Saturday 24 November 2018

Cardfight!! Vanguard V - Episode 30 Review



Following last week's really good episode because of Naoki we get more...Naoki!  Ok that works for me.  He trashes Morikawa's Spike Brothers (which admittedly seems iffy) and he talks about his new finisher while Misaki continues to be mopey about her situation with the Club.  Naoki is the opposite of this as he's now legit hyped to be going to school because of Vanguard and his newfound friendship with Aichi which is shown in a more upbeat attitude that confuses the hell out of the other students.  Bonus points to the writers for having Naoki fight Morikawa here as these two characters basically had the same character arc occur albeit for different reasons.  Little things like these are what I appreciate.

Naoki is further proving he's the Joey of this franchise by making his own meme faces.

After the OP we see our current three Club members eating lunch together with some witty banter between Kourin and Naoki when Aichi notices they're being watched by a creeper.  Given that Kourin is there this kind of thing is no surprise and to punctuate this we have more of her fans coming up to join the club.  Naoki eagerly jumps in to be the gatekeeper and wins against one of the mooks in the most over the top fashion while the creeper watches on, gets angry that the club will likely be ruined because of him and laments about his idol.

This may or may not have been me when I finally achieved the dream of flipping all trigs on a Zillion turn.

Naoki gets called out for his behavior seeing as he becomes legit scary while hamming it up which he is both shocked and appalled about before being headbutted off the screen by our creeper.  Aichi recognizes him as Shingo Komoi who is only too excited by this, accidentally drops his deck and immediately proceeds to rip Naoki a new one over his actions threatening "his idol's club."  Naoki doesn't take kindly to this and challenges him to a fight which Shingo gladly accepts, eager to show his idol "my cool fighting techniques."  Naoki meanwhile is eager to give him a beatdown which leads to the both of them laughing like villains as the fight begins and it's Narukami vs Nubatama.

This is an IMR that we now need.

One of the biggest questions coming into this series was how Nubatama were going to be handled as the two things it did pre-reboot (Hand Attack and Dominate) were fucking cancer and would have been terrible things to bring into standard.  This episode doesn't really give us enough to get a concrete answer but it does seem at the very least neither of it's old gimmicks are being used here as during his Grade 2 turn Shingo is able to bounce his units back to hand Bermuda Triangle style.  That's neat as it means you don't have to worry about the opponent damage denying you or retiring your stuff but at the same time why would you leave your front row open against Narukami.  Naoki promptly rushes him down and pushes Shingo to 4 damage going into his Grade 3 turn in which the formerly Murakumo boss unit Magatsu Storm enters the fray.

Power Rangers Ninja Storm theme intensifies.

We also see Stealth Dragon Voidmaster return as not a 9k Grade 3 with the ability to lock intercepts which is a very Narukami thing to do oddly enough as well as more of his units returning back to hand at the end of the turn.  So the deck is basically Afterimage but only the end of turn effect?  Either way the other Club members comment on Shingo being an actual legit player which gets him all riled up as hearing that kind of praise from Aichi and Kourin makes his "long Vanguard journey worth it."  He elaborates on this by saying he played the game constantly as a kid but upon coming to the academy he was shocked to find that Vanguard wasn't a thing there much like Aichi was a few episodes ago.  Shingo still played games with his brother but was otherwise feeling bleak about it when something shocking happened recently.  Naoki asks if it was Kourin's arrival to the class and angrily tells the "creepy stalker" that he's going to finish him this turn with his new finisher: Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion.

Okay I'll admit.  Seeing this made me happy.

Vermillion's skill seems to give it a conditional +5k and Crit and nothing else is known since Shingo kept his front row clear.  Hopefully this works on V/R and comes with some kind of removal skill.  Probably not since he's likely a RR.  Regardless Naoki goes all out with a pretty decent board that'd kill Shingo if Magatsu Storm didn't have the ability to retire two of its Rear-Guards to...perfect guard!?  It alongside the rest of his hand is able to ward off Naoki's push turn it probably would have lost to Detonix Drill Dragon though much to his grudging respect.  Shingo takes the moment to correct his assumption that he's stalking Kourin as his "idol" when the guy has no interest in "an average fighter who is the least friendly member of ULTRARARE with lukewarm popularity at best."

Yu-Gi-Oh! may have the set called "Savage Strike" but Shingo here "Savage Struck" Kourin.
...I'll see myself out.

This does not sit well with her but Shingo doesn't care as he continues his backstory from where Naoki cut him off and ultimately reveals that his idol is Aichi instead.  His game against Leon at the beginning of this season was inspiring to him and he was excited that the Asia Circuit Champion was in the same class as him.  They were even going to be friends as he would swoop in and join the Cardfight!! Club to keep it afloat.  But then the Fire Nation attacked Naoki did it first and now he's mad at him for it.  He won't stand by as a ruffian like him ruins the club and all that!  Thus through the power of anger and anime he proceeds to wreck Naoki's face in by...multi attacking with a Protect Clan in Standard format?  There's alot to take in here as one of the Grade 2s is able to gain +10k for a discard and it seems Voidmaster can tag itself to bounce a unit post battle in which Magatsu Storm lets the player superior call units in Battle Phase with +5000 and it's enough to end the game despite Naoki hitting a defense trigger.  Man Pale Moon players must me furious right now.

Naoki needs my patented Imaginary Gift of Disappointment.  Perfect for all Naru players out there!

Aichi asks Shingo to join the club which he happily accepts.  Naoki also takes his loss pretty well and we get the start of their "friendship" that will provide some meme faces I'm sure.  Aichi notes that the club just needs one more member to become official and we all know what that means.

It's time for Oracle Think Tank to regain it's former glory once again.  All hail the return of Deer God!

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