After the incredibly dull episode 4 & 5, I can’t tell you how relieved I was with what we got today. There was this tension in the air that hooked me in, keeping me completely engaged with what’s transpiring. There were also no duels today, so it did a good job of returning to the darker and more serious tone of the series responsible for intriguing me during its premiere.This is definitely not a bad thing, in fact it’s a good thing because it enables them to focus and deliver the plot without forcing nonsense/filler duels (that would otherwise contradict Yuusaku’s character).
I have to say, God help me, because I have already fallen hard for Aoi. The best thing about her is how her character gives me that Izayoi Aki vibes that made me fall in love with her character in 5DS, but the worst thing about this is how I know with the team in charge with this series (thus far), it’s as though it is fate for me be disappointed in Aoi’s future as a character… just as I had with Yuzu, Ruri, Rin and Selena (ARC-V) and of course Aki.
Aoi is an fascinating character because of how polar opposite her Blue Angel personality is outside of VRAINS. She is quiet, doesn’t talk much, skeptical of those who approach her because of her brother in-law (Zaizen Akira – honestly, I am shocked they are not siblings but are in-laws. Did not expect that) working at SOL Technologies. They will either ask for the newest duel disk model on the market, or even for connections in order to get a job at the company. Aoi has also shown us how she, like Yuusaku, is extremely sharp-minded, as she was quick to draw similarities to Yuusaku and Playmaker’s traditional duel disk. Had Yuusaku not switched out his deck for a dummy, he might have been in serious trouble since she had asked him if she could see his deck.
I am curious as to why she decided to embrace the idol persona in the first place. Does she want to be an idol? Or does she want the recognition or freedom she gains from it? It’s interesting because at this time, I am having a difficult time determining whether Akira considers her a nuisance or he genuinely just wants her to keep her safe, so much so, he told her to stop speed dueling because it’s dangerous. It also doesn’t help how he doesn’t want anyone to know he has a connection with Blue Angel. Personally I don’t see what’s such a big deal about it considering she is famous for being a good duelist. I mean for crying out loud, they freaking claim the duel between her and Playmaker to be the battle of the century! (Like, are you kidding me?) On the extra note: Her fan-chants are AMAZING. But I digress. If Akira is sincerely concerned about her safety, then I can understand if he is concerned about bad people like Hanoi going after her to get to him.
However what we can’t ignore is that yes: Aoi has a brother complex (seriously, it’s weird how she talks with him, she is overly polite, as if she is talking to royalty), and she wants to prove to him that she can hold her own. AKA, she was some form of recognition from him.
But with Zaizen determined to keep himself as far as possible from Blue Angel, in return she ends up being caught up and used by Hanoi Knights when she decides to take it upon herself to challenge Playmaker – only to be stood up. (Interesting enough, the backlash I had expected to happen had Yuusaku fled from Onizuka’s duel did end up happening because of his no show). In the end, the only reason why the two are dueling is because Ignis set it up that way, by taking advantage of the circumstances Yuusaku pledge to pick a fight under (only against Hanoi Knights). Still, had Aoi not had the Hanoi card in her possession, I suspect Ignis would have still went ahead to send the invitation to fight, solely to get under Yuusaku’s skin. The AI loves to tease the guy.
The Hanoi Knights taking advantage of using Blue Angel was a great turn of events. Before seeing how Akira wants to keep his distance from her, I had thought for sure, he would be the one to request her to fight Playmaker. But no, instead we see a downright CREEPY Hanoi Knight dude, that screams trouble. You think Revolver is the threat? Nope~ My bet is on the creepy dude being a manipulative asshole who pulls all the strings. He just SCREAMS trouble to me.
It was fun to see more sides to Yuusaku today. Kusanagi cleverly initiated a reverse psychology strategy to encourage Yuusaku to interact with Aoi (since they were able to gain information on Blue Angel’s true identity) in hopes to gain information on SOL Technologies and his lost memories. He and Ignis teased him for being unable to talk to girls, when in reality, he may be a bit shy, but he isn’t incapable and he knows it. Yuusaku is just not interested in socializing with anyone at this time – but he certainly is not nearly as sociable as say… previous Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonists when he needs to be. He is not one to initiate conversations that’s for sure. 
