Shadowverse

On his way to school, Hiiro Ryuugasaki hears a strange voice coming from his storage shed. As he searches the place, he discovers a smartphone with the popular digital card game "Shadowverse" already installed. Under the assumption that his grandfather has finally decided to buy him a smartphone after countless requests, Hiiro finds nothing amiss.

Later that day, Hiiro receives concerning news regarding his classmate, Mimori Amamiya. She has lost as yet another victim of Takuma Kibakura, a fellow Shadowverse player who bullies his opponents by seizing their phones after he defeats them in battle. Determined to retrieve Mimori's smartphone, Hiiro enters an exciting new world, filled with intense matches and fierce Shadowverse opponents—including the formidable Lucia Yonazuki.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ryuugasaki, Hiiro Main

Kajiwara, Gakuto Japanese

Kurobane, Alice Main

Ogura, Yui Japanese

Yonazuki, Lucia Main

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Amamiya, Mimori Main

Hondo, Kaede Japanese

Aberaldo, Maura Main

Iguchi, Yuuichi Japanese

Shindou, Kazuki Main

Taya, Hayato Japanese

Ijuuin, Kai Main

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Justine, Vanessa Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Yonazuki, Shiori Supporting

Toyota, Moe Japanese

Isabelle Supporting

Hijikata, Makoto Producer

Shintaku, Kiyoshi Producer

Kawaguchi, Keiichirou Director

Iida, Satoki Sound Director

Reviews

Jul 30, 2024

SevensDran

Recommended

The first Shadowverse anime is pretty amazing to think about. A kids show coming out from this franchise that was just a mobile game and with some "lore" that comes with being a Cygames property. Mobile Shadowverse is not a card game story. And so a kids anime gets announced and it makes sense there'd be some pushback.

However, now the show is finished, and the people who malded about the show and those who spun their irony poisoned are no longer around. How is the Shadowverse anime actually?

I'd say, the first Shadowverse anime is a pretty fun show, especially among its card game brethren. And ... I'm saying this even though this shows plot feels like its script went through several hands. But yet, it is definitely a show worth watching.

Hiro is a very fun main character. Headstrong and stubborn. He is the genki energy this story needed amongst this mostly down the earth story with a rival like Luca who brings cold cynicism to the game. Shadowverse is fun, after all. That is, until the plot isnt grounded anymore, and the writers don't know how to handle Hiro anymore.

We technically have 7 main characters. However, only 3 are utilized the best. And thankfully they are the MC and Rivals, Hiro, Luca and Mauro. However, what Shadowverse tries to do until it can't anymore is very good. An ensemble cast with threads that continue throughout the show. Alice and Mimori who want each others lives. Kai is a basic "genius learns to leave things to chance" and honestly Kazuki is the biggest missed potential cast member because hes Hiros best friend. They dont do anything with him until the shows almost over, and its was a cool idea they brought up we could have gotten severla episodes about.

Shadowverse Flame is currently ending, and it's very funny to say the villain of the first series is still the best. The first Shadowverse anime may try and stumble with various plot threads that get resolved prematurely because of a save the world plot, however the story of Hiro and his rivals, and the eventual villain is like, VERY good.

How this anime handles its rivals, both born out of some ugliness of the world, is standout. You cannot find this in any other show, forget card game show, its legit insane how much they nail those points while the plot switches gears like 3 times in what the goal is. Especially when all 3 points themselves could have been their whole show.

Like, one of the plots was a card game Willy Wonka. The winner gets to own the company???? Is that not an interesting thing to think about, the battle of wishes for that type of power. But then they throw something at you and the trajectory goes somewhere else.

This show is so fascinating. Anyone hating it to hate is just wrong, sorry. This is one of the best card game anime out there, especially during the year this ended and Cardfight Vanguard Overdress came out. And oh boy, Overdress.... But, thats for another review

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 20, 2020

Hannesan

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (7/48 eps)

This anime may be called "Shadowverse" but everything from art style to story is completely different. As a relatively new player (of almost 1 year), I'll try to objectively judge this adaptation without lingering too much on what it *could've* been had they kept the same serious aesthetic and maturity from the game.

Story: 3
As per the word "poor" suggests, the storyline (so far) has been basically nonexistent. Each episode hangs on its own and could be essentially described as the MC finding an excuse to battle someone, top-decking that op 7 cost dragon card that wipes the board and hits face for 10, and without ... fail winning while exclaiming "Shadowverse is fun" half a dozen times. No exaggeration.

The only exception would be ep.4 which has the female lead pull out an interesting, non-BS strat that actually has an in-game counterpart. Though you could argue that the essence of Shadowverse *is* pulling off BS like turn 6 OTKs (would've been nice to see Alice pull out that 13/13 Shadowcraft card that hits face). For that reason alone I'd rate ep.4 higher than the others.

I'm sure the reason they chose the fairies archetype for Mimori is cause they didn't want the female lead spamming cockroaches the entire battle in true Forestcraft fashion lol.

Art: 7
Pretty standard fantasy anime art style. It's pretty similar to the new Princess Connect anime which is also by Cygames. Not bad but I certainly think adhering to the game's style would've been better.

Sound: 8
The battle soundtracks are quite good. Some are based on the game's battle music which explains why they really get your adrenaline pumping. The OP & ED however aren't memorable.

Characters: 2
Braindead MC. The characters are about as interesting as that cardboard box you got ordering from online. Though that's hardly anything new these days. It doesn't help that there isn't even a modicum of strategy, planning, comboing, or outwitting happening in those battles you spend half of every episode watching.

