#he's best friends with emi and aichi

[khainovo]

rei doesn't care that he's not wearing pants; he likes skirts and its his fashion statement !!

[thebladeblaster]

Vanguard Divine Z episode 6 reaction Ooh this one was kinda fire

Sorry for the late reaction I was busy yesterday

I think the masked person is someone from Overdress who Akina will meet later. Mostly because Taizo recognizes them and it seems that they told Taizo about Akina’s sister. I feel like it has to be a character we would recognize otherwise why the mask? The only ones short enough that I can think of is Yu-yu, Urara, and the gremlin (but I don’t think they met). I’m pretty sure the masked person is a guy so that leaves Yu-yu or the gremlin. Those are my guesses for now. They could be putting on a voice or something.

Taizo is so nice 😊

I love these dorks. It’s interesting that Akina already knows to aim for a winning image though he has a very experienced friend teaching him so it makes sense.

Haha, I LOVE this man🤣! He really said “fuck it we ball”. Okay, I feel like Akina is already my second favorite Vanguard protag behind Aichi. He’s just so funny and likeable. I like the way he won was through catching his opponent off guard with a crazy and unique strategy. I was thinking that I didn’t want him to win because it would feel like he has plot armor but the explanation is actually pretty satisfying. I was EXTREMELY worried that Akina would become Chrono 2.0 but I was wrong. This man isn’t trigger sacking he actually has some skill. Specifically this man pulled a Jotaro and bluffed like hell to win🤣. It was a real cool mind game strat. Like I don’t blame Taizo for getting sucker punched by his mad strategy. So it’s…

Favorite Vanguard Protagonists:

1. Aichi

2. Akina

3. Shinemon

4. Yu-yu

5.Emi

6. Kai (This is as a protagonist not a rival. I just don’t think he works well as the protagonist. He’s best as a rival.)

7. Chrono

Of course Masanori can smell the bs. This plushie is definitely secretly evil I’m calling it. Though, who knows maybe Vanguard will try to subvert our expectations with that as they do often. Otherwise I’m thinking the plushie is linked to Gyze somehow.

Hello, the gremlin is returning in the next episode 👀!

I’ve definitely been appreciating a return to tradition with Vanguard focusing back on character strategies and connecting to Cray.

Also I’ve been reading the comments and the haters seriously boggle my mind. It feels like they’re trying to hate it for the sake of it. Geez, they’re making og fans look bad. Like I am THE og Vanguard fan. I talk about it leagues more than the rest of the franchise but these people are seriously acting like this is the most boring and predictable series. Like dude this is not G or V series calm down. If anything those two were predictable af. The most unpredictable series have been og, Shinemon, and the D era. They’re like “oh Akina is so perfect that he isn’t a person” as if Akina didn’t lose his first fight and lose a bunch during his training 😅. The writers also went out of their way to actually justify his crazy win. Like it’s not like he trigger sacked to victory. He did a crazy aggressive and unorthodox strategy to catch his opponent off guard and win that’s actually good writing and reminds me of og. For instance when Aichi blindsided Goki with Soul Saver Dragon and it’s skill. Much like this win it didn’t come out of nowhere and was foreshadowed before and during the fight. That’s why I like the D era it reminds me of og in spirit. The characters actually have strategies to win that are explained like og. Honestly, I just really don’t get the hate. Some won’t be satisfied by anything.

[crystalmemoria]

I love Cardfight!! Vanguard. I love it a lot.

HOWEVER.

This show has a LOT of problems... Even the best seasons of the show aren’t immune from this (I’m looking at Link Joker and its “let’s not tell Aichi about everything going on for no apparent reason” thing, you have to admit there was no logical in-universe explanation for why Ren just... didn’t tell Aichi about the Link Joker invasion he had just dealt with). But my biggest problems are Asia Circuit and Vanguard -if-.You’ve heard me complain about the latter before. I won’t focus on that here.

No, the focus of THIS post is Asia Circuit... A.K.A. the worst season of the original Vanguard IMO.

SPOILER WARNING FOR CARDFIGHT!! VANGUARD ASIA CIRCUIT (It’s around 10 years old now, but I’m warning you guys anyway)

My big issue with Asia Circuit is how meanspirited it is. No matter where Team Q4 turns, there’s something to talk crap about them for... literally no reason??? Particularly Aichi and Misaki, people talk crap about them for next to no reason.

“You’re not trying hard enough”, “Give up”, “If you’re going to fail this badly, you just shouldn’t bother at all”. Like... hey, non-Q4 characters? How about you shut up?

Like I’m not saying adversity is a bad thing. It can be good! But this... really isn’t satisfying to watch. All I think about when I think of this season is how much Aichi (and Misaki) suffered, honestly. Like... we know Aichi’s side of the story, we know how desperate he is to get his friends, the Royal Paladins, back. We know what this means to him.

There’s a point when all of this adversity stops being reasonable and feels more like kicking the poor guy down constantly. He can’t tell anyone what’s wrong because no one understands or believes him. He’s literally stuck hearing all this crap, all the time, with no way to handle it besides just... having to suck it up and move on. It’s not a pleasant thing to watch, it’s very meanspirited.

Not to mention how crude everyone was to Misaki and how much the narrative decided she should lose just because they could, I guess? I remember Rekka getting onto her for packing a couple suitcases for going to another country. I mean... why SHOULDN’T she enjoy it? Why SHOULDN’T she pack a good amount of stuff? Oh, but she’s “not serious enough”.

And then later, IIRC, people got onto her for NOT having fun at the beach??? Like... narrative, make up your mind. Is she wrong for planning to actually enjoy herself on a trip or is she wrong for dedicating literally every second to Vanguard on the trip.

It’s extremely frustrating. There’s no enjoyment for me in this season outside of a couple of random moments that have nothing to do with anything.

Then we have plot holes. Aichi’s memory of his Royal Paladin friends and his PSY Qualia seems to range between perfect to... absolutely minimal. There’s no real explanation for why he doesn’t remember this stuff, IIRC.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOWEVER, I don’t want to make this post complete negativity. I will admit there were a couple of fun moments in the season!

1. The entire episode involving Kyou dressed as the Abominable Snowman. That was actually good, and for all the wrong reasons. Aichi barely did anything in that episode, and it was actually THAT good.

2. Shizuka and Emi musing about what kinds of souvenirs Aichi would bring back. This serves no purpose, but I found it interesting and actually tried to figure out what Shizuka meant by “Knowing Aichi, it’s probably chocolate”... and then he proceeds to bring back dried fruits and nuts, which made me even more curious.

3. There was a shot towards the end of the season of most of the important cast characters standing next to one another... in order of ascending height. For some reason this always amused me. Not anything important, just something I found funny.

4. Aichi losing all common sense and literally running down the street after Takuto’s limo amused me... once again, it’s nothing major, but it was a small highlight that showed how desperate Aichi was while also possibly showing he can be a little dense sometimes.

5. Seeing Aichi and Misaki fight together was satisfying. They make a great team. (I am an AichiXMisaki shipper, you guys know that)

6. The height difference between Aichi and Kourin during Season 2 in one particular shot also amuses me because they’re supposed to be the same age, and yet Kourin towers over Aichi. This height difference is suddenly nowhere near as drastic later, which I can’t figure out if it means that Aichi grew tall enough to nearly match her, if Kourin shrunk, or both.

7. Chris randomly being able to summon up a magical PSY Qualia barrier with no explanation on whether it’s thanks to Void or his innate PSY Qualia. Something about this amazes, baffles, and amuses me, and this is NOT the last time a magical barrier has been used by someone in the show.

...That’s really it. All of the things I liked about the season had basically nothing to do with the plot, and were more silly things that just served to amuse rather than being anything about the story itself. And belief me, I tried to think of everything I actually LIKED about the season. It’s been a while since I’ve watched it, but this is literally all that’s coming ot mind, not counting things like “It properly introduced Takuto, Leon. Void, etc.”

So, uh... yeah. That’s my opinion on Asia Circuit! Probably some hot takes here... ^^;

[inkymari]

I have said this before in my ask, I will say it again. The -if- role reversal AU was initially made for funsand lols and to parallel -if-. So the beta version -if- villain Emi was basically the same as -if- Aichi.

Then I started to think about a plot for my AU. That's where I started on thinking about on how to flesh out -if- villain Emi.

I had MANY gripes with -if-; Mainly on how poorly it treated on Emi. Emi rarely had any shine in -if-, always overshadowed by other characters even tho she's the protagonist.

That part INFURIATED me so much that I wanted to flesh out my TAKE/AU on -if-.

I decided to gave Emi the justice she DESERVES, but.... in the opposite direction. As a villain.

Fun fact: Aichi wasn't originally supposed to be the person behind Emi's motives for my -if- role reversal AU. I initially wanted one of Emi's friends to be the reason that motivates Emi to do what she's doing. But I couldn't find a suitable friend so Aichi was the next best option. And Im glad I did.

Choosing her own brother to be Emi's motivation over a friend helped me explore Emi's character. Emi, as we all know, is pretty mature for being the younger sibling. She is the more responsible sibling rather than Aichi. That's because she is aware that Aichi has been bullied in past so she has to grow up with that version of Aichi while protecting him. At first, she was skeptical of Aichi taking Vanguard but as soon as she finds out that Aichi is changing for the better, she supports him and is glad that he took interest in Vanguard.

So, I took this concept established in the anime and TWISTED IT IN ITS HEAD FOR MY AU.

In my -if- role reversal AU, I made little ol' Emi witness little ol' Aichi being beaten to a pulp by bullies..! Why? Because I wanna induce some sense of trauma into Emi. I want that trauma to be the DRIVING FORCE for Emi's overprotectiveness over Aichi at such a young age.

But of course, there are some drawbacks.

In this AU, Emi is so overprotective of Aichi that she doesn't let him grow as a person. She is always around him in fear of him getting bullied.

When Aichi took interest in Vanguard, Emi was VERY against it. She saw it as nothing more than a nail in a coffin for Aichi. That hatred grew over the years until the two had a huge fight.

EMI HAD THE AUDACITY TO TELL AICHI TO DROP VANGUARD BECAUSE IT WAS RUINING HIS LIFE!

Time flies by and voila! Emi made a deal with Chaos Breaker to get rid of Vanguard and Aichi teams up with Shuka to knock some sense into Emi!

So that's basically Emi's character in my -if- role reversal AU. Her overprotectiveness of Aichi derived from her trauma. She deeply cares for Aichi but she refuses to let him to grow as a character. Emi only saw Vanguard as a nuisance to Aichi and not a hobby or an opportunity for him to grow like in the anime.

Personally, Emi is a more suitable choice to be the -if- antagonist than Aichi. Aichi already has already had an established, longing interest in Vanguard. He loved Vanguard and Vanguard loved him.

AND THE WRITERS DECIDED TO YEET THAT ESTABLISHMENT OUT OF THE WINDOW AND MAKE -IF- AICHI "A WALMART VERSION OF IBUKI"!!

Emi has more potential to be evil in -if-. She doesnt have the same level of passion for Vanguard as Aichi. Heck, she was even unsure of Aichi taking interest in Vanguard. Luckily, in the anime, she fully supported his interests. That could have gone very wrong, y'know.

