Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains Discussion

[Light Lucario]

Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is Getting Physical!! | YuGiOh! World
This is the first time we in the U.S. have gotten a physical version of the game since 2011's 5D's Over the Nexus.

That's pretty awesome news. I hoped that we would get a physical release after it was announced in Europe, but I wasn't sure if that was a guarantee. I remember that the Zexal Duel Carnival game was a digital only release in the U.S., but had a physical release in the UK, so I thought that the same thing could happen with this game. It also didn't help that they haven't had a physical release in so long and I thought that they'd keep it as a digital only release.

I'm so glad that they are giving it a physical release here as well. Maybe the success of Duel Links made them more willing to test out how well a physical release of the video game does, especially when the Switch is already a massive success as it is. The 3DS was a pretty successful handheld too, but the Switch has gotten a lot more attention by combining their console and handheld systems together into one system.

I just hope that they won't butcher the game like they did with Duel Carnival. I've seen the list of characters available in the game. Aside from Vrains, there are a lot of characters available from each series. I'm sure that they'll add more Vrains characters as DLC, but seeing just how few characters from that series are available from the start does appeal to the bitter part of me given that I loathe the series. I just wouldn't want them to cut out a large chuck of those characters like what happened with Duel Carnival, but that hopefully won't happen and they'll be able to announce a release date as soon as possible too.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 102

So that is how it ends. Well so Yusaku saves the day as expected, but looks like all his friends are gone, they didn't magically come back, so that could be the plot of the next arc?

And Bowman went out well, he got his closure, I am cool with that, looks Yusaku is the only one with an Ai, more reason he is special.

 

[RDG]

I bet @Light Lucario wants this series to end already

 

[Light Lucario]

So that is how it ends. Well so Yusaku saves the day as expected, but looks like all his friends are gone, they didn't magically come back, so that could be the plot of the next arc?

The preview for the next episode clearly shows that the people who were hit with the Neuron Link were brought back. If random background and annoying comedy relief characters are going to magically be restored, then the other main/supporting characters are going to be brought back. I could maybe see them trying to find and restore the other Ignis for the next season, but even then, I wouldn't be shocked if they're revived sooner rather than later.

I bet @Light Lucario wants this series to end already

I've been ready for this series to end since at least the end of season one. We probably won't hear official word on a new series until December or so, but I really hope that I can enjoy the next series and they get a new/different head writer. I didn't care for Zexal at all, but watching Vrains makes me frequently ask myself if I was too hard on it. At least Zexal had a more interesting storyline, some semblance of effort and knew to save killing off the main cast until near the end of the series. Vrains is basically full of the same problems I had with Zexal, along with some of its own unique issues, and turned them up to eleven. I can kind of understand the appeal of Zexal, to a point at least, but I can't see any appeal for this series. Vrains just feels like such a hallow, empty and shallow series that it just leaves me feeling nothing, which is probably one reason why I keep forgetting that it exists despite complaining about it every week.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay. They couldn't even go through five minutes of the episode to give the illusion that Ai was dead. Admittedly, Yusaku being happy to see that he wasn't dead was kind of sweet and it was one of the few times he had a believable positive facial expression for once, but it still highlighted a huge issue I have with the series. There is no reason for me to think that any character is gone for good in Vrains, especially for living data characters like Ai or any of the other Ignis. I still wouldn't be shocked if it turns out that Revolver's father is still alive or is revived somehow by the end of the series. I'm pretty sure that this isn't the first time they've pulled something like this for Ai either, so all of the dramatic flare towards his sacrifice was just hallow and meaningless.

Trying to save the other Ignis made sense, but they were already too consumed by Bohman for Ai to save them. I'm still kind of confused on how Earth was there too. I knew that Ai got enough of Earth's data to get Crystal Heart back, but I was under the impression that Onizuka still had him. Regardless, it made sense that most of them would be willing to lend their powers to Ai so that they could defeat Bohman. Even though Lightning only had a few lines, it was enough to remind me that he is still annoying and as unlikely as it is, I would be fine if that was the only Ignis that doesn't come back. I'm sure that they'll redeem Windy since they already downplayed his actions by having him be altered by Lightning, but Lightning himself is too pretty blatantly evil to redeem.

