiyuki Morikawa
Sugar Peas: Rie Takahashi
Along with this new information, a story introduction was also posted:
After learning that his orphanage is about to close due to financial problems, Finn Oldman heads to a casino to win a fortune. Once there, Finn gets caught up in an intense chase and gunfight set off by a man’s “lucky card.” Finn eventually learns that the world order is controlled by whoever holds a deck of 52 X-Playing Cards, which can grant superhuman abilities.
A secret group of players called the High Card was commissioned directly by the King of Fourland to collect these cards, which are scattered throughout the kingdom. They also work under the guise of employees at the luxury car manufacturer Pinochle. Now chosen as the fifth member of the party, Finn is about to embark with the rest of the group on a dangerous mission in search of these powerful cards.
Sources: Crunchyroll News, Anime News Network
