Anime / Shadowverse

Battle! Shadowverse!

An anime adaptation of the Shadowverse mobile card game, directed by Keiichro Kawaguchi and produced by Studio ZEXCS. It debuted on 7 April 2020 and is set to last 48 episodes.

The story takes place in a modern world where Shadowverse carries enough recognition among the populace to be commonplace. The protagonist, Hiiro Ryugazaki, is awed by the game but is late to the craze due to not owning a smartphone. All this changes when he discovers a smartphone locked away in his home's storage shed, and Hiiro's eager entry into the game leads him on a journey that lets him meet new friends and face many opponents.

A Switch game adaptation for the anime, named Shadowverse: Champion's Battle is was released in November 2020. It is a standalone game that has no cross-compatibility with the mobile client, but features cards from the show that don't get ported into the mobile game's library.

A sequel, Shadowverse Flame, debuted on 3rd April 2022. Its plot is set three years after the events of the first season and follows a separate cast, this time following Light Tenryu, a New Transfer Student to the Shadowverse Battle College who's come at the behest of one of the top players in that universe, despite his complete inexperience with the game.

The anime's first season contains the following tropes:

• Broken Aesop: Hiiro's matches with Lucia and Shiro, who are very motivated to win at any cost, have him deliver a point that one shouldn't prioritize winning at the cost of enjoyment, but this message rings hollow when he's an Invincible Hero and hasn't lost a game on-screen. Downplayed, in that Hiiro himself plays for the love of the game and tries to have fun, regardless of the outcome.
• Combat Commentator: Several of the game's mechanics are explained for the audience's benefit, even if the characters discussing it in-universe should already be familiar with them. It's especially egregious when Hiiro is involved — despite playing the game enough to get to A Rank, he's unfamiliar with the significance of his rank, and has had no experience with Havencraft or the Countdown mechanic until he faces Mauro in a tournament.
• Crippling Overspecialization: While the real-life game permits each player access to cards from each of the game's factions and encourages them to build different decks, the anime characters all seem to specialize in their faction of choice, and are never seen playing other decks. One wonders what would happen if they were to acquire cards they can't use.
• Crossover: Hiiro and Mimori were featured as event units in Granblue Fantasy.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Hiiro's parents are said to have died in an accident, so he lives with his grandfather. Subverted by episode 24, where Leon reveals that his mother was possessed by the Tree of Woe as its vessel, and his father went after her in search of a way to free her.
• Demonic Possession: Empty Shades roam the streets in the second half of the anime, possessing players they encounter, exaggerating their worst traits, and allowing them to use a combination of classes and shade-themed cards.
• Fusion Dance: Shade-based cards introduced in the later half of the anime all possess a common quirk — three copies of any one of the Shade units can combine to form a tougher Elite Mook.
• MacGuffin: The main cast is directed across the city to unseal and retrieve seven legendary cards to save the world. Each is locked away in their own "ruins".
• Mythology Gag: The series Arc Symbol, termed the Tree of Woe, becomes an antagonistic force for the second half of the anime. It also releases Empty Shades like those fought in the game, and those empowered by it get to construct illegal decks like some of the Story Mode bosses.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: The tournament arcs are Leon's way of finding the best players of each craft to help save the world.
• Serious Business: While the anime doesn't involve as many Absurdly High Stakes Games as other shows like Yu-Gi-Oh! would, the card game itself has enough in-universe influence that wrist mounts for smartphones and specialized virtual-reality arenas are commonplace.
  • The first minor antagonist, Takuma Kibakura, embraces this attitude towards the game with gusto, forcing his opponents to wager their phone over a match and while claiming "the weak have no right to play."
  • The second half of the anime raises the stakes considerably, as the titular game becomes the means where the main cast would save the world.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Portalcraft, despite having been available in the game for a few years, has no representation in the anime. Justifiable as the card pools in the anime appear to be restricted to the game's first three packs, and Portalcraft was not available at all at the time. This gets subverted come episode 23 when Leon and his Shadow Knights all reveal their use of Portalcraft cards.
• Tag Team: A concept exclusive to the anime is a tag match, where two players per team share their field, play points, and life total, while swapping between their respective decks and hands each turn.
• That One Player: Lucia is one In-Universe, as he's infamous for a ruthless playstyle that leaves his defeated opponents so demoralized that they quit playing.
• Tournament Arc: Episodes 8 to 12 involve Hiiro taking part in and advancing the national tournament. Immediately after that, Leon escalates this to a worldwide Genesis Tournament, which spans episodes 13 to 24.

Shadowverse Flame contains examples of the following tropes:

• Club Stub: The Battle College originally had seven Shadowverse clubs, but warring between clubs have resulted in two of them losing members and failing to get new ones. Light opts to join one of these dying clubs, Seventh Flame.
• Gratuitous Animal Sidekick: Characters now have Digital Friends, which are card avatars that can manifest as a companion to them.
• Sealed Good in a Can: The legendary cards from the first season, having the potential to each be an Artifact of Doom, had to be sealed away. Following discussion between their latest owners, they are all sealed beneath the Battle Academy.
• Serious Business: Shadowverse is now serious enough business that there's an academy specialized for teaching the game and training professionals (although it does cover other aspects of education).