SSBS – Cardfight!! Vanguard Episode 19: Showdown! Nova Grappler!

Plot: The finals are gearing up, and the long awaited Cardfight between Kamui and Goki is about to start. Until, that is, a last minute change shakes up everything. Kamui will actually be fighting Nagisa! And she claims he’ll have to marry her if he loses! Can Kamui manage to defeat Nagisa and get her out of his life for good or will she wrap him up in the binds of marriage?

Breakdown: Hey, Cardfight!! Vanguard! Long time, no see!

I forget why I stopped watching you for a wh–

Oh…..right….I forgot about her. I thought the world looked a little brighter since I stopped watching this. Well, let’s at least hope the battle is interesting, but considering I know the outcome and….this is Nagisa, I’m guessing no.

*One viewing later*

Yup. This episode was just as obnoxious as I feared, if not moreso.

The entirety of it, everything, is just obnoxious. Nagisa’s obviously the main source of obnoxiousness, but so are Team Handsome with their gushing over Nagisa and encouraging her bullshit, Morikawa and his ego and also cheering on Nagisa to take down Kamui because he supports ‘love,’ Taishi and whatever the hell he’s doing egging on Morikawa, Kamui with his constant back and forth between sighing over Nagisa’s antics and Emi believing he and Nagisa are dating, and even Emi is being irritating with how oblivious she is.

Not to mention that the first five minutes of the episode is explaining how and why Nagisa is suddenly a part of Team Handsome. She was devastated when she heard Kamui would never visit Card Shop Handsome again once he beat Goki, so she took up Vanguard to be in his life as much as possible. Until one day, I guess, she got to a point in skill where she decided to make this marriage bet.

The fact that she’s basically a champion-level Vanguard player fueled purely on her drive to trap Kamui into marriage (of which she’s already bought the dress for) is embarrassing. I know she’s a little girl, but it’s already hard enough to find strong female characters in shounen gaming anime without one of the only competent ones being so stereotypically moe. She is the epitome of ‘notice me, senpai!’

Also, this first five minutes drag so long and are made so irritating by Nagisa that even Morikawa and Taishi are complaining and telling them to start the match already. Pointing out that something you’re writing is annoying and a slog to sit through doesn’t make it any less of a chore, writers.

I thought the Cardfight might be some solace, but no. Nagisa in her endless ability to annoy, somehow even ruins that. First off, because she loves Kamui so much, she uses nearly an identical deck to his with only a few (girly card) variations, so it’s already boring.

Second, she has to chime in all the time explaining his moves as he makes them.

Finally, she has to interrupt the match several times for her lovey-duvey shtick.

My mind just went numb during the entire match. I couldn’t care less.

Thank god it’s over, though. Hopefully it will be a long time before she’s the focal point again. Can we please get back to the fun?

Next episode, while they initially teased it would be Aichi vs. Goki in the next episode, apparently it’s Kai’s turn next so…..while I imagine it will at least be a much less irritating and more interesting fight, I’m already bored because I know Kai won’t lose. He never loses to begin with, he’d never lose to one of the randoms of Team Handsome, and now their team is down one match, meaning they’d lose the whole thing if he did.

….Previous Episode

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

SSBS – Cardfight!! Vanguard Episode 18: White-Hot Tournament!

Plot: They basically skip through every match until we get to the finals, then we break for lunch and that’s pretty much it.

Breakdown: This episode is a gigantic mess. It is, by far, the worst episode I’ve seen.

I’d like to apologize to anyone who read my last CFV review because I was wrong about the next episode. The preview made it seem like we’d see Goki and Kamui fight, at least in separate matches, but no.

First half, we rush through all of the remaining matches for the tournament so we can quickly get to Team Q4 vs. Team Handsome, which is kinda pointless because we don’t even get to see the start of that match in this episode.

I like tournaments because, even if they’re battling people who will obviously lose, it gives the writers the opportunity to get creative and introduce us to some interesting one-off characters. CFV doesn’t seem like they want to bother with this.

If you need more evidence, just look at the brief glimpses of the teams as they whiz by in the montage of defeat. If you thought Team Handsome was a stupid name, try Team Martial Arts, Team Chemistry Club or even Team Hot Noodles….And, yes, Team Martial Arts is filled with martial artists (whose only saving grace is giving Q4 their dojo signs after they lose. That was a little funny.) Team Chemistry Club is, well, duh, and Team Hot Noodles…is a bunch of ramen cooks. How did these people even get here?

The only other team is Team Nadeshiko, who are alright in name, and their shtick is that they’re…super respectful and traditional?

Oh and yeah, people are still creaming their pants over Kai. Because that never gets old.

They also jam in the backstory of Kamui and Goki. Kamui was bullied as a kid because he was so small, but he saw Goki beat an adult at Vanguard and he was inspired by that, so Goki became a bit of a mentor to him, I suppose. Kamui wants to prove to Goki that he can fight on his own.

