Yu☆Gi☆Oh! VRAINS

The world of Duel Monsters is once again evolving with the development of a network called Link Vrains and a new summoning mechanic introduced as Link Summoning. By using this cyberspace, duelists can now create their own avatars and duel their way to glory within a virtual reality.

However, much like the real world, the digital world is not free from war, conflict, and mysteries. Years ago, a hacker organization known as the Knights of Hanoi unleashed an attack on Link Vrains. Led by the anonymous Revolver, their aim was to annihilate the artificial intelligence program known as the Cyberse. After a failed attempt, one of their targets, Ignis, managed to escape and hide the Cyberse somewhere in the network.

Five years later, high school student Yuusaku Fujiki encounters a strange artificial intelligence program while dueling in Link Vrains. Under the guise of his avatar named Playmaker, Yuusaku and his partner in crime, Shouichi Kusanagi, decide to forces with the peculiar existence. As he seeks the truth behind a mysterious incident of the past, Yuusaku battles against the Knights of Hanoi and SOL Technologies in a race that might alter the fate of the world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Fujiki, Yuusaku Main

Ishige, Shouya Japanese

Kougami, Ryouken Main

Takeuchi, Shunsuke Japanese

Ai Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Homura, Takeru Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Zaizen, Aoi Main

Nakashima, Yuki Japanese

Kusanagi, Shouichi Main

Kimura, Subaru Japanese

Spectre ing

Kajimoto, Daiki Japanese

Bessho, Emma ing

Kamakura, Yuna Japanese

Roboppi ing

Takahashi, Minami Japanese

Windy ing

Suzuki, Chihiro Japanese

Jitsumatsu, Teruaki Producer

Satou, Tatsuo Director

Hosoda, Masahiro Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Asano, Katsuya Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 25, 2019

Ellenwitch

Recommended

And so ends another Yugioh series. Though ending shorter than expected. Though really, there wasn't much else you could do with the world they've set up. Which isn't a bad thing really. But it just meant the story wrapped up quicker than expected.

As for the show itself? It got me back into Yugioh honestly. But I can see that's not without it's faults still. While I did enjoy it. There were a few things, like with some of the characters, that weren't really that great at all. Let alone the pointless recap episodes. Though thankfully those stopped after the first season.

Sooo...Does Vrains hold up ... as a Yugioh anime? It does. But certainly isn't the best at all. But still an alright series overall.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 2, 2023

Cozye

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Spoiler

From a hardcore Yu-Gi-Oh! fan, this show was somewhat disappointing. After coming off of the roller coaster that was Zexal and Arc-V (the former of which ending up pretty solid by the end), I really wanted to like this show. I thought this was going to be the 5Ds of the second trilogy of Yu-Gi-Oh! shows. I liked Yusaku’s design and the show had decent aesthetics. There are many things that hindered Vrains from being good. For one thing, the show suffered from shoddy production and change of directors leading to an excessive amount of recaps. The Goddamn Recaps!

I’ll be delving into various plot points ... so spoilers below:

But looking past that, I thought season 1 was actually fine. We got a nice introduction to our core characters of Yusaku, Aoi, and Go. Plus the knights of Hanoi were pretty menacing and Revolver was a badass rival/antagonist. There was actually some tension and potential buildup for stuff later down the line. In my opinion, this was the strongest season despite all the recaps.

Then came season 2 which I feel was when things started to take a drastic turn. We get introduced to Takeru Homura. Now I don’t hate Takeru, I just hate what they did with him. I know there was a change in director during this show so that may have played a role in this but I must say that the original vision of this show was not realized. This I can only theorize would be the trio from season 1 facing new threats as a team from the higher ups at Sol Tech. Instead they play second fiddle.

Takeru is basically Yusaku 2.0. Just the mere presence of this character completely overshadows Aoi and Go who could have had way more development alongside Yusaku. Instead we just have this guy beating everyone around him and being a Mary Sue. Granted, he does receive quite a lot of character development and ends up being the MOST developed during the show. Sure he’s loud and kinda edgy but he’s okay. The problem is that the rest of the cast becomes irrelevant as if taking a back seat. They did some...interesting things with Go Onizuka. It was a twist to be sure but I feel as if it was a bit forced. I did like how he defeated Earth and basically killed him off but this whole plot point was just so out of character from the Go of season 1.

Now onto the next problem with this season: Bowman. This man was just a walking disappointment. Sure he’s a good duelist but he’s boring. He dueled Yusaku 4 times in the show. Like what?? They could not think of anything else but to build up a rematch 3 times in a single season nor even have a tag duel with Yusaku and Revolver. They did nothing to spice things up and instead followed a bread and butter formula that was indeed predictable. The ones with plot armor were most certainly going to win.

The only redeeming thing about this season were the ignis. If not for them, this would have been insufferable to watch. I love Windy and Lightning as villains, especially in the second half. There are some good duels here. Example: Windy vs Revolver; Soulburner vs Windy; Spectre vs Lightning. Aside from that, it’s pretty much just a spiel of Bowman duels which were not fun at all.

