pico-farad

[pico-farad]

can you do zane in 1? :3

absolute maniac (zaniac)

[pico-farad]

aaaaaaa omg you've finished vrains?? what did you think of s3? any fav moments? :D

I've got a lot of thoughts and I'm working on a huge Vrains post (actually, two huge Vrains posts)! S3 is interesting to me, it's understandably a mess, but it also has some of Vrains's best writing.

My favorite episode(s) of Vrains are the Ai vs. Pandor duel.

"Yeah we could duel in virtual reality.... but we could also duel on top of a moving plane"

yesss... YES......!! Now THIS is Yugioh. 

The line writing is surprisingly good, and Ai's VA does a fantastic job with it. The grief and resentment that sit just beneath the jokes serves to make the whole thing more bittersweet. I have some concerns with how sharply they veer Ai's character, but this duel sold me on it.

What gets me about this duel is that these are two people who like each other. You can see it in how they talk to each other, how Ai can't help but be honest, coming close to confessing everything to her.

Pandor: Have you given up on co-existing with humans? Ai: Seems so. I've already hurt humans, so I don't think they'll forgive me. And I have no intention of turning back. Pandor: You're going to exterminate humans? Ai: I don't intend to, but it may end up that way. I don't know, myself. Pandor: Is it impossible for humans and AI to co-exist? Ai: I don't know that either. It was impossible for me. But I won't say it's impossible for you, or for future AI that have free will. As long as there is free will, I can't deny that possibility, that everyone's lives can be one. All I'm saying is that I couldn't co-exist. Pandor: Ai... I sense an incredible sadness from you. Ai: Ugh, stop with that... I don't want anyone to know that. Except for one person.

Unlike all of Ai's other duels, he doesn't have any resentment or mixed feelings towards Pandor; he sees her as kin. That's why their interaction feels so tragic, because Ai is the last of his kind (Roboppi isn't quite self-aware yet) so he gets this opportunity to talk with someone who's like him, someone who is not complicit in the deaths of the Ignis, but they're on opposite sides, and he has to kill her. Which probably feels like how he had to kill his friends.

And Pandor is the only character who sees Ai without betrayal or defensiveness clouding their judgment -- and she sees through him completely. It's amazing. This damn therapy-empathy bot just won't stop seeing into his soul and telling him to stop hurting and killing himself -- while they're both trying to kill each other. FANTASTIC. THAT'S WHAT I LOVE TO SEE.

He wants her to be free from being controlled by humans just as much as she wants his salvation. But they have to fight each other, and die, while the humans all get to live.

And on then on top of being deeply tragic, this is also the funniest episode in Vrains. Because tragedy makes comedy funnier, and comedy makes tragedy sadder.

BRO JUST WANTS TO SEE TOPOLOGINA NAYBEE.

I definitely think that if season 3 was allowed to be its full length, we would have gotten more from Pandor, maybe even see her join Ai's side. After all, it's a classic Chekov's gun to have Revolver of all people create a sentient AI and be like "it's fine, I programmed her not to betray humans." Bruh, of course she's going to betray humans. It's as classic as the story of Pandora's Box itself.

Anyway, if you want to know my top Vrains duels, they are:

Ai vs. Pandor

Spectre vs. Lightning

Yusaku vs. Revolver (s1 finale)

And my favorite characters are 1. Ai, 2. Roboppi, 3. Aoi.

To be honest, at the end of season 2 I was feeling pretty bummed about characters I liked at first becoming less interesting as time went on. I was fully prepared with the joke about my favorite Vrains character being Hatsune Miku, mostly on the virtue of "you can't write 10000 words about a character and say you don't like her." But these two cat-coded AIs snuck in at the last moment to charm me.

[pico-farad]

i finished vrains

..............yeah I liked them LMAO. cat coded mfers

[pico-farad]

drew some pharaohs for new icons

on that note, I have a bluesky and a side account for reblogs @yugoshokan now :)

[pico-farad]

I wanted to share my favorite yugioh art which makes me insane

3 part wordless soulshipping comic by 拖狗 (links below)

Read the whole thing on their pixiv:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

[pico-farad]

Asuka's problematic trait is that she's a Not Like Other Girls girl.

I love her so much.

This is how I interpret her beef with Rei — it's not jealousy over Rei having a crush on Judai, it's a very typical stage of teenage internalized misogyny where she blames other girls for the way she's been treated under patriarchy.

Rei: *winks at Judai*

Asuka: *malding internally* This is why people think girls only play Duel Monsters to find boyfriends—

girl calm down she's 13

Asuka has a very consistent storyline of having femininity — and by extension heteronormativity — forced upon her by the school, her brother, and even her friends. This is a classic Not Like Other Girls origin story; it's a frustration response from young girls facing insane pressure to conform to traditional femininity, which results in contempt for the feminine altogether. The frustration is displaced on Other Girls, because they're a representation of the traditionally feminine, and they contribute to the pressure to conform, whether directly or indirectly.

A huge part of Asuka's character is how she copes with the systemic pressure that girls face by putting up like five different layers of defense mechanisms, including distancing herself from femininity or even being perceived as a girl at all. Because she just wants to be taken seriously as a duelist in a male-dominated, misogynistic industry.

(the manga canon isn't the same as the anime canon, but I wanted to include it)

She has side-eyed EVERY other female character in GX for being obsessed with a boy — Junko, Momoe, Rei, Tania, that bug girl, the frog princess (I put a whole aside about her relationship with Junko and Momoe below)

Asuka, you're bombing the Bechdel Test.

I know it's bad that GX caricaturized all of its female characters other than Asuka to be boy-obsessed, but, well... it's a narrative that does resonate with the audience of young girls who were playing a card game made for boys in 2004. You can cringe at the bad feminism now, but I think that's the part that's charming and nuanced about Asuka.