It’s….not a good backstory, if you ask me.

Beating an adult at a children’s card game is not akin to beating someone twice your size in a physical altercation. Besides, Goki is clearly a teenager here and he’s a pretty big muscular guy. He’s nearly as tall as the adult he’s battling, and he’s definitely bigger than the kid we see beat up Kamui.

The logic doesn’t click. It would’ve made more sense if Goki was younger and smaller like Kamui and he took down someone twice his size at Vanguard. It’s still not the same, but at least it would make more sense. Maybe it would show Kamui that he can come out on top in certain things despite his small stature.

But at least we got to see the origins of Goki’s bandanna…..That was something weighing on your mind, wasn’t it?

Second half, lunch time. You heard me. They’re pulling this shit again. And, like last time, this part of the episode is filled with Kamui gushing over Emi, who arrives late to get some lunch to Aichi and his friends.

Ooh, but wait! There’s more! Remember, Nagisa, the human cheese grater for the ears, is here, so she’s also filling up this half of the episode with gushing over Kamui and getting in poor Emi’s face for ‘stealing her man.’ I am developing a massive pile of hatred for this little brat. I hope to God she just fades into the background more and more as time goes on, because I can’t stand much more of her.

Misaki arrives after lunch with no explanation as to where she’s been this entire time. They keep bringing up that Aichi ‘had’ to fight the first match of the tournament, even though, like Shin points out, the teams are the ones who choose the order of their participants, so Aichi never really had to fight at all other than to give him some screen time.

Dash your hopes for seeing her fight in this tournament, though, because she passes the baton to Aichi since he’s been doing so well…..Then why even show up at all?

Shin references Larry the Cable Guy by saying ‘Let’s get ‘er done!’………….That was a thing that happened.

So the finals st—nope. We have to interrupt our tournament for a random song number by the Ultra Rares – the pop group made up of the girls from the card shop PSY. The song’s not good, though they keep the Japanese version for it, which is nice, and it’s a completely unwelcome intrusion that’s accompanied by another unwelcome intrusion – a random unnecessary clip show to the episode in PSY so we can….remember who these girls are? I dunno.

Just when you finally think they’ll start the finals, you look at the time stamp and realize the episode is very nearly over. Kamui’s first up, itching to take on Goki when –

Goki’s not fighting! But wait! Who’s taking his—Nagisa….Nagisa’s fighting Kamui. And she’s added the stipulation that, should she win, she and Kamui will get married. She’s also wearing pink Vanguard Fight Gloves…because of course she is.

Which means….next episode is chockful of Nagisa. The only thing I might find more enjoyable than that is shoving a swarm of angry wasps into my eye socket.

Oh and since this is the last round of the regional qualifiers and I can’t see Kai the VanGod losing his match, I assume Kamui must lose his match in order to have Aichi be the crux match in the finals. I care so little about this next match that I’m going to cheat and peek at the end of the next episode.

Yup, he friggin’ loses. Which also means Nagisa will never shut up about the marriage thing, right? Let me cheat again! To the Wiki!

Yup, even after a time skip, she’s still trying to force him into marriage. Lovely.

I’m going to take a break on this series for a little bit since…I just really don’t want to watch the next episode right now. The show’s not falling to pieces or anything, but this episode is so sloppily done I’m almost angry at it. Not to mention, I need to charge up if I’m going to watch an entire episode centered on Nagisa.

For now, I’ll switch to Tokyo Mew Mew for my regular updates.

Next episode, Nagisa gets locked in a box and never appears in the series again so Twix can refrain from ripping the screen off of her laptop.

…Previous Episode

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

SSBS – Cardfight!! Vanguard Episode 13: Shop Tournament Winner Crowned!

Plot: The Card Capital Tournament is coming to a close. Kai has defeated Misaki, and now it’s down to Kamui and Aichi’s last few turns to decide who gets to have a rematch with Kai. When the victor is chosen, will Kai fall in the finals or will his ego remain unscathed?

Breakdown: Holy shit…..

Aichi lost.

To Kamui.

I honestly wasn’t expecting that at all. The way they were building it up, I thought for sure he’d make it to the finals and then get trounced by Kai to get a personal lesson delivered by Mr. Ego himself, but nope. Kamui took Aichi down.

He did it in a spectacular way, I might add. That is definitely my favorite match so far. Aichi went down fighting like friggin’ champ, but that Soul Blast of Kamui’s was too much for the poor guy. The fact that he was strategically building that up for so long was impressive to say the least. Kamui is a very strategic player, and it’s fascinating to watch him play sometimes.

