Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains Discussion

[Light Lucario]

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.

I don't know if they'll have Ai be the final villain or they're just having a fake out for the time being. We don't know why exactly he chose to give himself or Roboppy human forms. He probably could have gotten revenge for his friend without doing that, so there's probably more to his decision. I was surprised that Roboppy turned out to be a boy or at least given a male avatar. Like I mentioned before, they wouldn't bother to introduce new female characters now.

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

Well I wouldn't say that Ai is just like Lightning at this point. Lightning wanted to destroy humanity and seemingly enjoyed torturing Jin even before he was created. Ai so far has only targeted Queen for hurting the Earth Ignis.

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.

I don't know how giving her a backstory would have helped. Queen was pretty much a nothing kind of character. She showed up once in awhile to look pretty and evil, but that was it. She wasn't much of a threat, didn't really do much aside from insisting that Onizuka merged with the Earth Ignis they captured to where he nearly died and had no role in the last stretch of the season. Giving her a backstory at the last minute for her swan song wouldn't have meant anything and probably would have felt too much like a forced or insincere attempt at giving her depth.

Besides all that, it still would have been bad to have her lose in order to hype Ai up. This was her first and seemingly last duel of the series. She was not established as a strong duelist beforehand and some fans expected her to be the main villain for this season, but they still used her as a stepping stone for Ai and to showcase his new deck. Even though Ai has been mostly the comedy relief character and other characters needed to explain their combos/strategy for him throughout most of the series, Ai is suddenly good enough to defeat another duelist in one turn. He wasn't presented as incompetent necessarily. Other characters explaining their strategies was more of a way to help make the audience understand the game as opposed to making Ai look like an idiot, but I never got the impression that Ai was that good even with knowing that he is created from Yusaku's mental torture.

Using a female character to make a male duelist look so much stronger is a big problem in Vrains. That has happened to Aoi and Emma multiple times. This still wouldn't be really a problem if they got some meaningful victories to balance things out, but they really don't. They'll get some token victories or in Emma's case win a duel that is a complete waste of time, but the moment they're up against a more well established character, then they're tossed aside so that Yusaku can save the day. No amount of backstory would have made Queen's defeat less problematic in that regard. It would still have sexist overtones simply because that's how Vrains has always treated its female characters.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 105

So Akira and Aoi finally find out Playmaker's identity, and it is through logic and putting two and two together. I wonder if they will keep this to themselves or tell Emma since they are close. It is ironic they found out before Emma her original mission on the series was to find out Playmaker's identity.

So the Knights of Hanoi suddenly they are Crime Sorciere. Going to repent for their sins, well Revolver wants to tell Yusaku I told you so before than.

Ai does seem pretty evil here, he wants to take out Yusaku as well, I get hating SOL, but now he is going to go after the innocent, how is he different from Lightning?

How long till Aoi is back in a coma? It happens so many times, she probably has her own reserved room. I hope that does not happen again

 

[Light Lucario]

So Akira and Aoi finally find out Playmaker's identity, and it is through logic and putting two and two together. I wonder if they will keep this to themselves or tell Emma since they are close. It is ironic they found out before Emma her original mission on the series was to find out Playmaker's identity.

It seemed more like a stroke of luck more than anything else. Plus, Shoichi dueled as himself against Yusaku without having any kind of avatar, so that was a huge giveaway.

Ai does seem pretty evil here, he wants to take out Yusaku as well, I get hating SOL, but now he is going to go after the innocent, how is he different from Lightning?

Technically, Akira wouldn't be innocent. He wasn't responsible for what SOL Technologies did, but he does share responsibility for it given that he is in charge of the company now. It's the same kind of logic as to why he'd go down along with the Knights of Hanoi once they reveal their crimes. Plus, he was involved with Onizuka merging with Earth's data. He was clearly against it, but being involved might have been enough to make Ai consider him guilty too. Besides all that, Ai hasn't shown to enjoy torturing people like Lightning did, so I wouldn't say that they're on the same level yet. We don't know all of Ai's plans for his actions yet either. Lightning simply wanted to rule over humanity and took great pleasure in torturing Jin even before he was created. He was shown to be the root of all evil. That was annoying and stupid, but it doesn't seem to be the same thing that they're doing with Ai thus far.

