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After what has been such a downwards trend for this series, it seems VRAINS have finally been able to find it’s footing again, (for now)!
At long last, we are getting both Yuusaku’s and Kusanagi’s backstory of how they became a team. The best part about this? This will be at least a two episodes long, and I wouldn’t complain if it’s three so as long as they give as as good content as they did today.
Currently as it stands, with so much external interferences, it makes it difficult for Yuusaku and Kusanagi to do what they need to do with just the two of them. So it makes sense how they need a bigger team. However the more players added, there is a shift in dynamic and interactions, and we don’t get to see as much of it as we used to. This is of course not a bad thing, because it’s good for Yuusaku to open up to other people.
What makes Kusanagi’s and Yuusaku’s relationship special though is the fact Kusanagi is the first person after the incident that Yuusaku has finally opened up to. He didn’t have to visit Kusanagi’s food truck, but he did anyways because he was curious about what Unnamed was like in the real world. It some extent I was amazed, Yuusaku trusted him enough to thank him in person for giving him access of an emergency log out when he decided he was done with the Hanoi Knights. Again, Yuusaku wasn’t the one to initiate the partnership, it was Kusanagi, but after the guy makes an excellent argument how they can support each other, by Unnamed being the Shield and Unknown as the Sword. I really loved this analogy because that’s exactly how they function. And so the partnership was established.
What I found the most interesting however was learning how Playmaker’s Avatar name was initially “Unknown”, a perfect match to Kusanagi’s “Unnamed” Avatar. So I am quite excited to see the backstory behind the name, “Playmaker”, which was probably suggested by Kusanagi since Yuusaku’s character never seem to really care about the details about such things. In fact, bearing that in mind, this backstory goes to show just how far Yuusaku’s character has grown. Before the two teamed up, Yuusaku was merely a lone-wolf pursuing the Hanoi Knights for answers and to attain revenge for the incident.
It is also worth pointing out, Yuusaku to some degree, was even colder of a character prior to meeting Kusanagi. Of coures that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a heart, he wanted to help others, but he didn’t like wasting time. It makes really excited to see how the friendship blossom between the two of them, and see sides of Yuusaku we have not seen of yet. Remember this is before Ai came into the picture, so I look forward to seeing more!
However as cool as it was to see how the two met, what stood out to me this episode was just how messed up Jin was when he returned home. In many ways, it looks like he may have been the victim who suffered from the incident the most. It was terribly alarming to see how he wouldn’t speak or move, and completely lost himself. Kusanagi couldn’t even recognize him. That’s why Kusanagi cast aside his dreams of pursuing sports, and dedicated himself to becoming a hacker and programmer in order to enable himself to investigate the case on his own, and it wasn’t something that was accomplished overnight– it took years.
But if there is one thing I really hope we will be able to see is how Jin’s character gradually became more alive again. During the first season, we never saw him, ever, except for the clue that he kept himself locked in his room, fearful of the outside world. Then after the Hanoi Knights were “defeated”, we were shown how Jin was making remarkable recovery… until Bohman waltz in and robs both his consciousness and happiness! Hopefully, they won’t leave this detail out, because he is important too, which reminds me: the second time Kusanagi was saved, he heard Jin’s voice. It wasn’t an ‘illusion’ so to speak, it definitely wasn’t Yuusaku’s, it was Jin’s. While it could all be in his head, perhaps, this was not a coincidence, and it was to serve for an even bigger secret that could be related to what became of the victim’s of the Lost Incidents files. While Bohman’s story about the “soul swap” sounds like total BS fabricated for the sole purpose of attempting to rattle Yuusaku, there is no doubt in my mind the database absolutely existed, and it begs the question, of what happened to it after the incident, and where is it now?
And finally, unfortunately I have to address the bloody elephant in the room: Naoki. It’s because he dragged Yuusaku off, threatening him with the claim he ‘knows his secret’, (120% certain he is wasting time as usual) that we are having this story-time with Kusanagi in the first place— even though this is something that could have easily set up in another way, WHY COULDN’T THEY HAVE DONE IT ANOTHER WAY?! DID THEY REALLY HAVE TO USE NAOKI FOR THIS?! CAN WE NOT?! He is that character that should have been scrapped before the show even started, or at the very least, they should have made him at least bearable, not some idiotic creep who goes on about being soulmates with Playmaker! Ugh! I hope Yuusaku shuts him down real good when he sees the idiocy he is undoubtedly going to bring up!
