An episode focused on best boi Miwa? None of us are worthy of this gift.
It took a bit of time but I finally got a chance to sit down and watch last week's episode of Vanguard V and imagine my delight when I realized this was going to focus on Miwa who was universally adored by the fanbase in the original series for being one of the most chill, trolly and overall grounded characters in the show (who was unfortunately saddled with Seal Dragons to balance this out). Mind you most of the time Miwa was ever relevant to the plot of the show it usually meant the story was focusing on Kai whom he was tied at the hip to or in other cases Misaki due to their on screen chemistry. Vanguard V does not change this up as so far we've seen Miwa as a gatekeeper fighter (meaning he will defeat any of the lower tier characters but lose to any of the main characters or villains) who has close ties to Kai and as we will likely see later on Ibuki. Like before the two knew each other as kids with Kai always beating him at Vanguard before having to move away. This crushed Miwa as he lost his best friend and his motivation to play the game for many years which is actually something that I can see happen IRL. People play card games as a means to form bonds with other people so when the friends you've made through the game quit and leave it's a huge blow to your desire to continue. Some people will and some people won't.
He became a boring but somehow badass character.
Flash forward a few years and Miwa is seen trying to hit on a pair of girls who are talking about a "cool guy" who is Cardfighting nearby which he asks to go see. Lo and behold he finds Kai with a group of people he doesn't know crushing some scrub while asking for another opponent. Miwa challenges him while also trying to catch up...except Kai doesn't respond. Seems like our boy is in his edgelord phase or something as he ignores Miwa's hails, scrapes him and leaves with Ren. We skip to present day where Miwa having reunited with Kai through the power of going to the same high school vows to never leave his side while aggressively building his Vanguard deck. Oh god the fanfic writers are gonna have a field day with this.
Alright readers it's time for a new game; Count how many fanservice shots Misaki and Asaka get this season and see who wins.
As if hearing my concerns in walks 2nd best girl Asaka who immediately balances out the ho yay with a fanservice shot while also having Minami around on a leash as punishment for wussing out against Kai. Whew. Asaka's come looking for Kai which Miwa immediately objects to. He tells her to fight him if she wants to hear what he has to say and now we've got Nova Grappler vs Pale Moon. Misaki and Shin try to talk him out of it but muh pride (and the need to sell set 2) says otherwise as we head into the commercial break advertising the underwhelming Aqua Force Trial deck. You're 1 for 3 regarding currently released Accel Clans Bushiroad! You gotta step up your game with Pale Moon and Murakumo if you want to not make the gift a joke!
I swear Asaka looks like an entirely different person without the lipstick.
The fight plays out like you'd expect with the two trading blows early before Asaka pushes Miwa to 4 damage as on her Grade 2 turn through a crit while he mounts a counter rush. I do have to point out that the fight choreography is a little bit on the lacking side here. What they're doing is neat as we see Miwa's Vanguard get suckered repeatedly by Pale Moon being tricksters before wising up but the animation itself is really choppy and stiff. It's like we've gone back to OG Vanguard's animation from the later seasons. Also Misaki gives Shin another flying kick for enjoying the fight in spite of the circumstances which makes it three on on screen kicks to the head this season?
Alot's riding on this card to make or break PM.
Asaka remarks on Miwa being good but not as strong as Kai which he retorts by saying he beat someone that beat Kai which if I were to ask TheIrishGod about how good that logic is he'd probably take a giant shit on it but because this is anime the argument holds water. Thus she rides Golden Beast Tamer and by the looks of it is a costly multi attack enabler that calls out 3 cards during the turn you ride it. Miwa asks why Asteroid has an interest in Kai and Asaka responds with he is the only person what can relieve their Leader's boredom due to Ren being so strong that he can't get a decent fight out of people anymore. Miwa gets pissed as he doesn't Kai going back to the way he was in the flashback which gives him the power to hit a defensive trigger and not lose this turn as he rides RNGKaiser. The RNGods clearly favour(?) him as he manages to trigger Kaiser twice to restand his Miss Splendor and Cup Bowler...before fucking him over by giving Asaka a defensive trigger of her own which lets her survive his turn. Miwa tells her that Kai isn't what he used to be thanks to his fight with Aichi in which Asaka says that he's a traitor to Ren then and finishes him off, ending the episode with him passing out in Misaki's arms.
All in all this was one of the more story driven episodes of the show so far as we see that Kai was a ball of sunshine as a kid but something happened when he moved away and Ren had something to do with it. What it is we will no doubt find out in the coming weeks but for now, get ready for the battle of the series' Waifus as it's Misaki vs Asaka round 1. Following previous series' logic Misaki will lose this one while next week's episode also tries to tackle the aftermath of Aichi's last fight. Oh and Ren appears or something.
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