[shiroekoyuki]

☕️ Miwa 🤗💛

*Breathes in*

b O I

Where do I begin

Let's get the obvious out of the way. I think he's an underrated sweetheart who's clearly best boi.

He's always watching. Always watching his friends get stronger together. Always making sure his friends are okay, and always seeing if there's anyone who needs help or some company. He's also Kai's translator. Kai is a kind and caring person, who hides them all behind a stoic and fierce front. Miwa knows it, and he loves (be it romantically or not) and supports him. Miwa is the bestest friend anyone can ever hope to have. He'll go above and beyond for you. He'd sacrifice himself for you. He will do all that he can to prevent a friend from going into the bad side, and if he failed, he'd join them to make them feel less alone. He's kind, loyal, cheerful, funny, energetic, selfless, helpful, caring, understanding, super protective (especially over Kai), and he deserves to have a friend like himself. I have no idea how he doesn't have anyone to date him yet. Like, sure, he simps over pretty girls, but everyone has flaws. He's not completely flawless, and that's fine. Heck, so what if he simps over pretty girls and tries to hit on them? He tried to hit on Asaka in the reboot, but the second he realised she was from Team Asteroids, the team Miwa is trying to protect Kai from, his attitude towards her did a whole 180. So it's not like he blindly goes for anyone who's pretty. He is a strong player, and just because he doesn't enter tournaments doesn't mean you should underestimate him. He can and will destroy you with a cheeky and proud grin.

He is seriously an amazing and extremely loveable character with so much potential, but he doesn't get the amount of attention he deserves. I love him the way he is, and I never want him to change. I don't expect him to be joining tournaments, or be some kind of world renowned player. I love how he's just that one amazing character who simply enjoys watching his friends get stronger and be happy for them from the sidelines. I just wish there was more screen time of him, you know? I love him so much, he deserves the whole universe and more. He's a sweetheart who loves his friends so much, but we know so little about him. The series don't tell us anything about him. Like, y'all who only watched the anime, do you guys know that Miwa canonically has an older sister? Yeah, I was surprised when I found that out too. It was never mentioned at all, only in the manga. We never even get to see her. We don't know Miwa's home situation, we know close to nothing besides his wonderful personality. I mean, yeah, we get to use our imagination to come up with tons of headcanons for him, but I still wish I could know some more canon things about him, you know? I'm glad the reboot is giving him more screen time. It's exactly what he deserves.

And Kagerou will always be Miwa's deck for me. The idea of Miwa using the same deck as Kai melts my heart. Miwa and Kai has such a deep bond, and both of them used the same deck. Miwa used Kagerou to try and save Kai from the Reverse, and it was such a beautiful and memorable moment. He used Kai's old clan to remind the latter why he played and loved Vanguard in the first place. Kai even said Miwa mastered Kagerou. That whole battle of Miwa Vs Reverse!Kai was one of the best and most heartfelt fights, in my opinion.

And I really can't stress enough how much of a good and loyal friend Miwa is. Reboot Miwa carried Kai miles upon miles from Card Capital to the Tatsunagi Corp, and when he knew Kai was going to do something dangerous, he would follow him (and kick down doors for him). He tried to protect Kai from Team Asteroid by battling Asaka with the VF gloves. When he met Kai after years of not meeting him, he felt guilty. All because he could see that Kai was suffering, but he didn't know why and he couldn't help. And from then on, he swore to never, ever leave Kai's side.

In Vanguard Koshien, he was ready to fight Morikawa so that Kai could have a battle against Aichi.

In Vanguard Gaiden IF, he stated that all he wanted was to protect Kai's smile. The original Miwa and the distorted Miwa were the exact same, they just wanted to protect Kai. That's why he joined SK4, and that's also why he betrayed SK4. Unlike the rest of the 4 knights, his priority was never Aichi. It has been, and always will be, Kai Toshiki. He even rushed right in front of Kai so that Ibuki would Delete him instead of Kai.

Similarly, in the OG series, this guy would go to the underground, a place full of people he's terrified of, in an attempt to protect Kai. Even after he was Reversed by Kai, his loyalty and love towards him never once faltered. Instead, he became even more loyal, supportive and protective of Kai. The only thing in his mind was to keep Kai company, help Kai reach his goal, and that whatever Kai wants, Kai gets. He'll get rid of anyone and anything in his way. The moment he realised he was going to be UnReversed, the very first thought he had was how Kai was going to be all alone again. He's literally so selfless, it's almost worrying sometimes.

In Legion Mate, besides his genuine care for Aichi, of course, he wanted to get Aichi back because he knows how big of an impact that blueberry had on Kai. He appreciates Aichi for being able to change Kai, and how he encouraged Kai to become more open. To smile more, to rely on people more, and to genuinely love Vanguard again. He probably sees it as something he wasn't able to help Kai achieve, so he wants Aichi back because he didn't want Kai to revert back into his old self.

I know I've been talking about Kai and Miwa's relationship a whole lot, (and honestly, I can still go on forever about these two, like how Miwa is still scared that Kai would suddenly leave him again one day, like he did in the past), but make no mistake. Kai isn't the only person Miwa cares for. Sure, he's Miwa's closest friend, but Miwa has other friends and he loves and cares for all of them too. He's always cheering Aichi up whenever the latter was down, he would ask to tend the shop for Misaki so that she could have a cardfight with her friends (because he could tell she wanted to, she just couldn't. He knows, because he's always watching over his friends), he worked part-time in the shop for them while they went on the Asia Circuit, and in Vanguard Zero, he planned a whole hot spring training camp for them, and even chaperoned it in Shin's place. When Jun felt out of place in Card Capital, Miwa told him that he fit in just fine. Jun, someone who held him hostage to lure Kai to the underground. He was nice to Jun and tried to make him feel comfortable. In Vanguard G, when Kamui was feeling down because Emi was so dense towards his feelings, Miwa offered to buy Kamui dinner. In Vanguard Gaiden IF, when everyone was worried about whether or not they could defeat Ibuki, he acted as their ray of sunshine, and told them that they'll definitely work something out together. He loves and cares for all of his friends. He's a whole sweetheart and a half, and I just love love love him so much.

EDIT: this post is important

Thank you so so so much for this ask!!! I love talking about Miwa!!!

[blaster-aichi]

Cardfight!! Vanguard Extra Story IF 22 things

forgot to post this, heck

Aw, cute shopping trip because they feel things are drawing to an end, barrier or no —  [gets distracted by the little girl who looks just like Shingo]

Given the topic of conversation, felt Emi’s downcast expression was a hint of bittersweet realization that her time with Shuka is running down, then get smacked with even ruder sads.

There’s something massive ironic about Majesty Lord being pulled to the antagonistic side of battle after his role in the original Season 1 and embodying unification between Royal and Shadow Paladins when things get dire, now faced against the both of them.

Ren taught Shuka ‘Bukki’, bless.

Very appreciative of the explanation why Majesty Lord was so importaant to Shuka to Realize, though curious as to why he wouldn’t manifest in the first place.

MISAKI SIGHTED. Please don’t relegate her to post-Legion Mate Quatre Knights of voiceless cameos.

Side-eyes Emi for picking cards purely because of their cuteness, your friend’s calling you out.

With the truth of what led Aichi to ruling Sanctuary, Emi’s moment of finding no alternative but for the blame to fall on him is very relatable; at least some of us have been grasping at any explanation because we couldn’t imagine Aichi doing this of his own will, it’s incongruous with his character, and Emi may have been doing the same, but with options whittling down, she’s been forced to face that scenario that this has been all by his design and it upsets those of us who have been trying to figure out any other scenario, but to her, naturally it’s world-shattering.

How dare you fuckers use the same sads track from episode 7 where she was talking about the Aichi she knew.

He looks so worn down and I’m so upset.    — Even his tone when speaking reflects his exhaustion and reluctance to deal with shit. Please let me hug him.

Is this the first time he’s said ‘Toshiki’? Feels like this is the first time he’s said ‘Toshiki’.

Even when they don’t meet, fate crams them into one another’s heads. That’s gay. (But doesn’t go the Legion Mate route and make it a clean injection, both of them have become tremendously distressed and pained and I scream).

Takuto, you can’t just say that in front of him?!

Emi actually draping Aichi’s jacket over her shoulders is so cute, she really is giving it a piggyback ride. After he mentioning it aloud how he left it behind, half-expect returning it to be one of her first gestures once he’s brought out of his antagonist role.

Takuto’s referencing Outside World Aichi brings back thoughts of the previous theory that IF Aichi had been doing all this in an effort to reach outside IF, why do you hurt me in these ways after that backstory, Bushi? At the same time, Takuto needs shaking if he had any inclination that IF Aichi would have the mental fortitude to cope with that possibility existing elsewhere after a lifetime of loneliness.

The poor boy hid in the shadows and hunted for Kai-kun just to verify Takuto’s theory and torment himself more, sweetie no... Considering his methods for keeping his very existence from the potential of breaking the IF illusion, it’s consistent, but sweetie no...

Takuto onto Aichi’s bullshit. The post before this clarifies, but his solemn delivery and feeling responsible for accidentally instigating everything, would like to hope he’ll be able to make a move in helping to rectify Aichi’s state.

Two things: You’re saying he had nothing to pass on through Miwa? And why did he never contact Suiko or Rekka before? Because there was no certainty they were inside IF? Isn’t it apparent they would follow once he and Kourin never returned? Did he even try?

Sad Rena howling noises in the background.

If Aichi is banking on her saving him, never let him know there was a moment where it all got too much and Emi gave up on him.    — She’s doing the Misaki episode thing again.    — Though it’s understandable the guilt she must feel; they might be correcting the timeline, but she’s conveyed her feelings before that each iteration of a person isn’t any less valid than another; though Kai-kun has come to terms with and accepted that there is another version of himself in a “proper” timeline, the same is essentially true for Aichi and Emi, who for all we know, could/will vanish along with him. It might not just be Emi sympathizing with others and not wanting to write them off as incorrect versions, but trying to validate her own and her brother’s existences as well.

Suiko and Shuka are onto the price the group are going to pay regardless; the preview isn’t subtle about it. Whether it’s Shuka having to move onto another place where more cards are waiting for her to rescue them or something more final awaits her, it’s difficult to tell. Though the former is simply a part of her journey and might not evoke the sorrow from someone like Suiko, it might be a sore spot for her, particularly with everything she, Kourin and Rekka lost, faced with having to watch the same happen to someone else. But Emi herself seems already be aware of this, she’s a smart girl.

IF 23

Squad goals. Squad goals.

Aichi looks ready to straight up murder and have to wonder who taught you how to pull those faces, boy?

If you’re going to be fighting in the area, please keep the babies safe from harm. Who knows what they might see?

What space-time commotion did you guys cause to alert all the other major characters across the city?.

On the one hand, more Majesty Lord Aichi aaaaaaa. On the other hand, that episode title, screams. (Now are you guys directing that to Aichi, Kai-kun or Shuka? Sus)

This take on the “They Never Met” story:

It’s taken a while for the fact IF is taking the route it is with the story to sink in; a lot of thoughts and feelings are still incredibly jumbled, but here goes An Effort.

