Vanguard OverDress is a reboot/relaunch of the long running Cardfight Vanguard franchise and now that its first cour has run its course I can safely say I can see where they’re going while also having no idea who this series is for.
Story:
The story starts with Yuyu, a young teen who is a bit of a pushover who gets introduced to the world of Vanguard and joins a team that meets up in an abandoned amusement park near his town. On the surface its about how Yuyu grows more confident and learns to stand up for himself with the advice and help of his new friends and Vanguard but I am not 100% sure if that is actually what the story is about.
That is largely due the structure and pacing of the story. The first episode introduces us to most of the main characters and while it doesn’t tell us a lot about the cardgame, the amazing animation symbolizing the fight is breathtaking and draws you in. The subsequent episodes continue the narrative, yes, but in the way that they happen chronologically but the events never affecting the story or characters in the long term. The episodes include highlights such as “Megumi thinks Danji is gay for Yuyu”, “Danji wrestles a real life Japanese wrestler” and “Yuyu is sick and sleeps over at Danji’s”. Most of them reveal minor details about the characters and their relationships but overall feel more like time fillers than anything.
It’s only halfway through the series where the story finally starts to show itself but it is promptly dropped for a while before being picked up again and rushed through in the last three episodes. Perhaps because the series spend half of its runtime not having a story at all, the stakes for the climax are only set in episode 10 with the story completely losing its grounded tone of just a bunch of friends hanging out and playing cardgames and instead jumping headfirst into the overly serious and dramatic tone of its contemporaries which is jarring for a series that so far tried to be about anything except cardgames.
Which is another point that bothers me about OverDress: It is not about Vanguard. It doesn’t even really involve Vanguard. Yes, the game is the reason why Yuyu joins the group but beyond that it has little to do with the actual happenings of the story, they could be playing Bop-It instead for all the impact it had on the story. The characters don’t establish what’s fun about the game or even what they personally like about it, instead just repeating that it’s fun like a broken record with the viewer having no idea why it would be. The series seems to be so disinterested in the cardgame itself that the first half omits entire sections of a fight or even has episodes where you don’t see a Vanguard field at all. The second half is better about it and sometimes even shows whole cardfights with no cuts but because the viewer is never told the rules about it will probably leave many who didn’t watch the previous seasons or play the game themselves confused.
There are many factors that could have let to the, in my opinion, lackluster story structure from the director being new to series directing and Vanguard in general to the attempts at being a “serious” anime going a bit too far to the series being planned with 24 episodes and being paced as such despite the split. Whatever those reasons are, I don’t find the story particularly engaging and having to wait 10 episodes for something resembling a plot to appear is a big ask. 4/10
Art:
One of the upsides of this anime. There is a reason Clamp has stood the test of time and their character designs are appealing and probably the best part. That’s not to say that Kinema Citrus is slacking off because the rare moments during cardfights where the feeling actually fighting is illustrated with gorgeously animated sequences of the units physically fighting each other. Outside of these scenes the animation is standard but by no means bad with occasionally surreal directing giving some sequences (mostly cardfights) a dream like feeling to them.
Speaking of directing though, the composition and directing the actual cardfights is notably weak, the first half in particular. Besides just skipping phases and sections of the fights, cards sometimes just appear out of nowhere between frames, characters get damaged as the plot demands, the strategies used are flat and uninteresting etc etc. The last part could be in part because the rebooted game the anime is based around very simple as of the time of writing but even though some of the characters’ decks have built in counters to other decks that is hardly utilized within the series. There is one active attempt at a counter made as far as I remember but besides that most fights boil down to the characters brute forcing their way to victory and drawing the exact card they need at the right time.
Overall the actual art, animation and direction is fine to good but if you’re a fan of the cardgame and are hoping for fun and exciting fans, you might be disappointed. Because it’s such a niche thing to be bothered about though, I won’t weigh it too much in my score. 8/10
Sound:
It’s good. I’m not sure what else to say really cause that’s what it is.
Opening and endings are performed by Roselia and Argonavis from Bushiroad’s “BanG Dream!” franchise and while I have no interest in it I have to admit that the songs that have been used in Vanguard so far are absolute bangers. (heheh)
I don’t believe the actual OST has been released but from what I heard in the series it gets the job done. It’s appropriately silly, serious and soothing when it needs to be but it never quite stands out on it’s own. It might not stick in your mind but its perfectly serviceable. 8/10
Characters:
Oh boy let’s get into this.
Overall the characters are fine, serviceable, largely inoffensive but they are also kind of boring in a way.
Let’s start with the main protagonist Yuyu. He is mostly a pushover and is mostly dragged around by others, most notably his family and Danji with not a lot of moments where he shows any agency. While the story tells us he becomes more confident as a result of his new hobby and friends, it is not shown very often with Yuyu still being pushed around by the end of the series, if not to the degree as the first episode. He does become more outspoken when it concerns Vanguard with him standing up for his friends in the second to last episode and being less of a nervous wreck but he doesn’t change a whole lot.
Next is Megumi who I guess you could call the POV character next to Yuyu. She is probably the character we know the most about in the series with several episodes either dedicated to her background or at least tying into it. Despite having so much focus though she doesn’t seem to have a lot of stuff going on for her. She certainly has personality, being friendly if stubborn and often jumping to conclusions but beyond being friends with Yuyu and having an obvious crush on Danji she hasn’t really contributed to the story a lot. Unlike Yuyu there is no clear character arc for her so far and she doesn’t change by the end of the series except for maybe being a bit less clingy towards Danji. It’s possible that there is more planned for her in the second half but as it stands not a lot going on.
