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 join 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

Kogami, Ryoken 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 Supporting

Kajimoto, Daiki Japanese

Bessho, Emma Supporting

Kamakura, Yuna Japanese

Roboppy Supporting

Takahashi, Minami Japanese

Flame Supporting

Yashiro, Taku Japanese

Jitsumatsu, Teruaki Producer

Satou, Tatsuo Director

Hosoda, Masahiro Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Asano, Katsuya Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Nov 11, 2022

YLA55

Recommended

Out of all the YGO series I have watched, this series would have to be the most UNDERRATED out of the lot. I studied Media when I was in College and Uni, and this anime gets its points almost spot on. The plot twists were very well done, and it was the first time in ages I couldn't predict them. The cinematography was also handled really well. However, I scored it nine out of ten for a few reasons:

It does contain quite a few filler episodes, which does feel like the episode is a waste of time to watch. However, once the story gets back ... on track, it rescues it.

One specific character was unfairly portrayed, which didn't make me root for them as much as I hoped. It's also unfair as their real self is a lovely person.

And finally, some parts of the story near the end seem too quick. I understand there were problems whilst making this anime, but it is still worth the watch.

I personally highly recommend this anime, whether you are aware of the YGO history or not.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by YLA55 (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 2, 2023

Cozye

Mixed Feelings

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

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Cozye (13)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Aug 5, 2021

mmicb0b

Not Recommended

WARNING To explain some of my problems with this show it's almost impossible for me to not spoil anything also I HAVE to compare this show to it's predecessor for context on this show's many problems because they were the direct result of trying not to repeat that show's many problems


Ok So Arc-V which was supposed to be the show that proved anyone who said "they should have stopped after DM/GX/5DS" wrong only for it to crash and burn in a way that still baffles me in how they managed to fuck it up to this day. Why am I telling you about Arc-V ... when I already wrote a review about it because VRAINS's cardinal sin is how hard it tries to OVERCORRECT what went wrong with Arc-V. So LET'S CREATE A HYBRID OF THE WORST ASPECTS OF BOTH ATTACK ON TITAN(I am so glad that things show/manga's.final arc FINALLY made people realize how terrible that show always was) AND SWORD ART ONLINE. Yusaku is an unlikable asshole whose motivated primarily by MUH REVENGE But the way they handle his backstory (Which is admittedly pretty fucked up) is that he was just pissed he only got to drink juice boxes as a kid. However, that's not the big problem with him the big problem is he's NEVER ALLOWED TO BE WRONG ABOUT ANYTHING AND NEVER LOSES the way to write an unlikeable protagonist is to show his flaws as they are and have him improve which tbf they kinda do here IN THE LAST 15 EPISODES WHEN THE DAMAGE HAS ALREADY MORE THAN BEEN DONE. I'd rather have Yuma (who Yugioh fans treat as if he were the antichrist because dae shonen protag) because at least we're supposed to see his flaws as what they are. Go's motivations change literally every goddamn episode to the point where he might as well have been a new character at times. Takeru can best be summed up as "hey we got Eren Yager's JPN VA let's jackknife Go/Aoi's entire characters". Oh and the ACTUAL Worse part about this show, so Arc-V's biggest problem was good ideas with AWFUL execution, this show on the other hand's biggest issue is how it has good ideas in theory that never go anywhere the biggest example of this by far is how it horribly mishandles Aoi Zaizen, She was everything this show needed a likable character whose motives weren't horribly hamfisted and they actually make sense but no she's given the bitch status EVERY GODDAMN CHANCE THEY GET TO THE POINT WHERE THE WRITERS LITERALLY MAKE A GODDAMN JOKE IN THE FINALE. AI is just a cheerleader until the final arc (Which admittedly handles him well) albeit he is the one character who I've mentioned thus far that never pissed me off. The last important character is a man named Ryoken "Revolver" Kogami who much like Aoi a tragedy not because he's horribly mishandled but because he REALLY deserved to be in a much better show, his motives make sense, they for the most part aren't horribly hamfisted(Although that's kinda the point when they are), his character progression is very well done, and while he isn't the most likable guy right away AT THE VERY LEAST THEY ACTUALLY SHOW HIM AS BEING IN THE WRONG ABOUT THE THINGS HE IS and unlike Aoi, he is actually allowed to do shit. In fact, I ACTUALLY FELT ENGAGED whenever he did stuff if he were the protagonist this show would have been SO MUCH BETTER. TL DR the only two characters that keep this from being unwatchable are Aoi/Ryoken(before anyone says Emma/Akira Emma really is just 9/10 times there to explain stuff, and Akira is just an extension of Aoi both could have been cool if they actually did shit though). Onto the actual plot the stakes are always so high to the point where Yusaku is literally NEVER ALLOWED TO LOSE so it basically means there are no stakes because no matter how threatening a villain may seem Yusaku is just gonna BS his way to winning no matter WHAT HAPPENS. The villains other than Revolver/a few of season 2's villains/season 3's villains (who I CANNOT MENTION Without spoiling anything) sucked Bohman might be the worst villain in any show I've had seen because his goals change constantly and then he just becomes a generic doomsday villain whose powers literally become doing whatever the plot fucking needs him too have that duel. Basically, this show's big problem is whenever it could do anything interesting it chose to play it safe.


EDIT: I advised you to never Watch Zexal/Arc-V dubbed. I'm happy to say this show's dub is while not amazing, isn't completely unwatchable unless you just want to Laugh at it either. Most of the people in the cast actually sound like they gave a shit what they're doing/know what they're talking about (unless the character isn't supposed to know) there are. a few dab jokes but in the original it was a reference to Showa era Kamen Riders/Super Sentai so that would have likely gone by international Kids's heads. Other than some hilariously bad name changes it doesn't most importantly actively make the show your watching worse than it already is(it doesn't make it BETTER but none of the problems with the dub are exclusive to it alone there isn't as much stuff lost in translation in this and Arc-V's dubs) but at least you can tell there are people actually trying this time around)

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by mmicb0b (8)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Yu-Gi-Oh! Watch Order

by IgorGonLua

22 Entries · 32 Restacks

Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime Watch Guide

by TheCoolGuy82

16 Entries · 3 Restacks

Anime Aired/Shown on Cinema in Israel [Part 1]

by idog1999

50 Entries · 2 Restacks

	Poll: Yu☆Gi☆Oh! VRAINS Episode 76 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 7, 2018	16 replies	by on_est_mort »» Jan 8, 5:41 AM
	Poll: Yu☆Gi☆Oh! VRAINS Episode 39 Discussion Stark700 - Feb 14, 2018	36 replies	by vv1 »» Jan 5, 1:29 PM
	Poll: Yu☆Gi☆Oh! VRAINS Episode 37 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 31, 2018	14 replies	by vv1 »» Jan 5, 12:30 PM
	Poll: Yu☆Gi☆Oh! VRAINS Episode 36 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 24, 2018	11 replies	by vv1 »» Jan 2, 8:29 PM
	Poll: Yu☆Gi☆Oh! VRAINS Episode 11 Discussion Stark700 - Jul 26, 2017	28 replies	by vv1 »» Nov 22, 2024 6:32 PM