I just hope that the Writers are just baiting us to think that Naoki knows who is Playmaker. I seriously thought that Naoki would be the last guy to know that.
10000000% certain it’s bullshit as usual. I hope Yuusaku scares him off, maybe that’ll shut him up and force him to keep his distance for a while.
I bet the “secret” that Naoki has found out about Yusaku is just his stupid misunderstanding or something. Really, can’t they just get rid of him already? Yusaku, you’re smart, so I hope you’re smart enough to just ignore whatever Shima’s request is and go on with your more important business.
Aside from Kusanagi and Yusaku’s backstory, the brief interaction between Ai, Flame, Takeru and Kusanagi are also funny! I love it when Kusanagi is smart enough to take advantage of Ai able to fly using his Duel Disk to promote his cafe and then Flame suggesting that they should make a machine for him so that Takeru can go back home without having the need to use train! Oh, I wish Yusaku can join in this kind of interaction more!
And the next episode, not only we’ll finally learn how Playmaker begins but also how Yusaku got his Cyberse Deck! That place has to be how Yusaku found and got his Cyberse Deck! Kusanagi is another great big brother in YGO series! I’d love to have a big brother like him!
And I know this is not actually important, but I feel like writing it down here. This is Kusanagi’s Cafe Nagi menu:
If Yuusaku can just like scare him off with that cold icy glare we saw in this flashback, that should shut him up and keep him far away for a while.
Ai and Flame are freaking hilarious, I love these two so much! Kusanagi is a freaking genius to make Ai do that, it was glorious! You just wait, Flame gonna make something and he and Ai are going to be like children messing around with the duel-disks, flying/driving around the city as the please! 😂
That’s what I’m thinking too about his Cyberse Deck! I was really happy to see his original deck though! It’s just nice to see a bit of Yuusaku’s story before Ai came into the picture!
Yeah, I felt like this was a good episode. One of the funniest too in addition to being a breather episode. I was touched by how kind of an older brother Kusanagi is. He gave up his own dreams in order to help Jin. That’s very selfless. I had a feeling Kusanagi wasn’t the best at dueling but I would have loved to see the deck he runs. I noticed the deck Playmaker, or Unknown at the time, had, was basically the same cards as the Link Strike Starter Deck back in 2017 with the exception of the Cyberse monsters in it. I know because I bought it.
Onto Yusaku’s character before he met Kusanagi. Yes, I do agree Playmaker was colder when he was working alone. Kusanagi seemed shocked that someone that was as sharp-tongued as Unknown was actually quite quiet and somewhat shy in real life. I mean, Yusaku hid himself underneath a dark hoodie before accepting Kusanagi’s proposal to team up. Yusaku removing his hood to reveal his face was the first step to him opening up to others. Plus I do agree that Yusaku has come quite far in his character development after seeing that. In season 2, he’s not as cold towards other people now that his revenge is over. His emotionless shell has definitely crumbled a lot too if he warmed up to Takeru quickly and lets him join the team.
Ai was so funny doing advertising for Kusanagi by flying around. He can’t charge for that service after all. I could tell Flame was jealous Ai could fly. Not the best pun though. Although Ai didn’t mention the part that Roboppy modified the duel disk to convert into a hovercraft at will. Flame wanting Takeru to put wheels on the duel disk totally made me laugh if my voice wasn’t hoarse from a cold. I mean, that’s preposterous and it’s a bad idea because Takeru could get arrested for driving an unlicensed vehicle. Plus the duel disk would be too heavy to carry. Did you notice that Flame’s name in kanji was written on the windshield of the car in Flame’s imagination? Having that would only inflate his ego.