How long till Aoi is back in a coma? It happens so many times, she probably has her own reserved room. I hope that does not happen again

It's practically guaranteed to happen again. They already repeated the same basic conflict for the previous seasons, so there's no doubt in my mind that Aoi will be put into a coma yet again. She'll probably get a token victory or maybe two if they're feeling generous, but since Yusaku is the only character that really matters in Vrains, Aoi will still be defeated and put into a coma again. That's a big problem with Aoi's storyline. She wants to get stronger for personal reasons, whether it's to help Akira or save her plot device childhood friend Miyu, but she's never able to have a big victory against a major opponent because Yusaku is the only one allowed to defeat the big villains. Maybe that wouldn't be as bad if she was still able to make some headway against really strong opponents, but she doesn't. Lightning made it quite clear that Haru was too weak to last against any of their enemies and he was basically just stalling for time, so even defeating him didn't really say anything about Aoi's skills. It's also a big reason why all of Aoi's character development rings so hallow to me. None of it matters because she still will lose and Yusaku will have to save her again.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay. I was frustrated to see that Onizuka was seemingly back to how he was originally. I still don't like that we don't know how he lost Earth's data since that just seems unnecessarily confusing. Plus, I just really hated how he was handled in general. Forcing Onizuka into being a minor villain was so jarring and sudden that it truly made me hate him. He was originally one of the few characters that I liked, but seeing just how badly his change in motivation was made me dislike both him and Vrains itself even more. It made me wonder why I should bother being invested in any of these characters if they'll just change at a drop of a hat. To be fair, Onizuka certainly isn't the only character who suffers from jarring personality changes. Yusaku and to a certain degree Revolver have similar problems too, but Onizuka's case was far more blatant and just really upsetting to see unfold. Since he's using his original deck in the opening, I wonder if they are planning to give him a redemption arc. If they are, then the chances are excellent that it will fall flat for me pretty hard.

I thought that Ai was going to target everyone who ruined the lives of the Ignis, which would include Blood Sheppard and Onizuka. I was going to be upset if that was the case since I couldn't care less about either of these characters, but Akira being the target makes much more sense and since he's one of the two characters that I actually like, I would care about his safety. I didn't really care about the effects of Ai taking control of SOL Technologies would have on their society though. It obviously would be bad when they don't know what Ai would do with that power, but they've shown so little of their world that it's hard to be invested in it beyond the typical world shattering event would be bad. Not to mention I still loathe the whole moronic twist of people logging into Link Vrains to see how bad the situation actually was. That certainly didn't make me more invested in their world.

Yusaku being shocked at Ai and Roboppi's message would have been a bit stronger if the audience found out right alongside him. Yusaku needing time to think it over was understandable though. While I don't think that their relationship is that touching, it is one of the few believable connections Yusaku has and talking about it with Takeru afterwards provided some of the rare emotional moments for Yusaku too.

I was expecting a much bigger deal leading to Akira and Aoi finding out who Yusaku is. Instead, it just happened out of luck with Aoi knowing the hot dog stand and Shoichi not using an avatar when he dueled Yusaku. It was much more low key than I expected. Although, I actually did like how Akira said he was glad to meet Yusaku. I'm probably a bit biased here since he's my favorite character in this series, but that happy expression in his face when he said that was kind of touching. He already felt like he could be near his last moments due to this attack, so being able to meet and thank Playmaker in person probably meant a lot to him.

The idea of Aoi trying to sympathize with Yusaku due to how she would feel if she had to fight against Aqua or her brother sounded nice, but it fell too flat for me. For starters, Yusaku and Aoi just have no chemistry. They've barely interacted for most of the series. I'm pretty sure that this one scene in the park is the most they've talked to each other since Aoi's introduction episode. It's hard to really create a connection with the male and female leads over a hundred episodes into the series. Plus, I couldn't really buy into how hard it would be for Aoi to fight against Aqua. Aoi and Aqua only had two duels together and didn't really spend a lot of time together before going to fight against Lightning's group either. I knew that she wouldn't want to fight Akira because their relationship has been established since early on in the series. They've actually shown how deeply they care for each other, so of course Aoi wouldn't want to fight against Akira. I just don't think she has a strong enough connection to Aqua to make that conflict particularly believable.

The whole notion of trying to have Yusaku stay out of the fight also came off as extremely stupid given that none of the other characters in the cast are able to do anything without him. If the other characters had better win/loss ratios or were shown to be more useful in the overall storyline, then the idea that they could fight without relying on Yusaku wouldn't feel like a stretch. They still obviously couldn't do something without the main character being involved, but I kept thinking of how every other major conflict they've dealt with resulted in pretty much everyone aside from Yusaku dying. They cannot win any major battles with Yusaku.

Relying on some help from Revolver and the Knights of Hanoi made sense. They didn't consider SOL Technology their enemy anymore and would be willing to go into custody once they destroyed the last Ignis. Of course Yusaku showed up at the last minute for the drama of it all. He wouldn't want to fight Ai, but he'd still want to prevent Ai from doing anything else. Granted, I'm still expecting most of these characters being used as defeat fodder. Only Yusaku, Revolver and maybe Takeru are going to get any meaningful victories. I could see the Knights of Hanoi, Blood Sheppard, Emma and maybe Onizuka being used as defeat fodder. They might have something else planned for Onizuka though.

 

[zoombie]

It seemed more like a stroke of luck more than anything else. Plus, Shoichi dueled as himself against Yusaku without having any kind of avatar, so that was a huge giveaway.