Teenage girls mostly grow out of their Not Like Others Girls phase and look back at it with embarrassment (maybe because we turned Not Like Other Girls into another way to shame girls), but it is something that's worth exploring. Asuka is a genuinely kind person, and I think she too will grow up and realize how stupid and reductive she was being.

"a real woman" Asuka sweetie you're going to cringe over this in five years.

THE JUNKO MOMOE ASIDE:

Asuka is nominally friends with Junko and Momoe, but as the series progresses, she spends more and more time instead with her group of male friends. A significant portion of her interactions with them are her showing veiled judgment towards them for fangirling over boys, from tennis guy to Edo Phoenix to her brother.

And when she joins the Society of Light, that veiled judgment becomes unveiled.

Junko and Momoe are in the middle of losing to a sexist wine dude, and Asuka is so furious, her Not Like Other Girls instincts override the Society of Light brainwashing and she takes over the duel for them. ASUKA'S INTERNALIZED MISOGYNY IS STRONGER THAN BRAINWASHING.

Sommelier: Goodness me, I had high hopes for the ladies of Obelisk Blue. But I suppose to you, duels are like making tea or arranging flowers. Just one more skill you learn to land a husband. Just surrender, why don't you? Asuka: Wait! Junko & Momoe: Asuka! Asuka: If you two lose, there won't be any more students in the tournament representing the long-respected Obelisk Blue girls' dorm. I will carry on the duel. Naturally, I will carry on with their life points.

Even though Asuka would win if she used White Veil, the signature card of the Society of Light, she discards it in order to activate Hallowed Life Barrier. Because this is all her, not the Light.

Asuka: (I won't rely on the Society of Light's power. I'll win with my power from my days as a girl of the Blue dorm.) Asuka: Let me show you the power of Obelisk Blue girls. My turn, draw!

Neither of these scenes are girl-power-girl-solidarity moments. It's the opposite. Asuka takes over the duel because she doesn't want their loss to reflect on the entire Obelisk Blue girls' dorm, and all female duelists (therefore her).

When the duel is over, she contemptuously rejects Junko and Momoe, shaming them for being so bad at dueling and victim-blaming them for the sexist attacks they receive. Asuka spent the whole duel defending the Blue girls, but she is NOT one of them.

Junko: Asuka! Come back to the Blue girls! The way you dueled just now was just like old times! Asuka: You're so naive. This is why you get told that you only "practice." Protect your own pride next time. I am a member of the Society of Light.

Everyone who ships Asuka/Junko/Momoe as a default lesbian best girlfriends uwu ship get outta here, those three have BAGGAGE to unpack before any lesbianism can be achieved.

(I have more to say about these three and how it parallels Judai's relationship with Shou and Kenzan, but that's outside the scope of this post)

Anyway, that's why Manjoume is a better feminist than Asuka

[pico-farad]

Happy 20th anniversary to GX, a show that has followed me from my childhood to now as an adult.

Historically in Japan, 20 is the age in which you pass into adulthood. So I guess GX itself has finally come of age.

[pico-farad]

GX Character Names - an in-depth analysis

(i promise there's more substance than you think)

⇀ yūki jūdai (遊城 十代)

« yū (遊) - play, enjoyment » « ki (城) - castle »

The yū (遊) uses the same kanji that all the other Yu-tagonists have, but it's probably more relevant to Judai than any other protagonist. 遊 is a particle with many associations, most notably play and games, but also enjoyment, freedom, travel, and hedonism. All the protagonists play children's card games, but Judai is the one who most treats it like a children's card game, even when he shouldn't. His signature phrase is literally "That was a fun duel!"

The ki (城) kanji means castle and could be a slight nod to his past life, but more importantly, yūki is a homophone of 勇気, meaning courage and fighting spirit -- fitting for his hero theming and pure shonen protag energy.

« jū (十) - ten » « dai (代) - generation »

First of all, there's a fun connection with the first character of Judai's name meaning 10, to the first character of Manjoume's name being 10,000, as well as the Tenjoin siblings phonetically having 'ten' in their name (Fubuki even references it by signing his name '10join').

The second character dai (代) is fitting given the name of the show. The G in GX stands for "Generation." And the X stands for "neXt," but get this -- X is also 10 in roman numerals.

That's right... Judai's name is literally GX.

It goes deeper though. The more blatant meaning is that taken together, 十代 means adolescence, or teenager (it has similar etymology to the latter, something like "the tens ages"). But jūdai is also a homophone of 重大 - serious, grave, of great importance. That's it, those are literally the themes of the show in one name.

GX is ultimately a coming of age story. Judai is a kid who just wants to play games and have fun, but over the course of the show, is forced to give up that childish simplicity in the face of adult responsibility. He starts off believing that being a hero is just about courage and shonen ideals, and learns though grave consequences that it's not, and that being a hero isn't fun at all.

⇀ manjoume jun (万丈目 準)

« man (万) - ten-thousand » « jou (丈) - height, strong » « me (目) - eye, seeing »

This is where the 1, 10, 100, 1000 chant comes from. Combined with the second character, it feels grandiose and ego-inflated, then when you add on the final character, me (目), associated with seeing, the vibe you get is something like "looking down on (from a height of 10,000)." All of which makes his insistence on being called Manjoume-san even more conceited, but also gives you an idea of how the Manjoume family name looms over Manjoume himself.

« jun (準) - semi, secondary »

In contrast to his family name, his given name shows us the other side of Manjoume's character. jun has several kanji spellings with positive and auspicious meanings. One of them, 潤 (to profit, to become wealthy), would have been an obvious choice for our rich boy. 

