Why is this series so awful? Judging by the lack of enthusiasm and few updates here recently, I'm prolly not alone in thinking that VRAINS sucks. The fact that the next duel is a three or four parter involving Yusaku and Bohman just makes me wanna cry.
Idk, i like the concept, i like the developments but this is just too much episodes of nothing going on, unfortunately. I guess it's like the opposite of arv-V's last arcs, where here it seems like nothing relevant is happening and there seems to be no consequences, despite the character's "deaths" (which i would be shocked if they actually stayed dead).
The first "season" was a lot of nothing, decent world building but way to much of it with the main story taking way too much time to start. And reaching the point where we are now, there seems to be way too many questions brought up and most of them left just there. I'm referring, of course, to SOL and the hints at them being the last evil guys (which is still a possibility, the series ain't over yet), now coming out of the latest episode as just a 3dr party that takes action after the main conflict (kogami vs lightning) instead of being the instigator. What's the point of the chess pieces in the beginning? What's the point of queen? fused GO? there's no reason for SOL to be in this story even. They did some evil stuff when dissecting earth and all but they lack threat.
Now lightning, after this duel, deserves to get his commupins. The reveal that he was the one responsible not only for the poisoning of kogami leading to guiding revolver into revenge against SOL but also for torturing jin, leaving him as the broken shell of a human being he is right now, that is good, this is vector levels of evil bastard and this is something that needed to be given to the audience some time ago. The destruction of his own world as well as the manipulation of his own kind is despicable and intolerable but that still led us into thinking the original reason for playmaker to be here is not this, he's helping AI and after that he was going to return to his original mission of saving jin. But that reveal finally brings tension to the conflict. And the preview for the next episode finally brings the threat i thought was the last thing playmaker would have to face, after saving jin, being the last arc of the show where the lives of everyone in vrains were threatened because SOL, the real bad guys, were going to use the minds of every one in vrains to achieve some kind of sick plan, repeating the levels of evil that the professor was able to achieve in arvc-v.
But overall, what's lacking in Vrains is not twists, intensity, good duels with legit strats, none of that. I can't quite see what's the cause but while it has been 98 episode, i feel like only 50 episodes of plot have occurred. Overarching plots on anime don't tend to be this long and we've had the same enemies for along time, most of them ultimately inconsequential. They went from nothing happening to everything happening at once and we now have deaths that don't feel like deaths, character moments that last for 2 episodes at the most, only then showing some good character development (for example, soulburner and now, the true disgusting evil of lightning) and then they just disappear, without them having a chance to move past these developments because soon after, they are dead. Ghost girl, blood sheperd and their family's business was brought up, well developed (IMO) and then nothing, they're dead, end of story.
And to end this wall of text, bohman. He may be interesting in concept but there's nothing to dislike about bohman. He likes to duel fair (as fair as virtual dice rolls go), he doesn't approve of lightning's methods but i think we don't know what he really wants, what is his end goal and what will he do to achieve it (and the next episode's preview may be good character development for bohman, fixing this). AS far as i know currently, there's no reason to fight bohman, he might tell AI that when they all join, he'll try to make peace with the humans, who knows? Because i don't remember bohman advocating for the enslavement of humanity, i think that was lighning's plan, i could be wrong but i don't think bohman is evil at this point.
Do you think the series sucks? And i extend the question to anyon who's still posting here, i would like to hear your thoughts.