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 scene from this 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.
First gambling battle of the second season commences as Yumeko will be facing off with Yumemi with the match being 'Who has what it takes to be an Idol?' or something along those lines. The advantage should be huge for Yumemi as she's already such a popular Idol and has been for a few years. Plus she has the entire crowd rooting her on so what chance does a newbie like Yumeko have? A very good one as Yumeko doesn't gamble recklessly, she knew exactly what she was getting into but does she have the talent to overtake Yumemi?
As you can see above it's a Tic-Tac-Toe game, first person to have a line with three of their characters will win the match with one of the prizes being 50 million yen! You will get a square on the board of your choice when you win a round, there's a possible nine rounds. A player will roll a huge dice, whatever number is facing up lists the challenge the two combatants will go head to head on. Yumemi first rolled the dice which came up with the 'Singing Contest', the pair will both sing a tune to see who's the best singer.
As most Nogi fans know Sayuri may be the weakest singer in the group but she actually sounded fine in the the song she sang. That drew a huge applause from her faithful fans and up next with the impossible challenge was Yumeko. She picked an old standard which was anything but a J-Pop song which at first drew groans from the audience including her trio of friends. But Yumeko had such an incredible voice it wasn't hard to see who was the better singer as she won this first round easily, it was decided by a crowd vote as most of Yumemi's fans voted against her.
Second round was another victory for Yumeko which was eating dough stuffed with hot peppers and keeping a straight face, don't know what that has to do with being an Idol. It's 2-0 and Yumemi better start on a streak soon which she did in the third round. It was called 'Cordio check' to see how strong your lungs were, Yumemi won that one rather handily. She also bested Yumeko in the fourth round which was a quiz on Idol songs, the match is now even at two squares each but Yumemi has an advantage as she has two squares in a row which means she wins the match with one more victory.
One more victory is never easy against Yumeko, fifth round was more along the lines of Yumeko's strength which was a card game called 'Limited Old Maid'. Instead of 52 cards they played with just three and after the deal Yumemi began gloating she had an unbeatable hand. 'Not so fast with your celebration' Yumeko countered as in the game she has the option of selecting one of Yumemi's two cards. Which she did as Yumeko's now hand had a pair of aces which was the winning hand, it blocked Yumemi's possible straight and left Yumeko in position to get three squares in a row with just one more victory.
Right above is a pair we've never seen enough of even in the first season. On the bottom is Runa who is a member of the council and in real life is a J-Pop singer along with being an actress. Right above her is the council's accountant Manyuda who is such a ruthless and mysterious character, we'll finally begin to see more of him at the end of the third show and for the next two episodes too as he faces off against Yumeko, hope I didn't give away any spoilers.
These recaps are definitely much shorter than the ones for Korean dramas as we're already to the last scene or the final two minutes. Yumeko needs one more win to capture the Tic-Tac-Toe game and question six was to 'Guess the Birthday of one fan in the audience'. It would be a random pick and was based upon your ticket number. Once again Yumemi thought the answer was in the bag as she had been studying up on her fan club's members and she thought she knew all of their birthdays or at least the month they were born.
That's important as if neither knew the correct date it would be who was closer. It was time for the ticket number to be pulled and the lucky fan was.... not a member of Yumemi's fan club but instead Yumeko's friend Mary! Now the tables have turned and it should be an easy victory for Yumeko or will it be? That we don't know as this drama does stretch out these games so to see if Yumeko can win this game or if it keeps going on check out the next post.
There's a character who I really wanted to see but just appeared in the last ten seconds of this episode, after viewing four shows we still haven't seen anything more from her except for one more small ten second scene. Like 'Liar Game' this series stretches out the intense battles, sometimes it's a good thing while other times it's not but for the most part it works in this drama. As mentioned above the next recap is the following post.
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