Saturday 2 March 2019

Cardfight!! Vanguard V - Episode 43 Review



Following last week's focus on Aichi, Naoki and Kourin this episode begins with a follow up to the Kai/Ibuki subplot that was hinted at during the big fight.  Everyone that isn't in the Miyaji club meets up at Card Capital and we get a cute scene of Asaka working behind the counter with a new look that gets her a compliment from Ren while Kamui is trying to convince Kyou that he plays Vanguard.  After explaining that he lost interest after losing to Ibuki the group gets hit with another bombshell as Misaki calls Kai to let him (and everyone else) know that Aichi lost to a zombie and before he can press her for further details ends the conversation as she is most likely on her way to Kourin's home.

[In W-Slasher Voice]: Expect Oda to post lewd artwork of ponytail Asaka within the week.

The two meet and Misaki confirms my suspicions that it was Kourin that made Naoki a zombie and gives her a what the hell hero speech more or less.  Kourin responds to this by claiming that what she's doing is Takuto's will and as a Called Walker she'll do what is required which is a bit saddening since she was so fiercely resistant to said will in the beginning.  Now it seems like either something happened off screen that broke her spirit which lead to this current scenario or that Kourin's simply given up and is running away from everything by saying "it's not on me I'm just a Walker lol".  Or maybe I'm trying to give this WAY too much credit.  After some more talk the two fight with the allure of Naoki and Aichi being released from their current state if Misaki wins.

The hell kind of raven is blond? 

We immediately cut to Misaki's Grade 2 turn staring down a superior ridden Blond Ezel as she recaps some of the things that happened over the season regarding Kourin's character who she again responds with "I'm a Walker it doesn't matter" while admitting that she came to Miyaji to spy on Aichi and that her character changed because of the recent changes to Takuto.  After hearing this Misaki goes on the offensive by slamming her hand down, turning her cards sideways, flipping yellow cards and going UNGA BUNGA!  Kourin coldly tells her that she's not winning this and dresses down Misaki while we see flashbacks to her childhood including her parents which is a first for the franchise to my knowledge and uh...turns out Misaki is a dead ringer for her mother when she gets older.  Ultimately Kourin's argument is that Misaki should know better than anyone else that fate can't be changed as she developed her photographic memory as a means of coping with the accident that killed her parents but can't be used to change the outcome and she angrily rides Raven Haired Ezel.

Man Vanguard attack names are so lame.

Kourin calls a field down and goes for the kill using Raven's skill to sentinel restrict despite soul blasting Blond Ezel earlier in the turn and not having another copy of the card in the Soul.  I expect this level of not reading the cards from a Vankohl40 video but jesus christ now the anime is cheating too I guess.  Either way Misaki blocks all of it and notices that Kourin is struggling to maintain the mask that she had been wearing this fight as the fear of losing everything she has (again) is starting to get to her.  Misaki rides Pentagonal Magus while trying to get her to remember everything that's happened and uses her Vanguard's ability to get Quintet Drive, flips two triggers and blows Kourin the fuck out.  Kourin breaks free from her PSY-Qualia Zombie state and by extension so does Naoki...but Aichi doesn't.


Uh oh.

All in all it was an okay episode.  Not as good as last week's but to be fair that was the best episode in the series so of bloody course this wasn't going to top that.  Kourin's character arc was always one of the better ones in the original and it's okay here.  Obviously V's rapid fire pacing made her sudden shift in mentality extremely jarring compared to the original but this was still decent ish and still enough to make her the most compelling of the Ultra Rare characters.  The big hook of the episode is that Aichi becomes a PSY-Qualia Zombie at the end which is something we never got to see when he got Reversed by Kai but broke out of it through PSY-Qualia shenaningans.  Now we get to see what could have been and I am admittedly curious on how this will be handled.  Will Aichi act like a giant dick like he did with Shadow Paladins in OG Season 1.  Please for the love of Stregas make him an asshole.

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