Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains Discussion

[zoombie]

Episode 81

What I did tell you, Go is very petty. He basicly became a cyborg because he lost to Revolver and never beat Playmaker, wow it does sap any sympathy I have for him. If he has a better reason, maybe a loved one in the hospital that needs an operation and he needs money, that is one thing, but this, I can't wait for Yusaku to beat him once and for all. Go Playmaker.

 

[Light Lucario]

Episode 81

What I did tell you, Go is very petty. He basicly became a cyborg because he lost to Revolver and never beat Playmaker, wow it does sap any sympathy I have for him. If he has a better reason, maybe a loved one in the hospital that needs an operation and he needs money, that is one thing, but this, I can't wait for Yusaku to beat him once and for all. Go Playmaker.

It's also kind of annoying that he's this upset over losing when his initial reaction to the defeat was so different. He actually laughed that he lost when it happened, implying that he was almost relieved about it. I don't remember if he mentioned that he wanted a rematch with Yusaku during season one, but it wasn't this much of an issue for him. But after not getting any attention for "fighting" the Knights of Hanoi, he gave up his entertainment dueling style, was focused on just defeating Yusaku and seemingly doesn't even care about helping the orphans anymore. It's just so inconsistent with his personality. Instead of being a natural change for his character, they basically turned Onizuka around at a drop of a hat just to create more tension, regardless of whether or not it actually fits with the storyline.

Maybe this could have worked if Onizuka actually did anything in the season one finale. Despite Yusaku's claims in this episode, Onizuka basically did nothing to actually help save all of the people affected by the Tower of Hanoi. He just lost to Revolver in order to hype him up for Yusaku to defeat. If he actually did something more significant, maybe his jealousy would be a bit more reasonable. He would still come off as shallow, self-centered and stupid, but at least it probably wouldn't have felt like such a sudden and jarring change from how he was in season one. Although, I am kind of glad that he isn't trying to be an Entertainment Duelist given his self-centered attitude and he does not deserve such a title. No one in Vrains does since none of the duels have been that entertaining or anywhere close to the entertainment levels in Arc V, but Onizuka in particular is definitely not an Entertainment Duelist.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay.The whole relationship between Emma and Blood Sheppard still feels too forced and emotionally manipulative to be that effective. At least they didn't linger on it for too long. I had a feeling that Onizuka was luring everyone into a trap. He almost looked like a walking skeleton, so being exposed to more data from the AI physically drained him even more.

Yusaku saying that he needed Onizuka's help gave me mixed feelings. On one hand, it's kind of nice that he was trying to reach out to Onizuka and he still admired him as a proud honorable duelist too. But on the other hand, it's hard for me to see how Onizuka would really help them out. Yeah, Lightning's group is threatening and ideally, they need all the help they can get, but I have a hard time seeing anyone besides Yusaku doing anything significant against the group. Yusaku was the only one able to defeat the Knights of Hanoi during the Tower of Hanoi arc. Why should I believe any of the other characters in the group, let alone Onizuka, are going to defeat anyone from Lightning's group? I suppose it isn't impossible to give them some pity victories like Aoi and Onizuka defeating those generals earlier in season one, but considering just how ridiculously overpowered Yusaku is even for a Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist, I honestly don't see why he can't just defeat everyone himself. They do need to have other characters around to promote other cards, but with the way the story and characters have been handled, Yusaku could just easily handle everything on his own with no problem.

Yusaku claiming that Onizuka's duel against Revolver helped him win was some of the biggest bunch of nonsense I've seen in this show thus far. While Yusaku did learn about Revolver's secret card being Mirror Force through Onizuka dueling him, it didn't really contribute to Yusaku winning his match with Revolver. Even though Yusaku had two different ways to counter Mirror Force, Revolver was still able to use it twice. Their first match ended in a draw, so even if Yusaku didn't find out about Mirror Force through Onizuka, he still would have learned about it through their first match and would have dealt with it accordingly. It was useful to learn about Mirror Force ahead of time, but saying that Yusaku couldn't have won without Onizuka losing to Revolver is a pretty huge stretch and gives Onizuka far too much credit that he deserves.

The duel itself started okay. Yusaku trying to rush through the duel was still different for him, but it made sense given Onizuka's AI and Anti-Skill mechanic. I thought that it was pretty obvious that he had bonded with Earth's data though. There were just so many huge signs for it throughout the episode that the twist wasn't really much of a shock. I was just waiting for the characters to catch up since it was obvious the moment they found Earth's signal in Link Vrains. I didn't think he would have access to Earth's cards, but using Crystal Heart would make it perfectly clear to the cast and audience that Onizuka had Earth's data. I still expect that they'll find someway to undo it, but Ai becoming increasingly upset at Onizuka for controlling his friend was at least interesting.