You could see how troubled Yuusaku was (he looked so adorable), but he didn’t like how Kusanagi and Ignis teased him for being unable to talk to girls (when in reality, he obviously has no problem, he just isn’t that interested in socializing with others at this time). It was funny watching him follow Aoi because I was a little worried he was going to be mistaken as a stalker, but luckily no such incident happened. Instead he found himself standing at the entrance of the school’s Duel Club. This scene really caught my attention because of his reaction to it. He looked bit a wistful. You could tell something clicked in his head when he saw the club. And seeing that, I couldn’t help but get a sense off loss. It makes me wonder if perhaps before the incident that took place, he was once a part of a Duel Club, and he and the members were part of the incident he in currently investigating. Or worse off, he has no memories of it but there is something about it that draws emotions out of him. Should this be the case, participating in the club activities maybe play a role in triggering memories in the future.
But what really made the episode for me was the tension between Yuusaku and Aoi. There are in a lot of ways quite alike to each other, but at the same time they are not. What makes them different seems to be how they individually handle themselves and those around them. They both possess an alias identity, and with the two of them being sneaky sneaky, especially around each other – oh boy, this is going to get real interesting should Aoi serve as a pawn for the Hanoi Knights for a little while. And I think this is where it could get fun because while Yuusaku is attempting to obtain information in regards to her brother in law, and she is trying to figure out, and may even become aware of his true identity by recognizing Ignis (who honestly does not know how to be discreet, Ignis was yapping away all the time!) after or even during their duel. (Put down your bets guys: will Aoi recognize Ignis during their duel?) It makes me very I am curious to see how the two are going to get closer to one another for information, and better yet, without each other knowing that they know. Ooh just the thought of it excites me!
With both Aoi and Yuusaku missing from the classroom, should they continue to do this in the future (and I suspect they will so as long Aoi possesses Hanoi’s card – and whatever the hell “free her hidden desires” means), I’m pretty sure Naoki will catch on, or at least become suspicious of the two. And if not? Well that would mean I gave him too much credit.
Also RIP Naoki: YUUSAKU DIDN’T EVEN REMEMBER HIM!
And of course I had to leave this to last because of reasons… It’s certainly nothing important…
Well, surely, surely… I couldn’t have been the only one who had the passing thought of “I ship it.”
I COULDN’T HELP IT! IT JUST HAPPENED. As I like to say: “One does not simply choose their ship, the ship chooses you…”, because all it took was the two interacting with each other and BAM before I knew it there were squeals in the back of my head. The inner shipper in me was having a field day today. She packed up all her goods and left boarded SS Yuusaku x Aoi (whatever their ship name is going to be). She knows she’s in for a world of pain and disappointment and with a non-existent grim future of the possibility of canon in the future, but she doesn’t care. She will board that ship and set sail upon the treacherous seas.
There is no saving me now.
canon: In fiction, canon is the material accepted as officially part of the story in an individual universe of that story.
cannon: a large, heavy piece of artillery, typically mounted on wheels, formerly used in warfare.
however, they can both destroy ships… the first one being much more brutal about it too.
Honestly this show is getting me to feel and I really like Aoi. Which is disappointing to me because I know that Blue Angel is going to get shafted like Aki did.
I will never forgive Crow for what he did.
Anyway this episode was really good… wow I hope we get a master duel soon cause I still don’t really enjoy speed duels…
Your canon/cannon = ship analogy is on point. XD
We fans of Aoi, must stay strong. And we come up with a way to protect Aoi at all cost, if a ritual is required, WE WILL COME UP WITH A DAMN RITUAL.
We will have to see how this speed duel turns out because yeahhhhhh…. The last one was horrible. It’s certainly not starting off on a high note. In fact I don’t know which is worse: Speed Duels or Action Duels…
If we want to protect Aoi… shall we slaughter the ones who previously stole the female lead’s spotlight? and use their blood for the ritual?
With an emphasis on crow maybe? =.=
the concepts of speed duels is just meh to me… Turbo duels in 5ds were actually fast paced because while they were limited (no spells and forced to use speed world), they at least had speed spells to compensate.
Hell, Arc V and the dark side of dimensions gave us gimmicky duel formats (action and dimension duels) but they ADDED aspecs to the game that sped it up. Action cards could be used whenever you wanted to (even if that was hit or miss most of the times), and the whole dimension summoning aspect actually sped up the game quite a bit.
