Air Dates: March 31st to April 28, 2019 on MBS and TBS for a total of five episodes,
it was a lead in to the that was released on May 3rd.
Finally have gotten around to viewing this series and the first season was one of my top shows for 2018. That season had ten episodes while this one sadly just had five and think it mainly was a lead in for the movie. Will have all five recaps in a row and they shouldn't be too long as an episode is just 23 minutes long. Will also try having a different video at the top of every post, today's is a short promo one for the first episode. Like season one will list all of the characters with a pic and short bio of them, about ten from season one have returned and by the end of the second episode was introduced to four new characters. Will update the list as the episodes go on and of course the main star of this show is Minami though my fave character is Aoi's.
Minami Hamabe as Yumeko Jabami.... Was a new student in the first season and is totally addicted to gambling, she's on the hit list of the student council though they do respect her fearlessness.
Aoi Morikawa as Mary Saotome.... Now a friend of Yumeko's though that wasn't the case in the first season. Avid gambler whose only loss has been to Yumeko.
Mahiro Takasugi as Ryota Suzui.... Best friend of Yumeko's who dislikes gambling, is also a huge fan of the Idol Yumemi. Like Mary role is much smaller than season one.
Sayuri Matsumura as Yumemi Yumemite.... Student who returned to the school after beginning her career as an Idol and she's a popular one, member of the student council.
Taishi Nakagawa as Kaede Manyuda.... Student council's accountant who is determined to become the next president, role is much bigger than the first season.
Elaiza Ikeda as Kirari Momobami.... Student council president who we don't see too often, new to the series.
Yurika Nakamura as Sayaka Igarashi.... Assistant to the president, bit of a quite female who seems she's always about to explode though never does.
Natsume Mito as (L)Runa Yomozuki.... Student council member and a character who deserves a much bigger role.
Ruka Matsuda as Itsuki Sumeragi.... Former student council member who had to give up her position after losing to Yumeko, now is a part of her small group.
Miyuki Sawajo (voice) as the Vice President.... Hope the name is correct as she wasn't listed on any cast list, student council vice president who always wears a mask.
Yuki Someno as Saori.... Yumemi's manager and also a student.
The other students who don't have major roles, top person is new to this season. Bottom character will be explained a bit more in the fifth recap as through four shows she's had at the most twenty minutes of screen time but Mary seemed to join her group during the third episode.
Huge cast for a 23 minute show but of course most of the screen time belongs to Yumeko which is fine as she does deserve it. Bit of a background and then we'll dive into the recap, will leave this intro in all of the posts but may tweak things a bit here and there.
The setting is the exclusive Hyakkaou Private Academy which has been in existence for 122 years. There only the elite of the elite students are in attendance as save for a few their fathers are extremely wealthy or are high ranking politicians. However the school is anything but an academic institution as the main activity there is.... Gambling! And not for small stakes as the wagers run into the tens of million yen. Your school ranking is determined by how much money you have plus whether you've won at your gambling showdowns.
Losers are considered 'house pets' aka dogs or kitties depending upon your gender. They need to do anything the winners or student council members demand of them, for now no student on the above class list is a house pet though three once had been in that category. In the first season there was a new student who is the show's star, Yumeko. She shook things up as she was able to defeat three student council members which had never happened in the school's history, her main goal is to face off in a duel with the student council president. That should make everything easier to understand and I won't have to discuss those details, let's get on with this recap.
Let's continue on from where we left off and it's put up or shut up for Manyuda who had been challenged to a gambling match by Yumeko. To him it was shut up time as he didn't want to waste his energy on a lowlife like Yumeko but I had the feeling Manyuda wasn't all that confident going against her after Yumeko had taken down four previous council members. Even though the crowd of Yumemi's fans were chanting to Manyuda to accept the challenge his turned his nose up to everyone and began to depart the concert stage where the gambling battle against Yumemi had been fought.
But one line made Manyuda stop and to turn back, that line was Yumeko saying 'I'm calling for an official match'. That's one privilege a house pet has, when they demand an official match against a council member they have to play against the person. Manyuda was backed into a corner and from the above balcony the council's vice president told him he had no choice but to play.