While Yusaku making a bunch of summons is normally boring, at least it was more than just constant Link summoning like usual. Admittedly, his new Dragon looked pretty cool. Its effects were pretty situational, but to be fair, Bohman's monster was already ridiculously broken, so there wasn't much more that they could do besides making another overpowered card for Yusaku to beat him with. It also does make more sense than what I thought was going to happen. I thought that the Ignis' powers were going to give Yusaku Pendulum cards. He already uses all of the other summoning methods and it would be easier to do it during a regular duel than a Speed Duel. It could lead to more Pendulum cards/archetypes getting support and possibly even a new animated promo for Arc V reruns in Japan featuring Yuya and Yusaku. They've already done that with Yuma and Yusei, so having some brief new footage of Yuya would make my day, even if he would have to be on screen with Yusaku to do it.

I figured that Darkfruid's effects would counter Bohman's monster right from the start. The different attacks representing the different Ignis were pretty neat. Even though Windy was basically brainwashed to be evil, I still didn't like that he was willing to fight back too, mainly because I still don't like how they downplayed his own actions like that. At least they didn't have an attack featuring Lightning. That would have been really forced and unbelievable.

While Yusaku's message about connecting with other hearts sounded nice and all, it really doesn't feel genuine coming from him. He isn't Yusei. While other people are drawn to him, he doesn't really bond or connect with people. He barely interacts with most of the main/supporting cast and he doesn't really have a lot of key moments to make up for that. Out of all of the human characters, Takeru and Shoichi are his only friends and even those are pretty surface level connections instead of being more emotional like the show wants the audience to believe. Yusei talking about how the bonds with his friends made him stronger was much more fitting because we saw how much he cared about his friends and they actually had a good amount of interaction, some key moments and/or history to make those friendships believable. Not to mention the power of bonds overcoming challenges was a pretty key theme of 5D's right from the start. It wasn't something they threw in at the last minute against the main villain two seasons in. Similar to Yusaku, Yusei was pretty strong from the beginning of the series, but he wasn't as over hyped or overpowered as Yusaku is, so that along with having more believable friendships, made the notion that their bonds made him stronger much more sincere by comparison. This just came off as a weak attempt to give Yusaku's victory more weight when it still boils down to Yusaku is the only character that matters and gets to do anything really important.

I was relieved that the duel was finally over. Given how much hype there has been around Bohman during the past arc, I honestly forgot that Yusaku already defeated him twice before. They had to make him so incredibly broken to even pose a bit of a threat. I was somewhat expecting the other Ignis to be freed the moment Bohman was defeated, but I'm still sure that will happen at some point. Bohman being able to reunite with Haru would have been more emotional if they had more than a couple of nice scenes together before Haru was defeated. Plus, I still wouldn't be shocked if they were somehow revived and redeemed in the future. I'd be perfectly fine if Bohman never appears again. He wasn't as bad as Lightning and he had some interesting moments, but after how much time and energy they spent hyping him up, killing him off for good would be just fine for me.

I really hated how they ended the episode with Yusaku saying that the price of their victory was too high. Not only was that just kind of a jarring and sudden way to end the episode, but it felt so emotionally manipulative to have Yusaku surrounded by fallen avatars. It was a forced dark way to end the episode when it was painfully obvious that everyone would come back after Bohman was defeated. They didn't even try to hide it during the preview. I guess that they didn't really have time to showcase everyone being revived like what happened at the end of season one, but I don't think ending the episode implying that everyone was gone for good was a better option. It tried to make the series look more dark and edgy than it actually is.

