A/N: Only featuring Episode 116 Screenshots this time.
Well I gotta be honest with you, episode 115 was meh. I’m that type of viewer that needs some sassy quips or some juicy drama going on to make it exciting to watch, and damnit— Takeru’s duels are not the same without Flame! The first bit was basically a replay of their last match-up, and then once they got started on the new stuff it became a bit more interesting.
As as for this week: Episode 116 was sooooooooo much better. There was something really satisfying about the way Ryoken kept on landing punch after punch after punch, and summoning his top guns with that hella badass monster Zeroboro. In the end, he lost— but that too was satisfying because we got to see him accomplish his goal. That isn’t to say Takeru wasn’t fun to watch either, I mean, besides the poor boy being pummelled until he was backed into a corner, he had a different thing going on: Struggling to move forward.
Oh gosh, the moment Takeru remembered Flame’s words and thought about him, AHHHHHHH MY EMOTIONS! FLAME! I MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!! I LITTERALLY BURST INTO TEARS! It was beautiful for him to remember his wisdom, especially the part where he recognized very early on that all Ryoken was trying to was figure out a way to apologize to him. This duel, was his way of doing that. But most importantly, this wasn’t just about helping Takeru move forward, it was able helping him let go of the past as well.
It was also really nice to see them elaborate more on the theme of death of our loved ones. The subject is something that hits close to home for everyone, especially for Ai. It’s as Ryoken said, “those who are gone haven’t completed vanished from your life, they just went ahead earlier.”, and we saw that with the Flame’s wisdom Takeru remembered today. However Ai seem to struggle a bit more with that spiritual ideology because of his and his friends’ entity as A.I., and I can understand why. After-all, this kind of thing differs from person to person. Some believe there’s a place for us to go or do after death, some think once we’re dead, that’s it, and etc.. (That latter is probably something Ai struggles with, so as long as he is unable to revive his friends).
I also really liked that they finally dug a bit more into Takeru’s unresolved regrets that had been haunting him alongside his trauma of the Lost Incident. Boy did it hurt like a bitch when Takeru finally revealed the pain of being unable to apologize to his parents for the horrible thing he had said to them on the day he was kidnapped. But while they still managed to pull my heart-strings, I wished they had dedicated more time to fleshing out Takeru’s character leading up to this point.
Since Takeru has defeated him, as per agreement, Ryoken will have to back-off from dealing with Ai. Perhaps that was his hope all long, as he has been sending us all sorts of mixed signals. Seriously, he can be so difficult to read sometimes!
Next week: Looks like we are diving head-first into yet another duel, this time between ai And Yuusaku! It appears Ai has something to show up, and eeekkk, I fear it might be SOLtis soldiers of a sorts. I have also heard about the rumours of this series maybe ending sooner than expected, but it’s pretty standard to hear the announcement and new series being worked on at this point, this is the last season after all. Nonetheless, I still expect to see at least 130 episodes.
Episode 115:
Revolver: I have 800 Life Points left! That wasn’t enough to finish me!
Soulburner: I activate Ookazi. You take 800 Damage.
Revolver: I call hacks!
Seriously though. Even though I liked this Duel… It still felt like an ad for the Revolver Structure Deck like Soulburner Vs. Windy was. I’ve seen on Reddit people saying that Revolver made a lot of misplays and that Salamangreat Kernel was literal plot armor. While I love VRAINS… It feels rushed. Also… Was it just me or was Flame’s appearance just a way of saying the Ignis won’t be coming back? Great Episodes. Kinda weird Duel.
// It still felt like an ad for the Revolver Structure Deck //
That’s exactly what Episode 115 felt like! Nailed it on the head!
I’m a bit worried about the pacing right now too, I really would like to see the other characters like Takeru be fleshed out better. At this point, I’d even say Aoi been better fleshed out than him, considering how much she has grown from the very beginning of the series.