I could go on and on about season 2 but let’s move on to season 3, which is one of the shortest seasons in Yu-Gi-Oh! history. I can’t really blame this season for anything. The staff probably knew they were going to get canceled and had to wrap it up fast but goddamn was there just so much left in the air. This could have been the season that redeemed Vrains but instead it was a rushed hot mess. Personally, I love Ai as a villain. I think it’s a great twist and adds potential drama in the mix. Roboppy’s duel with Soulburner was a treat to see and it had some Arc-V vibes going on (if you know what I mean). Even Soulburner vs Revolver is pretty incredible serving as a closure for both of their characters. Yusaku vs Ai might be one of my favorite end of series duels in all of Yu-Gi-Oh. And that’s where the praising ends. The other characters barely got any screen time and other potential plot points got shafted. I wanted more from this season but sadly we won’t get any.

By the end of this show, Yusaku is clearly the biggest Mary Sue in Yu-Gi-Oh! history with plot armor as large as the Pacific Ocean. He had all his development in season 1 and was never fleshed out again. The rest of the cast is just...dead. The show lost its flair after season 1 which is a huge disappointment. Vrains was no dark horse of the franchise. In fact, it was very close to being a dumpster fire and I hate to say it because there were things I legitimately enjoyed and wanted to enjoy more of. I did like the way it ended though. I can only pray that Yu-Gi-Oh! 7 can make use of this 6 month development gap to make up for the disaster that was Vrains.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 25, 2019

Keita2014

Not Recommended

I've always been a big fan of the Yugioh series. Each iteration managed to improve upon its predecessors in some way or another, while still keeping things "fresh". Yugioh 5D's pushed the envelope with its outrageous concept and it succeeded. Coupled with strong characters and a great storyline, 5D's is easily my favourite of the series. Comparing the later seasons to the earlier ones, it becomes clear that the newer yugioh anime take a similar route to a specific earlier part; especially in the tone, character designs as well as themes. Zexal has its roots in the original DM, ARC V in GX and this ... yugioh Vains in 5D's. I was taught not to judge a book by its cover, so I kept an open mind towards Vrains despite my high hopes. Whether people want to overlook it or not is up to the individual, but I believe it fails at many fundamentals for writing a good story. This review will go into details why I feel this way.

Story:
First, let's get this out of the way: Episodes 13, 21, 29, 38, 59, 83 and 103 are recaps which only retell the old story without much new stuff. At most, it has one single new scene splashed at the end to seem not completely purposeless. These points are nothing you don't pick up later and I suggest to just skip these episodes completely.

Now about the actual story: The series is based in a world of the near future where a massive Virtual Reality Network called LINK VRAINS has been established. By using LINK VRAINS, Duels unfold where Duelists change their appearance separate from their real life identities. However, in LINK VRAINS, a mysterious hacker group that hacks via Dueling has appeared: The Knights of Hanoi. Their goal is to destroy a specific Ai known as Cyberse that exists somewhere in the depths of the Network. There is one enemy who stands in their way, Playmaker. His true identity is ordinary high school student Yusaku Fujiki, who wants to find out the truth of an incident that happened in his past.

Vrains plot is easily its biggest problem. It follows a straight line and doesn't take longer ways, even if it should. We go from 1 duel to the next, not showing the impact each individual conflict and event has. Because of that, it feels rushed more often than not and doesn't leave the characters nor the viewer any time to breath. On the other hand, at some points the show feels slow and dragging. The another arc or the first half of the lost memories arc could easily be reduced to half the episodes, but includes unneccessary duels and fanservice with almost no story. And the problem about no story shows itself in almost every big arc. It usually means 10-20 episodes of only duels with pretty much nothing but duels. The entertainment goes down to zero and stays there until something plot- or character related happens, which usually takes a lot of time. That quickly becomes very boring and at some points, watching the recaps instead feels like the right way just because it doesn't consume a lot of time. Unfortunately, the anime isn't able to ever recover from this issue and you can only hope it will ever have something to show besides the duels. Sadly, you lose interest before that moment comes.

And now I got to address the ending arc of the show. Comparing different Yugioh Anime with one other is simply not fair, as it always prevents a neutral view on each individual installment; but there is a point to be made here. The 3 prior yugioh anime went from 146 – 154 episodes, which shows their similar planing and execution over all series. Yugioh Vrains drops in at only 120 episodes, already giving you an idea that something didn't go as planned. In fact, I'd consider only the first 102 episodes to be the actual plot and the last 17 episodes to be the epilogue. That could have worked on its own, if they just wanted to complete the character arcs and give an actual ending to all the main and side characters. But unfortunately, it rather tried to put in an unnessessary longer plot into these episodes too, which prevented the writers from giving each character the respect and time he/she deserves. Some characters even got worse treatment than the first two seasons gave them, which is a shame since the anime certainly had the time to give everyone a satisfying conclusion.

