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I didn’t bother with V reboot as a whole and it looks like I didn’t miss out on much. Especially considering Shinemon is considered the best season, what kind of trainwreck does a series have to be if this is it’s apex.

The titular main character has compelling motivations and personality but man, did he need to have a harem and perfect winstreak? Speaking of the latter, the fight design leaves a lot to be desired on the MC’s end with most of his fights ending on quintuple crit sacks. Shin makes Chrono look like a fraud that’s for sure. Jokes, the quality of this ... anime hinges on it’s cardfights so I don’t think having half of them involve a nobrain critsacker was a great play. It also bogs down what would’ve been a decent MC otherwise.

The story starts off as a mediocre comedy revolving arounds Shin is trying to prevent his brother’s shop from being acquired by this conglomerate. There’s something good in there, Shinemon learning to grow up and become responsible instead of irrationally acting out + a certain reveal about the antagonist making them a lot more likeable but it’s so repetitive and boring overall.

Then the story abruptly shifts into this G prologue involving summoning cardfight units and death with no worldbuilding or setup outside of Rive going ‘I need to head to my (mysterious) job, see you later guys!’ here and there. Vanguard always had issues with bad worldbuilding and poor setup of supernatural/sci-fi elements but the tonal dissonance on top of this takes the cake. The final antagonist’s motivations are understandable enough to the point I question why he acts so villainous with generic wicked smiles and laughs when he isn’t trying to do anything particularly insidious (it’s just self-sacrifice). Overall this part of the story was just rushed and out of place. Going from comedy slice of life to sci fi thriller is so weird, Link Joker’s tone shift was bold but it at least preestablished PSYqualia/Cray and compensated for it by being a chaotic wild ride full of epic fights, character development and wild units.

I don’t have a problem with the cast but the poorly paced dissonant story and obnoxious cardfight design on top of general issues with V series (production values fell off a cliff going into V despite the standards already being low beforehand + abhorrent soundtrack worse than even G’s, cringey script plagued with catchphrases such as ‘That’s my Vanguard!’ or ‘Yes, my Vanguard’) made Shinemon a chore to watch.

Stride Gate is essentially the Link Joker of G with a big epic villainous plot that needs to be foiled. Sadly though it’s still shit and like Legion Mate tier at best primarily to the characters.

Chrono again is an awful main character and when the MC sucks so does the whole series that is law. Perhaps if the MC decent enough to be bearable the work can be offloaded to the supporting cast but obnoxious trash like Chrono that only exists to critsack and beat the bad guy with no real characterisation or arc can’t be redeemed. Not that the supporting cast is especially ... good to begin with: Tokoha is still nothing the character, Shion is alright and his showdown with Shouma was really good but outside of Company the rest are just there and kinda forgettable. Company is a mixed bag: Ryuzu had some aura with epic soundtrack/units on top of actually beating Chrono (meaningless though) and owning Ibuki, Shouma easily the best G character with his almost sadistic manipulative personality but the others IDK. The kid is just lame with a goofy backstory (light bullying presented in this edgy way), the redheaded vampire is your typical brooding guy with sad backstory, the bug guy sucked hard and Am sucked even harder.

We’re somehow expected to sympathise with her just because her girlfriend is in danger annd she’s crying despite what she done. She doesn’t face any consequences either again just because she’s a cute girl crying. Even then it’s hard to see what’s likeable about her: boring personality, no chemistry with anyone etc. She’s not even a character really. The characterisation across the board is just weaker in G, a lot of characters don’t have much personality and just exist. Legion Mate and Asia Circuit have similar issues around insufferable characters that you’re expected to just put up with.

Another issue with Company is their goals are just weird. Basically Infinite Tsukuyomi ripoff of putting everyone in a dream to prevent suffering leading to sheltered teenagers lecturing people who’ve lost loved ones about life while playing a card game it’s really awkward to watch. Just cringey tbh. Another issue is the writing isn’t passable enough to support this kind of plotline, it’s very juvenile with all kinds of events that don’t make sense, awful dialogue and paper thin characters.

Stride Gate and GIRS CRISIS just lacked a lot of important traits necessary to succeed. A solid MC with conflicts and an arc (Like Aichi), likeable characters rather than cardboard cutouts (Shouma and Shion aside) and a solid story are just nowhere to be seen in either of those. And sadly Stride Gate is as good as it got for G.