But speed duels… just cut down the field. Skills could’ve been interesting but they were limited to once per turn and they’re kind of lame, the ones we’ve seen so far at least. draw 2 cards… plot device a monster into your deck… I feel like I’m gonna either skip duel episodes or wait until we see master duels at this rate, depending on next episode that is.
That might be too much. Karma would come back to bite us.
If we put all the girls’ monsters together into a star summoning formation like people do with trying to summon videogames… maybe that’ll work?
It’s still only a few episodes into the series, so hopefully they can definitely figuring out a way to made Speed Duels more efficient sooner than later. For starters, they need to cut down on the mouthful-lengthy set up for Link Summon. It’s too much.
As mentioned a few weeks ago, I think should they want to enable skills to be used more often, a player could make a hack like Hanoi Knights did.
About that last duel if you don’t mind me asking can you explain to me what you meant the duel was dull to you. Were you able to predict the whole duel before happen or something else. I apologize for bothering you.
Sitting through the tedious Link Summoning scene FOUR TIMES times in a row made me less engaged in what’s going on, nor did Onizuka impress me with his so-called “entertainment duel”. And let’s be real here, the set up for Link Summon takes way too long! They really need to figure out a way to shorten the whole process because the time it takes to set it up is beyond ridiculous. That’s why I found it so boring.
Additionally, they writers attempted to find a balance between Go’s character traits which is a mix of Jack (like being the champion of the series and set to “entertain” the audience) and Crow (caring about the orphaned children) but so far they did a very crappy job of mixing them and therefore making Go an unbearably dull character.
I still want his Goukis though… /s
As greedy as #BuyBlackwings turned out, there were other off-screen troubles at the time. The storyboard had no choice but to rewrite Yliaster’s story (from a cult to time-travelers from the ruined future) and erase the supposed further involvement of the Arcadia Movement because of Carly’s VA’s sex cult scandal which drastically reduced Carly’ role in thew show and she was turned into another one of Jack’s fangirls. (The VA who was involved in the cult was found dead 3 years ago.) Unfortunately this ended up limiting Aki’s role too (heck they even cut off her psychic powers at one time) because she was once associated with the Arcadia Movement (which was obviously cult-themed) and her VA was pregnant at the time, so they had to remove as many cult-themed motives as possible. Oh and did you know that SHIN YOSHIDA was also directing 5D’s story starting from episode 65?
I pretty much enjoyed this one and I immediately loved the way they introduced Aoi’s character as well. It also makes it very easy to understand both Aoi and Yusaku.
Regarding the idol bit I find funny, Aoi’s VA(Yuki Nakashima) is from IdolMaster and ironically Revolver VA is the manager.
I was also surprised on the whole “in-law” thing myself but from what I heard they’re might be a bit of a mystery in itself. “The term 義理の妹 can be translated as “sister-in-law.” But she could also be his adopted sister, foster sister, step-sister, or half-sister.”
I found it pretty clever that Yusaku would indeed bring a dummy deck of random cards incase someone would try catching wind of him being Playmaker.
Oh that’s good to know, thank you for sharing. Hopefully we can get some clarity in the future. Gosh I wish I understood Japanese TT ^ TT
I enjoyed reading your review. I never thought about what Kusanagi using reverse psychology to get Yusaku to talk to Aoi. Great analysis. I was actually smirking and giggling when I listened to Kusanagi and Ignis teasing Yusaku about how he can’t talk to girls. Yusaku did seem a little flustered, which I thought was quite cute. Even when he was listening to Blue Angel’s public challenge, he seemed a little embarrassed despite saying he doesn’t care what others say about him. Like you said, it’s adorable to see a totally new side of Yusaku that’s socially awkward.
Overall, this episode quenched my thirst for a great episode. It had well-balanced serious and funny moments and excellent character development for Aoi. There was a lot of ship tease for one episode that my inner fangirl senses were tingling. I think Yusaku and Aoi have a good chance of getting together at the end of the series. Or at least, get to the level of Yusei and Aki because those two were the closest we’ve gotten so far to a canon relationship between two main characters.
Thank you <3 And SHIPPERS UNITE!!!!!!!!!
But omg, I would be plenty satisfied if they go as far as they did with Yusei x Aki, I can't tell you how damn SATISFIED I was with their finale scene. I was like, "THEY ARE CANON AND NOBODY CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE" Just that scene was so god damn perfect. The look in their eyes and the way they held hands was all I needed and could be left to my imaginations.