 

[RDG]

On a more positive note, Yu-Gi-Oh! made a lot of money for TV Tokyo in the past year Yu-Gi-Oh! Among Top Anime Properties for TV Tokyo in 2018

 

[Light Lucario]

On a more positive note, Yu-Gi-Oh! made a lot of money for TV Tokyo in the past year Yu-Gi-Oh! Among Top Anime Properties for TV Tokyo in 2018

That's pretty neat. From what I've heard, a lot of fans of the card game still don't like Link monsters, even in Japan, but the cards still seem to sell well enough for them. I'm sure that they'll keep that money train going for a seventh series.

 

[RDG]

Hilarious Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS Dub Has Fans Laughing I don't know how much longer that channel in the article will be up (if Konami CMNY decides to take legal action (which is more than likely))

 

[Light Lucario]

Hilarious Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS Dub Has Fans Laughing I don't know how much longer that channel in the article will be up (if Konami CMNY decides to take legal action (which is more than likely))

I've seen dub clips like that before for the Arc V dub, so the channel might not attract much attention from Konami. Just watching that clip made me appreciate sticking with the subs. The voices were just painfully bad. It seems like the dub voices for Yu-Gi-Oh! series have gotten worse and worse with each series, especially starting from Zexal and onward. Although, I remember seeing a clip of Yusaku's dub voice and it was surprisingly good/fitting. The dab line is hilariously stupid and for better or for worse, fits with how the dub handles dialogue.

While I am glad that the franchise has been so successful for TV Tokyo last year, the paranoid part of me is worried that either they'll use that to justify keeping the same head writer of Vrains for the next series and/or people will use that information to say how much more successful Vrains is than Arc V was. Granted, I don't really take part in a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh! discussions anymore. All of the Yu-Gi-Oh! forums could be magically erased from the Internet and I'd be extremely happy, but I'll still hear about some unjustified rumors to claim that Arc V wasn't successful or well received in Japan. It's just something I thought more about after reading through that previous article.

 

[RDG]

This is basically one of the only ways to watch the dub of this show here in the US (no matter how unofficial), since, as we all know, no network would want to touch it with a 39 1/2-ft. pole; in fact, no U.S. network wants to air the original YGO DM anymore, either, despite that show being the most popular (Nicktoons was a prime example, and Vortexx, the last US network to rerun DM, decided to shut down, leaving the rest of the ZEXAL dub, which also aired there, to move to Hulu). Despite all the flak that VRAINS (rightfully) gets, however, it may very well be the end of the YGO franchise on U.S. TV. At least the US Spanish and movie channels are still giving a hoot about it (for however long those deals last, anyway). Konami shot themselves in the foot by refusing to put the VRAINS dub on digital platforms until a U.S. TV deal was inked first, and the latter will, unfortunately, never happen.

 

[Light Lucario]

This is basically one of the only ways to watch the dub of this show here in the US (no matter how unofficial), since, as we all know, no network would want to touch it with a 39 1/2-ft. pole; in fact, no U.S. network wants to air the original YGO DM anymore, either, despite that show being the most popular (Nicktoons was a prime example, and Vortexx, the last US network to rerun DM, decided to shut down, leaving the rest of the ZEXAL dub, which also aired there, to move to Hulu). Despite all the flak that VRAINS (rightfully) gets, however, it may very well be the end of the YGO franchise on U.S. TV. At least the US Spanish and movie channels are still giving a hoot about it (for however long those deals last, anyway). Konami shot themselves in the foot by refusing to put the VRAINS dub on digital platforms until a U.S. TV deal was inked first, and the latter will, unfortunately, never happen.

I'm still amazed at how Konami hasn't put the Vrains dub on some streaming site yet. Other countries, or at least Canada, are already moving onto season two, while the U.S. only had that sneak peak during the Pyramid of Light movie in theaters sometime last year. Konami might not want to make the series digital exclusive, but if they are refusing to put the dub anywhere legally in the U.S. in the hopes of getting a TV deal, then they're really doing more harm than good for the series. TV deals are still important even in the age of streaming and Yu-Gi-Oh! is one of their biggest franchises, but waiting this long in the hopes of a TV deal isn't going to help them.

