It is understatement to say this episode was a hot mess. It was unbelievably boring. I was hoping for some witty exchanges, but nothing. It was annoying how predictable it was, and for the sake of switching up the tempo I wished Takeru had blown the use of his skill because the reactions that would have followed would have been freaking hilarious. It certainly didn’t help the fact Fusion Fire enables him to use his opponent’s fusion materials as his own was straight up disgusting. Violet Chimera’s is super sick though. Love it.
And the dull exchange wasn’t the only problem. The animation this week, was absolutely horrific. It has been a while since I have last seen an episode with this many flaws in the animations, and it was terribly difficult to ignore because it stood out like a sore-thumb. In fact, it was so distracting, I had a difficult time focusing on the duel. I did notice the animation improved for a bit during the second half of the episode, but overall it wasn’t good.
We all knew Aoi was going to lose, it was going to happen no matter how badly we wished for her to win— even when she is in this stupid mindset right now. Aside from her internal monologue at the beginning of the episode that made my head hurt, I enjoyed seeing she has taken the time to properly reflect on her deck, identify her vulnerabilities and how she can cover her weaknesses, all while building off of her core style of chipping away at her opponent’s life points. The most pleasant surprise however had to be the Link Fusion Summon, which was awesome to see how characters each will have their own unique Fusion summoning sequences, as they do with Links and Rituals Summons.
However, her loss may not be in vain. So as long as the writers don’t intend to sabotage her further, (something I honestly don’t have a lot of faith in…) this could turn into a crucial learning experience. Aoi was able to recognized something important, and that is the bond between Takeru and Flame. There is an opportunity for Aoi to possibly start reflecting on what Ignis are, what are their bonds with Humans/Partners, and potentially recognize it would be in humanity’s best interest for them to be with the partners they have chosen to be with. However I don’t believe she knows that part of the story yet, how the victims and and Ignis are connected to each other. In fact, perhaps it will encourage her to investigate the matter further. Of course the worst case scenario (and the stupidest thing that could happen), she becomes greedy and wants an Ignis partner of her own since she can’t bond with her AI, at least not in the same way she could with an Ignis.
Either way, I hope this loss will enable her to start looking outside of her brother’s box, and start thinking for herself and investigating on her own terms, rather than going along with the flow of others.
Yuusaku was MIA this episode because he has gone ahead to investigate the enemy. Next week we see he will be encountering Haru and Bohman. The preview indicates the subject of the Lost Incident is going to be brought up. However I am a bit worried for him, since Yuusaku looks alarmed, and potentially vulnerable. Just when he thought he could start putting the past behind him, it looks like the past is about to come back to hunt him, showing even with the Hanoi Knights gone, the case has yet to be closed.
Oh and one last thing: Flame blushing at Emma and calling her a Goddess was freaking hilarious!
Watch out Takeru, Ghost Girl might steal Flame’s heart!!!!!
As long as Yoshida is writing, she is going to keep getting sabotaged and screwed over. Dude has some issues with females.
Yeah, I’m not holding my breath for it. =______=
After Aoi/Blue Girl’s ignorance and insensitivity in the last episode, I’m glad that she lost in this episode. She needs a hard lesson. While yeah, it’s quite boring how the Duel lacks interaction between the two, I’m happy with Blue Girl’s new Trickstar Monsters and tactic. I’m liking their designs. And then the next episode, Bowman’s new avatar design is certainly better than the previous one. I prefer this more than the one before. Looks like we’re going to delve into the past again that involves the Lost Incident and Bowman seems to be connected to it too. Is he a Lost Incident victim? However, one thing that I’m worried about, is whether the memory that Bowman has at the moment is real or fake. His and Haru’s boss seems to have ability to erase and implant memories into Bowman considering their conversation when Bowman gave him Jin’s data.
By the way, I don’t know if you already know this or not, but I heard there will be no episode at June 27th.
Agree, I would rather her lose when she’s in this stupid mindset, but my god it was so boring!
