Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains

Wasn't that one almost completely dependent on setting off the hilariously specific requirements for its instant-win card? I can see why that would, uhh, not be likely to work in real life.

TBH when everything revolves around card games having ridiculous decks built around one scenario is the natural conclusion and thus why I love it so.

Found the casting list: seems like everyone sans the other Ignis got lines this episode, so no last minute revival or flashback for other Ignis.

Rest in peace Flame, Aqua, Earth, and OG!Windy. Rest in pieces Lightning.

Lightning deserves a Fate Worse than Death.

Can't believe they wasted Ayako Kawasumi.

Anyone else think these count for They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot?

• When the skill "Markers Portal" was introduced and said to be able to add any Link Spell to the hand, it was implied there was more than one type of Link Spell. However, the only one ever used is "Judgment Arrows".
• The show initially placed a good amount of focus on Yusaku being one of the six children from the "Lost Incident", and the series seemed to be building up their importance with the revelation of Spectre being one, the taking of Jin's consciousness by Bohman, and the arrival of Takeru. However, come the series' conclusion, only Yusaku and Takeru matter, with Spectre ultimately being The Dragon and Out of Focus, Jin being a Living Macguffin, and the last two, Miyu and an unnamed victim, being dealt with offscreen and ultimately being superfluous.^note Miyu ultimately served only as Aoi's reason for being in the plot, and the other victim was Killed Offscreen to highlight how much of a Hate Sink the false Windy was.

Yea, the whole Lost Children plot point didn't really matter outside of token development for Yusaku and Takeru.

I'd also suggest the Hanoi generals for the trope too. The only Knight of Hanoi that was really fleshed out was Ryoken. Spectre fared a bit better, but after his duel with Yusaku he was mainly just Ryoken's Sycophantic Servant, and his own part with the Lost Incident served more as a footnote. Aso, Kyoko, and Genome however all were heavily underutilized. Both Aso and Kyoko had backstory implying they were sibling figures to Ryoken, and that they didn't like doing this but had to since they were apart of the Ignis' creation and felt they needed to be stopped. However, outside of their sole full length duels and the episode that made a big deal about breaking Kyoko out, they're never really utilized that much. Genome has it worst. His one character trait is his obsession with DNA. We don't know anything else, such as his feelings on the Lost Incident and Ignis, his connection to the others outside of being one of the scientists, or, much like Spectre, his real damn name.

The final episode is tomorrow!

Man, the end came fast.

It hasn't even been three years, Vrains came out in early 2017. Talk about rushed.

It really seems like VRAINS shot itself in the foot, has been slowly bleeding out, and only now has the production decided to put it out of its misery after watching it suffer for so long.

What sucks is that like I said in my review, VRAINS ends up seeming worse than ARC-V because whereas ARC-V had potential and was living up to it until the halfway mark, VRAINS had potential but never lived up to it.

Cause honestly, some of the ideas in VRAINS could have been pretty compelling. The Yugioh version of Batman trying to put an end to what caused his trauma, the questions of what makes something human and if free will is a good thing, dealing with PTSD and loss, the idea of technology engrossing our lives and eventually being our downfall. But nope, VRAINS just shot itself in the foot with most of the ideas being only skin deep, and most of the characters being underdeveloped.

It's why I feel Ryoken, Takeru, and Ai were the only good characters in the long run. They all had arcs that explored their characters, the ideas of guilt, loss, trauma, and trying to overcome them, and we got to see them develop from it. Its why I feel one of them should have been the main character rather than Yusaku.

I thought it was pretty odd how the very first episode just had people standing around exposit instead of having something happen. Hell Fate Stay Night prequel, Fate/Zero, had the decency to have two characters exposit by walking around the person in circles and one I recall even had a wine glass to show he was a prick.

While we got three chess pieces standing around talking with a person and....nothing. They just stood in place. Not even any emoting.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Sep 24th 2019 at 5:35:40 AM

None of the others would really work as the main character though, not unless you drastically alter the story.

Ryoken was straight up a Knight Templar in the first season; that's a no-no for Yugioh protagonist. Ai wasn't even human until the 3rd season, and even then he's already the secondary main character after Yusaku. Takeru could work, but then you'd have to write out Yusaku entirely.

