Reviews

Sep 25, 2019
Mixed Feelings
FunnyFunny
Spoiler
From a hardcore Yu-Gi-Oh! fan, this show was somewhat disappointing. After coming off of the roller coaster that was Zexal and Arc-V (the former of which ending up pretty solid by the end), I really wanted to like this show. I thought this was going to be the 5Ds of the second trilogy of Yu-Gi-Oh! shows. I liked Yusaku’s design and the show had decent aesthetics. There are many things that hindered Vrains from being good. For one thing, the show suffered from shoddy production and change of directors leading to an excessive amount of recaps. The Goddamn Recaps!

I’ll be delving into various plot points so spoilers below:

But looking past that, I thought season 1 was actually fine. We got a nice introduction to our core characters of Yusaku, Aoi, and Go. Plus the knights of Hanoi were pretty menacing and Revolver was a badass rival/antagonist. There was actually some tension and potential buildup for stuff later down the line. In my opinion, this was the strongest season despite all the recaps.

Then came season 2 which I feel was when things started to take a drastic turn. We get introduced to Takeru Homura. Now I don’t hate Takeru, I just hate what they did with him. I know there was a change in director during this show so that may have played a role in this but I must say that the original vision of this show was not realized. This I can only theorize would be the trio from season 1 facing new threats as a team from the higher ups at Sol Tech. Instead they play second fiddle.

Takeru is basically Yusaku 2.0. Just the mere presence of this character completely overshadows Aoi and Go who could have had way more development alongside Yusaku. Instead we just have this guy beating everyone around him and being a Mary Sue. Granted, he does receive quite a lot of character development and ends up being the MOST developed during the show. Sure he’s loud and kinda edgy but he’s okay. The problem is that the rest of the cast becomes irrelevant as if taking a back seat. They did some...interesting things with Go Onizuka. It was a twist to be sure but I feel as if it was a bit forced. I did like how he defeated Earth and basically killed him off but this whole plot point was just so out of character from the Go of season 1.

Now onto the next problem with this season: Bowman. This man was just a walking disappointment. Sure he’s a good duelist but he’s boring. He dueled Yusaku 4 times in the show. Like what?? They could not think of anything else but to build up a rematch 3 times in a single season nor even have a tag duel with Yusaku and Revolver. They did nothing to spice things up and instead followed a bread and butter formula that was indeed predictable. The ones with plot armor were most certainly going to win.

The only redeeming thing about this season were the ignis. If not for them, this would have been insufferable to watch. I love Windy and Lightning as villains, especially in the second half. There are some good duels here. Example: Windy vs Revolver; Soulburner vs Windy; Spectre vs Lightning. Aside from that, it’s pretty much just a spiel of Bowman duels which were not fun at all.

I could go on and on about season 2 but let’s move on to season 3, which is one of the shortest seasons in Yu-Gi-Oh! history. I can’t really blame this season for anything. The staff probably knew they were going to get canceled and had to wrap it up fast but goddamn was there just so much left in the air. This could have been the season that redeemed Vrains but instead it was a rushed hot mess. Personally, I love Ai as a villain. I think it’s a great twist and adds potential drama in the mix. Roboppy’s duel with Soulburner was a treat to see and it had some Arc-V vibes going on (if you know what I mean). Even Soulburner vs Revolver is pretty incredible serving as a closure for both of their characters. Yusaku vs Ai might be one of my favorite end of series duels in all of Yu-Gi-Oh. And that’s where the praising ends. The other characters barely got any screen time and other potential plot points got shafted. I wanted more from this season but sadly we won’t get any.

By the end of this show, Yusaku is clearly the biggest Mary Sue in Yu-Gi-Oh! history with plot armor as large as the Pacific Ocean. He had all his development in season 1 and was never fleshed out again. The rest of the cast is just...dead. The show lost its flair after season 1 which is a huge disappointment. Vrains was no dark horse of the franchise. In fact, it was very close to being a dumpster fire and I hate to say it because there were things I legitimately enjoyed and wanted to enjoy more of. I did like the way it ended though. I can only pray that Yu-Gi-Oh! 7 can make use of this 6 month development gap to make up for the disaster that was Vrains.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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