 

[TheGreatOne2]

It does not look like the dub of yu-gi-oh vrains is coming to nick toons at the moment

 

[Light Lucario]

I'm not too surprised. After how they treated Arc V and Zexal, I don't think that they'd be interested in airing Vrains. This does make me wonder why they skipped Arc V's second season though. They mentioned in another email that they wanted to finish Arc V so that a new series could air by the fall. I assumed that meant Vrains, but maybe it was about another show, even though we're practically in winter now.

I know Konami wanted Nicktoons to get to the third season, but they still could have aired the entire rest of the dub had they just given the series a weekday premiere slot instead of keeping it weekly. While I don't watch Yu-Gi-Oh! dubs anymore, it still upsets me because the dub is still a big way as to how people are exposed to a series and this poor treatment of the spin-off series is a big reason why the anime isn't too successful in the U.S. as well. It is possible that they just wanted to finish Arc V and not renew their contract with 4K Media. I honestly still question why they even aired Arc V in the first place. It was clear by the way they treated Zexal that Nicktoons wasn't really interested in doing anything with the franchise.

While I hate Vrains, the series would treated so badly by Nicktoons. It already has a rough start when the English airings are most likely going to be nearly two years behind the Japanese airings by the time it finds a place to air. Although, it does help that there are legal simulcast subs available for the series. I wish that they started to do that ages ago, but it does at least provide a legal means to watch the Japanese version. At this point, the franchise would be better off as an online exclusive series instead of of staying on Nicktoons. At least the premieres would actually be consistent and they could possibly work on not being so far behind the Japanese version and/or card releases.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 82

This duel finally ends. It is painful to watch Yusaku's duels, not only are they predictable, but this one might have the worst ending of all, he won with DM powers at the end. I guess it just something you have to expect.

On the bright side, Go Onazuku finally got his come uppence and maybe now he is starting to think what have I become. Could be the first path to redemption, but he has a long way to go.

Next episode, good guys meeting to talk, could we be looking at another clip show?

 

[Light Lucario]

This duel finally ends. It is painful to watch Yusaku's duels, not only are they predictable, but this one might have the worst ending of all, he won with DM powers at the end. I guess it just something you have to expect.

Maybe it wouldn't have been as bad if they had at least established this secondary effect of Neo Storm Access earlier, but it definitely felt like a huge cheap deus ex machina. I expected Yusaku to still be able to use his Skill mechanic, but this is worse than I imagined it. It is expected that Yusaku wins with the power of his giant plot armors rather than actually having skills, but that doesn't make it any better.

On the bright side, Go Onazuku finally got his come uppence and maybe now he is starting to think what have I become. Could be the first path to redemption, but he has a long way to go.

It's hard to say. I was just surprised that they actually remembered who Onizuka used to be. His characterization in this season doesn't match with what they established him earlier, so he might as well be a different character. It seemed more like just a dramatic way for Onizuka to lose and to make the audience think he was about to die. I'd be surprisingly okay with Onizuka dying. I don't think I'm actively rooting for him to die yet, but I would not be against it. Although, that would mean that Vrains actually has long lasting consequence and the series isn't interested in something like that.

Next episode, good guys meeting to talk, could we be looking at another clip show?

That's also hard to say. It could be a quick and easy way to get a clip show. Ending the year with a recap would be pretty weak, but also pretty fitting for Vrains at the same time.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay. Onizuka's combinations were pretty impressive admittedly. I also kind of liked seeing Firewall Dragon again. One of the few good things about Yusaku's dueling is that he doesn't just spam Firewall Dragon every time. Part of that could be due to how it was recently banned from the actual card game, but at least Yusaku does tend to use different monsters and it makes Firewall Dragon stand out more than if it was his only ace monster that he used frequently.

It was really hard to get invested in the duel though due to Yusaku. He has little to no personal connection to Onizuka, so being forced into this duel didn't provide more personal stakes, although Yusaku being so emotionless doesn't help matters either. And his duels are definitely predictable. I kept feeling impatient during the match because I just knew Yusaku would find some cheap way to overcome Onizuka's Anti Skill and win the duel. Knowing that the protagonist is going to win isn't necessarily a problem. That was the case for the previous leads, but we didn't know how they'd win and most of them did still lose matches from time to time. It will be a miracle if Yusaku loses at any point during this series.

It also made it much harder for any tension in this duel to be believable. Even with Yusaku falling down from the sky and Takeru saying out loud that Yusaku was going to lose, I just have no reason to believe that. Even with Onizuka's combinations, using his Anti Skill and not losing any life points while Yusaku was done to one hundred, there was absolutely no tension. Yusaku is ridiculously overpowered, even for a Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist. He has defeated nearly every established character in the series at least once. Why should I believe that he'll finally lose to Onizuka or anyone for that matter? The plot is structured so that he literally can't afford to lose or else he'll lose Ai and the show would be over. That's not really a good way to structure a series when the basic premise prevents the lead from losing at all.

