Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS

[~British Soul~]

As of right now, I find Ghost Girl to be a more charming and interesting female lead than Blue Angel. She's got computer skills and should be pretty decent at dueling, and can move much more freely and interact with more people. Plus, is not a goody two shoes or as emotionally fragile. Wouldn't have minded if she had been the one promoted instead of Blue Angel's image before the show began.....

I have to agree. I also like Ghost Girl more than Blue Angel as she is a more interesting character. I do look forward to what more she can bring to the table.

[~British Soul~]

https://ygorganization.com/vrains-director-change/

 

The chief Director for VRAINS has apparently changed from Episode 14 onwards.

 

As of Episode 14: Hosoda, Masahiro has apparently stepped down from the role of Director. Taking over is:

浅野　勝也 Asano Katsuya

Notably he hasn’t takeen up the Director’s chair before, but has been animation director for select episodes of shows such as:

• Binchou-tan
• Potemayo
• Kimikiss Pure Rouge
• Kemeko Deluxe!
• Squid Girl
• Ro-Kyu-Bu!
• Medaka Box

 

No reason for the Director change has been provided, whether Hosoda simply left or was removed for unsatisfactory work, but with the change, it is noted Episode 14 had much more diverse backgrounds as well as more flexible Link Summoning animation, so it could be speculated this could be related to the change of who’s filling the Director’s seat.

[Atypical-Abbie]

[spoiler=EP14]

• Akira's former boss seems way harsher than Akira does. His character design is also ridiculously silly.
• Paused when Ghost Girl is writing an E-Mail, her subject line is "Hello Daddy Long Legs", which is a bit odd. Also, some "code" in the background is in english, well, broken english, but still, shows what looks to be some commands for cards, I saw Altergeist Marionetter in there at least.
• Somehow Yusaku is able to read encrypted data, not sure if that's actually something programmers and hackers can learn, but I very much doubt it, since it tends to be different from program to program from what I have gathered.
• Back to Speed Duels again, was good while it lasted, but ah well.
• Huh, the Link Summoning animation is different for Ghost Girl at least. Also, maybe I didn't notice this before, but the HUD for Link Monsters shows the Link Arrows as well, that's pretty neat.

 

 

[~British Soul~]

[spoiler=Thoughts on VRAINS 14]
- Ghost Girl deduces that no normal duelist can use Storm Access and says that Playmaker has some connection with data material
- We now know that Akira was demoted and not fired, but his former boss looks quite harsh
- Using Kusanagi's source code, Ghost Girl was able to make a program to try and access SOL's data bank
- So if Playmaker wins, he'll get the program so he can learn more about that incident, though we'll have to wait and see how much data is stored in the data bank.
- The reporters are threatened with the sack if they don't fill the gap to create that TV special, kek
- Back to Speed duels it seems. Not overly surprised, but oh well. It was fun seeing the Master duel when we had it.
- We have different animation for Link Summoning now, cool. Though I'm aware that this is related to the change of director.

 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

[spoiler=VRAINS 14]

• Akira got demoted, but not fired. OK, at least he still has a job.
• Replacement/old boss is a legitimate jabroni and pretty sure would be in violation of some labor laws (in terms of fair pay, because he apparently threatened to cut salaries by half if they didn't work fast enough)
  • Akira apparently mentions this too. (Moral of the story, company executives are bastards and only care about money and efficiency; and likely less about treating their workers as human beings.)
• Ghost Girl proves to be loyal to no one; she only takes SOL jobs for connections. 
• Yusaku accepts duel with her; backdoor information to the incident in exchange for AI if he loses. 
• I like the condensed Link Summoning sequence; probably they heard fans complain about it so...
• Yusaku's currently in a position where he faces a possible OTK. (At least Ghost Girl knows to kill him before his LP reaches 1000).
• About Altergeists, Konami, please print the Trap Card; kthxbai. (Likely will in EXFO, but we'll have to wait and see.) Now if they could only be as good IRL as they apparently are in here. 

 

 

[UltimateIRS]

Notably he hasn’t takeen up the Director’s chair before, but has been animation director for select episodes of shows such as:

• Binchou-tan
• Potemayo
• Kimikiss Pure Rouge
• Kemeko Deluxe!
• Squid Girl
• Ro-Kyu-Bu!
• Medaka Box

 

Hope this doesn't turn the show to sheet.

[~British Soul~]

 

Hope this doesn't turn the show to sheet.

To be fair, I had never watched them (or heard of 'em), so I don't have much of an opinion on them.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Think the same applies to most of us in here; we haven't seen / heard of them, so if the episodes he was in charge in were terrible, then we don't know. (I vaguely heard of the last one but never watched it).

 

So far, he didn't mess up this episode.

