Taking the world by storm, the card game Cardfight Vanguard has influenced many to integrate card games into their everyday lives. Players of the popular game are called "cardfighters," and they frequently battle each other in card shops. The game has inspired many people, one of which is the quiet and timid Aichi Sendou who is often ridiculed and bullied by his peers. Whenever he feels down, he takes a glance at Blaster Blade—a legendary rare card given to him when he was young—and gains the motivation to move on with his life.
However, one day, school bully Katsumi Morikawa notices Aichi's treasure and snatches the card away from him. After a turn of events, Aichi soon discovers that the card is now in the hands of Toshiki Kai, a cardfighter who has become the strongest in town despite having only recently arrived. To make matters worse, Kai refuses to return the card unless Aichi defeats him in a cardfight.
Much to everyone's surprise, Aichi rises up to the occasion. As he musters up his courage and pictures himself winning this decisive battle, Aichi begins to find his way into the adventurous world of Cardfight Vanguard.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Florete
Final turn! It becomes obvious pretty early on with Cardfight!! Vanguard that whoever said "Don't judge a book by its cover" was...clearly not talking about this show. Yes, Cardfight is a show you can and should judge by its cover, as that judgment will determine whether or not you should watch the show. But I'll get to that later. Let's run the bases: The story is basically thus: people play card games. Or rather, card game. Vanguard is the "big thing" in the world of Cardfight, as one might expect. For at least half the series, this basic idea is what the show runs on. It occasionallyshows signs of wanting to do something more, but I have to be honest: most of it comes off as cheesy and laughable. But, well, that's only the first half of the series. Somewhere along the line, you start to be able to actually take the show seriously and like it. Its pacing seems slow at first (expected with 65 episodes of run time), but it's all the better to develop characters and situations with. In the end, Cardfight actually becomes a great story about learning who you are and understanding others through the lens of this card game. Power of Friendship is nothing new to anime, but it can still be done well, and Cardfight pulls it off.
Obviously it's not without its perks. If you're not into the card game thing (which really shouldn't be the case if you even pick the show up, but still), you'll have a hard time getting into the meat of things. Then there's the deal with Psyqualia; although the last couple episodes make it obvious that more is coming, we don't learn much about this rare ability that is very important to the plot. We don't know where it comes from, how it chooses people, how it really works, how it may possibly be controlled, etc. All we know is that it has a tendency to bring out the worst in people.
Nevertheless, the perks tend to be minor and shouldn't bother you too much if you go into the show knowing what to expect: lots of card games. And lots of card games you will get.
Art and animation is reasonable for what seems to be an average-budget kid's show. Many settings and details are rather plain, but the card fights are all well-animated and the monsters all look pretty cool and distinguishable. It's obvious where they put the effort, and really: what else would you expect?
Now, I could have sworn when I first heard him that the main character in this was voiced by a woman, but I was wrong. Seriously, for a long time Aichi sounds very girly and wimpy. It's odd at first, but you get used to it, and when Stuff Starts Happening, it gets better.Voice work is, again, of fairly standard quality; it's good, usually well done, and generally not poor. There is, at least, nothing for me to complain about. Music is quite well done. The second opening in particular is a great way to get hyped, especially in the final 15 or so episodes when things really start to get heated. In-series music stays suitably light-hearted. It is, essentially, "game music." It never takes itself too seriously (well, until the last episode), and this turns out to be for the better.
As I mentioned before, Aichi sounds very wimpy and girly for a long time. This is because he is. As an example, when asked what he would do in a dangerous situation, his response is to "always be sure I have a path of retreat behind me." I know what you're thinking: "Not another wimpy male lead! I'll pass!" And no, it's not the most pleasant thing to behold. But in a way, I was able to accept it. I remembered that this show is aimed more at kids than someone my own age, and since I knew it would go on for a while, I was able to bear it even though I didn't like it (just the character, not the show). I was rewarded in the end. Aichi gradually grows into a mature character with a backbone that I was proud to see through. As his ability in Vanguard grows, so does he. He learns to fight his fights, help others, and make a name for himself.
65 episodes leaves room for a lot of characters, but I don't want to go into full detail on all of them or I'll be here all night. Basically: the important characters all get their time, and the side characters get a reasonable amount, good and bad. Kai just seems like you're typical, stone cold, bad friend for a long time, and though he really only turns into a jerk with a heart of gold, seeing what he went through really makes you understand and relate to him as a character, and this also leads into the development for the series' main villain, Ren, who is a huge, overconfident (well, he largely does have the ability to back it up) asshole that you just can't wait to see defeated (note: that isn't a bad thing).
