Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS遊 (ゆう) ☆戯 (ぎ) ☆王 (おう) ＶＲＡＩＮＳ (ヴレインズ) Yūgiō Vureinzu
Anime series
Directed by	Masahiro Hosoda (episodes 1 - 13); Asano Katsuya (episode 14 onwards); Satou Tatsuo (directing supervision) (episode 14 onwards)
Studio	Studio Gallop
Network	TV Tokyo Pluto TV Teletoon, Cartoon Network K2 Pro TV Viasat 6
Streaming Platforms Vudu Apple TV
Original run	May 10, 2017 — September 25, 2019
No. of episodes	120

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 was followed by Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS on April 4, 2020.

It aired 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 aired alongside reruns of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL as part of BS Japan's Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Hour block. It later aired alongside reruns of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's starting from November 2017. Since late 2020, the dub has been streaming on Pluto TV, on its official Yu-Gi-Oh! channel in the US.

Crunchyroll simulcasted the show in the United States with legal subtitles.

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. Season 2 began airing in the fall of 2019. Season 3, the final season of the series, ended in Japan on September 25, 2019.

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

Story

Promo art of Yusaku Fujiki and "Decode Talker".

The Japanese VRAINS logo.

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.

Poster for Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS

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.

Characters

Main page: Portal:Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS anime characters

Development

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

Music

Opening Themes

Japanese opening theme 1: With The Wind

• Performer: Hiroaki "Tommy" Tominaga
• Episodes: 001-046, 120 ending theme

Japanese opening theme 2: go forward

• Performer: Kimeru
• Episodes: 047-102

Japanese opening theme 3: calling

• Performer: Kimeru
• Episodes: 103-120

Ending Themes

Japanese ending theme 1: Believe In Magic

• Performer: Ryoga
• Episodes: 001-024

Japanese ending theme 2: Writing Life

• Performer: Goodbye Holiday
• Episodes: 025-046

Japanese ending theme 3: BOY

• Performer: uchuu
• Episodes: 047-070

Japanese ending theme 4: Glory

• Performer: Band-Maid
• Episodes: 071-096

Japanese ending theme 5: Are you ready?

• Performer: BiS
• Episodes: 096-119

English Theme

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Theme

• Episodes: 01-

Differences between adaptations

The names are removed.

• 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.

Episodes

Main articles: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode listing (season 1), Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode listing (season 2), and Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode listing (season 3)

DVD

Main article: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS DVD listing

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.
  • Similar to ZEXAL, the previous series' summoning method is not used.
• The English dub of VRAINS is the first series with an instrumental theme song since the original series.
• This series has the only English dub where:
  • Death and death threats aren't rare.
  • The monster Attributes and Spell & Trap icons are translated.
  • The opening theme song lacks any vocals. (The original theme song contains distorted "lyrics" of the phrases "Your move", "Yu-Gi-Oh!", and Yugi's famous dub quote; "It's Time to Duel!").
• This is the last series to:
  • Air in the 2010s.
  • Be produced by Gallop Studios, as the succeeding series is animated by Bridge.
• This is the only series so far:
  • That does not have canon manga material, a tournament arc, a Battle Royal, or 2 vs. 2 Tag Duels.
  • To have an uneven amount of openings and endings (3 of the former and 5 of the latter).
  • To not air on any US TV channel (the dub, however, did start streaming on Pluto TV in the US 2 years after it started airing in places such as Canada)
• This series has seven clip shows, which make up 5.83% of the series' runtime.
• Unlike other series to introduce new duel categories, this series' final battle does not use its introduced duel format.
• VRAINS is the first series not to reuse sound effects from previous Yu-Gi-Oh! series.