What Vrains needed was simply better pacing and focus on the characters. Instead, we got a bunch of exposition as said, and recap episodes and telling us why these events are important, but never actually spend any time developing them for the audience to care about. It just makes everything feel hollow in the end.

Like you said, it had potential, but it just never lived up to it. Arc-V crashed and burned, but Vrains never even left the ground to begin with.

Though that means that the aftershocks of Arc-V's troubles mid series had doomed VRAINS before it even started (it being one of several factors behind the recaps). I hope Gallop uses this rare break to ensures that Arc-V's troubles don't extend to the series after VRAINS.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Sep 24th 2019 at 7:59:54 AM

Were ALL of those troubles caused by the movie? Seems hard to believe.

Well given what happened to the last season of 5D's when Bonds Beyond Time came out, I'm inclined to believe so.

So movies can trash TV shows not even made yet.

Damn.

Yeah. I don't think we'll be seeing any more Yugioh movies.

They utterly destroy the shows they are based on.

That's assuming the production for potential movies cares. DSOD as far as I'm aware made bank, so if they see profit in another movie, they'll make it and steal away the staff from the anime without a second thought since it would mean more Money, Dear Boy.

Edited by RebelFalcon on Sep 24th 2019 at 1:10:59 PM

In the case of Bonds Beyond Time, the main issue was that the director and head writer of 5D's also worked on the movie. This was not the case for DSOD as it was directed by Zexal's director, although Katsumi Ono was directing another series (Symphogear GX) during part of Arc-V's run.

Speaking of which, Studio Gallop was also working on another anime during VRAINS' run, so that may not have helped things alongs (also Yoshida being busy with the Arc-V manga and Isekai Izakaya "Nobu").

Anyway, the final episode of VRAINS has aired today. The epilogue definitely could have used more time but was fine overall and showed how everyone was doing. The duel was overall good, much better than the previous two final duels were. Also, Ai dies but the final scene shows he has been revived somehow, though how and why is left to the viewer's imagination but given that Yusaku was stated as missing for a while, it's not hard to imagine he might be the one reponsible.

So, I won't lie, VRAINS could have been better than it ended being. The concepts and ideas are good but were handled clumsily or not fully exploited. The writing felt unpolished, especially during the second season. In regards to characters, the small size of VRAINS' cast hurt it as it forced major characters to act as jobbers which hurt their win-loss ratio. Hopefully, they'll try to find an equilibrium between Arc-V and VRAINS in that regard for the next series. Also, several of them could have been used better and/or more often. Theme-wise, I'd say that the show was pretty clear about it and handled it rather well.

In regards to the duels, they were good overall. The decks suited the characters who used them and overall each managed to feel unique in terms of strategy. I liked how it didn't always end up being beatdown versus beatdown, such as the Burn vs Burn between Aoi and one of Sol Tech's AI or Spectre and Akira leaning more toward defensive and stall playstyles.

Overall, the show is okay. It's not the most engaging, entertaining or well-written story in the franchise but taking production issues into account, it turned out decent. Not the best or in the top 3 YGO series, but not the worst either.

Edited by PhantomBladewing on Sep 25th 2019 at 3:04:23 PM

I went in with little expectations and I still ended up disappointed.

Where in gods name did Yusaku get Accesscode? In all the other series, the final boss monster for the MC had at least some explanation behind its creation. Neos-Wiseman was the fusion of Judai's Light and Darkness, Neos and Yubel. Shooting Quasar was formed from the bonds of the Signers and achieving Over Top Clear Mind. Number F0 was crafted from Yuma's latent Chaos energy. The Odd-Eyes and Dimension Dragon combos were made through the power of the Dragon Boys united in Yuya. Where the hell did Yusaku get Accesscode from though? He never got it from a data storm on screen, and no explanation is given for its existence aside from "Boss Monster".

The duel feels like it ended in Plot Induced Stupidity. Ai knew Yusaku had something planned regarding Decode Talker, but still chose to use TA.i. Strike rather than just kill Decode with Dark Templar. I could forgive it for Ai thinking it was a 50/50 chance and Ai just made the wrong bet, but the fact this was only explained after the fact rather than having Ai contemplate it seems like cheap justification.

