HAPPY 50th EPISODE! WOOOO!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! POOR TAKERU, FLAME WAS ROASTING HIM ALL DAY LONG AND IT WAS HILARIOUS! Compared to his character as Soulburner in Link VRAINS, Homura Takeru is a precious cinnamon roll who is a clumsy, and a bit of a socially-awkward guy. In fact Flame described him to have been a shut-in until they have recently met not long after the Tower of Hanoi incident, and agreed to pursue an investigation on their new enemy. With Yuusaku and Ai having now met Takeru and Flame, they have more or less officially formed an alliance, agreeing to investigate the one who invaded Cyberse and fight to take back Jin’s consciousness together.
New information in regards to the Ignis species and their mindsets were shared today, starting with how there was a discussion taking place whether or not they can trust Humans to share their wealth of knowledge with, as a way of putting their foot in the door to let them to co-exist with them. But before they could reach a conclusion, they were attacked by an unknown enemy who uses Link Spells and were well aware of their greatest weaknesses. the Ignis barely managed to escape alive, but due to being dispersed, there is no way for them to find each other.
SOL Technologies inadvertently puts itself back on the radar when Kusanagi discovers a hidden area deep below the surface of Link VRAINS. Ai and Flame identify the mysterious program to be Ignis based, along with the signature Wind Attribute, which raises a lot of questions: Did one of the Ignis betray them? Or one has been captured, held hostage (for real) and is being used to fulfill the enemy’s purpose? There is also the alarming part of how the anonymous enemy does not want Bohman to gain any memories for the matter, and keeps on slapping the reset button on him to wipe any of his new memories.But there is one thing for certain: Haru is definitely not his brother. Blood Shepherd also dropped a hot scoop how the two of them did not log out after accessing the Restricted Area. (Also is it just me or Blood Shepherd might actually be related to Ghost Girl? They share the similar hair color and highlights!)
With the help of Akira leaking the information through Ghost Girl, they learn the “Restricted Area” is actually a gate that the company has yet to identify. Yuusaku and Takeru go in to investigate, but they won’t be the only ones doing do. By the looks of it, Akira intends to secretly continue investigating SOL Technologies. In order to do so, it appears he will be turning to Ema and Aoi, the two people he trusts the most to start digging up information. Last time Ghost Girl provided Kusanagi a way to break through the security was when they intended to use Playmaker as a decoy. I have a feeling they are repeating the same strategy, by making the Bounty Hunters do their job of pursuing Playmaker, while she and Aoi go attempt to get the information. Whether or not they choose the share that is still up in the air, but it would benefit Akira to share as much as he can with Playmaker’s team, since a secret collaboration would be pretty badass. And should they ever lose Kusanagi in the future, they may have no choice but to rely on Ghost Girl since since this is not Takeru’s forte, and while Yuusaku is well versed with programs and such, it would be difficult to manage both alone.
And I really do hope this plays out with Akira’s squad investigating the case as well. While it is a bit of a bummer to not have everyone as a whole group yet, given the situation, it actually works out better this way since it will draw less attention to themselves. They can still work separately and have an alliance established between them to continuously exchange whatever information they may find to better establish just who they are actually dealing with. The enemy is a daunting one, and are already making preparations of their hideout being found, keeping themselves always at least one step ahead. Why they went after Jin’s consciousness is remains a mystery, but as Ai puts, it to digitalize and steal a person’s consciousness it far more impressive than Hanoi’s computer virus. In fact, now that I think of it, I wonder if the enemy intends to steal the consciousness of the victims as a way to potentially lure and capture the Ignis that is paired with the individual? Otherwise, I wonder what other purpose there would be to do so?
It was nice to see things calm down for an episode to settle in the new information and characters. Our two duos did a fantastic job of keeping us entertained from start to finish with the way they keep roasting each other. Honestly I would love to see Yuusaku VS Flame when it comes to roasting, because they are savage as hell to their partners. But Takeru’s surprisingly modest temperament will certainly have its value, especially since he won’t be one of those “over-bearing” social butterfly characters who is popular with everyone. It really does make him a good fit for Yuusaku and it also gives us a bit more insight of how the Lost Incident continues to affect him to this day.
