Shadowverse Flame

In 2020 when the Shadowverse anime started to air, despite negativity in the English community both in comments to that series trailers and forum posts and talk about it being a flop, in a Famitsu interview with the Shadowverse Producer Tadato Kimura and and Studio Zexcs scenario director Rintaro Isozaki revealed how they were already talking about a sequel very soon after the anime started airing. And they seemed to have gottten great and support feedback over the course of those 48 eps. Cause this is that anime. Wait sorry, first part of 3 animes. Cause this thing is 98 eps long with 2 breaks inbetween the last arcs. So this review will talk mostly in general, and I'll tackle the other arcs specifically in their own review. Shadowverse Flame is a sequel to the 2020 Shadowverse anime and its so much more polished. Animation wise and writing wise. Unfortunately stuck with the same soundtrack. So if you want to hear that evil theme when someone does something or acts demented, you have it for 98 more episodes. But that doesn't really matter when the core script of season 1 basically gets fully realized. 3 years have passed since the final battle of the original anime. Shadowverse Flame is for the most part a pretty low scaled setting, but very high tech. Theres also a big wave in little avatar buddies called Digifriends. But also you have our protagonist Tenryu Light who gets chosen to attend Shadowverse College (its a high school though why is it called college) by a top player and handed a mysterious USB and gains the only Digifriend who can talk, and his story is learning Shadowverse and trying to spruce up the run down school club Seventh Flame thats on the verge of shutting down with new members. And who are our targets? Other school clubs of course! What is up with the USB and his Digifriend Draconir? You're in it for the long haul my friend. And most of all, its not just his show, cause they give so much fleshing out on all members of the core cast and the clubs they come from. Its more down to earth with some very real issues these kids face. Almost too real at first especially the girls. Tsubasa debuts with a eating disorder and Tsubasa has a sexist club president. They remove or tone down those elements for something thats more uplifting, which is interesting compared to the last shows script feeling like it went through several hands. This time the script feels like it has a full vision but theres these very few rare moments early on where maybe someone was like "yeah maybe this is too much". The rivals are deliciously demented too. But either way, all the dynamics are really good. This feels like the full realization of what the first season wanted to do. You can really feel the cast becoming a group and also the little cliques that form within it, but they are all buddies. And animation wise, its somehow even BETTER, and the first anime was already pretty good looking and moving, but Flame brings it up a notch. Everyone has more personalized "game ready" bank animation sequences with their cellphones for one. Also most of the character designs clearly have a slightly older appeal to them, like the original cast look very cute in comparison even though theyre roughly the same age. The OPs and EDs are bangers, no surprise there. Thats not gonna change be it the first 50 eps all the way to Arc-hen. Unlike the first anime you learn the game with Light, and his deck just gets crazier over the course of the show. After introducing the big cast both new and old, it all builds up to a tournament to find the next strongest who can face off the 7 strongest players, the Seven Shadows, and some some setup for the future, but also great dynamics for everyone in the cast. Hina and Andrea sensei are especially great. And when it all concludes wonderfully with the final rival battle....................we get Seven Shadows arc, and thats next review But briefly as I will go more indepth in the Arc-hen review, but Shadowverse Flame is a more character driven show than story driven. The collective lives of our entire cast hurting, growing, and obtaining their happiness is the draw of this show compared to the original series. The demented rival plot that culminates for the first 50 have nothing to do with the wider mysteries, its just the test for Light, the culmination of everything he did or indirectly caused by trying to help Seventh Flame not shut down. Its everything Cardfight Vanguard tried (but mostly fails) at being. Cygames second outing funding a card game show and its already 2 for 2 one of the best thats ever released.