But no, instead they chose 準, a kanji with a meaning that can be difficult to pin down. It's associated with preparation and reserves, such as reserve funds (準備金) -- in other words, being the back-up, extraneous. In the workforce, it indicates assistants, associates, juniors (準会員, 準社員). It's part of the words for semi-finals (準決勝) and runner-up (準優勝). Ultimately, it's a character that carries a meaning of being secondary.

Underneath all that snobby pomp, Manjoume feels inferior to his brothers, and can also never win against Judai, and this drives his character arc. The tension between his last and first names, of "looking down on" and "being secondary," is emblematic of Manjoume's internal conflict.

This is driven in even further by the fact that his brothers have first names that complement their last name. The first character of his oldest brother's name, Chosaku (長作), means leader, senior, or superiority (which directly parallels the meaning of associate for Jun, and also fits with Chosaku being a businessman), but it's also phonetically the same as 兆 which means one trillion, basically exaggerating upon the 10,000 of his last name.

Meanwhile his middle brother Shoji's name (正司) starts with the character associated with truth and lawfulness (ironic considering he's a slimy politician), was archaically used to mean of higher rank in court (again paralleling Jun), and also has a niche meaning of 10 to the 40th power, or... 10,000 trillion trillion.

⇀ marufuji shou (丸藤 翔) and marufuji ryou (丸藤 亮)

« maru (丸) - circle, entirety, perfection » « fuji (藤) - wisteria »

Circles are significant symbols in Japanese culture, used in divination to represent completeness and perfection, and the kanji 丸 also carries this meaning. Wisteria is a cultural symbol too, representing love and longetivity, with a tie to royalty and nobility.

All together, the name rings as elegant and dignified. In season 1, we see how Shou feels pressured and unable to live up to the name he shares with his brother, who embodies it. Perfection is a key part of Ryou's character -- in the graduation duel, he even acknowledges that he has reached perfection, but also that it is a limit, setting up for the deconstruction of the theme.

« shou (翔) - to soar »

Shou's name simply represents his character arc, starting from Osiris Red with no confidence in himself, and ending in Obelisk Blue, surpassing his brother who has an opposite arc of "falling." It's also a homophone of 小 meaning small or younger.

« ryou (亮) - clear, brightness »

The kanji used for Ryou's name is part of words like moonlight (亮月), rightfulness (亮直), as well as words associated with royalty, like mourning the emperor (亮闇). All of which vaguely match the tone of Ryou's character as "the Kaiser." The Cyber Dragons are also light attribute, and he is introduced with "light" theming which is all reversed after his turn to the dark side in season 2.

The kanji can also be part of the word ryousatsu (亮察) which can mean to take into account, to consider, and to sympathize. A core theme of Ryou's character is having respect for his opponent and not underestimating them -- this is why you'll often hear Shou referring to "respectful dueling," and also why Power Bond is their signature card, because without respecting your opponent's capabilities and taking their field into account, the card will backfire on you.

Oh, and as an aside, Ryou does not use the same kanji as Bakura Ryou from the original Yu-Gi-Oh, who uses 了 -- completion or ending.

⇀ tenjoin asuka (天上院 明日香) and tenjoin fubuki (天上院 吹雪)

« tenjo (天上) - heavens » « in (院) - institution »

The first part ties into the Cyber Angels that Asuka uses, as well as the Atmosphere cards that Fubuki uses in the manga. It's also referenced by Fubuki in his embarrassing pickup line ("What do you see above?" "Ten... join!" This is the guy that Manjoume thinks is the love magician)

The second part is a particle used for institutions, particularly stately ones in government or higher education, which makes sense if you believe Asuka becomes a teacher. Overall, it's a refined name which perfectly suits Asuka, and not Fubuki.

« asu (明日) - tomorrow » « ka (香) - fragrance »

The first part of her name is why Jim calls her Tomorrow Girl, which spawned the Asuka/Jim ship by itself, but it also suits Asuka really well, because her character arc in season 4 is ultimately about moving on and embracing the future. She leaves behind the safety of Duel Academy and takes a step into the unknown by going to America.

« fubuki (吹雪) - blizzard »

This is why he's nicknamed the Blizzard Prince. Otherwise, he doesn't have any connection to blizzards, but Asuka uses ice decks in the Society of Light and in the manga, so the Tenjoins both have some ice theming.

⇀ misawa daichi (三��� 大地)

« mi (三) - three » « sawa (沢) - marsh, brilliance »

Another number-themed name alongside Judai's 10 and Manjoume's 10,000. sawa is a common kanji in names, but you could argue it ties into his signature monster, Water Dragon.

« dai (大) - great, vast » « chi (地) - earth »

Of his six decks, we see two of them, his water deck and his earth deck. The latter of which he uses against Tania, who in turn uses her wisdom deck -- which is perfect because daichi can also be a homophone of 大知, which means great wisdom. Nerd.

⇀ tyranno kenzan (ティラノ 剣山)

« tyranno (ティラノ) »

This name is derived from tyrannosaurus rex. Because he's got dino fucking DNA.

« ken (剣) - sword » « zan (山) - mountain »

The literal characters are fitting for Kenzan, who has an offense-focused deck of mostly earth attribute monsters, and a personality to match. But as a whole, 剣山 refers to a tool in traditional flower arrangement. The kenzan is the base in which the arrangement is stuck into, a foundation which keeps the structure secure. Kenzan ultimately looks up to Judai (and calls him aniki) because he wants to be a leader like him, one who can bear the weight of his followers' expectations. We don't get much of this after his introductory episode, but I still think it's a fitting name for a dependable guy.

