Anime/Manga A Discussion on Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS

[xcv2009]

So, about 4 days ago, Yu-Gi-Oh!'s new series aired. Normally I'd have watched it on the day it was released, however I was in Japan and didn't have access to any sites to watch it on (they have more strict piracy laws. You can't even watch things on Crunchyroll, which is a legal anime site intended for Americans), and even if you could, it wasn't on there anyway.

So, I hadn't been watching anything, though I did catch a few minutes of a show I think was March Comes in Like a Lion while taking a bath.

Aaaanyway, onto Yugioh VRAINS. I watched it twice, thought the first time I made to pay only a little attention to it. The second, which was about a 30 minutes or so ago, I watched it with my little sister and paid more attention.

I like the protagonist. He's has a deeper voice, more of a quiet person. he's kinda similar to Yusei or Yami Yugi, though apparently he doesn't like being in the spot light, giving him a more introverted but very much mature personality.

Unlike ZEXAL or ARC-V, Yusaku Fujiki is already a very skilled duelist, but because he prefers to stay low he takes on the identity of a sort of vigilante by the name of Playmaker (I sorta like to capitalize English words in context of anime, so to me, PLAYMAKER looks slightly cooler, but I'll refrain from doing it anyway).

It seems to be more story focused, like Arc-V apparently was (haven't really seen much of it), but more of a darker, serious tone that the first one took on.

It still has poppy colors and some cartoony looking characters that I think are supporting characters, but this seems to mostly be to appeal to the kids, whereas the most important characters have a more traditional anime look.

On a side note, I've always liked Takahashi's art style, and luckily, he's stuck around to at least design the main cast. So, of course, Yusaku has stupid anime hair. No, I don't really care, and yes I kind of like it, but I make sure to stay self aware of my interests.

 

[CidHazard]

If you think about it (Excluding the original or 5d's) Yu-gi-oh shows tend to be light hearted at first and crank up the seriousness as the series goes along. So I;m not really surprised at the tone of the show...

The anime looks good(Not amazing) tho with some scenes really impressing... hope their quality doesn't dip.

And kinda disappointed that the first episode didn't include an actual duel in it. I'm glad they didn't just shoe horn one in the span of just 23 mins with world building and exposition... but... they should at least have had a 46 mins first episode so they could have had that duel, They are introducing a whole new TCG mechanic in the show after all.

 

[xcv2009]

Lets be real, if Yugioh (regardless of how good it is or isn't) a 45 minute episode would feel like an eternity.

 

[CidHazard]

Eternity is kinda pushing it LOL

The first episode of the VRAINS anime was just a huge exposition dump... that's why they should've at least pushed it to 45 mins so we could get some action going XD

 

[countryemo]

I wouldn't have minded a longer episode personally. While I agree a longer Yu-Gi-Oh episode sounds like a bad idea, Vrains Ep 1 actually seemed a bit short.

I'm so/so on the series right now, animation dips heavily at times, and I feel like we have a bunch of info dumped onto us, but nothing to do with it, so going to have to see how the world develops.

 

[CidHazard]

I wouldn't have minded a longer episode personally. While I agree a longer Yu-Gi-Oh episode sounds like a bad idea, Vrains Ep 1 actually seemed a bit short.

I'm so/so on the series right now, animation dips heavily at times, and I feel like we have a bunch of info dumped onto us, but nothing to do with it, so going to have to see how the world develops.

Yep Even for a 24 min episode, it felt to so-short. They didn't even flesh out our new "Dark and Serious (Sometimes witty)" MC and his comedic relief (AI) sidekick... the episode wasted precious mins just showing the villains twirling their evil mustaches... sigh...

I do admit (after re-watching the episode) that this show is slightly better produced than 5d's... The show looks really good (for yu-gi-oh standards XD).

 

[Frozocrone]

It was OK.

I've never really watched Yugioh past 5Ds so I jump on the bandwagon and say Zexal is **** at start but great at end and ARC-V is the reverse. Decided to give VRAINs a chance because I'm getting back into card games.

Animation was a bit meh, with static camera angles and not much on screen happening. Art is gorgeous though.

Yusaku seems different from other protagonists, like he's in it for himself and not for the sake of good/others. I also appreciate the fact they're world-building and not rushing head first into the duel to show off the new mechanic.

It's also got an interesting concept behind it and one I'll stick around for a few episodes before deciding whether to fully invest in VRAINs.

 

[machomuu]

The first episode of the VRAINS anime was just a huge exposition dump...

Which is ironic because so little was actually explained. I mean, concepts were introduced 'n all, but very few of them were actually explained.

I was more surprised about how much less I understood by the end of the episode than I did at the beginning.

 

[xcv2009]

Knowing Yugioh, they'll probably explain everything in walls of text in Episode 2.

 

[xcv2009]

(Forgive the double post, though I suppose it's okay in this situation?)