With GIRS CRISIS you can see there’s an attempt made to course correct after the absolute disaster of the first season but sadly it’s still terrible. The main character Chrono is still a Gary Stu who always wins facing no obstacles along with Tokoha, but fortunately Shion actually gets some development after his parents lose their business somehow due to the work of some crafty villains forcing him to work his way back up. After an encounter with Kai where he gets brutally defeated over and over again, he gets taken him under his wing giving him a mentor and boss to beat at the ... end of GIRS CRISIS (the fight/s were really entertaining) while he also attempts to discover and locate those who humiliated him and destroyed his parent’s business giving him an antagonist/s to beef against too. It’s crazy how a deuteragonist/rival gets all this developments and challenges while the MC who hogs most of the episodes stays as an insufferable boring win machine. If the MC and Tokoha had something like this going on this shitpile of an anime might have actually been watchable.

As you can tell from Kai being mentioned, GIRS CRISIS reintroduces the old cast perhaps in an attempt to being back disillusioned viewers. The problem is aside from being a pathetic attempt at nostalgia bait instead of a proper storyline involving and development the new cast, the story is revolves around said beloved old characters getting fodderised one after another by Sues Chrono and Tokoha (Shion earned his wins more though) which is safe to say incredibly insulting. But that’s to be expected when the foundation of the G storyline was such a failure. Not much potential for a decent story to begin with.

Stride Gate review next.

This anime EASILY peaks here, back to back adventure, action and wonder across different fantasy locales introducing all these characters etc etc. I would recommend just watching season 1, the first arc of season 2 (sara adventure) then dropping Mushoku Tensei altogether. After that, this series seems devolves into a depressingly drab wish fulfilment slice of life with meagre tidbits of adventure sprinkled throughout. I read up to like the Asura conflict and damn what a disappointment of an arc like Rudeus was just chilling getting carried through every threat no tension whatsoever.

As for Rudeus he’s good in season 1 but sadly becomes a Gary ... Stu who never struggles and is liked by everyone in the long run. Speaking of which, yes he’s a complete nonce. It is what it is who cares. And YIKES are anti-Mushoku Tensei crusaders pathetic. Imagine getting so obsessed and mad over a cartoon thinking you’re doing something meaningful, these mfers probably jerk off to some other shota/CGDCT series anyway. Like just shut the fuck up please.

As many have said before me, Code Geass R2 is one of if not the most gloriously retarded, blood pumping, beautiful trainwreck of a second season ever made. Definitely a must watch.

The thing is though, it’s easy to conflate the entertainment value this anime gives with actual quality. I did too when I finished it but looking back man was the story retarded. The second half is just loaded with all kinds of forced epic scenes and retarded plot twists. The characters are all unlikeable dogshit and Suzaku is somehow more of a cunt than he was in season 1. Because being a hypocritical ... Uncle Ruckus gary stu isn’t enough, let’s make him incredibly arrogant and conceited to boot. I guess some are entertaining because of how stupid and over the top they are, like that Orange guy for one but even then so many like the Chinese Federation faction or the KoTR are a waste of space at best. What did the KoTR even do anyway? Get wasted by that fucker Suzaku?

And the end of the day even if R2 was fun you just can’t put this series on the same level as something that earned it’s hype moments and catharsis through actual solid writing rather than contrivance and asspulls. It’s just not fair. People let R2 get away with shit so cringey, that if any other series had it fans would abandon it immediately. For example, imagine if Nina was in any other anime. She’d singlehandedly turn the whole series into a laughing stock. Yet Geass has multiple characters not only as bad but worse than her and is lauded as one of the best anime out there. Damn.

It seems like they had a good premise going but couldn't execute it well with how Shigeo just effortlessly solved all his problems and cleared all his threats by just powering up to 100% (with zero consequences btw, despite it having brutally harmed his brother in the past) and blowing everything up like some middle of the line battle shounen. For example there's a plotline where his talented brother actually envies him due to his psychic ability; this gets dealt with by giving him psychic powers too and having Mob defeat the generic bad guys trying to hold him hostage. Then Mob unconditionally forgives him ... and Shigeo stops envying him, so basically neither of them truly developed in any way and that whole arc was a complete waste of time. Mob gets to unconditionially go 100% and abuse his powers, and his brother got away with being a piece of shit. I don't get the point of Claw either tbh, in a series with an overpowered MC like that the focus should be antagonists that test him in areas he's deficient in rather than an area he's unparalleled in. That then pushes him to become more well-rounded as a person instead of relying on his powers, which is what I assumed the premise of this series is about.

It's like they're trying to push Mob as an overpowered MC who has to build confidence from within and solve his problems, only he ends up just being a generic OP MC that solves all of his problems and beats the bad guys effortlessly through his epic psychic powers.

Anyway series is still an alright battle shonen albeit no real stakes due to MC always winning with no consequences, could've been amazing had it utilised it's potential.

