/SCREAMING YESSSSSSSSSSSSS IT’S HAPPENING!!!! RITUAL MONSTERS AND SPELLS ARE BACK BABY!!!!!!!!! OUR WISH HAVE BEEN GRANTED!!!!! AND THEY LOOKED SO FREAKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! I don’t even care about how or when Yuusaku picked them up, but it is freaking fabulous (albeit it would’ve been nice to have seen how he got them in the first place, but I ain’t even mad!). I absolutely love the summoning sequence for it, it’s definitely my new favourite simply because of how gorgeous it is. I just hope this isn’t going to be a one-shot wonder sort of thing. I would love it if we can continue see more Ritual Monsters in the future. It just adds more diversity to his deck and just IT’S BEEN WAY TOO LONG!!!!
Alongside the ritual monsters, Shoot Code Talker made its debut! I am absolutely in love with its design, but its combat animation definitely needs a bit of polishing. It looks a bit rough, but I’m sure it’ll look better in due time.
It was entertaining to see how our favourite duo pretty much had it with Bohman when they discovered he has no recollection of his actions or identity, and resorted to using the data storm to end it quickly. And Yuusaku was able to finish him no problem, except the enemies were prepared for them to try and take his data, so Haru had installed an Anti-Ignis program, preventing Ai from obtaining any information whatsoever.
I will laugh though if they promised “trade” doesn’t play out. It would just show how they can bend the rules so that it doesn’t apply to them. Regardless of the fact they could have also modded themselves to be able to refuse such trades, it only makes me more suspicious that these guys are also working for SOL Technologies. It wouldn’t be unthinkable to have two separate units going after Playmaker, by using their publicly hired Bounty Hunters as a cover for their true operation, which seems fitting considering their higher ups are anonymous, even to Akira.
But on the other-hand, they could be an entirely new organization, or may even be a revamped organization of the Hanoi Knights. The Anti-Ignis programs capabilities is nothing to sneeze at. So whoever is running the show has the intelligence and resources needed to combat the Ignis species. Something we know Ryoken is likely perfectly capable of, should he put his mind to it.
Regardless, the enemies have no intentions of letting Yuusaku obtain any information, and had back-ups ready to be deployed when Bohman was defeated. But luckily for Yuusaku, he can continue the chase (but may not be able to get anything out of it) while Soulburner enters the scene to deal with Bit and Boot, the two latest members of the mystery organization to get involved. They arrived to capture Ai, but they were certainly not expecting to see another one, that is Flame, making his debut. He definitely has a more sinister/intense aura about him than Ai… I hope he doesn’t turn out evil because that would make Soulburner a potential backstabber we fear of.
I am curious to find out how long Flame and Soulburner have been together. Flame regards Ai as an idiot, so it wouldn’t surprise me when Ai had left in attempt to protect their world, Flame took it upon himself to ensure his survival and ended up with Soulburner. If they have been with each other for a while now, I wouldn’t be surprised if the two had deliberately made the decision to lay low and stay off of Link VRAINS altogether during the period the Hanoi Knights were running rampant. But with what happened to the Cyberse World, it could have forced Flame to get involved.
As for Bohman and Haru… Apparently the two of them are brothers (sounds a bit sketchy to me…) and together they are trying to recollect Boham’s lost memories. The dude is in pretty shit condition since he can’t even remember who he is, what he recently did (robbing Jin of his consciousness) and it speaks almost like a cyborg. But if there’s one thing that drew my attention is the theme of “recollecting memories”. This is something that is particularly present in the new ED Theme, so it makes me wonder if they will be addressing the possibilities of the victims who were caught up in the Lost Incident, who had lost a piece of themselves (highly theorized as memories). It has yet to be explained why Yuusaku lives alone, what are his origins, and whether or not he even remembers life before the incident had happened.
With this in mind, I wonder if this means whoever is running the show with the newest enemies made a bold claim to Bohman (and potentially Haru as well) that if they were to capture the Ignis, they will be able to regain Bohman’s lost memories. But that still wouldn’t explain why they went after Haru and stole his consciousness, unless it’s supposed to be a way of “rebuilding an identity” by stealing others’ consciousness… Or something along the lines.
However, the one thing at strike me the most is that if Bohman happens to be one of the six children, then he could perhaps be a major example of suffering from the extreme side-effects some of the victims are being tormented by. We don’t know if there were children who couldn’t win enough duels, and what became of them should they had little success. Spectre was a bizarre exception, where he thrived in such environment, but for others who struggled, it was sheer torture, even more so for the ones who were weak.
That being said, I am absolutely loving with how the new season is kicking off. It’s a plus in my books to see several characters, especially on the villains side emerging from the shadows, which is great considering how contained the previous season’s cast was. Also I am absolutely hyped to see Soulburner duel!!! BRING IT ON!!!!!!
I am looking forward to when Yuskau and Soulburner meet in the real world and they become best bros! XD
Yusaku needs friends. Also, another Ignis Child is the perfect person as his friend because he can relate to Yusaku’s PTSD and help him in recovery. Homura is going to show Yusaku the way to recover!! Even though Aoi is really nice, she just can’t relate to Yusaku on an emotional level Homura probably can.
Please don’t be like Shingetsu! praying on floor I get the feeling that Flame is meant to be Ai’s foil rather than his enemy. Because he is much more serious than AI and I suspect that when they meet up it’s going to be comedic.
Aoi looks like she’s going to team up with Ema from the opening… I think they’re slowly building her up to become closer to Yusaku and that eventually.