Skipping over a few characters to the negative side: Katsumi, an eventual friend of Aichi, is the comic relief who is...just not funny. He's a loser who thinks he's awesome, and the gimmick gets really old really fast and just never dies. That's the worst of it, but Doctor O, the guest commentator for tournament Cardfights, I think was also supposed to be humorous, and again, isn't. He's just kind of strange. But luckily, he isn't overdone.
Here's the important part of the review, as I hinted at in the first paragraph: if you read all that and thought, "Doesn't sound like a show I'd ever want to watch," trust yourself; don't watch it. You're probably not going to like it. I went into this wanting a show about card games just for a fun twenty minutes every week and got exactly what I wanted. If that's what you want, go for it; you won't be let down. But it has to be stressed: you really must know you want this if you're going to enjoy it. It's not going to surprise you and turn into something epic if you're not prepared to watch a lot of card games (65 episodes, remember?). You'll probably just drop it before you hit the ten episode mark.
Think about what you want. If you're ever thinking, "Yeah, I could use a fun show about a card game to kill some time," that is when you should watch this. It is very much a kid's show (read: not average MAL age), so you need to be either young enough or old enough to really enjoy and respect it.
Personally, I went into it thinking it would be as I just described: a time-killer every week. Watch some card games for fun. It was never high on my priority list, but I always looked out for it. But then somewhere along the line it turned into something more. It became highly anticipated, and eventually it was the show I looked forward to the most every week (and by Winter 2012 I was keeping up with 20+ shows). If you ARE willing to watch and have fun with the show's first half, you'll be more than excited to continue as you get further on in the series.
I don't consider myself the greatest of reviewers, but I wanted to do this show some justice and provide both sides of the spectrum: the kind of person who will like it and the kind of person who won't. Otherwise I feel most people wouldn't ever give this show more than passing glance and just write it off as some twenty minute commercial for a children's trading card game. And it largely is just that, but it's also more than that. It's nothing amazing, and it never tries to be. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's still a good series.
Now, I'm off to buy a starter deck and choose my new avatar...
TakaCode
When I watched Cardfight Vanguard for the first time thanks to YouTube advertisements I absolutely loved it. I thought the story was great and well written, I adored the characters and I loved the soundtrack. Yeah, the production values were not that great but least it was tolerable. Cardfight Vanguard Season 1 is one of my favourite anime alongside with Code Geass, Clannad and Slayers. However, I was 14 years old when first watched Cardfight Vanguard and I was still developing my tastes. Fast forward 6 years later in the year 2018 where my tastes in anime had grown, I decided to re-watch Cardfight Vanguardjust to see how it holds up as an anime without my late nostalgia for it. After re-watching 65 episodes of Cardfight Vanguard, I have to say this. Cardfight Vanguard Season 1 is a good anime, however, I don't think that the show is great as I use to as it has a lot of flaws that hurt the show quite a bit.
The story follows a young timid boy named Aichi Sendou who is a had time socialising with his peers at school. The thing that kept him going in life was his rare card Blaster Blade which he received when he was a kid. It's an important rare card from "Vanguard", a card game with the imaginary world of "Planet Cray" as its stage. From the day he reunited with the person who gave him that card "Toshiki Kai", Aichi's everyday life began to change.
The story of Cardfight Vanguard is pretty good but at the same time pretty flawed but for let's talk about the good starting with the first 2 episodes.
This is easily the best first episode I have ever seen in a card game because not only does the show does a fantastic job at establishing the game itself as well it's characters, world-building and themes but it also a great job at drawing the audience in into the show. I loved how nicely paced where the first cardfight was as it nicely explained all the rules about the game itself making the viewer interested in buying the actual cards itself.
The one thing that this show has over other card game anime is that the show is narratively grounded. Most of the dialogue, characters and even the cardfights were grounded where many scenes of the anime actually happen in real such as communication failure, misplaying, teammates looking out for each other when times at rough to even skill and luck that can put you into a winning side or a losing side.
Out of all the card game anime that I have seen Cardfight Vanguard was the only card game anime that I was really infested in as most of the fights were won/loss by pure skill and luck rather than asspulling and Deus ex machina bullcrap that plagued Yugioh anime since 2000.