The epilogue may seem nice, but very little of it seems earned. The only ones that seemed earned were Emma and Kengo's and Takeru and Kiku's. Even then they still decided to not even give Kiku a virtual avatar of her own. Go's redemption was rushed overall so it doesn't feel like he earned back the right to be this Duel Champion again. All of SOL Tech suddenly being back up and running doesn't feel earned when Ai had control of it and no explanation is given for why Akira is now CEO. Aoi seemed to be Leaning on the Fourth Wall when she said she didn't contribute to the ending. And while its nice Jin recovered, it still rings a little bittersweet since he's only back to normal because of Lightning, and that while he may not remember the Lost Incident, he now has a gap in his memories lasting roughly ten years. Pandor's still around, but that whole "finding the answer yourself" thing amounted to nothing.

Then of course we have Yusaku... first off, regarding the simulation. I know this may be a case of Reality Is Unrealistic, but I find my suspension of disbelief a little shaken when we're shown that the simulation of Ai being the only living A.I. results in Yusaku mowed down by the military. He's a freaking teenager and while its only a silhouette, we still see the army filling him with lead just for blocking them from attacking Ai. And it's not like he was Taking the Bullet, they only started firing after he went to defend Ai, and based on the simulation, it was only Ai in the area, not an army of A.I.'s, meaning the implication is that the army was so desperate to kill Ai for whatever reason, they'd mow down a teenage civilian to do so.

Next, Yusaku is absent from the epilogue for all but about ten seconds. He has been gone for three months and we have no idea what the hell he's been doing, and we just get him dropping into Link VRAINS, no explanation aside from everyone repeating "He'll return". Hell, he apparently hasn't been seen since he went to face Ai, meaning his apartment has been empty, so where the hell has he been living?!

Lastly Ai... I take back whatever grievances I had with him in Season 2.5, I almost shed a tear over his death. However, the idea of him suddenly being alive again with no explanation. I knew they weren't gonna kill him off for real, but I'd like at least some explanation for why he's still around. I get that we're supposed to be under the impression Yusaku spent the last three months trying to revive him, but my suspension of disbelief is hit again because 1. Yusaku may be a good hacker, but he's not an A.I. developer or programmer. Even if he could successfully find every single fragment of Ai left before he erased himself, I doubt he'd be able to revive him all on his own. 2. Nothing about it is ever explained! You can't just have us "infer" on what happened in the ending, otherwise its left an Ambiguous Situation, and Ai still being alive can seem like an Unexplained Recovery!

I'm seriously hoping Ai's revival is some kinda Sequel Hook. Even if Ai is the only character to return, I'd like something to actually come out of this. Why was he revived in a dark space anyway? If Yusaku was gonna revive him, why wouldn't he wake up in Yusaku's duel disk? So please let this be a Sequel Hook.

It's more akin to the new threat at the end of the Zexal than a Sequel Hook. It's left up to the viewer's imagination. Did Yusaku manage to bring back Ai ? Did Ai somehow come back on his own without meaning to do so ? Was it something or someolse who was responsible ? Ultimately, it's up to you to decide.

Unless YGO 7 ends up being a crossover with the past series, which could end up happening given that it's going to coincide with the anniversary of the TV animes. In which case, I could definitely see this being elaborated on.

Edited by PhantomBladewing on Sep 25th 2019 at 4:08:16 PM

Welp...that was indeed an ending

Better than ZeXal's and Arc-V's endings, not better than any others. I'd give more opinions, but ultimately, nothing this final episode did really changed my mind about anything that happened to get there. The "Was I a good partner?" "No, you were the best" is pretty fukkin' memes tho.

I also know why they showed what everyone was up to in the end, but as pointed out earlier, only some of them really feel like they were earned in any way. For me, despite me having a severe dislike for Takeru "Trauma? I don't know 'er!" Homura, he's just about the only one that got a proper end slide. Especially since he inspired local hero Brave Max, godspeed.

Please, dear god, let the next series be better than the last two (three, if you're on the "zexal was never good" side of the argument)