Cardfight!! Vanguard V - Episode 29 Review

I'm now 100% convinced that Narukami mains make just about any episode of the anime enjoyable.  Between Naoki and Henri we've had some of the most memorable and arguably best characters show up.  Their fights are entertaining, they have the most grounded character arcs in a season (Henri wasn't fighting to save the world from magic card game demons, he just wanted to keep his school's club open while also making Shion and Rin slightly less insufferable to watch) and are generally the most hot blooded/macho character in their group.  Seriously if you want a good episode or two of Vanguard, just throw in a Narukami main and it just works.  Even the side characters like the Dragon Empire Leader or the Eradicator guy from G were badass in the few times they fought.

With that said much of this episode focuses on the fight between best boi Naoki and one of two girls fighting for best in Kourin while Misaki is dragged into the classroom to watch.  Despite having a deck already made this is of course his first fight and serves as the tutorial for this season (though it's not as egregious as the ones we've had before) so we get to see him make the mistake of not drawing for turn and getting sharked and disqualified in Manilla and whatnot.

What?  Were you expecting Ezel with boobs?  Go buy a mat from The Solemn Vanguard if that's your thing then.

Kourin decides to go for the kill early and superior rides Blond Ezel to Naoki's Grade 1 and rushes the hell out of him.  People comment on him being put in a bad spot but anyone who has seen Standard Golds know that what just happened is the literal extent of what the Ezel deck can do (for now).  He's still triggered however and we get to see a flashback involving him and...his brother!?  Turns out manga Naoki has more issues than "I didn't try to stop people from picking on Aichi and they think I'm a thug" as we also have an older brother that's on his case for his already established lack of motivation in life.  This brings him back to Aichi and how he's changed because of Vanguard to the point that Naoki is willing to try it to achieve a similar result.

Seeing this makes me considerably less bitter than usual.

Well he certainly puts a stamp on that by riding Recklessness Dragon and showing off Standard Narukami's ability to bind front row units ala the Dragonic Vanquisher deck which in the context of this format can be pretty brutal as it's basically the same as Banish from YGO.  If Granblue wasn't considered a dead deck in the format by this point, now it's definitely boned.  Back to the fight and Naoki counter rushes Kourin to bring the game back to 3-4 in his favour.  We get another turn of her trying to close out the game and coming up short as it's Naoki's turn again where he wonders to himself if Shinn's strategy really is going to work or not.  Did someone say flashback scene?  Truth be told its just Naoki learning the basics of the game from Shinn while still desperately wanting to defeat Aichi.  Shinn proceeds to grab a card from a lockbox that'll be good for his deck and it turns out to be none other than the "obese" Great Composure Dragon.

Would you believe me if I said this was the optimal backup in Vanquisher until G-BT12?

Damn he worked off that potbelly!  Everyone proceeds to freak out over GCD hitting the board with Misaki explaining to whats her face that said unit is very useful in this situation and we see that Kourin definitely is not impressed.  In the manga the reason for this is that GCD's 12k base was just simply too much of a wall for Kourin's deck to overcome because she wasn't able to make magic numbers (when this chapter came out the standard deck of the format usually made 16k lanes with its rearguards which GCD could easily block with a simple 5k shield.  It was basically a Cross Ride in a format where Cross Ride stats were really good).  GCD V seems to gain power for each open R in the front row and with it Naoki is able to push Kourin to 5 who immediately fills up her ranks on the following turn to counteract it.

This is just asking to get Vermillion'd.

She goes for another kill swing and even hits a front trigger but Naoki is still able to survive the push (and with his units in tact) because once again Standard Gold Paladin are awful.  Everyone in the room is impressed and Naoki excitedly tells Aichi that he's enjoying Vanguard which of course makes him happy while Lizard Soldier, Riki hits the board.  His effect is basically a MUCH better version of Dure Scrap Dragon's "GET OVER HERE" ability as he moves multiple units to the front/back while also getting +3k and we also see Photon Bomber Wyvern get a conditional +10k.  This also turns Great Composure Dragon back online so Kourin now has to deal with multiple fuckoff huge columns pre-trigger check!  Kourin loses and Naoki is now in the club.  Couldn't happen to a better character.  The three of them quickly become friends including our new bromance of the season seeing as Kai and Kamui will be appearing less frequently for a while. 

If the deck is able to make these numbers without triggers after V-BT03's release, it has a chance.

We cut to Card Captial where Naoki is asking Shinn for flashier cards while Aichi confirms that he indeed had a hand in building the deck used today.  There's also a moment of friendship building between Aichi and Naoki while we see Misaki sulk some more outside the shop because she's doing "nothing at all" which brings about an end to the episode.

This was definitely one of the better ones of the show as it was a simple story of Naoki wanting to join the club, own up to mistakes he made as a kid regarding Aichi being bullied while also wanting to change as a person after seeing how much Vanguard affected someone else.  This ultimately leads to his hot blooded personality coming to the front and will be the basis of his character for the rest of the season.  The fight itself was okay with a decent amount of card effects being actually explained to the viewer (though most of Naoki's cards were kept secret because Bushiroad's gotta drag out these COTD reveals somehow!) and there was some actual strategy employed here albeit unintentionally.  Naruakmi's standard playstyle looks promising and I'm doubly excited to see next week's episode where we'll have the return of Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion who will ultimately be used in a losing effort.  Rip.