I cannot express how happy when I heard they say “Overlay” because at that moment I knew, at long at, they finally broke what felt like an endless Synchro Summons streak! It’s about bloody time XYZ Summons get brought back into the scene, and when it did, my god, it looked absolutely spectacular. The summoning’s animation sequence it hands down the best one to date! Better yet, they brought out Firewall Xceed Dragon, which looked super badass. In fact I was just pleased to see Firewall Dragon back in the picture, BECAUSE HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN LIL’ BUDDY?!?!?!
And then we have the miraculous event where Yuusaku could summon a monster from a data storm. It was still from his upgraded skill Neo Access, but there was an effect to it we didn’t know about until now because only now, Yuusaku is in a situation where the conditions are right to fulfill it. Needless to say, I found it absolutely hysterical.
First off, as per the rule of the thumb, anytime you hear characters say, “No way, (The Protagonist) is going to lose”, you know they are going to win, and vice versa when it comes to their losses. Just look back at Earth’s duel with Onizuka, there’s a great example right there. Secondly, I absolutely lost my shit when Ai revealed Neo Storm Access had another effect, revealing ‘When you have 100 or less LP and your skill didn’t add a new card to the extra deck, you can add a random Cyberse in the data storm to your extra deck.’ Yuusaku had no idea this effect existed, but he still took the risk by previously using his skill to deliberately ‘bait’ Onizuka to use his Anti-Skill to open a window of opportunity to finally land a him on him, which was also negated. It was all about trusting his instincts, something which Onizuka claimed to have chosen to abandon in attempt to finally defeat Playmaker.
Honestly, when that happened, they had my seriously wondering if Akira was going to end the duel by forcefully logging Onizuka out. Luckily we actually got to see it play out, because had it ended so abruptly that would have been infuriating. Onizuka needed to lose. He looked in shit condition (as if his eyes were going to explode when the inner AI eye popped out, it was gross to watch) when Yuusaku finally defeated him. He was already in critical condition, so even though Akira defied orders and forcefully logged him out afterwards, with his morale at an all time low of defeat, and is quite litterally at the verge of death, things aren’t looking all that hot for him.
Unfortunately we were not informed whether or not he has suffered brain damage, or is unconscious at this time, but I will find it hard to believe if he isn’t in a coma for at least the remaining majority of the series. With the war between AI VS Humanity creeping up on them, there is no time to waste with attempting to redeem Onizuka’s character for the hundredth time. He has long fallen and is officially done. And unfortunately for him, I couldn’t care less.
And this brings us to Akira, who has been for most part of the series, utterly useless. For a man who talks a lot, he sure hasn’t done a lot, until now that is. Finally, Akira being present at the company paid off, because he had just saved both Ai’s and Yuusaku’s ass. At that moment, I shouted, “HOLY SHIT AKIRA, THANK GOD!”
Regardless of the match’s results, SOL were prepared to capture Ai. Akira finally made his decision, and openly defied orders, arguing he is trying to prevent the company from straight up murdering Onizuka (which is quite accurate considering Queen didn’t care since he was merely a disposable tool used to further their research). Obviously, his actions will have consequences, but since he knows too much about the company (since he wasn’t exactly subtle about it), it makes me wonder how Queen plans to deal with him. I think he has officially lost his opportunity to simply submit his resignation, if anything, there is a possibility they might attempt to contain him, forcefully turn him into they new lab rat to serve as Onizuka’s replacement. In fact, this is absolutely something I could see play out, given it would force Aoi and Aqua to fight the ones they care about. Additionally, now that Aqua has Crystal Heart back, since both Akira and Earth are especially protective of them, I think they would actually sync together quite well. I also believe this could make an incredibly interesting match-up to have Spectre VS Akira, considering after how badly he messed her up in their fights.
…Or SOL may or attempt to murder him. Remember SOL has a shady history, we don’t know what happened to certain people said to have previously worked there.
Anyhow I am so glad this stage is finally over. Now the story gets back rolling of what Revolver appears to be making a formal announcement of the upcoming War. If SOL didn’t know about it already, they certainly will now. I also highly suspect they would use this event as a way to gain profits. Although its not perfected yet, their AI-Chips, may prove to be a weapon some people may want to use to better equip themselves in this battle.
