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vrainsrewatch · 5 years

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episode 16 thoughts

i got some stuff done but then stress so i decided to watch another before tackling everything else i have to do, lol.

this was one of my favorite episodes from S1 originally and i’m glad i still enjoyed it just as much this time around!

the episode starts with something we don’t see very often: yusaku going to school lmao.

we get this shot while he’s bored in class:

and i’ve heard a lot of people talk about the symbolism of the birds with the LI victims, and something interesting i noticed was that this shot only shows 5 birds.

it could be taken in the way of, “we already know one of the lost incident victims, it’s yusaku!”, but when we consider that windy’s origin is dead, it makes me wonder. there’s some plot points in vrains that feel like they were kind of added in last minute, or were thrown out for awhile only to get added back in later, but windy’s origin never felt like one of those to me.

not sure if that’s just me -- i know a lot of people wanted justice for him. i do, too, to some extent! i just also was one of the only people i saw in the fandom who fully believed him to be dead as soon as that was introduced to us, lol.

anyways, though.

man, i know right? i miss my girl. i love that yusaku noticed this, though, and was looking around for her at school. he’s a good kid.

ai then talks about how akira might be keeping her isolated, and says:

but yes, yes i can blame him. even without the obvious effects it has on aoi,

that’s, uh, kind of a crappy reaction? kind of is an understatement LOL. she’s sixteen. she’s not some little kid that you can scold for doing something bad -- she was forcibly given a virus, that akira’s company probably should’ve noticed, seeing as uh, the KOH are their biggest enemy, and she dueled when akira told her not to. oh no, how terrible!

seriously, for a kid who already feels isolated from the rest of the world, that must be terrible, being forcibly isolated even further. as i brought up when we first get introduced to her, no wonder she decided on becoming an idol in LV. i really feel for aoi.

i get that he’s protective, but man, as someone who fought hard for my freedom when i was a kid, this really rubs me the wrong way lmao.

moving on.

more of yusaku completely ignoring anything romantic LOL. i just love this. i love that you can take it to either be complete obliviousness or apathy. either way is funny to me, AND in character, which is a plus.

we then get this:

emma is such an instigator here and i love it tbh. she’s really egging things on around her to ease her own curiosity, lol. we don’t really have many morally gray female characters in ygo (again, i have not seen zexal so i’m unsure how true that statement is, shame me even more), so it’s cool to see.

even originally i knew something was fishy about her going out of her way to duel playmaker when she knew she would likely lose, so i like how they followed up on that.

akira, you really could be such a cool dude. i’m glad you become one by the end of the series, at least sort of lol, but right now, i still don’t like you much.

it’s interesting that she used a butterfly here to me tbh. i spent a stupid amount of time trying to figure out what kind of butterfly she modeled this after, but got absolutely nowhere lmao. i know they’re often symbolism, so i’m curious if there was anything i was missing here, but i guess i’ll never know.

if someone does have an idea, drop me an ask! i’m super curious.

anyways, though, i also love how emma knows it’s her and akira didn’t even notice her there. it’s really cool to think of it like that when you think about aoi’s character development and her relationships with both emma and akira later in the series.

this is probably the attitude that causes ai to have to watch yusaku die in all those simulations, so i was not happy seeing this line LOL

anyways though,

here’s another yusaku smile. i guess i’m screenshotting all of the good ones now. that’s fine. we need them anyways.

then we get the infiltration scene, which i honestly loved originally and still love now. they found a really cool way to actually visualize something that is... not terribly interesting IRL and i appreciate that, honestly!

bahaha. famous last words, ai.

this was a line i was not expecting them to ever bring back, but like, the whole bohman thing in episode, what, 57-58? or something along those lines? i know it probably wasn’t intentional -- or maybe it was, who knows -- but remembering that mini arc when we were all like “wait is yusaku actually an ai lol” and seeing this line so early on is actually pretty cool!

i also love the context for it, though, lmao. yusaku being like “it’s a viable strategy” and ai just being -__- to that really made me laugh. then there’s the start of the duel vs the duelist AI things, then there’s the bs about them trying to steal his duel disk -- hello, this is ygo, you have to duel for these things! -- and then:

LOVE BLUE! ANGEL!!

i literally shout it/clap along whenever that track comes on, lmao, i love it. and i love her reappearance! it’s been almost 10 episode since we’ve seen you do something, best girl, so good to see you back!

i love how shocked playmaker is to see her, too! so fun. what a great entrance.

we end the episode with this:

and i love it. i love her! love blue! angel!!

