Cardfight Vanguard (Season 1)

Title says it all.

The show is designed to learn to play the game. As you watch you become involved and then yearn to play it for yourself! After that is when you start buying the cards and the game does not disappoint.

If you have your doubts about the main character being too weak to don't worry. He steps up so that you don't have to get annoyed with him.

The story is that of a card game you play and have tournaments. So far there isn't a story present (as of season 1) where they go into anything beyond playing cards at tables and tournaments. I like me many people have come to enjoy this series and can't wait for new episodes every week!

Watch it and then love it!

I'll say one thing right now, I'm not the biggest anime fan. I do like some but not a lot, in actual fact I only really liked three. However, this may turn out to be a fourth for me. Cardfight!! Vanguard (why are there two exclamation points?") is a brand new anime, which was released only three weeks ago to this review. Though for three episodes, it is a very intresting series.

Let's start at the beginning shall we? Yu-Gi...oh sorry Cardfight Vanguard is about a boy called Aichi Sendo a high school student, who is very shy and timid, lacking confidence he is hardly the star pupil or mr popular. (Hmmm this sounds awfully familar doesn't it?), anyway he wishes to be stronger and the reason he never gives up on himself is due to the huge card game sweeping the nation. Vanguard! After being beaten up and picked on in his past, he received the Blaster Blade from Kai Toshiki. A very serious character who is the best card player at Card Capital, if you have ever been to a hobby league it is kind of like a card shop/hobby league place.
Back to being serious, due to Kai giving Blaster Blade to Aichi, he wants to become a Vanguard player and hopes to meet Kai again to prove that he is worth of such a powerful card.

After getting his card stolen in the first episode, Aichi goes to Card Capital to find the bully who stole Blaster Blade lost it to Kai. Aichi begs Kai (at who he doesn't recognise at this point) to a game despite saying he wasn't a player beforehand. After saying he build a deck just in case he got the chance. He begins to umm duel I guess against Kai. During which Aichi and the watcher learns the rules, which is surprisingly complicated but intresting to say the least. Watch the anime to see for yourself. Also Kai regonises Aichi and Aichi regonises Kai as well. The fight goes on to an intresting peak and is enjoyable to see how the new game plays. I won't ruin anymore on that duel/fight call it what you will. Though I'm sure you can put two and two together.

The anime has pretty amazing animation and the music deserves the 5 stars I gave it. It is really catchy and I'm listening to the full ending as I write this. It is amazing, the storyline is actually not bad and despite my jokes and similarites there is a difference to Yu-Gi-Oh in which it doesn't revolve around *sniff* SAVING THE WORLD! Or at least I hope it doesn't go into that, as this story is actually really clever and weirdly this reminds me when I was younger. I was very similar to Aichi, underconfident and quiet but through playing a card game (in my case Yu-Gi-Oh) I grew into a different person as I played the game. People who have dueled me know this as well, so I can see a lot of myself in Aichi. Which is pretty cool I must say.

The characters have all different personalities, no one is the same and I must say some have appealed to me. Like the girl at the counter of Card Capital, she may look like a sour lass but she actually took an intrest in Aichi's games. Plus she has one of the best lines that had me laughing for several minutes in episode 3. Emi (or is it Amy?) Aichi's little sister is so adorable and she is so sweet and caring towards her brother it really is amazing, showing a true loving connection between the two. As she can also see Aichi's progress through this Vanguard game. Kai appealed to me as well with his serious nature, reminding me of Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh though not as nasty and actually a cool rival to Aichi.

To wrap things up a lot will probably compare this to Yu-Gi-Oh, to that I say if you like Yu-Gi-Oh you will probably like this (I did) if not I say give this a chance anyway. It is going to be a good replacement for Yu-Gi-Oh when Zexal comes out, and it is enjoyable so far. If this anime keeps going like this it will be a joy to continue watching. Also remember this series was created by Akira Ito, the man responsible for the story and art work behind Yu-Gi-Oh R. So if you liked that art Vanguard is very similar. So in conclusion Cardfight!! Vanguard is worth a watch, and when Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's ends it will be a good replacement for Yu-Gi-Oh as I have no doubt Zexal will kill Yu-Gi-Oh. So I hope this review is helpful, and if it is I hope you and myself will continue to enjoy Cardfight!! Vanguard. (Seriously why does it have two exclamation marks?)

Before the start of the anime season, I told myself I would watch each series for at least three episodes and then decide if I was going to keep watching. This was one I didn't think I'd like from the start. It looked like Yu-Gi-Oh (which I didn't like either) and almost an exact clone. Ok, so it's based on a real card game and has the Yu-Gi-Oh creator on, I already know. But the fact that the game looks so over the top and boring probably sums up why I don't like it.

I couldn't bear watching another episode of this. So far, I can see absolutely no story at all as, as far as I can tell, it shows a person getting a card stolen and fighting to get it back. So far, so bad. The music is also not that good, aswell. Both the opening and ending sound so cheesy and poorly made that it turns to being painful.

The characters look like they were though out to appeal to a four year old who thinks the whole world is so interesting and is pleased even after throwing his toy car down a ramp for the 500th time.

I will admit that the animation is alright. It's very cliched and unoriginal but it does do the job and suits the show well enough.

But overall, the only thing I can say is to try and avoid this show. It's not really that good and there are far better shows to watch this season.