After two weeks of the best character showing his stuff we're now back the subplot about Misaki not wanting to join the Cardfight!! Club for...reasons. Misaki's excuse in the original series was really flimsy if I recall and leading up to this episode it's been pretty much the same. Aichi tells the team the circumstances of their relationship with Kourin being less than impressed that she hasn't joined them and why she hasn't.
Cross-Examination Theme intensifies. Which one? Any of them.
We cut to Misaki and Akari (I finally remembered her name!) chatting about what happened with the latter asking why she's acting so cold to Aichi while pointing out that she's going back to the way she used to be complete with putting up walls around herself. This is interesting! We're actually getting some details about Misaki's past! It's always been implied in the original series that she was some sort of delinquent with Naoki being intimidated by her whenever they crossed paths and here we see why. Misaki used her photographic memory to keep idiots in line and given how she has been shown to be nothing less than intense when calling people out it naturally scared the shit out of everyone. Over time people got used to it but Misaki still kept herself walled up which led to her "story arc" in Season 1. Yes I'm putting quotes there because Misaki's character development literally came out of one episode and for the rest of the season she basically did two things: get mad when people dissed Card Capital and acted as Aichi's sister figure but without making it clear if she's trying to be a real sister or the anime kind.
It's too late girls. Thousands have already perished in your war.
Akari continues to contemplate if Ichino even wanted to change based on her recent behaviour when Aichi literally runs onto the screen to formally ask her to join his Club. We see said club at Card Capital waiting for the good news only for Aichi to come back empty handed, Shin to lament that he'd wish for Misaki to let him run the shop that her deceased parents owned and Kourin mulling over these facts while the other members of Ultra Rare tease her about "some boy." This leads to Kourin straight up calling Misaki out the next day by challenging her to a fight to see how good she must be to turn down Aichi's invitation to the club while Akari gets the silly idea of a love triangle going on between them. Is she also reviewing this show? Kourin offers to let her borrow a trial deck when Akari blurts out that Misaki has her actual deck on her and fiddles with it from time to time which makes her recent attitude all the more confusing. After all if she's doing that then clearly she loves the game so why is she being such a bitch? This answer can only be found through a card fight I guess and with that said it's time for a DEATH BATTLE!
This one won't be for the faint of heart folks!
It's Oracle Think Tank vs Gold Paladin and funnily enough the second time that Kourin's complete deck out of a core set is going up against a Trial Deck. Mind you this OTT trial is actually quite decent and this episode does at least show how you can change the order of skill resolutions for riding Cuore Magus over Lozenge Magus.
...
Holy shit the anime actually explained not one but two card effects in a row! I think I'm more surprised at this happening than Firewall Dragon getting banned.
Moving on Kourin asks Misaki if there's any truth to the rumours of her having supernatural powers and Akari confirms that there is some truth to it. When asked how applicable they are for Vanguard Misaki proceeds to name every single Grade 1 in Kourin's deck including the one she drew for turn much to her shock. They talk about it it some more and how her reputation came from it as Shingo stumbles across the fight. Misaki rides to her "avatar" Rectangle Magus and there is an emphasis on that for a reason as she starts thinking about Aichi here in regards to how much he's changed from being a timid weirdo to now someone who is more assertive who shines brightly in her heart. Now this same person is trying to take another step forward in forming this club and she believes that because she's an outcast joining the club would only hold it back. Kourin is once again incredulous at the fact that she won't accept Aichi's invitation if she's this skilled especially when he wanted to form the club with Misaki in the first place. Thus she decides she's going to go for the kill right now with the Ezel superior ride combo because that totally worked when she tried to finish off Naoki that way.
Naoki being the voice of reason? What is this week?
Wedding post with a cleavage shot? Oof Misaki's side of the war is bringing out the big guns!
Misaki rides Hexagonal Magus and does OTT things to call out a board while also setting up multiple stacks with her deck's abilities. She however decides to attack with her RG lane first for some reason then the VG while putting her trigger effects on it and not the other RG lane she has! Sure we get to see a sweet scene of Hexagonal + Tetra doing the Double Inazuma Kick from Gunbuster but what the hell kind of play was that considering Misaki is supposed to be one of the smarter characters of the show! Kourin lives through the turn off a defense trigger and throws all of her hand down to make one final push that gets rewarded through flipping a front + crit on her twin drive. As Boomstick would most likely say here it looks like Misaki didn't foresee this outcome.
But Kourin's side fires right back by revealing she's a Tsundere!
Due to the conditions of the fight Misaki officially joins the club and apologizes to Aichi for her behaviour which he says its fine. He also thanks Kourin for going out of her way to do this which earns him a cute blush and a hot-cold response that you totally never see in your typical high school harem anime. Yeesh even Naoki is pointing out how overdone this trope is. The episode ends with Shin taking the same photograph of the team that is shown at the end of the current opening.
This is gonna last 5 episodes at best.