Needless to say, it will be intersting to see what Revolver will have to say, how the general public will respond to this, and what Yuusaku’s team plans to do next!
Welp, I felt no remorse when GO lost and the flashback sequence played. I was like “You deserved it for being power hungry.” I just hope this is the last time we see GO for the rest of the season. Three, being the core number in VRAINS, duels are enough. Though, I did feel a bit sad that Earth’s data wasn’t salvaged. Fortunately, Aqua got Crystal Heart back, so Earth is more at peace now that his card is with his beloved.
I always wondered if Storm Access could be used multiple times in a duel, so to see Neo Storm Access being able to be used twice made it feel like its actually an upgraded version this time since it’s the second variation. If they upgrade it once more in Season 3, will it get three effects? I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t see the second effect as an asspull.
I also love how the XYZ summoning sequence looks like a satellite, probably shouting out to its space theme (the staple in Zexal). Also, Firewall and its new brother got added to the ending!
Akira wins the VIP award for this episode. He had been shown to be the most morale of the company and seeing him forcefully log him out made me happy because it would be out of Akira’s character if he didn’t do anything about it. I just wonder what will happen later on. Will he get fired or will Queen silence him like how they did with Dr. Kogami?
Well if they want to keep their trend of the magic number 3, I can see it getting a third buff.
The XYZ Summoning animaton just blows everything out of the water, I can watch it all day!
There’s no way in hell Queen is going to let him walk out. In fact, he should’ve smacked that button and bolted right out of there!
With Blood Sheperd out of the picture, the only way for Ryoken to solve the current problem, whether he likes it or not, is to team up with Yusaku’s team. Both sides should know that this is not the time for humans to fight amongst themselves and the fastest way is for them to work together and settle things between them after the war. Of course, it won’t be easy. Even though Yusaku will most likely agree because he has put behind his past, things may be different for Aoi and Takeru and the Ignis. But since Aqua has the power to ascertain truth and lies, if Ryoken offering partnership, she can tell if he has any ulterior motive or not at least. Takeru clearly hasn’t fully recovered from the trauma and this is the first time he finally has a chance to speak face-to-face with the son of the person who made him suffer, I won’t be surprised that Takeru will remember Lost Incident again and challenge Ryoken to duel out of anger. If they duel, I wonder how it would be…! XD
The Xyz Summon is perfect! Firewall Exceed’s debut is definitely better than Cyberse Quantum’s debut. I am so happy to see Firewall Dragon again. I was worried it won’t appear again after it was banned in OCG and TCG. Finally the whole Go problem is over. Finally the plot can move forward again. Seeing Queen’s annoyed expression is a gold! Take that you bitch!
Too bad that Ai couldn’t take back Earth as whole, but at least his lost precious card is back to Aqua.
That crossed my mind as well. Everyone more or less agrees is that Lightning and Windy are far too dangerous, and they need to be eliminated. But I wonder really how Team *Co-Existence intends to deal with them. It will certainly be a very interesting meeting, I look forward to it.
APPRECIATE FIREWALL DRAGON! <3 <3 <3
Yeah. I’m not sure if Ai, Flame, and Aqua wants to eliminate Windy and Lightning. Yeah, they destroyed Cyberse World, but even so I don’t think they have the heart in them to just right out kill their fellow Ignis, just like Ai when he couldn’t bear to watch Windy dying even after knowing what he had done. They agreed that the two of them need to be stopped, but never said anything about eliminating Lightning and Windy. This is something that can be taken advantage in the future, so Ai, Flame, and Aqua must steel their resolve first against their fellow Ignis.
Note: the new monster’s name is actually Firewall Xceed Dragon. It was revealed a few days before the episode and I guess the subbers didn’t get the memo.
Thanks for letting me know, I’ll make the correction! Yeah it wasn’t spelt like that in the subs.
OH MY LORD!
This episode was actually amazing!
At the first half I was getting really fed up with Go being like “I can read and see everything you do or plan to do”….I’ll give a pass with the deux ex machina plot device regarding Neo Storm Access, but tbh, Storm Access is not that broken a skill to begin with, it just adds something to the Extra Deck, so unless a card that directly affects the Extra Deck is used, it doesn’t really matter much at all.
