Cardfight returns with another dynamite season! It truly is one of the most legendary comebacks out there and once the Dress franchise is over it will be fun to formally compare this segment of the franchise to the original, G, and then the reboot. While Tohya gets the shaft in this one, we still get a ton of great duels in each episode. The tensions are constantly high and you really feel like the action never stops. Trust me you don’t want to put this series down until you have completed it!

The main plot here follows Yu-Yu, Tohya, and Raika as they travel to America after having won the last big tournament. It should be a fun event where they just test their limits against the most powerful fighters out there but ultimately that’s not all that is in store for them. See, Cardfighters have been vanishing, defecting from their teams, and generally playing a more soulless game. There seems to be a group at the center of all this and it’s become such a big deal that even the government is involve. With Yu-Yu away on business, can his friends back home really defend themselves? They’re definitely going to need to improve their skills if they want to make a difference here.

First off I appreciate that the plot is really going strong here. The villains over at Team Uniformers are done with hiding/biding their time. They’re going straight for the wins now and that makes them quite the sizable threat. This feels like a modern version of the Link Joker story. Sure they may not literally be sealing people’s souls but it’s the same effect as anyone who is defeated quickly drinks the Kool-Aid and stops dueling like themself. It does result in a massive boost of power too which is something you always want in a duel so that makes thing tempting. I would have added some explicit supernatural theme to the mix just because otherwise it’s in an odd middle ground that makes the defeated fighters just look bad.

One loss shouldn’t be enough to make you toss your deck and lifetime of experience away right? That’s where the Link Joker plot had the edge since it was actual magic. The villain group is quite stacked though as their members were already super powerful before they got turned. Now that they have embraced the powers of darkness their abilities have grown even more to an absolutely terrifying degree. At this point the only heroes I would trust to hold their own in a fight would be Yu-Yu, Tohya, Danji, and Raika and even then Raika is already starting to get outmatched. Meanwhile the villains have at least 5 top tier fighters and they’re only getting better.

The season is fairly short as always compared to the good ole days when the seasons were 30+ episodes but they still cover a lot of ground in these 12 episodes. Like I said pretty much every episode has a big duel in it. Additionally each of the characters have their own battle themes here which is nice since it makes the soundtrack a lot more versatile. Plus just about all of the characters have hype rock type themes. Ironically Yu-Yu’s theme is one of the only ones I don’t care for so when he’s dueling it just doesn’t make for a very satisfying climax. Usually your theme plays when you’re about to win after all.

An excellent overall soundtrack is another reason why this season is so good though. Then we have the animation which is quite sharp. I’m not going to say that it is the best in the business or anything like that but it’s very clean, bright, and smooth. You couldn’t ask for much more than that. The battles really pop out at you. Also back to the soundtrack, this one starts to play the ending theme during the last scenes of an episode which is always a great move because it works so well for the cliffhanger. Another great decision there. So now lets talk about the characters.

Yu-Yu has really come a long way over the years. He’s a really confident fighter here who is an undeniable powerhouse. At this point he’s one of the strongest fighters in the verse and while he isn’t unbeatable, I would still choose him to win in a fight against anyone except Tohya. Danji can beat him but Yu-Yu can also win so their battles tend to be more 50/50. Just as important as the power though is the fact that Yu-Yu actually feels like a leader now. He has a Goku moment where he walks in once everyone else has been defeated and you know that things are going to be all right.

His final duel in the season was definitely great and his character got to shine through. I’ll be able to point to him as a great example of a complete character arc. Meanwhile the main heroine Megumi hasn’t had as much to do lately. I think she’s going to need to get a bigger role soon because otherwise Urara has basically replaced her as the main heroine at this point. Megumi can fight well, she just needs more opportunities to get up there.

Tomari actually gets a fairly big duel here. You don’t really expect that things will go great for her but she does tend to step up as one of the senior members of the team when the chips are down so you do have to give her some props there. I don’t find her super impressive power-wise but I like her confidence. She’s a lot more likable than Zakusa who gets his share of big moments but I never end up buying into it. It feels like he always makes the wrong decisions and I would say that this season is no exception. This guy is not leadership material.