Milo is boring, Bisco is insufferably loud, story is just a bunch of random quirks and tropes thrown in a pot and boiled up together to give a pile of shit stew. Do not take the bait because Bisco seems interesting and unique, this series is pretty much the anime equivalent of 'DON'T LET HIM COOK'. It relies on being interesting but does so in by being retarded; 'Look here's a doctor who's trying to save his ailing sister, but said ailing sister is a BADASS SWORD WIELDING MILITARY GENERAL (or police officer I don't remember or care), also check out these at these policemen ... riding DINOSAURS we also have an archer deuteragonist who owns a GIANT ENEMY CRAB'. That's all this series ever does but even then it manages to get boring.

Anyway, you can clearly see for yourself all the negative reviews and this anime somehow getting a 7.12 score in the era where every big new series gets close to 9+ score before getting review bombed. Save your time and work through your backlog instead of falling for this shit heap.

I first watched this when I was around like 10, while it was cringey it ended up being way more interesting than most kodomo anime and I prefered it to Yugioh (GX at least) tbh.

Story:

As many will say, Cardfight!! Vanguard is basically the 'grounded' counterpart to Yugioh although it veers further into supernatural and sci-fi elements over time. Season 1 revolves around underdog Aichi as he attempts to get better at the eponymous game and climb his way up from locals (characters mainly play at this LCS called 'Card Capital') to regionals to nationals. Seeems very real but keep in mind they introduce a supernatural ... subplot later on with the main antagonist stemming from said subplot.

Majority of the episodes will revolve around or build up to a cardfight. Cardfights are presented in a realistic manner, although parts of the game will often get skipped (Vanguard early game is pretty boring most of the time), to the point where it's like you're watching an infomercial. They even namedropped a booster pack at one point. So big disclaimer: this series has no shame whatsoever with it's product placement and advertisement. Which is why it never aired on US or UK television channels compared to stuff like Yugioh which censored the backs of cards and had unrealistic duels.

A major standout of the story is the tension owing to the underdog MC and how you never know (well it's easy to predict if you think about) if a character will lose due to every character losing at some point. This is exacerbated with the regional and national tournaments following a team format where teams of 3 are pitted against each other. As a result characters can afford to lose matches and still go on to the next round given their teammates pick up the slack. As a result, the outcome of matches are a lot more unpredictable.

Characters:

So the MC Aichi is your typical whiny wimp that eventually grows a pair and starts kicking ass. At the start he's incredibly weak, episode 1 has him getting laughed at by the whole class due to his shyness and getting his favourite card Blaster Blade (despite him never playing the game) robbed by his fellow classmates. You might find his perpetual whinyness insufferable but tbh give him time because his development will come and it's actually satisfying, instead of him just becoming a badass like some lazy wish fulfilment he has to actually try hard just to muster a bit of bravery and develop some skill. The story even tests him with easy mode supernatural powers and he ends up becoming a power tripping junkie dependant on said power, proving that he has to solve his issues through inner struggle rather than easy handouts. His arc and growth in season 1 have yet to be beat in future seasons, from here on out he basically stagnates and Chrono/V Aichi just don't hold a candle in any way. D series protagonists are held back by a lack of time, it's hard to measure up when each story arc is 12 episodes long as opposed to season 1 taking 60.

The main rival figure and Aichi's crush Kai is basically Marmite in character form. Either you see him as some cringelord with a massive stick up his arse or a total badass. For me it was the latter, sure he did act like a cunt but damn his had a badass theme, his deck was bloody epic and the way he mercilessly destroyed all his opponents was to die for. And IMO it's better for characters to have a bit of an edge it's funny and makes them less boring unlike the manga which from what I seen made all of the characters generic nice guys/girls except for one problematic character but that's for later.

Later on both are pitted against the leader of the most infamous cardfight team in Japan and main antagonist Ren. Basically like Hell Kaiser from GX but slightly more eccentric, Ren is what happens when you take a children's card game way too seriously. Power tripping, arrogant, cruel (his so-called teammates Testu, Asaka and Kyou often ending up on the recieving end of said cruelty) and most importantly terrifyingly good at Vanguard this guy steals the show and serves as a really good threat. It's hard to even imagine how the meek and wimpy Aichi is supposed to beat him.

The supporting characters are alright: Kamui was boring but he ran cool space aliens/robos so that's something, Miwa is effortlessly likeable and cool despite doing barely anything, Izaki is whatever, Morikawa I'll come back to later, Shin made Card Capital pretty comfy with his welcoming and friendly personality, I couldn't care less about the pirate crew, Koutei is this super GAR super robo fanatic so you'll love him if you're a mecha freak (he only gets like one epic fight per season though and often loses), Tetsu is essently a good person on the wrong side and Kyou is a joke.

