I was quite surprised with how quickly they wrapped up Onizuka’s duel. They spent less than 10 minutes on it and to be quite honest, I was disappointed with how anticlimactic it was. The transition was not as seamless as it could have been, but I could tell they did not want to waste a minute and make the most of their time of introducing the next set of obstacles our heroes must face.
While Onizuka’s duel ended on a rather abrupt note, I did get a good laugh out of it – primarily because of Playmaker’s comment. I don’t think any of us of us expected him to come out and say he came just so he could laugh at Onizuka when he loses. That’s one hell of a way to provoke someone! And he did get under his skin with much success. However the results of Onizuka’s “next evolution” had me laughing because of how ridiculous it was. I said it as a joke last week, but now I am seriously wondering if they really do intend to make Onizuka into an “Evolution” duelist – one who’s style will continue to evolve over time. Frankly speaking, this is really the only way to preserve the “surprise factor”, because I noticed that once you know what’s coming, it’s not as interesting or exciting the second time, and will only grow older each time its used.
But man, oh man…. I am sure I was not the only one who cringed real hard when Onizuka claimed he is the World’s #1 Entertainer. Dude – no, NO. NO YOU’RE NOT. YOU ARE NOT EVEN IN THE TOP 100. Oh someone, someone got to break the news to him and send him straight to You Show Duel School, or something!!!!!!
And on that note, I must address the elephant in the room. I am honestly starting to think reusing the ‘Entertainment Duelist’ theme for Onizuka’s character was a big mistake. Let’s be real here, the previous series; ARC-V, revolved around Entertainment Duels, so naturally it sets the bar. If you don’t create characters who can reach or exceed the standard that has been established, it’s going to be harder to appeal to the audience. Many of us are still struggling connect with him, and it certainly doesn’t help how a lot of us who watched ARC-V will likely see him as a inferior, wanna-be Entertainment Duelist. Hell, I am not even convinced the new audience are truly entertained by Onizuka. Really, the only thing he got going for him right now, is the concept of constantly evolving. So they need to roll with this and make the most of it, or go back to the drawing board and figure out how can they make Onizuka a true entertainer. Gimmicks grow old real fast, so it’s a real concern of mine for Onizuka’s character.
Aoi however, we are entering a very fun stage. Aoi/Blue Angel’s character has evolved. What we saw today is that she is clearly no longer that girl with a brother complex. She got all of that straightened out. However Akira is still being the overprotective mother-bear telling her to stay out of Link VRAINS, and Aoi is actually a tough girl who doesn’t like to stand on the sidelines doing nothing when she knows she can the courage and the ability to do something. She has already entered Link VRAINS, clearly concerned about Onizuka’s duel when he was pummeled down to 100 LP. She like Playmaker had arrived to the scene to ensure that he had backup if it was necessary. And what’s really getting to her is how Onizuka and Playmaker had formed a temporary wordless alliance of dealing with the Hanoi Knight’s in attempt o obtain the Virus Removal Program. She wants to contribute too, but she you can tell she is torn between heeding her brother’s warnings because she knows it will kill him if anything happens to her, or follow her gut and do what she wants. And the first thing that crossed my mind is that Blue Angel might change up her avatar (if possible) to conceal her identity. This might actually happen since in the preview, we see someone running around with the Hanoi Knights as a big fluffy bear (which is adorable by the way). It would be pretty awesome to see Aoi go undercover in attempt to do what she wishes to accomplish while keeping off Akira’s radar.
This episode also officially revealed the A.I. Duelist Army SOL Technologies had been developing… only to have also suffered from an incredibly anticlimactic debut. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but I certainly did not anticipate it to have been so easily wiped out by two Hanoi Knights duelists, who appear to be the ones we met last week. This is an interesting development in terms of not only delaying Sol Technologies from being actively involved, but it also gives them a sense of cover of not being a real threat. We know the SOL Technologies is a shady little shit with dodgy superiors who appear as chess pieces, and they are making no attempt to shut down Link VRAINS or prevent idiotic players who think they can fight the Hanoi Knights from logging in. (In fact we saw how one of them tried to do it because they wanted to become famous too, but chickened out the minute they encountered one of the Hanoi Knight’s hooligans).