⇀ saotome rei (早乙女 レイ)

« sa (早) - early, quickly » « otome (乙女) - maiden »

This one is pretty on the nose. The first character refers to how she came to Duel Academy early, being younger than all the other characters, and not joining the cast until much later. The otome is the same used in her signature card Koisuru Otome, or Maiden in Love, and also refers to a romance genre for girls. As a whole, saotome is also a term for a girl who plants rice paddies.

The name may also be a reference to Saotome Ranma, the protagonist of Ranma ½, which is about a boy who changes into a girl when splashed with water.

« rei (レイ) »

Rei is a unisex name with many different kanji spellings and meanings, but instead, Rei's name is spelled with katakana. Given that she dresses as a boy twice and uses masculine pronouns in Japanese, this may be to make the gender more ambiguous than if kanji with more gendered connotations were used, such as 麗 (graceful) or 鈴 (bell sound) which are more feminine, or 零 (zero), or 令 (authority) which are more masculine.

If you ever wondered, Ray from Arc-V also uses the same katakana spelling, though this may be because most of the Arc-V characters from other dimensions use katakana, which sounds more foreign or ambiguous in origin. Meanwhile, Rei from Zexal uses 零 (zero).

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Feel free to correct me if anything doesn't seem right! I'm not Japanese and may have read too much into some of this.

[pico-farad]

redraws of their stills from Precious Time, Glory Days

[pico-farad]

(assuming you've finished vrains s2) what did you think of the two backstory episodes of yusaku and kusanagi? i really liked seeing the contrast with their current selves. the virtual dungeon exploration + puzzle duel was fun too.

I liked them! I think they're some of the most enjoyable, of the Vrains episodes.

Seeing Yusaku's original deck was fun, and I really liked the duel puzzle too. I've always enjoyed the episodes that explore the card game without being outright duels, like quiz show episodes or duel puzzles. Despite Yugioh being a strategy card game, we rarely see characters in the anime actually... think... about their plays. They just do them. So it's cool to see a character go through the steps of considering how cards interact with each other and mentally crossing out the plays that will be countered, like an actual Yugioh player would.

I don't have particularly strong feelings about Kusanagi or his relationship with Yusaku. It's pretty straightforward to me. Kusanagi exists to be Yusaku's outside guy and the audience surrogate during duels. There's a little bit of discontinuity from Season 1, when Yusaku clearly said he has not a single friend and he's meant to be completely alienated from others, but it's not the worst crime in Yugioh. The writers wanted to "break" Yusaku, and Kusanagi is the most reasonable path to do that, so they wrote these flashback episodes. I was disappointed by the end of Yusaku vs. Kusanagi though, which turned out to be yet another "they were actually in cahoots the whole time!" twist. Just, you know, sad cahoots.

For the other question you sent, I might have a longer answer to that, and I'm pretty busy currently, but I'll answer it eventually!

[pico-farad]

I absolutely love your Vrains analyses and I honestly can't wait for you to reach season 3.

I was wondering what you thought of the character of Spectre? Out of the whole cast, he's the one I really can't pinpoint how I feel about. (Beside the obvious fact that this kid needs therapy, I know they all do, but THIS ONE REALLY DOES.)

To be honest... Spectre is just really funny to me LMAO

My guy was raised by a tree. As a BABY. No food, no water, no body heat. There's probably ants crawling all over him. The tree scares away wolves who try to eat him, because they're probably like Oh shit, did that tree just fucking move???

This is peak Yugioh. Who put this Giving Tree-ass backstory into a hard sci-fi card game anime? Give them a raise. Where is Spectre's tree mom going on the Yugioh parent tier list?

Besides the funniness of staying connected to tree mom through card games, I like his Sunavalon deck. The Spectre vs. Lightning duel fucking ruled. From a gameplay perspective, it's one of the best in all of Yugioh. The reverse extra link? Stealing Judgment Arrows? This duel goes incredibly hard for no reason and definitely made me like Spectre more.

So yeah, those are my prevailing thoughts on Spectre, he's just not very important in my mind. If I were to take a more in-depth look at him, though...

I actually disagree with the premise that all of the kids need therapy, but I especially disagree that Spectre especially needs therapy. It's pretty explicit in the text, that Spectre is better off because of the Lost Incident.

Yusaku: If you endured the same hell as me-- Spectre: Hell? What do you mean? Am I different? I guess so, from your point of view Spectre: I grew up in an orphanage. I lacked the ability to mingle with others. Even among people, I was always bored and alone. That's when that incident occurred. Finally, I was entertained. Yusaku: The Lost Incident entertained you? Spectre: Yes, I enjoyed it. Even if I could go home, loneliness and boredom awaited me. Nobody would talk to me. Nobody cared about me. But it was different in that room. Someone was testing me. Someone expected big things from me. When I realized that, I felt the will to live for the first time. Spectre: You probably can't understand. Because if the incident hurt you, you must have led a happy life before. Yusaku: You don't hate the Knights of Hanoi? Spectre: Hate? Revolver-sama gave me a place to belong. Am I strange? But I think you're stranger, loudly proclaiming your sense of justice. Yusaku: Due to that incident, time has stopped moving for me. Spectre: But due to that incident, it started moving for me.

Spectre is characterized as someone who's fundamentally different from other people (maybe because he was RAISED BY A TREE), and this is the case long before getting kidnapped. He's not crazy because of the Lost Incident, and he might not even be crazy at all. He has what he wants, he's happy, he's just happy in a way that normal people, including the audience, cannot understand.

In the above conversation, Spectre is very aware of how he is strange to others, questioning multiple times, "Am I different?" "Am I strange?" Despite being unlike others, he has the capacity to understand how others think and live, and because of that, how they see him. He's actually very discerning, in general, about the perspectives of others; this is how he's able to manipulate Aoi in their duel, and how he easily recognizes Lightning's secret.