Vrains is already about two years into its run in Japan, about to enter its third season and Konami still hasn't release the dub. This is pretty much the same issue that the Zexal and Arc V dubs had. While they got completed dubs eventually, they were so far behind the booster pack releases that they were promoting slightly older cards. I still remember seeing the last few Arc V era booster packs and the first Vrains starter deck when Nicktoons was still airing Arc V's first season. That is a huge problem when these spin-offs exists to promote the cards. Vrains does have the simulcast subs going for it. While I wish that they had started doing simulcast subs well before Vrains, it does at least give the series some official release and helps to give some promotion to the new cards. I don't know how much attention Vrains gets on Crunchyroll compared to other series, but it is better than nothing.

Technically, the end of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise on U.S. TV would be Arc V instead of Vrains. Even though they skipped an entire season, another decision that frustrates me to no end, Arc V was the last Yu-Gi-Oh! series that Nicktoons is seemingly going to air. Part of the reason they claimed that they needed to finish Arc V by the end of last year was because of needing room for a new show, but whatever it was, it wasn't Vrains. While most of the series have legal subs now, it still doesn't give the series as much exposure as a dub would, especially for the target audience. It is a bad situation and if I liked Vrains at all, then I'd probably be upset. While it still isn't a great position for the franchise to be in as a whole, the lack of an official release for a Vrains dub does appeal to the bitter part of me in a way.

 

[RDG]

The official YGO YouTube channel is now doing VRAINS monster rundowns Official Yu-Gi-Oh! (and those are only for the original Japanese version!)

 

[Light Lucario]

The official YGO YouTube channel is now doing VRAINS monster rundowns Official Yu-Gi-Oh! (and those are only for the original Japanese version!)

I've been noticing that too. It's pretty strange timing given our conversation on the lack of a Vrains dub. It's been awhile since the official Yu-Gi-Oh! YouTube channel had anything Vrains related. I think that they've put some of the opening and ending themes, but that's about it. I don't think that they have any dub clips or even the dub opening theme, which is pretty weird.

 

[RDG]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution Coming August 20

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is slated to launch on August 20 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. Today, Konami formally announced the release date and uploaded a new trailer fo…

ravegrl.wordpress.com

 

[Radical]

Episodes 98 and 102 were sweet,

Revolver vs. Lightning was sweet/intense, I root for Revolver.

Windy was a good peaceful ignis only to be corrupted by Lightning, poor Windy.

Revolver roasting Lightning was awesome/satisfying, go Revolver.

Lightning's low dirty unfair underhanded tactic returns on poor Jin, he's on the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh! cheaters list, there's gonna be more dirty cheaters future Yu-Gi-Oh! spin-offs.

Yusaku/Playmaker stopping Revolver was great.

Bohman the best to be honorable on turning Jin back.

Lightning the true major mastermind responsible for infecting poor Dr. Kogami(I knew it!!!), and creating the virus, mostly responsible at the start of Season 1, so the Second Sousuke Aizen.

Lightning's underhanded self-sacrifice tie move on not wanting to lose.

Poor Revolver will be saved, but nice that he finally accepted Yusaku's friendship and called Ignis by his human nickname, his poor comrades Baira, Faust, and Dr. Genome.

Lightning's satisfying defeat, but Lightning was my favorite best horrible unlikable hateable Yu-Gi-Oh! major villain.

Yusaku/Playmaker vs. Bohman's final duel begins, I'll enjoy it.


Yusaku/Playmaker vs. Bohman was great/intense.

The Neuron Link, great horrible evil plan like the Tower of Hanoi.

Both Cyberse Clock Dragon and Chimera Hydradrive Dragrid are cool with cool designs.

Yusaku to finally have the power of friendship to have friends, yaaaaaay, it's about time.

Poor Akira/Emma next, they'll be saved, and poor Ignis's sacrifice was sweet/sad.

Poor Roboppi, I love both Ignis/Roboppi's sweet funny relationship.

Cool of Ignis to be revived because he had backup, go Ignis.

