Now that the series is over, I can finally give my full review. Honestly, I know this rating seems high, but I truly did get so much emotional impact and enjoyment out of VRAINS.
I've been a long time fan of YGO, and for a long, long time, GX was my favorite series. VRAINS has finally dethroned it, which is crazy, but I think people don't give this show enough credit. This is a weekly show designed to sell a card game to you. This is, at it's core, a children's card game ad done really, really well. Everything you get on top of exciting
...
duels and cool character designs to get kids interested is a bonus, in my book, and boy did we get a lot of bonuses.
Spoilers below, but I'll try and keep them at a minimum.
STORY: 7/10
Honestly, I liked it. There were clear, consistent parts they wanted to go off of. I think the final villain was hinted at even in early S1, though most people thought it was a red herring. It was pretty cool to see those motivations and reasons for why he became the final villain be shown in the last few episodes.
S1 was pretty standard, but it was fun. There was nothing really wrong with it. I liked the mystery behind the Ignis and the Hanoi, and I liked how long they kept that going. I thought it was cool that they didn't just reveal everything or show off Hanoi more often, and it added to the intensity when we did see them. The end of S1 is still a big highlight of the series for me, and the finale duel is probably still my favorite of the show. Really good, emotional stuff.
S2 got a bit messier, especially with how hard Konami wanted to push a certain meta deck, but it introduced some cool ideas and plot threads, and by episode 70-ish stuff started picking up again and the rest of the season was actually a great watch. I liked S1 more so as a whole, but S2's last 10 episodes or so were awesome to see play out.
S3, while obviously rushed do to time, was probably the most emotionally impactful, and I really appreciated how hard they tried with how little time they had. Ever character got some cool moments, the story was interesting to follow, even if at first it left you scratching your head, and while it was minimal at times, it played out really well, even if it left a lot of questions unanswered.
ART: 7/10
Not much to say here. Liked the animation better than 5Ds overall, lmao. Some episodes were absolutely stunning, some episodes were pretty lackluster and some frames were occasionally hilarious to look at, but for the most part it was fairly consistent and more than acceptable for a long running weekly series like this.
SOUND: 9/10
The soundtrack was fantastic. First time I've actually bothered buying an anime OST because I enjoy it that much tbh. The EDs were all really good, the OPs, while they barely ever switched them, were also really good even if I got a bit sick of Go Forward by the end of S2. I know some people didn't love it, but I really did. Never got tired of hearing most of the OST, which for a weekly 120-ep series, is definitely a good thing.
CHARACTER: 9/10
Here's where people will definitely start to get angry at me, probably, lmao. A lot of people found Yusaku "boring", but I found him incredibly relatable. Maybe it's because of my own personal experiences, but hey, this is my own personal review. Revolver is the best rival we've seen in a long, long time; best rival in the entire franchise imo. Yes, better than Kaiba. His character development was incredible and it's worth watching the whole series for him alone, even ignoring the rest of the things I loved about it. Their character arcs were great and I think paced very well.
The Ignis, too, were all really interesting and different from each other. It was really cool to see their dynamics with each other and with other characters, and I loved how much thought went into their personalities and how they developed.
The only major complaint I have is with how much they shafted Aoi, but it's YGO, and they always do the girls dirty anyways. I was just glad she kept her own motivations in tact and still could duel pretty well, even if her record wasn't great.
They underutilized the side characters, but when they did appear, they were awesome and super fun to watch, so honestly, it doesn't bother me as much as it could. Spectre is a great example. He was always a delight to watch duel, whenever he did. Each character also felt distinct, even if they were a usual "trope" from YGO, too, which was cool. Soulburner never felt like just a carbon copy of Crow, even though he was obviously emulating him.
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
Yes. I really did enjoy this series this much. I don't know what it was, what kind of crazy combination made me feel this way, but every second I spent watching this anime I am happy I did. Is it the best series ever? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. But I enjoyed it more than most things I watch, anyways.
It was a really, really good ride. It was fun, it kept me hyped, it got me to binge watch 76 episodes in under two weeks to catch up last year, AND got me to finally pick up the TCG. So yeah, I really enjoyed it, and it was a successful advertisement lol.
OVERALL: 9/10
Only reason I'm not rating it a 10/10 is because of the story. They definitely could've done more with the beginning of S1 and S2, but honestly, I'm still so satisfied with what we got. This show is worth your time, even if you only find a few things to really love about it, like Revolver. If you want something a bit more serious like 5Ds, you'll probably like this.
I'm not going to mention the recaps because I'm sure everyone already knows the production issues this series was plagued with. But they honestly gave us a pretty cool show with the time/resources they had, and I'll forever be really happy with it.
Sep 25, 2019
Yu☆Gi☆Oh! VRAINS
(Anime)
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Now that the series is over, I can finally give my full review. Honestly, I know this rating seems high, but I truly did get so much emotional impact and enjoyment out of VRAINS.
I've been a long time fan of YGO, and for a long, long time, GX was my favorite series. VRAINS has finally dethroned it, which is crazy, but I think people don't give this show enough credit. This is a weekly show designed to sell a card game to you. This is, at it's core, a children's card game ad done really, really well. Everything you get on top of exciting ... Jun 26, 2016
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