Because that's one way of coping with a world of people very different from you -- getting very good at understanding people who would not put forth the same energy to try and understand you. That's what happens in that conversation with Yusaku. Spectre is able to recognize that he is strange to Yusaku, and why. Even though to him, Yusaku is the one who's strange. But he doesn't say that either of them is "right," just that they have different perspectives.

Now, is all of that what the Vrains writers were thinking when they made him?

Uh, maybe I'm just cold and dead inside, but I think they mostly just wanted to make their antagonist seem like a crazy psycho who believes he was raised by a tree and enjoyed getting kidnapped.

Because if I were writing a story about a character who feels alienated by what other people consider normal, I don't think I would have gone the route of, "Some people actually enjoy trauma! It makes them feel important!" I mean, you could incorporate that into a story about how different people experience trauma differently, but, I dunno, these would not be my first choices if I was trying to write a nuanced character exploration.

I also would not go the route of dedicating his entire life to Revolver, and if I did, I would actually develop their relationship.

I wish Revolver had more of a relationship with the Knights of Hanoi in general, which could have actually fleshed out his character. All of them, including Spectre, are just loyal yes-men who do whatever he says. Any scene with them may as well be Revolver monologuing by himself, because they don't bring anything of their own to the table. It just makes both Revolver and the Knights less interesting to me. 

There's various other areas in which Spectre could have been better utilized too. Like I said in the Aoi post, it would have been interesting if they actually built on the themes explored in that duel, and had some recurring interactions. I also would have liked to see him actually interact with Earth, and his actual perspective on the Ignis and the AI vs. humans conflict. 

To be honest though, not every character in Yugioh has to be a main character. So while all these things may be interesting to explore in theory, I think Spectre is mostly fine the way he is in canon: funny tree man.

[pico-farad]

This Time on Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains Analysis: How the Fuck Did Aoi's Writing Get Worse

Got sidetracked by GX Week, but I'm back to talk about Aoi again, because oh boy...

So for season 1, I'd heard the rumors of how they screwed her over, and they were mostly in line with the ways I expect Yugioh female characters to be failed by the writers. Overall I still liked Aoi and, while I found some decisions distasteful, I didn't think the actual quality of her writing was worse than other characters'.

Aoi's writing in season 2 is several times worse than it was in season 1. It's truly a disaster, amateurish and baffling, in a way that I think most viewers don't even consciously realize. And while it may not be the worst moment in Yugioh -- it is, in my opinion, the worst writing I've ever seen in Yugioh.

Anyway, that's how I wrote 4k words descending into Aoi madness. Enjoy!

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Before I begin, a fair warning: I'm gonna say some harsh things in this post. Because being mean is funny, and I deserve it after what I just watched.

But I also want say up front that I don't think the Vrains writers are bad writers, and I still have respect for them. Writing for children's television is grueling work that I could never do, and there are many reasons why bad art is released into the world besides simple writing skill. Vrains clearly had a troubled production, and I have other suspicions about why it turned out the way it did. If there's interest, I think that could be its own post, too.

Also, I refer to the "writers" in this post when I criticize Vrains's storytelling, but to be clear, directors, producers, storyboarders, and others can have just as much influence over the show's story as writers, or even more so. I use the term writers for convenience's sake.

Without further ado...

⇀ Losing My Mind Immediately

Akira lets Aoi go into the restricted area, which nobody has ever returned from.

Ahem... WHO ARE YOU??? Why is Akira, overprotective onii-san numero uno, extremely willing to put his sister on house arrest for her own safety, has never given Aoi his permission to fight, suddenly letting her go off into a danger zone with a 0% survival rate, right after she lost to Spectre immediately in the Tower of Hanoi conflict.

Oh, so now you think she's capable? Why???

Not only that, they make Ghost Girl be the one to say it's too dangerous for her. What?? Ghost Girl is the one who encouraged Aoi to sneak out and into the danger zone in season 1. These are literally the last two characters who would say these things to Aoi.

Then, when they enter the restricted area, Aoi immediately gives up her emergency logout program to an NPC. Normally I'd brush this off. Naivety being used to emphasize female characters' moral virtuosity is passé, but it's not a big deal. It wouldn't be, if the next 30 seconds didn't make me completely go off the rails. This is the speech that is possibly the worst writing, line by line, that I have ever seen in Yugioh.

Roll the tape...

Aoi: Recent events have taught me that I'm still a child. I took on Hanoi for my brother, but look how that turned out. I troubled everyone, and they needed to save me. I was full of myself, thinking I can do anything on my own, but in truth, the world is full of people and we're all connected. Everyone saved me. So this time, I want to save everyone. I'll become stronger, so this time, I'll do everything I can!

Literally none of these sentences make sense... Half of them aren't even true. It reads like ChatGPT asked to write a shonen speech -- the facade of being inspiring, but ultimately empty and nonsensical.

"I took on Hanoi for my brother," This is blatantly false. She had a whole goddamn episode focused on why she decides to fight Hanoi, it's her duel with Baira, and it's specifically about how she's not doing this for her brother, she's not doing this for herself, she's doing this for everyone. If anything, she disregards her brother in order to fight Hanoi.

Blue Angel: I learned something from my duels. When people believe in you, you're fighting for everyone. So I will fight for everyone from now on!

Sound familiar? It's the same goddamn thing she's saying right now, "this time, I want to save everyone." Why are they framing this as Aoi having a new realization, having learned her lesson? What they demonstrate with this is that Aoi hasn't learned her lesson. The reason she lost to Spectre is because trying to save everyone includes trying to save him, and he takes advantage of her naivety.

Blue Angel: You're the same as me... When you were alone, you sought love, and Blue Angel's blue is the ultimate love! Blue Angel will descend into your heart, and save your soul! Spectre: Really? *bows mockingly* Please, then, save my soul!

