After Episode 29 recap (AGAIN~), Episode 30 comes in swinging!!!!!!
AND HOLY SHIT. THAT WAS INTENSE. It was slow, quiet, yet incredibly ominous episode, but boy did we get a lot of action!!!
Man, Ghost Girl is in deep deep trouble. I was pretty much screaming at my screen, “GET OUT OF THERE!!!” There is no way she is getting out of there “alive! If she does fall here, the fault lies in her greed and desire to play with fire. In fact it would be rather an ironic, yet fitting way for her to fall. The woman is a cocky trickster, and it was only a matter of time before she would get burned. But I will give mad props just seeing for once, a character actually recognizing the situation is too dangerous, and their best option would be to retreat. Unfortunately for Ghost Girl, Revolver knows how to make his place secured, trapping her inside where her only option left is to defeat him.
Yet at the same time, Ghost Girl also very well may have saved both Yuusaku and Ai from walking into that very trap, or at least bought them a bit of time- although they have a serious problem of their own, one that does not involve engaging into a duel for once. Dear god, WHAT IS THAT THING ANYWAYS? Looked like a shark, but then it popped out the water and MY GOD, IT’S DANGEROUS!
And who else was SCREAMING when Revolver just nonchalantly goes to the food truck where the two of them are quietly investigating and is like, “Oh this will be the last time.” This more or less confirms the guy who knows about their identities is Revolver. (*POINTS INTENSELY AT THE TATTOO ON HAND*)
The scariest part of all is the fact Revolver is willing to lay down his life in order to make sure the plan succeeds. Now while “death” in Yu-Gi-Oh! hasn’t always meant actually killing off the characters, I still get freaked out, especially when it involves characters I care about. I will say though I snorted at the scene when Revolver was looking at the Genome, Baira and Faust, and commented on how “Losing these three is a serious blow” and I rolled my eyes so hard, thinking, “HARDLY!” It is quite laughable, and not in a funny way. It was also very interesting how Revolver did not reveal that he knows Playmaker’s and his partner’s identity. I suppose it could be his way of ensuring his prey isn’t taken by anyone else, or get tipped off.
SOL Technologies finally re-emerged from the shadows again, this time supposedly Kitamura had “finally” managed to regain control of Link VRAINS with his AID Squads, only once he reported to his superiors, Hanoi Knights strike back and his army is wiped out and removed altogether. (So much for that promotion…) Supposedly the Hanoi Knights had “officially” retreated and Link VRAINS was finally back to normal, or at least from the surface it looked like. In the end, the Hanoi Knights and Revolver were bidding their time, and Dr. Kogami’s seed he dropped is becoming a full bloom… whatever the hell it is.
Perhaps the most alarming yet significant part of this weeks’e episode was the fact Ai was terrified. He sensed danger and insisted it would be best for them not to go into VRAINS. I dont’ know about you, but seeing Ai be scared only made me even more scared for everyone. The stakes couldn’t be higher and if Ai says it’s a bad idea to go, YOU CAN BET YOUR DAMN DOLLAR YOU’RE GONNA WALK STRAIGHT INTO HELL ITSELF.
However like Ghost Girl, Yuusaku didn’t care about the potential dangers, he wanted to not only investigate, but also find Revolver and deal with him. Now he has this…. monster… thing out to get him. The scary part is the fact it looks like it can actually hurt him. Needless to say though, I will say it was quite awesome to see the two of them just be simply badass. I will confess though I found the banter between Revolver and Ghost Girl to be quite hot – but then again, Ghost Girl oozes charisma and chemistry with virtually every character.
Yuusaku’s Link Sense ability played a much bigger role today. I was already convinced that Yuusaku’s gained this ability after being put through that horrible trial, and losing a piece of himself every time he lost a duel. That being said, Yuusaku’s consciousness appears to be heavily connected to either VRAINS or Ignis, or a little bit of both, which enables him the Link Sense that Ai possesses as well. I do look forward to them further explaining this phenomena in the future.
Truth to be told, I wished we had an hour special for what is about to unfold. You know, something just something to make up for the ENDLESS RECAPS! This episode had me at the edge of my seat the entire time, and I was freaking out from start to finish- and I am still am because of three things: The thing in the core (seemingly responsible for altering Link VRAINS’ infrastructure program), the beast thing chasing Yuusaku, and Revolver himself. I mean, after seeing that scary smirk, of course he’s scary.