Next week, Onizuka’s Bounty Hunting team goes after Playmaker… But we today learned Onizua has a grudge against Playmaker, salty over the fact he is always ahead him. Oh for crying out loud! Boohoo! Your pride was destroyed, get over yourself. We are going to learn how he evolved from the “Entertainment” Duelist into a Duelist with a Bruised Ego…
Okay, usually I brushed off typos, but damn this time it was very poor from Crunchyroll to plaster Yusaku’s name with YUSEI when Ai & Flame were discussing about how the Ignis AIs met their partners.
So much exposition and yet still no proper closeup for the newest enemy boss apart from Bowman having his memories reset again and Jin’s consciousness delivered to the said enemy boss. Besides, it’s way TOO convenient for Takeru to just join Yusaku’s side and even entered Kusanagi’s truck full of hacking mechanics, it’s definitely not safe when someone you just knew already had a wide grasp of your surroundings. Seeing Akira, Ghost Girl and Aoi on the same spot was kinda unexpected but sweet (with lots of fanarts rushing into people’s minds right on spot), and then the pretentious “entertainer” had to ambush our new BFFs due to Ghost Girl giving away intel about a program resembling the Wind Ignis in the restricted area, that’s not suspicious at all I guess…
But oh god, that preview made me groaned. “Man who gave up his Charisma”? For fuck’s sake, he NEVER had that in his veins and he’s one ungrateful bastard now aiming for Playmaker’s (and Soulburner’s) head just to “rediscover” himself! Good lord, as much as I didn’t like Soulburner’s debut duel and he professed to be a shut-in, he’s shown more character than this pretentious “entertainer” in one episode alone and how fitting if he will the one to take Go Onizuka down instead of Playmaker and prove who is better when it comes to “charisma”.
Yeah, I have to say this episode was one of the most entertaining ones I’ve seen in VRAINS for a while. Lots of funny moments and character development. Takeru turned out to be mostly what I expected. He’s quite modest, mild-mannered, and polite for one thing. He even changes his way of referring to himself in Japanese from ‘ore’ as Soulburner to ‘boku’ as Takeru, which adds onto the modesty factor. He seems like a pretty kind person too, although maybe not that cheerful, but that might come later. I was a little shocked that Takeru’s not good with technology, so it looks like there won’t be another hacker to help Yusaku and Kusanagi. Glad to see Yusaku and Takeru have decided to team up to get back Jin’s consciousness and find Ai and Flame’s fellow Ignis comrades. I feel like the rest of the Lost Incident children along with their Ignis, with maybe the exception of Spectre and Jin currently, will join the main cast and the team one-by-one as they’re all found.
Flame was pretty funny this episode. Like I expected, he did tease Ai’s given name as “cute” while calling his name “cool”, only to get shot down by Takeru by saying Flame isn’t called Flame by others and only named himself that. Flame really isn’t much different from Ai after all in terms of being cocky and self-centered. I was pretty shocked by how Flame didn’t even miss a chance to roast Takeru for anything that happened, such as stalking Yusaku. For goodness sake, Takeru, just ask Yusaku if you could talk for just a second and then go to a private room. Stalking is pretty rude. I never thought Takeru was a shut-in before he met Flame. I guess he didn’t turn out to be quite peachy even after the Lost Incident and he became a little more cheerful recently.
I didn’t expect Flame this morning to choose a ferris wheel gondola for a private place to talk so no one ends up eavesdropping. It was pretty funny for Ai to snidely comment that Flame only wanted to build a ferris wheel in the Cyberse World just so he could ride one and that was also the reason why he chose a ferris wheel gondola to be the place to talk. Although no one would expect a ferris wheel to be a good place to talk about such sensitive information, it’s actually quite clever.
As for Aoi, Emma, and Akira meeting up, I like how Akira still intends to help Playmaker by investigating SOL Technologies, but more covertly than he did last time because of Queen’s threat. That’s why he needed Emma’s help, but he also asked Aoi to come too. Boy, am I glad to see Akira has put a lot more trust into Aoi if he’s trusting her to help Emma covertly help Playmaker. After all, all three have something they owe Playmaker because he saved them all from the Tower of Hanoi last season. I feel like this season, Aoi and Emma will be working together a lot and going to become closer as a result. Maybe they’ll even develop a sister-like bond. Hopefully Aoi will figure out Playmaker’s true identity as Yusaku and join the team as well. Glad that Emma and Aoi are pretty much pledging their loyalty to Playmaker after all the things he’s done for them. Shows that Emma isn’t fully ungrateful if anyone does something big like saving her life.