Naively trying to save others is exactly what she's doing right now, by thoughtlessly giving away her emergency logout in a place that nobody has ever returned from. Her character has gone completely backwards. I said in my last post that losses are good because we get to see characters grow -- I stand by the opinion that they could have made the Spectre loss work -- but they've bungled it on three different levels. She loses horribly, then they retcon her reason for losing, in order to make her character regress.

Apparently, the real reason Aoi lost to Spectre, is because "she was full of herself, thinking she could do anything on her own." I'm so mad. First of all, Aoi clearly wasn't acting on her own and never thought she was, Go and Yusaku were both fighting Hanoi too. Why are they acting like Aoi lost because of hubris?

You know who thought he could do everything on his own? Yusaku. But clearly he didn't need to learn that "the world is full of people and we're all connected." He clearly believed the opposite, because he did everything by himself and tried to reject allyship at every turn and yet lo and behold, he hasn't lost a single duel.

"Everyone saved me. So this time, I want to save everyone." NO, LITERALLY ONE PERSON SOLO'D HANOI, AND EVERYONE ELSE DID JACK SHIT. This resolution that Aoi comes to not only regresses her character, but it makes no goddamn sense. Who is the everyone you're talking about, Aoi? Are they in the room with us right now?

Who am I kidding, it's obvious who the "everyone" is, because as she says it, the clip that plays is Akira's manpain as Aoi gets turned into data. Because even in this moment that has nothing to do with Akira, the writers cannot resist bending Aoi's character to revolve around how much she loves her beloved onii-san, even though it makes no sense in this context of trying to save a random NPC. 

Frankly, the whole "everyone saved me" also makes no sense in the context of trying to save a random NPC. But like, even less sense than that, because the actual context of this "heartfelt" shonen speech is that she's trying to get Ghost Girl to give up her emergency logout button. Ghost Girl, established to be self-serving and willing to throw others under the bus to advance herself. Why does this speech convince her? It doesn't even have anything to do with her.

Great, so now not only have they botched Aoi's character, but for the rest of the show, Ghost Girl is stripped of the characteristics that actually made her engaging.

If they wanted Aoi to convince Ghost Girl to give up her escape program and become more selfless, it's simple. Have her say, "We saved you." Ghost Girl wouldn't be standing here right now, if Aoi and the others hadn't risked everything to save everyone.

There's more I could pick on about these 30 seconds, like how the writers aren't content with handing Aoi a humiliating loss, but they also make her act like she deserved to be "humbled" by that experience: "Recent events have taught me that I'm still a child," "I troubled everyone, and they needed to save me." It's like they're not content with infantilizing her in the narrative, they need to make sure she infantilizes herself.

Which brings me back to the point about Aoi's "hubris." Because what is implied by saying that Aoi lost because of hubris when nothing she said or did suggested that, is that it was hubris for Aoi to fight at all. It was hubris for Aoi, and the audience, to believe she could do anything. Which is just maddening.

And to top it all off, to add insult to indignity to injury to insanity, she finishes her speech by saying, "I'll become stronger! This time, I'll do everything I can!"

AND THEN. SHE LOSES. IN THE NEXT EPISODE.

This speech reads like a bad influencer apology. First they "admit" their mistake (that Blue Angel didn't do anything in the Hanoi fight), then they deflect and change the story about what actually happened (it's because she was being full of herself! That's definitely why she lost), and finally they promise to do better (don't worry, this season, Aoi will get stronger and get some wins!), but they don't.

I can talk more about how the writers give Aoi shallow girlboss speeches instead of actually demonstrating her strength in duels, but that will come when I talk about Blue Maiden. 

Right now... it's time to talk about Blue Girl vs. Soulburner.

⇀ What's in a re-introductory duel?

Something that's pretty standard in Yugioh is the concept of the season 2 "re-introductory duel." Think Shou's promotion duel in GX, the filter episodes that came before the World Grand Prix arc started, the Sector Security battle royale in Arc-V. They can be story-relevant, or completely filler, but the point is to re-familiarize you with the main supporting characters. If you look at the first 10 episodes of a Yugioh season 2, you'll generally see all the main supporting characters represented in a duel. And if they aren't, it may reveal something about how relevant they are to the writers (Misawa GX, Ruka 5D's, Yuzu Arc-V...)

Go gets his re-introductory duel against Soulburner, and though I have my issues with how they handled Go in Season 2, which I went into in my previous post, it succeeds in every way a re-introductory duel should. It addresses the transition of his character between seasons, sets up his conflict for this season, introduces his new cards, adds character to Soulburner, and establishes a dynamic between the two. Their opposition is natural, and if anything, the season fails to capitalize on how well this duel set things up.

Aoi's re-introductory duel... is also against Soulburner. And their opposition... uh...

Look, I'll be frank, there is only one reason for Soulburner to duel Aoi, his third duel already in 10 episodes: they are fast-tracking him into main character slot #2. I talked about this in the Soulburner analysis. 

Aoi and Soulburner have no reason to be fighting, this match-up is completely artificial. They went "well Aoi needs to get a re-introductory duel because that's the Yugioh formula, and Soulburner needs more screentime, so let's shove them together," regardless of how it doesn't make narrative sense. How do they do that?

Blue Girl: We came to find the Ignis. SOL-- I mean, my brother can help you. Soulburner: You don't understand. The Lost Incident made us suffer for a long time. SOL Technologies was partly responsible for that. Entrust our future to them? Thanks, but we'll solve our own problems. Blue Girl: *frowning* In that case, those Ignis originally belonged to SOL Technologies. Give them back. Soulburner: What?

This is completely out of character for her. She knows that they're victims of the Lost Incident, she knows what they've been through, and they've just told her they're trying to save someone whose consciousness was stolen. She just said that her motivation is saving people, specifically to pay back the people who saved her. Guess who the only person who saved you was, Aoi? It wasn't your onii-san.

