“Let’s see who’s stronger: One who has something to protect, or the one who has nothing to lose” – Ai
Oooh this was such a good episode. I was quite nervous while I was watching this, mostly because I was worried about what was going to become of Aoi. It wasn’t until Ai made that statement about who is stronger, it gave me the reassurance that she was probably going to be okay. What I also enjoyed a lot about this duel was how Ai was genuinely interested in whether or not Aoi would be able to uphold her vow, and continuously challenging her to prove that her bond with her brother would prevail.
In the end, even though it was a close one, Aoi lost. She was expecting to disappear alongside with he brother, but to her surprise, Ai didn’t take her. The only reason she is still here is because Ai wants her to experience the pain of living with regret that he is currently drowning in, and I absolutely LOVE THIS!
What makes this outcome so exciting to me is how Aoi now has to make a choice. She can either let the regret consume her like it did for Ai, or she proves to him that even those she had lost her loved one, she can still get back on her feet and move forward. I am also happy because it gives me hope that Aoi is finally going to have a more prominent role in this arc and we can finally have everyone interacting together, both in the real world and online, I am here for it!
Another choice Aoi is going to have to make, is whether or not she will let this incident affect how she feels about Ai. Will she perceive him as an enemy, or will she prove him wrong and be actively involved in the efforts to save him? Since Aoi is a tough cookie, I believe she will find the strength to do just that…unlike Ryoken, who just reaffirmed he his decision to eliminate Ai. Now the only ones left to declare how they plan to proceed are Yuusaku (who I hope will try and save Ai) and Takeru (who appears to be torn between the two choices, since he is so emotionally driven. In fact we saw more of Ryoken and Takeru butting heads today, so I imagine we will see them properly duke it out sooner or later).
Although the spotlight has been on Aoi, Pandora had a brief intriguing moment of her own. When she sympathized with Ai’ sadness, and she compared it to how she felt when she lost her friends. Honestly, this left me a bit confused because I am trying to figure out what friends she was referring to. Was it her copies (even though she is supposed to be one and the same), or something else that we don’t know about? I can’t imagine it actually being the others who had fallen earlier in battle… Maybe I’m over-reading this, or maybe it will be elaborated further next week.
The last point I have to make this week is how this episode truly highlighted what VRAINS’ is all about: Finding the strength to move forward. From the very start, we have seen characters go through traumatic experiences, tragedies and losses. All of them which shackled them down (be it: revenge, fear, regret, etc…) in this abyss of despair, where time has seemingly stopped, preventing them from moving forward and living their lives as they should. Yuusaku and Takeru are examples of people who are able to overcome their pasts, where as Ryoken is still dead set on fulfilling his father’s wish of eliminating the Ignis, and whatever path Ai has set himself upon.
Next week, Ai has gotten ahold of SOL Technology’s keys, he has officially taken over the company. The Human workers have be fired and replaced with the SOLtis Androids. I am very curious about what he will do with the rest of the androids that are living within Human Households, or involved in other businesses. How much is going to change in the real world now that Ai has control over SOL Technology infrastructure? I am excited to find out!
Sorry for not commenting your reviews these last few weeks, have been fighting to get a job.
I really do get what the writers are going for with this arc/season but the truth is that it´s so week that I just don´t feel neither the excitement or the raw emotion that should come from this and that makes me sad cause the last scene with Aoi and Akira is supposed to make you feel sorry for her but I´m just numb since this excat kinda scenario have been done about 15 times now this series.
Watching Ai dueling is also getting attrocius to watch, the strategy is solid and easy to understand and you can even guess what he´s going for most of the times, yet his last 3 victories now have been to extreamly situational cards that was literally ment for the exact moment and only against that opponent (for christ sake the primal strategy for Marincess ain´t effect damage yet the one time she does a little effect damage he just have the card).
Vrains is ending in March 2020 which leaves us with about 30 episodes left, my ratting right now is a 4 out of 10 and I would love to set it higher but then the writing has to improve soon.
Wishing you the best of luck~!
I totally get what you mean. I actually laughed at that last bit of Akira and Aoi reaching out for each other, it’s just as you said, how many times have we seen them do this now? It’s just a joke at this point. It doesn’t help that I could care less about Akira either. So rather than feeling sorry for her, I’m more looking forward what the outcome of this event will offer for her character.
After watching the episode today and opened my social medi account, there are more people who became less sympathizing with Ai because of what he did to Aoi at the end. Well, I can understand why. Oh, the poor girl.
But one thing that Ai seems to have forgotten, while it’s true that Aoi now must live with regret for her failure, unlike him, Aoi still has people who will be there by her side, namely Miyu, Yusaku, and the rest. I honestly hope that Aoi won’t hate Ai or anything. Aoi, please don’t give up on Ai just yet! And I actually hope that Ai actually has other reason for sparing Aoi.
