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High Card Anime Reveals More Cast, Side Story Manga

Kadokawa revealed more cast and the side story manga's launch for the anime of the poker-themed High Card multimedia project on Wednesday.

Nobunaga Shimazaki joins the cast as the character Owen Alldays (seen below), Theodore's handsome and capable secretary who is loyal to a fault to his employer, but disregards everyone else. He is one of the few in the Pinochle company that knows of High Card.

The High Card -♢9 No Mercy manga launched on Square Enix's Manga UP! service on Wednesday. The anime's Ebimo draws the manga.

Previously announced cast members include:

• 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

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!!

Publisher TMS, author Homura Kawamoto (Kakegurui franchise), his younger brother Hikaru Muno (Kakegurui novel) are credited with the original work, and Ebimo is credited as the original character designer.

The anime's staff members are:

• Director: Junichi Wada (The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Caligula, Sakugan)
• Series Composition：Naoki Kuroyanagi
• Scripts: Kenichi Yamashita, Kazuhiko Inukai, Shingo Nagai
• Character Design: Nozomi Kawano (Radiant)
• Chief Animation Supervisor：Nozomi Kawano, Haruna Nagata
• Color Key Artist: Yumi Nagi
• Art Directors: Minoru Ōnishi, Taigorō Suzuki
• CG Director: Masafumi Uchiyama
• Editor: Rie Itō
• Compositing Director of Photography: Tomoyuki Kunii
• Action Animation Directors/Key Animators: Shunpei Mochizuki, Junichi Hayama
• Effects Animation Director: Takashi Hashimoto
• Sound Director: Shōko Hata
• Sound Effects: Hiromune Kurahashi
• Music: Ryō Takahashi
• Card Design: BALCOLONY.
• Concept Art: Reoen (Flat Studio)
• Animation Production: Studio Hibari
• Production: TMS Entertainment

The anime will premiere in January 2023.

The project will ship its first drama CD volume on December 3. 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.

Kawamoto and Muno also worked on the Build Dive -#00000 (Code Black)- television anime together as part of the Build Divide multimedia project with media company Aniplex, card game design company Yūhodō, and animation studio LIDEN FILMS.

Source: Press release