Even though I knew Yusaku would find some way to overcome Anti Skill, this was worse than I thought it would be. I thought that Yusaku could just go between regular Storm Access to Neo Storm Access instead, but this new effect was so terrible. It was just so incredibly forced and convoluted. It doesn't make me think that Yusaku is a strong duelist or that his instincts created a miracle. It makes me think that this was an immensely situational effect because apparently Yusaku can't win a Speed Duel with Storm Access. The only times he won a Speed Duel without his skill was when he dueled against those two duelists while Takeru was still captured, so that doesn't really speak well of Yusaku's skills in my opinion. It's just an absolutely terrible way to get around Anti Skill.

I wasn't expecting Yusaku to use an Xyz monster. I guess that they needed something unpredictable to throw Onizuka off his guard. Admittedly Firewall Xyz Dragon does have a pretty cool design and offers some support to Firewall Dragon too. At this point, it does seem likely that Yusaku will use all of the summoning methods since the only one that hasn't been featured in the series is Pendulum summoning. I don't know how Pendulum summoning would work for a Speed Duel and I don't like the idea of my favorite summoning methods being used by one of my least favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist, but it would be worth it if it leads to more Arc V archetypes getting more support. It would also be cool to see them make a little crossover commercial between Arc V and Vrains. They tend to do that in Japan when one series is airing reruns with another current series, so that would be neat.

Yusaku's comeback victory was expected, but it was pretty neat how he got around having to attack with Firewall Dragon at first. If the whole situation that lead up to that wasn't so convoluted, maybe it would have been more impressive. Onizuka losing was definitely expected, but I was really surprised that they remembered who he used to be and even that he wanted to win for those orphans. It seemed like the dramatic life flashback just before someone dies kind of moments, but it is possible that Onizuka realized something more while he was falling down. I don't know if I'd want Onizuka to redeem himself at this point. He just went to such a huge shift in his character that felt so unnatural that I don't know if I could really be okay seeing him as he used to be again. It would probably feel pretty forced as well.

I thought that he was going to die and like I said, I was okay with that. I didn't want to see another Yusaku vs. Onizuka duel, although that might happen regardless because they didn't get all of Earth's data back. Even so, I kind of liked that Akira forced him out. No one else was really worried about saving Onizuka's life and he didn't want everyone there to become murderers. It's one of those moments that makes me remember why he's my favorite Vrains character. He is the most likable and consistent character with his motivation, even though that might not say much. At least they did get back Crystal Heart, so that would take a big part out of Onizuka's combination, and maybe Aoi will duel Onizuka instead to get Earth back. I don't know if I'd want to see that either, but that might be a more interesting match-up than another Yusaku duel at least.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 83

Well it was pretty much a clip show. It was the best clip show we have had so far in that they don't make it so obvious. Though we had to put up with those annoying birds and that annoying fat kid. God help us.

Well Soulburner vs Revolver, I am looking forward to this. Too bad we have to wait two weeks for this.

 

[Light Lucario]

Episode 83

Well it was pretty much a clip show. It was the best clip show we have had so far in that they don't make it so obvious. Though we had to put up with those annoying birds and that annoying fat kid. God help us.

Well Soulburner vs Revolver, I am looking forward to this. Too bad we have to wait two weeks for this.

I heard that this was basically a clip show, but I didn't know that they included some of the most annoying characters of the series to do it. Ugh. I can't judge the episode yet. I'm going to wait until Crunchyroll updates in a couple of weeks before watching it since the legal subs are a big reason as to why I still keep up with this series, but I'm not sure how much credit I'll be able to give them. Not only do they end the year with another recap, but it's the sixth one they've had for the whole series. Other series usually have two or three recaps, but Vrains already has twice that amount when they're just in the middle of the second season. That's pretty bad and it will probably feel worse when I do watch the episode, especially when they brought back annoying characters to boot.

That being said, Takeru vs. Revolver does sound like an interesting matchup. I have a feeling that Revolver is going to win just because he seemingly can't lose to anyone besides Yusaku, but Takeru winning wouldn't be out of the question. He hasn't dueled for awhile and depending on the conditions of the match, that could make it more likely for him to win.

 

[Radical]

Episodes 82 & 83 were pretty sweet,

The conclusion of the rematch between Yusaku/Playmaker and Go begins, cool.

Poor Go fallen to the darkside to be SOL Technology's puppet getting cybernetics on being upset over losing, he chose the wrong path to get stronger, he'll turn back to normal.

Crystal Heart going to the darkside was awful, Queen/SOL Technology are scum and hatable as usual(except for Akira/Hayami, love them).

Yusaku/Playmaker vs. Go was a pretty sweet duel, Go had an impressive strategy getting the upperhand on Yusaku/Playmaker.

