I'll admit this episode made me feel a bit nostalgic as we're seeing basically the same storylines from the beginning of Season 3 play out. Kourin is being swamped with fanboys/fangirls while Aichi is still trying to get the Cardfight Club off the ground and takes the time to talk with Naoki who is not impressed with the idiocy going on in the classroom. Kourin doesn't really do much here other than give the students an excuse to provide exposition on the Tatsunagi Foundation's power and wealth while Naoki's character arc begins. Despite being seen as a thug among the students (and not caring enough to deny it) we see that Aichi as he often does is willing to go the extra mile to try and establish a bond regardless of the person wanting to or not. It happened with Morikawa (and to some extent Kai) and we're seeing it here as despite their conversation being short Naoki is left with an impression and some curiosity regarding Aichi's return. He happened to be around when the lad was being bullied to the point of transferring to another school and despite not being involved with it, part of him still has some regret in not stopping it.
Bush Naoki is watching you Solitaire.
This leads him to follow Aichi heading to Card Capital where he's bewildered at how popular the guy is there and after chatting with "Old Man" Shin about the place learns about the world of card games, Aichi being the Asia Champion and sees a fight between patrons that serves as the obligatory Tutorial Fight of the season. This will ultimately spark Naoki's decision to pick up the game and be the best character of the season. Mark my words on that one.
Cut to the next day where Aichi is continuing to promote the Cardfight Club and trying to give Misaki a poster when Kourin opts to make herself important to the plot again by asking wtf is he doing. Aichi explains the contents of this story arc and she immediately agrees to join much to his surprise while Misaki makes a sadface because of "reasons" and by that I mean her excuse for not joining due to her obligation to run Card Capital which I swear she's more likely trying to convince herself that's the reason.
Let me go grab my Neo Nectar deck real quick.
Like before Kourin joining the club causes a bunch of people to want to join as well in order to get closer with her which she knows full well and comes up with the brilliant idea of only letting people be able to join by defeating her or Aichi in a fight. I do have to point out that Aichi is a National Level Player now and Kourin is generally a no nonsense, serious player like Kai. If this were an IRL club with these conditions it would almost certainly never get off the ground. Another thing that I have to mention is the way the voice actors are describing what's going on. Its translated as an Initiation Test for the club but they're saying it as "Noob Test." Clever.
Anyway loads of people try to get in but they all get bodied by snrk Royal Paladin and Gold Paladin so everyone flees in terror which I don't blame them. Aichi tells the audience that Kourin is the real deal and hardly anyone could defeat her if she is serious. She tells him she doesn't want groupies in the club and if they can't defeat her then they aren't fit to be on the same team as the Asia Circuit Champion. She also threatens to quit the club if Aichi wants to have Cardfight Area quality fights for the sake of having members and asks him to call her by her given name which is nice. Kourin's impact on the show is significantly less than the original due to not having had 2 previous seasons worth of time and interactions between Aichi to develop her crush but it is nice to see the callback as Kourin and Naoki being part of the Cardfight Club was one of the highlights of Season 3.
Idk. The whole idol thing is stupid to me.
Meanwhile Misaki is hanging around her one other friend when a random gossips about what's been happening with the club and she leaves to help clean up the shop. That doesn't matter however as the true hero of the show Naoki bursts into the shop and begs Shin to teach him how to not only play Vanguard but also to defeat Aichi. I swear it's like every scene this guy is in makes the show much more enjoyable to watch. None of these weeaboo teen idol fanservice cringe shit. Just straight to the point hot bloodedness. Shin agrees and we cut to the next day where Naoki challenges Aichi to join the club. One of the students calls Naoki out for bullying Aichi as a child which is met with a swift denial but it falls on deaf ears. He gets riled up over it and the false accusations continue before Aichi denies it was him and says to take the challenge.
"I'm calling down the thunder!"
Naoki is moved by this and declares his interest in this game as he sits across from Kourin, ready to go. She tells him she won't hold back regardless of whatever happened between him and Aichi in the past to which he says nothing ever did happen as we once again see him admit that he did nothing regarding Aichi being bullied and by extension didn't do anything to dispute any rumours that were spread about him being a bully. Well now that's stopping! With the power of anime and Narukami on his side Naoki Ishida is going to stop doing nothing and do...something! Baby steps people.
So that's the episode. Most of it is spent on Naoki and Kourin with one of them being infinitely more interesting than the other while Misaki more or less mopes over a self imposed restriction. Aichi is starting to become more like his Season 3 self with his willingness to continue putting himself out there to get the Cardfight Club running and the other characters are just there. It's fine though as our new cast of characters are easily more interesting than the people they're replacing.
Until next week when we finally get to see Narukami in action for the first time since Henri vs Dumjid.
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