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*may include spoilers for season 1, but considering you're looking at this I assume you've already watched it*

I'm slightly frustrated with this so I'm writing an early review. Everything that season 1 did amazingly, season 2 just didn't do. There's so many plot holes and no direction to the plot 20 episodes in (51% of the way in). All he wants to do is meet a boy that did something weird to him and Kai. Then nothing really happens halfway through. After I'd finished season 1, I was excited to continue the series only to be met with disappointment.

Apparently the primary antagonist of season ... 1 completely forgot why he was the primary antagonist, and apparently so did Kai. He forgot why he hated Ren, but that doesn't even matter, he just goes against what he said in season 1 which leaves you feeling like 'okay then', apparently season 1 never happened. Everyone just happened to forget about psyqualia even though it was the big major plot point for season 1.

Originally I was going to give this a 6, only because I can still enjoy it, even though the story sucks for the first half of the season. But after watching it a bit more it gets a lot better, good enough to give a 7. Season 1 was just, wow, amazing. I loved it. Season 2, Kai, one of the best characters that built up the story and character development for him, Aichi and the rest of Team Q4 (and the supporting characters Miwa and Morikawa), is just not there. But all that is just knocked down and irrelevant as he is missing for half of the season without any references and everything he did in season 1 just didn't matter and the very few fights we see him in last about 30 seconds. The foundation of the story just didn't matter. However, Misaki actually has a good part in Asia Circuit-hen. Which is nice, I've been waiting to see more of her and see her have more impact in the series, other than winning 1 fight against Team Asteroid.

Still, I won't knock the season entirely in this review. Aichi isn't the typical OP protagonist, even though the opportunities are there for him to be OP. The cardfights aren't clichéd, but if you've watched season 1 you can still kind of guess the outcome. I was sad to see the first opening go after the new arc, but the new one isn't all that bad. That being said, I still prefer the first one. The sound tracks, however, are more memorable. I'm not sure if I've become more aware of them considering my last review on the first season wasn't too long ago.

The characters are still great. Ren is a lot more likeable, although his personality is a lot more different compared to season 1. It is to be expected since he's not completely obsessed with the power of psyqualia. Well, kinda. People don't hate each other which is nice to see, but there is still some competitive spirit and clashing/competitive BSing between characters (like Asaka and Misaki, but you can see the get along later on anyway).

To summarise, you won't be watching season 2 for the plot for the first half of the season. But if you don't plan on playing the game, you won't be watching vanguard for the cardfighting game anyway. So, for those plot/character-only people, try to stay patient until around episode 18/19, it gets better and there's some kind of direction and motive for the characters.

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Now that I've actually finished it, I can safely bump the story up to 6, but overall it remains at a 7. I think it could have definitely done better and had a strong, proper direction in the beginning.

The ending was indeed thrilling and the last 5 episodes were pretty solid. It was worth the wait.

It's like Yu-Gi-Oh, except the card game is unnecessarily confusing and you can actually like the female characters.

I love it, I love all the characters (except Morikawa and Kamui, but they become bearable and actually decent like 20 episodes in). The rivalry between Kai and Aichi is actually unique compared to other anime with similar aspects and genre. They don't hate each other and Aichi aspires to be like Kai, so much that he falls down the wrong path before Kai sets him right. The plot itself is actually pretty unique and it's not based solely on tournaments or character development, there's a really nice ... balance.

The main character isn't 'OP' or the 'best at the game', he actually grows and learns the game and develops through his experiences throughout the anime. There isn't actually a cliché fight so far and despite it just being about a card game, it can really put you on the edge of your seat. Things aren't dragged out and a cardfight doesn't last several episodes, so you don't get bored and feel like skipping episodes until you find out the winner.

Overall, for the story I give it a 10. All of the characters go through some sort of development process, none of them really have clichéd backstories that you can guess just by looking at the characters. The creators did really well to create a perfect balance with the characters' development and plot, as I mentioned previously. Arcs aren't so boringly long and it's not repetitive, you can't really guess what happens next. 'Vanguard' - the card game - is complex. I think they kinda overdid it with the rules and the riding/superior riding + triggers. Everything happens all at once and it's heavily RNG-based, unless of course you have the psyqualia. But that makes it even more interesting. If you're watching it to learn the game, you will have to look up the rules and do research online, either that or I'm just dense. Either way, I like it. It's unique, despite it's genre.

For art, it's actually pretty good, a solid 9 from me. They have the typical crazy, gravity defying hair, but the animation style is something you can't get bored of or hurts your eyes. I really love the details they've done for the eyes, especially for psyqualia and just how they draw your attention and allow you to interpret character's emotions. It really adds to their personalities.