I liked how the VRains Xyz Summon animation was fitting for the kind of setting than the series is set in…..a more cybernetic-esque design compared to the galaxy portal from Zexal and Arc V.
And boy, that attack by Firewall Exceed Dragon was quite the way to finish the match.
Still not really liking Go after his fallout with being high on AI stuff, but that scene where his memories resurface and he started tearing up was quite depressing, honestly.
I felt the same about the first half, but the end really made up for it!
Haha yes, when Ai said, “OH YEAH NEO STORM ACCESS HAS ANOTHER TRICK” I was like “NO SHIT!” LOLOLOL! Needless to say, it was still entertaining, Ai especially was fun to watch. I just hope this won’t be the the only time it’s used, otherwise it would make it really obvious that they tailored it specifically for this duel. Although specific conditions are required to use it, it’s still a cool way to change things up, because the next time he has to use it in this way, the outcome won’t necessarily be as obvious.
VRAINS’s XYZ Summon really hit a home run with this one!
It really is sad because even after essentially giving up his soul, blinded by his greed, he lost more than he gained. With that his sacrifice was all for naught.
An early Christmas present was delivered with Go beaten to a pulp (and him shedding tears of salt reminiscing those ungrateful little shits was delicious), although (as expected) Neo Storm Access had another hidden asspull situational secret to get whatever Cyberse you want even with Anti-Skill in play. To be fair though, the one highlight that really took me off guard was FIREWALL returning to action even though it’s already banned from IRL competitive play… and Draw Discharge which is Trickstar Reincarnation a massive burn effect.
However, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that VRAINS Xyz summoning animation wasn’t my cup of tea due to how bland and linear it appeared. Even Firewall Xceed Dragon’s debut wasn’t as imposing as CYberse Clock & Quantum dragons were before, heck its effects wouldn’t even work without the actual Firewall on its side.
Also Akira was finally done with queen’s shit. It’s obvious that Queen wouldn’t care at all if Go died and would just cover it up, so Akira will either get fired first or quit voluntarily. Which was good, because then he’d finally get an opportunity to duel again. (About time for MORE TINDANGLE SUPPORT.) I have no idea what the “capture program” she tried to do with Go was, but it didn’t look pretty.
Next episode, Revolver’s looking sinister and having an important declaration… Oh please don’t conclude 2018 in another bloody recap.
I think we will see less of Firewall dragon in the future since he currently on the ban list due to OTK abuse. In fact, he the first main character’s ace monster that ever got banned. Why would the anime keep advertise Firewall Dragon if no one can use it anyway..
Well, the bad news is that Go will be around for another battle, he still has Earth’s data, and that this may be the last time we see Firewall Dragon for awhile. On the bright side though, this means that there’s still a chance for either Aoi or Specter to duel him later, which I am really hoping for. Not only that, but Aoi regains Crystal Heart, Akira is finally starting to take action against SOL, and we finally get to see Xyz summoning in effect and it was awesome!
On another note, I have a random theory on what will become of Earth in future episodes: say Go’s next duel ends with his defeat by any of the major players, but then Earth’s data is stolen by Lighting. He revives him, but reprogrammed to fight for his side, and if my theory of Kengo serving as Windy’s vessel turns out to be true, Earth will need one as well. Now who would be perfect as Earth’s vessel: Miyu! We know Lighting put her in a coma, but it was never specified if he took her conciseness data as well. If he has and ends up partnering her up with a reborn Earth, then that would set up them up as enemies for Aoi and Aqua to face, as they are both precious to them. Knowing Lighting’s personality, I wouldn’t put it pass him to do that.
Alternatively, if Yusaku’s team does manage to get back Earth’s data, he could instead end up with Emma. It doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere anytime soon. Another possibility, which may be the least likely of all, is that Naoki could somehow stumble across Earth’s data and claim him as a partner. It may not happen, but then again, Naoki is shown in the ending theme with Yusaku and his allies and he does use EARTH attributed monsters. But we’ll see whether any of these theories hold any wait in 2019.