So now the setting quickly moved to a different hall at Hyakkaou Academy, one that's set up mainly for gambling matches. The VP will be the dealer and as you can see above the unique game is called 'Choice Poker'. The rules are the same as the best hands go from a pair, to two pair, three pair, etc. But what's different is that it's not a showdown between the hands when the betting ends, the final player to raise has the option of calling one of two choices, either stronger or weaker.
The person who wins the 'choice' has those two options and it refers to their opponents hand. When a player say Stronger he feels as though that hand is better than their own, so of course saying Weaker means the other player has a worse hand then their own. If that player is correct they'll win the entire post, an incorrect guess mean their opponent does. So it's very important to have the option of choosing what kind of hand the other player has. It's also very crucial to have more chips to wager which gave the advantage to Manyuda as he started the match off with 100, Yumeko had 31.
The first hand was a bit of a warm up to Manyuda, the raises were small as they were each betting just one chip which were worth 10 million yen each. Yumeko won the option to call either stronger or weaker, her choice was stronger which was correct as Manyuda had a pair while Yumeko only had Jack high. You're allowed to throw away cards and get more from the dealer but when you discard any they have to be face up which could let your opponent know your strategy.
For instance Yumeko had discarded a King and Jack, to Manyuda way of thinking was she going for a bad hand or just trying to bluff him? That's why he started out betting small raises to see Yumeko's way of playing, Manyuda seems to know now how she'll play and losing just eleven chips didn't hurt him too bad. Helped Yumeko out slightly that she won those eleven chips but she still has 47 less of them than Manyuda has which means he'll always be able to have the final raise.
Like the 'Liar Game' series there's a lot of mathematical references such as odds and different scenarios, also like that drama the intense scenes get a bit stretched out. On to the second hand where the betting becomes a bit heavier, Yumeko also has a strategy but was it to lose all of her chips or was she for once mistaken? After a few back and forth raises Yumeko called 'All In' as she now had all 42 of her chips in the post, that total was worth 420 million yen! But with more chips Manyuda had the final say on whether he wanted the option to choose which hand was stronger or weaker, even a loss will leave him with plenty of chips so he put 43 of them in the pot to win the the option.
Manyuda's an arrogant chap and even showed Yumeko his hand before he made his choice. Once again she had thrown away a pair of high cards but to Manyuda she still had a good hand, he was correct as Yumeko had a higher pair then he did. What that meant was Game Over for Yumeko as she had wagered all of her chips, Manyuda sat there snickering at Yumeko as did she really feel she could win against such a smart player as him?
This is where I wondered if Yumeko's strategy was to lose! it wasn't Game Over to her as she looked out at the crowd and asked her new friend Itsuki to join them on the stage. Obviously Yumeko had this planned out well in advance as she had allowed Itsuki to join her team in episode one. Even though Itsuki lost a large sum of money to Yumeko in season one she's still a wealthy student, what Yumeko wants her to do is front her enough money to have a third round against Manyuda.
Itsuki was naturally a bit leery about that as she too didn't think she could give enough money that would allow Yumeko to have more than Manyuda does. To Itsuki it would be like throwing away money as if Manyuda has more he'll always be able to have the final raise. Manyuda though was a bit worried about playing one more hand against Yumeko so offered Itsuki her student council position back, he was the one to disbar her from the council after she lost to Yumeko in a match. In a surprise move Itsuki told Manyuda to go to hell and went to stand by Yumeko's side, whatever it takes Itsuki wants her revenge on Manyuda which is where this fourth episode ends.
Much longer recap than the previous three but the action is finally heating and every episode has been better than the previous one. Glad to see that Manyuda is getting a lot of screen time, he seemed like such a mysterious and evil character in season one but we barely got to know him. What I've been impressed with is how good of an actress Ruka is. Will be doing another post for her soon but she's also in a new drama that just began and it's one that I was thinking of checking out, definitely will now. One more show to go and as you guessed it's the post below this one.
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