I FREAKING KNEW IT! I knew it had to be Ai was modeled after Yuusaku during the Lost Incident as the Sixth Test Subject! Now it only makes me even more curious to find out whether or not Ai can help Yuusaku reclaim what he had lost!
But not a lot happened this episode, in fact it was incredibly short. The recap in the beginning of the episode actually went on for 3 minutes and 30 seconds, followed up by the Opening which didn’t end till 5 minutes into the episode, so this episode was shorter than usual, but I’ll take it over a recap any day!!!
I find it rather appalling how Dr. Kogami wanted to create Ignis to “save humanity”, but in order to do so, he kidnapped six children to serve as his lab-subjects who were tortured and starved if they failed the test! And NOW, they want to destroy the network and plunge the world into chaos, all so they could kill off the Ignis species! Like are you freaking kidding me? @#*!%* that! After all of that crap, the ones who are currently threatening the world is not the Ignis, but Dr. Kogami and Revolver. I would very much like to hear Ignis’ side of the story, and then come to a conclusion whether or not they are all as dangerous as they say they are.
And yes, the Ignis species could very well be dangerous, there have been some potential hints that despite Ai’s cute character, he might have an “evil” side. A prime example is his ability to deceive Yuusaku and Kusanagi, pretending he had lost his memories, and proceed to play dumb when in reality, he is probably a lot smarter than he comes off as. This just goes to show us how closely he holds his cards close to his chest. But at the same time, we also know there are some truths to his words, such as he was on the run, and he was trying to escape in order to protect his friends and hide the Cyberse World. He says the only reason he didn’t open up was because he couldn’t trust anyone, which honestly, whether we like it or not, can really go either way.
Revolver wasted no time going HAM in this duel, shredding Yuusaku’s health to 800 LP. Yuusaku thought he was ready to counter Mirror Force, but didn’t take into consideration Revolver would have a backup measure to ensure the trap could not be negated. It was in this moment where I felt Yuusaku was definitely not in prime condition for this fight. He appears calm on the outside, but in reality, I think the situation has quickly become incredibly overwhelming for him. Sure he got that conviction, but there are still a lot on his shoulders right now, and worse of all, he is carrying alone. He is the only one can stop the Tower of Hanoi that could wreck havoc around the world, and hopefully save those who have been absorbed by it. And now, he learns how he and Ai were connected in the past, the bloody Ignis actually has all of its memories. So because he is so focused on trying to take out Revolver as quickly as possible, that he is making some rather uncharacteristic mistakes. Yuusaku is usually extremely cautious and perspective of what his opponents backup plans are- unless he intended to take the hit to enable him to use his Skill as quickly as possible, but I doubt it.
With Yuusaku so focused on Revolver, he isn’t paying close attention to incoming projectiles that could end up lethal if it strikes him in the wrong place. I suppose this is where the more discreet dangers of VRAINS comes back into play, which is a good sign to say the least since it helps increase what is at stake. In this kind of situation, Ai being Yuusaku’s extra pair of eyes is incredibly useful. Revolver has come to this fight prepared to throw everything at him to make sure he captures Ai and finishes him, so even though Yuusaku has never considered Ai as a friend, he could certainly use having someone look out for him, especially since they share the the common goal of surviving.
Yuusaku also gave me the sense of, “Resolve this problem first, and talk later.” He and Ai very much need to have some alone time to learn more about Ai’s motives, the Cyberse World the Ignis species have created for themselves. In a way, you could say fate drew them together again, since Ai did not expect the one he took safe haven with to be the kid he was paired up with during his creation. Yuusaku had started questioning Ai’s character recently, so it’s a pity he wasn’t able to question him in hopes to get some of the truths before this fight. But who knows what Ai would have done. It’s still too soon to say whether or not Ai would have opened up to him, especially since he is dead-set on eliminating Revolver since he is in this ‘Kill or be Killed’ situation. This is also the main reason why he is looking out for Yuusaku, so yeah, it’s really too soon to judge whether or not Ai truely thought of Yuusaku as a friend, especially since he has proven time and time again that he sees Yuusaku more of a tool/puppet than a friend.
Next week! The duel continues! I expect this duel to go for three to four episode, maybe even five if they spend a lot of time on flashbacks (like Revolver’s in next week’s episode!). This will be a fun one! I look forward to what will become of this fight!!!!
The Speed Duel where the scenario reminded me of the final clash of Yusei vs Z-ONE… And Boot Staggered is in the anime, whatever… (BTW, Firewall Dragon must be the most underutilized ace monster ever; it only showed up TWICE throughout VRAINS so far.)
