English Dub Review: Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress: “Tiger of Kaga”

Overview: After beating Megumi (Lily Ki) in battle, veteran cardplayer Katsuki challenges Danji (Josh Meredith) to a match. Danji has one stipulation however. It is that Katsuki must take on Yu-yu (James Higuchi) before facing him and Danji will go toe to toe with whoever comes out as the victor of that bout. 

Our Take: Right off the bat of the “Tiger of Kaga” the intriguing premise of the episode itself is laid out. After winning but then subsequently losing various times to Megumi, Yu-yu returns to find Megumi beaten by a challenger known as Katsuki. This already does a great job of establishing whoever she faces as a competent player because of her previous winning streak. Unfortunately though, the newcomer behind a whopping 100 victories fails to live up the hype. Katsuki’s character, boiled down, is nothing more than the pompous antagonist you have seen at least once in every anime you have ever watched and is indistinguishably bland from other typical ones of the like.   

The montage of card lessons after from Danji to Yu-yu felt unnecessary and insignificant. Mostly because the show never delves into what was being taught with any significant importance other than a flashing of tips on screen. Tips by the way that still mean near nothing to me, because I still don’t know how the game works because nobody has explained it in any way, shape or form! But that’s alright I’ll just watch the pretty Pokemon fight each other.  

The real meat and potatoes came from all the grunt work that Danji had himself and Yu-yu do throughout the episode. It was simple and effective and actually felt like an apt way of showing Danji’s intelligence as a mentor.

The fight between Yu-yu and the chad himself, Katsuki, was underwhelming and very brief.  All this buildup with Katsuki having Yu-yu on the ropes all for Yu-yu to just take him out with a few swift moves (it’s even worse when you don’t understand them). The outcome isn’t the issue but how the series got there in such an anticlimactic way, especially with no stunning fight to be seen. Thankfully though, that does not apply to Kondo and Danji’s battle.

Danji and Yu-yu’s bout is yet another amazing showcase of the incredibly talented animation staff across the three studios: Kinema Citrus, GIFTAnimation and Studio JEMI. The only downside being that it always comes in the short but sweet variety. Beautifully vivid scenes with so much fluidity and effects like those of overDress’s are intricate and take a lot of work to animate so it’s understandable. And at the end of the day, it’s a great problem to have as it always leaves me hungry for more. With any luck, we’ll get longer ones later on, although at the same time, I wouldn’t complain if we got a bunch more smaller ones for the rest of the season. It made sense for Danji to be the victor considering the evolution of the episode, his role and experience as a whole. Not to mention having Yu-yu, as a noob, defeat any challenger, especially those who are more experienced just wouldn’t be logical or engaging to watch. 

Also the episode forges a strong unexpected cliffhanger for the next episode with Danji’s retirement from cardfights? It’ll be quite interesting indeed to see what spurred that decision from an enthusiastic player like Danji. 

Cardfight!! Vanguard’s third episode is an enjoyable new entry even with it’s uninteresting new character and fat content that could have been trimmed. The strength of Kondo and Momoyama’s relationship, bombastic battles and exciting ending make for a good time nonetheless.