Cool seeing Flame, Aqua, Earth, and Windy before getting absorbed by Bohman.

Cool of them lending Ignis their power to defeat Bohman, I get a feeling Lightning will develop and be a better Ignis though.

Yusaku/Playmaker's Firewall Dragon Darkfluid monster is awesome with a cool design.

Yusaku/Playmaker using both Aqua, Flame, and Windy's powers was awesome.

Bohman's loss, but nice that he develops/redeems and bees respectful/honorable, great closure for Bohman, poor Bohman/Haru will be missed.

Both Shoichi/Jin, Akira, Aoi/Blue Maiden, Emma/Ghost Girl, Takeru/Soulburner, Flame, Aqua, Earth, Windy, and Lightning to be saved next episode is sweet, but don't care about Spectre saved though.

Ending 5 Are You Ready spoiling the Season 2 epilogue ending was so not cool of the writers.

Next episode preview: A great Season 2 finale, the world bees saved again and Yusaku's friends are saved.


Love Season 2, I'll enjoy Season 3 coming up, after defeating the Lightning crew and the Knights of Hanoi, SOL Technology will be the next horrible major villains to be next to get taken down in Season 3.

 

[Light Lucario]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution Coming August 20

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is slated to launch on August 20 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. Today, Konami formally announced the release date and uploaded a new trailer fo…

ravegrl.wordpress.com

I'm glad that we finally have a release date. I was hoping for a June or July release date, but I'm not too surprised that it's set for August instead. They still need to translate all of the cards and make any necessary edits, which I imagine takes a lot of time given how many cards are in the game. They'll have to make the dialogue fit with the dub versions and possibly record new lines with the dub voice actors if this game has voice acting in it, which might take up a bit of time too. At least there is a physical release on the way, so that's still pretty neat. I just hope that they won't butcher the western release and Japanese audio can be included too.

The trailer was pretty awesome though. I still can't wait until I can play through the Arc V storyline and try out different Pendulum decks/archetypes from the Arc V era. That is the biggest selling point of the game for me. I'd still buy it if it was just about DM. I don't know if I'd buy a Vrains only video game, but my desire to support Yu-Gi-Oh! video games might outweigh my hatred towards Vrains. But being able to play as Arc V characters is definitely the main reason I'm getting this game. It is kind of ironically funny that there's more news about this game in the past month compared to Pokemon Sword/Shield. At least I'll be able to play this game while waiting for Pokemon Sword/Shield to come out later this year.

 

[RDG]

I'm glad that we finally have a release date. I was hoping for a June or July release date, but I'm not too surprised that it's set for August instead. They still need to translate all of the cards and make any necessary edits, which I imagine takes a lot of time given how many cards are in the game.

I'm surprised this game got a "Partial Nudity" sub-rating instead of the usual "Suggestive Themes" like in Duel Generation and Duel Links, indicating that, once again, some characters will be left uncensored. Also, based on some of the gameplay videos I've seen (mainly from ItsBradazHD), in the VRAINS section of the game, judging from the "episode titles" (My Name is Playmaker, The Three Count Rings, etc.), it seems the storyline will follow the subtitled version of the show, since it's the only version of the show officially available in the U.S.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 103

So pretty much a clip show here, but since the arc just ended, a little recap is fine. So not much to talk about in the episode itself, more so the new opening, new ending, some new characters.

So we got this new villain here, I don't know who he is. I have some guesses, could he be Yusaku's older brother, we know nothing about Yusaku family, so maybe. I assumed this arc we be dealing with SOL, so could he be the majority stock holder aka the king? I don't know maybe. And if he is not running SOL right now, he will after the next episode, it looks like he is going to do a hostile take over from the looks of the preview.

 

[Light Lucario]

I'm surprised this game got a "Partial Nudity" sub-rating instead of the usual "Suggestive Themes" like in Duel Generation and Duel Links, indicating that, once again, some characters will be left uncensored. Also, based on some of the gameplay videos I've seen (mainly from ItsBradazHD), in the VRAINS section of the game, judging from the "episode titles" (My Name is Playmaker, The Three Count Rings, etc.), it seems the storyline will follow the subtitled version of the show, since it's the only version of the show officially available in the U.S.