Yusaku/Playmaker finally getting the upperhand comeback on using Neo Storm Access and doing an Xyz Summon creating Firewall Xyz Dragon was awesome.

Firewall Xyz Dragon looks epic with a sweet design.

Go defeated by Yusaku/Playmaker was well-deserved, Yusaku/Playmaker's awesome win, poor Go will turn good and come to his senses I hope.

Ignis getting Earth's data and Crystal Heart was sweet, but didn't got all of it though.

Akira defying Queen and saving Go was awesome, Akira the best character ever!!!!!


Another clipshow of course, but the best clipshow episode.

Love Shima/Brave Max's funny amusing scenes.

Earth was the best, poor Earth terminated, he'll get revived though.

Poor Blood Shepherd's loss, he'll be Lightning's puppet, he'll be saved.

Both Yusaku/Ignis and Takeru/Flame's conversation about the future was great.

Both Playmaker/Ignis, Soulburner/Flame, Blue Maiden/Aqua, and Emma/Ghost Girl having a meeting with Revolver on the Lightning threat, sweet.

Takeru/Soulburner's anger to Revolver is understandable on wanting to duel Revolver, poor Takeru's parents will be missed.

Next episode preview: Takeru/Soulburner vs. Revolver, sweet, I'll enjoy the duel.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 84

Well so no real duel, I guess that is for later. This is just really set up, calm before the storm. I was hoping Revolver would get rid of those annoying reporters, but he is keeping them around.

So everyone has people on the outside for backup, that makes sense. And next episode Aoi / Haru, well she actually win for once?

 

[Light Lucario]

Episode 84

Well so no real duel, I guess that is for later. This is just really set up, calm before the storm. I was hoping Revolver would get rid of those annoying reporters, but he is keeping them around.

I was hoping that the annoying reporters would be forgotten, but since this seems to be nearly the last battle of the season and they were able to report on the duels for the Tower of Hanoi arc, I guess that they wanted to keep them along for this big battle. The writers may want to use them for comedy relief, but they are extremely annoying.

So everyone has people on the outside for backup, that makes sense. And next episode Aoi / Revolver, well she actually win for once?

Aoi isn't dueling Revolver. They are teaming up for the time being, so it wouldn't make sense for them to have a duel. If they were going to duel, Revolver would defeat her easily. Based on the preview, it sounds like she's going to duel Haru, Bohman's little brother. I already have issues about this matchup based on both his brief scene with Bohman and the impressions I got from the preview. As for whether or not Aoi is going to win, that's a bit harder to say. Even though she is fighting with Aqua, I don't think that gives her as strong of a plot armor compared to Yusaku or even Takeru. Haru is basically a minor villain at most, but the same could be said for Spectre and he absolutely crushed Aoi in the Tower of Hanoi arc.

Not to mention I still wouldn't be surprised if Yusaku was again the only one able to do anything significant in this battle. They have been emphasizing how they all need to team up to fighting Lightning's forces, but the show also kind of tried to place Yusaku, Aoi and Onizuka as the main trio fighting against the villains during the first season and Yusaku was the only one who did anything there. They might give her a pity victory just to give the illusion that Aoi has become stronger and so that the villains can't get Aqua right off the bat, but it could go either way. Haru said that he would become one with Bohman at some point, which could also give him an advantage in the match if he needs to win in order to merge with his brother.

Anyway, I thought that the recap episode was surprisingly okay. It started off on a bad note with both Brave Max and the reporters, which just triples the amount of annoying characters. Admittedly, the comments about their show made me laugh a bit since that's basically how I feel about Vrains itself, mainly how the show is boring and garbage. I was worried that they'd focused on the reporters for the clip show again, but fortunately, that didn't happen. It was all still flashbacks, but focusing it around Yusaku and Takeru's conversation was much more bearable than if it was about the reporters getting their scoop.

I also actually kind of liked how Yusaku was worried about another fight between AIs and humans could break out and wanted Ai to just hide away in order to protect its life. That was a rare friendship moment in this series that felt genuine and it was also nice to have Yusaku be something other than the traditionally cool tough lead with barely showing any emotion. If Yusaku could have more emotional moments where he showed how much he cares about the people around him, he might be more likable for me, or at least more tolerable than when the show is trying to present him as just the incredibly strong duelist. Although, I do have doubts that they'll actually follow up on the Ignis hiding away in some remote part of the network. They had Ai leave Yusaku at the end of the first season, but he came back in the next episode. There was some time in-universe between Ai's departure and return, but since that didn't happen for the audience, the impact was weakened. More importantly, I can't really see Vrains having any long lasting consequences at this point, so I wouldn't be shocked if they found someway to keep the Ignis with their human partners somehow.