I am so happy to be wrong about Revolver VS Playmaker duel immediately following up after Onizuka’s duel. We desperately needed a break from Link VRAINS and spend some time in the real world. Simple developments with the A.I.D. epic failure and the Duel Club at school being suspended because of what’s going on in Link VRAINS, thanks to Naoki opening his big mouth, yapping nonsense. (One has to wonder why they brother creating pointless characters like him? He’s honestly a real nuisance, especially when he’s all talk but no action. He goes on how the Duel Club needs to fight the Hanoi Knights – um, excuse me? Who are you to say it’s the club’s members responsibility to put their lives on the line? The smartest thing to do is stay offline. It’s not like you can’t duel in the real world – which is perplexing to me as to why the club’s president felt the need to suspend the club activities. Well it doesn’t matter, works in Aoi’s favor. It only means more time on her hands to do what she has to do without suspicions of being MIA from club activities. But I digress.)
With the current developments, it’s will be interesting to see what lies ahead in the future. Yuusaku and Kusanagi have put their investigations on hold and are focusing on trying to obtain the Virus Removal Program directly from the Hanoi Knights. They considered developing one, but the problem is that the Hanoi Knights are constantly updating it, making it difficult or impossible to program on their own. Yuusaku has learned not only do the fodders do not carry the cure, but they will quickly be deleted in order to prevent them from releasing any confidential information. In short, it’s a waste of time to deal with them. They need to target the members who have more authority, who would most likely know the cure. However one has to to wonder if they really would carry it on them, or even be willing to give it to them as a bargain. I’m not too sure if any of them has the need to carry it with them, especially if they have an purpose for inflicting the virus on the players that would contribute to the plans. It would be quite pointless to carry the cure unless it’s the only way they can lure out Playmaker. But honestly, while they are out there trying to hunt them down, I’m starting to wonder if they are just saying that as a cover to conceal the mission that is currently in development. That being said though, I do wonder how long it will be before Revolver and Playmaker duel…
Oh Jack The Ripper… I though Fate/Apocrypha had forgotten its one rogue Servant that served no purpose whatsoever… And within a few days the Kirakira Precure movie will air in Japan’s cinemas, but why they have to travel to France AGAIN? Why not visiting Italy, Spain, Austria or other European countries? It seems the franchise just dislike the mother country of Renaissance…
Getting off topic about the two shows I’m still watching just for the sake of finishing them. Now as for this episode of ZA VRAINS, I think I’ll just compare this episode to the ones in 5D’s, Zexal & Arc V (*DM & GX not included because they’re too ancient for me to remember):
5D’s episode 24: The conclusion of Yusei vs Aki, the former vowing to endure all the pain & hurt she experienced and using Stardust to block Black Rose’s attempts to nuke the field, winning via a 2500 Burn from Cosmic blast. Partially soothed Aki’s broken heart.
Zexal episode 24: The birth of the ridiculous “XYZ CHANGE!!!! ZEXAL!!!” bullshit. Kaito (who served as a mini-villain instead of a rival) was outplaying & pulverizing Astral until Yuma stepped in and together they created one of the most hated gimmicks in Yugioh history. Thank goodness that Kaito still managed to salvage a Draw and remain unbeaten at the time.
Arc V episode 24: Shun swiped the cocky LDS trio clean with his 16400 ATK Rise Falcon before facing Reiji for “negotiations”. Yuto also revealed his true name, Academia’s existence & the Resistance’s purpose (to rescue Ruri & other carded comrades) to Yuzu. (But if you rewind time now that Arc V was finished, I also realized that was the LAST time Yuto & Yuzu saw each other. Same with Yuto & Shun.)
VRAINS episode 24: Oh Go made a comeback due to some motivation speech from Playmaker. BOO! Dr.Genome was some piss poor one-episode wonder. BOO! An annoyingly bland duelist calling himself an “Entertainer” & now joining the crusade to hunt down the Knights of Hanoi. BOO! Seriously, this infuriates me a lot because Go’s character & his duels really bored me to death. That announcer guy has also entered my death list, hope he dies soon, can’t stand his loud mouth. Same applies to NAOKI, why is this lump of lard even in the show?! Positive points are few, but I smirked upon seeing Kitamura’s AI army got swept aside in front of a full audience, and it’s also good to see Aoi making decisions on her own now instead of being confined by the overprotective Akira (again).
If you want me to compare those episodes, here’s my ranking: Arc V > 5D’s > VRAINS > Zexal.