Thanks for the heads up about that! I’ll mark that down!
You pretty much summed up what I was thinking when I first saw the episode. Yeah, it was only natural that Soulburner would win the duel considering the plot. However, it was pretty much a replay on what happened with Playmaker and Blue Angel’s duel back in episode 7 with the OTK, but without the possession that I remembered being horrified seeing. Blue Girl has definitely improved her Trickstar deck and I was genuinely surprised that she brought out a Fusion monster. She really did think things through and understands her weaknesses after that brutal defeat from Spectre that caused her “death”. I’m really glad I didn’t decide to sell my Polymerization and Fusion support cards as if Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar comes out as an actual card, I’m adding her to my Trickstar Extra Deck.
I wasn’t exactly enjoying Blue Girl’s initial nasty attitude that extended from last week though. She was definitely counting her chickens before they hatched as she expected herself to win, obtain Flame, and thus he would lead her to the other Ignis. However, we all know that Flame doesn’t know where 3 of the other Ignis are and is searching for them. I’ve never seen her look so smug when she won the race to see who got the first turn.
I was really glad Aoi did learn a lesson from this duel and maybe had some sense knocked into her by Soulburner and Flame at the end. You can’t treat an Ignis like a regular AI because they have free will and thus have feelings like humans do. Her words about Soulburner and Flame having a bond really reminded me of what Blood Shepherd said about Playmaker and Ai after being defeated. I sure hope if she reflects on why she lost to Soulburner, she and Ghost Girl will want to support Playmaker and Soulburner and pledge their loyalty to them. Like you said, it could be a possibility that later she could become selfish and try to search out an Ignis partner of her own to understand the bond between humans and Ignis. I wonder whether she’ll meet the female Water Ignis if she has these intentions later on.
And oh, Flame blushing when Ghost Girl gave him a flirtatious wink and said that he’s cuter than Ai(Don’t let Ai hear that). I couldn’t believe it when I saw that and I was trying to suppress a laugh. And I remember in the last episode, Ghost Girl commented that the Ignis weren’t attracted to her. Apparently, Flame now has a crush on her and it was so funny seeing him have the same facial expressions as the less serious and mature Ai, smile and all. He seems to be flattered more easily than Ai and Ai doesn’t trust Ghost Girl after what she’s done to trick them every time.
Fuck this episode, no seriously, FUCK THIS EPISODE! >:( It’s already despicable enough to let Blue Girl lose AGAIN after all her character development (and she was tormenting Soulburner REAL hard like a Trickstar pro), they even had the nerve to force her out without a second thought?!! Okay, even though she HAD to lose, she can still be relevant alongside Ghost Girl by working side by side with Playmaker and Soulburner. But nope,Shin Yoshida bitchslapped us with the reality and straight up said: No win and no relevance for the rest of season 2. Fuck this notorious woman hater. And i guess everyone not named Playmaker and Soulburner are all eventually going to be phased out or relegated as benchwarmers sooner than later. Seriously, WHERE IS REVOLVER?? I want him to return already and kick Soulburner’s ass. Heck, if I’m the writer I’ll have rematches lining up for Aoi just so that she can exact revenge against,Playmaker, Specter AND Soulburner all at once.
Next episode, uggh there’s NO tension at all, Playmaker will take out Bowman in an episode or two. At least World Cup is looming…
Could Bohman be an accumulated, computerized info version of Yusaku’s lost memories?
It seems far-fetched but… well….
and I couldn’t stand the animation either, Eva.
OMFG. THAT WOULD BE SO MESSED UP. Q A Q I don’t know how Yuusaku would handle that… It could make him incredibly vulnerable.
Now that you said that, if I remember it right, Yusaku did mention he lost a portion of his memories during the Lost Incident. Maybe it is possible that part of Yusaku’s memories is digitized and converted into Bowman! If this is true, yup, Yusaku is in a big trouble in the next Duel! DX