High Card

[neflight86]

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"Fourland Kingdom is an island nation in the North Atlantic. In this country, there are 52 X-Playing Cards, considered the origin of playing cards. A card with a unique supernatural ability can gift its abilities to a qualified person: the player.

One day, the X-Playing Cards in government's custody were spread all over Fourland leading to troubles caused by the supernatural abilities of the players with cards across the country. The king secretly assigns Pinochle, one of the top corporations of the nation, to a mission, to collect the cards that are causing all the chaos in the country.

Source: TMS"

Genre(s): Action, Supernatural, Espionage

https://subsplease.org/shows/high-card/
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1-2

Well... so far, so good. Another supernatural hit-squad hunting down mcguffin powers in the modern day. The setup of Finn trying to save an orphanage is essentially anime-code for "invincible, scrappy protagonist", so the expectations are clear from the get-go. His character, thankfully, isn't outright stupid though and so him having any chance against the forces he's against isn't stretching disbelief too far yet. I like that there is an emphasis on allowing the audience to glean details of the setting from the worldbuilding and context themselves (almost nothing from the synopsis is touched on until the end of the second episode). Not having everything spelled out is a good storytelling tool to allow the audience something to 'chew on' in the background of their minds, and I like it.

The production is plenty adequate and the characters, while common tropes, are used well so far. Long term enjoyment will come down to how the individual cases and powers are handled, and as we've seen plenty of times before, anime is all too eager to trip over its own power creep and make for some truly outlandish conflicts down the road. For now, though, this is a solid recommend as an action series.

[neflight86]

3-6

Even though none of the following episodes have thus far lived up to the high mark set by the first, the show as a whole has avoided collapsing on itself up until now. The introductions are largely done (though plant guy hasn't had an episode yet), and the formal injection of the mob family went pretty good, and feels appropriately threatening. Sugar Pease (what a name), the noble rookie, got a dose of reality and became more sympathetic when her tough face was peeled off by a close brush with superpowers. The villain cornered and confirmed this was merely a warning which was unexpected to say the least (no bail-out or deus ex machina). Finn even got a chance to be a jerk about the mistaken detainment but avoided the compulsion completely which re-contextualizes him as a more mature character to me, instead of the loudmouth hothead I had taken him for- a pleasant surprise.

The history lesson was also appreciated for setting both the major players and a timeframe for the cards getting on the loose. I figured it had been a year or more since they've been in circulation.

Overall, still completely watchable and worth checking out for mad-cap abilities and fights (conceptually; the animation is still sparse). It keeps me guessin'.

[neflight86]

7-12

For an anime original, this could have been way worse. Chris's arc was unexpected and Pinochle's shadiness was welcome. Not great by any means, but entertaining, and with a confirmed second season, this concept could go places.