Am I the only one who didn’t (want to) catch the flow of the episode? Usually, episode 41 for a Yugioh series tend to become a high point in facing the future threats to come such as Yugioh 5D’s episode 41 where Aki reconciled with her father and formally joind the other Signers in facing Dark Signers, and Yugioh Arc V episode 41 where the Academia was revealed as a warmongering institution & officially bared its fangs against the Standard Dimension so Reiji organized a Battle Royale to assemble future Lancers. But I’ll just say this: As much as people will say that there’s much in the story to reveal further mysteries such as the existence of the other Ignis AIs and the remaining three children of the Lost Incident, but playing the doomsday card TOO MUCH & TOO EARLY in just 41 episodes where Playmaker was ALWAYS on the course to win drastically reduced any shred of tension & urgency in the duels of VRAINS, not to mention it’s quickly burning away the initiative of the writers to write convincing future plots of the show for the next two years. Furthermore, despite Playmaker emptying his entire hand & Revolver with a weak start in just their first turns, with the convenient Data Storm whirling around the Tower of Hanoi expect both Playmaker & Revolver to create new Links outta nowhere in the dumbest manner imaginable. Worst of all, despite all the bragging of the Ignis AIs being a grave threat to humanity we still don’t know what justified the Knights of Hanoi to threatening (& currently destroying) the network & cause havoc across the world, so the Ignis AIs BETTER live up to their “notorious” reputation once this whole VRAINS Armageddon is over or else the first 50 episodes of VRAINS were nothing but a disappointment.
On some good notes: It’s been confirmed that Ignis is a monstrous deceiver (thank you Revolver) and one of the victims of the Lost Incident was a girl that has the SAME hairstyle as Aoi when she was orphaned.
Next episode’s title is… “STARDUST Road” guidance?? And Revolver’s face is shown for the first time, good.
P.S. The frog-pigeon duo reported must have over 9000 lives for them to survive THIS long. For once though, I’ll tolerate their miserable presence in trying to film the duel to reveal it to the entire world… if they can make it out alive, that is.
So ive been wondering if maybe there’s a connection also between kusanagis brother and revolver but anyway this duel was so good I did think it was a little weird playmaker chose to attack he never saw spin behemoth he clearly should have play it safe and played defense
Real Revolver’s eyelashes in the preview though…it makes him look feminine. I hope now that he has grown up, he don’t look that girly. Please. Ai, I’m actually surprised you’re questioning Yusaku about your ‘friendship’ with him even though he already said back at episode 19 that there’s no friendship between the two of you. If Ai truly considers Yusaku as his friend/partner, his words must have felt very cruel for the little AI.
It’s said that Ai is modelled after Yusaku…to be honest, when something is modelled after someone, I would have expected to see some similarities, but I couldn’t see anything between these duo. On the subject, is this why you came to like your name given by Yusaku, Ai-chan? XD
Looking forward how this Duel will go on with Yusaku’s LP already at 800. Not to mention the next episode’s title seems to be in favour towards Revolver that maybe will corner Yusaku further…
It could be that Ai is modelled on how Yusaku USED to be before he changed due to the PTSD he suffered from the incident.
Mirror Force. That was really anti-climatic because it’s a staple card. However, it’s pretty powerful too, especially as a countermeasure against Link Monsters who only have attack and no defense. I don’t know if you play the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card game, but I do. I always like to keep a couple cards in all my decks for destroying spells and traps such as Heavy Storm Duster or Twin Twisters. Yusaku should keep a card like that in his deck in case he feels suspicious about a certain set card.
Yeah, when I first saw the preview last week, it seemed like Ai was hiding something. Looks like my suspicions were correct. Even when Ai was explaining himself, he let it slip that he knew that Yusaku was the same kid that was the material for creating him. From what we know so far, Revolver might be right. Ai seems to be lying that he lost his memories even if said he didn’t trust anyone and thus couldn’t tell the truth. So I guess there’s trust and communication issues on both Yusaku’s and Ai’s sides. I do think that Yusaku was cruel in saying that he doesn’t care about Ai even after all they’ve been through and the role Yusaku played in the creation of Ai. On the other hand, I guess Ai serves as a symbol of the painful memories of the Lost Incident Yusaku faced. I’m not so sure now whether Ai considers Yusaku a friend. Now that you mention that you think Ai has been manipulating Yusaku all along, I also have a feeling Ai was the one who sent Naoki the Cyberse Wizard card to get Yusaku to eliminate another Hanoi threat. Let’s hope their relationship smooths out soon.
If you looked at the preview for next episode, it seems like Revolver will say something that will surprise Playmaker. I wonder if it’s gonna be addressing Playmaker by his real name now that it’s been confirmed that it was Revolver in Baira’s apartment looking at the video on the flash drive. The series overall is taking a major twist in events.