[Atypical-Abbie]

[spoiler=EP15]

• The interesting thing about Cyberse is that they teach you about a bunch of different computing things, I had no idea what striping meant, so it was need to look that up
• It's interesting that they think that it's a complex duel, when there is really nothing about this we haven't seen before.
• Yusaku is also using the new Link Summoning animation, which is nice for people who were tired of the other one.
• So Yusaku won yet again. It's about time he gets a loss, I wonder when they'll do that.

 

 

[~British Soul~]

[spoiler=Thoughts on VRAINS 15]
- You'd think Ignis would be a bit more subtle with its shitty acting, but Ghost Girl wasn't convinced. (Then again, neither would any decent player)
- I thought when Playmaker was stopped from using his skill, he'd have to do it next turn or something. Ofc I'm not sure why I thought that
- I suppose Playmaker should be congratulated for getting something medocre from Storm Access (IRL speaking), but it was conveniently useful in this situation.
  - Though I will say, I didn't think we'd see Excode Talker this early tbph.
- I do wonder when the plot will allow Playmaker to lose tbph. His plot armour is almost as bad as Yusei's currently (like Yusei, only loss was in a flashback, the only difference being he has had a draw)
- Kek at the reporter's footage being deleted by Ghost Girl.

 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

[spoiler=VRAINS 15]

• Yusaku just happened to have a Battle Fader esque card in hand to protect him from getting OTK'd.
  • AI has shitty acting, but I guess it saved Yusaku from getting blasted.
• Ghost Girl tried to stop him from using Storm Access, but he found more ways to trigger it and make Excode / do whatever.
  • If she had drawn another Marionette (or anything higher than 1100 ATK if they are getting one), Yusaku would've been screwed over.
• Reporters comment "oh this is complicated"; uh, it's not like the meta isn't already complicated as hell with combos. 
• Yusaku won again; I wouldn't have minded him losing a duel for once, but...
• I guess we get new cards from Yusaku later, but...

 

 

[Sleepy]

[spoiler=VRAINS 15]

 

I would enjoy it if Yusaku's hand wasn't as situationally perfect against his opponents in such a compressed way. Especially when we are talking about enough of a number of cards that are just new. Yusaku's duel style is pretty much every Cyberse support out there, and this includes pack filler that's not meant to be used ever again.... i'm not sure I am liking that aspect.

 

This is the duel he was best setup for losing. It was secretive so it didn't damage any image, and she's not a Hanoi so it doesn't have any unfixable risks for him. Sure, Ghost Girl at this time in the story could be prone to maybe going to Hanoi and trying to sell the info she'd get, but that's a "maybe" because she is driven by interest but she doesn't seem to be THAT greedy that she'd sell him out. Especially if they keep the part of him rescuing her from the storm. I question if he's gaining anything here anyways because she couldn't use that door herself.

 

Besides, she studied his moves so it'd only make sense for him who is going YOLO against her to lose. The show can always fix a rematch somehow where he'd actually prepare.

 

I overall feel like the duels made a tremendous jump compared to the first one. We went from a -2 Tribute Summon to consistent multiple Link Summons in a turn. I think it'd be much better to have had more of a transitional growth in the show's moves. I know people are generally complaining the duel wasn't as complex as the cameramen implied, but still I'd appreciate a little bit more slowness just to get the audience more familiarized with the cards.

 

 

[Dokutah]

[spoiler=episode 16]

ah Ghost Girl you really not gonna spent even a dime of grace girl? using Yusaku that far...

so Aoi is basically get locked in the house...seems excessive.

so the next episode might be a tag duel of Playmaker, Blue angel  and 2 SOL tech's Prototype Duel Ais. which not started smoothly (freak-in Hand Disruption Deck)

 

 

[Atypical-Abbie]

Oh no, I forgot to watch it and somebody got to review it first, curses!

 

[spoiler=EP16]

• Not sure if it was just suppose to be a program or something, but seems like you don't have use VR to actually go into LINK VRAINS, since Blue Angel was able to do it using a tablet instead.
• So SOL technologies are making AI duelists, that's interesting. I wonder if they'll make them better than the actual AI from the games (shots fired!)
• For some reason Yusaku is diving like he's swimming in a maze with a bunch of death diamonds, that's a bit odd, I get that it's a virtual world and they can do anything and that it's about time something new happens in this world, but whhhyyyy?
• Cute, Sphere Kuriboh makes a cameo, random but cute regardless.
• Yusaku gets to duel the AI already, I wish they would have gone for a Battle Royal, since we haven't seen that this series yet.
• Oh hey, Machine Duplication, rare to see a real game being used in the anime, and Tentacluster look pretty neat. I wonder if they'll make them into a real thing, the hand destruction may be a bit much, but they could tone it down of course.
• Blue Angel to the rescue once more! I wonder if may they'll do a tag team duel?