Next is Danji, the arguable deuteragonist of the series. Danji is one of the older guys in the group and the leader of their Vanguard team and while he kinda stupid is a very self-assured and confident person. Despite being an overall friendly guy we don’t know a whole lot about him, only that he is friends with Megumi’s older brother, lives in a dump of a place and does odd jobs around town. It’s implied he has a dark troubled past, sometimes disappearing for days on end and meeting mysterious people behind the scenes. On paper he seems like an interesting character, a good contrast to the shy and introverted Yuyu but the way he’s executed is a bit of a problem. His antics and odd jobs while intended to be humorous often come across as plain weird at best and grinding the story to a literal halt at worst.
It doesn’t help that the series seems to try really hard to ship Danji with Yuyu with the two of them often blushing around each other and Danji often acting like he’s courting Yuyu and even impressing and meeting his family out of nowhere to “get to know them if they’re going to spend more time together from now on”. Need I remind you that Yuyu is 15 years old and Danji, while we don’t know how old he is exactly, is confirmed to be an adult man. Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s around 19 like Tohya and Zakusa, it’s still kinda weird and I prefer if the series just stopped doing gay jokes about them.
Last is Tohya. Oh? You didn’t know Tohya was a main character? Well I don’t think the writers did either because despite featuring quite heavily in the opening and appearing at the end of episode 1, Tohya only features in 4 of the 12 episodes, getting properly introduced in episode 6 to the disappear until episode 10.
To be fair, we do learn quite a lot about him when he’s actually onscreen, he is an academic prodigy with his whole life laid out before him and many expectations put on him by his family and teachers with Vanguard being his only outlet to have fun. He is obviously conflicted about his love for the game and his obligations to his family and he is the only character who I actually buy liking the game. His only goal is to win against Danji once and then quit playing but after losing to Yuyu becomes obsessed with wining to the point of, let me check my notes… becoming an antagonist with no regard for the human cost.
Yeah, it kinda comes out of the blue with only minor scenes in previous episodes implying that anything is going on with him at all. It’s heavily hinted he is being manipulated by the true antagonists and by the end of the series Danji beats some sense into him but there is not a lot of resolution for his arc whatever it was about. Don’t get too obsessed with winning? Don’t take the game too seriously? But all the other characters take it seriously too, some even acting like someone died because their banner gets burned so what degree of seriousness is good and what is bad? I have no idea what his arc was about but either way it wasn’t good.
Besides the main characters most of the supporting cast is very one note and gimmicky. Tomari is a cop but also likes to pretend she’s a wrestling announcer during cardfights. Zakusa is an artist but also kind of feral. Yuyu’s family is absolutely terrible. They work and don’t become too grating but they also clash against the more serious last few episodes.
Overall the characters have potential but they range from not having a lot going on to dear god what were they thinking. 4/10
Enjoyment:
Not fun. That might be because I’m a fan of the cardgame and as I already noted Vanguard doesn’t really play much of a part or even appear much in this series but I didn’t have a lot of fun, no.
Even ignoring the lack of cardfights and focusing just on story and characters I can’t say I enjoyed the experience. While I find Yuyu cute and enjoy characters like Megumi, Tomari and Tohya, I really couldn’t stand Danji and his antics. Considering a lot of the show being about Danji however I couldn’t enjoy large parts of it by proxy. The episodes I liked the most were the ones where he just didn’t appear or play a big role but those tended to not drive the plot forward so it was a bit of a double edged sword. 3/10
Overall:
For my overall score, I have to take a step back for a second. I’m obviously biased in my opinion. I got into Vanguard in 2015 right in the Vanguard G era which I argue is overall the best Cardgame anime of all time (I don’t take criticism 5Ds fans). I enjoy the fights, the nitty gritty strategising, the deck building and figuring out ways to counter an opponent with the tools available. I’m really into Vanguard the cardgame and not just Vanguard the anime which makes it obvious I wouldn’t like a show that didn’t focus on it.
Still, I don’t think my opinion should be dismissed because of it. If you’ve read this far and think I’m someone who’s just salty that a show they liked changed then you’ve obviously not actually absorbed the things I’ve written. While I am a Vanguard fan, I’m an anime and fan of stories first and I think I’ve made my case elaborating the problems I have with this show.
I don’t know who this show is even for, really. Vanguard fans will be put off by the first 5 episodes seemingly not caring about the game while new viewers are probably put off by the later episodes focusing on a game that was never explained to them. If you remove the cardgame aspect of the show though the show has nothing to stand out while still leaving a lackluster story with poor pacing and characters that are likeable but not remarkable.
And that’s the most I can really say about this series overall. Not remarkable. There is nothing here you can’t get in other better shows. If you want to watch a show about a shy character learning to become more confident with the power of friendship then you can choose any of the coming of age anime out there. If you want an actual cardgame anime, you also have your pick though I reiterate that Vanguard G is the best one out there.
If you want both of those? Well, maybe try watching the original Vanguard or even the 2018 reboot. You will have a much better time than with this show. 4/10