As someone who's childhood has a lot of overlap with Aichi’s, it’s incredibly painful to actually see him endure it without the beacon of hope that gave him solace and the toll it’s taken on him to endure it. Having a loving family and a sibling could alleviate the pain, there are fond memories with things with my family that don’t make my childhood an unending nightmare, and it’s apparent that he and Emi were particularly close; though understand that by 16, he’s exhausted by it all, pretty sure I was.

I want to believe that he was able to find at least one other hobby to keep his life from being completely devoid of happiness; reading, writing, art, a love of animal, photography, meeting people on the internet, there has to be something. There are plenty of outlets that could have channelled his imagination to keep it from building with no freedom. The lack of clarification about what he spent his time doing does nothing to help this belief or deter the fears that  he really never tried to find anything, and really hoping that’s able to change before the season is through.

But something about Aichi’s reasoning really doesn’t line up. He claims to be doing this so that he be the only one who has to suffer. And really struggle to fathom how he could think so when Emi and Shizuka, would and are suffering with him. Emi’s own pain has been right in his face and he’s turned away, he can’t be that narrow-minded to think she isn’t in anguish or that forgetting him would magically erase that of her or Shizuka.

My understanding (or interpretation, headcanon, what have you) of Aichi has always been that his unrelenting kindness stems from knowing well the absolute agony of complete loneliness and hopelessness, so he acts to help alleviate or prevent the same feeling upon others. Vanguard shouldn’t have any bearing on that trait staying with him or not; that’s something within Aichi, not created by one facet of his life that appeared one day, particularly when he’s even more familiar with such a rock bottom, even if the exhaustion of it weighs on him; he’s always put on a smile and done his best for someone else’s sake, no matter the cost to himself — and that is what he’s doing, but it’s incredibly difficult to believe he can only manage that demonstration of kindness towards others when he’s connected to or aware of Vanguard.

I can understand Aichi being worn down, I can understand him being a bit hostile and reluctant. But to lack his good heart and throw everything away, to put his family through the nightmare he has been, I can’t understand that, it just isn’t him. He isn’t that dependent on Vanguard to be a good kid.

With how vital the event and relationship are to both Aichi and Kai-kun, to explore the possibility that they would never meet is fascinating, but this feels like a lukewarm attempt at it, at least in regards to what this episode covered and that in itself is saddening, it feels like an incredible premise with wasted potential, just like Legion Mate. It saddens me immensely that this is how they tell that story, more so when it’s the last one we might ever have from this cast.

Late-Bloomer PsyAichi:

The only possibility, and this is very much a last-ditch at this point, draws on ideas from Override (is there an IF plan in the works? laughs with shovel maybe since the day before epi 1 aired), so chances are these might be as swiftly debunked as other ideas.

With the rapid influx of memories breaking through the IF illusion, Aichi’s imagination’s shackles were released, according to Takuto. The result was Psyqualia overloading Aichi, its poisonous nature of the original continuity repeating itself as a result of festering inside of him for years without usage.

By retaining this nature, it amplifies Aichi’s fixation on Kai-kun, maybe through an amalgamation of other PsyAichi remnants in line with the original continuity who became overwhelmed by that obsession blinding him to the pain that other characters have experienced through their connections with Vanguard or the suffering he’s putting his own family through to see IF secured.

His mind struggles to contend with the sudden explosion of power and his sanity withers when viewing possibilities that he was never granted, reinforced by Takuto’s claim that Kai-kun’s life is better as it is, of Aichi’s strength in those other worlds, of longing to reach his alternative selves and feel his existence holds any value. He doesn’t truly have control over himself as a result of this madness, which is why he refers to Kourin by just her name.

How Sanctuary itself formed, there’s just nothing that comes to mind. Unless IF has special properties that just haven’t been explained that allow for more supernatural events to occur — like Sanctuary’s appearance, the battlegrounds that don’t inflict real world damage on their sites — can’t really wrap head around how Aichi was able to create it.

The original distortion’s root:

Something else that still doesn’t make sense is Shuka being led to Blaster Blade as a withering existence. And as Aichi himself never played a part in that, the past couple of weeks had had me suspicious of Nome, and other fans have been pointing fingers his way as of late. His disappearance in episode 1 hasn’t been addressed, and it’s odd for him to so briefly show up only to seemingly play no part.

It’s just a possibility, but he, whether tainted by something Brandt or sibling jealousy, tampered with the Akashic Records to lure Shuka in and cause the accident that prevented Kai-kun and Aichi from meeting, shaping IF Aichi’s life to keep him from deviating from a path that Nome had set for him, using someone else’s brother (and someone known to be a powerful force is let loose) as a weapon.

If Brandt has a part in any of this, perhaps he infected Aichi with it, to allow it/his Psyqualia/imagination to overload him when exposed to the truth beyond IF.

This is all just grasping at straws at this point because really struggle to see Aichi doing this of his own accord and I believe him to be better than this, I want to believe the writers do too.

[johannepetereric]

Misaki and Aichi, Friends-in-Arms

“Aichi, that’s not Kai.” was the first thing he heard walking into Card Capital that weekend.

He spied a head of brown hair. He tried to get a look, but, “Aichi. Kai is not here.”

“Huh?” The boy turned. The face was not Kai. Aichi walked in disappointment to greet Misaki. His head was bowed, eyes pinned to the counter. Or slightly below or above her chest area at all times. Misaki doesn’t know what to make of this, but this just makes the kid look gayer.

Shin just looks at her strangely each time she volunteers to take his place at the counter. Truthfully, she can relate in more ways than the man is fully aware of. 

They both need a friend.

Shin entered at that moment. He asked the gay why he wants to see Kai so bad, and the boy responded by saying that he wants Kai to take him seriously--to not hold back.

Misaki sighed. She already asked him that the other day, and the boy gave the exact same answer. She countered with, “You’re so gay, Aichi. I’m jealous.” 

Reasonably, he looked mildly insulted. If she were him, she would look mad while questioning whether that was an insult or a compliment. 

Shin invited Aichi over tomorrow after school for a surprise. Looking at the deck, she could imagine an idea at to what he’s scheming. 

Misaki reminded Aichi to give her one of whatever’s in the lunchbag. It was a mix of flavors of muffin. She picked the chocolate chip one and sent the boy on his way. 

She asked Shin about the “surprise,” he tripped and fell, and from the floor he said that she was going to train him in the Grade 3. 

Misaki thought back to her parent’s deck, the one she searched for and found shortly after meeting Emi. 

My parents would be proud, and Aichi would be my friend--although I’m sure he already considers us friends. She smiled fondly at the thought of the matriarch-in-training. 

Yes, he is a good confidante. I’d I’ll return the favor.

Misaki made a noise of approval to the shop manager. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Misaki put up a front of not knowing anything. As soon as she spoke, Aichi caught on and played along--gasping with the idiots when she said she never played.

Even Aichi can get bored. He would lean at the counter, and they’d whisper at undetectable decibels--the appearance of mouthing rather than conversation if you were more than two inches away. She even gave him her number in case he wanted to talk--and vice-versa.

Well, she also got his house number, but those calls are always and will always awkward. Emi is an awful little s**t, to be frank. 

It is not like they have regular communication, though. 

Misaki decided to use the new deck that Shin made.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Miwa entered the shop, making noise, Kai not with him.

Aichi frowned, looked about to water when he didn’t hear a second set of footsteps. Misaki sighed and put on a hand on the bluenet’s shoulder. She squeezed it, sending vibes of her own worry and comfort to the boy. It’s ok. You will always have the simp vibes.  

Aichi lightened up a bit, never letting his eyes leave the placemat. 

Misaki elected to ignore the three morons in favor of sympathizing with her maybe-friend. He looked like he wanted to snicker and giggle, but today is not a day for that. 

Misaki has a better handle on the cards than in canon, truth be told. She watched Aichi cardfight more during her free-time, especially interested in watching Aichi making non-shota faces and twitches and movements and posturing. 

The free food also helped.

Back to the fight, she could tell that Aichi decided to not go easy on her. It would hurt both her pride and his. And, again, she has a nice, standard grip on the cards. 

...

“Lowzenge Mahjus.”

“Lozenge Maygus.” Aichi hissed not a millisecond later. 

A brief staring contest, then Misaki caved.

“Lozenge Magus.”

...

“I ride Little Sage Marron.” He called impassioned. Nobody else noticed. 

They saw Aichi in Marron’s garb, and he honestly looks adorable in that. He did say that he wants to impress Kai with that...

“Aichi, where’s the passion?” she whispered almost inaudibly.

He closes his eyes when attacking her with the Vanguard. But why?

They didn’t discuss or bring up any Vanguard stuff--they didn’t have to--in favor of the more comforting topic of shared secrets. Sometimes, if within reach, he would automatically move to help, never seeming to notice. It could be a symptom of his training, or arguing with his sibling, or a characteristic he developed as an immature waifu. So he had to be taught new functions of the game, like that there are cards you can’t guard against.

“Draw!” Aichi smirked almost villainously. It must be...

“Arise, my avatar!” He shouted in an attempt to mimic his senpai (Morikawa protested). “Blaster Blade!”

“Gaaaaay!” She whispered to themselves. Aichi briefly leered. 

...

“CEO Amaterasu!”

“CEO Amaterasu...” he repeated in reverence.

Indeed, they both recognize the importance of that figure. 

Luckily, Aichi quickly recognized the importance and implications of placing a card at the top or bottom of the deck.

He briefly forgot that the Heal Trigger only activates if your Damage Zone has an equal or greater number of cards than your opponent’s. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aichi’s eyes darkened, hardened, desperate when she placed a card on top of the deck. He knows it could be a critical trigger.

Oh yes, the pranks, the creepy laughter, the maniacal cackling calling Morikawa a loser as he lost to his criticals. Aichi managed to keep the volume down to Astham-Attack Parseltongue. From a book he read in its Japanese translation.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“If you don’t have any Grade 3s, you’re done for!”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“If you ever need any help with Vanguard,  I’d be happy to teach you!”

“No, I will.” Misaki hissed to the man, eyes narrowed. Scared as s**t, he acquiesced. Aichi sweatdropped. He’s built up a tolerance to a female’s anger while acquiring it himself.  

Misaki could see the gay sparkling in his eyes, bright as Aurora Borealis, as inevitable as Polaris. He must be thinking about Kai now. Misaki let her lips upturn, satisfied that her friend is on the right track to getting stronger, better, happier to meet his crush and idol. “Misaki, you’re smiling!”

She bonked them on the head, acting the tsundere. So far, only Aichi has earned the honor of her positivity. 

She discreetly waved Aichi over, leaning in to draw him to whisper-range. Once there, in a position that looks like they might be kissing, eyes locked like vaults, she whispered, “Why do you look away from my boobs?”

Aichi’s eyes widened. Then settled down again, pleading. “I-I don’t like boobs. Never have. Only my mother’s and sister’s. I can only hope that she never--em, matures--or I’ll never be able to look at her completely straight again.”

Her breath hitches, stops for a moment, trying to adjust. A momentary silence, Aichi looking more scared--scared of losing his friend, losing Misaki, scaredofbeingabnormaldespitehisshamelesssexuality--and Misaki does the right, the lightest, the best thing for anyone imaginable. “It’s ok, Aichi. I’m fine with it--besides, it just makes you gayer!”