Technically, Akira wouldn't be innocent. He wasn't responsible for what SOL Technologies did, but he does share responsibility for it given that he is in charge of the company now. It's the same kind of logic as to why he'd go down along with the Knights of Hanoi once they reveal their crimes. Plus, he was involved with Onizuka merging with Earth's data. He was clearly against it, but being involved might have been enough to make Ai consider him guilty too. Besides all that, Ai hasn't shown to enjoy torturing people like Lightning did, so I wouldn't say that they're on the same level yet. We don't know all of Ai's plans for his actions yet either. Lightning simply wanted to rule over humanity and took great pleasure in torturing Jin even before he was created. He was shown to be the root of all evil. That was annoying and stupid, but it doesn't seem to be the same thing that they're doing with Ai thus far.

I really wasn't talking about Akira, I was more talking about Yusaku, he seems to be really excited about ending him.

 

[Light Lucario]

I really wasn't talking about Akira, I was more talking about Yusaku, he seems to be really excited about ending him.

Oh that makes more sense. Ai is probably excited about dueling Yusaku, but I don't think he actively wants to hurt him or enjoys the thought of potentially killing him. Not to mention there's still no chance of Yusaku losing. At this point, I think that Yusaku is so overpowered that he can't lose any duel even though he now doesn't have Ai as one of his giant plot armors. Even if Ai somehow does defeat Yusaku, there will be some reason as to why he isn't put in a coma. It's more likely that Ai will force Yusaku into a draw instead of having either one of them lose anytime soon.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 106

What did I fell you, Ai is just plain evil, he is Lightning 2.0, major disappointment, I was hoping for something different. This is just a continuation of the previous arc.

I was hoping Ai was going to something different and not just get rid of all humans, at the very least get rid of all humans except for Yusaku, want to take over the world on Yusaku's behave , because Yusaku is the only one worthy of it, something.

And Blood Sheppard is going to get defeated by vacuum cleaner , how the might have falling.

 

[Light Lucario]

What did I fell you, Ai is just plain evil, he is Lightning 2.0, major disappointment, I was hoping for something different. This is just a continuation of the previous arc.

Despite what Ai said, I don't think it's fair to call him Lightning 2.0 just yet. I don't know how much of what Ai said is the truth, especially when Yusaku was talking to a copy designed to stall him, Takeru and Revolver for awhile. I imagine that there's more to Ai's plan than what he's letting on. My guess is that his plans involve somehow restoring the other Ignis, but he can't reveal this for whatever reason. I'm sure that I'm giving the writers way too much credit or too much of a break here, especially when Ai becoming a villain does feel rather sudden, but I just don't think he was telling the whole truth there. To give the series potentially more undeserved credit, this does feel like a smoother continuation than what we had for the first two seasons.

I was hoping Ai was going to something different and not just get rid of all humans, at the very least get rid of all humans except for Yusaku, want to take over the world on Yusaku, because Yusaku is the only one worthy of it, something.

I'm not sure how wanting to get rid of all of the humans aside from Yusaku or wanting to rule the world with Yusaku would be much better. He'd still be putting Yusaku on such a high pedestal like the series itself does and it wouldn't be a huge difference compared to what Lightning wanted to do too.

And Blood Sheppard is going to get defeated by vacuum cleaner , how the might have falling.

Was Blood Sheppard ever mighty to begin with? He was presented as this intimidating secondary antagonist in season two, but he lost nearly every duel he's been in thus far. He might have defeated Takeru if their match wasn't cancelled, but his only victory was against his sister Emma. The duel wasn't pointless. It did reveal that they're related and it allowed for Aoi to rescue Aqua, but it still doesn't make Blood Sheppard look particularly strong if he only won one out of five duels, especially when Emma isn't a particularly strong duelist to begin with. I don't tend to focus on a character's win/loss ratio that much, but at the same time, if I want to think that a character is a strong duelist, they need at least some decent showing even if they lose. Blood Sheppard never really stuck me as particularly strong even with all of his combos against his opponents, so losing against Roboppi won't be such a huge downfall for him. It will be pretty typical.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay. Ai talking about duelists having a rating seemed a bit odd, mainly because I'm used to thinking it as a ranking instead. I was kind of relieved that he didn't place Yusaku on the top way above everyone else, but then he did that for himself. Ai has always had a bit of an ego, so I'm not surprised that he'd say that Yusaku won only because of him, but considering how he didn't really help that much in determining Yusaku's duels, I have a really hard time believing that.

I still don't really buy into Ai carrying on Lightning's will. The only way I could see him actually wanting to do that would be if his data got corrupted, but even then, I think it's more likely that this is just an act for some reason. The more Ai talked about how the other Ignis are gone, the more I don't believe it. Vrains rarely has any long lasting consequences and has brought back nearly every cast member twice thus far, so why should I believe that the other five Ignis are gone for good? Ai's plan was pretty smart though. He created copies of himself to keep the strongest three duelist busy, while his real self and Roboppi moved forward to deal with everyone else. It made sense and I thought it was a tad early to have Yusaku vs. Ai too.