lmao sorry. anyways, we’re getting to one of my top 5 duels of the series soon, and i’m sure you all know what duel that is, so i’m super excited! hopefully i’ll be able to squeeze a third episode in today, but we’ll see. these posts actually take up quite a bit of my time, lol.

thanks as always for all the asks/notes you guys have been giving me!! it’s really awesome and i’m so glad so many people are enjoying this little project of mine. please feel free to keep sending stuff in!! it really makes me happy <3

#vrains #episode 16

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vrainsrewatch · 5 years

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episode 17 thoughts

blue angel is back and ready to go! this little mini arc, from 16 through the akira vs pm duel, is one of the highlights of S1 for me, so it’s been a lot of fun watching these back. this was where i originally got super invested, and it went from something that i enjoyed watching and was looking forward to seeing play out to binging all day every day until i got caught up LOL. anyone who knows me from twit/yt knew how bad it was, lmao.

anyways, this episode starts off with blue angel coming in to help playmaker, instead of the other way around. their back and forth is kinda funny to me, with her saying she owes him and him being like ??? to that lmao.

she also says this:

and i had completely forgotten how dead set she was in the beginning on defeating him.

though that desire is quickly replaced with some other character development that i adore, it still leaves me strongly wanting an actual female rival in ygo LOL. oh well. maybe for ygo 7!

anyways though.

god i really don’t like this guy LOL i don’t think that’s an unpopular opinion or anything, and i think he’s not exactly supposed to be likable, but i’m not sad we never saw him again really pff

we also get the emma/akira convo about aoi, which i really like.

emma: says something about how blue angel showed up on time akira: !? emma: idk what youre talking about

LOL something about that just made me laugh a lot. but even more so, this conversation gives us this:

which is the beginning of akira’s realization that he can’t control aoi’s life forever. i really love how this doesn’t come from the MC, but from emma. vrains underutilized a lot of the side characters (like, spectre should’ve dueled more and miyu should’ve been more of a character, for example), but i really like how they had takeru, ryoken, aoi, and akira all develop as their own characters separate from yusaku when necessary.

it’s something that was kept up with for a lot of the series, though it would’ve been nice if S3 wasn’t cut so short so we could’ve seen more of aoi’s development, but still.

i also really like this scene because emma isn’t saying it just to get akira to go with her and finish her plan. she reminds him of that after this, which shows that she really cares about this. she doesn’t really know aoi, they’ve had like, one conversation at this point iirc (which was last episode in LV), but she’s a really independent woman, and can obviously tell aoi wants to be treated as one, too. i really love their mentorship and it’s nice to see it take it’s roots as early as this episode!

and blue angel. seriously, i love her, and this episode reminded me of why. she’s a really fun duelist to watch tbh. not my favorite, and obviously vrains has some killer duels (one of my top 5 is coming up next episode, for example), but she’s just fun. i love her as blue girl and blue maiden, too, but blue angel is probably my favorite design for her.

look at her! it’s so fun to compare and contrast aoi vs her persona, because obviously some of it is acting, but how much? comparing to blue girl and blue maiden later down the line, i think if given the chance to act how she wanted IRL instead of constantly being isolated and worried about ruining her brother’s reputation, she’s be more spunky and sassy. in all her forms she’s got that going for her, and i think that is part of her true nature. IRL she’s just too shy and too worried over akira as i said, but in LV? she’s free to be whoever she wants. i love that.

anyways though, we don’t often get two duels in one episode, but vrains can do it pretty well for these shorter duels. i understand with how the format is now it’s not really.. possible, to shorten most of the duels, but it still would’ve been nice to see a couple more cutaway duel episodes. imo anyway lol.

moving on though, we cut back to yusaku, who has some mad recursion on his deck LOL and gets this dude from storm access:

i couldn’t remember who he got while i was watching this back, and i don’t remember him like.. ever using this again LOL maybe i’m wrong but i really don’t recognize this monster.

i get they probably didn’t want to give him something too big or cool during a transition episode, but it still would’ve been nice to have him gain something of importance lmao. i would say it’s almost nice since it makes it seem like storm access is just another skill, but like, vrains puts so much emphasis on it. throughout the whole series. so it makes it feel kind of off in this duel lol.

anyways, though, then its the end scene:

and i am so excited to watch this duel again. like a month ago i rewatched it just because i enjoy it so much, but i don’t even care lol. this duel is so good. i almost want to wait until sunday when i know i’ll have time to cover it all in one sitting, lmao, but idk. we’ll see what i decide to do later ig!

#vrains #episode 17

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