Next week, final trigger – aslkdjalskdjasldhasdhaskjd shit is hitting the fan and honestly I’m so pumped up for this. The next few episodes are gonna be insane, I’m sure!
…So as long as there’s no recaps in between.
Oh speaking of recaps, I will say this, there were only three things we gained from Episode 29:
#1: Kusanangi’s Brother’s name is Jin (one of the six victims from the Lost Incident), and he left him a note in his report. He is also extremely aware of the fact what he and Yuusaku are doing is incredibly dangerous.
#2: Tower of Hanoi, risk the fate of humanity on this game.
#3: Strong recap of major plot points that viewers may have forgotten
Tentacled ball thing (no offense but that is clearly what it is to describe that thing) is clearly messing with Yusaku’s link sense. While we all know that it is a trap, I feel that there is more towards the trap that Revolver has made. One example is that creepy dude who smiled in the ending of episode 28 has dined in again to get some evidence about Playmaker’s identity.
You’re right about there probably being more to the trap than meets the eye. My guess it may actually be the prime trap to finally capture Ai.
It’s almost been a year since Yuri lost to Yuya & they merged into Zarc (alongside the souls of Yuto & Yugo within them). Man do I miss the last genuinely tense moment of Arc V before the start of the infamous Zarc slaughterfest during last year’s Christmas…
First and foremost: SPECTER IS ACTUALLY BACK!! Where the hell has he been for the past few months?!!
Then back INTO ZA VRAINS: Man I’ll just say that this show is a mixed bag for me so far, because if you compare this to the strong & solid starts of both 5D’s & Arc V where there’re actual tension, mysteries & enmities between various factions & the motives behind them, VRAINS wasn’t really that appealing despite the director attempting to try something new to suit the more sci-fi oriented setting of VRAINS (but messed it up and made it bland) & the flow of the show disrupted by the THREE GODDAMN RECAPS IN JUST 30 EPISODES. Besides, I’m getting real tired of Kitamura & his repetitive failures. Just bring ROGER back from the abyss of Arc V and make him the Security manager of SOL Tech, at least he’s much more competent than this man-child who loved to brag about his AI army of crappy robo-duelists. Yusaku’s “Link Sense” did remind me of the “quantum brainwaves” in Gundam OO though, it’s been a decade already…
Next episode’s duel… Who am I even kidding? Revolver will win & Ghost Girl is doomed.
RIP ARC-V…
I absolutely agree, in fact I was thinking the same thing last night before this episode aired. VRAINS is a mixed bag so far, but god the potential is there and I really want to see it bear fruit. I don’t know what they want to do with Kitamura at this point, it’s as though they are looking to eliminate him to either re-introduce Akira to the position, or introduce a hopefully actual threatening character – as you said, someone like Roger who actually makes a good villain, not some half-assed villain serving as “comedy”.
O_o Omfg you’re right, it does see similar to the quantum brainwaves in Gundam 00!!!! (I loved that show to death, S2 was bloody abysmal though!)
OMFG, THAT COULD BE THE SOURCE OF THE PLoT_ARMOR RIGHT THERE!Yeah she’s definitely doomed, they can’t have Revolver lose to her! He needs to beat Yuusaku…. Unless Kusanagi or Akira (the guy is a hacker after-all, ought to use his skills again) figures out a way to save over-ride the system and help her log out by ditching the duel as originally planned. That’s the only way I can see her surviving this.
I really wanted to enjoy VRAINS, but looking at the show’s current set up (i.e. “OMG THESE EVENTS ARE TENSE, KNIGHTS ARE THE ENEMIES, LET’S DUEL IT OVER!!!” then turning to write off the threat(s) as minuscule walkovers, INSERT THE DAMN RECAPS; rinse & repeat) I really can’t at this moment. It certainly doesn’t help at how the show was often being animated in low quality (but then again the increasing shortage of animators for Japan’s anime industry is a growing concern IRL).
I missed Gundam 00 too, it’s the ONLY Gundam anime that I fully covered the past decade. I still enjoyed the voice acting of the man Miyano Mamoru himself, due to him I learnt to appreciate the VAs for their roles in various animes. Too bad that he only voiced two one-offs in GX & Zexal (one a parody “pharaoh” of Atem; another one a celebrity pro-duelist). Yuuki Aoi too voiced Mieru the gypsy loli back in Arc V, but it’s sad that she didn’t have further lines anymore after episode 53 (because afterwards Arc V’s character list grew to become too congested). Mieru’s last mercy act was to sit beside Sawatari & Gongenzaka to watch Yuya vs Reiji (the WORST final duel for a Yugioh series), because she’s nothing but a lamppost at that point and they never hired Aoi back. Honestly though, I want BOTH Mamoru & Aoi to have future roles in Yugioh again because they are my favourite seiyuus (*I loved their collab as Dent (Cilan) & Iris in Pokemon Best Wishes, yes people were still viewing it with distaste but at least it wasn’t as horribly animated as Sun & Moon), especially when Sakurai is currently voicing Ai.