This is the first time we really see Aichi upset about losing. After each defeat, Aichi tends to just be happy playing the game, learning and making friends. This time is different since it meant he lost his chance to have a rematch with Kai, which was what he was looking forward to the entire time. He also took it as proof that he really wasn’t strong enough to take Kai on again, which I think is something he needed to learn. Though, I think he’d just be happy fighting Kai again, win or lose.

Aichi is down for a while, but his friends pick him back up, and he enjoys the tail end of the finals, admiring it as being a match currently beyond his level, but hoping he can one day roll with the big dogs.

Speaking of the finals, that was something I was concerned about before I even watched the episode. The next episode preview showed the title of the episode – “Shop Tournament Champion Crowned!” Why is that a problem?

Let me ask you, doesn’t it sound like Aichi and Kamui’s match takes up quite a bit of time?

It does. More than half the episode.

How could they crown the champ in the piddly amount of time they have left?

Simple. They amputate 99% of the match and only show their last turns.

Love. Ly.

Yeah, we’ve just been watching this tournament for like four episodes now. Why would we want to see the main event? If Aichi’s not battling, who cares, right? Not like Kamui’s totally awesome to me lately or anything. PBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!

That is the one mar of this otherwise incredible episode. You can dedicate one more episode to the final match. Time management is key, guys. Be better.

Other than that, we get some insight into Misaki’s role in this tournament. We finally learn why she joined the tournament to begin with (Shin forced her) and we clearly see that she was drastically affected by her loss at the hands of Kai and has gained a better appreciation, if not passion, for the game in its entirety. I like that they actually bothered to include this as some subtle character development, and I look forward to Misaki’s matches in the future.

But wait, there’s more!

Shin reveals that this whole tournament was designed as a selection process for the upcoming Vanguard national tournament, because of course it was. I’ll give it a pass because they started with a small tournament first before chucking the characters into a national tournament.

Everyone who made it to the semi-finals gets to represent Card Capital in the national tournament after they pass a regional qualifier, meaning they’ll all be teammates. Whoo!

If I can say one last thing, someone please knock Kai down a peg. Between his beating Misaki and Kamui without so much as thinking about sweating, I feel like his ego won’t fit in the stadium during the tournament.

Kamui’s still doing his dumb joke shtick, but that’s fine because this episode was pretty awesome…barring the finals (seriously, one more episode, guys. Just one. Half of one, even.) I’m looking forward to what the next tournament has to offer.

Next episode, Aichi needs to prep for the upcoming tournament.

…Previous Episode

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

SSBS – Cardfight!! Vanguard Episode 12: Aichi vs. Kamui

Plot: It’s the Card Capital Tournament semi-finals! Aichi is facing off against Kamui while Misaki faces off against Kai. Aichi’s definitely holding his own a lot better than he was the last time he fought against Kamui, but can he manage to pull off a win?

Breakdown: This episode focuses almost entirely on the match between Kamui and Aichi because, let’s be honest, Misaki is just not going to win her match. We all knew this the instant the lots were drawn. She’s inexperienced and Kai’s a ruthless powerhouse. I was impressed by her strategic thinking in the short bit of the match we were able to see, but of course she loses.

Aichi’s match against Kamui definitely shows how much Aichi has grown, learned and improved as a Vanguard fighter. He was getting absolutely mauled by Kamui last time and now they’re neck and neck. And it’s not just because he has Grade 3s now, either. In fact, most of his best moves have come from his Grade 1s and 2s, proving that it’s more about having balance and knowing your cards well than it is about having powerful cards. It’s a fantastic fight, and I’m really starting to love watching Kamui battle.

There isn’t really much to say about this match besides that because this is our second cliffhanger. Their match was getting right down to the wire when they were interrupted by Kai finishing off Misaki. I was about to ding Aichi for yet again losing focus in his match just to focus on Kai (Seriously, dude, TCG etiquette), but Kamui was doing the same and this is a major match ending so I’ll let it slide.

Other than that, we have another nice added tidbit of realism in Morikawa and Izaki running around the Vanguard tables acting like idiots and Shin needing to tell them to stop their horsing around. This is a room filled with kids in what is essentially a toy store. Of course that is bound to happen. I’m not even mad that the scene was completely pointless because it just peppers in that feeling of realism and nostalgia.

Also, we get this exchange during that scene.

Taishi: “Word of advice – You’re never going to get a girlfriend acting like that.”

Morikawa: “Whatever, man. I’ve got Vanguard – the best girlfriend ever.” My stomach hurts from laughter at this line. Morikawa is starting to be less annoying to me because he gets such ridiculously funny (and stupid) lines.

Next time, the match between Kamui and Aichi concludes. Who will win? And who will face off against Kai?

….Previous Episode

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

SSBS – Cardfight!! Vanguard Episode 7: The Fearsome Soul Blast!