Aichi blushed, Misaki giggled, and once more they have no need to speak their minds. 

The eyes are the windows to the soul, they say.

Obviously she’ll support her friend the matriarch--make no mistake, he is one, Emi and Kai--even when she can’t have it herself.

[future-circuit]

So I finally got around to watching Cardfight!! Vanguard and I’m about thirty seven episodes in and this is what I’ve gathered so far.

The story is simple enough so far, the mc gets into a card game (that’s integrated into the world so deeply they take a damn class about it) and he makes friends and gets pretty good at it but Not Good Enough. Enters tournament, loses tournament and that’s about all the main points so far (leaving out character drama and stuff).

Future plot will probably go down as; character development, wins some tournaments and long-awaited matches, stuff happens blablabla, reveals of those Tragic Backstories, new characters, their Tragic Backstories and world saving shenanigans.

Character wise, I got this from the top of my head.

Aichi: Starts as a wimpy mc (the best cause you know they’re gonna get character development this way) and becomes a slightly less one as of so far. Has a decent handling of skills plus a ‘strange power’ that’s totally subtle and hard to catch.

Kai: An arrogant asshole that kids probably like cause he’s strong and stand-offish but I like cause I know he’s gonna get some good ol’ fashioned character development. But seriously, someone needs to tell this dude he’s a fucking asshole. He’s either going to become a real good ally or an evil dude but I suppose that the first one is gonna happen though the second would be more interesting. Actually pretty childish when you think about his mannerisms.

Kamui: Lil dude that’s surprisingly good at the game. Pretty optimistic, already got a good deal of character development needed until his next dosage later on. Pretty gung-ho and loud but people love him anyway. Hopelessly in love with Aichi’s little sister the poor guy, and in typical anime fashion will never get his feelings reciprocated (though he deserves them to be he’s actually a pretty great guy).

Misaki: Has a Tragic Backstory that absolutely no one saw coming at all (obvious sarcasm). Pretends not to care but does care. Probably absolutely savage if her thoughts were ever at the forefront, like half of her lines are pretty savage anyway though. Has a really scary aura. Wanna see more of this gal please. In the future she’ll probably learn to show her emotions better or she’ll speak more that’s how these kinda characters usually go.

Miwa: Optimistic guy who has to put up with Kai’s shit. Will probably (and hopefully cause he’s great) get a better role than telling us more about Kai and his Tragic Backstory in future episodes. Just a chill dude I would love to hang with just sayin’.

Emi: This show writes kids pretty well I just gotta throw that out there. Pretty nice and cares for her friends and Aichi. Basically a second mother tbh, acts older than she is. adorable and precious child, will probably have something tragic happen to her in future but oh well.

I’ll have to check back and see how accurate I turned out to be once I’ve finished.

[ceiye]

ngl the new CFV is kinda... more “not great” than the original... 

Like, I liked CFV despite is “not great-ness” because Aichi was a fucking loser at the game until he naturally improved, before the whole Psyqualia whatever happened. Since they introduce Psyqualia earlier in the manga (I guess?) he’s just been winning all his games even though he’s a complete fucking beginner who just really loves the game. You can love the game and be bad at it too you know. Get that “protag-kun naturally good at the new thing” bullshit outta my face

They somehow put less effort into drawing slightly out of focus faces than in the original, which is astounding, since the old series gave us such gems such as this

which wasn’t even a background shot. That was like the middle of the scene, iirc

Positives? Making Leon 12 is hilarious, and him being a chuuni fuck explains so much more of his behavior. His voice definitely does not make him sound 12 though

Nagisa and Emi actually being good, important characters is A+. Never thought I’d say this, but making Nagisa a tsundere was a huge improvement. Better than her being an obsessive creep of a 9 year old

Morikawa having one more friend is nice. Though that means everything Izaki was was just spread between two people instead, and he wasn’t much to begin with. I miss Kamui’s friends though

My good good boy Miwa has more screentime. I’m super excited about next week’s episode. We all know he’s going to lose, since he’s going up against the third best freaking Cardfighter in Asia, and he’s also the comic relief side character who’s probably not gonna get any screentime after the first season, but it’s good to see. Hope he still uses Miss Splendor. Probably not though, since she doesn’t have an Imaginary Gift, and they’re making a whole new race based deck around Heroes, so they’d want to show off new cards

Losing

[hellosweetsmuppetrumpus]

Cardfight Vanguard Hello again it's mike back with another worm hole story. This time my hair braided idea lands me in the Cardfight Vanguard world. Enjoy World hopping had been very interesting. After landing in a alleyway I had to find out where I was. Walking out onto the sidewalk I was ran into by a little brunette girl,"Oof" I'm sorry I said to the child. "It's ok I wasn't watching where I was going" she replied. "What town is this by the way ?" I asked, she gave me a confused look and said " your not from around here are you?" no I'm not. I woke up in an ally with no memory of how I got their and I had these decks in my bag and I don't know how these got here." Giving a flustered look. The girl give me a sympathetic look then looked like she had an idea. Grabbing my hand she pulled me along with her saying that she knew someone who could help. So I followed her to what looked like a  card shop called " Card Capital". She led me in and I saw people who look like I had seen them before but I didn't know where. A man with spiky brown hair and glasses was behind the counter. "Welcome back Emi" he said with a smile, then Emi asked if her brother was here and he pointed to a table where a game was being played. Emi then walked outside and told me to come on in. Now I'm not a small guy i towered over the man behind the desk ( I'm the same hight as Tetsu) . Being lead in by Emi she introduced me explaining my case and the different decks in my bag. I showed him the decks. Kagero, dark irregulars, shadow paladin, oracle think tank, Granblue,  and royal paladin. The man could not believe the decks I had which started to bring some people over to see what the fuss was about. One wanted one of the decks and was about to take one when I grabbed his arm and lifted him to my level and said " try and take it and see if you have any fingers left." Giving a dark look. I learned the guy's name was Morikawa from I gess a friend of his. After that a guy with blue hi aid walked up and said " hello I'm Aichi" putting out his hand to shake mine. I looked at it for a minute then shook his hand and told I'm my name. Aichi then brought me to his friends And I was introduced to them. A small kid with spiky hair was kamui, a girl with purple hair was misaki, two other I learned were miwa, and Kai. " so what game are these cards for" showing them the decks I had in my bag. They're eyes got wide and asked how I got these and I told them how I woke up in a ally with no memory of how I got their or where I am. The explained that the decks were in my bag when I woke up. Aichi offered to teach me the game and told me to pick a deck from the ones I had. Aichi was using his royal paladin deck i chose kagero deck. I couldn't help but notice Kai was watching me closely. As Aichi started to explain the rules I looked at my hand then a rush of memories were shooting though my head holding my head and falling to one knee the others were shocked and rushed over asking if I was alright. " looks like my memory just clicked with a card in my deck i saw images of me playing with someone and I was using this deck. Maybe if I play with it it might help unlock my memory." "Aichi don't hold back come at me with full strength. If I want to get my memory back then I need to play and maybe I will remember how to play on its own." Aichi nodded and said " lets start then.""Stand up the Vanguard " we both said at the same time.  Out of no where my deck started to glow. I drew my card and my eyes widened it was "Draconic overlord the end" it was a grade three kagero, I started with wyvern dracokid and the game began. After a while the game was 4-4 damage and it was the start of my turn. 'Looking at my field I had Draconic overlord' then I said " Cross ride ...'aichi's eyes widened' Draconic overlord the End!", I could feel Kai staring at me. I felt a surge of power though me."Aichi point of view""He has pyqualia?, this is not going to end well." I thought." I ride the King of Knights Alfred". "Alfred attacks the end.""My pov" "Complete guard."'Images started to go though my mind of playing with friends and having fun in tournaments.' "Stand and draw." " call embodiment of armor Bar and Nehalem. The end attacks Alfred!" Aichi " Epona and Maron guards." Alfred 26k guard. My overlord had 18k meaning I need a double trigger to pass. "drive check... Draw trigger power to the end and draw a card. Second check critical trigger all effects to the end." Everyone watching the match was shocked to say the least with the outcome. Aichi walked over and congratulated me on the win and a good game. I felt like I was being watched by someone when Kai walked forward and asked to look at my kagero deck and I showed him it was close to his deck but unique in a way with certain cards. Morikawa boasted about how he was so great and I called him out on it. " okay if you say your so great let's see how well you are in a game." I looked at the manager and asked if he had a random deck I could use to make the match fair. He nodded and brought out a deck from under the counter and handed it to me " good luck" he said with a smile. I looked at the deck and is was a Dimension Police deck. I nodded and got ready."Stand up Vanguard!" After a good game I ended up wining using a Daiusha deck. Morikawa used almost all grade 3's which was laughable. It has been a few weeks now since I came here the manager of card capital was kind enough to give me a job it's not much but at least I can get a place to stay. I started traveling with aichi and the others who made a team called Q4 I would act as a back up player in case someone could not play. Aichi stayed with royal paladin, Kai with kagero, kamui with nova grapplers, and Misaki and Orical think tank. I slowly learned the Dark irregular clan. I watched as the team would win games leading us to the national tournament. Where I saw some of the best teams like team asteroid and team Caesar. While looking over my Dark irregular deck I felt like I was being watched, turning around I saw a guy my hight long black hair and a green outfit. " afternoon, would you like to sit down?" I politely say to him. He nodded," do you mind? " he replied. " not at all " I said with a small smile. After talking to him for a little I found he was Tetsu a member of Team asteroid. We had a game where it was our two dark irregular decks going head to head. All of a sudden I felt like I was being watched again so instead of going all out in the game to show my strength I just had fun. After a couple games Tetsu and I said our good bye's and went out separate ways. Unbeknownst to me The leader of team asteroid had been watching the entire time. "So how was he?"Ren asked as Tetsu walked into team asteroids room. " I think he noticed he was being watched so he held back during our games" Tetsu replied."Well that's no fun looks like I will have to check this guy out my self then." Ren stated with a smirk. After meeting back up with the team I told them about my encounter with Tetsu ( not saying his name) and the feeling about being watched. Couple days later Kai and I are talking with miwa (one of Kai' friends) I decided to tell Kai about the game I had with Tetsu and asked him if his name ment anything to him. Kai went wide eyed and asked if a guy named Ren was there. I told him no. Over the next few days Kai and I talk about what happened to me with Tetsu, it was only after finding out about Kai's past with the guy Ren and Tetsu I found it was not a good thing that they were interested in me. That is when Kai and I decided to train in order to be prepared for Ren and his lackies.

To Be Continued...

[thebladeblaster]

Heart of the Vanguard Concept Chapter part 1

(Concept chapters are basically just to test to see if people will like a fic idea I have. This fic crosses over Yugioh Duel Monsters and Cardfight Vanguard.)

(Note: Besides the god cards this fic will stick to tcg/ocg effects for simplicity. People can also still stupidly set cards in face up defense position.)

Yugi double checked that he had everything with him before making his trip. He tiptoed out of the door he sweat dropped as he felt a fiery glare aimed directly at him. It was his grandfather Solomon Mutou holding a broom as he had been previously sweeping with tightly.