Hopefully next episode it’ll be Blue Angel taking the stage once more (after she apparently turned down the offer to hunt the Knights of Hanoi together with Playmaker & Go, I won’t blame her, who wants to team up with a bland, pretentious “entertainer”?). INTO ZA VRAINS!
Honestly, I enjoyed this episode. I’m really glad Aoi is finally beginning to peel away from her brother and to decide what she wants to do instead of him deciding for her. You’re right that her brother’s love isn’t enough and she has to develop her own identity. I’m really glad that Team Playmaker was pretty much formulated in this episode. Like you said, Aoi wants to contribute, but she can’t because she’s afraid her brother will be crushed if she ends up in a coma again or dies herself. It’s really an option between family and justice and deciding which one is more important. I honestly felt that Naoki was actually being brave in wanting to help take down the Knights of Hanoi. He’s even willing to put to put his lack of confidence aside just to enter Link VRAINS for possibly the first time. It proves that Naoki can be confident if it’s necessary. But like Hosoda(the Duel Club president from ep.6) said, it’s too dangerous and he’s right. Too bad we’re not going to be seeing the Duel Club for a while because of its suspension. But at least that gives Aoi some more time to enter Link VRAINS and fight with Playmaker and Go as Blue Angel.
I think the plot moments were amazing. I can’t believe Vyra is so ruthless in erasing the grunts in the Knights of Hanoi like that and maybe Dr. Genome. That was a bit scary in my opinion. I saw that in the preview that she’ll be dueling. I hope her opponent(s) will be Blue Angel and/or Ghost Girl. She looks a little frightening with those crazy eyes.
As for Yusaku entering Link VRAINS, I’m really glad he was being nice to Go in his own way by trying to encourage him by saying he came to laugh at Go when he loses. Well, that’s reverse psychology and it’s scary how well it can work. I’m really glad Yusaku and Kusanagi are putting their main mission aside to figure out a way to treat the Another victims. That’s really when Yusaku’s sense of justice comes into play.
P.S. There were some really well-balanced funny and serious moments in this episode. One of my favorites was when Dr. Genome addresses Ai as Ignis and Ai pops out and says his given name. I was also really surprised when I heard Kusanagi say that Ai really likes his name now. I guess Ai has warmed up to his captor. I’ve noticed that he’s become more serious in recent episodes. I guess that’s what happens when you hang out with people and their personalities start to rub off on you.
I think Go vs. Genome Duel ended just fine, but yeah, I have to agree with you regarding using the term of Entertainment Duelist for Go. As you said, compared to ARC-V, I can’t call Go’s Duel and the type of Duelist Go himself is as anything involves Entertainment. Rather than Entertainment Duelist, I think Wrestling Duelist fits him more as his title (I know wrestling is entertaining in a way, but still the term entertainment in general just doesn’t suit Go in my opinion).
Moving to Yusaku, as I thought, Playmaker didn’t interfere with Go’s Duel. But yeah, the kind of encouragement that he gave to Go is unexpected. I’m glad and happy to see that Yusaku finally form alliance with Go, (and I have no doubt that Blue Angel will join soon) this will be the first time for him to fight with someone other than Kusanagi. I’m sure Yusaku actually doesn’t want to involve Go with the fight against Hanoi like he said before, but this is no longer just between him and Hanoi, and he is aware that he can’t do this only with Kusanagi’s help. Oh, and not forgetting Ai’s comment! He once complained about being named like a pet, but now he revealed that he actually loves the name given to him and even called it cool! So cute! XD
Last but not the least, Aoi! It feels like forever ever since I last saw her! Nice to see her coming to school again. But more than that, I love to see her brief interaction with her brother, Akira! They are sweet siblings! Still, Akira, while understand how much you care for your sister, you need to put a little more faith to your sister. Remember what Ema said? Aoi is not a little girl anymore. And speaking about Ema, remembering her leaking information to Aoi when she and Akira secretly planned to infiltrate SOL Technology, maybe Ema will play part in encouraging her again? The girls need to act too!
By the way, have you heard that there will be new ED for Vrains?