The female characters are solid all things considered and actually capable of winning meaningful matches or contributing to the storyline. Misaki is a high IQ badass with an eidetic memory and charming sassy personality who utilises a deck stacking/card advantage oriented strategy to control the game and set up crazy deck stacks. Easily the best female character IMO and has one of the best OSTs. Kourin is basically like a guardian figure to the MC. I liked her cool independent personality even if she lost nearly all of her matches, some characters are just meant to tank all the losses so others can succeed anyway. She gets more wins in season 3. Aichi's little sister Emi
serves to represent the typical card game enthusiast who doesn't have big ambitions and is just in it to have fun playing with cute looking units and does it pretty well. Meanwhile you have the complete opposite in the form of Asaka, an elitist up-her-own-ass Team Asteroid member with a pretty cute crush on Ren that helps redeem her otherwise bitchy personality.

The worst female character is probably Nagisa, her entire shtick is chasing after her beloved Kamui much to his misery. It's a gag that runs even into G series where they're both teenagers, to the point where you just want Kamui to suck it up and get with her instead of crushing after Emi.

Speaking of crushes, it's time to talk about our grade 3 fanatic Kourin-loving idiot Morikawa. Initially introduced as the asshole who stole Aichi's card in the first episode, the directors/writers then made the decision to just relegate him to joke character which was a great play IMO. In the manga/V series he's way worse, not only does he bully Aichi far more mercilessly he's then taken seriously as a character and expected to be forgiven when it's people like him who're responsible for destroying Aichi's confidence and turned him into a depressed loser. I didn't really get into V series but this along with the weaker personalities across the board points to the manga having awful character writing further reinforced with how Aichi is a complete gary stu in V series. As a result the changes to writers made to the cast was completely justified and saved this anime from being a complete trainwreck.

Soundtrack:

The composer Takayuki Negishi is the same guy responsible for the renowned Mnemosyne and CCS soundtracks and he ddin't slack here either. Every major character has epic themes and the soundtrack always fits the situation/atmosphere. The OPs are both fire, especially Believe in my Existence (epic af) and the EDs aren't too bad etiher.

Production Values.

If we're being honest, the values for this series are pretty ass but that's to be expected for a weekly release series. D onwards switched to seasonal format and the difference between that and G/V/OG are massive.

Overall:

Not much else to say, the Cardfight!! Vanguard anime peaked at season 1 IMO. Future seasons just don't measure up in terms of character writing and hype story. Only Link Joker comes close.

This season has similar issues to Legion Mate. Both are completely anime original with no manga counterpart and involve memory loss + clan change storylines with the main cast stagnating while also racking up crazy losses to complete randoms you don't care about.

Fights:

They mess around with the fight rules throughout the tournament/circuit leading to the characters switching up their strategies and gaining interesting advantages. A lot of jobbing takes place in this season, Misaki and Aichi brutally go back on all their season 1 development which irked me the first time around.

Characters:

Ren goes back to the goofy personality you saw in Kai's flashback ... which is pretty rewarding to see after how much of an asshole PsyQualia made him in season 1 and easilly the best part of Asia Circuit. His new personality is both pretty funny and way cool when he decides to lock in. His fight with Koutei is by far the most epic cardfight in season 2.

I hated Leon so much when I first watched Asia Circuit as a kid that I ended up skipping straight to Link Joker during the finale of s2 and even skipped the Leon focused episodes in s3. He has this standoffish personality and keeps going on about the wind. The snotty child genius trio are just as bad, with how they completely destroy Q4 like bitches the first time they're fought on top of their insufferable arrogance. It's like no effort is put into making any of the new characters likeable, they're just assholes (and not in a cool psychotic way like S1 Ren) who don't get their comeuppance until it's way too late and that's supposed to be enjoyable somehow. Their arcs revolve around going PsyQualia crazed too so they're just a Ren ripoff only with 0 charisma.

Story:

Basically a repeat of the first VF nationals in season 1 where Q4 brutally jobbed only done 3 times over. Then they finally win the 4th time around. There's also a resort episode with Team Asteroid and Q4 chilling together which was nice

Overall:

IMO worst out of the first 4 seasons. Legion Mate at least had a cool climax whereas the climax of Asia Circuit is just a worse version of Aichi vs Ren. Hard to get through the first time around due to the brutal back and forth jobbing.

Legion Mate is a complicated one.

