Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: High Card
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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Yeah, this one is fun so far. I thought the first episode was trying a bit too hard to be "quirky & cool" but the following two episodes were much better, and made it clearer that the show is not taking itself particularly seriously. It's definitely working a lot better for me than Buddy Daddies which is trying to do a similar thing - no kids alternating between overly saccharine and overly obnoxious and screamy, and no weird dissonance of ethics where apparently I'm expected to believe that one set of murderers are good guys and another set of murderers is bad guys, just because the former set is cute guys who sometimes mess up comically and so it's funny when they kill or attempt to kill. High Card just handwaves all that away, which is absolutely for the better.
I'm also really liking the card powers. There are some boring ones like "gun" and "fire", but ones like the marbles (what  ) and the high calorie one are really fun, and so far my favorite is Never No Dollars from episode three, that actually had me laugh out loud.
The characters are kind of the weakest parts so far, nothing wrong with them per se, but they're fairly standard tropey, and so not very interesting. My favorite so far is definitely Horie Shun's character introduced in episode 3 (he reminds me of a much more comedic Maki from Himitsu: Top Secret, visually and even in his characterization). |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2751 |
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Not one of best series of the season but it is very stylish and it is plain dumb fun so far.
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MagicPolly
 Posts: 1630 |
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Yeah fun is definitely the right word to describe this series. Cool visuals, fun characters, and an interesting power system. Not the most amazing show to ever be made but it's great to watch
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11627 |
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I'm still not entirely sold on this yet, but it's good enough I guess. I know they were supposed to be idiots, but they had to be the stupidest kidnappers ever. Why did they even bother to wear masks during the kidnapping if they were just going to discard them and call each other by name?
I also suspect we'll eventually learn that Leo and Finn are at least half-brothers, if not full. I'll probably be more surprised if that's not the case than if it is. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2751 |
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I wonder if/when we will see more of the main plot such as the attack on the castle in episode 1.
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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So that they can keep an eye on her, I assume? And use her ability whenever necessary, but mostly because when you have someone like this out there, with this kind of power and personality, do you want her on your team, or do you want her running around doing who knows what... or worse, be recruited by the enemy team? As for Wendy's "path of loneliness" thing, I assumed it was mainly because in this state the person wielding the card/sword* is extremely dangerous, and is a threat not only to their enemies but also to their allies and loved ones. So it's best for the user to keep to themselves. I also thought it was a joke, setting Wendy's power up as something Very Serious and Dark, and turns out it's her turning into an over-the-top psycho weirdo. *If there's anything the episode didn't make clear, it's the connection between the card and the sword. Does the sword have a power on its own? Is it connected to the card? Anyway, I thought the episode did a good job introducing Wendy, but all in all it wasn't particularly interesting. The "murderous psycho alternate identity" is a twist we've seen a million times now and the show is not doing anything interesting with it, also the "psycho version is hotter = has larger boobs" idea made me roll my eyes. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11627 |
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My take was that Wendy was only following the "path of loneliness" because her father had told her (up until he was at death's door I guess?) that was the only way to keep the card from overwhelming her. She had to remain alone to find the inner strength and self-reliance and focus to resist it. But she's not a loner by nature, so she is conflicted about it, has not kept to herself, and thus lacks the focus to control the card's influence.
As for the card and sword, since the card manifests the sword, they are connected, but as long as the sword is sheathed, its influence is contained. I guess her dream (recollection?) maybe can't be taken as gospel, but if it's true, then the card itself tried to possess her when she was an undisciplined child with no power to resist its attraction. The sword didn't manifest because she didn't invoke "Play!" but it didn't need to since she was basically defenseless back then. The spell was only broken when her father took the card from her. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 14267 |
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Always pretty funny when a cop character gets caught in their own handcuffs. I think this is the first police character Rie Takahashi has played?
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WatcherZer
Posts: 322 |
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They said the card chooses the reader and only someone who it approves of can use it (and it was implied the Goddess herself stepped in during the robbery to scatter the cards). As to the user changing the cards power around their own psyche I dont think thats the case, at a fundamental level the powers are fixed and probably reflect their original holders personality and strength. That said they likely do move with the times, an ability to summon a gun wouldnt have existed in the middle ages but a power to summon 'a weapon' likely did.
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Covnam
 Posts: 3857 |
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Just caught up with this after seeing the positive reviews. It's been fun so far
The cards being a bit more limited in who can use them is a nice change from the usual "collect all the super power items" too. The heist episode was probably the roughest for me though. It was nice seeing everyone work together (even through sea sickness, which was a nice touch), but it wasn't great seeing them not only fail, but lose the card in the end regardless. The case was raised in one shot and then lowered in the next when the lightning card user appeared. With plenty of time to switch the cards, I would have expected to see something like an extra fake out. Replace the real card with a fake, but keep a second fake to act like you didn't switch it out. I enjoyed the emotional beats of the most recent episode. It was odd though that at no time did they try to just explain to Chelsea how dangerous it is to hold on to a card (and wow, that's a weak card. Even Finn gets a gun with his 2, but this one lets you stick hands together...) considering the mob is after it.
It's funny you mention that as I happened to be thinking about this today. We see the cards were created in a time of barbarians and knights, so it's doubtful that there would be guns and C4 being manifested back then (though this is magic...) so I figure that the people who wield the cards must have some influence on what is actually drawn out. Like WatcherZer though, I imagine that there is some baseline for what the cards do and the current player manifests that power in a way that works for them. They do seem to have some knowledge of the cards and their abilities after all, so they can't be completely unique to the user. Who can wield them could definitely be related to a person's psyche instead of something like family blood line or just luck. Love & Peace seems to be a case where the card is less picky, but without the right personality, it doesn't go too well. |
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Covnam
Posts: 3857 |
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The frequent misses on both sides also was one of the more eye raising parts of the episode considering what we've seen so far.
I was surprised with the double card move considering we still have plenty of cards left. I wonder if they have to be matching numbers? Since the cards only work for some people, I'm guessing it's rare to be able to use more than one, still you'd think a power up like that would happen later in the series. Guess it's good to dodge that trope though... Presumably the cards would survive the blast and fire, but you would think the Klondikes wouldn't want to potentially leave two cards behind like that. |
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DigiCom
Posts: 6 |
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I've seen it theorized that the combinations may have to be valid poker hands, which suggests that a Player with a royal flush would likely be unbeatable.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2751 |
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Like the just posted review of episode 9 mentioned, the pacing of this series is weird. It started of fast to then slowly turn into mostly slow episodes with some dramatic moments in them. With the newest episode they seem to have remembered that only a few episodes are left and thus go from 5 to 100 in one go.
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Covnam
Posts: 3857 |
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Yeah, it's almost like they started with a 24 episode series and then learned they'd only be getting half that part way through.
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Nakottih
Posts: 31 |
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I keep saying it... This anime should be "darker" ! The potential is huge with the cards and the personnality of the players, but from episode 4 to 8, it was like they didn't really know where to go... However, the raw material allow them to create something bigger, like why some have cards, what are the circumstancies of how they gained them and obvioulsy, it's not really clear to me why there's this need for retrieving all those cards... If the cards have been created, it's because they should be used for a reason, no ?
 Still confused here...
Just watched episode 10... Things got escalated quickly once again ! |
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