Of course I expected that Ghost Girl’s cutesy tricks weren’t going to work on Revolver. Her greed definitely got the best of her and caused her to become arrogant thinking she could get in and out unscathed. Like you said, it had to come to an end somehow. Maybe Emma might change a little after this duel if she wins and maybe become a little more heroic like Akira. I mean, Akira was introduced as somewhat of an antagonist, but he didn’t really become heroic until episode 7 when it’s proven that he cares about Aoi a lot. This duel probably is not only to show off the new Altergeist cards, but also to develop Emma’s character and the possibility she may learn a lesson from the experience. It seems like Revolver knows of her work as a cyber treasure hunter since he did say that she was snooping around. I’m glad that Ghost Girl decided to swallow her pride and make a run for it when Revolver caught her, knowing it’s not safe. She even rejected his bets in a duel and attempted to log off. However, I just hope she’s not going to become a damsel-in-distress that Playmaker has to go rescue. But by the looks of it, Playmaker won’t be escaping that monster any time soon.
You’re right about Ghost Girl unintentionally saving Playmaker from what looks like something extremely dangerous. I hope Playmaker and Ghost Girl will be OK after this is over. If the usually gutsy Ai is feeling extremely frightened, then what’s to come is probably gonna even more frightening. Compared to today’s episode, the previous episodes and the situations before are really dull in comparison. It’s only going to get more intense from this point on. Glad VRAINS is driving away from the traditional tournament arc to develop investigating the Knights of Hanoi instead.
I woke up to the VRAINS episode this morning and saw the part with Revolver’s real life identity buying food from Kusanagi’s food truck. That definitely woke up pretty quickly and I was pretty tired when I first woke up. I was thinking, “That’s definitely Revolver. They don’t just show random customers buying food on-screen, at least most the time with actual dialogue” Now that he’s figured out who Playmaker is, I was thinking, “Oh no. Revolver now knows where to look for Yusaku if he wants to track him down in real-life” when he looked at Yusaku working at a table before leaving. Now that we’ve seen what Revolver looks like in real-life, we just have to see what his face looks like now, which will probably be revealed later on.
Like you said, very quiet but ominous episode. I can’t wait to see if Ghost Girl can have a chance at beating Revolver and getting out unharmed.
I don’t think Ghost Girl will quantify as a damsel in distress in situation, after-all she knew what she was getting into – a whole lot of trouble.
And Playmaker certainly doesn’t have time to worry about her, so my guess if she’s going to get out of this at all, my bet it will either be with Kusanagi or Akira (the guy is a hacker after-all, ought to use his skills again) helping her mid-duel using a similar device Kusanagi had prepared for Yuusaku when he first dueled Onizuka, enabling her to log out. Over-riding the system seems difficult at this point, but opening a window for her to jump through may just be enough to get her out.
You made an excellent point about how they are straying about from the traditional tournaments, and it is quite refreshing to say the least.
Yeah Revolver going to the food truck, that’s one hell of of way to wake you up in the morning. I WAS SHOOK!!!!
I wonder from who Ghost Girl got the tip off about that place. Even Yusaku also got curious for a second there. Revolver’s voice in real life is less deeper than he is in LINK VRAINS, so cool! Both online and offline! Kusanagi, don’t invite him to buy your hot dogs again! He is actually your enemy! I knew Ghost Girl will lose in the next episode or afterwards, but maybe she won’t get “purged” by Revolver considering Playmaker is also there though in different way. Maybe something like Playmaker while still being chased by the monster somehow end up in the same place as Ghost Girl and Revolver just as the former lost and his arrival saved her from being purged? Because it’s clear that a Duel between Playmaker and the monster will never happen, and somehow the thought of Ghost Girl being purged won’t happen in my opinion. I hope it’s next week already! I’m super ultra curious to know the outcome! XD
Good point, Revolver may not purge her because she could prove resourceful… but is she worth the risk? She is truly a cunning lady.