I hope so too, I am greatly anticipating the dynamics between the Soulburner and Flame, as well as Flame and Ai. Like you said, he is likely to be his foil, so this is gonna be a lot of fun! (I wonder if he’ll meet robopoppi too LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL).
Yuusaku and Soulburner are already my BROTP. I NEED YUUSKAU TO HAVE FRIENDS ; A ;
I thought it was Bowman, but subs have it as “Bohman” so having trouble wrapping my head around that.
I wonder if Bohman is another one of the six children- the stories of the victim would feel unbalanced if it turns out that Jin is the only one who was hurt to the point that he needs to be in a special ward. It would be great if they make Bohman one of the six who was affected just as strongly as Jin.
It feels more like Haru is controlling Bohman so I am interested in the seeing the true nature of their relationship.
I was pretty shocked that Bowman and Haru were brothers. Somehow, like you said, I don’t believe that because it just seemed like Bowman was brainwashed by Haru as his eyes were glowing in that brainwashed way.
Overall, my question about Yusaku and Ai’s relationship for season 2 has been pretty much answered. Their relationship has definitely improved by a long shot. The way those two talked to one another during the episode had a much friendlier tone than before. Yusaku pretty much didn’t snap at Ai at all this episode. Plus he showed genuine concern for Ai and didn’t seem to be shocked or have a problem with Ai turning into a monster to try and obtain Bowman’s data, things that he wouldn’t have shown last season. On Ai’s side, he doesn’t address Playmaker as “Playmaker-sama” or translated as Master Playmaker anymore, showing he’s become more comfortable around Yusaku.
The two things that really got my attention this morning was the Ritual summoning and Soulburner and Flame’s debut. Playmaker’s stripe on his bodysuit does glow blue when he Ritual summons like I suspected. It was so funny seeing Ai wearing a witch’s hat and stirring a cauldron before Cyberse Magician appeared. The way Yusaku did the Ritual summon really reminded me of Asuka from ARC-V and the way she Ritual summons her Cyber Angels. In fact, we haven’t seen a Ritual summon since Asuka summoned Cyber Angel Natasha about two years ago, so it was great to see that summoning method coming back. The archetype release of the Cyber Angels were one the reasons there was a revolution for Ritual Monsters and now Cyberse Magician is going to start another revolution with its support for Link Monsters, since a lot of old archetypes have been upgraded to include Link monsters. I really want to figure out a way to make a deck that can use both Cyber Angels and Trickstars, my two favorite archetypes and I have both.
Soulburner’s debut was amazing with the fire and the clouds. It was so nice of him to come to Yusaku’s aid and Yusaku seemed to be quite grateful and thanked him politely instead of the usual indifference. His design is so amazing too. The animators went all out with that design. Soulburner seems like a character that is cool and charming, maybe even more than Yusaku. He’s gonna probably become a popular duelist alongside Playmaker and Blue Angel, given there’s a huge live audience watching the Speed duels within Link VRAINS. I can somehow imagine he’s gonna get a lot of female admirers too. And if Naoki is a fan of the Charisma Duelists and Playmaker, then he’s definitely gonna become a fan of Soulburner and put up posters of him on that shrine that he calls a room.
Flame was definitely interesting. He doesn’t consider Ai a friend and doesn’t want to be associated with him, despite being a fellow Ignis and having the same origins. Maybe he still dislikes Ai for not doing his share of the work back in the Cyberse World or for another reason that occurred during the 5 years. I thought that Flame was the most hot-blooded, but he seems quite calm compared to Ai. Another fact that shows Flame’s calm demeanor is the Japanese pronoun that he uses, which is the gender pronoun “Watashi” that is considered polite in most situations. Compare that to Ai’s way of addressing himself, which is “Ore”, or a very rough and masculine way of referring to oneself. I can’t wait to see how Ai and Flame’s relationship is once Homura joins the team.
I found a synopsis that mentioned Yusaku got the Ritual Spell and Ritual Monster from Ai, so that’s how he got it. And considering that one scene when Ai dressed up as a mage preparing for the ritual, that shows he already knew about the monster. Unlike in the previous LINK VRAINS where Data Storm is like everywhere, this time Data Storm appears through Ai summoning them. I think this can be a good thing because that makes Yusaku truly needs Ai to perform Storm Access, which means cooperation between the two of them instead of just Ai watching and commenting the Duel. Call me nitpick, I wish they change Bohman’s design later.
Soulburner’s appearance is so cool! No doubt that SOL Technology will place a bounty on him too since he has an Ignis. Flame’s voice is very different than when he was at episode 1. This one is definitely much cooler! Uniquely, his name is written in Kanji, but has foreign pronunciation of flame. The next episode will definitely the debut of 1 vs. 2 in Speed Duel, right? Looking forward how Soulburner will handle Bit and Boot! The new ED theme also revealed that Soulburner’s Skill is called ‘Burning Draw’, so I’m guessing it will be a Draw that is similar like Shining Draw or Chaos Draw but produces his signature flame.
Playmaker won via Storm Accessing into Shootingcode Talker (mediocre name), what a surprise. The new magician duo (one of them a Ritual) is a direct homage to the Dark Magician + Dark Magician Girl and it means Firewall is going down the pecking order even further just because Playmaker have two new 2500 attackers (Cyberse Magician & Degrenade Buster) who’re both easier to summon and don’t induce saltfests.
P.S. I found it funny that the frog-pigeon reporter duo were gasping to bradcast the duel while their shared VA (Seki Tomokazu) is the man who voiced GILGAMESH himself, just ride a Vimana and they’ll hover ahead of Playmaker & Bowman no problem.