#i do like vrains i just can't help media analyzing yugioh

[pico-farad]

vrains season 1 reaction pt. 2 - going off about aoi

I had to give this one its own post because I had... a lot to say.

Part 1

Aoi

haha... goddamnit.....

What's frustrating is that all the pieces are there for her to be a good character. Of all the characters in S1, she's the only one who is given a dynamic internal conflict. Every duel she has is about more than just the duel, it's about her, and that's the heart of Yugioh. That's what's missing in Yusaku.

Her duel seeking out Playmaker is in direct response to her brother telling her to stop going into Link Vrains. Her duel against Baira is about reconciling being put in a coma, and developing her own resolve to fight Hanoi, to protect others from the same fate. And her duel against Spectre is about their clashing ideals, mirrored in their dueling styles (healing vs. burn). Even her throwaway duel against a literal NPC robot furthers her character, as she rebels against her brother who's forbid her from even leaving the house.

The problem with these duels... is that the writers don't actually care about her character growth. 

So, I think a lot of discussion by Yugioh fans about whether X character "deserved better" tends to centralize around "X should have gotten that duel" or "X should have won that duel," which really comes up a lot when it comes to female characters, but I think often misses the point of how duels are devices for storytelling in Yugioh.

Aoi was not shafted because she lost against Yusaku and Spectre. Yes, the virus corruption and falling on her head scenes sucked and were gratuitous. But losing duels is good for characters. Losses are where we see major turning points in their arcs. That's the basic modus operandi for a Yugioh rival, and the same logic can and should apply to the Yugioh girls.

The problem is that the reason Aoi loses those duels has nothing to do with Aoi. She is put in a coma during the Playmaker duel because the writers needed to engineer a conflict between Playmaker and Akira (in other words bring SOL Technologies into the picture). She loses to Spectre because the writers want Yusaku to go into the final battle alone.

Even if they really wanted to contrive these scenarios, they still could have given Aoi something to work with story-wise. They could dwell on her self-doubt, after her brother is proven right that Link Vrains is dangerous. They could have her question her beliefs after the duel with Spectre, perhaps a parallel with her brother, whose duel with Yusaku similarly has him extending what he thinks is compassion toward Yusaku, but which falls flat because he's failing to understand Yusaku.

Even though Aoi has a repeated story beat of trying to prove to her brother that she's autonomous and capable, the actual writing tries to stomp it out at every turn. Either she loses, which reinforces her brother's belief that fighting is too dangerous for her and she needs to be coddled. Or she wins, but her brother continues to think she's incapable, and neither of their characters develop.

Which brings me to what I think the biggest flaw in her writing is -- Akira.

The show romanticizes Aoi and her brother's relationship, but it's SO obvious the toll that Akira's overprotectiveness takes on Aoi, how it's led her to be isolated and insecure, and how the Blue Angel persona is a form of release for her.

Akira cares about Aoi, but he doesn't respect her, and it's damaging to Aoi's sense of self.

This is what aggravates me, because I think that would be a great story to tell with her character, but the writers cannot see what's right in front of them.

And this would strengthen Akira's character too. It is good that Akira is a controlling, flawed person. It is also consistent with his duel with Yusaku, where he's also very patronizing, and misguidedly believes he's doing the right thing by sheltering Yusaku from the truth about the Lost Incident. In which Yusaku rightfully tells him to fuck off, Akira has no business prying into his trauma and telling him what he should do about it.

Which would have been a great moment for Akira to connect some dots about how he thinks he knows what's best for other people and how he infantilizes his sister. But instead the duel ends with Yusaku saying some real bullshit about how Aoi and Akira deserve to stay together and protect each other.

Anyway... there are still two seasons that I'm going to watch, but I have my doubts that they'll pick these particular strings back up. I'll just have to hope that they don't fumble whatever new thing they give her... but things tend to get bleaker for female Yugioh characters as the show goes on and whatever initial involvement they had in the story fizzles out.

A few positive notes to end on...

I like both of her designs, she's the only character who takes advantage of contrasting the expressiveness of the Vrains avatars with her plain real appearance. And it's a little funny that Blue Angel is... just Hatsune Miku. 

I like her Blue Angel voice. It's still an idol girl voice, but it's very unique. The Trickstars are aesthetically kind of boring (they're too similar to Yuzu's Melodious cards imo) but seeing a burn deck is cool, since anime duels tend to distill to Attack With Big Number. Even though it's a crime that she doesn't win her duels in a 4000 LP format.

I think ultimately, I still do like Aoi even among the Yugioh girls, because of the missed potential I talked about. I've got one more planned Vrains post coming, which goes into that.

But also, at the time of writing this, I just finished the Soulburner vs. Blue Girl duel in season 2 and holy moly was that the biggest bullshit I've ever seen. So maybe the Vrains thoughts will continue.