Along with the shows, grounded feel comes in the show's world-building. I don't mean by city establishments but about the player diving into the hobby of card games where not the show a lot of realistic details such as having people open actual booster packs a tournament setting in a local shop where we spectators and players enjoying the game of Cardfight Vanguard as well a having an official national/regional tournaments that are professional in design and tone. This was easily the one thing that Cardfight Vanguard has over any other card game anime like Yugioh, Selector WIOXSS and Future Card Buddyfight and am glad the show put a lot of effort of making the life as a vanguard player feel very realistic and relatable.
(Spoilers Ahead)
Speaking of realistic Cardfight Vanguard least in season 1 by far the most realistic card game anime to ever exist as from start to finish the anime is very grounded in nature we see the highs and lows of set vanguard player, for example, Aichi, in the beginning, was a timid player who is not that good with game who often makes misplays just like a real new vanguard.
However, the series progresses where after Aichi and the rest of Q4 lose they first nationals as well Kai giving him the motivation to get better Aichi starts to become a more confident fighter. However, due to Psyqualia Aichi starts to have a downward spiral where he almost completely himself as it starts being this cruel to not only his opponents where he completely slaughtered them in a Cardfight but his fellow teammates calling them weaklings.
However, after Kai destroyed his Psyqualia winning spree Aichi starts to reflect off all the bad things he has done while he was consumed by Psyqualia and from there Aichi becomes a much better person where he doesn't rely on gifted power to win as being a loving caring person.
(End Of Spoilers)
Cardfight Vanguard biggest strength is how the show portrayed it's realistic portrayal it's themes that actually happen in real life. Themes of teamwork, commutation, redemption, regret, were beautifully explored in the anime as each of the 4 characters one of two of these them into they respective characters arcs that goes on in the story.
Unfortunately, Cardfight Vanguard does have some flaws. The second half in pacing and at times quality times was inferior as the soon as Q4 loses the first national tournament the story starts to drag quite a bit where many of the episodes are just a repeat of the first half but with less charm put them for the most part. As much I love seeing Aichi using his Psyqualia to brutally destroy his opponents in cardfights I feel like the other content such as Team Q4 second journey of being the national champions to be pretty lacking until the final 5 of the series.
Along with team Q4 second journey being less exciting compared to the first comes in the show predictably where almost every single cardfight in the second half seemed to have thick plot armour at various times competently ruins cardgames. I won't any of the cardfights as it will to big spoiler territory but all I say that I was a bit I was a bit upset when a more grounded card game anime such as this has deiced to take the predictable route that was for the most part not fun. This is stuff that I expect from Future Card Buddyfight and sure that show was a bit predictable but least that show was self-aware of itself plus team Balle du Soleil journey of winning the ABC and Gaen Cup were not a chore to watch compare to this.
The biggest problem that I had with Cardfight Vanguard season 1 is Ren as well the poorly executed Psyqualia elements. Ren himself was a decent villain at as he simply to gather many skilled cardfighters under his leadership in Team Asteroid, however, thanks to a terrible line that Ren said in one episode he quickly devolved into this generic power-hungry villain who simply wanted to take over the world using his Psyqualia. It was a shame because I kinda liked him as a character.
As for the Psyqualia elements it was okay in the beginning but the further the show progresses the less sense it make thanks to show subpar build up of it as it just came out of nowhere especially in the last 3 episodes as the show tried to make Psyqualia more epic than it actually is but failed due to shotty directing as the show barely truly shows the true existence of Psyqualia enough for the viewer to care.
Overall despite the flaws that I mentioned, I thought the story of Cardfight Vanguard to above average. It may have a lot of good things but at the same time, it has quite a bit of mediocre things that at various points hurts the show.
When it comes to the characters in Cardfight Vanguard I thought there were solid for the most part.
First up we have Aichi I'm going, to be honest with you I really liked him a lot.
Until Cardfight Vanguard all the card game protagonist he doesn't suffer from card game protagonist syndrome where they all overpowered and lucky throughout most of the game Aichi is a card game protagonist where he actually loses his matches quite a lot especially in the beginning as just a fairly vanguard player who has still had yet to truly come out from his shell. His character development and progression were very satisfying to watch as he is this weak kid who gets bullied and picks on for a living to this more confident person who is not improving his social skills but he also capable of fighting against the strongest players in the country. This is a card game anime done right as I getting tired of seeing theses overpowered card game protagonist simply winning by either getting too lucky or by a contrived Deus ex machina that the plot magically decided to pull out off its ass. Overall Aichi is a great character that I enjoyed from start to finish.