All in all this was...something. Not as good as the recent episodes since we've been down this road before with Misaki in the last season. She acts cold and alone because of her memory making her appear weird but playing Vanguard causes her to warm up to the prospect of being around people. Rather than going the route of taking her ability, owning it and expanding on her previous character arc to become a badass like in the original series she's regressed here (and it's not for the better) and her character growth is more tied to Aichi. It also doesn't help that she doesn't have a rival this time around as unlike OG she didn't lose to Asaka in their first fight which in Season 1 sparked her desire to become a better fighter while mastering her talents in Season 1 with the Tsukiyomi Deck. Asaka would continue to serve as a benchmark to see how Misaki progressed as a fighter which would lead to more story arcs (Asaka beating that same deck caused Misaki to switch to Souless OTT) before both of them starting having arcs based around other things in Season 3 (Misaki's short crush on Aichi before wanting to help Miwa get unreversed while Asaka went full yandere for Ren).
Yes I know I keep comparing V to OG but that's because for the most part the the V series is flat out worse. It's storylines, characters and fights are strict downgrades compared to the OG. Misaki's case just happens to be where it's more noticeable because once again she's gone from being a character whose story arc was about coming out of her shell, learning how to use her memory for good and coming into her own as a figher and friend to the group to being...just another waifu that has some of these traits but Aichi needs to be involved for them to happen.
See you guys next week when we get the return of Ren and friends, complete with the still strange sight of Suiko in a Sailor Fuku uniform. How is that character not 20? Japan is weird.
Hello there I have somehow stumbled across your blog and read your reviews. They are quite fun to read. I would also like to offer some of my own comments for discussion.
ReplyDeleteTo me this episode made it pretty clear that it is not that Misaki would be bothered by what others think of her, but rather what others think of her would be transmitted to Aichi and the club inciting a perception of negativity towards them and potentially ruining their social high school lives. Misaki didn't want that which is why she kept a distance, but at the same time she has that fondness for Vanguard that gives her an internal struggle. It's later when she realizes that Aichi and Kourin sincerely want her to join and accept her for who she is that she moves forward.
I also don't really know if it's fair to call Misaki in this series a "regression." She's ultimately a different character from the original series. She shares some similar aspects with the old Misaki but both are executed a bit differently that the comparisons stop there. While season 1 Misaki was certainly compelling with her drive to want to beat Asaka and using her memory to her advantage and getting majority of her development through competing in Vanguard, V Misaki takes the route of having her character and relationships explored through other factors outside of just Vanguard. One directly involves the card game while the other is more a YGO style development where the card game is just a vehicle for the development. I have to say I do like what they did here with her and giving her a decent reason to not join the club as opposed to the original LJ which really had no reason so that was an improvement to me. As for her character being tied to Aichi... eh, I can see why it's not appealing for some as she was more independent and focused on herself in the original, at least for s1. But I don't really know if it's accurate to say Aichi is completely needed for her development here to happen. Hell, look at this episode. Kourin was the one who really charged forth and confronted Misaki and ultimately it was Kourin who got her to join, not Aichi. So certainly she can be influenced and develop without just Aichi.
Also, on the V to OG comparisons. I definitely agree on the fights. They are really lacking from a strategic standpoint as well as properly explaining all the skills. Though there have been a couple standout ones, Gouki v Kamui and Kai v Koutei come to mind. As far as characters go I'm actually leaning more towards the V series characters. They just seem more fun and compelling now. One of the things I didn't really like much about OG was how dry the cast was. They did have some characterization and development but they ended up not really clicking with me. Hell I had more fun with the G cast than the OG cast, but I feel here they really hit the mark with most of the characters and made them more fun to watch than their original counterparts. Obviously there are some exceptions like Leon, Koutei, Gouki who have less screentime, but if this series goes on for another 2-3 years then they might get more eventually. Storywise I guess the original s1 had a more practical "sports-like" story with the tournament progression and heavy focus on the card game while V s1 leaned more towards a YGO "soap opera" type style of story that revolves around card games but ultimately emphasizes the human drama and relationships. There's definitely a lot of YGO homages given the Vanguard manga author worked on the original YGO manga, wrote the YGO R spinoff and idolizes Takahashi. Again they're too different to where I wouldn't say one is objectively better/worse than the other. I did enjoy both of them though. But with the start of s2 it's now more in sync with LJ and serves as a better comparison. I like the episodes we've gotten so far a lot more than the start of LJ. V series is still relatively early in its run that they can take the story and the cast to many more places.
I want to add something to my earlier comments about Misaki after thinking about this episode more. To a degree she is affected by how others perceive her by how she puts up walls and has tried to change by cutting her hair, but I think it is not as heavily emphasized that she is suffering or depressed. Rather, she has learned to accept it and deals with it by displaying a strong front and being stubborn in her idealism. But the bulk of her internal conflict comes from Aichi and the club. Also, I mentioned that Misaki came to a realization about Kourin and Aichi accepting her, but then I thought about it more and they didn't really "show" that. She went most of the fight resigned to her "fate" and thinking it was useless. Then when Kourin beat her she accepted her loss and joined. I think they could have added something there where Misaki reflects on what happened and embraces the idea she's going to be part of the club, and nothing bad will come out of it like what she was wrestling with the past few episodes. It would be nice if they maybe slowly expand on that in future episodes as we see Misaki interact with the club members and get more involved.
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