Plot: Kai has returned, and Kamui is quickly annoyed by his attitude. While Kai rejects a challenge from Aichi, believing he won’t have a chance, he does take Kamui up on his offer. Using the new standing tables at Card Capital, the two have a heated cardfight. Kamui manages to keep pace with Kai, but beating Kai is larger task than he ever anticipated. Is this the end of Kamui’s win streak?

Breakdown: It’s ego vs. ego. GO GO GO!

While I’m still having trouble keeping up with the more fast-paced matches (I even caved and studied a Wiki while watching this) they continue to do a good job explaining the major aspects of the match without needing third-party assistance (Looking at you, Bakugan). I learned some new strategies and aspects of the game, so I don’t feel like I’m getting washed away or anything.

Speaking of new things, Card Capital gets standing card tables, which….I guess are cool? I can kinda see how standing tables would be more immersive than just regular tables you sit at, but is it really that big of a deal? We also learn about soul bursts, which are cool.

Kai vs. Kamui is a match that I wasn’t even sure I wanted to watch. Both characters are full of themselves and dismissive of opponents that they don’t see ‘worthy.’ The only difference is that Kai is stoic, calculating and egotistical while Kamui is loud, thinks more on his feet and is egotistical.

Truth be told, this is the first episode where I basically knew the outcome. Kamui obviously needs to be taken down a peg to help quell his ego and make him mature more as a player. Kai is treated like a Vanguard god, so him losing before the episodes even get into the double digits is unlikely (Even though he already has….) Still, it was a pretty intense match, and I’m thankful they had the match be relatively even the whole time instead of just having Kamui get thrashed from start to finish.

Kai still continues to annoy me, though. I could’ve sworn he was more likable in the first episode, but he’s just a stone-cold ass. If Morikawa was in the second half of this episode, this probably would’ve been the first episode I disliked just on egotistical ass overload.

Next Episode, Aichi wants to sign up for the Card Capital tournament, but needs to face off with a boy named Kishida in order to win the final slot.

…Previous Episode

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

SSBS – Cardfight!! Vanguard | Episode 5: Whirlwind! Kamui, the Grade-School Fighter!

Plot: A grade schooler named Kamui is blowing all of the local junior high Vanguard players away. He’s garnered quite the fanbase, and Kamui’s grown quite the ego. He refuses to battle Aichi at first because he perceives him to be weak, but decides to challenge him when he believes Aichi’s little sister, Emi, is actually his girlfriend. Wanting to win her heart, he takes on Aichi. But can Aichi win when he only has one Grade 3 card in his deck? A card he got only a few minutes prior?

Breakdown: I knew it was only a matter of time before this series introduced a character who would gnaw on my nerves. Enter Kamui, an egotistical little brat who….honestly could be a lot worse.

While he was pissing me off at the start, by the end, I found him to at least be more tolerable than Morikawa, who just keeps getting worse to me the more I watch this series.

Morikawa’s an idiot and a crappy Vanguard player, but he acts like he’s the best no matter how many times he loses.

Kamui, on the other hand, may have an ego, but it’s at least deserved. He’s a very knowledgeable and skillful Vanguard player, and he doesn’t throw around much smacktalk in-game. He’s also more than willing to actually teach Aichi different aspects of the game, such as telling him that he can redraw cards once per match if he gets a bad hand, which I’m surprised never came up before now.

Many characters in Kamui’s place in other shows would probably have him telling Aichi BS stuff to sabotage him, but he obviously cares too much about the game and his status as a player to do such a thing.

The match in this episode went by a bit fast for my taste. Length-wise, it was fine, but there was a hell of a lot going on in a short amount of time for me to keep up sometimes. I’m still fuzzy on how drive and damage triggers work and why damage cards need to be flipped upside down sometimes and what that means, but it was a flurry of cards and flipping and wheee.

It was a good battle with a lot of action, but let the newbies keep up.

Outside of all of that, we have the crux of this entire battle, which is yet another person thinking Emi is Aichi’s girlfriend, and I still don’t get it. I’ll forgive Kamui for having a duel for Aichi’s ‘woman’ because he’s a kid, plus the resolution to this whole subplot is kinda funny.

One last minor note – Kamui has a ‘thing’ about getting common sayings and things wrong and people have to correct him. For example, he believes you have to challenge someone to a duel by slapping them in the face with a white bag when it’s supposed to be a glove. It’s not funny.

This episode also deserves some praise for not going the predictable route. Aichi gets his first Grade 3 Vanguard in this episode, and they don’t make a big to-do about it, really. It is his best move in the match, but in the end, Kamui has his own Grade 3 cards and wins. I was surprised, but even Aichi didn’t take this badly. He just thought to himself that he’s happy he gets to fight so many different and skilled players.

Can someone bend the laws of reality and make me friends with Aichi?

Next episode, we’re introduced to a hologram version of the game.

…Previous Episode

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