It’s sad to say but there isn’t much to talk about for Tohya here. He gets a duel and then basically vanishes for the season. It feels like they are building up for a big revenge match for him but it hasn’t happened yet. It’s a bit odd since he is one of their best bets to take down the villains but as long as it leads up to something soon then it’s fine. He got the biggest duel in both the first and second season so I guess he needed a break this time around.

Danji actually gets to take center stage near the end instead and looks great. I feel like he had lost a lot of hype since the older days where he was the big threat so his fans should be pleased here. As always I do think that he makes a lot of mistakes with his judgment like Zakusa. Danji needs to trust his friends more but he’s finally getting close to that. His intense fighting style with the fire and soccer is always fun to watch. When he brings his A game then he is definitely one of the best fighters.

Masanori is around as always and I will give him credit for being a persistent villain across every season. Seriously this guy never goes down and that is impressive in its own right. That being said, he hasn’t done anything to make himself stand out so by this point he has just become boring. I’m much more interested in every single one of the other villains. For example Jinki is still a compelling main villain. There are times where he seems to be against all of the violence so he is maybe thinking that he is the actual hero in all of this. We’ll have to see, but for the most part he doesn’t need that. In general just being a fun villain is enough here.

Then you have Sophie who is a really powerful villain as well. She went out of her way to humiliate Raika the whole time during their duel. You feel bad for Raika since he tries really hard in this season but just doesn’t look great. His skills have just reached their cap and he needs to either surpass his limits or be satisfied with taking loss after loss. Letting her bark at him without coming up with a counter was certainly a low moment for him. I still like Raika a lot as a more antagonist type character but as a hero it does feel like he immediately got a lot weaker.

Halona hasn’t done a whole lot yet but as the one who trained up Urara we already know that she is powerful. If she had ended up fighting Yu-Yu at the end we could have really seen her skills but that will have to wait for the next season. So far she is a fun villain to have around. Michiru is also a decent villain but since his heart isn’t really in the mission he doesn’t feel as compelling. The guy is basically going through the motions so that he can fight more powerful opponents but that’s about it. He will need a much stronger ambition if he wants to go further.

His abilities are good though and I always like characters who are really invested in the game. It would just be nice if he used those abilities to take the villains on instead of just working for them. He basically admits to Danji that he disagrees with their mission so that makes working for them even worse. Not a good look for him at all. Meanwhile Samuel is a new character here who gets some screen time but ultimately he hasn’t done a ton yet. He is good at pushing the plot along but as a character he’s a bit bland.

Finally there is Urara who in a lot of ways is one of the biggest focuses here. She falls for the lure of power here and then the heroes have to do their best to bring her back to reason. This does make Urara look rather bad for the most part since she was turned so easily. In a way she’s like a mirror looking back into how Yu-Yu used to be. She lacks confidence and so she is very susceptible to what people tell her. Urara doesn’t yet have the confidence to make her own decisions but by the end of the season she should almost be there.

Now what about the Uniformers’ ultimate objective? Well first we do have to admit that their plan has a tangible benefit. They really do make all of their fighters a lot more powerful. I don’t think you can really argue against that. Everyone immediately jumped up by turning the game into a science. The main problem Yu-Yu had with them was how they would force people to duel their way. If they made it purely optional then there wouldn’t really be a problem. Dueling by the book may not be all that fun but winning is a lot of fun so that should help to balance everything out right?

So I don’t think the idea of dueling with a soulless style is in itself a bad thing. Like any other job some may just want the best results. Like in a video game where you play as the broken character instead of your favorite one right? This is no exception and it’s only the pseudo magical element of brainwashing people that was iffy. It would have made for an interesting character arc if Urara decided to still use this style while keeping some of her personal modifications. I don’t think you should completely disregard the things you’ve learned after all. Skills are skills, they can’t be good or bad. It’s just all in how you use them. At the end of the day this show isn’t about the moral debate of how you obtain power but it’s still fun to think about.

Overall, Cardfight is in a really great spot here. This easily could have been used as more of a setup season and instead the show jumped right in for a ton of great action. The pacing here was on point and you can’t go wrong with everything happening here. The duels are insanely entertaining and extremely explosive. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a fun time. It’s very energetic throughout and the cast has grown to the point where there are a lot of likable players in every subplot. The final fight of an arc can go to any number of different people and so you get to try and guess who that will be. I’m definitely hyped to see how this wraps up in the next season or if this saga will keep going on for a while longer.

Overall 9/10