I'll also give them credit in that this recap probably had the most new footage out of all of the other clip shows and did advantage the plot with Revolver seeking out the group. If this was the second clip show of the series, this would have been fine, but this is still the sixth clip show in the whole series. At least it isn't as bad as when they had a clip show every four months back in the first season, but it's still pretty bad all things considered. At this point, I wouldn't be shocked if we have at least two more clip shows by the time the series ends. Even ten recaps wouldn't be out of the question.

This week's episode was okay. I was a bit frustrated with how much of a giant tease the cliffhanger turned out to be though. Revolver vs. Takeru didn't even last five minutes. I can see why that happened. Revolver fighting back would probably just make it harder for Takeru to trust him or to calm down and they'd be wasting time that they need to fight their common enemy. Even so, I wanted to see Takeru duel. He hasn't had a duel for nearly twenty episodes. I still don't like his deck unfortunately, but I couldn't blame him for being so upset over teaming up with Revolver. Unlike Yusaku, Takeru actually remembers his past and that can be worse in a way since he lost his parents. That is a lot to deal with on top of his kidnapping and months of physical/psychological trauma. I just wish that there could have been a more satisfying way to see them have a duel than just Revolver choosing not to fight back and Takeru refusing to win in an uncool way.

Revolver revealing his identity would help to make the others trust him enough for this plan, but I do have issues with how they handled a bit of exposition. While it's true that Revolver wasn't responsible for the Lost Incident and reported his father for what he did, they also conveniently forget to point out that Revolver instantly regretted his actions because that meant his father was taken away. I'm pretty sure Revolver flat out told Yusaku that he wish he didn't save him when they first met. He still wasn't the one directly responsible for their trauma, but saying that Revolver saved them while overlooking his regret for his actions kind of rubbed me the wrong way. He isn't completely innocent or at least not a good person.

Using the Tower of Hanoi to scan for Lightning's group was a pretty interesting idea. I like how no one had a problem with the reporters being captured. I was hoping that Revolver would just kill them, but I guess that would be too dark or the others wouldn't trust him after that. Takeru still being upset was understandable and while I can understand why Flame was trying to calm him down, ignoring how Revolver felt about reporting his father kind of bothered me.

The scene with Haru and Bohman also kind of bothered me since they hadn't really established a relationship between them beforehand. Granted, it would have been hard to do that with Bohman's personality changing every time he shows up and they don't really get much screentime unless Bohman is dueling, but it still felt weak for them to suddenly care about each other as siblings despite being evolved AIs. It was another case of show, don't tell, which is a huge problem for this series. It makes any emotional moments they're going for them feel forced to me already.

At least they found Lightning's group and are going to head after them. I would have preferred the reporters being left behind as well, but I guess that they needed some form of comedy relief, no matter how annoying they are. The whole episode was pretty much just setup/calm before the storm, which wouldn't have been too bad if it wasn't right after a clipshow episode. Admittedly, watching both episodes did help to make the pacing feel a bit less slow since there wasn't a week between both episodes, but it still felt like they were dragging out the setup a bit too much. I don't know if they could have put all of this connect into one episode. It might have been manageable if they had taken out the reporters and the flashbacks, but it might have also been a bit too much. If the pacing for the series wasn't already so sluggish and full of padding, devoting two episodes primarily for setup would have been okay. I think that can work if the characters and story are interesting enough to make the exposition/setup interesting, but Vrains' storyline and characters aren't nearly interesting enough for me to make the setup feel too much like padding.

 

[zoombie]

I was hoping that the annoying reporters would be forgotten, but since this seems to be nearly the last battle of the season and they were able to report on the duels for the Tower of Hanoi arc, I guess that they wanted to keep them along for this big battle. The writers may want to use them for comedy relief, but they are extremely annoying.


Aoi isn't dueling Revolver. .

Sorry my bad, I fixed it. Just got Revolver on my mind.

 

[Light Lucario]

I actually thought of a way where the two episodes could have merged into one. Just have the episode start with Revolver contacting Yusaku's group, cut out the flashbacks, remove the reporters, or at least reduce their scenes if they had to be included in the upcoming arc, and move from there. As nice as the scene with Yusaku and Takeru was, I don't know if they needed to establish the whole Ai and Flame go into hiding after the battle right then, I guess it makes sense given that these episodes do feel like the calm before the storm and establishing it during a duel might not have worked, but I just don't know if it was necessary to do it right then, especially when I have doubts that they'll actually follow through with it and separate the Ignis from their human partners.

I think it also would have helped to make the emotional scene of Takeru screaming out that he couldn't defeat Revolver like that more effective. I saw a reaction of how it was basically Revolver letting Takeru grieve, which I can see more in retrospect. I think it would have been more effective, or at least seen as a bit less than a giant tease, if the duel happened near the middle of the episode instead of ending not even five minutes into this week's episode after being used for a cliffhanger. It's possible that they're setting up a duel for them to have down the line, but I thought that they were doing that with Blood Sheppard too and that didn't happen. It also would have been better just having one setup episode instead of two in a row considering the slow pace this series has in general.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 85

An alright episode, a straight to the point episode, it focused completely on Aoi and Haru, I am not even sure Yusaku had any lines in this episode or appeared in any original sense.