It would've made more sense for Ghost Girl to duel Soulburner. She's the one who was established to be a self-serving bounty hunter in Season 1. Oh, but if you gave Ghost Girl a re-introductory duel, it might give off the wrong impression that she's relevant?

This duel doesn't even add anything to Soulburner's character either, the way that Soulburner vs. Go did.

What could they have done if they were actually thinking about Aoi?

How about Aoi vs. Akira? Akira tells her that if she can beat him in a duel, he'll believe that she's strong enough to go into the restricted zone. Or they could do Aoi vs. Ghost Girl -- same thing, Ghost Girl tells Akira that if Aoi wins, it proves she's equally capable of going on this mission.

Either of these would check all the boxes for a re-introductory duel. It's a memorable matchup, it re-establishes the personalities and (IN-CHARACTER) relationships of these three, and it addresses the transition between seasons -- we left off from Aoi's devastating loss, and this duel would bridge her into an upwards character arc in Season 2.

Of course, if they did that, they would have to make an upwards character arc for Aoi.

These two episodes have succeeded in the exact opposite of what a re-introductory episode is supposed to do. It's a garbage fire of bad writing. They regress her character, and call it progress. She's out of character, in order to be unsympathetic. They don't set up an arc for Aoi this season, because they haven't thought of one. They introduce new cards that never come back. But none of it matters anyway, because Aoi isn't actually important! We'll just make up something new the next time we're contractually obligated to give her a few episodes (but not too many, god forbid!)

I guess there's one part of her character they make consistent, which is making her lose in the worst ways possible.

⇀ Blue Girl vs. Soulburner

You know how in my last Aoi post, I said that it's good when characters lose duels, and that "X should have won that duel" is a comment that often misunderstands how outcomes are about narrative purpose rather than deck matchups?

Forget everything I said. Aoi ABSOLUTELY should have won that duel holy shit. I just witnessed a goddamn crime.

So there is actually one more reason that Soulburner duels Aoi. It's that it's a good concept for a duel. Aoi should annihilate Soulburner. Go ahead with your 72 step Salamangreat combo I dare you. Go ahead and use Burning Draw I dare you. Everyone likes seeing how the underdog comes out of a pinch, and if I came out of the duel thinking, "Wow, I can't believe Soulburner pulled that off!" I could have forgiven it.

Ha ha... wow..... I can't believe Soulburner pulled that off......

I'm not usually that bothered by hyper specific made up anime cards, but what the fuck is that trap that negates effect damage under 300. Countering exactly 1) Skull Invitation 2) Ojama Trio 3) Every one of Aoi's cards. Yeah okay, fuck you Aoi.

And Aoi still should have won, if Soulburner didn't one-up Aoi's own Fusion Summon by Burning Draw YOLO topdecking a fucking Salamangreat Super Poly out of nowhere. Why??? Because the scripter couldn't think of a way out of the situation other than copying one of the strongest cards ever designed?? Fuck you Aoi.

Even Ghost Girl knows how robbed she was.

It's salt on the wound to cap off her "I'll get stronger speech" by having her lose a duel that was 99-1 in her favor. Soulburner deletes her life points in one attack, she screams and gets slammed into a cliff, and Soulburner stands over her and says, "Blue Girl, you're stronger than before."

Jesus, just look at that condescending framing.

Aoi doesn't show up again in a relevant capacity for 20 episodes, and doesn't have another duel for 30 -- that's a quarter of Vrains. Her last words as Soulburner stands over her are "You won because of the bond between a duelist and an AI?" before she passes out.

This, I suppose, is their weak attempt at introducing a plot for Aoi this season. It's... well... 

⇀ Aqua and Miyu

The Miyu backstory is lazy as hell.

I'm sorry to all the fans rooting for female characters and wlw ships, but this writing was unbelievably sloppy. Someone put "Aoi's childhood friend was a victim of the Lost Incident and that's how she gets the Water Ignis" into the show notes and then didn't think about it until it was time to write the episode.

Miyu is not a cardboard cutout. She's not cut from cardstock, both of those at least have structural integrity. Miyu has the character solidness of wet tissue. She's an NPC, a parody of a generic little girl. The only reason to care about her is if you buy into the cheap writing shortcut of damselling little girls, or you're a desperate lesbian. I'm sorry, lesbians.

They could have done anything to give Miyu an actual character, I'm not asking for a lot. Give her any kind of trait or interest -- maybe she loves the ocean and shows Aoi her collection of seashells, and she says they should go to the beach together one day but they never do. They could talk about idols, and maybe that's what inspires Aoi to later become one. They could talk about Duel Monsters, it's Yugioh for christsake. A playground duel would be adorable.

There's a million things they could have done that are more compelling than playing on the slide, but there's one that's so obvious it pains me.

The Blue Angel picture book. The one that Aoi said was her childhood treasure in the duel with Spectre, the one that motivated her to try and save him, a victim of the Lost Incident. The book that's an established part of her backstory, which made her take on the Blue Angel moniker. The book that's about a girl who is all alone until she makes friends and no longer has to cry blue tears.

Could it be more obvious? Have Miyu be the one who gave the book to Aoi. It's a backstory on a silver platter. If the writers cared about Aoi at all, if they didn't immediately forget every single thing about her the second they turn in the script for the contractually obligated Aoi episodes, they would know this. But they don't. Because even the Blue Angel picture book was clearly something they made up on the spot.

