English Dub Review: Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress: “Like a Fish and Water”

Overview: Megumi’s (Lily Ki) backstory is revealed as Tomari (Brianna Johnson) challenges her to confront her true feelings about her pent up problems. 

Our Take: Vanguard surprised recently with a very character driven episode with that of Tohya. It was a poignant story that was tonally very different from most of the more lighthearted and outwardly impassioned stories with that of Yu-yu and Danji. And a very refreshing one at that. The series has continued down that path, this time with a new solo entry that centers on Megumi.

Ever since he was introduced, there was a clear rift between that of Takuma and his little sister, Megumi. The story is able to shine a light on Megumi’s feelings for Danji in a very natural way by implementing him into her sympathetic and disheartening story in how he fills the void left by Takuma, acting as a big brother figure. Not to mention it’s great to see how the show pays extra close attention to Megumi’s gradual mood and personality change with the arrival of Danji’s new golden boy, Yu-yu, and her jealousy of their relationship along with her growing romantic feelings for Danji. That may sound like an obvious way to create a well-developed series, but it took me by surprise considering how I expected this show to be so much more simple in how I assumed it would be singularly focused on the thrill of card battles, strategy and animation/design of card creatures. Thankfully, overDress seems to steadily show how it does not intend to leave its characters high and dry and wants to ensure they give the proper nourishment to its extensive cast. 

Of course, the only way to end an episode is a cardfight baby! This time around it’s between that of Tomari and Megumi. But that’s really only a small piece of it because in reality Tomari acts as a strong internal barrier for Megumi, challenging her to come to terms with her true emotions about the neglect she feels from Danji and her jealous feelings regarding Yu-yu. Again, it’s this kind of attention to detail with characters and their relations that make the exciting battles all that more enjoyable. Classic storytelling 101. 

However, unfortunately, only some of these personal struggles are put to rest, with that of her love for Danji and complications with Yu-yu left unresolved. Thankfully though, her feelings of loneliness seem to be gone and thank God for that because truthfully her petty pouting was starting to become similar to that of nails on a chalkboard.

There are still a few threads left hanging and therefore the ending feels a bit half-baked and detracts from the overall resolution to an extent. Although, considering the show’s consistency to character building throughout it has not become too much of an issue as of yet. Not to mention there are still various episodes remaining so I remain hopeful that both she and Tohya’s arc will come full circle and properly resolve themselves later on in the season. But this is a great start to both of them and with any luck, Cardfight!! will finish them just as well as they started.