I can’t believe Naoki was in this episode. It did sound like he was planning to blackmail Yusaku for possibly knowing his identity as Playmaker. Although like you said, I really doubt that he knows. Plus the soulmates thing all over again. It sickens me. That idiot is so delusional! My expression was the same as Takeru when Naoki asked for a minute. I just hope the so-called blackmail isn’t gonna involve Naoki joining Yusaku’s team. I’ll go insane if I see that.
Ai and Flame were freaking hilarious. I’m just waiting for Flame to figure out how to turn Takeru’s duel-disk into a drone or a car of a sorts like Ai did. #ACTUALCHILDREN
OH GOD LET’S NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT THAT. UGH. I don’t know why the writers want to keep Naoki around, he contributes nothing to the story NOTHING. His character should have been deleted, I just can’t stand characters like him!
And this was the day where we could agree that Go Onizuka in his lowest was actually more tolerable than Naoki will ever be. Just wait, in the near future there may be the salt-inducing duel between two worst VRAINS characters: Go Onizuka VS Brave Max, if the writers have some mercy to give Go a mercy win.
This episode was decent enough, as we really needed a backstory on Kusanagi, which was a character I’m not sure how to feel about, considering how he was able to partner up with Yusaku that easily prior to the start of the series. Granted, I wished the backstory told more, like how Kusanagi’s brother was kidnapped and other stuff….also, the alliance forged between Kusanagi and Yusaku felt too smooth, tbh.
True they definitely could have gone more in depth with the circumstances of how he was kidnapped, but I don’t think that should be something to focus on right now. I am hoping we will be able to learn more about Jin himself in this backstory. If they don’t feature him and his own gradual improvement at all, I feel like that would be a missed opportunity. As for Kusanagi and Yuusaku, perhaps we will see them clash a bit next week. Just because they agreed to become partners doesn’t exactly mean they will get along right away/have good synergy. We will have to see if the writers are willing to play with that a bit, something I would like to see considering how Yuusaku had been working as a lonewolf before then.
FINALLY a good episode since a long while. Yes, Yusaku & Kusanagi’s first meeting and them forming their current partnership was great to know and there’re several things I have to point out (both good and bad):
1) Y’know, I was VERY elated to see Playmaker’s earliest deck before gaining the Cyberse misfits (sorry, but that’s the tag they’ll be carrying forever if they don’t have the synergy to be decent on their own), and the BEST part was PHOTON THRASHER being summoned, a staple monster not seen since Zexal days where it’s a core strategy for Kaito to summon Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. (If Playmaker actually went ahead and summoned Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon I’d be even happier.) And yes, Zexal Kaito was among the BEST Yugioh characters ever: solid deck, awesome personality and great backstory, loved him to death as he made the long ride of 146 episodes of Zexal worth it.
… But Arc V Kaito was appalling, just being an edgelord for the sake of being more edgy to piss people off, even worse than YUYA at his worst and I despised Yuya to death. Not to mention Ciphers were garbage and had almost zero synergy barring their two overpowered Xyzs.
2) I dunno what to say about Kusanagi venturing into Link VRAINS by merely polishing his hacking skills but NOT his dueling skills. It gave me a big sigh seeing him fleeing from those Knights of Hanoi fodders that ANYONE could beat (heck EVEN Brave Max himself defeated one without losing a single LP). Plus, his “Unnamed” avatar was a direct homage to the legendary Pokemon Trainer RED himself so you can’t tell me he didn’t even have some decent dueling skills before his first encounter with “Unknown” (later known as “Playmaker”).
Whatever, next time we’ll get to watch Kusanagi Jones and Raiders of the Lost Incident. INTO ZA VRAINS!
I am with you on Naoki not actually knowing Yusaku’s secret. I think Yusaku is going along for one of two reasons. 1) the unlikely event that Naoki inexplicably does know his secret so he has to make sure no matter how many doubts he may have. 2) He doesn’t want some weird rumour that’s completely untrue to spread out…
Considering the latter reason and his personality. Yusaku wouldn’t care enough to try and stop rumours about himself. So, it’s likely the first one.
Either way i am 200% sure that Naoki doesn’t know stick and it’s a silly contrived way of getting Yusaku away from the others so Kusanagi can tell the story of how they met.