O_o I had actually thought it may have been Akira, but wow, what if Revolver tipped her off to deliberately trap her there? o_O
But Revolver himself doesn’t seem to know, so maybe not him. Yeah, Akira was the one who told about the possibility that something is wrong, but then it give me another question how Akira knew about it. An alternative scenario would be Ghost Girl will lose and purged, but before that happen she decide to entrust the information she got to Playmaker.
True enough. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if Akira were keeping tabs on things himself – but then again, he has a the tendency to turn to Ghost Girl to dig up information, not to mention, he sucks at being discreet! LOL
Vrains seems to be picking up pace, I hope that it keeps it up for the last 20 episodes of the 1st season. So far the Knights of Hanoi have been a poor man’s Dark Signers, who are still the best villain group from any Yu-Gi-Oh media in my opinion. But what made the Dark Signers so compelling was that each one had a personal vendetta with the Singers (Rudger was responsible for the Zero Reverse that separated Satellite and New Domino and left Yusei, Jack and Crow orphans, Kiryu falsely blamed Yusei for betraying him to Security, Carly was in love with Jack and wanted him to join her, Misty falsely blamed Aki for her brother’s death and Bomber wanted revenge on Godwin for the destruction of his village). Apart from Revolver, none of the other main members of the Hanoi Knights stand out, since Spectre is underused and all we get from the three lieutenants is that Faust and Baira were involved in the Hanoi Project with Dr Kogami, although hopefully they will be utilised in the future.
I hope that Yu-Gi-Oh hasn’t forgotten how to write good villains because 5D’s certainly had the best of the bunch (Godwin, The Dark Signers, Aporia, The Three Emperors of Yliaster and Z-One). Just out of interest who would your favourite Yu-Gi-Oh villains be from any series Eva?
Yup they need to keep the pedal to the metal now more than ever. I am really excited and also terrified to see just what the Hanoi Knights have planned. There is also that unsettling notion of how Dr. Kogami has suddenly “disappeared” from the spotlight so to speak, especially with Revolver carrying out the mission. Even if Revolver were to lose his life doing this, there is still Dr. Kogami to worry about – and we still don’t know if he is truly the mastermind of the Lost Incident, or just a scapegoat for SOL Technologies.
YGO 5Ds also has my favourite set of villains (though I was kinda iffy about Z-ONE’s true identity (but DAMNNNNN his music track was AMAAAAAZINNGGG) I definitely have to say the Dark Signers were my absolute favourite, I loved that arc to death. I absolutely adored what it brought out of each and every character, especially Jack.
Which is why I was also so salty about how they completely ignored some, or at least Jack’s in particular, threw his development out the window as if it never happened. Yliaster were pretty intense too though! XD However the one thing to note though, was how each and every one of these villains were an actual threat.
To this day, I’m still kinda irked at Z-One’s true identity. It would be a masterstroke to make him Yusei’s “deceased” father or actually Yusei’s future self, but nah, he’s just a FANBOY of Yusei attempting to become his copy and save the future decimated by the Machine Emperors (now shorten as “Meklords”). At least his Temporal Machine Gods (now shorten as “Timelords”) were extremely difficult to deal with back then (but that style is not that strong anymore in the current state of the game).
“they completely ignored some, or at least Jack’s in particular, threw his development out the window as if it never happened. Yliaster were pretty intense too though”
Sadly, it all came down to the notorious sex cult scandal of Carly’s VA which permanently affected the direction of the series. Due to that scandal, Carly’s VA was fired from her job and they turned her into nothing but another fangirl for Jack. Similarly, that also affected Aki’s screentime because her VA was actually pregnant at the time and thus having lesser voicing role for her character, and coupled with the Arcadia Movement which was abviously cult-themed they had to toss that out to avoid public scrutiny and suspicion. Finally, even Yliaster’s role was completely rewritten from an ancient Aztec-Inca supernatural cult to time-travelers from the ruined future residing within their doomsday sky fortress. Amidst all these IRL issues, Konami found their favourite cash cow in Blackfeathers and with that Crow’s role became expanded to the point he was integrated as a main cast and even had his Signer Dragon at the expense of Rua (well… at least he acquired Life Stream Dragon (AT LAST) during his duel against Aporia).
That being said, despite its off-screen troubles, 5D’ still remains (to this day) my absolute favourite Yugioh series, unlike Arc V who actually crumbled beyond salvation when compared to Zexal who had a very memorable second half & even a satisfying finale.