So Aoi wins a duel, Haru wasn't the greatest episode, but still a win is a win. And what it does in the grand scheme, it pisses off Bohman more and gives more motivation when he is dueling Yusaku or whoever he is dueling.

This was a fine episode.

 

[Light Lucario]

Episode 85

An alright episode, a straight to the point episode, it focused completely on Aoi and Haru, I am not even sure Yusaku had any lines in this episode or appeared in any original sense.

He was right there at the start of the episode with everyone getting into Mirror Link Vrains and before that, helped Aoi from falling off the path they were on. I don't like Yusaku by any means and I'd absolutely love it if he didn't actually appear in an episode for once, but I honestly don't know how you could have missed him. He still spoke pretty clearly before the opening even started and I'm pretty sure he had a couple of lines when they first got to Mirror Link Vrains too, especially when he checked with Shoichi. It wasn't just reused footage or lines from the previous episode either, so he was still clearly there before the episode went onto Aoi and Haru's duel.

So Aoi wins a duel, Haru wasn't the greatest episode, but still a win is a win. And what it does in the grand scheme, it pisses off Bohman more and gives more motivation when he is dueling Yusaku or whoever he is dueling.

It is a win for Aoi and she hasn't had one of those for nearly sixty episodes, but I don't think it really makes her look more skilled or impressive when even Lightning, the main villain of the season, knew that Haru couldn't win against any of their opponents and just wanted him to buy them some time. I think that they tried to counter that with Haru being the one who taught Bohman how to duel, but when even Aoi can counter his moves pretty easily, that doesn't really make him come off as a particularly strong opponent. The fact that this was his first duel of the series also probably didn't help.

It is still a victory, but it ultimately feels kind of like a petty one just because Aoi hasn't won a duel in ages, they needed to hype up her new deck and they wanted to be emotionally manipulative with Haru's death. It does affect Bohman and increases his motivation, but I don't know if he needed more motivation for his next opponent. He was already guaranteed to face off against at least Yusaku for a fourth time. Losing Haru may turn out to be a factor for why he'd eventually lose, but right now, I'm not sure what else this duel accomplished other than creating emotionally manipulative angst and giving Aoi a petty victory for her new deck.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay. I'm still so annoyed at how they always make a big deal about Link Vrains' safety and yet I still don't know why it's so darn important after nearly two years of watching this show. At least the reporters weren't around for too long, even though they'll be back later. I wasn't sure if Aoi had a chance of defeating Haru, but when Lightning knew he couldn't win, Haru got upset at Bohman and said that they weren't brothers before storming off, that pretty much made the outcome pretty obvious.

The duel was okay. I have mixed feelings on Aoi's new deck. She did have some good combinations, particularly with her Trap cards, and I guess having a deck that matches with Aqua kind of makes sense. But it also felt too sudden. Aoi hasn't really had any meaningful moments with Aqua since their first meeting and even then, that felt like a completely forced way to get Aoi more involved with the main conflict. That's why mentioning the circit of friendship and bonds kind of annoyed me. I'd love to have more good genuine friendships in this series, but I wouldn't say that Aoi and Aqua's relationship counts for that. Aoi is still dueling primarily for her brother, as well as her Miyu friend who wasn't mentioned until it was relevant to the plot. Plus, Trickstars have been the only archetype introduced in this series that seemed halfway interesting to me and I think it has been one of the more popular archetypes too. Replacing that with a more generic looking Marincess deck kind of disappointed me. It still doesn't seem like a bad deck. Aoi had some good strategies and even used her new Skill with her deck pretty well. It was just kind of disappointing after liking her Trickstar deck for so long, but maybe I'll grow to like her new deck archetype.

I didn't realize the connection between Haru and Aoi in that they weren't related to their siblings by blood. Admittedly, Aoi talking about how she has precious memories with Akira and how they aren't bonded by force was pretty nice. That is one of the few touching relationships in this series and it did seem to affect Haru near the end of the match. Despite Haru being the one who taught Bohman how to duel, he didn't really come off as particularly impressive. That was probably the point, especially when he was considered a failed AI, but it does make Aoi winning the duel look much less impressive than it probably should have been. She was in control pretty much from the start and didn't really have any huge struggles against Haru. It gives Aoi a victory all the same, but it just doesn't really come off as anything meaningful due to the combination of how they made it clear that Haru was going to lose before the match even stared and how Aoi has been treated throughout the series. Even with having one victory here, I still don't really believe that Aoi is going to do anything significant during this arc for a number of reasons.

