YMMV / Cardfight!! Vanguard (V Series)

• Awesome Music: The franchise has featured many good songs and soundtrack and the reboot is no exception by having the powerful Legendary, preformed by Roselia as its first opening theme. There's even an official Engrish version for the dub!
• Broken Base: Naturally as its nature as a Continuity Reboot this is coming from both the anime and the card game itself.
  • Anime-wise some welcome the reboot considering the problems GZ has presented, and the fact that the series is going to follow the Manga more closely is a huge plus. On the other hand, many do not like the fact that Bushiroad is simply going back to the beginning, especially when they could have just adapted the Cardfight!! Vanguard Shooting Star manga instead.
  • On the Card Game side of things, considering how important the G-Zone was to the game, the fact that we are going back to the beginning does not sit well for players who had spent a lot of money on the game only to have to start all over again with no guarantee that it will ever be supported again. On the other hand, players in favor of the reboot like the fact that Bushiroad is willing to start all over again, and points out that Premium and G Format will always be available to legacy players. While many assumed that like Extreme Fight, Premium Standard would not be supported, it has quite a bit of official support including Premium Collection sets that include G-Units to support current gimmicks, for example Neo Nectar G-Units now interact with their token mechanics. In addition, Premium collection triggers are effect based triggers with the new values in place.
• Designated Monkey: The Spike Brothers, Megacolony and Tachikaze clans have been treated like this. Card game wise, they're among the clans who get less support than other ones and they rarely went high tier. Meanwhile, in the anime those clans are mostly used by anonymous fighters who are shown being defeated by the main characters, with only a very few named characters using them (Megacolony is played by Team Foo Fighters' Minami and Itsuki from the Miyagi High school council, while Spike Brothers is as usual Morikawa's deck. For Tachikaze, as of June 2020 only one unnamed character has seen using it), with Megacolony being the only one among them to have a full duel showcased. Also, to add salt to the wound, the few times those three clans are shown the only Grade 3 units shown are the weaker ones from their first V set like Juggernaut Maximum and Machining Stag Beetle.
• Designated Villain: Esuka is more or less an invoked example since she's a reasonable person, makes various good points against Shinemon becoming manager of Card Capital with special mention to his age and the fact that the only person who truly sees her as an antagonist is Shinemon himself. On top of that it was more or less clear that their conflict was really a test for Shinemon to grow as a person and fighter.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Mark in the Shinemon Arc truly gets to shine now that he's given the opportunity to show off what he's got, and he didn't disappoint. He shows why he's the strong veteran player the previous shows makes him out to be. His finest moment is how he pulled a final stand in the national tournament playing, on his own, several games to buy as much time for Shinemon to return, only to fall to Kanzaki, and earned everyone's respect.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Many people noted that Emi in the "Extra Story" wears Aichi's jacket from the first arc. This causes many people to theorize that something happened with him in that world like that he doesn't exist or possibly died. This is confirmed in If 7 in which Emi states that her brother left home one day, never came back, and that he's now residing in the Sanctuary as the arc's Big Bad.
  • Why exactly Chrono was given the Gear Chronicle deck this time around remains a mystery. In the original incarnation, Ibuki had been giving Chrono the cards as a means of preparing him to fight Ryuzu Myoujin and stop his plans involving the Stride Gate. In this series however, Ryuzu has Adaptational Heroism, and has largely abandoned using unsavory means to help Earth. And -if- revealed it was still Ibuki who left the deck in Chrono's shoe locker, as a Jammer possessed his future self to stop him from delivering the deck. So why exactly Chrono was given the deck this time around, especially when everyone who was present the day Rive disappeared agreed Chrono shouldn't come in contact with Vanguard so nothing happens, is unknown, and will likely not be answered with the V series' conclusion in favor of overDress.
• High-Tier Scrappy: In the Fall 2020 season, Shadow Paladins released the V-Series version of Dragheart, Luard and Dragdriver, Luard, which retains its gimmicks by utilizing both Luard's stride mechanic as well as their ability to support Grade 1 units. However, this produced an incredibly strong board with very low cost. Skull Witch Nemain also supports this strategy by setting up your board. In addition, because of how Luard works, your rear-guards will be flooded with Force markers. It got to the point where a good number of decks topping events were Luard decks with one or two decks squeezing in, Majesty Lord Blaster (a strong deck with high criticals), Altmile (a fast deck with consistency), and Nightrose (a protect deck with a high number of attacks with high power). It got to the point where even after their restriction to Luard and Nemain, which you cannot have both in a deck, many are still looking to Luard to top events.
• Jerkass Woobie: Tatsuya has forced Shinemon to stay for the unit summoning experiment despite the fact Shinemon and Rive need to go to an important tournament and made Shinemon comply by taking Chrono hostage, but it is not hard to feel bad for Tatsuya since he is just a teenager who just lost his parents in a sudden accident and is unable cope with it in a healthy manner.
• Nightmare Retardant: Greion manages to turn from pure Nightmare Fuel to this thanks to the preview of Dimension 7, where he talks in Gratuitous English as part of a reference to Tomorrow's Joe.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • The character of Nagisa was not appreciated in the original and G series due to her crush on Kamui reaching obsessive levels. The V-series toned down that aspect of her, making her more of a Tsundere leading to her character being better received this time around.