Enjoyment: 5
It's had some moments where I couldn't help but go "LUL." But many more moments were VERY cringe. Not quite sure if the LUL can outweigh the cringe, esp for a SV player.

Overall: 5
It only made 5 thanks to its decent art and nice soundtrack. I'm sure they had some reasoning behind making "Shadowverse" nothing like Shadowverse (expanding/diversifying their player base perhaps), but I really don't see how expanding their player base to encompass 9 year olds with what is clearly a kid's show is gonna increase their revenue. A failed investment if you ask me.

For someone who very much enjoys the combos and meme decks you can pull off in Shadowverse, as well as the post-apocalyptic setting filled with hardship and overcoming past grudges, this generic isekai-looking anime can feel like an utter disappointment. Unfortunately there's plenty of that around these days for this show to fit right in the 5s.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 25, 2021

Ammokkx

Not Recommended

Shadowverse(TV) is a shallow 48-episode commercial made to sell a Nintendo Switch game. I feel the need to stress this, because the amount of corporate apathy towards storytelling can be felt at every point while watching this anime.

At first it may seem like Shadowverse(TV) isn't too terrible starting out; its first episode is a bit bland, but a poor first episode does not make for a bad anime as a whole. Unfortunately, it showcases a few key problems the anime will have throughout its entire runtime. The first of these problems is with the battles themselves; while they're not too hard to understand, there's a ... major flaw in how they're presented. Several turns are often cut out from the middle of the fight. Normally this isn't such a big deal if it only happens once in a while, but having a full-length battle you follow start-to-finish is *not* the rule with this anime. It is the exception. What you are left with, then, is an extremely unsatisfying big picture, as the writers will magically conjure up whatever specific game state they need with no regard for how the characters involved would actually get to this. It feels like they did not care to write around the limitations of Shadowverse as a game and instead opted for the most lazy way out as to save themselves some work.

The second problem this anime faces is that of extremely shallow characters. While it attempts to have character arcs for a select few side characters, most of them are either derailed or resolve in ways that don't actually solve their own problems. Further, the main character, Hiiro, is extremely shallow. He has one dominant character trait, that being loving Shadowverse and proceeds to spend the next 48 episodes learning to care about absolutely nothing else. Somehow Hiiro seems to act like a friendship magnet, with everyone around him captivated by his charisma after just one battle... only this does not work, as Hiiro never actually attempts to emphathise with anyone he meets. He talks around people rather than with them and selfishly superimposes his own belief unto others. Somehow the writers let him get away with this each and every time, convincing the other character to see things in Hiiro's way even when this is absolutely not deserved and Hiiro is completely in the wrong. Only one character in this entire show seems to independently fix his own issues with the world, but said characters is not part of the main cast. This makes the seven we are supposed to care about and root for feel extremely underwhelming.

The third problem Shadowverse(TV) faces is that it is extremely generic. Everything is resolved through card games. The power of friendship prevails in the face of overwhelming odds. The main character is a prodigy at the game he is playing, the entire works. Just playing it by the book is not an issue by itself, but the problem for Shadowverse(TV) is that it not only plays it extremely safe, but also poorly executes on these elements. Almost every episode there is something that will leave you wondering 'Why did they do it this way? This could've been good if only it had been a little different' and it proceeds to become extremely frustrating to, as a veteran of the genre, watch the producers fail to grasp even the basics of storytelling.

The story as a whole is also underwhelming. Without going into spoiler territory, it is split into four roughly 12 episode chunks which I consider to be arcs. The first arc is slow and highly focused on our main character meeting the cast of side characters, while the second arc has them split up to do their own things... only even in the second arc, most episodes are focused on our main character as others barely get the screen time they need. Even keeping this in mind, the second arc's overarching plot will make your head scratch as to why the first needed to happen to begin with. The third and fourth have a more consistent and interesting plot going on with them, but the villain motivations are shallow and predictable. Also, the main characters have almost entirely stopped developing past one extra episode dedicated to each, but half of those episodes don't actually develop the featured character either. You're just being strung along for the ride as you watch these one-note personalities repeat the exact revelations you've heard a million times before and only save the day because of course they would. Even the very climax of the show suffers from poor pacing and character writing as the final villain, while not coming out of nowhere, was barely relevant even when they were hinting at his villainy throughout the show.

The only thing Shadowverse(TV) has going for it are some okay visuals, which are serviceable but not spectacular, and some alright soundtracks. Several themes are pretty good and stand out above the rest, but a lot of recycling and having some very generic tracks make the soundtrack as a whole mediocre at best. Shadowverse(TV) does manage to make some hype moments, but this is mostly achieved through a mild uptick in animation budget and by blasting energetic music into your ears. It is an extremely shallow form of hype not backed by any good character payoff, as there is no payoff to be had. Still, credit where it is due, in terms of presentation there is not much to complain about. It is absolutely not worth watching this show for as it's not spectacular and cannot carry its horrible writing, but if you are deadset on watching this, then the animation and soundtrack will not bother you in the least.

The animation and sound being what it is makes the show get an overall rating of 2/10 for me, if only because of that slightly redeeming quality. Had this been any worse I would not have hesitated to give it a 1/10 and I do not recommend anyone to watch this. Yu-Gi-Oh has, at the time of writing this, 6 completed shows and even at their worst they are all still much better to watch than Shadowverse(TV) is. With other franchises like Battle Spirits and Vanguard you will no doubt also find everything Shadowverse(TV) has to offer, but better.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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