As expected, they tried so hard to make Haru's death sad, but it just came off as being so emotionally manipulative. I could barely remember Haru's name before the previous episode and he hasn't had any meaningful interactions with Bohman. Lightning going from having Haru be Bohman's brother to being his servant after he evolved enough was pretty messed up, but it all felt so forced. Haru had done little to nothing besides being Bohman's mysterious little brother. It just came off as another show, don't tell issue. Instead of showing those precious moments between them throughout the season or even before this match, they suddenly decide on making their relationship important now in order to make his death sadder. To be fair, it would have been hard to showcase their growing relationship when Bohman didn't have a consistent personality until recently, but it came off as emotional manipulative rather than a touching scene. As Haru was dying and crying his last farewell to his brother, all I could think was how much better this scene could have been if their relationship as brothers had more focus than one episode.

Plus, I honestly have a hard time believing that Haru is gone forever. Bohman said that if he loses in Mirror Link Vrains, he'd be erased, but considering that this is Vrains, I'm positive that they'll find someway to bring him back. It will be even more likely if anyone who loses in Mirror Link Vrains is erased and not just the AIs. They already killed off nearly the entire cast at the end of season one and brought everyone back. It's really hard for me to believe that they'd permanently kill off any character at this point. I know that Revolver's father is still dead, but he could be the exception to the rule and I still wouldn't be shocked if he was somehow brought back to life. Unless they actually follow through with some long lasting consequences in this series, I just can't believe it when they act like a character is gone forever.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 86

Well now those annoying reporters are working to Lightning, I don't really care they are annoying either way, why can't someone just to get rid of.

The last few duels of late seemingly have been on episode duels, so Spectre making it through an episode for him. It took Yusaku's episodes to beat him, so if Lightning beating in one episode would raise his threat level, missed opportunity.

Spectre had the psychotic eyes, so good guy or not, he still has issues.

 

[Light Lucario]

Well now those annoying reporters are working to Lightning, I don't really care they are annoying either way, why can't someone just to get rid of.

At least their scenes were minimal, even though I wouldn't mind if they actually were killed by those collars.

The last few duels of late seemingly have been on episode duels, so Spectre making it through an episode for him. It took Yusaku's episodes to beat him, so if Lightning beating in one episode would raise his threat level, missed opportunity.

Well they spent the first half of the episode setting up the next stretch of episodes with the group being forced apart, they had a bit of a conversation before the duel started and a good chuck of the duel was spent on Lightning spamming Link monsters in order to prevent Spectre from using the Extra Deck Zone himself. I don't think that there was enough time to have the duel covered in just one episode with everything they were setting up. I can't really tell from just one episode if anything could have been cut to reduce the duel into one episode. I usually need to watch the full duel to see if it was possible to cut it down.

Besides that, Yusaku needing episodes to defeat Spectre wasn't because he was a challenging opponent for him. Yusaku would have won in just one episode if Spectre didn't take Akira hostage and prevented Yusaku from attacking. That was a pretty big deal since it was just another slap to Aoi's face after her defeat and showed just how overpowered Yusaku is if they have to make his opponents use underhanded tactics in order to create the illusion that they're challenging for him to deal with.

Just because it takes two episodes doesn't really weaken the threat level either. Lightning is still going to win since they obviously wouldn't have the main villain lose right away to a secondary villain like Spectre. Having the group see Spectre lose and I assume being erased like what happened to Haru is still going to make Lightning look like a threat to them. It might make him look more intimidating if Spectre loses after making a comeback or if he was in control of the duel before losing. It will still make the characters realize that losing one duel against the enemy can mean that they'll be in a coma or whatever being erased does for them. As the audience, I can't really buy into any semblance of tension in this show since it's obviously going to be undone at some point, but the characters don't know that.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay. I was actually kind of glad that they seemingly can't have Speed Duels now. Regular duels are more interesting than Speed Duels since they can have the whole field and Yusaku doesn't have his instant win Storm Access skill to rely on. Granted, there's still no tension in any of Yusaku's duels with or without Storm Access, but at least I can wonder how exactly Yusaku will win for once. Plus, with Yusaku's group being in different locations, we'll have different backgrounds instead of of the same bland and boring scenery for every Speed Duel. The annoying reporters being forced to work for Lightning's group was a bit unexpected, but it will hopefully keep their scenes at a minimal level.

The idea of Spectre being the weakest member of the group is pretty ridiculous. It did take me a long time to remember he hasn't dueled since season one, but I have a hard time believing that Aoi is stronger than Spectre now. Sure, she did just defeat Haru, but even Lightning knew that he couldn't win against their enemy. I'm sure it was supposed to make me think of how strong Aoi has become, but all it did was make me think how weak Haru was if even Aoi didn't really have much of a challenge against him. This would have annoyed me more if I thought Spectre was interesting, but he's just the typical over the top hammy secondary villain in a Yu-Gi-Oh! series because that was the easiest personality to give him. I also still have a bit of a hard time believing that Spectre would have that strong of a connection to his Ignis that he'd break apart after losing Earth. Considering that the Ignis were created as the result of months of torture and abuse, I don't really like presenting them as a part of the Lost Incident victims either. It just kind of rubs me the wrong way.