Finally, Roboppy and Ai’s reunion was great. I liked how Roboppy was actually shown in person this time and not as a shadow or not being able to see her face like in her last two appearances. She still is in love with Ai with those hearts as eyes, as Ai still has promised to make Roboppy smarter. I’m not so sure whether Ai is gonna keep his promise of making Roboppy smarter though. Oh my gosh, it was so funny how Roboppy was wondering who Ai was “snuggling with”. Ooh, jealous of the attention Ai gives Linkuriboh. I couldn’t believe Ai calls Linkuriboh his minion as well. Guess Linkuriboh makes another member of the AI “yakuza”, with Ai as the “aniki”, or leader. Given how angry those two looked at each other with sparks flying, they have a mutual dislike of one another for Ai’s affections and as I expected, Ai seems to love it.
I’d say a good episode and good on Ai for bypassing that awkward last name phrase friends go through with them so they can be besties asap! I know I go on with them but they are adorable besties. And hahaha! Yusaku saying that Ai is suited to be a hostage kind of like a tsundere cos he wants to troll the AI Lol! XD
Takeru is honestly not what I expected… I don’t know what I expected fully to be honest. I knew he’d been super friendly but I’d never imagined he’d be kind of shy as well. it’s really cute and so adorable.
Yeah Go’s reason… it feels like they’re trying to slap Kaiba’s inferiority complex onto his character. It doesn’t work with Go’s ego really because he’s not really the type to be vengeful for something like duelling.
Go…. I’m a little worried about how they decide to handle his character next week. He’d already admitted that his rank didn’t matter as long as he could inspire the kids, and that even when that failed he could still continue on for his pride. So why did he toss aside both his pride and the kids and join SOLtech?
As far as this episode, Soulburner/Homura and Flame are SO FUN. I LOVE the way that they bounce off each other with overzealous drama queen and compassionate straight man, and even when interacting with Yusaku and Ai they continue to add new dimensions to otherwise stale conversations.
I’m worried about Kusanagi, though. The loss of his brother’s got to be eating away at him a lot, and he was REALLY furious at the start of this episode. And after talking with some folks on a few Discord channels I’m on, there’s quite a few worrying directions that the show could be headed in because of this mysterious person with the power to rewrite memories.
One, the Air Ignis is already in the possession of this mystery man (most likely SOLtech) and is being used against its will to further selfish goals.
Two, the reason they keep rewriting Bohman’s memories could be to make it easier to align with different attribute Ignis. After all, his deck focuses on manipulating attributes, doesn’t it?
Or three, and most ominous of all – Homura had HIS memories altered in order to get close to Playmaker…
In retrospect, this possible danger shouldn’t be having me as excited as it does!
“Go…. I’m a little worried about how they decide to handle his character next week. He’d already admitted that his rank didn’t matter as long as he could inspire the kids, and that even when that failed he could still continue on for his pride. So why did he toss aside both his pride and the kids and join SOLtech?”
Honestly I don’t even bother anymore. I’ve never seen a Yugioh “main” being SO irrelevant to the rest of the story after so many attempts to get him into the main plot. As much as people didn’t like how Crow hogged up too much spotlight in both 5D’s and Arc V (Eva herself included), he had genuine character that was easily resonated with everybody and was legitimately tied to the main cast (as he, Yusei and Jack grew up together as orphans). But what did Go contribute? Nothing but being an annoying attention seeker who keep changing his stunts after the previous one didn’t worked out, being a selfish prick for firing his manager without a second thought AND directly admitting that he’s been fighting for HIMSELF and his own desires alone for his entire life during his duel against Revolver, a very stark contrast to Blue Angel who opted to fight for everyone else. The worst aspect of his character is that he has NO charisma despite being a “Charisma” Duelist, and now he’s a SOB and one ungrateful bastard who joined the bounty hunters to hunt Playmaker down because he hated how he’s always lagging behind! For fuck’s sake, here I sincerely hope that he gets taken out by Soulburner instead when he had his eyes on Playmaker because as much as Soulburner’s debut duel felt rather weak, he’s shown more character in this episode alone that this pretentious “entertainer” for 50+ episodes. When even a shut-in could eclipse you, what’s the point of your existence? Please make him GO away after this (pun intended), I can’t bear him anymore.
Given Kusangi’s behavior in this episode, as well as how he’s presented in the opening, I think it’s safe to assume that at some point in this season, He’ll crack and do something stupid. Probbably not on the level of outright BETRAYING Yusaku, but he’s hellbound to do something that Yusaku won’t agree with and they have to be at odds.