Sound, there's not much to say. I love the opening/endingss, but I don't pay much attention to the OSTs playing in the back. Sometimes it can be repetitive with the sound, but tbh, that's normal. It gets an 8 from me, because I love the opening.

The characters deserve an 8.5. So I'll round it up to 9. I'll say it now, Kai and Aichi are great. They're like rivals and best friends, and this only gets stronger throughout with each fight. Their friendship gets tested several times throughout which makes them stronger and play better. Team Q4 are great, including the 'manager'. The only issue with the characters are that Komui and Morikawa are obnoxious for the first 20 episodes and Misaki, one of the best and well developed characters IMO, is introduced later on and isn't given a purpose until like 30 episodes in. She's such a good character, yet she just isn't memorable. It kinda wasted great opportunities. Aichi isn't OP from the start. He doesn't actually know what he's doing. He learns the game and doesn't suddenly get good at the game, which is nice, it has great pacing and isn't boring because he's already the best.

Enjoyment and overall, I give this a 9. The thing that lets it down the most is just that the sound isn't something that resonates and isn't memorable other than the opening and the issues with the characters which I mentioned.

I love this show and even though I'm not yet finished with it, I know that I will love it til the very end.

This was my absolute favourite anime before I watched Hunter x Hunter 2011. Everything about it just dragged me in and made me enjoy it. The art style may start off slightly odd (normal for 2006 ish anime), but makes a dramatic improvement by the second arc.

The story is well crafted and little details are not missed out. The only problem people may have of this are the fillers, but when I watched it, the fillers were pretty amazing, unlike in Naruto where they were completely unrelated to what was actually happening in the main story.

Every single opening is just amazing and I'm torn ... between which one is my favourite out of the second and first because they're just so great and hits you with that nostalgia and upbeat tune.

The characters are pretty decent, some of them can get annoying and stale (Orihime, Chad), there are some there for comedic effect which can get slightly annoying depending on your type of humour (Kon and that other spirit medium guy that's usually there in the fillers). Otherwise, characters like Uryu (mostly in the manga), Ichigo and the soul reaper (shinigami) captains/lieutenants end up going through some development and add a lot to the story, making it much more interesting and entertaining. The vast majority of characters, even antagonists, are likeable and, even though it is centred around Ichigo, there are a lot of times where he ISN'T the main protagonist and other characters do have to undergo changes and problems that they have to solve themselves.

- TALKING ABOUT BOTH SERIES - NARUTO AND SHIPPUDEN

When you first look at this you think wow, this is very long. Nah, over 70% of it are fillers and just don't matter.

Beside the absurd amount of fillers, the plot is pretty amazing, even though character development doesn't actually happen until half way between shippuden and doesn't happen at all in the original series. So basically you have to wait 700 episodes for Sakura to be less annoying, Sasuke to be less useless and a character who is 'there' to make Naruto's adventure somewhat meaningful. At least Kakashi stayed the best character throughout and wasn't ... killed off like most of the other few great characters.

It may sound like I'm talking bad about this, but I really did love it even though a lot of the time it was frustrating to watch.

Let me just start by saying for the first 30 episodes: I loved it. After that, I just got slightly bored of it just because it didn't seem to be going anywhere so it more or less went from a 9 to 5 within 8 episodes until I finally just dropped it. I really really wish I could have enjoyed it to the end, but the art, poor sound and the plot just didn't really captivate me long enough.

The story was dragged out too long which made the characters slightly more dull because they've done/said pretty much everything interesting so they just ended up ... recycling old things and ended up following the cliché route.

That being said, the character development isn't really that bad and they have pretty great personalities so they can be relatable.

The game was a lot better - but it did come first - and if it followed the same plot as the game I would give it a 10.

The characters were very childish (they're like 12 in the anime and 16 in the game or something) and sometimes they were unbearable - Bouquet (the hippo girl) was incredibly frustrating and the primary reason why the character score is a 4. Her only use is in the second season and even then she's still annoying and pretty much useless.

I do however absolutely love the plot and the whole shadow concept, words can't describe how ... unique and amazing it is.

Literally everyone is anti social and hates each other, it's not shown directly, but indirectly and as the anime progresses you start to realise that everyone is selfish and does everything for themselves. The 'happy' and 'sociable' characters are the ones that hate everyone, themselves and has no respect for others unless it helps them.

HOWEVER, the only 2 characters (ayanokouji and horikita) that are actually shown to detest society and physically show people that they don't like them, are the characters that are the most mentally stable and likeable characters in the show.

Everything else about this show is good, but it's hard to connect with ... any of the characters and like them.

The only good character in the show was Class D's homeroom teacher but she wasn't shown enough to give this a good rating.