The duel was okay, but it was seriously boring to see Lightning spam Link monsters. I understand that it was part of his strategy, but it's just so uninteresting to see them spend five minutes summoning monsters. It also reminded me that I really hate the concept of the Extra Deck Monster Zone. I understand that they wanted to limit how many Extra Deck monsters players could use, but when you can seal off your opponent's deck on the very first turn with little to no options for them to counter it, that does make it much more broken and overpowered than it honestly should be.

Spectre countering it with stealing Judgment Arrows was a bit unexpected. I also didn't really see the similarities in their decks, but like I mentioned, I didn't even remember the last time Spectre actually dueled, let alone what his strategy was like before. Still, he made a pretty effective comeback. He couldn't lower Lightning's life points, but destroying his monsters still weakened his strategy. Plus, he did get upset when Spectre pointed out that Lighting had some kind of complex. While I think that their first conversation sounded a bit pretentious with talking about free will and it's obvious that Spectre is going to lose, it is possible that he'll still have some effect on Lighting going forward in this arc. That might be interesting, but it will probably be a bit dull given how I feel about the series whenever it tries to be deep.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 87

Lightning is super strong. To turn around a duel that quickly, I don't know how Yusaku is going to beat this guy.

So Specter is gone like we all thought, the pleasant surprise those annoying reporters are gone too.

 

[Light Lucario]

Lightning is super strong. To turn around a duel that quickly, I don't know how Yusaku is going to beat this guy.

Well he hasn't lost to anyone yet due to his giant plot armors, although he'll only have one of them unless he has a Speed Duel with Lightning. This is pretty typical of how they hype up Yusaku's opponents. They'll throw other characters under a bus just to make them look more intimidating for Yusaku to face off against. They did the same thing with Revolver and Sprectre in the first season, but it felt more forced with Revolver considering that Yusaku already defeated him.

So Specter is gone like we all thought, the pleasant surprise those annoying reporters are gone too.

I sadly doubt that the reporters are gone too. It looked like they were just teleported away with Lightning instead of "killed" off like what happened to Spectre. The chances are excellent that they'll still be recording other duels for everyone to watch, but at least their scenes were more minimal during this episode than I expected.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay. It was still hard to be invested for a number of reasons, but the spamming of Link monsters definitely didn't help. I understand it was part of their strategies and admittedly, Spectre's combo was pretty impressive. He was basically able to use the Extra Link strategy that Lightning was planning on using and take it a step further with covering his entire field. It was strange that they said that he surpassed Revolver just because of having more monsters in his Extra Link strategy, but that might have made more sense if I was more familiar with how Link monsters work in the actual game. While Spectre is one of my least favorite characters in the series, which is also a fairly long list, it was still impressive to see him turn the situation around and he was getting Lightning more emotional as the duel went on. I could have done without Spectre literally blushing over how beautiful his field was. That just felt tacked on due to Spectre being the hammy over the top secondary villain of the series, but he was able to get Lighting to use up his defenses pretty quickly. Even though he didn't deal much damage to his life points, destroying Lightning's monsters was still key in breaking apart his strategy and making way for Spectre's Extra Link combo.

Of course, Lighting was able to break through that strategy pretty easily. He is the main villain of the season, so he wouldn't be defeated in his first duel. Being able to break apart Spectre's field so easily after he spent most of the episode setting it up does hype him up more as a threat, but it was hard to be that impressed with it at the same time. The outcome was obvious and I don't care about Spectre at all, so losing him wasn't emotional at all. Although, I'm glad that the series didn't play up his defeat in a more dramatic or depressing light since that would have felt hallow. Revolver was upset about Spectre losing and even that felt a bit forced when they haven't had any noticeable interactions during this season. They said that Revolver cares about his fellow knights, but they don't show that enough to make that statement feel more genuine.

I was expecting Spectre to be erased like what happened to Haru and Blood Sheppard, but it seemed like they'll just use him for something else. They'll probably have Spectre power some weapon for them or something like that. I am somewhat surprised that Windy is going after Takeru in the next episode. Since Windy wants revenge, I thought that he'd go after Revolver since he was responsible for all of his scars. Takeru didn't have any interactions with him, so I don't know what revenge Windy wants with him.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 88

So we began the Takeru vs Windy duel. I tell you a solid episode, the pacing was well done, the episode finished just like that.

I still think Windy is responsible for what happened to Black Sheppard's mom. His target was his partner, but Black Sheppard's mom was just caught up in it. At least I think it could be. I got to go back to that flashback, did they mention a boy dying in the accident?

Anyway even Lightning finds Windy troubling, that is saying something.