Looks like Yusaku was too shocked and saddened by what Ai did that he couldn’t say anything, but I have no doubt Yusaku is still determined to save Ai. Takeru, I’m guessing he’s still having a mixed feeling. Before Ai left, Ryoken’s words seems to imply that all this time he’s actually has been hesitating in erasing Ai. Perhaps he did trust Ai to certain extent and when Pandor offered Ai a chance to surrender and run away was actually partially Ryoken’s part. But sad to say, Ai’s last action has pushed Ryoken to continue with his original goal of eliminating the Ignis. NO! (TT_TT)
And I definitely loving Water Leviathan! It somehow reminds me a bit of Ancient Fairy Dragon.
By the way, I don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but the seventh Yugioh series will start next year. Time sure flies fast. I’m starting to miss VRAINS already even though there are still several months left.
And finally, this has nothing to do with VRAINS, but I’m curious of your opinion. What do you think about this? :
https://mobile.twitter.com/Windermyre/status/1152762286278242308
Yeah I can get why people don’t really like Ai right now, but I feel like this is in character for him to do. He is definitely underestimating Aoi, and he probably expects her to hate him after this, which feels like the goal he is attempting to achieve with just about everyone at the moment. I expect her to prove him wrong though, she’s not just going to roll over and being swallowed up by her misery.
There is no doubt that Yuusaku is disappointed, but he probably understands Ai because he too has gone astray and isolated himself from everyone on his path of uncovering the secrets and achieving justice for the victims of the Lost Incident. It’s all the more reason he will want to do whatever he can to prevent Ai from doing something he can’t reverse.
Yup I’m aware of the new series starting next year. I wonder what kind of story is will be this time. If I had to make any early guess, it’s probably going to be a younger protagonist again, since it seems like a pattern.
As for the ARC-V Manga, actually don’t know how to feel about that! XDDDDD I think I need more context about that scene.
The way Ai behaved towards Yusaku also strengthened my belief that Yusaku is the only one whom Ai wishes to understand his feeling. Maybe it’s just me, but Ai seems friendlier to Yusaku compared to the others of his old friends.
For the Arc-V manga pages that I showed you. It’s a special two-pages given in a special event. The pages showed Yuya celebrating his first birthday with his three big brothers competing to impress him (Yuri by showing him a rose, Yuto by cooking an egg, Yugo by offering to take Yuya on a D-Wheel ride while crashing on Yuto and Yuri to get rid of his competition). They were stopped by their mother, Yuzu, who told them to gather because they’re going to take family picture. Many people got quite freaked out by the fact that manga Yuzu in the future is the boys’ mom and replaced Yoko’s position as Yusho’s wife. They think it ruins YuyaxYuzu shipping in the anime.
//Yuusaku is the only one whom Ai wishes to understand his feeling. //
Ooh good point, I can see that being the case. They were partners after-all.
Yuzu is now Yusho’s wife and the boys mom in the manga?!
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! That’s big nope from me. I really liked Yoko, and forget about the ship, I much prefer Yuzu to be friends with Yuuya and his other counterparts. Aside from that, they are absolutely ADORBS.
I’m starting to make it my weekly Wednesday routine as soon as I get home from work to comment on your blog posts for Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS every week! This week was definitely a shocker to me too! While I did expect Ai to spare Blue Maiden and Blue Maiden to lash out at Ai, I never thought that Ai would spare her to make her suffer! That was an extreme act of cruel mercy! I believe she would preferred to die after losing. She knew she could at least be with her Akira together in death. I was so shocked and angered that I grit my teeth really hard when I heard him say that on the raw live stream this morning. I seriously wanted to smack Ai for what he said. Ai might have spared Blue Maiden, but he hurt her psychologically. Of course, no one could do anything but helplessly watch as Ai and Roboppy walked away.
After this episode, my feelings towards Ai have become quite conflicted once more. I could feel my sympathy for him wane a little bit after seeing how much of a complete jerk he was to Blue Maiden. Haven’t you noticed, depending on the episode or scene, Ai is either a complete jerk or is sympathetic because of his true sadness? But I’m afraid this episode proved that that sadness has clouded his morals. I feel he’s become just as cruel and sadistic of a villain as Lightning. The only person I can tell he still has a soft spot for now is Yusaku. After all, before leaving, he said that he wanted to see Playmaker again if he could and completely ignored Soulburner’s anger and just smirked at Revolver declaring that he has no more reservations of cutting down Ai. He also only addressed Playmaker with some more friendliness than the others on Team Playmaker, even calling him “Playmaker-sama” at one point.
I had been asking myself the same thing about what will Aoi do next. She’s clearly not like Ai in that she’ll want to get revenge on him for Akira’s death. Like you said, she has become a tough character and a strong young woman. She won’t break that easily. It’ll be good for her to see what she can do now that her brother is out of the picture. It’ll be good character development for her. Now that she and Yusaku mutually know each other’s true identities both in and out of Link VRAINS, it’ll be easier for them to communicate at school without any reservations. Although I still fear that Ai could spy on the main trio even at school. He knows everything and what makes him more dangerous than Lightning is that he’s just as powerful outside in the real world as he is in Link VRAINS.