 

 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

[spoiler=VRAINS 16]

• Kitamura has no morals and orders the AI to steal Yusaku's Disk and rough him up. 
• AI plays hand destruction; I mean, it's potent as hell, but in our world, we have GY trigger cards which care about it less. (AI was lucky he wasn't fighting DWs or Infernities, etc, because former can trigger and do sheet.)
  • At the moment though, Yusaku effectively has no hand, and obviously can't expect anyone to fight without one. (Speed Duels hurt more; standard ones, maybe not so much because larger hand and you can at least regroup.)
• Sphere Kuriboh gets cameo; cool.
• I wish they showed a view of the Link Markers this time, because I had to use Wikia to figure out what its markers were. 
• Blue Angel / Aoi doesn't come school, but likely due to that robot blocking her.
  • She at least gets into the computer and infiltrates, so more action from her next; cool.

 

 

[Expelsword]

Is it just me, or does everyone in VRAINS getting AI assistance during duels make them seem less skilled than previous series?

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

To an extent, yes, they do feel weaker if they rely on the AI in their disks for help. If I remember correctly,

• Aoi's one warned her about her burn combo leaving Yusaku with some LP instead of flat out killing him
• Onizuka about his attack leaving only 100 LP after Yusaku messed it up.
• Ghost Girl about why Yusaku did what he did (to trigger Skill).

Right now, all of the instances refer to telling anyone Yusaku fights "you must either keep him above 1000 LP or kill him in one shot, if you don't want to trigger his Skill and pull a new boss out of thin air." Ghost Girl at least knew this and almost succeeded. (Then again, Yusaku had Ai/Ignis open up Data Storms for him so he can actually pull random Links, so...)

 

Other than Yusaku's Storm Access thing (yes, Revolver did it too but he only dueled once + had no AI), the rest of the players who have AI assistances can generally hold out on their own.

[SkaterTheDJWolf]

[spoiler=VRAINS 16]I have one thing to say to SOL's heads, Kitamura, Ema, and basically anyone in a corporation in this show:

Other than that, the infinite potential of humanity cause imperfections thing in the preview, as well as Kitamura's ideals, might be fun to explore as the series goes on.

[Atypical-Abbie]

[spoiler=EP17]

• Dang, no tag team duel, that is too bad. Hey, at least we get two duels at once, that hasn't happened yet.
• Battle of the effect damage, who can play cheaply the fastest!
• Uhh, an Archfiend Link Monster, sort of anyway.
• Woooow, that buttshot of Trickstar Black Catbat. This is officially subtitled too, surprised they had that in there.
• Zeizen can duel? Who knew? Well, should be interesting. Also, saw it was a Master Duel in the preview, so that's fun.
• Sorry that I don't have much more to say, pretty bland episode, battling AI was not as interesting as it could have been.

 

 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

[spoiler=VRAINS 17]

• Meh, Playmaker wins in one turn and draws a new Link Monster. At least the markers are somewhat helpful.
• Trickstar vs Tentacluster; haha, who can play Chain Burn better. (Blue Angel barely won out in the end, but hey, she actually gets a win on-screen.)
• AIs are boring.
• Kitamura blowing stuff because his AIs are defeated, Zaizen infiltrated the bank and he faces getting fired. Karma's a jabroni, isn't it?
• Konami, release the Trickstar stuff; kthxbai.

 

 

[Sleepy]

[spoiler=17]

The burn exchange was a mess. Each side commanded "burn for 200" like 20 times to each other and suddenly stopped when both were 1 burn short of losing. I don't think they even explained over half of it.

 

I feel potentially dumb, but I didn't get Yusaku's game either. I was following it, Special Summon + Machine Dupe = 3 monsters = Link 3 with 0 ATK. Kay.

Then Link's on-Summon effect Special Summoned a different monster from the hand. Kay. A second one came out, but I don't think they say if its the first one's eff, the Link's eff, the Normal Summon, or if it even came from the hand too..... but no biggie, what's next?
Pops both ammo with Link, I guess the ammo each discards 1 card from Yusaku. Proceeds to discard 4, and the 5th card as he draws it. I clearly missed something.Did new ammo come into the field? who did what and from where?

 

I'd probably be able to grasp this if I went to TCG and looked up the effects of these anime cards, but shouldn't the anime do things in a way that such a thing is not needed?

 

That's before starting to talk about Yusaku's cards. So now Yusaku's entire hand played from the GY, even the equip got itself back. IDK, it all feels complicated, but at the same time really dumb.

 

 

[VCR_CAT]

[spoiler=17]

The burn exchange was a mess. Each side commanded "burn for 200" like 20 times to each other and suddenly stopped when both were 1 burn short of losing. I don't think they even explained over half of it.