It was a really unfortunate situation with Carly’s VA. I’m more surprised they didn’t replace her though. I suppose just cutting her out altogether was the easiest and most cost effective solution, but it came at a great cost. :\ Nethertheless, even if Carly’s character had to be scrapped, they honestly did not need to throw out Jack’s development out of the window. After the Dark Signers arc, he became
even more of a Jackass.
<3 Yup 5DS will always have a special place in our hearts. <3
Agreed, 5D’s was still the most appealing series no matter when given how it dealt with actual IRL problems and had a mature cast which we can relate ourselves to. Now to my overall ranking for the Yugioh final duels:
Yusei vs Jack: The duel to determine the future of Yusei and co. post-Team 5D’s times. Jack wanted to settle his score with Yusei once and for all before beginning his journey to become the true King and throughout the duel we saw them spamming out each of their primary Synchro monsters and sharing “KIZUNA” they held together. The suicide clash of Shooting Star and Red Nova brought us to the unfinished business with RDA and Junk Warrior, which the latter (finally) emerged victorious by combining the ATKs of Yusei’s low-Level junkies.
Yugi vs Atem: Yugi slowly taking out the three Egyptian Gods (by using Slifer’s effect against them via the reflecting magnets), Dark Magician & Dark Magician Girl (through Silent Magician) and the various monsters taking on each other used by both Atem and Yugi throughout their journey… which concluded with Monster Reborn being halted by Gold Sarcophagus and Silent Magician’s attack was enough to send Atem back to the realm of afterlife.
Judai vs Yugi: Due to the Yubel incident, Judai lost any enthusiasm to duel for fun anymore despite saving the world so many times. So Yugi transported him back to the time he just won another Battle City tournament and they dueled to make Judai regain what’s lost throughout his three-year stay at the Duel Academia. The clash of Dark Magician & Dark Magician Girl against the E-Hero Fusions leading to the ending that teased Neos attacking Slifer remained one of the most defining moments in GX.
Yuma vs Astral: Y’know, when I saw Yuma slowly taking out the Hope/Utopia Xyzs which Astral pulled out with various bullshit Rank-Up Magics with HIS own cards involving the Gagaga Xyzs, I thought this might be the best Zexal duel… Until Yuma performed HIS own SHINING DRAW to create Utopic Future prompting Astral to get his dragon boner and summon Utopic Dragon. I also hated how Astral treated Shark Drake & Prime Photon as merely Overlay Units for Utopia Roots… And the obligatory Double Up Chance finisher to destroy the “Door”…
Yuya vs Reiji: OH GOD FUCK THIS DUEL WHICH MADE MY BLOOD BOIL. First it only commenced because that was the last chance TO MAKE BABY REIRA EGAO and purge Zarc’s darkness, which was the most idiotic reason for THIS final duel and it’s no surprise it ended up being the WORST in the franchise. Yes, you can point out at those multi-summoning shenanigans by both Yuya and Reiji, but never forget how Reiji suddenly had a death wish by attempting to crash Hell Armageddon into Starve Venom, whose effect will nuke the three Hell Armageddons and blast Reiji to oblivion with 9000 damage, but Yuya, being so obsessed with maintaining “field advantage”, still chose to activate the asspull Action Card to spare Reiji’s ass… The only things passable were the last-minute creations of Odd-Eyes Venom & Odd-Eyes Wing because those Superdoom Pendulums with their corresponding summoning methods were UNDERWHELMING as hell despite having references to the past major Yugioh villains. And to make this duel even more unbearable Yuya suddenly shilled out that stupid Five Rainbow Asspull Magician to shut down monsters on the field unless they race to grab and set FIVE Action Cards… In the end Yuya won, REIRA FUCKING SMILED and we only needed to welcome Yuzu back because the other the six counterparts didn’t deserve to exist… FUCK. THIS. ENDING! >:(
???: Yusaku vs ??? (It’s still too early to determine Yusaku’s final opponent.)
Losing the Three Commanders actually was a big blow to the Knights of Hanoi. They weren’t around long, but that doesn’t mean they were any less of a threat. They’re defeat also seems to fuel Revolver’s desire to see their plan through, as he feels responsible for what happened to them, which in a way, he’s right since, with the exception of Dr. Genome, the commanders sought out Yusaku so Revolver doesn’t have to follow through on their plan and be blamed for the worst crime in VRAINS history.