Yeah, I’m glad I wasn’t the only who noticed Takeru and Ryoken butt heads more often now in season 3. I think their rivalry will be developed more in this season. When Revolver said to Soulburner to not be sympathetic towards Ai, I felt that Revolver was trying to force his views onto Soulburner. After all, this isn’t the first time Revolver or the other Knights of Hanoi have tried to convince Playmaker and Soulburner to turn against the Ignis. In fact, I remember Spectre tried to convince Soulburner to abandon Flame or be erased, almost as if he was trying to recruit Soulburner to the Knights of Hanoi.
Now that Akira’s gone and both halves of the code key have been stolen, that leaves only 5 members of Team Playmaker left to fight against Ai and Roboppy. Surprisingly, the main duelists left on the team now are all the only humans capable of using Cyberse monsters. They’re going to have to band together even in the real world if they want to have a chance to stop Ai. I do hope Aoi does end up officially joining the Confidants in the real world. I really want her to speak to Kusanagi directly for the first time.
By the way, what did you think of Marincess Great Bubble Reef? I thought she was amazing and the card was an excellent throwback to Aoi’s old Trickstars and the burn damage they can do. Soulburner even mentioned that Aoi is an expert on dealing effect damage thanks to the Trickstars. Ai might have won, but the Zaizen siblings were well in sync with one another and fought well. I’m so inspired I actually started collecting Marincess cards last week at the Rising Rampage Sneak Preview. I got a lot of Marincess cards a week ahead of the release date this weekend.
Ai absolutely has the ability to be cruel as Lightning, even more so given he can feel and understand things in a way that Lightning could not. It all comes down to whether or not it’s his will to inflict pain onto others. In this case, he cast a punishment onto Aoi to further prove his point that the ones who have nothing to lose are more likely to win. It’s also a challenge of, “now you are in my shoes, can you really say the same things you were saying before?” as a way to get his point across.
I’m interested in seeing what Takeru is going to do, and how he will decide to go about dealing with Ai. On one hand, he knows he needs to be stopped. He crossed the line, and there’s a part of him that believes there’s no turning back after that. And then the other, he knows Ai is in a lot of pain, and he wants to stop him before he could do anymore irreversible damage.
I am actually quite glad the cast has been reduced to the ones we have now. It means there is now a better chance of the main group interacting together and potentially developing their bonds that has been severely neglected up until this point, especially when we compare it to past YGO series. I fully expect Aoi to be more engaged with them in the real world now, especially since they all know each other, and she is alone now with no one else to really depend on.
I loved Marincess Great Bubble Reef, and I really like that Aoi’s new ace is a throwback to her original deck. It’s a great addition, and it shows just how much she has grown, while still staying true to herself.
Once again, the writers are cackling in glee as they cross off the Zaizens in their “Suffering VRAINS siblings” list. They better not touch the Kusanagi brothers this season.
Ai is like a more compassionate Lightning. While Lightning was cruel, Ai still has compassion and human emotions that Lightning lacked. He’s still sinister and seeing Akira get taken away from BM showed that cruel side–that he’s not holding back.
I wonder where the story is gonna go from here now that the supposed “first part” of this arc ended. What’s Ai gonna do with SOL Tech and what are his motives? Will Blue Maiden rescue Akira on her own or with PM? Basically, her only allies are Hayami, Miyu and PM at this point but only PM can help her because they’re both duelists. I wonder what Soulburner is going to do now since he seems to be the one in the middle. PM wants to save/stop Ai. Revolver wants to eliminate him. SB is in the middle. He wants to help Ai’s loneliness yet he knows Ai has gone off too far for him to be redeemed anymore. I wonder how much longer the inevitable SB vs Rev will take.
Also, am I the only person who wondered why the writers didn’t make effect damage the cause of Ai’s loss? She could’ve done it again, but decided to attack with Great Bubble Reef. Did she run out of Marincess monsters?
I’m anticipating what the next part of the season will hold now that Akira met his demise.
The Kusanagi brothers better be left out of this. >x<;;;; They need a break! Otherwise Kusanagi might as well just leave the city with Jin, or at least send him away where he doesn’t have to get caught in the crossfire of the conflict.
Since Ai already got the code key, I doubt he’ll do anything to Jin who is (pardon for me to say it this way) of no use for him. Ai is still far more fair and square than Lightning, so he won’t do something so low like taking hostages. Therefore, no need to worry about the Kusanagi brothers. (^_^)
AI cards artstyle are funny for example the card where Hai where it shows he say hi and hammer behind his back and also the card where he stir cauldron
NOTICE: YGO VRAINS Episode 112 will be released as a double post with Ep 113 next week.