“You're not going to another card shop, are you Yugi?”, his grandfather questioned, remembering the invitation his grandson had received earlier.

“W-what…of course not grandpa. I’m just uh...going to hangout with my friends. You know Jonouchi and the others.”, Yugi replied nervously.

“Um hm...well have fun!”, Solomon replied with a wave before going back to sweeping.

After closing the door the young Mutou took a sigh of relief. He met up with his friends Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda in the subway.

“Took you long enough Yug!”, Jonouchi said.

“Sorry, you know how my grandpa gets at the idea of us going to other card shops.”, Yugi replied.

“Yeah...reminds me of when we went to Duke’s.”, Honda replied, sweat dropping.

“Hopefully Jonouchi doesn’t end up in a dog suit this time.”, Anzu teased.

“Shut up!!! No one’s making a dog out of me this time!”, Jonouchi yelled.

“Better hope we don’t run into Kaiba on the way.”, Honda replied much to Jonouchi’s chagrin.

“If I see Kaiba I’ll wipe the floor with him!!!”, Jonouchi yelled.

“Guys the bus.”, Yugi pointed out as he saw everyone boarding.

They all hastily ran onto the train so they didn’t miss it. They took a sigh of relief as Yugi looked out the window. The buildings passed by like a blur. It always felt weird for him to leave Domino City. He always seemed to be off on some strange supernatural adventure every time but this time it was different. He was going to see friends. A definite nice change of pace.

After they finally got out of the subway they were greeted with a big expansive city.

“How are we supposed to find that tiny card shop in this mess?”, Jonouchi questioned.

“Well, we got there once. We just have to find where we are so we can find it.”, Anzu replied, looking over at the map.

“Maybe we're better off calling Misaki for directions. She has a perfect memory after all.”, Honda suggested.

“Oh, that’s right!”, Anzu gasped, as she brought out her phone and started calling her number.

The phone rang a few times before it was answered.

“Oh, Anzu. Are you guys almost here?”, Misaki asked, though there was an extreme amount of background noise.

“We're having a bit of trouble. We have just arrived outside the station and this place is a bit...big. I was wondering if you could give some directions to the shop?”, Anzu asked.

“Hmm...I guess the city is pretty big. Alright.”, Misaki replied as she started giving them directions.

They were astounded at how accurate it all was. She wasn’t even there but she was leading them perfectly throughout the city. On the way they stopped as they saw a familiar face.

“Gah, Kai?!”, Yugi gasped.

It was indeed the aloof fighter Toshiki Kai. Along with him was a blond haired teen with grey eyes. He wore the same school uniform as Kai. Jonouchi growled as he saw the older teen.

“You guys are here?”, Kai questioned, completely ignoring Jonouchi’s growling.

“Yeah, Aichi invited us to come over remember?”, Anzu replied and Kai simply nodded.

“Man, this is so cool to think we’d meet the King of Games in the flesh!”, the blond said.

“Hehe. I’m not that great, I'm just an average teen like you guys.”, Yugi replied with no hint of irony.

“Cool. Name’s Taishi Miwa. Looks like you guys already know Kai. Though let’s be real who doesn’t?”, Miwa introduced.

“Yeah. My name’s Mutou Yugi. Oh wait...you already know that.”, Yugi replied.

“Yeah...average.”, Kai replied blandly with a hint of sarcasm, rolling his eyes as he remembered Battle City.

“Well...average kid with an ancient magic necklace.”, Yugi replied awkwardly.

“Uh huh...you're just as ‘normal’ as Aichi and Ren.”, Kai replied, which made Yugi sweat drop.

“I’m gonna clean your clock in a duel!”, Jonouchi said to Kai.

“I don’t need another hyper kid like Kamui constantly challenging me to duels.”, Kai replied.

“Grr! I’m no kid!”, Jonouchi replied.

“Really? You sure act like one.”, Kai replied.

“Down boy. You can duel him at the shop.”, Honda said as he put his arm on Jonouchi’s shoulder.

“Hey I’m no dog!!!”, Jonouchi yelled as Honda pushed him along.

Eventually they stopped before a small card shop named ‘Card Capital’. It had a poster on the front and a sliding door. The small shop was completely crowded by people clamoring to get inside.

“Hehe, maybe Misaki can give grandpa some pointers on how to get his shop this busy.”, Yugi commented.

He jumped as some turned around to see him.

“Oh my god, is that the King of Games!”

“He’s here!”

“I thought he was taller?”

“Would he really be in a place like this?”

The door slid open and they saw Misaki on the other side. She had on a white dress shirt and a orange apron with two Cs.

“Are you guys gonna come in or will I have to give your spots to one of these guys?”, Misaki questioned.

“No need. Come on guys!”, Anzu said.

They all walked into the shop. It was just as tiny as they remembered. It was full of posters advertising various card games. It had lots of chairs and tables including two standing tables. The front desk had various card packs and there was a display on the other side with various assortments of rare cards. The shop was packed with various people dueling. It was rather lively for such a small shop.

“Is it always like this?”, Anzu asked.

“Nosy? Yes. Packed? Only when we host shop tournaments here.”, Misaki replied.

“You scoundrel!!!”, they turned their attention to a familiar voice.

They walked over to see Aichi and Kamui. The latter of which shook the former by the collar. Aichi laughed it off raising up his hands in surrender. A redheaded girl with blue eyes was trying to diffuse the situation. She wore a pink top with an orange tie and a blue skirt.

“Kamui calm down.”, the redheaded girl said.

Aichi sweat dropped as the younger boy continued to shake him.

“It’s fine Kamui. I think you’re overreacting.”, Aichi replied.

“Yeah, he just beat Emi in a duel.”, a teen with brown hair and eyes wearing a grey uniform replied.

“He just?”, Kamui questioned.

“Yeah…”, Aichi replied.

None of them seemed to notice them yet.

“You were supposed to let Miss Emi win!”, Kamui shouted.

“I was?!”, Aichi questioned, completely confused.

“I don’t get what the big deal is.”, Honda commented.

“It’s best if you don’t try to understand Kamui’s stupidity. You might catch it.”, Misaki replied casually.

“You say that as if you wanted Aichi to hold back against me.”, Emi replied.

“Well... I!”, Kamui was saying before he was cut off.

“I wanted to duel him at his best. Why would I want him to hold back?”, Emi replied, crossing her arms as Kamui shrinked back.

“It’s fine Emi. Kamui just got a bit overexcited.”, Aichi replied, brushing it off.

“Overexcited is an understatement.”, Miwa chuckled, making Aichi turn his attention to the new arrivals.

Aichi’s eyes brightened up as he saw them.

“Kai! Yugi! Miwa! Jonouchi!”, Aichi said.

“Are we gonna talk about how he called out Kai first…”, Honda commented as he sweat dropped.

The short teen was practically beaming which made Yugi blush. Though, he was at least taller than Yugi though not by much.

“No need to be so excited it’s just us.”, Yugi replied as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Oh, that’s that Yugi guy right? Didn’t you duel him in Battle City?”, Emi questioned.

“Yeah, your looking at the King of Games here!”, Jonouchi said as he gestured to Yugi.

“Woah cool!”, Emi replied.

“Oh uh...this is my little sister Emi.”, Aichi introduced gesturing Emi.

“Sister?!”, the Yugi gang gasped.

Jonouchi bent down to Aichi’s level.

“Don’t tell me she has crazy psychic powers too?”, Jonouchi whispered, causing Aichi to sweat drop.

“Uh...no. At least I don’t think so.”, Aichi replied.

“You don’t think so?”, Jonouchi replied as he pulled back sweat dropping.

“Hopefully it doesn’t run in the family.”, Honda whispered nervously.

“Yeah…”, Anzu replied as she sweat dropped.

“Since your here do you want to duel, Yugi?”, Aichi asked with a light blush.

“Gosh, why are you always so nervous, kid?”, Jonouchi questioned.

“I’d love to Aichi! It’s time to duel!”, Yugi replied.

“He said the thing!”, a black haired teen with v shaped hair and brown eyes with a grey uniform said.

“Oh my god this is awesome!”, the brown haired guy from before gushed.

Yugi chuckled, blushing nervously at all the attention he was getting.

“Their like two anxious peas in a pot.”, Anzu commented.

“Are we going to duel in here. I don’t think the holograms would fit.”, Yugi replied as Aichi blinked.

“Oh...yeah that’s true. We were dueling retro style with the Battle City rules in here since there’s still a lot of people who don’t have duel disks.”, Aichi replied.

“Oh? Retro’s fine.”, Yugi assured.

“Okay.”, Aichi replied as he nodded.

“You guys should use the standing fight table.”, Shin suggested.

“Who wants to stand and fight without the duel disks anymore?”, Misaki questioned, making Shin sulk.

“Well, how was I supposed to know that Kaiba would build portable hologram systems to duel with?!”, Shin questioned.

“I guess we’ll sit?”, Aichi asked.

“Yeah.”, Yugi replied.

“Oh man this will be awesome! It’s like Godzilla vs Kong or Devilman vs Mazinger Z!”, the brown haired teen gushed, embarrassing the two.

“Heh, I could take them.”, the v haired teen proclaimed as he crossed his arms.

“Oh really why don’t we duel tough guy?”, Jonouchi suggested.

“Alright I’ll take you on 3rd place Duelist Kingdom guy!”, the v haired teen replied, causing a tick mark to appear on Jonouchi’s head.

“Hey it’s Katsuya Jonouchi!!! And it was second place! I lost to Yugi!”, Jonouchi corrected.

“Yeah, whatever 3rd place guy my name is Katsumi Morikawa! You will forever remember my name after the beat down your about to endure!”, Morikawa proclaimed, causing many in the shop to sweat drop.

“You're going to wipe the floor with him, Jonouchi. He’s the worst duelist I’ve ever seen.”, Kamui commented.

“As if! I’ll show you Kamui!”, Morikawa growled.

Aichi and Yugi sweat dropped at the conversation around them.

“Are they always like this?”, Yugi questioned.

“Would you believe it’s usually worse?”, Aichi replied, making Yugi chuckle nervously.

“I know that feeling.”, Yugi replied.

Kai and Miwa had seated themselves down at one of the tables. Some duelists had actually lined up to challenge the aloof fighter.

Yugi noticed Yami’s spirit hovering over his shoulder.

“Oh, it’s just a normal duel for fun Yami.”, Yugi said.

“Fun?”, Yami questioned.

“Yeah, it’s not always shadow realm and convoluted plots.”, Yugi replied.

“Oh, hello Yami.”, Aichi greeted waving at the spirit.

“Who’s he waving at?”, Miwa questioned, confused.

[crystalmemoria]

You know, I keep trying to imagine Normal Aichi meeting If Aichi (Hypothetically since you know the whole time paradox rules would prevent it from playing out properly).

Keep in mind this all involves headcanon about If Aichi and stuff, so it’s not necessarily “accurate” to If, but uh...

This isn’t really a story so much as a vague sort of summary of what I sort of imagine happening and the feelings of it, I guess?

CARDFIGHT!! VANGUARD IF SPOILERS BELOW

Normal Aichi tries to reach out to his other self, holding out a hand with a soft smile, interacting with him through their shared PSY Qualia.

