High Card Season 2

More of the same from season 1 but with a satisfying ending now that everyone's motives (including the antagonists) are fleshed out. Characters have believable arcs that don't come out of nowhere

The Shonen card battle animations and overall art is still very solid. The soundtrack accompanies each episode very nicely.

As mentioned earlier, the conclusion was good but it left just enough for someone to make a spin off or a prequel; which would be cool to revist this world.

A good change of pace shonen that isn't going to be high up on the lovers of that genre's list. It deserves a shot since ... it's not your typical battle shonen and does a good job of sticking to the rules it lays out from episode 1 (powerscalers go home)

The premise of High Card is so cool and is used in such a great story way. The execution and storylines throughout the show is what I'd call acceptable. What i mean is you'll watch this show and have moments like when a player activates his card, with the deep "Play" into your ears with the fun battle sequences really enjoying what going on. Then you wonder do i know anything or care about the characters that are fighting.

Season 2 tries to remedy the lack of connection to the high card squad by separating and giving each character stories which is great stuff. By the ... end you do know and care about most characters and at the same time you wish there was more than just the one story. many of the things in season 2 should've been in season 1 the connection they want you to believe the gang has had is just hard to believe and its a point that is hammered down throughout a "Family" for sure. But they just didn't show enough moments with everyone it feels like how the shows depicted it to be a bunch of work buddies. Some pairing stronger than others but as a group no.

The Main story for season 2 is many things and juggles about 3 different concepts and all of them are great individually but none of them get the amount of detail to make them great. For me there's 1) the group is a family and should always stay together while the police and king breaks them up 2) Our MC connection to the cards and his backstory solving the season 1 mystery of his past 3) The full history of the cards and the truth behind the opening of the show. Each story could and maybe should've been its own season or at least the main plot of one. But with all 3 in 12 episodes certain stories felt backburnered and forgotten or poorly worked into another story.

Idk I feel more negative about than i should because i enjoy this show. the characters are all stylized and they bring there own thing that a viewer can connect themselves with. the magic system is cool and the powers are typically unique with huge clashes with strong uses of abilities so the powers and what power you have matters. Just could be better and the story would leave a bigger impact, high card is forgettable but the style and idea isn't.

My main problem with this show is that it has a chronic problem with its identity. I found S1 painfully average but saw some potential. And I wanted to give S2 the chance to let it land, and so far its getting worse.

It has no idea what it wants to be and because of this it doesn't do anything well. It's trying to juggle so many elements within the plot that it ends up bouncing from uninteresting character to uninteresting character. For me, the only character I found remotely interesting (that actually got more than 5 mins of screen time mind you) was Leo. ... He got most of episode 5 dedicated to him, and they even messed that up. Episode 5 perfectly represented everything wrong with this show - Poor. Execution.

Another reviewer for S1 thought that High Card was advertised to be a mix of Kingsman and Bungou Stray Dogs and that's what I thought too. But it isn't either of them. It isn't anything. It doesn't deliver anything comedic and wacky. The way the characters use the Cards is laughably incompetent. The plot is very weak mainly due to the worldbuilding and characters being so flat and devoid of any substance or care.

The best way I can describe this show is that its a really bad Power Rangers adaptation that takes itself too seriously. Ultimately, I really wanted to like this show. It has great potential. But if only did it focus more on its narrative structure then it would have delivered on what it actually wanted to be.