Characters:
The characters are the strong point of the show. I'll separate the main characters and lump together the not so main characters:
Yusaku Fujiki/Playmaker: Yusaku is the Main Character of the anime and a hacker who fights against evil organizations in the Network alongside his Partner Ai. Being written in the typical "OP Badass" Archetype, he doesn't show emptions while being very powerful. This Archetype needs 2 basic things to be able to work: The Character needs negatives, in some way or another, and needs to be an actual character with personality. The first point was made fair enough, with him being social unable to speak normal to others or form real bonds. What the writers forgot though is his personality. Most of the time, he is just a puppet like figure saying the obvious things without anything resembling a human being. It is good to make a character flawed, but leaving out a personality is inexcuseable. Adding to that his lack of development makes him one of the anime's worst characters, which is a shame since protagonists should be the driving force behind the show, not a continuous brake.
Aoi Zaizen/Blue Angel: She is Yusaku's Classmate and an entertainment duelists in the VRAINS known as Blue Angel who gets caught up in the multi-sided war. Aoi is one of the anime's best characters, both in her personality and goals. In the real world, she is a quiet and shy girl with difficulties in private relationships. In the Network World however, she becomes an active, happy and free dueltainer who just does the things she wants to do. This duality is very important, as her differences between her real self and online avatar are drastic and undeniable. This makes her feel alive and relatable, as everyone on the internet nowadays has an avatar where everyone can be whoever everyone wants to be. Unfortunately, Vrains lacks this important theme for most of it's run, as every other character is the same in real life and in game. Her Goals are (without getting into too many spoilers) relatable and basic, making her again more human. They shift multiple times over the series, showing her development as a character and different views on the world around her.
Ai/Dark Ignis: Being a member of the Cyberse, his life is sought after by the Knights of Hanoi. He is your expected partner, or more pet for most of Vrains run. He is often there when action takes place, but doesn't do anything besides looking. And the consequence is, that he feels uninteresting and unneccessary. He does have some important moments, but is mostly just doing things in the shadow, if at all. As the anime continues, he gets more development, a personality other than pure comedy and becomes more realistic and mature. By the end of the series, he is one of the best characters not just in Yugioh Vrains, but in the whole Franchise. It just takes a long time to get there.
Ryoken Kogami/Revolver: He is the Leader of the Knights of Hanoi and wants to kill the Cyberse. Ryoken is the most developed character in the anime. His character is vastly different from the beginning and end of the show. Besides being gone for 10 – 20 episodes occasionally, he drives the plot forward and is the most active character. Unlike the others though, his character arc constantly develops with every duel he has, which makes him more interesting and deeper.
Takeru Homura/Soulburner: Takeru is a friend and ally of Yusaku who appears first in the second season. He is a self confined and energic teenager who is trapped in his past and wants to be able to move forward. Therefore, he s yusaku and follows him to eventually find a way to let his past behind. Takeru is the most relatable and realistic character in the show. We get a lot of backstory and everyday life displayed, which lacks in many other aspects of the anime. His character arc is mostly the same as yusaku's first, but far better executed. The one problem is that he feels too much like a Playmaker 2.0, which lessens our interest and investment in him and feels unoriginal. Besides that, his writing is pretty much flawless.

Villains: The Villains are the strongest points in the whole show. Especially the major antagonists of each season are relatable, well-developed and have a good motive for their action, Going deeper would be a spoiler, but they are certainly the highlight of the anime. Even though not all are great, most of them are.

Other/Minor Characters: The other characters mostly do their job. Some are better than others, but none are very outstanding. They have unique arcs and expand the world building in individual ways. Vrains isn't able to let its characters drop, which later on leads to some duelists just hanging around in the story without any influence or point to it. Instead of writing them out of the story and giving them individual endings during the story, the team made them stay in the plot far longer than needed, which keeps the focus away from our protagonists, as we first have to somehow get these characters out of the picture to let the important characters duel.

Art:
The animation really isn't that breathtaking and only works most of the time. As a long-running anime, you can clearly see how they often had to re-use old animation and backgrounds. There was also the change in directors very early in the series, where there was supposed a huge improvement; apparently, animation wasn't one of them. It works most of the time, and sometimes they show where the budget went into: These moments are usually the summoning- and attack animations during the duels. The animation and Art is good when it counts, but isn't worth pointing out otherwise.

Soundtrack:
Just like the Art, the soundtrack isn't at all breathtaking and only works most of the time. Some of the music that was used was fitting for the themes and atmosphere of the anime, but it normally just appears without any other reason than a "cool moment" or "amazing strategy" being displayed in a duel. It is often enjoyable, but nothing more than that and adds nothing to the series other than having sound at all. And having the same music play over 100+ episodes becomes boring and repetitive either way.

Enjoyment:
There isn't anything else to point out besides the good and bad points that were already mentioned. Vrains was often entertaining, but the huge problems just stuck out during most of it's run.

Overall:
Yugioh Vrains has a few good points, but fails at many basics in story development and character building. My recommendation: If you are already a fan of the other yugioh anime or are interested for any other reason, you might want to check it out and decide to stop or continue after 20 episodes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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