History Anime / HighCard

** "Look at Me": [[spoiler:Tilt wants to work with the Black Knight (and Iris) to "change" the world.]]

*** When Greg narrats to Sugar that he was forced to sign a police NDA, it mentions that the X-Cards are a national security concern that confidentiality needs to be maintained.

** "Answer the Door": The Klondikes attack Pinochle's headquarters [[spoiler:and managed to steal the Cards collected and kidnap the president]].

''High Card'' is a multimedia project created by Homura Kawamoto (the creator of the ''Anime/{{Kakegurui}}'' franchise), Hikaru Muno (writer of multiple ''Kakegurui'' light novel spinoffs), and Creator/TMSEntertainment, assisted by Creator/StudioHibari. The anime premiered January 9, 2023, around the same time as multiple spinoffs including a manga (''High Card -♢9 No Mercy''), a prequel light novel (''High Card -♦7 Never No Dollars''), and a drama CD set that fills out the background of multiple characters.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The X-Playing Cards come in four colors. While the Spade and Heart Cards are the traditional black and red, the Diamond and Club Cards are blue and green. Even regular playing cards follow this.

* MagicAIsMagicA: Each suit of X-Playing Cards have a specific set of abilities.
** Spades are {{Spontaneous Weapon Creation}}s, ranging from pistols to swords.
** Hearts grant the power to change one's body, from SuperToughness to granting a HealingFactor.
** Clubs grant the power to control natural objects, examples being the 3 of Clubs granting [[GreenThumb control of plantlife]] while the 7 of Clubs grants [[PlayingWithFire pyrokinesis]].
** Diamonds give individualistic and peculiar powers, ranging from the 7 of Diamonds' CastFromMoney to the 3 of Diamonds being able to turn anything into marbles.

** "Answer the Door": [[spoiler:Bernard pulled out a Card, revealing himself to be a Player.]]

* WhamShot: At the end of "To Be Apart", [[spoiler:Chris pulling a gun on Finn and shooting him]].

''High Card'' is a multimedia project created by Homura Kawamoto (the creator of the ''Anime/{{Kakegurui}}'' franchise), Hikaru Muno (writer of multiple ''Kakegurui'' light novel spinoffs), and Creator/TMSEntertainment, assisted by Creator/StudioHibari. The anime premiered January 9, 2023, around the same time as multiple spinoffs including a manga (''High Card -♢9 No Mercy''), a prequel light novel ("High Card -♦7 Never No Dollars"), and a drama CD set that fills out the background of multiple characters.

** When Chris presents some fake identifications for himself and Michelle to the police, you can see that they're for [[Creator/ChrisHemsworth Ethan Hemsworth]] and [[Creator/MichellePfeiffer Sophia Pfeifer.]]

* FamilyExtermination: [[spoiler:Season 2 confirms that Finn's family was killed by the Black Knight, leaving him as the only survivor. Finn believes that the X-Playing Card has something to do with it]].

The show has been renewed for a second season which started airing on January 8, 2024.

The show has been renewed for a second season which will air on January 8, 2024.

''High Card'' is a multimedia project created by Homura Kawamoto (the creator of the ''Anime/{{Kakegurui}}'' franchise), Hikaru Muno (writer of multiple ''Kakegurui'' light novel spinoffs), and Creator/TMSEntertainment, assisted by Creator/StudioHibari. The anime premiered January 9, 2023, around the same time as multiple spinoffs including a manga (''High Card -♢9 No Mercy''), a light novel, and a drama CD set that fills out the background of multiple characters.

The show has been renewed for a second season which will air on January 2024.

** "Power Game": John Doe's killed by Ban without touching him. Sugar's warned of his death while having survived an encounter with a KM enforcer.
** "Heat Up": Bobby Ball is back for revenge against Finn after their fight in Las Vegas, has managed to find a way to use two Cards at once and is killed by a mysterious assailant before being able to kill Finn at the orphanage he grew up at. Finn also gets flashbacks to his past involving his family dying in a fire at the hands of a mysterious Black Knight.
** "By Your Side", Prince Dylan, the crown prince of the Fourlandian Royal Family, was assassinated by one of the Klondike mafia players.
** "Chris" has KM soldiers raid the Forland Palace, taking out most of the Royal Guard, likely in a bid to assassinate the Fourlandian Royal Family.

On March 26, 2023, the show has been renewed for a second season.

* SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage: Fourland's main language is English, and whenever it appears it's surprisingly well written. All of the X-Playing Card's names are English, and Finn even says "Nice timing" twice in English in Episode 12.

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

Set in the Kingdom of Fourland, where the royal family secretly keeps a magical deck of "X-Playing Card" locked in a vault in their castle. One fateful night, the Klondike mafia family raids the castle to steal the Card, but before they can escape, the case holding the Card is cracked open and nearly all the Cards are scattered across the Kingdom.

->''"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."''

Set in the Kingdom of Fourland, where the royal family secretly keeps a magical deck of "X-Playing cards" locked in a vault in their castle. One fateful night, the Klondike mafia family raids the castle to steal the cards, but before they can escape, the case holding the cards is cracked open and nearly all the cards are scattered across the Kingdom.