😀 Yup, I have heard about the new ED, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add it to the post though. I figured I’ll just wait for it to finally air before commenting on it. Generally the new OPs and EDs pop up between ep 26 – 35. I am looking forward to it! 😀
Yeah Onizuka + Entertainment are not meshing together. Either do it well, or scrap that description and make everyone, including Onizuka forget it was supposed to be a thing. We’re still early in the series and he has only appeared… 3 – 4 times now? So if they choose to scrap the “entertainer” concept, I don’t think anyone would be too upset about it.
I think it helps a lot how Onizuka was the one who extended the invitation to Playmaker to fight alongside him against the Hanoi Knights rather than the other way around. It’s so this way, it’s the other party who are voluntarily getting themselves involved as opposed to being asked by Playmaker to join them. A wordless alliance fighting for the same cause works out well this way.
Ai was so cute – especially when he hadded, “Woof” after being called a pet, lmao! I’m sure Ai understands that despite being a hostage in Yuusaku’s hands, he will have a lot more freedom and be safer with him than with SOL Technologies or Hanoi Knights.
I think Aoi will be taking matters into her own hands. I don’t think she would want to risk Ema spilling the beans that she’s going undercover. Besides Aoi has shown us she is a capable hacker as well, so I’m sure she has some tricks up her sleeve 😉
Still, I don’t think Ema will stay still either. I have a feeling she will place herself into action too somehow. By the way, about the big fluffy bear, don’t you think it’s more of a decoy made by Go? I think so because from the earring and belt, it looks similar with the ones that Go is wearing, and the hat looks like Go’s head.
Also, look at this one. If you look at it carefully, there is a teddy bear similar with the one in the preview but with different color.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DM-Z2FnVoAAGy0S.jpg
Oh yeah Ema is up to something, Ghost-Girl is certainly not the passive type, rather she tends to be more crafty so I’m sure she’s up to something. XD
LMFAO, you know what I didn’t even consider it possibly being Onizuka, I’ll LOL real hard if it’s him! XDDD Good catch on the teddy bear at the center.
“I think it helps a lot how Onizuka was the one who extended the invitation to Playmaker to fight alongside him against the Hanoi Knights rather than the other way around.”
Meh, I’d rather see Playmaker turn him down and tell him to GTFO. Team up with other more interesting duelists (such as Blue Angel, I’m sure she’ll eventually join the alliance too) instead of this one pretentious “entertainer” who thought he’s now tied to the main plot after rescuing one throwaway boy that served no purpose. Why should the audience expect to feel for this Link VRAINS “champion” when he’s too detached from all the conflicts of the show FOR TOO LONG, and now he’s rushed back because the director remembered him and tried to do something about him? No, it doesn’t work that way. Besides, I will never buy his shit-talking about surpassing his limits because it wasn’t engaging at all given he lost ONE duel and disappears like forever until recently, and what was the point of changing his style twice when his newest style is NOTHING different to his original one (i.e. “Dump some Goukis, add some Goukis”, then smack yo face in this low-budget super slam!”)? Also, I’ve said this many times before, but it’s FINE to mesh different character traits into one, the problem is they tried to mesh Jack and Crow’s traits into Go but the job was done very poorly thus turning him into an agglomeration that represented neither. The last straw is no doubt, Go himself tried to give us viewers another chance to prove his worth but ultimately bottled it TERRIBLY. I really want to hope he doesn’t have any significant roles in the future, but it’s too late.
Honestly loved this episode. but more for the second half it. if they had cut down Onizuka’s duel in the last episode it could’ve been squeezed in there.
Didn’t expect Yusaku to say that AT ALL! It was actually a bit funny, but it was cool how he encouraged Go.
Aoi’s struggle is really good. I honestly want to shake Akira though! Quite a few people have mentioned that Aoi is NOT a little girl, so stop treating her like one! This guilt tripping is not good in the slightest. He MUST recognise the fact that she is an entertainment duelist and a young girl trying to find her identity. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her smile in the real world. Not once. I mean maybe I missed it, can you remember if she’s ever smiled outside of Vrains Eva?
Only in her Blue Angel persona has she ever smiled… I think it because Vrains gives her the freedom her overprotective brother shackles her from.
Aoi’s struggling to break free from her overprotective grip of her brother which quite frankly seems like it’s stifling her, to not wanting to put herself at risk to worry him as she still loves him is very well displayed despite her not saying a word about it. I do wish the brother would realise what an unintentional asshole he is being.
sorry i meant idol duelist. I forget what true entertainment looks like… Thank you Yuya up until Synchro.