// Also… Was it just me or was Flame’s appearance just a way of saying the Ignis won’t be coming back?//
Q____Q Yes, I agree… Though it hurts my heart to say that.
Yeah, I’d love to see Takeru fleshed out. But… That most likely won’t happen unless SOL becomes the bad guys. Also… Was I the only one expecting the girl from his past to show up and motivate him? I was also expecting a Link-5 Borrel (because why not?), Furious Dragon to show up and a Salamangreat Synchro. But… Still a good duel.
Kekekeke! That makes two of us! It could have been super fun, it was the secret wish that I knew was unlikely to ever happen.
What really sucks about this Duel is….Drumroll Not seeing Revolver 3.0. And that SB played Uno with Revolver.
Yeah, I heard a bad news that VRAINS most likely is going to end in September or October. Because there’ll be a new anime that will replace VRAINS’ time slot. It’s also possible that VRAINS merely move the time slot, but it’s better to be prepared for the worst…
I’m happy Takeru won this duel. For once, a rival character finally lost to a friend of the protagonist. I mean, so far in YGO history, as far as I remembered, the rival characters only lost to the protagonists or super strong antagonists. So it’s refreshing to see they finally made a change here
From the looks of it, it seems Yusaku will go to meet Ai alone, considering Revolver and Takeru are clearly not in a condition to fight. Next week, we’ll finally learn Ai’s true motive. And from his face, looks like Yusaku really is the only person that Ai mentioned he wants to understand his feelings.
Oh man, if it ends in the fall…. oof. That’ll be real troubling and a real waste. :\ If they have a shitty ending again, oh man that’s not the way you want to kick off the 20th Anniversary of the franchise.
//From the looks of it, it seems Yusaku will go to meet Ai alone, considering Revolver and Takeru are clearly not in a condition to fight. Next week, we’ll finally learn Ai’s true motive. And from his face, looks like Yusaku really is the only person that Ai mentioned he wants to understand his feelings.//
Yup, that’s exactly what it looks like.
If VRAINS is really gonna end so soon, there are some things that haven’t been answered yet. Maybe not so big for the story, but I want the answers. Like, Windy’s partner’s identity that still yet revealed, who created the puzzle and placed the Cyberse Deck that Yusaku got, the Kings, etc. It’ll be dissapointing for me if they’re left unexplained.
And then Aoi…while she has clearly grown as a character, her Duel record is not so good compared to the previous YGO heroines. She won against Baira, SOL Duel A.I, and Haru, but those duels were meh to me. When she did good duels, she ended up losing, like the ones against Bohman and Ai. Now, she, once again, pushed to the side lines. Even Asuka, Aki, and Yuzu at least have their shining moments without losing before being pushed to the side lines.
Sorry if I’m complaining too much. It’s just saddens me that VRAINS has many potential but possibly will be left untouched like ARC-V.
They said that the new YGO anime that will commemorate the series’ 20th Anniversary will be different/special in YGO history, but I learned my lesson to keep my expectation to minimum.
At least in this case they will have 6 months to plan the next season . Also there is no confirmation yet
. __ . Maybe the Cyberse Deck clue may be one of the secrets Ai has found when he obtained control over SOL Technology? That could be a way to address it…
And yes Aoi’s Dueling Records is by far my greatest disappointment about her too. It’s appalling about bad it is.
No worries, I share the same concerns. It really is too bad, because VRAINS has been good, but it hurts when we know it has so much potential to be even greater. I suppose the only silver-ling (so far) is that at least the series itself hasn’t descended into a crisis like ARC-V did, where it was very apparent that there were problems happening behind the scenes.
So really, it’s no surprise that a lot of us can’t help but have our reservations about the 20th Anniversary Series, and I think that’s the best way to approach it at this point.
eva i didn’t believe vrains will realy end so soon until i heard the news that the episode director said that 116 is the last episode he directing also it confirmed a new show will her in vrains time slot