KeKeita2014
September 25, 2019
Not Recommended
I've always been a big fan of the Yugioh series. Each iteration managed to improve upon its predecessors in some way or another, while still keeping things "fresh". Yugioh 5D's pushed the envelope with its outrageous concept and it succeeded. Coupled with strong characters and a great storyline, 5D's is easily my favourite of the series. Comparing the later seasons to the earlier ones, it becomes clear that the newer yugioh anime take a similar route to a specific earlier part; especially in the tone, character designs as well as themes. Zexal has its roots in the original DM, ARC V in GX and thisyugioh Vains in 5D's. I was taught not to judge a book by its cover, so I kept an open mind towards Vrains despite my high hopes. Whether people want to overlook it or not is up to the individual, but I believe it fails at many fundamentals for writing a good story. This review will go into details why I feel this way.
Story:
First, let's get this out of the way: Episodes 13, 21, 29, 38, 59, 83 and 103 are recaps which only retell the old story without much new stuff. At most, it has one single new scene splashed at the end to seem not completely purposeless. These points are nothing you don't pick up later and I suggest to just skip these episodes completely.
Now about the actual story: The series is based in a world of the near future where a massive Virtual Reality Network called LINK VRAINS has been established. By using LINK VRAINS, Duels unfold where Duelists change their appearance separate from their real life identities. However, in LINK VRAINS, a mysterious hacker group that hacks via Dueling has appeared: The Knights of Hanoi. Their goal is to destroy a specific Ai known as Cyberse that exists somewhere in the depths of the Network. There is one enemy who stands in their way, Playmaker. His true identity is ordinary high school student Yusaku Fujiki, who wants to find out the truth of an incident that happened in his past.
Vrains plot is easily its biggest problem. It follows a straight line and doesn't take longer ways, even if it should. We go from 1 duel to the next, not showing the impact each individual conflict and event has. Because of that, it feels rushed more often than not and doesn't leave the characters nor the viewer any time to breath. On the other hand, at some points the show feels slow and dragging. The another arc or the first half of the lost memories arc could easily be reduced to half the episodes, but includes unneccessary duels and fanservice with almost no story. And the problem about no story shows itself in almost every big arc. It usually means 10-20 episodes of only duels with pretty much nothing but duels. The entertainment goes down to zero and stays there until something plot- or character related happens, which usually takes a lot of time. That quickly becomes very boring and at some points, watching the recaps instead feels like the right way just because it doesn't consume a lot of time. Unfortunately, the anime isn't able to ever recover from this issue and you can only hope it will ever have something to show besides the duels. Sadly, you lose interest before that moment comes.
And now I got to address the ending arc of the show. Comparing different Yugioh Anime with one other is simply not fair, as it always prevents a neutral view on each individual installment; but there is a point to be made here. The 3 prior yugioh anime went from 146 – 154 episodes, which shows their similar planing and execution over all series. Yugioh Vrains drops in at only 120 episodes, already giving you an idea that something didn't go as planned. In fact, I'd consider only the first 102 episodes to be the actual plot and the last 17 episodes to be the epilogue. That could have worked on its own, if they just wanted to complete the character arcs and give an actual ending to all the main and side characters. But unfortunately, it rather tried to put in an unnessessary longer plot into these episodes too, which prevented the writers from giving each character the respect and time he/she deserves. Some characters even got worse treatment than the first two seasons gave them, which is a shame since the anime certainly had the time to give everyone a satisfying conclusion.
Characters:
The characters are the strong point of the show. I'll separate the main characters and lump together the not so main characters:
Yusaku Fujiki/Playmaker: Yusaku is the Main Character of the anime and a hacker who fights against evil organizations in the Network alongside his Partner Ai. Being written in the typical "OP Badass" Archetype, he doesn't show emptions while being very powerful. This Archetype needs 2 basic things to be able to work: The Character needs negatives, in some way or another, and needs to be an actual character with personality. The first point was made fair enough, with him being social unable to speak normal to others or form real bonds. What the writers forgot though is his personality. Most of the time, he is just a puppet like figure saying the obvious things without anything resembling a human being. It is good to make a character flawed, but leaving out a personality is inexcuseable. Adding to that his lack of development makes him one of the anime's worst characters, which is a shame since protagonists should be the driving force behind the show, not a continuous brake.