Slightly off topic, but seeing England national football team getting tormented by France national team (spearheaded by the rising superstars in Kylian Mbappé & Ousmane Dembélé) the other day and how England fell short against Spain (2-2 draw) & Germany (0-1 defeat) during Gareth Southgate’s current tenure made me facepalmed everytime. >_>
Now back INTO ZA VRAINS, I’m surprised that so far VRAINS seems to be doing better WITHOUT the slow-paced “Speed Duels”, also we need new drinking games everytime Yusaku does his “3 reasons” thing OR when Aoi says “oni-sama” or “nii-san” (a bro-con to the fullest), OR BOTH, then you can enjoy getting alcohol poisoning. Yes, I have mixed opinions about Aoi’s debut. On one hand, I love how her real-life personality is the complete opposite of her Charisma Duelist persona, and when she’s IN ZA VRAINS she does display the qualities of being a CHARISMA Duelist (aided by a huge fan-base) without even needing a full debut duel (which is set to commence next episode), unlike a certain Go Onizuka two episodes ago. I also enjoy Aoi’s early interactions with Yusaku, unfortunately that moment between her and Yusaku where she said how everyone only approached her because of her brother was already a ticking time bomb because that’s among the methods of SHIN YOSHIDA screwing up female characters, (and worse, 99% assured they’ll turn her into a “YUSAKU/PLAYMAKER~~!!!” screaming ad sooner than later because SHIN YOSHIDA hates females). Back in Zexal, RIO (who was one of the best characters in Zexal and THE imouto waifu) was determined to escape Shark’s shadow and become a strong duelist on her own, but in the end her character progressed nowhere but to keep getting herself killed and relying on Shark FOR ETERNITY, typical Shin Yoshida characterization.
Much to my surprise though, this episode also expanded further on Yusaku’s high school life… and I cracked up a bit upon realizing his “casual” deck was consisted of literally a bunch of old school cards. What a smart move to conceal Yusaku’s Playmaker identity, but should someone challenge him to a regular (Master) duel I hope he is taking some lessons from Yusei and turn his deck of old school misfits into match winners because he just can’t switch back to Cyverse IRL or his Playmaker identity will be exposed. Another concern is Aoi is already suspecting Yusaku to be the Playmaker given how Yusaku may showcase his “casual” deck but retained the same Duel Disk (which he had no choice but to use it because Ignis was confined within it) and whenever Playmaker shows up Yusaku is absent from the class.
And for fuck’s sake I’m going to do my own “3 count” thing here. FIRST, I never liked Naoki since episode 1, so I’ll cheer when somebody kill him (better sooner than later), he’s completely irrelevant and so damn annoying. I REALLY hated how he laughed at Yusaku’s “casual” deck of old school cards. SECOND, Also did nobody find it irritating that the announcer guy was ALWAYS at that stage whenever an important duel starts? Like he actually lives there or something. Seriously though, we don’t need an announcer for EVERY single duel. THIRD, Specter is such a creep/perv for harassing Blue Angel like that…
Heh heh heh, someone please prepare some aloe vera for Playmaker next episode, because Trickstars are a brutal Burning deck.
Gotta love clever protagonists like Yuusaku. He was so chill too, shows how prepared he was, “Oh yeah sure, by all means look at it.” Ignis is totally going to be responsible for blowing his cover though. The AI doesn’t know how to be sneaky the slightest.
LOL someone will definitely suffer from alchol poisoning with that drinking game. Honestly dreading Aoi’s Oni-Sama x12 montage in the future.
RIP Female YGO Characters.
Join us in our attempt to do a ritual to protect AoiI share the same sentiments about the announcer dude. Not feeling him, but at least he’s not as bad as the last one >_>;;; Really didn’t like her. My headcanon is that he camps there.
So Specter is the creepy dudes name? WE HAVE A NAME! Also was it just me or did anyone else feel he has similar creepiness to the Parasite Scientist? Like omg, when he said he was a fan – HELL NO. BURN HIM WITH FIRE. GTFO.
“Gotta love clever protagonists like Yuusaku”
And THIS is exactly why I need to see a regular (Master) duel soon with Yusaku using that dummy deck of old school cards and seeing him WIN at least once. If Yusei managed to do it with the random 40 cards from the prisoners back in 5D’s earliest days, Yusaku clinching victory with THAT kind of deck would leave everyone amazed. (Still a pity he just CAN’T use Cyverse IRL…)
“So Specter is the creepy dudes name?”