Imagine if Aoi's season 2 climax duel was vs. a controlled Miyu (à la Jin), the themes from the Spectre duel returned. Aoi questions if she really can save someone from the Lost Incident, or if it's just her own naivety, destined to be crushed over and over. But she breaks through, because this time it's her turn to save someone who's all alone. This is how you connect seasons 1 and 2, this is how you take a loss and turn it into a payoff. We can even get Spectre's perspective, he's there in the final fight.

But that's not what we get. Instead, they play on the slide, and then Miyu drops a ring down a drain, which I guess is what they think is a relatable cause of conflict for little girls. I can guarantee they would have come up with something more substantive if these were two male characters. And the pacing is just comically clunky. "Aoi-chan, look, it's my mother's ring! Isn't it pretty? Oh no, I dropped it! Wahhhhh!"

Aoi lies to Miyu's mom and says she's the one who dropped the ring, even though Miyu denies it vehemently, clearly crying and in great distress as her mother drags her away and never lets her see Aoi again.

This, we're told, is how Aoi "saved" Miyu.

Aqua: While she was imprisoned, you kept her strong, Aoi. No matter how many duels she lost, no matter how much pain she endured, even after her meals were reduced, she never broke and promised to escape. So she could see you again and apologize for that day.

.........APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT???

What the fuck kind of message is this supposed to be? Aqua is supposed to be the Ignis of TRUTH, why are she and Miyu glorifying Aoi's lie as some courageous, inspirational action, when clearly it did nothing but harm? I'm not crazy, am I? The obvious takeaway from this flashback is that even if you had good intentions lying to protect your friend, it caused miscommunication, distress, and led to their friendship breaking apart? Like, their lives would have been just fine if Aoi didn't lie, and Miyu learned a reasonable lesson about not being careless with other people's expensive objects?

This backstory is comically bad. Just imagine Miyu, going through kidnapping, starvation, and torture, sustained only by the thought that one day... she can tell the girl that she played on the slide with years ago... that she's so sorry... that her hand slipped when taking off a ring and it rolled into a drain 5 feet away.

The story would make more sense if it was me in the Lost Incident, and I was plagued by guilt over dumping Cheeto crumbs on Rachel from Pre-K, because at least I actually did something bad.

It's difficult to even articulate how much all these sloppy writing decisions compound on each other. Because they wasted Aoi's introductory episodes and didn't set up anything for her, she has no role in the story for 30 episodes. Because she was given nothing for 30 episodes, they have to shove an entire backstory for Aoi into one episode. Because they shoved the backstory into one episode, Miyu and Aoi's relationship with her are painfully rushed, generic, and flimsy. Because their relationship is so flimsy, this whole backstory, Aoi's motivation to fight, her entire season 2 plotline, is soulless garbage.

Aoi didn't remember Miyu until this episode. The writers didn't create Miyu until this episode. You cannot ask the audience to be invested in Aoi rescuing Miyu, when you don't even care enough to conceptualize her.

And this is the most damning conclusion of this post. The writers don't care about Miyu. And they don't care about Aoi. And they don't care if you care about them. You weren't meant to care about them.

Again, I'm not saying that the Vrains writers are bad writers, or they hate women. There are other factors to consider, like the specifics of gender relations in Japan, how Yugioh animes primarily exist to advertise trading cards to young boys, the fact that there has not been a single female writer on Yugioh since season 2 of GX. And obviously, Vrains had production issues, and every character suffered from flawed writing.

But my point is, Aoi suffered the most for it. 

⇀ Final Thoughts

There's a lot more that I could say about Aoi for the rest of the show. Like how she gets a magical girl transformation sequence, only to be irrelevant for 10 episodes again, and we have to wait that entire time to see her new deck. Then the duel, which really needed to be a two-episoder, is about Haru instead. The pointlessness of the Bohman duel. The pointlessness of Yusaku's "identity reveal" to Aoi. How they needed to have a third and fourth Akira manpain scene as Aoi is "taken away" from him, though I guess in that last one Aoi gets to have some girlpain too.

I did plan to talk about each of these duels, and more about how I would do an Aoi vs. Miyu conflict, but this post has gotten way out of hand already, and I've made the points I wanted to make.

I hope it was cathartic for everyone who was disappointed with Aoi, and perhaps gave language to people who were frustrated but unable to articulate why. I did some research into what other people have said about Aoi's character, such as this video by YugiohEverything, but I find that a lot of discourse in Yugioh is not very good at pinpointing why something works or doesn't work, and the actual skill of writing is oversimplified. This is especially true when it comes to Yugioh girls, and criticisms tend to fall back on losing duels or getting put in a coma, and while those can suck, they aren't the real problem.

In my last Aoi post I said "I'll just have to hope that they don't fumble whatever new thing they give her... but things tend to get bleaker for female Yugioh characters as the show goes on and whatever initial involvement they had in the story fizzles out," and this, I think, has been the real problem persistently for Yugioh girls. The writers are contractually obligated to come up with something when a series is first pitched, but when that period is up, or when concessions have to be made, the female characters are the first to be forgotten.

I just didn't think it would be this bad for Aoi.

Well. Expectations lowered.

---

First Aoi analysis

All Vrains season analysis

[pico-farad]

GX Week 2024 @gxweek Day 7 - Signature + Judai's Birthday

Master of Fusion

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GX Week 2024 @gxweek Day 5 - Trio

I think their final evos fit them even better but I didn't want to draw them

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GX Week 2024 @gxweek Day 2 + 3 - Signature + Dance

Asuka as her signature card, Doble Passe

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GX Week 2024 @gxweek Day 1 - Red

wake up get up get out there

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The first and last shots of GX are mirrors of each other

GX opens with a shot panning down from the sun to a shot of Judai running; he is about to meet his idol, Yugi, and be admitted to Duel Academy.

GX closes with a shot panning up to the sun, from a shot of Judai running, after dueling Yugi and graduating from Duel Academy.