Next, we have Kai and am going to be real honest I don't really care for him all the much especially in the beginning. He's not a bad character but the way he's portrayed in the plot was very cliche and boring. He's your typical overpowered character who lucksakes his way to victory where he hardly loses a cardfight. I may have a spot soft for overpowered characters in anime as along the set is self-aware of his overpowered as well be an interesting/ likeable character but Kai, for most of the shows run, is neither of these two things and as a result, Kai is a pretty weak character substance wise. However, I will give Kai this in the final 2 fifths of the show he becomes a much better character where more sympathetic as well having strong character development where he starts caring for his teammates. Despite that, he was a pretty decent character but at the same time, he could have been a lot better.
Now we have my favourite character in the show Misaki. Out of all the characters in the show, she's the most developed of the bunch. She has a tragic backstory where she lost her parents in a car accident whereafter that car incident she became socially withdrawn to others especially to vanguard where it only brings out her worst memories that cause her physical pain. However, as the series progresses she starts to be more sociable where during the cardfight against a newcomer Emi aka Aichi's little sister she's stars to realise how fun vanguard really is as a game. I also feel like she was the most constantly relatable character in the show where her character flaws were better executed than Kai and Kamui as the show goes a great job at making us the viewer about all of her issues that she has to overcome. Her final fight in season 1 is the perfect example of this as she finally grows as a character who is not playing Vanguard. Awesome character well-done Busihiroad.
Finally, we have Kamui and I have a love/hate relationship with this character. In the first half, he was stereotypical bro character who supports and cares for the protagonist well being. He was also pretty annoying as well he is the main cause of the bad comedy as well a contrived love junior love triangle that barely went anyway.
While I didn't like him in the first half he due to his bratty Beauvoir the second half completely redeems him where not only he becomes a more mature kid but he a nicely told redemption character arc he completely redeem himself of all the actions that did in the first half such as arguing with Kai and leaving the team when the team needed him the most. This was one of the things I liked about this season. They took a character that would be in people character shitlist and did a 180 where he later transformed him a much likeable and relatable character who has character flaws. I really liked how the show closes his character arc where despite him losing the match against Tetsu in a final couple of episodes he proved that he has the right to play in a national level alongside with his teammates.
The rest of the characters of Cardfight Vanguard were sadly pretty forgetful. Apart from Miwa, and at times Emi who were interesting and enjoyable, the side characters were not all that interesting as they feel like character stereotypes that we have seen before in card game animes in the past not to mention some of the side characters in the show were pretty annoying. Cough Nagisa and Katsumi.
Overall the characters in Cardfight Vanguard were good but not great.
Now we get to the weakest part of Cardfight Vanguard the visuals. Am going to be dead honest with you guys the visuals in Cardfight Vanguard were pretty lacklustre. The character designs may look good and appealing but that's not my problem with Cardfight Vanguard visuals am talking about the animation. Now I understand that card game anime was meant to be low budget as they meant to advertise the cards but I feel Cardfight Vanguard abuses it's low budget to a point where many of the scenes of the show are still frames, recycled footage and stiff movement. The saddest part about is that this show came out in 2011.
The soundtrack is awesome as most of the songs were very memorable and iconic.
Some of my favourite tracks include Rens, power,Kai's Theme, Kamui's theme, Misaka;'s Theme, Despair, Battle of Psyqualia and Kai determination. On top of having a memorable soundtrack, I really adored how the tracks were directed in the anime as gives many key scenes from the anime more impact making the key scenes more memorable. The soundtrack was so good I downloaded all the songs on my computer and I actually play some of the tracks when I am cardfighting with friends.
The first opening theme Vanguard" by JAM Project (eps 1-33) is a pretty good song that fits the lighthearted strip tone of the first half.
The second opening theme. Believe in my existence" by JAM Project (eps 34-65) is in my top 30 favourite anime openings of all time.
The ending themes, on the other hand, were not memorable minus ending 1 and 3.