As expected, the Knights of Hanoi are just defeat fodder for Ai and of course Baira, the female knight, is among the first defeated duelists. Roboppi dueling against both Emma and Blood Sheppard at the same time on top of giving himself a huge handicap made the result so obvious. Granted, pretty much everyone aside from Yusaku, Takeru and Revolver are nothing but glorified defeat fodder to begin with, but starting off the duel with that condition definitely didn't help matters. It was at least the first tag Speed Duel in a way, which is kind of neat. It would have been nicer if it involved characters that I liked or decks that I found interesting/visually appealing, but at least it was something different.

Blood Sheppard's deck was boring as per usual, but I actually found myself liking Roboppi's deck. It was all about appliances, which is fitting given what he originally was, but they all looked rather cute. I'm not interested enough to play the deck if it's ever available in a video game just yet, but it is one of the few visually appealing archetypes introduced in Vrains, which still counts for something in my book. I did like the combo of powering up weaker monsters by having them linked together though. Even Roboppi's duel disk was kind of cute since it looked similar to their robot head. I still say that Vrains has some of the worst duel disk designs, but Roboppi's is at least a bit more personalized by comparison.

Emma's deck is still pretty boring to me, but at least she had a good combo and working alongside her brother was a nice touch. Having Roboppi think that humanity is the enemy and that humans should be erased for his experience points was pretty cliched. I guess it fits with the current situation, but it just felt so typical and boring to make an Ai with free will believe that humanity should be wiped out. It could be an act like what I think is happening with Ai, but I'm not so sure about this one. I think it would have been more interesting if Roboppi was just interested in helping Ai and didn't have an opinion on humanity yet. It would have been different since Roboppi would look less like an immediate threat and more of just a potential one if he was still undecided on humans.

Emma talking about her bond with her brother was eye rolling for me. It would have been a nice sentiment if I could believe that there was a bond between them. They barely interacted before it was revealed that their half siblings. I understand that we were supposed to care about Blood Sheppard dying in the previous season because he suddenly cared about protecting his little sister, but it felt too sudden to feel natural and earned. I know that some time has passed between the end of season two and this episode, so they could have been spending more time together off-screen, but that's a big problem in itself. If the characters are bonding off-screen, then it just makes their interactions on screen feel more hallow and forced. It's one of the many reasons why I can't get invested in most of these characters when these supposedly important relationships don't get touched upon too often. Aoi still hasn't met her plot device friend on screen despite how that was her big motivation for the later half of season two.

It also doesn't help that Emma and Blood Sheppard are so going to lose to make Roboppi look more creditable. It was already pretty obvious to begin with, but the setup of Roboppi wanting to gain more experience and especially not wanting to use his Skill mechanic made it even more obvious. It sounds like they'll have Ai vs. Onizuka during next week's episode, which might be interesting. They could expand more on what happened to Onizuka after he lost to Yusaku again and maybe finally make it clear as to how Bohman got a whole of Earth. I don't expect much on either front and I still kind of hope that they don't give Onizuka a redemption arc. He was a jerk for no good reason and while other characters have done worse in this series, as well as this franchise for that matter, few get as much of a jarring out of character shift as Onizuka does, so he can just disappear for all I care.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 107

I wonder if this arc going to end in October, this is going really fast. Blood Sheppard and Emma are gone, Go Onazuki is not too far behind, and we only have two enemy characters, this shouldn't last too long unless there is some twist.

You know losing to some newbie really makes Blood Shappard and Ghost Girl look bad, and Yusaku going to have to beat him as well?

Well can just pretend Go in the second season was just a dream?

 

[Light Lucario]

I wonder if this arc going to end in October, this is going really fast. Blood Sheppard and Emma are gone, Go Onazuki is not too far behind, and we only have two enemy characters, this shouldn't last too long unless there is some twist.

There probably would be some twist. I still don't think that Ai has become evil, but at the same time, I'd be perfectly happy if Vrains ended sooner rather than later. I've been ready for this series to be over since at least the end of season one. There's probably a better chance of a new series coming out next year though. They usually announce a new series during December.

You know losing to some newbie really makes Blood Shappard and Ghost Girl look bad, and Yusaku going to have to beat him as well?

I still question how good Blood Sheppard and Emma are to begin with. They've only had one victory each thus far. Blood Sheppard was defeated frequently throughout season two and Emma's only victory was in a filler episode, so neither of them are quite as strong as I think the series makes them out ot be, especially Emma.

Yusaku will most likely defeat Roboppi. After all, no one besides Yusaku matters and he is more connected to Roboppi and Ai than any of the other characters.

Well can just pretend Go in the second season was just a dream?

