Truth to be told, this was quite a sluggish episode, but nonetheless, still a good episode. The duel between Ghost Girl and Playmaker was as usual, fun to watch, but the pace of the battle slowed down considerably, and outcome –although was expected, left much to be desired. Ghost Girl did a fantastic job of blocking Playmaker’s winning conditions for as long as she did. She even used her own Skill Secret Cure (which is quite neat), where both players gain life points based on the drawn monster’s Attack. However her downfall was because Playmaker managed to outplay her and gain access to his skill by paying his life points to Balancer Lord to active its effect and was able to use Ghost Girl’s camouflage effect against her, enabling a direct attack. 
But this was only because he had Excode Talker to seal the main monster zone, preventing her from special summoning Kunquery.
In particular, a lot of us are concerned about Yuusaku’s current undefeated streak. The plot-armor is so thick, there isn’t room for a loss. This is because the stakes so far are far too high. At some point or another Playmaker is going to have to lose. Another important detail to remember is that Storm Access is Ai’s skill (though Revolver is able to use it as well), not Playmaker’s. So two things ought to happen: A) Ai gets taken away, and Yuusaku has to figure out how to use the skill Storm Access like Revolver had or B) The antagonist figures out a way to seal Storm Access or rid of the Data Storms altogether. (The later is unlikely given how important data storms are to the plot-line.) Until then, Ghost Girl’s Strategy of attempting to prevent the conditions to enable him to use the skills is probably the most effective way to deal with it, despite the fact there’s wiggle room to work around it.
While the episode was considerably slow, what gave it a spark was the sizzling chemistry between Playmaker and Ghost Girl.I mean I was kinda expecting it because it’s Ghost Girl, she has great chemistry with everyone, but I wasn’t expecting to see a scene where Playmaker saves her due to the Data Storm being far too strong, and she is flung off her board. I was like, “OH HOT DAMN. ANOTHER GHOST GIRL SHIP!” Sparks were flying and Playmaker was mighty fineeeeee~! He was so cool. Actually it is quite amusing how cool and charismatic he is in VRAINS as Playmaker and how shy and awkward he is in the real world as himself. Nobody would ever guess the two are the same people so as long as Yuusaku doesn’t make his timing of sudden disappearance and emergence as Playmaker too obvious for people to connect the dots.
Anyways, SAFETY FIRST! Personally, I think this little scene was a missed opportunity for Playmaker to lose his chance to use his skill, but eh, oh well, it’s not the end of the world.
Next week Aoi will be back walking, don’t know how much of her we’re actually going to see, but probably very little. I am curious to see how she is coping with the aftermath. In the mean time, Yuusaku will be putting his prize to use, and intends to infiltrate SOL Technology Fortress of the Data Bank. Sounds like fun! It looks like he will be going up against the new security guy, Kitamura and AI Army. Yuusaku doesn’t know what’s in there data bank, but is hoping he might be able to find answers to his past. As to whether or not he will get into it, we will have to find out.
I ship it! I ship ghost girl and playmaker!
They have such great chemistry!
Yeah, the pace was slow but not in a bad way. It felt like it came off from Ghost Girl’s growth as opposed to any for Yusaku’s. She’s doing this duel to satisfy her curiosity, not because of any job. It felt like while the duel lacked excitement (personally I think its due to the new summoning method, link summoning is kind of complicated and the way its presented in the show is kind of confusing).
So it felt like Ghost Girl was enjoying and growing in the duel so, i didn’t mind it.
That ending where Yusaku falls asleep is so cute! I just expect kusanagi (is that his name? I’ll be honest i kind of forgot) to drape a blanket over him one day in the chair! <3
Next week's episode actually looks like we're going to get somewhere with the plot! And hopefully Aoi's going to be coping well after her experience. It kind of looks as if she's kind of being contained in her house cos the robot blocked her way. So maybe her brother put her on house arrest? But she doesnt really look that annoyed or even sad about it… Maybe it relates to her brother complex?
SPARKS ARE FLYING~
Sleeping Yuusaku is the most adorable thing about this show ahahaha. XD
Yeah is Kusanagi (i always have to doublecheck too KEKEKEKE).
Yes I am very curious to seeing how Akira was going to respond to this since he’s such a protective brother. If he really does put her under house arrest, good chance he took away her duel disk too as I have speculated him doing. (Wouldn’t put it past him to do that). We’ll have to find out the context and how she’s feeling.
I’d have to say Playmaker saving Ghost Girl was what really got me intrigued with this episode. I thought it was a very cute scene. Plus the smile that he gave her. Oh, I love it when Yusaku smiles. No wonder why Ghost Girl would say “The moon is so beautiful”. She was just basically flirting with him. But Ai, why did you have to ruin the moment by saying it looks like a bunch of data? After this episode, my opinion of Emma/Ghost Girl has changed. I really like her now and she’s an amazing duelist. Maybe I’ll make an Altergeist deck profile in her honor once the booster pack Circuit Break comes out.
P.S. I also can’t wait for episode 16. We’ll finally get to see Aoi for the first time after she’s woken up from her coma. I hope we get to see Yusaku in school more than we have so far, but something tells me we will, at least for the next episode.
Ai has no sense of atmosphere.😂
Also can’t act for his life lmfao. For an AI, he isn’t that bright TROLOLOLOLOLOL.
Oh I’m DEFINITELY going to collect the Altergeist deck. I do that always for my favs! <3
Yes I'd like to see Yuusaku more at school for the sake of interactions with other students. We are probably, as you said, going to get that wish next week! HOPEFULLY!!!!
Apart from Yusaku’s interactions with other students, like I’ve said several times before I hope we’ll eventually see him duel with that casual old-school DM deck (because he can’t use them IRL or he’ll reveal his Playmaker persona). And we need a REAL-LIFE Master Duel, I just can’t stand Playmaker’s ZEXAL hair, would be much better if Yusaku just duels casually.