Now for sub vs dub. The sub from what I heard was pretty good but nothing too special. The dub is actually good. Yeah, it may start off cheesy where certain characters sounded a bit stiff but as the series progresses the characters improved to a point where gotten used to the roles. My favourite performance in the dub was Roger Rhodes as Ren, James Beach as Aichi and Carol Anne Day as Misaki. Unfortunately, thanks to Bushiroad awful business move the first season of Cardfight Vanguard has been blocked in countries such as USA/UK and some other places in the world however if want to watch it dubbed go to 9anime as it has the same dub that was released in 2012/2013.
So after 6 years since my first watch of Cardfight Vanguard what do I think of it. Well, I think Cardfight Vanguard Season 1 has held up nicely over the years. It had some good intriguing theme exploration, the plot despite being predictable in the end was solid and the main characters were nicely developed. It, unfortunately, has some problems though. The comedy is unfunny, the side characters apart from Miwa and at times Emi were pretty forgetful, the second half pacing wise was inferior to the first half and the production values were pretty lacklustre. Despite these flaws, I still find the first season of Cardfight Vanguard to be a pretty satisfying watch that I enjoyed.
If you're looking for a card game anime that is grounded and easy to watch then I recommend Cardfight Vanguard Season 1. It may not be perfect but it's a pretty solid show that you should check out.
8/10
Phasar2022
Just a short review cus I don't like Vanguard anymore. Heck, the whole show is a so bad that this small review is enough to roast this bad anime. Story 1/10 The story is of little to no consequence. Some kid gets bullied, gets his favorite card stolen and then uses card fighting to get it back. Suddenly the people who bullied him become his best friends and he's no longer the loser of his class. They especially note this in the second episode where they point out that before he had his card fight, he was a ridiculous loser with no friends and never talking toanyone, never being happy. Yup, worst story I've been in a long time
Animation 2/10
It's your Generic card fight animation. Flashy lights when cards are used, random spirits popping up left right and center, colorful hair for no reason other than to... actually, I don't know why. I was going to say make it seem original, except every single anime does this. So colorful hair the sake of it? In short, the animation is about as Generic as it gets
Sound 2/10
There's not much to say. You don't really notice the sound. It doesn't help nor hinder the anime. It's practically non-existant, which probably makes it the best component of this anime
Characters 1/10
If I could, I'd give it a -10. You have your main character who's a whimpy little brat, then you have your side characters who consists of two bullies who magically become friends, a quiet mysterious shop keeper and a brooding quiet other person. Because creativity and interesting character design with depth is over-rated
Overall 2/10
This is amazingly generic. Someone must have slept their way to getting this into anime form because there's not a single interesting thing about it. The characters suck. The story is non-existant, the animation is bland and generic and the entire concept is proposterous. I only watched it for four episodes because I was hoping something interesting would happen, and the first three episodes were just scene setters. I guess not.
SasaharaKumagawa
Story At first I enjoyed how laid back the show was. It was the first marketing vehicle anime I'd watched where card games didn't decide the fate of the world. Then that changed when the series antagonist shows up. The show doesn't suffer tremendously, even weaving in a "believe in your own power" theme, but I still want a slice of life card game anime one day. Art Considering how recent this show is, the art quality rather lacking. The character designs are interesting, but the animation seems rather low budget. But since the show's still airing, I suppose they had to cut corners somewhere. Sound The music really didits job in setting the mood. The orchestral music made the towering dragons and knights seem like legendary titans. There was also some awesome guitar music when things got exciting.
Characters
This show has a wide variety of character types, from the blundering Morikawa and hot blooded Kamui, to Kai and Ren who feel like they're from Final Fantasy. With such a diverse cast, you should easily be able to find a favorite. Something to be noted, however, is the abundance of Yaoi fodder between two of the main characters. Not that this is a problem, but if you thought yugioh was homoerotic, this show's ten times more.
Enjoyment/Overall
I found Cardfight Vanguard to be quite entertaining. It brought back fond memories of my days as a yugioh player. If you also want a rush of childhood nostalgia, or are just looking for a new TCG to play, then this is the anime for you.
Takeshi_Fukato
Vanguard is currently a very popular card game and I can even argue that it can surpass its predecessors and the game has no one to thank but this show for introducing it to the world. The story is nothing great but instead to me it is the characters who really make this show great.Not only are they relatable but they each have their own stories and goals. Lets start off with the main character Aichi Sendou.As he is the main protagonist of the show he carries alot of responsibilities and I am happy to say that he does it well as he is very relatable andalso in ways represent us in the world of Vanguard.He starts off as a nobody with no knowledge of the game and immediately we can relate as we are also most likely new to the game.So as the story goes on we are learning about the game with Aichi and unlike other card game shows who the main protagonist is most likely already very good at the game or has experience playing.Aichi is a beginner just like us so we can see ourself's in him.