  • In regards to the card game, Murakumo was for a long time considered a weak clan competitively speaking, in part due to its mechanic of sending the units called with effects back to the bottom of the deck. The reboot did away with that downside on top of giving the clan several new tools to play with, allowing Murakumo to become a top tier clan when its first support came out in part due to ZANBAKU being a good counter against then-dominant Oracle Think Tank decks.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • In terms of the alternate Imaginary Gifts, Accel II far overshadows it's counterpart to the point where Accel I is almost never seen anymore. While it functionally operates the same way as Accel I, the trade off is seen as negligible. While you only have 5,000 instead of 10,000, the extra card is far too strong for the decks that benefit from it. In addition, most Accel decks have the means to maintain additional power so the extra 5,000 for going Accel I doesn't even matter anymore. The only reason to go Accel I anymore is if the player had an early start or they are playing against Nubatama who targets the hand.
  • On the other side of things, Protect II is seen as unnecessary and goes against what Protect decks are meant to do. On acquisition of Protect II it is immediately placed on the board to give the rear-guard unit an additional 5,000 power and 10,000 shield, the idea being that the unit on the board intercepts for additional shield. However, nothing is stopping the opponent from removing the unit off the board by skills or by simply attacking it meaning it doesn't even do it's job to protect it's Vanguard. While it has it's place in some match ups, many still favor Protect I in most cases. It got so bad, they had to design new Angel Feather units to explicitly use Protect II.
• Shocking Moments:
  • The confirmation that the 4th arc of V is about Shin Nitta's past surprised pretty much everyone. Along with the fact his deck has a Grade 5 unit.
  • Remind 25 has Tatsuya defeating Ryuzu and taking over as the Big Bad. Remind 26 takes this even further since it turns out that Tatsuya was the true Big Bad all along and was using Ryuzu to resurrect his parents.
• Spiritual Adaptation: The Shinemon Arc can be seen as this towards the Cardfight!! Vanguard Shooting Star manga due to both starring a high schooler who defends a relative's card shop to which they become a manager of. Although Shooting Star as a whole can also be seen as an amalgamation of the entire series^note the main character is a beginner of the game, fights against a card gang (Aichi) and uses a new unknown clan her father used (Chrono).
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Nobody was expecting the first Shinemon Arc to be as good as it was, especilly considering the mixed reception of the ending of the High School and High School Continued arcs. What helps the arc are both the lead and their antagonist. Shinemon is a different protagonist than Aichi and even Chrono being far more high spirited than the both combined, and Esuka is a very well defined character due to her experience and down to earth attitude. Speaking of which, the primary conflict is also grounded in reality and for once in any popular card game anime, there was no supernatural force at work! Add in the addition of new characters and some retools of some returning characters and you have a fun season with good themes and a strong plot.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The treatment of the Asia Circuit. With it having been mentioned in the anime during a mini-arc that featured the top three fighters from that tourmanent, people started thinking that it would be made into a full-blown arc rather than being briefly featured like it was in the manga, potentially allowing for more characters from the original series to appear in the reboot. This ended not being the case with only Aichi's departure for the tournament and the end of the final fight being shown.
  • The Vanguard Koshien. Almost all the fights were skipped showing only the final damage being taken (the only ones that were shown almost entirely are Aichi vs Kai, Aichi vs Ren and Naoki vs Ibuki). The biggest offender for most fans the Misaki vs Asaka fight, where only the final attack was shown... with them playing respectively the new versions of Tsukuyomi and Luquier, while in all the other duels we only saw glimpses of there was no trace of new cards being showcased (Kenji still plays Great Daiyusha and not Dailiner, Gouki still plays Basskirk and not Cocytus, Miwa still plays Miss Splendor and not Spinning Valiant...). Many even pointed out how much of a missed opportunity this is considering the Vanguard Koshien sets in the card game are supposed to capitalize on fan-favorite units.
  • Despite having a manga the series could adapt, Cardfight!! Vanguard G and it's characters are largely neglected here. The only real notions of G's plot comes from Shin's meeting Ryuzu, and in the final two episodes of Shinemon with Chrono being introduced to the game. Outside of that however, most of the characters from there make only cameos at best.
• Unexpected Character:
  • With the Reboot focusing on the original cast, many were surprised to see that the third arc would reintroduce Mamoru Anjou as a recurring character and even more unexpected was Trinity Dragon appearing.
  • Just like with the Reboot no one expected Kazumi Onimaru and Verno Fahrenheart would be included the game Cardfight Vanguard EX.
  • No one expected Shin Nitta as The Protagonist of V's 4th arc which serves as a Prequel for the series along with more G characters appearing, however while Rive and Mikuru Shindou were partly expected since they both are a part of his backstory in G, no one expected Ryutarou Oyama, Yuichirou Kanzaki and even Ruga Kaizu (Valeos' Diffride) since none of them originally had a part in his past.
  • While Ryuzu's return makes sense given that he and Shinemon had met each other in the previous continuity, it's safe to say that no one at all was expecting Hitomi Kouzoji, Saya Yatomi's mother, who had only been mentioned in G to make an appearance.
• Woolseyism: In If episode 11, Kanzaki's idea for a Vanguard Association mascot is a very familiar-looking mecha made of kittens called Gonyanion. The English sub, of course, changes it into "Meowtron".