According to his character bio, YES he’s a hardcore Blue Angel fan despite… -_-“
//According to his character bio, YES he’s a hardcore Blue Angel fan despite… -_-“//
OH GOD NO! NO NO NO NOPE NOPE NPOE NPOE NPOE NOPEEEEEE!!!
STAY THE F!*@#(&!@# AWAY FROM AOI!!!!!!!
Personal opinion: People often get hyped for one character too fast and/or too much and once he/she was neglected or outright killed off they became incredibly salty they would went full lengths to throw their tantrums. Unfortunately that’s what happening with Blue Angel right now (her popularity did skyrocket really fast) where some of the Yugioh fandom had already swore to shit on the writers should she gets relegated to a damsel or the protagonist’s cheerleader without realizing that Shin Yoshida doesn’t treat females as humans.
Yes this occurred during Arc V’s run where their colorful characters created LOTS of fanbases (and virtually all of them went into war everytime their favourite character lost or died, especially SAWATARI’S). I myself had many nasty encounters with the butthurt Yuto fanboys & fangirls (later extended to Serena’s fanboys & fangirls) around my locals who talked trash to me because I’m pro-Yugo since day 1. I don’t hate Yuto, but they often barked insulting words at me because Yugo “killed” Yuto in episode 37 and their hate levels were joined with Serena fans once Yugo also won against her in episode 85. I usually ignored them, but when they went full lengths to host a grand party just to MOCK Yugo and celebrate his “death” once he was absorbed by Yuri in episode 132 I snapped and challenged those butthurt people to many duels and won almost ALL of them. Everytime they would boast about their field of Dark Requiems (that hard counters Crystal Wing) or a bunch of Phantom Knights Traps (because Yuto’s deck relies heavily on Traps), I wiped their field clean with Lightning Vortex & Trap Stun before ramming for the win with my avatar CLEAR WING SYNCHRO DRAGON. Serena fans were no better as they would often join the Yuto fans cause until I had to step up and shut them up. Thanks god those brainless assholes moved on to another (faraway) area, man I had to get through the Arc V era with those people, it’s infuriating.
Sorry, but such was my IRL experience dealing with people who went batshit crazy they initiated Yugioh fanbase wars.
And the you have it; Aoi’s debut was Vrains’s strongest episode yet. LOL at Kusanagi and Ai taking potshots at the idea of Yusaku not being able to talk to girls…and then he goes and, for all intents and purposes, stalks her and stares at the back of her head. And I personally do think Akira does care about Aoi, it’s just that he needs to find a way to express it without looking like a…well, you know.
And the really sad part was when Aoi mentions how her connection with her (adoptive?) brother is the only reason anybody approaches her, it’s not like when Aki could only see things in a negative way; that really was the only reason Yusaku was interacting with her. It makes her that much more sympathetic. Hopefully, Yusaku realizes this and tries to make up for it a little.
P.S. The Hanoi card turning Aoi’s Duel Disk AI all haughty was funny.
P.P.S. Oh Ai; answering Yusaku’s accusation with “Yes!” (in English, too) was just prefect.
I hope Akira actually sincerely cares about her, and he’s just being tough/cold because that’s his way of protecting her. 🙁
Yuusaku is a pretty soft guy at heart, but I am curious to see how he will interact with her. Will he keep it a secret, which would likely be considered a betrayal, or would he take a leap of faith and trust her by explaining why he needs information on her brother. I guess it depends whether or not they make it known that they know each other’s alias (once mutually discovered). But I would like to see them be sneaky sneaky around each other just because I know it would be fun to watch.
while i dont think she will win i think she will be able to lower his life points to critical stage
eva i think even if blue angel wont win against playmaker she will be lower his LP very low considering we are talking about the trickstars burn deck
I am curious as to why she decided to embrace the idol persona in the first place. Does she want to be an idol?
I think it’s escapism, she is full of complexes on the real world.
I loved this episode you have no idea, I’m with you Eva, I can’t help but love Aoi [protect the daughter at all costs] and I’ll go down with Yusaku x Aoi asdfhlñ srsly I can’t wait for her develpment in the future. Also please more of Ignis and Shoichi messing with Yusaku. I won’t get tired of watching this episode until the next airs.
ADMIN NOTE: Please refrain from posting spoilers of future episodes in the comments They will be deleted.