Just to add on we can talk about another character in this show.Toshiki Kai who is considered to be the main rival and goal to our main protagonist.Have you ever had a senior who introduced you to try something and end up loving it and start to work very hard to try to become better or even surpass him.Well that is what Kai is to Aichi a goal to become someone stronger.Just this makes the show interesting as we watch a beginner strive hard to surpass his an experienced player and impress him which is most likely what we would want if we were introduced to something and want to get better.
Just these 2 characters should be more than enough for me to convince you to try and watch this series and hopefully even play the game and grow this community to greater heights.
Shin0a
Although I really liked the show as a kid, I was still surprised with the new adaptation, even if I didn't like it as much, it had a lot of new stuff that made certain aspects WAY more entertaining while others are worse. For Example, the Story. I'd give the Story a 6/10. There's very little nuance and everything is very laid out for you, as well as Aichi starting as basically a god of the game after only playing a few times was very immersion-breaking. In the original series, Aichi, for the first few games, is complete ass. And that is great, because it makesit feel much more real and grounded as opposed to this now where he's kind of just at the level of a worlds winner after MAYBE a week, whereas most real worlds winners have played for years.
The art, is pretty good (8/10). There's nothing really wrong with the art and the character models do look really good. My only gripe would be that the backgrounds like PAINFULLY average, and they really contrast the characters in terms of quality. There are exceptions, like the river scene when Aichi is the big sad, god that river looks amazing, and most actual games look great, but outside of that the backgrounds really distract me from thinking it looks necessarily amazing.
The sound is pretty mediocre. (5/10). The OP is great, the ED is alright, I guess? Most of the sound design is boring and uninspired, but there are a few nice tracks here and there. Not a COMPLETE drought but not an overall great soundtrack.
The characters are.. alright (5/10). They're definitely not bad, and Kai's backstory adds a lot more to HIS character, but Aichi and Ren's character and duality were butchered in terms of quality. Psychi is underrepresented, Ren is more of a copypaste bad guy with not nearly enough time to develop and the story kind of just assumes you've seen the original before they talko no jutsu him into being friends which feels extremely unnatural and a far cry from the original.
I really did enjoy this series (8/10), as a fan of the Card Game, watching the characters play it and being able to follow and understand what they're doing makes it a lot of fun for me as an individual, not that it really affects it's overall quality.
Overall, I'd give this show a 7/10. There's interesting ideas and the bombastic and over-the-top duels feel alive and like they're happening right in front of you but the show's story really drags down the ship.
mouthpiece
This is a YuGiOh (YGO) style anime (made by the same people, has the same character archetypes, and even has a few subtle references to that show), meaning it is made just to promote a card game. At the same time it is very different that YuGiOh and in a way tries to deconstruct the formula in order to create a more realistic overall. And guess what, this is exactly what makes it so lame. Although I was never a huge fan of the older franchise but did appreciate the cool presentation. And yes, I did have the motivation to learn how to play thegame thanks to the anime. Vanguard on the other hand is far from cool and quickly loses its glamour. There is no better way to explain what I mean than to keep comparing these two anime, showing where one succeeded and the other failed.
1) YGO was the first major card game promoting series and for that it had created a sensation. Afterwards, the novelty faded (since a dumb idea can only work once) and the later seasons, as well as other anime that tried to copy its success, simply didn’t work. And to no surprise Vanguard is not a hit either.
2) YGO and especially its first version which never went overseas, was very dark and creepy. It had all sorts of occult overtones to the point many parents thought it was initiating their kids to Satanism. They obviously watered down the atmosphere with each new season in order to calm down the adults and to increase the age advisory to the point their latest shows seems completely tamed and easy-going. Well unfortunately for them this is exactly what made it so cool to watch. It was full of occult stuff; demons and devils and satanic rituals. The kids loved it as much as the parents hated it. And thus you get Vanguard that is plain childish and boring. No evil charm to it.