Nope. They butchered his character completely and no amount of flashbacks or talking about how the real Onizuka is going to make up for that. If anything, it makes the writing worse. They forced Onizuka to become a villain and now that he isn't needed for that, they just quickly brushed aside everything he did and have him come to his realizations off-screen. That is just weak.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay. Admittedly, Emma had some better combos than I expected and she was able to use Blood Sheppard's cards pretty well too. I don't see that as a sign of their bond, mainly because they've hardly interacted and they're just banking on the whole being half siblings to make the audience think that they're close. I am growing more fond of Roboppi's deck though. His cards have a bit more personality in their designs than most of the other archetypes do, which at least make them more visually appealing. I just kept waiting for Roboppi to turn everything around, which did make the duel a bit more tedious.

Roboppi's monsters having different effects depending on whether or not they're linked with other monsters was a pretty interesting twist. It seemed a bit situational for Roboppi's plan to work even after Emma increased her life points, but Roboppi was obviously going to win. I figured that Blood Sheppard would step in to get cut by that attack. I don't know what prison of hate he was talking about. He still hates Ais, so I guess he meant his hatred towards their father. I felt like that issue was glossed over a bit too much, or perhaps more accurately it wasn't really focused on enough to make the whole notion that Emma freed him from that hate believable and meaningful. It's a nice thought and I could see where they were going with it, but with the lack of focus and interactions between them, it just didn't work for me.

And of course they were reaching out to each other and disappeared before doing so for maximum angst. Did they say that losing a duel here would effectively kill them or put them in another coma? I guess that's so typical of Vrains at this point that it shouldn't even be brought up within the cast, but it just made what was presented as an emotional scene more confusing for me. Unless the series is ending much sooner than I'm expecting it to be, which I'd be thrilled about, then it seems kind of early to do the typical everyone aside from Yusaku dies so he can face off against the villains.

I did have a good laugh when they showed Spectre lost off screen. I completely forgot he was even with the group, although it probably helps that he hasn't had any spoken dialogue for awhile. Of course Ai would want to get revenge on Onizuka for what he did to Earth. I was still kind of hoping that they'd explain how Earth was still with the other Ignis during the battle against Bohman, but they just said that Earth would have been absorbed by Bohman even if Onizuka didn't have that chip implanted in him. That does seem like the case, but I just wish that they made it clearer why Earth was present within Bohman in the first place.

I truly hate Onizuka and the flashback didn't help. It probably made it worse in a way. I understand what they were going for. Onizuka was near death, but the kids stayed with him and wanted him to come back. He realized that he abandoned these kids to restore his worthless pride. Onizuka even said as much. However, one of the biggest problems with this is that we learn this through a flashback. Instead of Onizuka telling Ai, and by extension the audience, about his realization, it might have been more meaningful if they had devoted some scenes to Onizuka in the hospital recovering, seeing how the kids still support him and watch him come to the realization that he had been a complete idiot. That probably wouldn't have made up for just how terrible his subplot in season two was, but it might have given the resolution some much needed emotional weight to it. It doesn't help that he practically ignored the kids for all of season two and now he's suddenly back to dueling for them again.

To be fair, this might have still fall too flat for me even with a more emotional resolution. Onizuka's subplot in season two ruined his character beyond repair as far as I'm concerned. He wasn't an amazing character by any means, but he was okay and likable enough in season one. Then they just forced him into a villain for no good reason. Even the motivation for it didn't make sense when Onizuka laughed after he lost to Yusaku the first time and was willing to fight against the Knights of Hanoi alongside him. Onizuka obviously would have been happy to defeat Yusaku, but that wasn't something he was actively reaching for after their first duel. This motivation might have worked if Onizuka actually did something during the Tower of Hanoi arc to warrant getting more attention, but he didn't. It just made him selfish and self-centered. The show did call him out for being selfish with his duel against Takeru, but it didn't really lead to anything. He just got more and more desperate. I don't care about the Ignis and I certainly don't care about Yusaku, but Onizuka going as far as to implant an Ignis into his mind just to defeat Yusaku was frustrating simply because of how out of character it was for Onizuka to be that desperate for victory.

Onizuka was so different in season two that he might as well have been a different character altogether. His whole subplot didn't really work with what was going on during the season and it doesn't seem like SOL Technology is going to be the big villain of the season. It seems like it was only done so that Takeru could take his place as part of the main trio, although saying that there's a main trio might be giving Vrains too much credit considering Yusaku is the only character who matters. Honestly, they could have written Onizuka out of the series, or at least the season, and that would have been an improvement. They could have had Bohman duel and absorb Earth instead. That would have made much more sense with the direction the storyline went and they would have avoided the confusing issue of how Earth was present with the other Ignis in Bohman too. They try to present this as Onizuka's return to his true self and even the preview for the next episode hypes him up a lot for getting back up, but it just falls extremely flat for me. This isn't a natural character arc. This is just the writers forcing Onizuka back into his original personality now that they're done forcing him as a villain. This is a big reason why I have a hard time being invested in any of the characters. Few of them have consistent personalities and as shown by Onizuka, the writers are more than happy to force characters into certain roles whether or not it is actually consistent with their characterizations. Onizuka just might be one of my least favorite characters in the franchise simply because of how immensely awful his subplot was and how it shows a big problem I have with the character writing in Vrains.