Fast-forward one month later: a young man named Finn tries to win some quick cash at a casino to save the orphanage where he grew up before it gets demolished by an uncaring landlord. However, his trip to the casino soon thrusts him into a deadly conflict as he quickly becomes inducted into High Card, a secret society under the King operating out of the Pinochle car dealership, working to secure all 52 X-Playing cards that includes Finn's own lucky 2 of Spades.

Each of the cards grants its wielder a unique ability or magic power, and High Card must race against the CEO of a rival car company and the Klondike family to secure the cards before they are used to disrupt the balance of power across the world.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The X-Playing cards come in four colors. While the Spade and Heart cards are the traditional black and red, the Diamond and Club cards are blue and green. Even the regular playing cards follow this.

** In "Make a Choice", Finn is debriefed on the significance of the cards when a TV screen shows the entirety of Fourland.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: Bobby Ball's card allows him to turn anything he touches into marble balls. While this is violent enough alone, capable of dismembering people, he is also capable of using the marble balls as something similar to very strong rubber bullets, enough to leave metal desks bent when hit and kill people at close range. In "Heat Up" He manages to be the first Player to use two cards at once, turning his arms into morphable liquid metal capable of attacking opponents from afar.
* MadeOfIndestructium: It's been stated that the X-Playing cards are indestructible.
* MagicAIsMagicA: Each suit of X-Playing cards have a specific set of abilities.

* PlayingCardMotifs: The entire franchise is full of them, from the obvious X-Playing cards themselves to the names of locations throughout the Kingdom.

** The playing cards themselves seem to work under Poker rules for the order of strength in their numbers, with the Deuce being the lower-powered cards while the Aces are incredibly powerful.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Using any X-Playing Card will give the player enhanced physical abilities and resistance, regardless of the power of the actual card. Considering how wild a battle between Players are and the kind of things that each card does or asks of the user, it's likely a bare minimum to be able to use it to any reasonable degree.
* SacrificialRevivalSpell: [[spoiler:An X-Hand composed of the four "5" cards is capable of this. When he was a kid, Chris got saved by his father using said hand. Episode 11 reveals that Chris was secretly reuniting the cards to use it again, this time to sacrifice himself to save his sickly little sister.]]
* SequelHook: Considering how the IP is set to turn into a multimedia franchise, it's no wonder season 1 leaves a lot of these hanging to be picked up.
** Iris is introduced in the prologue as the one that stole the X-Playing Cards, and is indicated to [[spoiler:have saved Finn from Bobby]]. Outside of that, she never appears or interacts with High Card, making her a source of possible story-telling.
** Ban Klondike's ultimate plan and whatever card he holds is still a mystery.
** Tilt is introduced, but his character and role is yet to be explored.

* SummonToHand: A feature of multiple cards' powers, including Finn's 2 of Spades and Leo's 7 of Diamonds.
* SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage: Fourland's main language is English, and whenever it apears it's surprisingly well written. All of the X-Playing Card's names are English, and Finn even says "Nice timing" twice in English in Episode 12.
* TrickedOutGloves: Using an X-Playing Card turns it into gloves that allow the wearer to use their powers. Taking the gloves off turns them back into cards, but on the other side, so does losing your arms or hands.

** "Heat Up": Bobby Ball is back for revenge against Finn after their fight in Las Vegas, has managed to find a way to use two cards at once and is killed by a mysterious assailant before being able to kill Finn at the orphanage he grew up at. Finn also gets flashbacks to his past involving his family dying in a fire at the hands of a mysterious Black Knight.

* FictionalCountry: Fourland is a European-based country in the North Atlantic, while the design of its cities are influenced by London and Las Vegas.

** Episode 7 involves two main characters chasing after a woman whose power is to connect them together, leading to several embarrassing scenarios and being MistakenForGay, very similar to [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Joseph and Avdol's fight against Mariah.]]

* TrueCompanions: Theodore, on paper the BigGood of the series, discourages this, advocating for his employees to see each other as work colleagues and nothing more. Nonetheless, the High Card team develop into real friends over the course of the season, with even Leo disobeying his father's orders in the season finale so that he, Vijay, Wendy, and Bernard can help Finn save Chris from [[spoiler: sacrificing himself to save his sister via X-Hand]].

* SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage: Fourland's main language is Enlgish, and whenever it apears it's surprisingly well written.

** The car company that High Card uses as a front for their operations is named Pinochle. The branch the main characters work out of is named Old Maid. The pub they frequent is called Crazy 8. All are names for classic card games.

** And then at one point Bobby Ball [[spoiler: attacks the orphanage Finn grew up in while it was full of kids and sets the whole place on fire.]]

* SequelHook: [[spoiler:In TheStinger of the first season, Nhat is impaled by the Black Knight of Finn's memories, asking him whose side are they on. This, combined with the Black Knight being used in the poster for the season 2 announcement indicates that they will play a big role up next.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/high_card.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"What a High Card needs is manners, grace, and a readiness to risk your life."'']]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/high_card.png]]