Back to FanSubs this week~
Jesus, Spectre is such a creep! Either he is Aoi’s stalker or he extremely skilled when it comes to psychological battles. he was playing her like a fiddle today. How old is Spectre anyways?!
This week Spectre really put her in a tight spot and is now using her monsters against her. He caught onto the combo she was counting on before she could even use it, so now she must be extremely cautious when it comes down to her next plan on how to take out his tanky deck.
I for one am relieved this duel is going to be at least two episodes long because I am still torn over who I really want to win this duel. For the villain’s sake, we need Spectre to win, but on the other hand we also don’t want to see Aoi Fall again so soon. Honestly, I thought the minute their battle came up in the feed, I thought Akira was either going to log into the game, tag-team with his sister or end up serving as her substitute should she fall. But by the look of it, Akira seems to be calmer this time round. It seems he wants to put his trust in her. Sure he is terrified for her sake, but he also wants to believe she can hold her ground against the Hanoi Knights. But I have no doubt in my mind, had he been able to actually hear what Spectre been saying to her and about him, he probably would have logged in and surely punch him in the face.
While Spectre freaks me out to no end, I really do love his character. Cunning, twisted and shrewd, all are great qualities to make a fine villain. One of my favourite things about him is the way he mocks the heroic ideology, such as: “Are you going to open the door to my heart?” only to use it against his opponent to bring them down. I am also quite a fan of his deck. The nature of it was quite unexpected, but seeing it play out I think it matches him well. If they really go down the route of “deep down he wishes to be saved” as indicated in the preview, then his deck does become all the most symbolic. I do love sentimental decks after all! I also found it quite cool, twisted, but definitely cool how Holly Angel was made into his servant and she became ‘evil’. It was pretty neat to watch!
Now comes the the dreadful part of his potential defeat. It will frustrate me no ends if they really do have him fall here. He has been lingering in the shadows up until this point and to have him defeated so soon would be such a loss. Finally, besides Revolver, we have a villain who actually acts like one! Can we please keep him for a bit longer?!
And then we have Aoi’s long awaited backstory of how she became Blue Angel. It was quite fascinating to learn how Aoi went so far as to become the character she related to so much in Link VRAINS. How she became Blue Angel was something I was always curious about, but I never imagined her to be based off a heroine from a book. She took the character and literally brought it to life. The story of Blue Angel was about an angel whose personality was cold as ice and was always alone because of it. She would act tough claimed she liked being alone, but would cry when overwhelmed by loneliness. Sounds like Aoi? It is basically a perfect match. Heck, even the character’s development applied to her as well, “Through her battles she became kinder…”. All there’s left is for Aoi she shed tears for Spectre if she defeats him and BAM, then Blue Angel has truly come to life. (I already have a gist as to why Blue Angel would cry after defeating monsters).
But honestly I don’t know if Aoi is actually soft enough to cry on behalf of the enemy as the heroine from the book had. Even though she has read him to be similar to her, she believes he is someone who is lonely and is starved for love and is empowered by hatred.
Next week, it looks like the animation quality is going to take a dip again (at least this week was good!). It looks like Spectre is going to set the book on fire or something, so there’s that. This was a great episode so here’s to hoping regardless of the outcome, the next half of the battle will be just as awesome.
Random Note of the Week: Oh my god this guy. Can he read minds or something? Or is he just a pro at psychological battles?!
Is it just me, or Spectre for some reason reminds me a bit of Yuri from Arc-V. Well, they are different, but for some reason I felt there’s something similar about them (I love Yuri much more than him though). The outcome of this Duel is just so unpredictable…who will win? What will happen to them? From the preview, looks like Blue Angel will summon a new Trickster Monster, so maybe she has a chance to win with that monster? But form the title, it’s possible at the last second Specter may turned the tide and win. So many speculations came into my mind! DX
They are both insane and lonely people? XD
Anyone can win really, though I wonder if it’s possible at all for a draw, but then that would be anticlimactic wouldn’t it? I don’t know, I don’t want either one to lose, how frustrating!!!!!! ; ____ ;
And this is the type of duel that we have been missing and haven’t had in a loooonnnng while.
Blue Angel es a complete mahou shoujo now, I love the background, but I love even more the way that they showed it.
It gave me utena / princess tutu vibes. I really love how Aoi felt so identified with a character that she decided to use that in order to unmask for her own insecurities and feelings.
It’s funny because her personality changes radically when she becomes Blue Angel, as if it were her trueself that doesn’t show others hiding under a cold mask.
Right? That’s what I always found so interesting about her character. Aoi’s and Blue Angel’s personality are complete opposite to each other. One is more introvert, the other is more of an extrovert. And she truly is a magical girl considering she actually gets to transform as she goes into Link VRAINS XD!
“her personality changes radically when she becomes Blue Angel, as if it were her trueself that doesn’t show others hiding under a cold mask”
And this is what Go tried and failed spectacularly during his duel against Genome, so much for being a “top-notch entertainer”. Despite his intentions to change after his loss to Playmaker his dueling style didn’t “evolve” in the slightest apart from shilling out a new Gouki Link monster. And people wonder why I’m always frustrated at his presence who has ZERO significance to the story despite being a “main” character (heck, Ghost Girl and Akira felt more like (and are actually) major characters)… Oh yeah, I wonder WHO will Go duel against? High chances are either Specter or Revolver, but how about Dr.Kogami himself? No matter, him (& those ungrateful little shits under his care) dying won’t bother me just because he’s a dead wood that deserves no attention.
It’s the New Year and Crunchyroll is having a holiday break so we’ll just stick to the fansubs.
First and foremost: Goddammit, VRAINS sure hates to fully visualize the Field Spells…
Anyways, I dunno why, but Aoi’s backstory just didn’t resonate within me as well as Aki’s. Yes, she had a crap life in the past and Akira would often read the “Blue Angel” picture book to console her, which became the basis of her becoming the Charisma Duelist she is today, but I guess Aki’s more tragic background and her alienating non-Psycho Duelists before meeting with Yusei & co. was more well-defined. If anything, I felt Blue Angel was more akin to a Precure who fought the villains alongside her friends but didn’t know how to let out her loneliness & sadness. (Cure Sword much?) Specter didn’t disappoint me as a character when he’s using psychological tactics against Blue Angel (and even knew her IRL identity & her past, not bad for an apparently “rejected” creeper), although his tentacle fetish (uggh, another established norm in EVERY Yugioh series) was pretty uncomfortable and his Link 1 monsters were just underwhelming, Fiendish Chain or Breakthrough Skill would’ve stopped them in their tracks. In other words, Specter is like the opposite of Go the pretentious “entertainer”: One has a personality that’s hard to grasp but plays a rather uninspiring deck (although that can be proven wrong in later episodes) while the other is painfully bland & boring while having a pretty strong Link deck in Goukis. Also, congratulations Playmaker, one of your fanboys (young or old) was stupid enough to venture into the collapsing Link VRAINS to give you something to do, but why couldn’t the frog-pigeon duo reporters & Go just fall off a cliff and die?! They’re simply unbearable to watch and ate away unnecessary screentime from Blue Angel vs Specter.