Of course Onizuka would go back to his original deck. I kind of preferred his Dino Wrestler deck, but they really want to make him more like season one Onizuka. Ai's new monster was pretty cool, even if its effect was a bit too situational with the Spell card he used. Even though Ai is presented as the villain, I'm rooting for him against Onizuka. I'd be happy to see him defeat Onizuka without losing a single life point. It probably would make Ai look too overpowered, but that would be pretty fitting of Vrains to do with its antagonists. Plus, I'd be perfectly fine with Onizuka never winning a duel again and being written out of the series at this point.

 

[RDG]

You guys remember that upcoming VRAINS manga, right? Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Cyber Warrior Yusaku But that's not the only Yu-Gi-Oh! manga we're getting this year Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Sato Launches Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Structures Manga

 

[Light Lucario]

You guys remember that upcoming VRAINS manga, right? Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Cyber Warrior Yusaku But that's not the only Yu-Gi-Oh! manga we're getting this year Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Sato Launches Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Structures Manga

I haven't heard anything about either manga, so that is a surprise. I didn't think that they'd give Vrains a comedy manga, but I guess that was expected given that Arc V and Zexal got their own comedy manga too. I wonder if they have time to start a regular Vrains manga. They normally start the regular spin off manga earlier than this. Granted, it took awhile for the Arc V manga to start too, but they may not start the manga until Vrains is over at this rate. It just seems kind of late to start making Vrains manga in general, especially when the comedy manga won't get a state release most likely. It may not even get a volume release in Japan. Out of the two thus far, I think only the Arc V comedy manga had a volume release.

Admittedly, I'm not that interested in a Vrains manga. I might check it out if it is written by a different author, but if it the same team behind the Arc V manga, then that will be a hard pass for me. If anyone ever wants to see me complain about something Arc V related, asking me about my thoughts that spin off manga would be your best bet.

I'm not sure what a manga about the card game would be about. Since I liked the 5D's manga, it might be interesting, but I don't know if it will get a state release.

 

[RDG]

The newest episode of YGO News talks about the dub of VRAINS:

 

[Light Lucario]

Man Shoichi's dub voice makes him sound a lot younger. It wasn't a bad voice, but it's quite different from how I'm used to hearing him. Calling Shoichi Yusaku's best friend is giving him way too much credit too, but they obviously aren't going to make negative comments on a show that they're working on. I thought that they were going to announce a U.S. premiere date for the dub, but apparently not. It does make the whole catch up point kind of strange. People can watch the subs on Crunchyroll, but as far as I know, there isn't any legal way to watch the Vrains dub. Onizuka's dub name is also pretty awful.

The whole "how dare you" bit after they referred to BB carding Crow was funny though. That moment was just so heartbreaking for me and even now, it still shakes me up when I remember watching that scene for the first time.

 

[RDG]

Man Shoichi's dub voice makes him sound a lot younger. It wasn't a bad voice, but it's quite different from how I'm used to hearing him. Calling Shoichi Yusaku's best friend is giving him way too much credit too, but they obviously aren't going to make negative comments on a show that they're working on. I thought that they were going to announce a U.S. premiere date for the dub, but apparently not.

And we all know no U.S. TV network wants to air a YGO show ever again, not even the original DM, no matter how much pleading and begging Konami might do. Also as aforementioned, Konami's stance on "TV before streaming" when it comes to the U.S. dubs of the newer YGO series, combined with a big fat "NO!" from the networks pretty much leaves us out of luck. Speaking of, let's break down which networks WON'T be airing VRAINS or any past YGO shows anymore (nor future ones, if any, for that matter):

Disney Channel: NEVER
Disney XD: ALSO NEVER (they have enough anime on there already: Beyblade, Inazuma 11, and Pokémon)
Discovery Family: Eh, not likely; also, the kids' version of the network only airs Hasbro toons now
Universal Kids: Eh, probably not likely, either
CN: DEFINITELY NOT (Not only HAVEN'T they aired a YGO show since they took 5D's off the lineup back in Summer 2010 and they also haven't aired ANY anime since Pokémon moved to Disney XD back in 2017 - after an 11-year run; 15 years if you count reruns - either, but they only want 15-min. shows now, also)
Boomerang: Not likely, either
Nick: BIG FAT NO
Nicktoons: ALSO BIG FAT NO
I also don't see TeenNick airing the show, either.
Qubo? Nuh-uh.
KidsClick? Maybe if the block was still around today, maybe not (quite possibly the latter); we'll never know.