Aoi Zaizen/Blue Angel: She is Yusaku's Classmate and an entertainment duelists in the VRAINS known as Blue Angel who gets caught up in the multi-sided war. Aoi is one of the anime's best characters, both in her personality and goals. In the real world, she is a quiet and shy girl with difficulties in private relationships. In the Network World however, she becomes an active, happy and free dueltainer who just does the things she wants to do. This duality is very important, as her differences between her real self and online avatar are drastic and undeniable. This makes her feel alive and relatable, as everyone on the internet nowadays has an avatar where everyone can be whoever everyone wants to be. Unfortunately, Vrains lacks this important theme for most of it's run, as every other character is the same in real life and in game. Her Goals are (without getting into too many spoilers) relatable and basic, making her again more human. They shift multiple times over the series, showing her development as a character and different views on the world around her.
Ai/Dark Ignis: Being a member of the Cyberse, his life is sought after by the Knights of Hanoi. He is your expected partner, or more pet for most of Vrains run. He is often there when action takes place, but doesn't do anything besides looking. And the consequence is, that he feels uninteresting and unneccessary. He does have some important moments, but is mostly just doing things in the shadow, if at all. As the anime continues, he gets more development, a personality other than pure comedy and becomes more realistic and mature. By the end of the series, he is one of the best characters not just in Yugioh Vrains, but in the whole Franchise. It just takes a long time to get there.
Ryoken Kogami/Revolver: He is the Leader of the Knights of Hanoi and wants to kill the Cyberse. Ryoken is the most developed character in the anime. His character is vastly different from the beginning and end of the show. Besides being gone for 10 – 20 episodes occasionally, he drives the plot forward and is the most active character. Unlike the others though, his character arc constantly develops with every duel he has, which makes him more interesting and deeper.
Takeru Homura/Soulburner: Takeru is a friend and ally of Yusaku who appears first in the second season. He is a self confined and energic teenager who is trapped in his past and wants to be able to move forward. Therefore, he contacts yusaku and follows him to eventually find a way to let his past behind. Takeru is the most relatable and realistic character in the show. We get a lot of backstory and everyday life displayed, which lacks in many other aspects of the anime. His character arc is mostly the same as yusaku's first, but far better executed. The one problem is that he feels too much like a Playmaker 2.0, which lessens our interest and investment in him and feels unoriginal. Besides that, his writing is pretty much flawless.
Villains: The Villains are the strongest points in the whole show. Especially the major antagonists of each season are relatable, well-developed and have a good motive for their action, Going deeper would be a spoiler, but they are certainly the highlight of the anime. Even though not all are great, most of them are.
Other/Minor Characters: The other characters mostly do their job. Some are better than others, but none are very outstanding. They have unique arcs and expand the world building in individual ways. Vrains isn't able to let its characters drop, which later on leads to some duelists just hanging around in the story without any influence or point to it. Instead of writing them out of the story and giving them individual endings during the story, the team made them stay in the plot far longer than needed, which keeps the focus away from our protagonists, as we first have to somehow get these characters out of the picture to let the important characters duel.
Art:
The animation really isn't that breathtaking and only works most of the time. As a long-running anime, you can clearly see how they often had to re-use old animation and backgrounds. There was also the change in directors very early in the series, where there was supposed a huge improvement; apparently, animation wasn't one of them. It works most of the time, and sometimes they show where the budget went into: These moments are usually the summoning- and attack animations during the duels. The animation and Art is good when it counts, but isn't worth pointing out otherwise.
Soundtrack:
Just like the Art, the soundtrack isn't at all breathtaking and only works most of the time. Some of the music that was used was fitting for the themes and atmosphere of the anime, but it normally just appears without any other reason than a "cool moment" or "amazing strategy" being displayed in a duel. It is often enjoyable, but nothing more than that and adds nothing to the series other than having sound at all. And having the same music play over 100+ episodes becomes boring and repetitive either way.
Enjoyment:
There isn't anything else to point out besides the good and bad points that were already mentioned. Vrains was often entertaining, but the huge problems just stuck out during most of it's run.
Overall:
Yugioh Vrains has a few good points, but fails at many basics in story development and character building. My recommendation: If you are already a fan of the other yugioh anime or are interested for any other reason, you might want to check it out and decide to stop or continue after 20 episodes.
