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.
EDIT: Actually the VP isn't who you would think it is and her identity is exposed in episode 5.
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.
With episodes being 23 minutes in length these posts should be much shorter than any other recaps I do but so much does take place in these shows. Season two began off with the above scene as we met a new student named Kyu who is a member of the press club. He wants to publish an article in the school's paper about the student council and it's success at gambling. But first the article had to be scrutinized by the president's assistant Igarashi who hated to see everyone learn so many details about the power they hold over other students.
Kyu kept pressing her on letting him publish what he had written, at this school there's only one way to settle a disagreement. That's of course with gambling which is what Igarashi proposed as she held a pencil in front of Kyu. If it fell towards him then the article could be published as it was, if it fell to her then no article and of course it fell towards the assistant which for now means no article.
The main character in the show is Yumeko who is played so brilliantly by Minami. When we first saw her in this opening show Yumeko was on edge and couldn't stop babbling about this and that. Didn't take long for her new friend and previous rival Mary to figure out why Yumeko was in such a state, she hadn't been gambling enough! Mary was my favorite character in the first season but her role along with a few others is much smaller this time around.
Another huge fave of mine from season one was Itsuki who is in the middle screenshot and her role is actually bigger than the first season. She's played by Ruka who I've done three solo posts for and will try to have another one for her very soon. In the first season Itsuki had lost a match to Yumeko, she's still a very wealthy student but the fact that she lost to her was enough for Itsuki to get thrown off the student council, it was mainly the decision of accountant Manyuda.
Itsuki wanted to join Yumeko's small circle of friends which includes Mary and Ryota. He was once a house pet but had been saved by Yumeko who had won a gambling match and paid off his debt. Ryota may be the only student who hates gambling and often tries to discourage Yumeko from doing so. To her friend's surprise Yumeko said yes to Itsuki's request, Yumeko doesn't do things without a reason and having Itsuki on her team will pay off for her much later on in the series.
We met a new student who was a returning one named Yumemi, of course most if not all should know Sayuri from Nogi. Yumemi had taken a leave to concentrate on her Idol career which has become quite successful, she has such a large fan base at the school including Ryota. At 26 in age Sayuri seems a bit old to be a student though she is on the student council but have been wondering if it's not an honorary position and that she graduated. Yumemi may be a huge star these days but she truly dislikes her fans and is only using them to increase her popularity as her major goal is to become an actress/celebrity.
Of all people to discover how much Yumemi hated her fans it was Yumeko who heard bits and pieces of it from the hallway. Yumeko had also slipped a recorder in the coat pocket of her manager Saori, unless Yumemi bows to Yumeko's demand then she'll play the tape in front of her fans. That recording has Yumemi ranting and raving about how much she despises her fans and how they're such an uncouth group of people. The demand is participating in Yumeko's favorite activity which is of course... gambling! Yumeko has a plan which we don't learn off for a while but a part of it is to take down as many student council members as possible, perhaps then the president will square off with Yumeko in a gambling match.
With that recording Yumemi doesn't have much of a choice and will have to have a match with Yumeko. It'll be a 'Who's the best Idol' contest which should favor Yumemi but that doesn't begin until the next episode. The stakes are quite high too, the winner will get 50 million yen from the loser. Plus there's two other scenarios, if Yumeko loses then she has to give the Idoling career a go but if Yumemi loses then Yumeko will play the tape in front of her fans which should end Yumemi's days as an Idol.
As you can see above and below the match does begin to take place. Yumemi introduced Yumeko to her army of fans as what originally had been scheduled was a solo Yumemi concert. No person in the audience knew who Yumeko was save for her three friends and the student council members watching the action from high above. That concludes this first recap and episode, the action starts right up when episode two begins but it does last close to two shows.
Bit of a slow beginning but the pace did pick up after the halfway mark, this is going to be an enjoyable watch but not as much as the first season. At only five episodes the action needs to be crammed in which will definitely affect things and don't know why there couldn't have been ten shows again. As mentioned at the top will be doing all five recaps in a row which naturally means the second one is the next post.
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