He tries to reason with If Aichi, saying that it doesn’t have to be like this. He can see how deep down If Aichi is really suffering. Normal Aichi KNOWS what it’s like to be alone. To have been in that same spot, not having Vanguard, not having friends, all of it.

Normal Aichi softly speaks to If Aichi the whole time, saying that it’s not too late. He can have everything he truly wanted this whole time. Friends, happiness, Vanguard... The things he REALLY wanted, not just hiding behind the broken obsession with Kai he’s latched onto... Not just convincing himself that Vanguard is some evil thing that causes misery and unhappiness. 

He can have all of it if he just lets Emi and Shuka correct things.

Normal Aichi holds out his hand for If Aichi, looking into his counterpart’s eyes with an open heart...

If Aichi smacks the hand away. He wants nothing of it. He glares into Normal Aichi’s eyes.

The counterpart before him? The one that speaks so sweetly and kindly? It makes him angrier. It fuels him with rage. Why should that one act like he knows it all? Like he knows what’s best?

If Aichi HATES Normal Aichi with a passion.

Although he would never admit it, he wants what Normal Aichi has. He hates Vanguard, but paradoxically he wants it, desperately. He may not even realize it, himself, but looking into the face of his counterpart just brings him pain as it shows the life he could have-- no, SHOULD HAVE had.

That’s how it should have been. Why wasn’t it? It was because of that stupid girl. That one that screwed up the timeline.

Of course letting her fix it would be easy... but he doesn’t want her to, because Kai’s happiness is far more important than his or anyone else’s. He decided that the moment Sanctuary was formed.

The only thing that gives his life any meaning now is Kai. He can’t grasp onto some other life, the one he never got to know. He’s too filled with pain and rage for that.

He doesn’t have the memories or experiences that Normal Aichi does. Nothing to draw his heart back to Vanguard all the way. The vague feelings and echoes of that other life aren’t enough.

It’s all a contradictory mess in If Aichi’s head, and it only drives him into more hostile feelings... He hates it, it drives him even more insane.

Normal Aichi tries to speak again, but If Aichi silences him. No matter what, If Aichi refuses to listen. It all hurts too much. It all contradicts and conflicts and breaks him apart and HE HATES IT.

Normal Aichi pulls his hand away, feeling awful. If only there was something he could do... Even if this other version of himself is doing something so terrible, he just... He understands. He knows that it’s all pain and suffering. Something he once felt.

If only...

Regretfully, the two hearts just cannot be connected...

[crystalmemoria]

I’ve actually got a lot of ideas about my AU version If Aichi thought up in terms of who he is and how he acts, I just... my brain doesn’t want to get all of the words out onto a post, and that frustrates me.

I tried to write some of the descriptions about him below the page break thing.

SPOILERS FOR VANGUARD IF!

A good example is that my If Aichi struggles with a lot of conflicting feelings he, himself, doesn’t entirely get. After all, he’s seen flashes of his real life and he knows what should have been. It’s natural that some part of him desperately wants it.

But he also blames himself for all of the bad things that happened to Kai after meeting him and giving him Blaster Blade, and feels like he owes it to the person that brought him happiness to make sure he stays happy in this life.

And yet, he still feels like he wants his own happiness even though he feels he doesn’t deserve it, but if you ask him, he’ll say that he hates Vanguard because it does nothing but cause pain and misery, pointing out various “examples” of it that happened throughout the franchise (He’s looked through the Akashic Book in my AU, in an unhealthy attempt to sort of perpetuate his negative viewpoint).

He’s forcing himself and convincing himself that Vanguard is bad, and trying to snuff out his own happiness, convincing himself all he needs is for Kai to be happy and for Vanguard to be gone.

Doing this gives him a sense of purpose that he never had in this life, and this life is all he has. Even if some part of him wants his real life, he can’t visualize that other life properly even with dreams and the forced flashes of memories Takuto’s talking brought on. They’re all just images that haunt him instead of bringing any form of comfort.

Does he wish he could have it? Oh, heck yes. He wants friends. He wants to spend time with all sorts of friends, being able to be a strong person and happy. He wants to feel fulfilled, living a good life where he’s able to smile sincerely and be satisfied with who he is.

Does he feel he’s capable of it? Heck no. He’s convinced without his powers, he’s absolutely nothing. He’s even worse than PSY Qualia Aichi in that regard. PSY Qualia Aichi at least had people he sort of began growing closer to that could reel in him a bit, but If Aichi? If Aichi has people he considers acquaintances at best because he doesn’t feel he’s capable of making those close friendships his other self made.

He’s, on some level, constantly negatively portraying himself negatively to his other life, and it causes him a lot of negative feelings towards himself and his other self.

It’s all a negative cycle that goes on his head, and he’ll deny it with all he has because he feels his goal of destroying Vanguard for Kai and other peoples’ sakes are too important, and that he needs a point in his “pathetic” life.

Truth be told, he MEANS well with what he does, but he’s severely misguided and does some bad things despite meaning well. Jammers aren’t his most well thought out idea (Possessing people?).

He’s not the hero, even if he’s doing his darnedest to convince himself he is, but he’s not as dark and vicious as he is in canon. He’s not going to try to kill everyone like he did in canon. He might still yell at Emi like he did in If 18, but there’s a difference between getting mad at your sister and... what he did in If 23 and If 24.

I’m not doing a good job explaining it today, but basically he’s an emotional boy with a lot of negative feelings and thoughts that constantly play in his mind rather than being... whatever he was in canon.

Also people actually get the chance to talk to him after he was defeated instead of him dying, giving him the chance to see that maybe he was wrong.

[blaster-aichi]

Cardfight!! Vanguard Extra Story IF 15 things

belated edition because brain went on a marathon

The opening scene with Aichi appears to insinuate one of two things: either the Sanctuary Knights need Kai-kun to help stabilize his condition or, as part of a theory below, maintaining the IF World is putting a strain on Aichi that’s becoming more than he can handle with time. The latter would solve why the team suddenly intended to have him visit Sanctuary considering the lengths Aichi’s gone to to keep them apart, but just how he could fulfil the role, haven’t been able to think up anything.

Ibuki switching to Aichi’s first name being a permanent thing now. Yes. (It’s a nice idea if they’re going to play on the both switching places from high school arc)

Had theorized Kai-kun was in an otherworldly/pocket dimension location with the colouring of the scenes in the preview but Takuto summoning him begs the question of how much he has as Prisoner; why not summon Emi and the others into the castle? Or Rekka and Ren, as a means of reintroducing them to the story now that their objective overlaps with that of Suiko’s group? Also Takuto being soft mint Takuto, you little shit, don’t just dangle a life like that over a kid’s head when you know it’s more “real” than the dream he’s living in.

Someone actually drag Aichi home, he’s way too dangerous. He’s pointing swords at anyone and everyone. It speaks for how deep the distortion in him is seeping, with the pacifist we’ve seen him be over the years, to raise a sword at even Kai-kun, to attack Ibuki(’s cards, but somehow not his fingers) with it — and tossing Ibuki into the void — one can only imagine how badly he’s going to react to how far off the rails he went if he has a PsyAichi-esque realization.

Kai-kun confirmed to never hold a girl’s hand before.

How dare Bushi make the Kai Parents the softest, chillest parents when we’ve been privy to what their real selves are like. (Papa Kai mixing up Shuka and Emi slays. Sir, do you mix up your employees too?)

SHIZUKA  — seeing her anything other than bubbly is painful, particularly when it’s used to contrast the happiness of the Kai family; it serves to hammer home how only one of Kai and AichiEmi is allowed to have a family remain in tact and their happiness preserved, driving home how the other serves to be a sacrifice.

“I’m not the kind of guy who still plays Vanguard in high school!” a) did he just roast his real self (and 90% of the cast)? b) side-eyes the preview, ahaha.wav

IF then: presents itself as the most light-hearted season to date IF now: threatens murder at every turn and has the two boys who��ve been protagonists in the past both run away from home in a single season

The episode all but said in as many words that the price of Aichi’s creating/altering IF World to ensure Kai-kun’s happiness was his own presence so as not to trigger any awakening to Kai-kun’s Outside World memories, sacrificing his own happiness to be around his friends in order to allow his best friend a content, fulfilling life. But in recognizing that, and willingly giving up the illusion for the sake of someone else demonstrates just how good a kid Kai-kun is, no matter the world, no matter how cold and distant he’d portray himself in the card-centric seasons.       — Season 1 (of 2011, so different continuity but go with it) initially painted Kai-kun as a more selfish individual in order to mask the complexities of his predicament, his goal appeared to be about power in order to topple a rival, but it was demonstrable that his motivations weren’t so cut and dry: it was about getting Ren back from a state that warped him, the fear that the same was happening to Aichi before his eyes and he was scared due to his inability to prevent it. And Link Joker followed the same line of thinking: his giving into Reverse was never about power, but his fear of falling behind and not being able to keep up — bearing in mind, he had done so thus far without the involvement of any power like Ren and Aichi had experienced — his motivations had always been driven by helplessness, fear and any inability to face them head-on, finding it easier to handle if he ran away — which was a big part of why it bothered me that people would nail him as being completely selfish and stupid when giving into temptation and accepting Reverse’s power. IF’s iteration of him gets to demonstrate what would happen if he was able to communicate himself properly and follow through with what he believes, in similar vein to Legion Mate, but without the shackles of guilt and atonement; he’s experienced a happy life, and wishes not to deprive someone else of the same, but without the pride of his usual self, he doesn’t run himself into the ground overthinking, but takes action based on the emotions he freely allows himself to feel and express.

Eager to see the extent of Kai-kun’s power; Kourin stated he’s in an incomplete form, but he’s able to perform the same as Emi without the need for Shuka’s involvement and even Ride units the same way had hoped Emi was going to prior to the season’s airing. Which poses the question of how is he able to and why Aichi would allow it within a world that he tampered with to erase the relationship, unless it’s a facet beyond his reality warping ability.

Kamui’s appearance in the preview brought a thought to mind: although they’re in different branches of the school ordinarily, there’s been no evidence that Kai-kun attends Hitsue within IF, and that, in fact, with his family’s wealth, it’s possible he could even attend Miyaji instead. The line of thinking is wholly dependent on how Kai-kun reacts to Kamui and/or his uniform come epi 16, but it would be a nice nod to the dividing up of the Kai/Miwa/Ibuki trio to have them each in different schools in a similar manner to their initial divided stances in the season’s plot.

Also IF 16? Did someone order extra-cute?