I'm not super surprised, but I'm glad that Yu-gi-oh protagonists are back to having actually cool looking monsters in their deck. I gotta say it still really feels like it's building up to a huge event that'll reveal what happened to him, and it just makes me more excited to go through the series.

Knowing my luck, though, I might lose interest for some reason before it's revealed in like the 30th episode or something. I sorta wish Yuusaku's VR outfit was cooler looking, but I suppose his everything else makes up for it, even if the hair is somewhat silly.

Anyway, onto something I honestly suppose isn't talked about much; the duel interface.

I have sort of mixed feelings on it. On the otherhand, it is cool, but it's somewhat more difficult to read than it should be. Maybe they could make it less transparent and it'd be perfect? Come to think of it, I wonder what the eventual dub will do to it?

P.S.
Just actually finished the episode. It felt surprisingly fast.

 

[CidHazard]

Episode 2 is a 25 min duel... with little to no exposition... now that's a good episode. Speed duel's are now in the anime which is great. Speed duel's are really popular in japan, and the new Yugioh game on android also uses the speed duel rules... what a great advert.

as for the episode itself, it was good... the duel was fun and entertaining, and the AI wasn't annoying at all (Well we'll have to see how he acts on later episodes, but I feel optimistic that he'll be an at least ok sidekick). The MC's signature card looks great too XD

Also, the heroine also looks slightly older than the previous two heroines... both Kotori and Yuzu looked like gradeschoolers XD

 

[xcv2009]

Honestly, I think Yuusaku is a senior, or at least a second year.

 

[Frozocrone]

I'm glad Blue Angel returned the favour of saving the protagonist.

Skills seem interesting with their tactical implications (like Z-moves) but I hope that they don't end up just being VRAINS answer to the DEMs that were Action Cards, especially if Data Storms appear outta nowhere for Yusaku to grab whatever Link Monster he needs.

Duel was good when Yusaku got going. Ignis is my favourite character right now. Yusaku also seems to have a 'three' tick going on.

 

[CidHazard]

In Duel Links (The mobile game) the Character you chose have distinct skills that they can equip and use once per duel. Yami Yugi can use the field spell Yami on the first turn, buffing his fiends and spellcasters. Each character have different skills, and those skills can help your deck out in duels.

Skills seem interesting with their tactical implications (like Z-moves) but I hope that they don't end up just being VRAINS answer to the DEMs that were Action Cards, especially if Data Storms appear outta nowhere for Yusaku to grab whatever Link Monster he needs.

He'll probably get all his boss monsters that way.

 

[shadowmoon522]

Lets be real, if Yugioh (regardless of how good it is or isn't) a 45 minute episode would feel like an eternity.

you say that, but when i went and caught up with arc-v from episode 50 to a 100 and something i got though quite a few episodes before i realized hours had passed

 

[Kenchiin]

The last one I watched was GX honestly, don't know if my heart can handle 5D's CG. I tried Zexal to no avail, so not sure if this one is a good idea either (yet).

 

[CidHazard]

The last one I watched was GX honestly, don't know if my heart can handle 5D's CG. I tried Zexal to no avail, so not sure if this one is a good idea either (yet).

This one will still have CG... it's a lot better than the 5d's era tho. Decode Talker looks cool at least.

Still to early to tell if this series is going to be good we're still on episode 2 of 100+ after all.

 

[shadowmoon522]

The last one I watched was GX honestly, don't know if my heart can handle 5D's CG. I tried Zexal to no avail, so not sure if this one is a good idea either (yet).

meh, CGI was actually pretty far down on the list of problems with zexal.

my main problem right now though, is less to do with the anime but rather with all the idiots comparing in to SAO due to the whole "die in vr, die irl" thing thats been a thing since long before SAO existed i.e. ://hack, the matrix, jojo's bizarre adventure part 3, wargames, digimon in general... hell,even the seconed series had something like this aka the legendary heroes arc

 

[CidHazard]

^ Wait are they really comparing it to SAO? LOL

Yep, It's not like SAO has a monopoly on MMO or VR based death games. Other Anime have done it before.

Still, most SAO fans are entry level Anime fans after all.

 

[xcv2009]

Episode 3: First Contact

I'm surprised how long the intro was on this episode. I mean, it was only 2 mintues and like 10 seconds, but that's pretty long for an early episode. Also, with the opening, I like that JoJo's Sono Chi no Sadame singer is back in this. Can't wait to hear his voice in more anime openings!

I'm really impressed with the story telling so far. The writing is good, It's paced well, the art is absolutely gorgeous. I think they've must've learned a lot from Arc-V and ZEXAL, because I'm loving pretty much all of it so far.

For me, there's some feelings from .hack and TOME - both which are really good shows (and games) about VR games. I think the only problem I have about it is the phrase "In to the VRAINS!". Being Non-Japanese, it sounds really funny - almost cringe worthy.

Also, I've decided to add the whole thing you see at the beginning of my post so as to better distinguish when we started to talk about a particular episode. Of course, you can still talk about previous episodes, but I think this will make it more neat when the forum gets longer.