 

I feel potentially dumb, but I didn't get Yusaku's game either. I was following it, Special Summon + Machine Dupe = 3 monsters = Link 3 with 0 ATK. Kay.

Then Link's on-Summon effect Special Summoned a different monster from the hand. Kay. A second one came out, but I don't think they say if its the first one's eff, the Link's eff, the Normal Summon, or if it even came from the hand too..... but no biggie, what's next?

Pops both ammo with Link, I guess the ammo each discards 1 card from Yusaku. Proceeds to discard 4, and the 5th card as he draws it. I clearly missed something.Did new ammo come into the field? who did what and from where?

 

I'd probably be able to grasp this if I went to TCG and looked up the effects of these anime cards, but shouldn't the anime do things in a way that such a thing is not needed?

 

That's before starting to talk about Yusaku's cards. So now Yusaku's entire hand played from the GY, even the equip got itself back. IDK, it all feels complicated, but at the same time really dumb.

 

 

 

[spoiler=A helpful explanation]

both of the drill monsters can banish themselves to discard another card through a means I forget because episode 16 was two weeks ago, but I do recall each having a second discard effect, and then he did something for the 5th card. A second watch-through would probably clear it up, but I don't blame you if you don't want to watch that duel again; it was kinda meh.

 

 

[Sleepy]

[spoiler=A helpful explanation]

both of the drill monsters can banish themselves to discard another card through a means I forget because episode 16 was two weeks ago, but I do recall each having a second discard effect, and then he did something for the 5th card. A second watch-through would probably clear it up, but I don't blame you if you don't want to watch that duel again; it was kinda meh.

 

 

 

[spoiler=spoiler]

 

Oh I see xD

It probably was a quick effect or something along those lines. The cards in hand were 

1) Machine Dupe

2) Monster that was duped

3 & 4) 2 copies of the same drill.

 

Yeah it explains it for the most part. 

 

The duel was kinda meh, but I have to say, I really dig the design of that link. It looks like a Ctulu face. I think they should have given him burn. The deck lacks a win condition outside of draining both player resources. That, or if an IRL version of it had a built-in ATK boost over the use. There's a number of things that could have been improved upon

 

Thank you!

 

 

[~British Soul~]

Oh no, I forgot to watch it and somebody got to review it first, curses!

I know this is from last week, but it wasn't like it was the end of the world that you didn't get your thoughts in first ::  .

 

Anywho, finally caught up;

[spoiler=Thoughts on VRAINS 16]

- Wow, so Aoi was put under house arrest following the incident, seems excessive

- SOL are creating AI duelists now. Not overly surprising, but still interesting

- I know it's random, but I liked that Sphere Kuriboh cameo'd to protect Playmaker from the "death diamonds"

- Ghost Girl and Akira also go into the computer in the hopes that they'll be undetected due to the AIs being occupied by Playmaker. (That'll go down well I reckon  )

- Tentaclusters look interesting, though Ignis remarks that they have no flavour, which is refuted by Playmaker, saying it's a legit strategy (but so is camping... *shot*)

- Midway through the duel Kitamura decides to have the AI steal Playmaker's duel disk... ok

- Playmaker is saved by Blue Angel. Neat that she's getting more action.

 

 

 

[spoiler=Thoughts on VRAINS 17]

- Akira didn't like that Aoi was in here too, but Ghost Girl reminded they needed to keep moving to get to the data first

- Blue Angel vs the AI turned into a burn fest basically, well then.

- I suppose it's convenient that Playmaker had cards with GY effects to get back into the game... in addition to acquiring a new Link from Storm Access

- Kitamura goes on a firing spree after the AI's loss, someone using but, etc. (In addition to going mad when he discovers Akira in the data bank) Then goes on to assume he'll be sacked as well.

- Akira decides to duel Playmaker. At least it'll be a master duel.

- That buttshot of Aoi's new Link though. (I wondered what it was when I saw a pic of that on Twitter)

 

 

[Atypical-Abbie]

[spoiler=EP18]

• So not everyone at SOL knows about the experiment from 10 years ago. Admittedly, most of them look like they would be in their pre-teens at that point anyway.
• Oh the future, a simple wrist flick and you turn on your computer, that wouldn't be an issue at all, nope nope!
• Tindangle? The hell is a tindangle? I think its like suppose to be triangle due to his use of Lemoine Point and the fact that they appear to have triangle shapes, but not even close? I know Japan sometimes has problems, but I'm not sure what they are going for here. Anyway, Fiend Flips, that's fun, yet another Flip based Archetype, who knew they cared so much about me!
• Weird, we get Gadget Tokens in the anime before we see them IRL.
• We learn that Zaizen and Aoi are orphans and that he used to hack into banks and what not to get by.