So, yeah, Konami is pretty much out of options, so U.S. fans are pretty much stuck with the JustSomeClips YT channel (if they can find it) and the subtitled version on Crunchyroll, which is pretty much meant for teens and grown-ups, so U.S. kids wouldn't be able to watch the latter version, anyway; teenagers do make up most of the franchise's target audience after all, since it's a shonen series. Also, the U.S. dubs seem to now target those who grew up with them (look to the vid games Duel Generation, Duel Links and the upcoming Link Evolution, all of which are T-rated, some other recent merchandise, and grown-up ads during Hulu/YouTube uploads of the such shows for proof).

 

[Light Lucario]

And we all know no U.S. TV network wants to air a YGO show ever again, not even the original DM, no matter how much pleading and begging Konami might do

That is most likely the case, but I don't know why Konami hasn't put the Vrains dub on Crunchyroll or at least Hulu by now. There's a surprisingly good chance that the series will be over, or pretty close to it, whenever the dub does become legally available here. That's a pretty huge problem marketing wise considering that they aren't able to promote the new Vrains era cards through a dub. It's basically the same problem they've had with the past few series being years behind the Japanese version and by extension the booster pack releases. By the time the dub gets to the U.S., it will be promoting older cards and that is a big issue when the spin-off series exist primarily to promote cards.

Vrains is available on Crunchyroll, so maybe that does help them out more with promoting the cards than I think it does, but dubs still help to attract more of an audience than sub only titles and plenty of fans still prefer dubs over subs too. While I don't care for Vrains in the slightest, it is still such a strange decision to not release the dub in the U.S. and ultimately feels like Konami is shooting themselves in the foot by making it. Granted, it wouldn't be the first time Konami has done that, but it does seem like it's going to do much more harm than good for them in the long run if they keep doing this with their dubs.

 

[RDG]

That is most likely the case, but I don't know why Konami hasn't put the Vrains dub on Crunchyroll or at least Hulu by now. There's a surprisingly good chance that the series will be over, or pretty close to it, whenever the dub does become legally available here. That's a pretty huge problem marketing wise considering that they aren't able to promote the new Vrains era cards through a dub. It's basically the same problem they've had with the past few series being years behind the Japanese version and by extension the booster pack releases. By the time the dub gets to the U.S., it will be promoting older cards and that is a big issue when the spin-off series exist primarily to promote cards.

Vrains is available on Crunchyroll, so maybe that does help them out more with promoting the cards than I think it does, but dubs still help to attract more of an audience than sub only titles and plenty of fans still prefer dubs over subs too. While I don't care for Vrains in the slightest, it is still such a strange decision to not release the dub in the U.S. and ultimately feels like Konami is shooting themselves in the foot by making it. Granted, it wouldn't be the first time Konami has done that, but it does seem like it's going to do much more harm than good for them in the long run if they keep doing this with their dubs.

I've added more stuff to my last comment

 

[Light Lucario]

And we all know no U.S. TV network wants to air a YGO show ever again, not even the original DM, no matter how much pleading and begging Konami might do. Also as aforementioned, Konami's stance on "TV before digital", combined with a big fat "NO!" from the networks pretty much leaves us out of luck. Speaking of, let's break down which networks WON'T be airing VRAINS or any past YGO shows anymore (nor future ones, if any, for that matter):

Disney Channel: NEVER
Disney XD: ALSO NEVER (they have enough anime on there already: Beyblade, Inazuma 11, and Pokémon)
Discovery Family: Eh, not likely; also, the kids' version of the network only airs Hasbro toons now
Universal Kids: Eh, probably not likely, either
CN: DEFINITELY NOT (Not only HAVEN'T they aired a YGO show since they took 5D's off the lineup back in Summer 2010 and they also haven't aired ANY anime since Pokémon moved to Disney XD back in 2017 - after an 11-year run; 15 years if you count reruns - either, but they only want 15-min. shows now, also)
Boomerang: Not likely, either
Nick: BIG FAT NO
Nicktoons: ALSO BIG FAT NO
I also don't see TeenNick airing the show, either.
Qubo? Nuh-uh.
KidsClick? Maybe if the block was still around today, maybe not (quite possibly the latter); we'll never know.

I could still see Disney XD airing the series, or at least I don't think it's as unlikely as all of the other options. They already have three other anime titles, but I don't think that would make them uninterested in getting another one, especially when they've already made promos for their own anime block. It would also be the best option for the franchise since they'd slowly put the previous series on their website/On Demand section.

It's probably pretty unlikely though. If Disney XD was interested in getting a Yu-Gi-Oh! series, they probably would have grabbed it once Nicktoons stopped airing it and started with Vrains. Still, out of all of the channels they could go for, Disney XD wouldn't be an automatic no. It would be better than Nicktoons or Cartoon Network at least.

So, yeah, Konami is pretty much out of options, so U.S. fans are pretty much stuck with the subtitled version on Crunchyroll, which is pretty much meant for teens and grown-ups, so U.S. kids wouldn't be able to watch that version, anyway; teenagers do make up most of the franchise's target audience after all. Also, the U.S. dubs seem to now target those who grew up with them (look to the vid games Duel Generation, Duel Links and the upcoming Link Evolution, all of which are T-rated, other recent merchandise, and grown-up ads during Hulu/YouTube uploads of the such shows for proof).

