Cardfight is back with another top tier title. It’s no surprise that this one would be good either because the entire anime arc is a single tournament. This means that every episode is filled with action. You’ve got everyone trying to be the best and the tournament isn’t even over when the season ends. Only the first phase, then finals will be the next season. It’s a pretty fun way to go about it. Now technically I’d have preferred to open things up a bit and get more combatants here in a bracket system instead of the whole round robin thing. Still, this works out well enough and it’s nice to be seeing every character duking it out at the top of their abilities.

The show starts out with a bunch of fighters being invited to the next Deluxe tournament. You’ve got a mix of old and new fighters trying to prove that they are the most powerful in the world. Akina is ready for this and hopes to have a good time. He is shaken up though when a new guy shows up Kagetsu and he’s awful close to Akina’s mentor Nao. Akina needs to get to the bottom of this and crush this guy but before he can do this, Akina will have to learn the true reason behind why he plays Cardfight in the first place. Without that answer he will be lost.

There won’t actually be a lot to talk about story-wise compared to other seasons since again, this is all just one big tournament. So I’ll spend most of the time here talking about the 12 contestants. They all have had a lot of character development in order to get to this moment after all so it makes for a good tournament. Of course the new characters do have to spend a little time getting introduced but they still did go through their share of struggles off screen. The stakes are also pretty high because out of the 12 fighters who are kicking things off, only 6 will move on to the finals. The final 2 slots of the top 8 will be filled out from good ole America.

So lets start off with Akina. This guy is the main character after all and he’s got some good skills. He has grown a lot more confident over the years but this season does bring up some of his insecurities like with how he reacts with Kagetsu shows up. By the end of the season he does finally come to terms with this and even makes a speech involving Nao. It’s definitely a big scene even if it’s sort of putting her on the spot there. He does have the worst lyrical song out of all the combatants but you can’t win them all.

I think the main character will always be at a disadvantage to the extent that you have seen his deck and heard his song far more than any of the other combatants. So it only makes sense that it won’t be as exciting as the others. Akina is a well written character either way and while I am not rooting for him to win the tournament, it is nice to see him doing well.

Then we have Mirei who is one of the fun wild cards here. She was the big bad several seasons against the original main characters so now she gets to test her skills one last time against the new fighters. She still has tremendous abilities so it’s good to see that she hasn’t been completely phased out. It’s hard for me to picture her winning the whole thing, but she looks better than I expected she would. Mirei still has a lot of confidence about her although she doesn’t talk smack as much as almost any of the other fighters. She prefers to win in a rather graceful way and even her cards feel rather ordinary next to the others. She doesn’t appear to have any kind of killer card to seal the doubt but her abilities are still enough to take her to the next stage.

After that is Erika, the one I am rooting for to win this tournament. She has had to go through a whole lot during the series. Having to live through an incredibly dark timeline, then nearly getting erased, and finally having to give up her family. I’d say it’s about time something went right for her. Her deck is extremely powerful so I’ve been surprised to see her struggle so much. Perhaps I shouldn’t be, these are all some of the best fighters on the planet. I’m sure she will adapt and continue to fight well though.

She has a fun personality and while she can be overly defensive in just about every conversation, you get why she would be on guard after everything that happened in her past. I’d give her a pass on that. At least she still gets a few scenes to hang out with Akina, they may not be able to reveal that they’re family anymore, but no reason they can’t hang out as friends.

Then we have Nao who of course gets a really big role here. She may be Akina’s mentor but she hasn’t gotten a very large role over the last few seasons. This is her chance to make a big return. I will say that despite her aspirations to be the strongest pro and even getting to that level, her deck has never struck me as being very impressive. So this is a good chance to see more of it, although like Erika she struggles a lot here. She definitely deals with a lot.

I can give Nao full credit for always being a good mentor to Akina though. Even when she’s at her lowest in this series, she still manages to congratulate him and put on a brave face so that he doesn’t worry. It’s the hallmark of a great character to be able to do that instead of panicking or having an emotional outburst. I already liked her character quite a bit, but I can say that she ended up going even higher here.

Megumi is one of the original characters so it’s nice to see her return. In the original series she lost a whole lot and always took the back seat to the others. Now that Danji is an eternal old man and the old main character has vanished off the face of the Earth, this is her turn to shine. She definitely does well in the fights and proves herself to still have a lot of ability. In a way it would be fun for her to win the tournament as a way to prevent a passing of the torch. Show that the old generation can still fight and all that.

I wouldn’t be opposed to her winning it all. Megumi has a fun personality and is definitely a passionate cardfighter. You absolutely need those traits in order to keep up with the energy that the others put out. Perhaps this could also allow her to have one last rematch with Danji and finally take that elusive W. As the current head of Blackout, she could pull this off.