3) YGO had a plot where defeat would mean some really scary and creepy stuff. Your body would be shred to pieces, your soul would be trapped in limbo, hell would break loose on Earth, the planet would blow up, evil would rule the universe, and someone would kick a puppy. Vanguard doesn’t have that sort of looming threat as defeat means nothing more than trying to learn from your mistakes and improving along the way. As mature as that sounds, it is far from cool and the target audience is little kids who want cool stuff.
4) Although both shows have a very similar weak/pathetic geek as a protagonist, the one in YGO had a cool dark personality that was taking over his body and unleashing all sorts of awesome powers upon its enemies. Vanguard is nothing like that; the geek remains a geek all the way. Although he also has a sort of dark personality too, it is just a minor side story and it is meant to be scary and hidden away instead of us saying how cool it is. So we are supposed to hope the dork remains a dork and his cool dark powers never come out? Seriously? Lame!
5) Hairstyles! YGO had some really crazy cool ones. Vanguard does not.
6) The monsters of YGO were early on presented as creatures from ancient Egypt or demons from hell who constantly try to get to our world and trash everything. That was cool. The ones in Vanguard are presented like aliens who are at war on their planet but otherwise can’t and don’t want to have anything to do with our planet. Lame!
7) The players of YGO hardly use copies of the same monster in a duel, unless of course they need two or three of the same kind in order to do some cool strategy. In Vanguard they summon the same monsters again and again, as if there are only a few dozen different cards in each deck. This makes it both boring as well as trashing the illusion of each monster being a special individual.
8 ) The monsters in YGO were appearing in battles through holographic projectors and later on in the flesh. In Vanguard, none of those cool things happen. You are supposed to IMAGINE them fighting. I am not kidding you, you are literally supposed to imagine you are on the alien planet, imagine the monsters fighting, imagine them hitting you, and imagine that losing a duel has some sort of serious significance in your life. The only thing I imagine when I am doing that is BULL SHIT! Just show it to us you idiots; this is not literature, it is an animated show for kids.
9) YGO had the very convenient but otherwise cool plot devise of “Heart of the Cards”. Every time you were about to lose, if you had faith in your abilities you would magically draw the only card that could possibly save you in a one in a billion chance. And that would be followed by a very cool display of MY CARDS WILL NOW KICK YOUR ASS! In Vanguard you don’t get that feeling. It’s like you are supposed to draw cards and hope you will trigger a counter BY COMPLETE CHANCE! That is not cool at all. It doesn’t even have a cool name for an otherwise convenient plot device.
10) As a follow up to the above, the very Vanguard game is hardly as exciting as YGO. In YGO you were made to think you were using a strategy since the very beginning. For example, trap cards you set from your hand would remain hidden on the battlefield so the opponent would have no way to guess how you are planning to own his ass. And at any time you have clear knowledge of how you plan to activate those said cards or the opponent could through various means cancel them before they are activated. This was creating both a sense of control as well as building tension to see how the whole thing will play out. Well you hardly get this in Vanguard because you can’t plan ahead your strategy. Every time you attack or defend, you draw cards and just HOPE they will give you triggers. That’s right; there is no way to know if it works or not. This makes the whole thing to feel very random and chaotic.
There are of course some elements that make Vanguard a lot more mature than YGO and I will mention them here as means to give it the credit it deserves.
1) Vanguard is not about winning but about learning from your mistakes. Thus the protagonist is losing many, many times throughout the show. Although this is hardly as cool as in the SUPER AWESOME YAMI YUGI WHO NEVER LOSES at the same time you see how he is supposed to improve along the way by trying new strategies and cards.
2) Vanguard has actually some capable female players in it. Unlike in YGO where they are used mostly as fan service and are completely useless in card games, over here you get some seriously good gals who know how to kick ass. That makes it more respectable to the female audience.
3) Vanguard is following the rules of the real game correctly. That is, no mambo-jumbo stuff that does not happen when you play the real game. Let’s be honest, YGO was barely following the proper rules and was just making up stuff just for the sake of coolness.
4) The whole show is JUST about card games. Not about saving the world by playing a children’s card game. Sounds lame, but also more realistic at the same time. The characters are trying to get better, in courage, planning, social life, wisdom, awareness, and lots of other stuff by playing this game. Ok, they of course overdo it in the way this is supposed to work but it is otherwise shown properly.