The subbed version is aimed at kids too, at least in Japan. While it does try too hard to be dark and serious, there's really nothing about it that would make it inappropriate or difficult for kids to watch it. I just don't know how many kids would be interested in watching subs compared to older fans. The video games and especially the card game caters to the older fans, but the U.S. dubs have always been aimed at young kids. That's why they change the characters names, give some of them funny voices and alter the scripts to fit in more bad jokes. Based on the bits I've heard of the Vrains dub, it's the same kind of dub they've been making since DM, so it's definitely not made with older fans in mind. If they can only get the dub to air in other countries and not in the U.S., I wonder how much that amount of exposure actually helps them with promoting the cards.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 108

Well the pacing seems different arc, it seems we have had more duels end and new ones begin mid episodes than we have had before.

Ai I don't get what he meant when he said he liked Go, is there something cryptic here.

I think perhaps Ai has hidden motives here, and maybe he just evil. I hope so, other wise he is just a repeat of the previous villain.

 

[Light Lucario]

Well the pacing seems different arc, it seems we have had more duels end and new ones begin mid episodes than we have had before.

It wasn't too surprising in this case. Despite how the preview for this episode was focused entirely on Onizuka, none of the footage showed their duel, so it was pretty likely that the duel would be over by about the halfway mark of the episode.

Ai I don't get what he meant when he said he liked Go, is there something cryptic here.

I thought that Ai said if only he could be like Onizuka, not that he liked him. The closest to that was Ai saying that he doesn't hate Onizuka. My guess is that Ai was referring to how Onizuka was determined to go back to how he used to be. Maybe Ai admires that because he feels like he can't go back to how he used to be either. That wouldn't make Onizuka's pointless and character shattering subplot more meaningful, but that's how I read it at least.

I think perhaps Ai has hidden motives here, and maybe he just evil. I hope so, other wise he is just a repeat of the previous villain.

We still don't know what he wants to do with those keys, so he definitely has some kind of hidden motives. I'm still leading towards the idea that he wants to revive the other Ignis. Ai is upset that they're gone, but the more he brings it up, the more that I don't buy for a second that they're gone for good. After so many characters have died at least twice only to come back to life once Yusaku saves the day, I really don't believe that there are a lot of permanent deaths in this series.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was okay. I was really hoping that Ai would finish off Onizuka a lot faster and that he would be able to keep all of his life points in the process. In retrospect, that might have been hoping for too much. They'd want to make Onizuka look impressive after his absolute mess of a character arc put him back to his season one personality. They wanted to showcase more Gokui cards too since they haven't been able to do that for awhile. It was just really boring because I knew how it was going to play out, especially with Ai's bad acting. That wouldn't necessarily be a problem if Onizuka was compelling instead of being absolutely awful or if I found Ai's conflict engaging, but I don't. The reason behind Ai's actions might make him more interesting later on when we actually learn about his plans, but right now it just feels like they're going for the shock of having a mostly comedy relief character like Ai becoming the new villain.

As much as I hate Onizuka, I'll admit that he did do a much better job against Ai than expected. If I still had a trace of positive feelings towards his character, then I might have been happy about it, but it just feels like the writers wanted to give the illusion that he's a strong duelist after he learned the same lesson off screen. Since Ai talked about how he would have been dead if Onizuka didn't destroy his set card, I guess that means all of the other characters who have been defeated are dead. Maybe it's just different for Ai since he's living data, but they don't make it particularly clear. They still had that melodramatic scene with Emma and Blood Sheppard for maximum angst, so I don't know if they would have done that if they were just going to wake up in the real world afterwards. Having an Earth Golem defeat Onizuka was a fitting touch though. I was also glad that they didn't linger on Onizuka after he lost again.

I was thrown off by Aoi and Akira being in a different location, but it was a pretty smart plan. No one aside from Revolver knew about it within their group and it gave them extra protection. It didn't really matter too much when Ai still figured out where they were, but it was a smart plan. Having Pandor duel Ai was a bit unexpected and that could provide some interesting developments based on the preview for the next episode. It still annoyed me that the characters can duel outside of a network. It still makes me question what was so important about Link Vrains when that isn't even the only way people duel in this universe. I also wonder if they'll have Yusaku show up on the plane somehow. Ai is most certainly going to defeat Pandor and will most likely face off against Aoi, but I'm sure that he'll have an actual confrontation with Yusaku sooner rather than later. They're running low on defeat fodder characters after all.

 

[zoombie]

Episode 109

So Ai wins this duel, what a surprise? How long till we get to the finale Yusaku / Ai duel and end this.

I do find it interesting that Ai never clearly answered weather or not he believes ignis and humans can co exist, I am pretty sure he has some hidden goal, can we find that out already?