That would make sense. The dub isn't legally available, so they might as well just follow the subbed version for the Vrains portion the game. I imagine that they'll keep the dub names just to be more consistent with the other characters. I still love that there's so little Vrains content for this game. They'll probably have some DLC content with more Vrains characters, but it still amazes me that there's so little content for the newest series in this Switch title.

So pretty much a clip show here, but since the arc just ended, a little recap is fine. So not much to talk about in the episode itself, more so the new opening, new ending, some new characters.

I wouldn't mind the recap if this wasn't the seventh one in the series to date. To give the series some credit, season two didn't have such an overwhelming amount of recaps compared to season one. If this was the second or third recap, it would have been fine, but this just felt more like a way to save on their budget more than anything else. It is a bit of a breather after the previous arc, but there are better ways to give the audience a breather than just recapping a few events from the previous series. It's just lazy and a lot of the events they skipped around for the shake of a time skip emphasizes that even more.

So we got this new villain here, I don't know who he is. I have some guesses, could he be Yusaku's older brother, we know nothing about Yusaku family, so maybe. I assumed this arc we be dealing with SOL, so could he be the majority stock holder aka the king? I don't know maybe. And if he is not running SOL right now, he will after the next episode, it looks like he is going to do a hostile take over from the looks of the preview.

While it's true that we don't know anything about Yusaku's family, I don't think that the new villain is related to him. They don't really look related and trying to judge how characters are related based on their hair doesn't really work, especially in anime. Most theories I've seen are about how the new villain is a living AI. It's also possible that all of the Ignis formed together to create this human form.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was pretty bad. Of course, everyone is magically saved after Yusaku defeated Bohman. That's why I hated the way the previous episode ended. It was such an unnecessarily dark way to end the battle and create more hallow tension. Defeating Bohman didn't cost the lives of countless people because he set everyone free seemingly before he died. One could argue that it cost the lives of the other Ignis, but that would only be the case if they stay dead for the rest of the series and that's definitely unlikely at best to happen.

Characters coming back to life after defeating the big bad isn't necessarily bad. It has happened with other Yu-Gi-Oh! series, so it's not like Vrains is doing anything new here. The problem is that it happens too often. There's a reason why other series didn't usually start killing off the main cast until near the end of their runs. When you play the same card for drama multiple times, it loses it edge. There's no reason for me to care or feel sad when any character dies in this series, especially the main cast. They're just going to be brought back to life once Yusaku saves the day because they've done it twice in a row.

I would give the series more credit for keeping the Ignis gone after the battle, but I just don't think that they're going to keep them dead. They may actually work to get them back instead of having everyone magically being restored for once, but it still feels hallow and shallow. If there were some other heavy losses for the protagonists prior to this, maybe I could believe it, but I just don't believe that they'll keep the Ignis dead. It's just forced and pathetic way to create more tension when Vrains, by its own design, can't have any.

I don't know how I feel about the new opening theme. The signer sounded better than the ones featured in the previous openings and there were some neat visuals, but nothing really clicked with me. The instrumental used during the preview for the next episode sounded nice though. It might take me awhile to see if the opening warms up for me, but this might be the first time where I don't like any opening themes for a Yu-Gi-Oh! series. Even Zexal had a couple of really cool openings and even a few ending themes that I liked and listened to on my own.

And we had the rare Yusaku and Aoi interaction outside of Link Vrains for the season. It does further show how they have absolutely no chemistry. And I was a bit annoyed at how they kind of just gloss over some important reunions. Aoi seemingly met with Miyu off-screen. I don't know what other friend she could have in the hospital and we already saw that Miyu was awake after Bohman was defeated. That was the reason she teamed up with Aqua and her big motivation against fighting the villains, but she met Miyu off-screen. Even Yusaku and Shoichi's reunion apparently happened off-screen, which is arguably even worse. They made such a big deal about Shoichi's death, it made Yusaku so emotional and I saw fans who acted like nothing could be the same between them because of that duel. But apparently it's all fine since both Yusaku and Takeru can get free coffee for life now.

