Plot: The next round of the Card Capital tournament is underway. While Kai battles the three-time CC tournament champion, Aichi is paired up with Ninja Master M, whom they quickly determine is Aichi’s teacher, Mr. Mark, in disguise. As Ninja Master M, he immerses himself very deeply into the role of a (stereotypical) ninja. He tries to hide as a part of the wall with a cloth, tries to make quick getaways with (indoor-safe) smoke bombs and even injects ninja-esque vernacular into his cardfights.
Aichi is thrown by Ninja Master M’s behavior, but quickly realizes that he’s no joke when it comes to Vanguard. Utilizing a strategy in which Aichi is forced to keep discarding cards from his hand, Ninja Master M gets Aichi into a corner quickly. Will Aichi have to concede defeat?
Breakdown: I am a tiny bit mixed on this episode.
On one hand, Ninja Master M (He’s wearing a samurai helmet. This is bugging me.), despite me just barely remembering Mr. Mark in the slightest (was he only in episode one? Hm.) is an entertaining character. I smiled several times at his scenes, and his pathetic ninja shenanigans remind me a lot of Agiri from Kill Me Baby, only he plays it straight.
On the other hand, Morikawa kinda ruins his whole shtick. Morikawa, for some strange reason, believes Ninja Master M is the real deal and marvels in everything he does. Even when he’s in the middle of a cardfight and is claiming he’s doing ninja things that are obviously not happening, this dolt believes every word (IE, he claims riding a Grade 1 on top of a 0 is a ‘ninja replacement’ technique and Morikawa just eats it up.) Keep in mind, all of the visuals for these moves are entirely in Aichi’s head. All Morikawa is seeing is NMM playing a card and saying something.
Also, it seems like they’re both mocking and celebrating cosplay here? Maybe I’m looking too far into this, but NMM’s first opponent claims he lost because he was so distracted by his outfit and mannerisms. Then he tells him he wishes his parents had never let him out the basement and calls him a freak of nature.
Granted, yes, this is a little kid talking, but an adult wrote it, and, still, ouch.
However, despite everyone rolling their eyes at NMM, no one else is really making fun of him. Aichi quickly takes NMM seriously in their match, too. There’s no disrespect on his end – it just took him a minute to get used to his strange behavior and outfit. Does that mean they’re really saying they respect cosplay or is this not even a factor?
On one hand, it was nice to see a fiercer and more amped up Aichi.
On the other hand, I am still annoyed by his obsessed focus on battling Kai. He even gets distracted away from his match with NMM, in the middle of an attack no less, because Kai just finished his match, which he obviously won. He’s dead set on just getting through his matches to get to Kai. It’s very rude to skew your attention away in the middle of a match like that. Have some TCG courtesy, Aichi.
This is also our first cliffhanger episode! Oooooooooh…..it was a very unwarranted two-parter. It ends on what has to be Aichi’s last turn and he’s fighting someone he’s obviously going to win against.
Not to mention……
Cardfight!! Vanguard, can we have a little talk? I was a little perturbed by your use of a cliffhanger here, but I understand that you’re new at this stuff and it wasn’t completely awful, so it’s cool. Just try to manage your time a little better.
I won’t, however, overlook the grievous sin you have committed. When you have a cliffhanger to a game in a gaming anime, you never ever spoil the ending in the next episode preview. Yet, not only do you show Shin doing the ‘Winner’ gesture to Aichi’s side of the table, not only do you show NMM’s monsters getting successfully attacked when NMM has little damage to spare….you named the goddamn episode….The Ninja Fighter Withdraws. I literally have no reason to watch the next episode now. THANKS A BUNDLE.
Why do so many shows do this? Not just gaming anime, but just anime in general. I get that you want to show good stuff to get people to watch, but spoiling the whole episode just gives me little reason to watch. If his match with NMM doesn’t even take up the full episode, why not focus the title and preview on whatever is taking up the second half?
Come on, guys. I can’t do your jobs for you.
Next episode—Errr….I guess I already told you……..Uhhhhhh……
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The Anime Madhouse 