After a holiday break between episodes we return to V with...a recap episode? Really? Good god I thought the upcoming Bermuda Triangle Spoiler Season (which will take 2 months to get through the TD and EB, btw) was going to be hell but jesus christ it's hasn't even been 10 episodes yet. Okay fine whatever. This isn't like the last one at the very least.
The episode begins with a focus on Kourin here through a recap of her activities in the first couple episodes of the season via a conversation between Aichi and Emi as the other UR girls tease her the recent gusto that she's been applying herself to school in addition to their idol work. Ushimaru (the butler) and the girls tell Aichi to take care of her which is easier said than done given the rampant fanboy/girling going on around her. To his credit the guy does step in to disperse a crowd of groupies (but fails) and it's thanks to the timely appearance of best boi Naoki that things settle down which leads us to a rather warming scene of 4/5ths of the Cardfight Club together. While I do shit on this series (and it deserves every bit of my ire) seeing the group interact in this chummy manner is cool to see as we have people of different statures and histories all bonding together over their love of card games. I would have loved to see this dynamic go on a bit longer with them heading to a couple tournaments ala a sports anime season but maybe, just maybe the next anime iteration of Vanguard will do that. Only 40 episodes to go!
Seriously. This guy is amazing.
We get another short recap as Shingo recalls Naoki's fight with Kourin before we cut to said idol getting swarmed by groupies again which leads Aichi to devise a plan to deal with him with the help of the Dragon BrosTM. It's an okay one as he gets Shingo to conduct a seminar on Vanguard as some of the fans were asking incredibly dumb questions like "What does your Vanguard Club do?" and "Does Irminsul trigger if I have only 1 Plant token?"
Wait that was a cringy playtesting video I was watching the other day. Oops.
Regardless Aichi uses the distraction to whisk Kourin away from the insanity while we get another recap of Naoki's fight with Shingo which we can now say with some certainty that is grossly inaccurate. Nubatama was depicted as way too not shit for that to be a realistic fight! Kourin ends up heading to the courtyard where Misaki happens to be because he knew that she always reads there on her lunch break? Even Misaki is a bit alarmed over him knowing that tidbit.
The Best Girl wars comes to a brief stop in the Neutral Zone of all Anime: the School Courtyard
Misaki asks if Kourin will be able to participate in the Vanguard Koshien which has been a reoccuring question throughout the episode given that Ultra Rare is also an advertised endorser of the tournament meaning the three girls will be required to song and dance most likely. Kourin is determined to do her part as a member of the Cardfight Club and falls asleep as we get our next recap which is of the fight for Misaki's place in the club.
After this we cut to night time at the Tatsunagi household with the UR girls playing it out as Takuto tells the girls (and us) what's been the premise of the last story arc; the three girls were sent to Miyaji, Fukuhara and Fukuhara Middle School to monitor the people there but Kourin stepped over the line by forming the Cardfight Club. Takuto is fine with this but he admits it's time for him to fulfill his role as the Concert Master, a title handed down to the head of the Tatsunagi Household from generation to generation which is indicated by the green mark on his head. What's neat about this scene is that we actually get to see Takuto being made the head while his brother who only appeared in Vanguard G gets a cameo while also being relieved that he wasn't chosen. This is probably an important thing to remember given that in the OG series Takuto got taken over by Void and became batshit loco. Also just like in the original series Kourin, Suiko and Rekka were summoned to Takuto's side to be his Concert Walkers with their original memories stolen because they weren't needed for this mission which is going to lead me into a side tangent;
Both in the original series and now the girls despite being pretty much kidnapped and pseudo brainwashed never show any resentment towards Takuto and just go along with this. You'd think given the circumstances that one of them (Kourin) would hold a grudge against him for all this but nothing of the sort ever happened in OG and I suspect it'll be the same here.
Back to the actual topic at hand Rekka asks why Takuto is opting to act out in the open when the Concert Masters of the past have never done so which is also something that's carrying over from the original (although we wouldn't know that Takuto's actions were considered to be out of line until G) and his response is because of Koji Ibuki. We get one more recap as Takuto explains that the Deletors are units that he's never seen before and that he foresees them as part of a threat to the planet Cray which leads to the "big" reveal that Cray is real and that our world is linked with it.
Thanks alot for making that link by the way, Chrono.
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