This is one of the frustrating things about Vrains for me. When they want to give the audience a breather, they go for a clip show episode. They couldn't be bothered to show these characters reuniting, fleshing out their friendships or having any meaningful interactions. It just happens off screen or we're told about how much they care about each other in spite of minimal, if any, on-screen interactions. One could see that Yusaku and Shoichi still being friends as a sign that even their duel couldn't change that, but it doesn't work when there's so much drama and no emotional payoff.

Granted, I don't really care about either of these friendships. Miyu is basically a plot device character where Aoi suddenly had a long lost best friend from childhood who just happened to be a Lost Incident victim. Shoichi has been basically Yusaku's tech support guy for most of the series, so there was hardly much of a relationship there and certainly not enough to say that they're closer than family. I just find the decision to skip over these reunions in favor of a recap where it's just Yusaku and Takeru talking about the events of the previous season boring, stupid and flat out bad. I'm not sure if Vrains could have conveyed an emotional reunion well enough with these two relationships, at least for me given my issues with all the characters involved, but at least it would have been better than a seventh recap episode. Not to mention the all of the talk about AIs being so different from humanity gave off a more pretentious vibe to me.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Revolver went back to being their enemy. He did have a point on how there wasn't a reason for them to team up now that they don't have a common enemy. It does seem like a strange decision when Lightning was revealed to be the root of all evil for the Ignis, the only one who caused any kind of problems and Revolver even called Ai by his name before he was defeated. It seems like a forced way to revert Revolver back to the status quo, but I don't mind that as much as the whole skipping over important reunions for a couple of reasons. For starters, Revolver calling Ai by his name never felt like character development to me, or rather it felt too forced and hallow to be as meaningful as I think the show wanted it to be for me. I also found it incredibly stupid and lazy for Lightning to behind everything. Besides that, since I think Revolver is overrated, I'm almost kind of glad that they went back on his so-called development.

I don't know who the new villain is, but they have such Yu-Gi-Oh! hair. It's pretty ridiculous even for this franchise. It looks like they have some Ai-inspired earnings though. The graves for the other Ignis were so ridiculous and hilarious. They really want to make the audience think that they're dead and gone, but I still don't see a reason why I should believe that. They killed off almost every main/supporting character at least once and brought them back. Yeah, the Ignis weren't instantly revived with them this time, but considering that Vrains doesn't really have a lot of long term consequences, I don't think that they're going to stay dead.

 

[Light Lucario]

I thought that this episode was okay. I'm still frustrated that they skipped over Yusaku and Shoichi's reunion and I don't even like their friendship or find it to be all that believable. It's just one of those moments that make me question why I should be invested in these dramatic moments if there's little to no payoff for them.

I think it's also pretty cheap that Jin's memories of the Lost Incident are gone. For starters, I still have no idea what conscious data is or how it works. It was taken when Jin was in the hospital at the start of season two, so it makes even less sense than it would if he was in Link Vrains. It's another moment where I feel like the writers don't want to explain anything about the world so that they can just do whatever they want. It just feels cheap when instead of being able to work through his trauma, Jin gets it magically removed. Granted, Vrains isn't really known for handling psychological trauma particularly well. Yusaku adamantly declared that revenge was the only way for him to heal during season one, although they tried to claim otherwise in season two, and Takeru's trauma was seemingly resolved with just one duel before he technically even appeared in the series. But something about Jin just magically being healed due to Lightning using his conscious data to save himself just rubbed me the wrong way for similar reasons. It's too much of a cheap cop out and he's still a plot device character. At least he hopefully won't be involved any further. I was always kind of annoyed at how Yusaku wanted to save Jin for Shoichi. Even if I thought that their relationship was more believable, it just was such an impersonal motivation for Yusaku to have.