A couple of theories to add to the pile (partially yanked from discord logs)

Aichi:

Something corrupted him and started fucking with his head to implant the insinuation that Kai-kun's life would have been better had he never pursued Vanguard as a hobby and the two of them never met. It could be that Ibuki Deleting Kai-kun and the subsequent struggle he had was the means for this line of thinking to worm its way in.      — In the same vein as VoidAichi, said corruption gave him the ability to warp reality, allowing for a completely happy and harmless life for Kai-kun, though it distorted things around him as a result, hence binding his page in the Akashic Records; that's a defence tactic Aichi took to prevent the change from being recognized by the Tatsunagis and an effort to correct what was clearly altered from their understanding For the sake of not risking himself being a trigger that would bring to the surface any memories of his real life, Aichi ran away from home and holed up in Sanctuary, removing any chance of Kai-kun being enlightened to the truth and allowing his perfectly happy life to continue without a hitch, and by having him get bored of Vanguard, there is no tie between them But the corruption is poisoning him and/or the strain of upholding such a world is taking its toll on Aichi, hence the beginning of the episode, and they already spelled out he himself isn't happy, it kills him to not see the person he wants to most, but sacrifices his happiness for Kai-kun's. Why he wanted Kai-kun brought to Sanctuary, idk, maybe as a brief respite, to serve as a reminder of why he's doing this, and keep his eroding spirit strong      — The corruption is what's turned him into a violent monster who's fine with hurting or pointing a sword at whoever gets in his way. VoidAichi was passive and sealed because he was a threat to his friends' peace, trapped in a position where he was a ticking timebomb, but IF Aichi is proactive and cut himself off because he's a threat to Kai-kun's happiness and can do something about it.

Also it's made pretty obvious that Aichi's tampered with Kourin, Naoki and Shingo's (and probably Miwa's) memories, which is why they're so fixated on his will and their dedication which feels kind of cult-ish, because of Naoki's glimpse of the real history after he lost the fight In his own, even more twisted way than Legion Mate, Aichi thinks he's doing the right thing, and the interference with that dreamworld isn't something he has the patience for due to the corruption, which is why he freaks out whenever Vanguard is brought up or someone opposes him

Ibuki:

The theory is Ibuki's been cast into an illusion where he relives his childhood, or maybe an ideal childhood is given to him in the same vein as IF Kai-kun to lessen his will to fight, whether to enforce just what he's up against and the hurt he could face again or to give him a glimpse of what he could be blessed with if he stops interfering with Aichi's world Shuka seeking out Emi gets a little more strength to it as well, as the only person in the world who would recognize that anything is wrong with the atmosphere at home the way it is after Aichi ran away, and no-one else knowing him because of his isolated childhood, so she's the only anchor to drag him back down.

Courtney also came up with the suggestion that Ibuki might instead be forced to loop through his torment at the Deletors’ hands, living through cycles of his attempt to erase Vanguard, to twist the knife but also try to remind him of why Vanguard is a terrible thing.

Kai family:

“I’ll see you again someday”.

The use of this line as Kai-kun’s parting words to his parents is striking: as given Shuka’s warning, the likelihood of him actually achieving this is minimal, unless for a few scenarios:     — he returns home to be with them as IF World is erased and the timeline corrected, allowing them one last time together     — post-IF, the real Kai-kun seeks out his parents. In doing so, he’s able to demonstrate to them what he was able to grow up into despite their abandonment, even if for that purpose and then to part ways with them. For the real Kai-kun, such a meeting would serve as closure and for the IF version within him, it would be one last show of love and gratitude for the life they gave him. (the latter part could apply to the real Kai-kun, appreciating the childhood he was given until they left.)     — Also the irony that they absconded for selfish purposes, shirking all responsibiliy of their child, left to fend for himself against the ire of his relatives, but when he runs away from home, it's to protect them. What a good boy.

[blaster-aichi]

Cardfight!! Vanguard Extra Story IF 16 things

forgot to post this, heck

Fanguard’s dream of actual hobo Kai-kun sleeping on Bench-chan is finally realized

There’s a lot of Kamui and Shin instinctively having feelings true to the true reality and mismatched to IF’s world. There’s two possibilities for this: a) Aichi did a really shitty job nailing down everything due to his concentration being focused primarily on Kai-kun b) the rupture from the illusion around Kai-kun unravelling tore into the IF world as a whole and it’s unable to entirely maintain its story, allowing for instances like Morikawa recalling Kai-kun’s line from Reboot’s first episode or Kamui and Shin recognizing Kagero as a clan expected of him.

The Kamui/Morikawa interactions were really cute, it’s nice to see them butting heads and just being rambunctious kids

Izaki sank the Miyaji Kai-kun theory, curious what he’s like at school in this form.

The ferocity of his original memories invading and scaring him having a lasting impact and making him afraid to play again even a couple/few days later is both fascinating and gutwrenching.

Honestly very surprised that Shin would reprimand anyone for being loud, particularly when that’s Misaki’s thing and where are you hiding her?

The softer he is, the more heartbreaking his situation is in the grand scheme of things, even if he’s come to terms with it. How dare you, Bushi.

IF 15: [roasts himself]. IF 16: [literally roasts a nerd]

Love and hate how the opportunity to elaborate and delve into Kai-kun’s relationship with Dragonic Overlord is taken advantage of because why not just stab me instead? It’s a nice insight into a facet of his time away from Hitsue that was never truly touched on in either version prior.

Emi and Shingo become Fanguard.

Right eye sighted. But being it’s Shingo's recollection of Aichi, not yet willing to buy that it’s completely normal with the fact that, beyond this and his encountering Shuka, it’s remained hidden — the purpose of the shot itself was to establish Shingo isn’t remembering things correctly, so there’s no reason to believe that he’s aware of anything that might be different about it.     — This could be reflected in how Aichi keeps his distance from the others, holed up in his private quarters and suffering with only Kourin seeming to be anywhere near him during such times. It’s reminiscent of Legion Mate, both in his trying to shoulder everything alone/hide the agony he’s going through and Kourin’s close proximity, standing as his right hand in a manner that no-one else fills.    — Also to go with the Legion Mate topic, in this moment, IF Aichi gives off VoidAichi vibes. Despite how broken up it’s apparent he would and should be to exile himself (see V epi 21 and the flashback to him watching the others in Card Capital from Legion Mate), he shows no emotion, but rather seems completely numbed. Also probably looking waaaay too far into it, but 2/2 times when his face has been completely obscured, there’s been a stylistic choice beneath his eyes that is typical of exhaustion/strain/fatigue and it keeps worrying me.

IF 17

The preview gives the impression that this episode is about to be a turning point; that with Naoki and Shingo both having some understanding that things aren’t quite right, their loyalty to Aichi might start to wane.

Naoki’s going out in his Miyaji school uniform has alarm bells ringing, personally, for reasons elaborated below.

Never knew that needed Kai-kun working a part-time job in my life but boy is it a need now.

Here for Mamoru reigniting his fandom for Kai-kun. Very here for it.

IF vs. V 21

As a first note, Kai-kun being the one to separation between Aichi and his deck against their IF selves has a nice touch of irony to it. Calling back to it would be a powerful way of drawing on their positions in relation to the scene.

Considering just how badly Aichi freaked out over the idea of giving up his Royal Paladin deck and what it would force unto him, there’s little reason to suspect anything that’s happening in IF is really of his own free will.   — It’s been brought up that, without the two meeting as kids, Aichi shouldn’t really have much knowhow about Vanguard, much less a relationship to it. Considering Kai-kun remained a Hitsue student, it’s an easy assumption to make that Aichi’s education followed the same pattern (though his reasoning for returning to Miyaji remains a mystery, with his lacking the confidence that his original reality/Outside World self had); his exposure to the game might come through his time in Middle School, but it’s a loose and distant connection at best. IF World Aichi, without knowledge of Outside World (if they are two separate versions), would have no reason to target Vanguard over anything else.

As Void and Star-Vaders aren’t a facet of the Reboot continuity, a theory that had in mind for a while is that a remnant of Brandt may have seized the moment when Aichi was Deleted and been festering away in the same manner as the Link Joker Seed. A previous post detailed the mindfuckery involved to break Aichi enough that he would turn on the game, particularly given how fearful he was of relinquishing it and the isolation it would return him to — the very circumstances he’s imposed upon himself (but far worse, in exiling himself from the real world). Though he’s a selfless boy and Kai-kun means an enormous amount to him, it simply doesn’t make sense that he would willingly go down this road.

Rather he’s mind has been twisted so much to believe in what he’s now doing or he’s being controlled by something of Brandt (as we’d never confirmation it was no longer a threat), if not some other force (though to introduce a new one at this stage in both the franchise and the reboot continuity with OverDress around the corner would be a peculiar choice).

Couple of theory things, feat. one really out there idea:

Naoki:

Naoki’s actions in the preview might be glimpses of him starting to break away from Aichi’s will; not with malicious intent, but rather the opposite.

The line of thinking goes as so: as he and Shingo come to realize their memories have been tampered with, Naoki seeks out Emi and Shuka, obtaining Blaster Blade with the intent of returning to the point in time where Aichi should have received it. Among the screencaps Bushiroad has released, one shows a young Naoki and Aichi, who’s holding a card  — rather than allowing the event to play out as it should have, Naoki intends to give Aichi the card himself.

In doing so, Aichi can begin down his path that liberates him from the crushing loneliness that he endured prior to actively playing the game, or in the case of IF, running away from home. Simultaneously, Naoki himself is freed from the guilt that’s shackled him in both continuities about not doing anything to help Aichi, as the Reboot has demonstrated how he yearned to at the time but was too late to make any move. This is his means of doing so and atoning for a reality when he failed.

When Emi, Shuka and Kai-kun would recognize him as the one who threatened the latter’s parents plus Suiko (and Ibuki) would be familiar with him as normal, there’s not a clear reason why he would forgo his Sanctuary Knight uniform for a civilian look other than to avoid attracting the attention of bystanders.;(It might be overthinking it to speculate there being anything more to it than this, but when has that ever worked?)    — Granted this is under the assumption that he would be able to leap through the timeline though Jammers of earlier episodes were capable of doing so, none of the enemy’s core have made any such move yet. And the consequences of doing so; if Aichi’s suffering is the result of IF World unravelling, then Naoki venturing to alter the timeline further may, in fact, cause him more harm than any good he may intend.

2.5 hours later edit: Courtney just shared the epi synposis and FUCK

Alternatively, Naoki might regain glimpses of the Psyqualia Zombie arc and see himself beating Aichi, leading to Destiny Conductor being able to control him and his eventual Deletion by Ibuki’s hand.

On the one side, it reinforces Aichi’s feelings that Vanguard is something they shouldn’t come into contact with, but Naoki could see it otherwise. He harbours guilt over being the catalyst for those instances, piling on top of his failure to reach out when they were in elementary school, spurning him to go back and redo everything so that he can always protect Aichi, not to embody anguish that the other goes through.

It would also strengthen a hostile opposition towards Ibuki, whose past sin comes back into play. He might throw the event in his face as a means of trying to dredge up his old feelings towards Vanguard and sway him to resist setting things right, whenever/however it is he’s released from wherever Aichi sent him and depending on what he experiences there.

Kourin:

Where we are currently feels very much like the “Sera’s betrayal leading to the Quatre Knights’ dissolution” point. Sera and Rati clashed with one another personally, Gaillard joined with Kai-kun and Naoki, Neve opposed VoidAichi directly — Naoki’s actions in the preview might be glimpses of him starting to break away from Aichi’s will. Though Naoki’s intentions are ultimately to save Aichi from the position he’s stuck in, it’s ultimately defying him — a far cry from what has been shown of the Knights, thus far, who have been fiercely loyal to him, which makes this sort of movement striking.