Yes the worldbuilding is completely incoherent but this has always been a major flaw of the original series; supernatural events, underage corporate magnates and sci fi elements phasing in and out without any logic or coherence with the otherwise realistic setting (Ren vs Aichi at the end of season 1 must have looked schizo as hell to the spectators). Legion Mate is no different, introducing magical torture based games and a palace in the Moon asspulled out of nowhere which in isolation is completely retarded but after the witnessing events of Link Joker it’s not really a big deal ... tbh.

Another major gripe people have with Legion Mate is the constant jobbing with even Kai himself becoming a worthless pushover in the first half of the season. Yes Kai jobs in Legion Mate, even Kamui and Kourin beat his ass. Ren even takes pity on him an yielding. It can be argued that while characters lost important matches in previous seasons it only added to the stakes and helped to balance things out while in Legion Mate multiple characters outright never win especially Misaki. And honestly it's true, Legion Mate makes you question why Misaki, Miwa and Kamui were even a part of the story.

This is mainly due to the antagonistic threat: The Quatre Knights. They're all continental level champions on the level of Aichi and Kai who're tasked with guarding Aichi and preventing his friends from locating him. There are two problems with this, one being that trying to prevent them from reaching Aichi makes no sense when he's sealed away in the Moon with no way to get there (the consistently incoherent worldbuilding being a crucial part of the plot this season ruins it) and while Aichi was wise to pick the strongest fighters in the world it sucks for the story because only Kai can really beat them. It's also arguably infruriating how they brutally defeat and torture beloved characters then even wipe their memories of Aichi later on. I think it's due to poor writing, while it makes sense they want to ward off Aichi's friends the way they do so is bizarrely cruel and villainous making them unlikeable from the get go.

The worst example of this is Ratie Curtie. Already somewhat annoying from the get go, she goes from slight nuisance to insufferable bitch when she's revealed as a Quatre Knight. The way she treats Misaki and revels in her suffering for no real reason (Misaki even bought her food) makes you desperate to see her get a taste of her own medicine. Then they rematch later on and it's expected that Misaki who's already established as intelligent and skilled at cardfighting will counter Ratie's strategy and deliver a painful and humilating punishment only for her to lose to the same deck in the exact same way. It's beyond infuriating the first time around and one of the worst instances of jobbing in Vanguard period. It's hard to understand what the writers' thought process was. Everyone liked Misaki. Nobody likes Ratie. Was this an attempt to be realistic because of Ratie's skill level or something? By the time Ratie fights the generic traitor villain Raul, you're ROOTING FOR HIM TO WIN and CHEER IN PURE JOY WHEN THAT NYANPARARA BITCH GETS COOKED. If a story makes you root for the villain out of pure spite then you know something went wrong.

As for the others, Gaillard was annoying at first but becomes a lot more charming when Kai knocks him off his pedestal, Raul Serra has an unappealing lame design and is a generic double crosser villain and finally Philippe Neva is a typical cool teddy bear type character. One thing with Raul and Philippe is how dumb/over the top their backstories were compared to Gaillard and Ratie's down to earth pasts due to the lack of worldbuilding.

So yes there's a big case for Legion Mate being terrible. Nonsense story, annoying characters and brutal jobbing. But at the same time when Kai switches to Kagero and finally cooks Gaillard, the story really picks up IMO. Kai's switch from loser jobber to the aura farming, crit trigger sacking, final turning beast he used to be is so satisfying and it doesn't stop there. You have a side character actually winning for once (Naoki vs Kourin, although the conflict itself was dumb with Naoki completely glossing over the fact that Kourin will likely never see them ever again), Kai going on to beat Gailllard again in possible the most epic yet stupid sackfest of a fight in the entire series and the epic final match between Kai and Aichi. The latter of which wasn't just epic with Aichi spamming Absolute Lock and Kai reriding the Great over and over through pure sack energy but had a great payoff through the supporting cast choosing to share the burden of the Link Joker seed with Aichi instead of him suffering alone (which is a solid way to present the typical power of friendship themes these types of series usually have). However this should be taken for granted and is only so epic because of how miserable the series was up until that point. And moreover the finale itself while it gives good closure neglects one really important thing...

Kourin x Aichi. They should've kissed in their final moments together. What a pisstake.

Adding to that only Kai (and Naoki partially) gets to pop off in the latter half while the rest of the cast, ESPECIALLY Misaki gets BRUTALLY shafted in a way never seen before. If they had an opportunity to make a comeback similar to how Kai did opinion of this season wouldn't be anywhere near as low.

Anyhow all in all while the climax was still epic IMO, Legion Mate is a disaster of a season and shows that while making characters lose is still important for the story if you go too far all you end up with a unsatisfying and frustrating experience.