"Romin's Secret"
Written by Ayumu Hisao
Air Date: 18 April 2020 (JP)
Air Date: 18 April 2020 (JP)
After learning that Goha Corporation had deleted all videos online involving "Rush Duel", Luke immediately becomes suspicious of Romin upon recalling her bizarre behavior since their meeting. After discussing it with Yuga and Gakuto, the three boys determine that she most likely is hiding something from them and attempt to goad her into admitting whatever she's keeping secret.
Managing to invite Romin to his lab with the prospect of showing her his "Roads", Yuga goads her into dueling him in the hopes of convincing her of how fun "Rush Duels" are. Meanwhile Luke takes notice of her guitar case and convinces himself that whatever secrets she holds lie within the case, though Gakuto attempts to keep him under check out of respect for her privacy.
While the two boys fight among themselves over a matter of security and personal privacy, Romin begins her first duel in her entire life with her eyes set on summoning a mysterious monster she keeps close to her heart.
Tropes:
- The Ace: Romin is noted as being one of the most talented and popular kids.
- Art Shift: In Luke's Imagine Spot the entire art style shifts to a more childish style reminiscent of crayon.
- Call-Back: Luke notes Romin's odd behavior in the earlier episodes and begins to question her loyalty.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Luke suggests Romin could be working for Goha with a hypothetical scenario, Gakuto instead focuses on how Yuga dislikes bell peppers in spite of their nutrition.
- Didn't See That Coming: Yuga is caught off guard when Romin tribute-summons Prima Guitarna, which wasn't in the spare deck he lent her.
- Fan Boy: Kaizo is a huge fan of Romin and so supports her over Yuga in the duel.
- Give Me a Sword: Due to Romin not playing Duel Monsters, she is forced to use Yuga's spare deck and Duel Disk.
- Honor Before Reason: Yuga uses Seven Roads Magician's effect to overpower Romin's Prima Guitarna, even though he could have simply attacked one of her weaker monsters and still defeated her. Yuga admits that he did the former because an ace deserves to be met by an ace.
- Imagine Spot: Luke's depictions of Romin as a spy for Goha.
- It Was a Gift: Romin's Prima Guitarna was gifted to her by a rock idol she adored as a kid, and so she carries it around as a good luck charm in her guitar case and showcases legitimate joy upon summoning it.
- Lie Detector: Used by Yuga to determine Romin's innocence, but is destroyed via Logic Bomb.
- Logic Bomb: One of Yuga's "Roads" is destroyed when Romin asks it a question, which causes it to fail since it is solely meant to determine whether someone lies or not.
- Mirror Match: In theory this is the case between Yuga and Romin as she uses a spare deck identical to his bar his ace monster, but the addition of Prima Guitarna changes this to Yuga's detriment.
- Naïve Newcomer: The episode revolves around Romin dueling for the first time and her experience doing so.
- The Magic Poker Equation:
- Romin shuffles the only card she has into the spare deck given to her by Yuga, then draws that card on her first turn. Downplayed in that her opening hand lacks the means to summon it, since it requires two tributes and she only has one monster that can be summoned without cost.
- Yuga uses a card to shuffle Sevens Road Magician into his deck along with two other Spellcaster monsters, after which he can draw a card. He draws Sevens Road Magician.
- The Man Is Keeping Us Down: All of the videos online about "Rush Duel" are deleted by the start of the episode, causing Luke to become suspicious of the possibility of a mole.
- The Mole: Luke suspects Romin of treachery to their plans, but is proven wrong... until we see that she's still sending pictures to an unknown benefactor.
- Mundane Solution: Goha Corp, in an effort to suppress "Rush Duels", simply deleted every single video about them online. It doesn't solve the software and hardware changes, however.
- Oh, Crap!: When Romin summons Prima Guitarna, Yuga begins to panic upon realizing he might actually lose.
- Punny Name: The reprogrammed drone from the first episode is given the name Kaizo, which means "remodel" in Japanese, something the drone dislikes as too literal.
- Reverse Psychology: Used by Yuga on Romin to guarantee she would duel him.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Luke assumes Romin is spying on Yuga for Goha Corp. He's right about the former, as she's sending the pictures she takes to an unknown boy, but his affiliation, if any, is unknown.
- Senseless Violins: Subverted. Luke thinks Romin is hiding something in her guitar case because she is never seen without it. It's holding... a guitar. The reason she holds on to it is, aside from being a musician, the case holds a card she got at a concert from a performer she admires.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Kaizo immediately abandons Yuga to support Romin, leading to Yuga dismantling the drone at the end of the episode.