Miwa also doesn’t appear best pleased in the preview. As someone whose best friend was nearly killed as a result of Aichi’s orders  — a friend at risk now that he’s taking a stance against the group’s status quo — there’s every reason for him to defect for the sake of preventing another (and possibly actually fatal) incident. It’s very possible that It’s entirely possible that, in similar vein to Legion Mate, the collapse of the Knights will leave only Kourin by Aichi’s side, who’ll serve as the last line of defence. 

Mamoru & Tokoha / Aichi & Emi:

It wasn’t touched on during Nagisa and Gouki’s episode, but the dynamic of older brother and younger sister has the potential to crop up here, as well as the chance to contrast the Sendous’ current selves with the Anjou siblings (and the former’s past).

   — Not to mention how Mamoru and Aichi are polar opposites, at the moment in regards to their sisters in danger. Mamoru gambled with his life to keep Tokoha safe in the Dragon Empire attack of the original continuity, and anyone could see Aichi would do the same, but IF Aichi is the one who would inflict harm upon Emi, made clear by his soldiers’ attack on her and Shuka when they attempted to enter the past. Maybe, inadvertently, Tokoha might be put in jeopardy and Mamoru propelled to protect her in the same way, bringing about the behaviour of the two versions of her brother that Emi knows in the same situation.

Give me 11-year old Tokoha to mirror 11-year old Emi at the start of each continuity and drive this home.

And most importantly:

DRAGONIC OVERLORD ARMOUR

[blaster-aichi]

Cardfight!! Vanguard Extra Story IF 20 things

changing up the formula for the week

12 seconds in and we’re threatening murder, a new record.

What did we do to deserve Miwa and what did he do to deserve the treatment he gets from the writers?

When there are only bits and pieces of his original memories coming through, having the most nightmarish moment be one of them, one could only imagine how unsettling it is for one poor ultra-soft boy. And if it might cause him to sympathize with Aichi’s belief in brief moments, from undeniable proof that engaging in Vanguard has hurt a number of people around them.

Weekly yearning for the relationship between Outside World and IF World to get an explanation rises.

IF continuing with the softest Kai-kun faces, cause of death determined. That is all.

The fact that Morikawa’s dismissal serves towards the plot is startling, but at the same time, in-universe, it’s still baffling why he was chosen as opposed to anyone else. Perhaps because of his role in Aichi’s actively playing the game? But otherwise, drawing a blank.

There is a lot to say about the Kourin/Miwa scene, see below.

Semi-sortof-half-right about the Miwa/Takuto collusion but also see below.

Weekly yearning for the relationship between Outside World and IF World to get an explanation intensifies.

The Dinner Table Scene. Rena.exe has stopped working. See below, I flip the table.

This is the most adorable thing ever and boys, PLEASE.

Miwa picks up the mantle of roasting characters, the KaiMiwa is strong.

Pot. Kettle. Mirror. Bitch?

The choice to have Dragonic Overlord’s Deletion visually mirror its occurrence during the cardfight-based season is a strong choice; due to its haunting Kai-kun since it penetrated the IF illusion, and his facing Ibuki without letting any distress showing, in spit of what he’s seen, it demonstrates just the strength of his character and builds on his being able to take the punches and roll with them thus far.

Everyday, I relate to Kai Toshiki even more.

Very much appreciate Emi chiming in where Ibuki is concerned because though the emphasis is on his relationships with Kai-kun, Miwa and Suiko, their time understanding one another in episode 7 remains a personal favourite thing from the season.

Suiko’s intervention to protect Emi and Shuka; yes, yes, yes! Best big sister doing her thing.

Along the same line of thought; Miwa taking the bullet to save Kai-kun feels a natural conclusion to his role within IF, but also playing upon how he stressed Kai-kun’s happiness was his priority in his cardfight with Neve. His strongest trait through the franchise has been his dedication to his best friend, no matter the cost to himself, and seeing that occur in the literal sense feels as though it was always a case of when, not if. Although with the likely remaining time left in the season and its focus, there won’t be a spotlight shone on it again or for Kai-kun to really convey his feelings about it, it was nice to see and think about through the day after.

Episode 102: the KaiMiwa edition.

All Hail the Overlords and their Realizing.

Kai-kun takes back his other part-time job of literally roasting people with Miwa gone.

Though it’s likely down to how he was recruited into the Sanctuary Knights (and his past being repaired erasing the entire ordeal from his perspective), Ibuki’s lost memories of joining them begs the question of the fate of everyone’s memories once the timeline is fully restored, given it hasn’t been made clear if there are two different versions of characters that exist or their Outside World selves pulled inside and overwritten to fit IF’s continuity. Cases such as Emi, Aichi and Kourin in particular, seeing as Naoki, Shingo and Miwa have thus far retained their memories of IF despite returning Outside.

Not entirely sure why Kourin is so aggravated by the Sanctuary Knights’ numbers thinning when Naoki, Shingo and Miwa felt much more like nuisances to her and it means she’s alone on Aichi’s side. But okay, play cosmic fuckery with your sisters.

IF 21 preview

Rekka sighted. Hopes raised for her re-entering the story properly raised. Hopes realized when the preview caps from Bushi’s Twitter confirm as much

The season that continues its joke of memeing anime deaths.

With the perspective of Kourin’s weekly nightmarish face and the typical use of the angle, eager to see the girls getting the upper-hand over her, as it dawned on me that Naoki and Shingo had weekly stints being the main antagonistic force but Kourin, in essence, is on four and counting. And with the jarring fact that Aichi’s just sitting back, possibly oblivious, possibly not?

The unidentified Sanctuary Knight in the preview had gotten hopes up that Misaki was finally entering the fray but the aforementioned tweet popped that like a Genshin Impact Anemo slime. Rude.

the four breakdowns (for comical effect, it was one Wild call)

Takuto: From what’s been shown of Takuto, one could summise that he’s unable to leave Sanctuary by some force Aichi (or Kourin, with or without using Aichi to do it) has imposed on him, but considering his position, his personality doesn’t quite fit. With the gravity of the situation, particularly when he had pinpointed Aichi as the strongest Psyqualia fighter and (Destiny Conductor) personally input extra restraints to keep him under control, with him being the enemy, it's puzzling how Takuto is so lax. Even more in that he didn’t use Miwa as a means of passing on any message to the other Tatsunagis. While he couldn’t be expected to know Ren and Rekka were dispatched specifically to find him, one would imagine it was natural there would be someone coming and he may have been able to offer anything from within Sanctuary and its populous. But apparently not.

Kourin: To be honest, the way in which Kourin is being handled rubs me the wrong way, and in a different way from Legion Mate (if anything, its the very opposite problem to then in some regards). It appears to be a sentiment spreading among viewers, at least from what have been able to discern. But in regards to this episode alone, she’s proven herself atrocious at her job. Why wander around a public school in her Sanctuary Knight uniform? Why alert Miwa to her being outside the door? Why divulge essentially her entire job description when all he said was her name? Why are you hovering in a public school? Also has no room to talk about Suiko and Ibuki with how she is around Aichi, let alone around the other Sanctuary Knights and playing bodyguard between the two. It feels with each week she becoming even more territorial and possessive of Aichi.

The Dinner Table Scene: This was initially what really stood out as jarring. The scene feels out of place in many regards; from Aichi’s behaviour to its serving no purpose (not when Takuto’s very last line right before it already established they’re two peas in a pod).                  If anything, it strikes as antithetical to IF Aichi until this point; it’s possible to excuse his lack of reacting to Naoki’s removal from the scene in 18 as being kept in the dark to keep him from struggling to process the news, but with the time that’s passed and losing two others, there’s no way in hell he isn’t aware. Yet he isn’t fazed, not even when Vanguard has essentially ripped away people from him and played right into his beliefs.                 The choice of setting is peculiar; was it just for the gag of Ibuki having a biscuit for a meal? (does Kourin get groceries in her uniform too?) To be truthful, it feels like the two could have met elsewhere in the castle — the throne room, Aichi’s quarters, a corridor where the city could be seen through a window with Ibuki’s back to it (or it behind Aichi so Ibuki could watchthe view past him) — whether Kourin was involved or not, but additionally, Aichi’s acceptance of Ibuki (and in spite of their past and the Deletion, which hazard a guess he remembers in full) simply doesn’t feel coherent. With how vicious they were to one another, even with the dust settling and them both moving on plus Ibuki’s role in IF thus far, wouldn’t it make sense that there would be some tension between them? The scene as a whole encapsulated some of the concerns that had at points during the season, though it’s redeemed itself with some. But where Aichi is concerned, I worry greatly it’s much like Legion Mate where it feels they don’t know what to do with him and are putting off him making a move personally until the end, drawing out Kourin and the new element of fuckery with characters’ pasts.                    Don’t want to get down on this season, it’s got its highs and lows like any other, but the episode in particular was concerning and this scene was the pinnacle of those feelings. It could sweep those worries aside with a great episode (for like the fourth time because it keeps coming back strong when alarm bells ring).

The Pacing: Courtney initially mentioned the episode feeling rushed and when sitting down and thinking it over, have to say that agree. Assuming IF is running a tight schedule with OverDress around the corner, it probably wouldn’t have had the time, but it may have benefitted from the episode being drawn across two. It would have allowed time for Kai-kun and Suiko to try and grapple with Ibuki turning coat, as well as draw out the tension of his being on the enemy’s side, the rapid resolution takes away the threat that has been made to Suiko in her own predicament, and Miwa could have been allowed more time to fully flesh out his actions thus far, as well as anything else that his meeting with Takuto could have provided. Though we’re all well familiar with him, there could have been more glmpses into the unique friendship he has with IF Kai-kun and how it might have contrasted their Outside World’s selves’.

Probably debunked super-fast again but will dream:

Misaki’s absence due to her being Aichi’s Sanctuary Knight secret weapon:

Stemmed from the glimpse of the Sanctuary Knight in the preview and the hype that it might have been Misaki’s re-introduction to the story, given her disappearance since epi 8, even when Kamui returned and Shin filled in her gimmick at Card Capital in epi 16. With the emphasis on Miyaji in Reboot, her lack of presence has been particularly strange, with not so much as a passing mention other than her appearance in the ED. Judging by Kourin and Aichi alone appearing in the preview, it feels safe to say she, Naoki and Shingo won’t be a part of the illusion being forced upon Suiko, prolonging this. Maybe Izumi is simply busy with other work and reading too much into it, but dreamt up a theory for the heck of it.

Whether to recruit the Miyaji Cardfight Club as a whole or in response to identifying Kourin’s apparent independent agenda, Aichi brought Misaki aboard, keeping her a secret from even Kourin and the other Sanctuary Knights. With Kourin overstepping her boundaries and their numbers withering, Aichi’s patience runs out and Misaki is revealed, usurping Kourin’s place by Aichi’s side and delivering a devastating blow to her, who has been fiercely loyal to him but recognizes how far gone he has been driven. Misaki’s appearance is coupled with her verbally tearing into Kourin and dealing her comeuppance (which honestly, she really deserves and has for some time now), Aichi may or may not be there so that the sight of himself and Misaki continuing on without her twists the knife.

It would also echo the interactions between the Psyqualia Zombie Aichi and Misaki, with Kourin watching on helplessly with Naoki and Shingo. Just thought it’d be a neat call-back.