And despite the above positive remarks, the show is still not as good. As sad as it sounds, the target audience will not be inspired to go buy the game if it looks so real. If little kids watch a protagonist who loses half the time, they will think the game sucks. If they see good female players in it, they will think it’s gay. They won’t care much if the rules are presented properly as they would if the battles are cool. And no, the battles are not cool because you are not trying to save the world with a bunch of cards. It is plain entertainment 101 here and an anime is supposed to be entertaining first and educational second.
Ok, let me now talk a bit about more abstract stuff that I felt about this anime. First of all, I hardly liked Vanguard as a game. I did bother to go learn it but it far from exciting. You are not given the feeling of epicness coming out of it, since most of the time you are replacing monsters instead of feeling you are empowering them to something better. You don’t have 8000 AWESOME LIFE POINTS, you just have 6 cards of life. No matter how powerful your attack is, you only normally inflict 1 card worth of damage. You don’t set traps to use in a later round but draw cards the moment you attack or defend and HOPE you will get a trigger. You can’t mix cards from different clans very well because synergy is overused to the point the number of strategies you can use is limited. Even the number of available cards felt very small but that had to do with YGO airing several years after its release instead of what Vanguard did, when the game was still new and with a small amount of different cards.
I also am too old now to get into the whole card game madness as easily as I did about a decade ago. It was so easy to do so back when I only had Pokemon, YGO or Digimon to watch or play but after all these years the constant sequels and spin-offs have saturated the genre to the point I don’t care much. Even when Vanguard tried to change the formula, I still didn’t feel it was doing much to improve it past its nasty trappings. In fact, it felt worse than before.
And for last I say… IMAGINE??? Really now. IMAGINE??? People don’t watch anime to imagine anything. They watch to be handed over a concept they are supposed to take at face value or analyze with what they feel or know. Vanguard doesn’t do any of those things. The rules are set out clearly, the concept is way too simple, there is nothing to think or feel about it. It… just… is.
… And it’s for kids. It doesn’t have emo lolis, incest, lesbians, gore, or whatever other crap sells a billion bucks these days and makes people to consider them mature and thought provoking (I am joking but it’s sadly true for most). So no, there is nothing to see here. It is way too saturated and way too simple and way too real for its own good. Not recommended.
And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 5/10
Analysis: General Artwork 1/2, Character Figures 1/2, Backgrounds 1/2, Animation 1/2, Visual Effects 1/2
SOUND SECTION: 6/10
Analysis: Voice Acting 2/3, Music Themes 2/4, Sound Effects 2/3
STORY SECTION: 5/10
Analysis: Premise 1/2, Pacing 1/2, Complexity 1/2, Plausibility 1/2, Conclusion 1/2
CHARACTER SECTION: 5/10
Analysis: Presence 1/2, Personality 1/2, Backdrop 1/2, Development 1/2, Catharsis 1/2
VALUE SECTION: 1/10
Analysis: Historical Value 0/3, Rewatchability 0/3, Memorability 1/4
ENJOYMENT SECTION: 2/10
VERDICT: 4/10
pk8list
Cardfight vanguard is an anime who is based on the cardgame with the same name and the first anime which I watch and in my opinion is a really good cardgame anime but let's start the review spoiler free.Story: the plot of vanguard is simple and it's similar to the yugioh plot but does this mean that vanguard is a Yugioh rip off ? No personaly the only things I see these two anime have in common is that both focuss on a cardgame and have a shy protagonist who later starts to becomes confident aside of this two are different because while yugioh focussa lot to the supernatural vanguard starts to have a bit more slice of life style for the biggest part of it.The first half of the anime focuss on show you which are the rules of the game and it do this well it shows how to built a deck and it introduces you to the cardgame by showing you the rules the difference between decks and etc.That's really good because it shows that it's a ballanced anime which it shows you the game without becomes an advertisement with episodes something that not a lot cardgames anime sucseed also there are no fillers because even them introduces a new deck or a new strategy of an old clan even the second part which focuss more to supernatural it stillenjoyable. ART: The animation is just ok. SOUND: the music is ok voice actors are really good and I talk about the dub since I have seen only this version.CHARACTER: The characters are really good some of them are really intreasting like Ren or Misaki. ENJOYMENT: This which I will say now is something that is not influenced from the nostalgia .Personally I think that vanguard is a really good cardgame anime because not only it does a really good introduction to the game but also because is easy both to watch and learn how to play so if you haven't play a cardgame you want to see how someone who is playing cardgames vanguard is the best way to see this. Overall 7/10