While I actually like Akira and glad that he was given a higher position at SOL Technology, his assistant still annoyed me. Calling Akira the hero who saved Link Vrains is such a huge stretch. To be fair, he was more proactive than either Aoi or Onizuka during the first season finale at least, but that still implies that he played a bigger role than he actually did. No one aside from Yusaku saved Link Vrains. It wasn't really a team effort. Even Akira's sacrifice didn't really matter in the long run when Bohman could still use his Skill. They were able to save the rest of the random idiots who logged into Link Vrains to see how bad things were getting, but that wasn't a huge help and I didn't really care to see these people getting rescued either. Plus, I still hate how she gushes over Akira. Admittedly, they haven't focused on her one-sided crush for quite some time and Akira not hearing her nearly confessing was actually pretty funny, but it does make her feel pretty one note.

The new characters being Ai and Robotppi given human forms was an interesting twist, although it might have been more surprising if fans hadn't already picked up on that. It does explain the Ai earnings he has though. I would have bet on Robotppi being a girl, but it seems like they both have male human forms. I guess that makes sense for Vrains. Why bother introducing another female character when they still have their two token girls? Ai wanting to get revenge for Earth kind of made sense, but at the same time, it still makes me confused as to how he was with the other Ignis during the fight against Bohman. They never explained that there was enough data in Crystal Heart to revive him or that Bohman dueled Onizuka off-screen to get Earth. I actually would have been fine with the later if only so that Onizuka didn't get more attention. Although, based on the opening, I wouldn't be too shocked if he gets some kind of redemption arc and if he does, I don't think I'll care. He just changed too much too suddenly for me to care about him.

Much like the conscious data nonsense, I don't know how Ai could apparently just mentally duel someone like that. He is an Ignis, so I guess he would have special powers, but it just seems so strange. His deck is also pretty strange. Having an archetype called @Ignister is just so weird. It does kind of fit with a character that's basically living data, but it's just kind of a weird name to type out. I actually kind of liked Ai's long summoning chant for a Link summon. I always thought it felt lacking to just have characters say different kind of link that guides stuff like the future, hope, power, etc. It feels too generic and less memorable compared to the summoning chants that other summoning methods have. Ai's Synchro and Xyz monsters looked pretty cool though.

I kind of laughed when Queen activated her Skill. It was during a regular duel, but it was also apparently a mental duel too, which made me question how she could activate it if that was the case. It was a pretty broken Skill with being able to use whatever Trap card that wasn't in her deck, but the new Kuriboh that Ai has had the effect to get around it of course. I have mixed feelings on Ai's first victory being against Queen. On one hand, she was just a potential threat to the Ignis and she did hurt one his friends. But on the other hand, I find it problematic that yet another female duelist was used to hype up another male character. They frequently have the female characters lose to give more credibility to the male characters. Blood Sheppard only had one victory and that was against Emma. It wouldn't be too bad if the female characters had decent win/loss ratio, but they really don't. Aoi's victories have been just tokens, especially her duel against Haru, and Emma's only victory thus far was against an idiot. Plus, Queen didn't really do much other than look pretty and evil every few episodes. If it wasn't for the already pretty poor treatment of the other female characters in this series, then this wouldn't have bothered me that much.

It might make Ai more of a threat than anyone expected, especially when the preview has everyone coming together for some reason. I still don't really see why Blood Sheppard or Onizuka would want to help or why the audience should care about them at this point, but at least Yusaku having to fight against Ai could be potentially interesting. They actually have a fairly believable connection, so I could buy that Yusaku would have a difficult time fighting against Ai much more so than his melodramatic duel against Shoichi.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 104

So Ai the villain here? Interesting choice, we seen that before in other series, but not for a whole arc. So that machine is a male, I always it was a girl.

So after all this talk about how Lightning is wrong about humanity, Ai is just going to be like him?

I was hoping we would get some backstory on the Queen, if pretty much writing her off for the rest of the series, I like to have gotten some backstory for her swan song.