A new trailer has been released for High Card, the poker-focused gambling thriller from the creator of Kakegurui.
High Card was originally revealed in June and is the next project from Homura Kawamoto, the writer behind the popular Kakegurui anime and manga. Kawamoto is developing the project with his brother, Hikaru Mino, who was a writer on the Kakegurui novelizations. High Card is being positioned as a multimedia franchise, which will tell its story across the mediums of manga, light novels, and anime. The series is being co-produced by Japanese publishing giant Kadokawa, the acclaimed animation studio TMS, and the electronics and pachinko company Sammy, which is best known outside of Japan for being the parent corporation of the video game publisher Sega. The first release in the media-spanning series will apparently be an audio drama CD, which will be released in Japan on Dec. 3. Premiere dates for the anime, manga, and other aspects of the franchise have yet to be announced.
In addition to High Card, Kawamoto and Mino are also working with anime production company Aniplex on Build Divide -#00000 (Code Black), which is also being positioned as a cross-media franchise that covers both anime and games. That series is also being produced in conjunction with Liden Films, the animation studio behind Tokyo Revengers, and Yuhodo, the design company which previously worked on popular trading card games such as Weiss Schwarz and Cardfight Vanguard.
In addition to all of these new projects, Kawamoto will still continue writing his most famous work, Kakegurui. Kawamoto created the popular gambling manga with illustrator Toru Naomura in 2014, which has now gone on to achieve a circulation of over 5 million copies worldwide. The series takes place in the prestigious Hyakkaou Private Academy, an elite school where Japan's richest and most powerful send their kids to be educated. However, social status in the school isn't determined by family lineage or wealth, but gambling ability: the best gamblers are allowed to run the school, while the losers are bullied and are forced to do whatever demeaning tasks the other students ask them to do. Things begin to change at the school when Yumeko Jabami, a young woman who is addicted to the thrill of putting herself in danger, transfers into the school and begins taking on its best gamblers.
Kakegurui was a surprise hit that was adapted into a two season anime series by Attack on Titan studio MAPPA. The series was also turned into a live-action drama, which also ran in Japan for two seasons. Both the anime and the live-action series are available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: YouTube
