Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS

'''Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS' is the sixth Yu-Gi-Oh!'' anime series and the fifth main spin-off series, which began airing in Japan on May 10, 2017. It airs in Japan every Wednesday at 6:25 pm Japanese Standard Time instead of the usual Sundays like the previous Yu-Gi-Oh! series. This series airs alongside reruns of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL as part of BS Japan's ''Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Hour'' block. It later airs alongside reruns of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's starting from November 2017.

As of June 1st, 2017, Crunchyroll began airing the show with legal subtitles. Future episodes will be simulcast.

The series stars Yusaku Fujiki as the main protagonist, and takes place in a high-school setting, featuring Virtual Reality Duels in a cyberspace constructed with LINK VRAINS, the latest in virtual-reality technology. As with the previous three spin-off series (5D's, ZEXAL, and ARC-V), VRAINS introduces and focuses on a new type of Summoning: Link Summoning.

An English dub preview for ''Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS'' was shown alongside a remastered showing of the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light on March 11, 2018. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS premiered in Canada on Teletoon on September 1st, 2018.

VRAINS is a combination of the acronyms VR, AI and NS, standing for Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Network System, respectively.

Story
The series is based in a world roughly 10 years from now where a massive Virtual Reality Network called LINK VRAINS has been established. It’s a suspense thriller style story where Yusaku fights in order to learn the truth of events in the past.

The sixth series focuses on Yusaku Fujiki, a high-schooler and a hacker who doesn't like standing out. However, he gets drawn into encounters with people as he tries out Dueling for once.

There is a city where network systems have evolved: Den City. In this city, with the advanced network technology developed by the corporation SOL Technologies, a Virtual Reality space called LINK VRAINS (Link Virtual Reality Artificial Intelligence Network System) has been developed. By using LINK VRAINS which was built inside the Network System, Duels unfold where Duelists change their appearance separate from their real life identities, and in this VR Space people became excited over the latest way to Duel.

However, in LINK VRAINS, a mysterious hacker group that hacks via Dueling has appeared: The Knights of Hanoi. Their goal is to destroy the AI World known as Cyberse that exists somewhere in the depths of the Network.

However, there is one Duelist who stands against the threat to LINK VRAINS. His name is Playmaker. He has become famous in the Network World for crushing the Knights of Hanoi in fierce Duels, without mentioning his name. But the true identity of Playmaker is ordinary high school student Yusaku Fujiki, who pursues the Knights of Hanoi that appear in VRAINS in order to find out the truth of an incident that happened in his past.

The show's theme is "Take a step forward, and try!", on the premise that kids should start to try things out instead of just giving up at the first try due to being overwhelmed by information.

Development
As of episode 14, Masahiro Hosoda, due to unknown reasons, stepped down as Director and was replaced by Asano Katsuya. It's to be noted that as of this episode, the backgrounds of LINK VRAINS and the Link Summoning methods were changed and added more detail, possibly due to the change. Even the point gauge for the Link Monsters included Link Markers. Also another interesting thing is that since the same episode, the series is under supervision of Satou Tatsuo (best known as director of Martian Successor Nadesico series), who oversees Asano's direction of the series.

Opening Themes
Japanese opening theme 1: With The Wind Japanese opening theme 2: go forward Japanese opening theme 3: calling
 * Performer: Hiroaki "Tommy" Tominaga
 * Episodes: 001-046
 * Performer: Kimeru
 * Episodes: 047-102
 * Performer: Kimeru
 * Episodes: 103-

Ending Themes
Japanese ending theme 1: Believe In Magic
 * Performer: Ryoga
 * Episodes: 001-024

Japanese ending theme 2: Writing Life Japanese ending theme 3: BOY Japanese ending theme 4: Glory Japanese ending theme 5: Are you ready?
 * Performer: Goodbye Holiday
 * Episodes: 025-046
 * Performer: uchuu
 * Episodes: 047-070
 * Performer: Band-Maid
 * Episodes: 071-096
 * Performer: BiS
 * Episodes: 096-

English Theme
Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Theme
 * Episodes: 01-

Differences between adaptions

 * The names on the Duelist VS screen are removed.
 * The girl school uniforms are given pantyhoses instead of skirt lengthened like the two previous series
 * Some names are Americanized in the dub, while some attain their surname and names.
 * Music is rescored and replaced with new music in the dub.
 * Some close-up shots of female monsters are removed to avoid sexual references.
 * Some scenes are cut to avoid death and violence.
 * Sound effects may be altered or removed.

Trivia

 * This is the second spin-off series, after ZEXAL, where the new type of monster introduced (in this case, Link Monsters) does not have a Level (instead, they have a Link Rating).
 * It is also the first where the new monster type does not have a DEF.
 * The English dub of VRAINS is the first series with an instrumental theme song since the original series.
 * Although unlike the original series, this one is the first ever to be completely absent of any vocals (the original theme song contains distorted "lyrics" of the phrases "Your move", "Yu-Gi-Oh!", and Yugi's famous quote; "It's Time to Duel!").
 * This is also the first series that does not have "TO BE CONTINUED..." added in the English dub at the end of episodes that consist of more than one part.
 * This is currently the only series to not have a canon manga adaption.
 * This is the only series, so far, that does not have a tournament arc.