History YMMV / YuGiOhVRAINS

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Yusaku continues the trend of the main protagonists being this. He has already been shipped with [[RescueRomance Aoi]], [[MsFanservice Emma]], [[RudeHeroNiceSidekick Shoichi]], [[BirdsOfAFeather Jin]] and [[ScrewYourself his Playmaker persona]], but '''especially''' [[RedOniBlueOni A]][[LoveConfession i]] and [[IWillFindYou Ryo]][[FoeYayShipping ken]]. Just minutes after he was revealed, Takeru [[{{Foil}} Homura]] [[OnlineAlias a.k.a.]] [[PlayingWithFire Soulburner]] was added to the list and when he isn't shipped with Yusaku in a more traditional manner, FanArt either portrays him as a ThirdWheel or uses him to form an {{OT3}} by adding him to almost any of the previously listed pairings, most often ones being Yusaku x Ryoken x Takeru and even Yusaku x Jin x Takeru.
* LGBTFanbase: Even by ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' standards, a franchise that has a long and storied history for its queer fanbase, ''Vrains'' managed to make an impact through Yusaku and his dynamics with Revolver and Ai that lead to both ships (Datastormshipping and Aiballshipping) becoming some of the biggest pairings in the franchise- especially Yusaku and Ai, which is arguably canon due to [[spoiler:Ai's actions in Season 3 being born out of love for Yusaku and his final words being an outright love declaration.]]

** In the series itself, GO has started to become this. Despite being billed as the top duelist in LINK VRAINS, he's only won twice, against Dr. Genome and a random Knight of Hanoi. To his credit, his other opponents have been [[InvincibleHero Yusaku]], [[TheRival Revolver]], and the newcomer Soulburner. However, in the case of the last one, GO had just undergone a radical character change, even opting to swap for a completely different deck, and it still failed to amount to anything. Keeping in with that, his second deck, the Dinowrestlers. They're still well-liked but endlessly mocked for being inferior to the self-replacing Goukis. [[spoiler:It's later deconstructed since his lack of victories is what caused his inferiority complex and FaceHeelTurn, which caused him to become a BountyHunter and his loss against Soulburner was one of the reasons why he took part in a deadly experiment at the cost of his health just so that he can win again. He won against Earth after undergoing that experiment and is confident that he will never lose ever again after becoming one with an AI, [[AllForNothing and even that didn't amount to anything after Go lost to Playmaker in their rematch despite having the duel stacked in his favor, making everything he has done to this point an utter waste.]]]]
** Aoi/Blue Angel suffered this as well. The bar was already low in terms of expectations for Aoi due to being the lead female character in a ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' anime (especially coming off ''Arc-V''), but several different events such as Spectre humiliating her in Season 1, Soulburner countering her Trickstar deck with one of the most situational counter-traps in franchise history and the [[https://imgur.com/gallery/iBoKu0H infamous image of her losing and pratfalling]] made her a joke for several years. The finale outright ending with her saying "I didn't really do anything" was taken out of context to refer to her general role across the entire series.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Takeru Homura, aka Soulburner, the {{Deuteragonist}} starting in Season 2. Some like him for being a fun, interesting addition to the cast and another Lost Incident victim for the show to explore, being another person for Yusaku to talk to after criticisms of the first season's lack of character interactions, and for his arc surrounding his guilt over his parent's dying while looking for him when he was kidnapped. Others dislike his introduction involving him beating Aoi and Go, who (at least at the time for Go) were popular characters, find him faking his fear of ghosts in his duel against Blood Shepherd because he had already gotten over it after a quick pep talk months ago to be cheap, and accuse him of being a SpotlightStealingSquad because of his [[Creator/YukiKaji popular voice actor]] and cards. While his duel against Revolver near the end of the series and the conclusion to his arc are generally well-liked, debates are still heated over whether it was enough to save his character or if it was much too late for him. He's often compared to Crow Hogan from ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', another BaseBreakingCharacter, due to both using Decks that were powerful in the real game, but were introduced late into their respective series.

DieForOurShip: Ai tends to get this in fanworks where Yusaku is shipped with someone other than him. The importance of his relationship as Yusaku's partner will generally be downplayed, and he'll often be {{Flanderized}} into being nothing more than the annoying comic relief character who constantly irritates Yusaku, sometimes involving Yusaku physically assaulting him in response. In other cases, he's simply [[spoiler: kept dead after his duel with Yusaku, with no explanation as to why Yusaku didn't even bother trying to look for him like he did in canon.]] This is, of course, if his existence is even acknowledged at all.

* ContestedSequel: How ''VRAINS'' holds up to previous anime series is a very contentious topic. The more grounded and gritty characters and story, and the less duel-focused plot, are either a breath of fresh air or completely spit on the appeal of a show based on a children's card game. The extremely divisive Link Summoning mechanic being a focal point doesn't assist matters, as it results in the duels closer resembling the very contentious fast pace of the modern game.

* FanPreferredCouple:
** While Takeru gets a MaybeEverAfter with his ChildhoodFriend Kiku in the last episode, his most popular pairing is with [[TheHero Yusaku]], likely because he has quite a bit of HoYay with him while Kiku only appears in a couple of episodes.
* FandomRivalry: Mentioning how ''VRAINS'' fares compared to the other series in the franchise is an easy way to get into a heated discussion.