Suo was a big villain a while back so now that he is a hero, can he really hold his own? The series plays up how awkward he is around people but the important thing is that he is always trying to improve. I definitely admire that about him even if I preferred him as a villain. Maybe we just have too many heroes at this point but this isn’t the kind of series where people stay villains so I suppose it makes sense. To me this guy would be a bit more of a waste to win the whole tournament, but hey it would show that his skills really did not diminish at all. He also does have his own character arc since one of the new characters parallels the old him.

Raika was the previous tournament winner so of course he is back but the power creep is real. I think Raika’s main problem is his arrogance. To an extent the series always tries to show that he’s not that crazy but I dunno. The actions just don’t really reflect it. He always comes across as real stuck up to me in how he talks to everyone. He may plan out thoroughly for every character and never hold back, but he just makes it so easy to root against him. When a guest star character barked at him through text I couldn’t help but smirk. Raika is strong but he is sure good at losing.

Kuon shows up for this tournament but lets just say he is mainly used to show the power creep here. Yeah he’s strong but part of the point here is that he’s just not on the same level as the others. He needs more time and experience to really build up his skills. As far as the characters go I would also say there is just less to him than the others. I expect most people would pick him as one of their early exits from the tournament if you had to select one. Nothing personal to the guy but that’s how stacked the cast is.

Gui is in a similar boat. The guy is an incredibly powerful A.I. and was one of the top tier threats but ultimately he hasn’t adjusted and continued to improve compared to the others. This means he will be left in the dust next to the others. I also think there is less chance for banter compared to the other characters so less reason for the writers to keep him engaged. I preferred him as more of an antagonist too since as a hero he’s a little boring. Getting him out of here was probably the right move.

Kagetsu is one of the new hype characters so you can bet that he is getting a lot to do here. He was so good that he essentially got bored of Cardfight…or is that the reason? We learn more about his past later on and it’s a bit more petty than that. He is still a solid fighter though and shows the logic of “there is always someone stronger” very well. This guy is treated as an absolute beast and then we find out there is someone even stronger than him and by a fairly wide margin. I think it will be tough for this other character to live up to the hype but I’m still really interested in how that plays out. We’ll also see if Kagetsu is able to push past his limits here.

We have Michiru from the American branch who is still a prodigy. He’s in a bit of a weird position though because he’s always been treated as a nearly untouchable character but rarely felt like it. Gui messed him up a while back and then Danji also gave him a hard fight. We’ll see how well he performs in the next season but from the big fighters, he may be my least favorite. I don’t mind if he gets bumped in round 1 to hype up a different character.

The other American fighter is a new character named Ruka. She seems to be a very powerful fighter who is sort of like Saitama from One Punch Man. She is a Cardfighter for fun. Ruka isn’t in this for fame or glory. She just likes Cardfighting and that kind of character can always be a great foil to the others. Akina was basically told that this is not a satisfactory answer and yet Ruka is living this philosophy out to great effectiveness. I’ll enjoy seeing how she interacts with the others.

Senka returns as one of the powerful fighters from the recent seasons. I like her confidence and how outspoken she is all of the time. A good attitude to have in this intense world of Cardfighting. That being said, I feel like there isn’t much going for her character at this point so it won’t be particularly surprising to see her not do well here. She’s the kind of underdog I would root for a lot, knowing that she won’t be going very far. That’s just how it goes sometimes though.

Finally we have Suzune. She feels a lot of pressure to win because her family honor is on the line. She isn’t really even allowed to have fun playing the game because a single mistake reflects on everybody. I enjoyed her character but naturally you are expecting some changes by the end. It would have been nice if she could have been a bit more powerful but the show did well in showing how toxic this kind of mentality would be. It would be absolutely suffocating in practice. We’ll see how skilled she can be in the future once that level of stress is lifted.

There are a few supporting characters running around like Danji but for the most part this is about the combatants. Masanori is still around to act shady and at this point I’ve just accepted that he probably won’t be facing any justice for being a constant villain. I would have liked to have seen more guest stars if this is really the last big tournament within the Cardfight saga but the show did still branch out across the seasons so I can’t be too greedy.

The animation is really excellent as always. The colors are striking and I definitely enjoyed seeing how dynamic the cardfights were. The show is always very energetic. Likewise the soundtrack is excellent with a whole lot of lyrical songs. The opening isn’t one of the strongest ones but it wors well enough. The soundtrack as a whole easily gets 5 stars here. The technical elements never let the show down at all.

Overall, This was another great season. While I may miss some of the end of the world stakes, a good tournament arc is a close second place for the kind of stories that I enjoy. It’s great being able to see the characters just enjoy their battles with no asterisks. The season also moves at breakneck speeds the whole time as it has to cover a lot of battles in just 13 episodes. Naturally this does mean that some fights do have to be rather rushed but all of the big ones get a solid amount of screentime. I definitely recommend checking this one out and it’s really impressive how long Cardfight has been going on for at this point. It’s a true rival to Yugioh.

Overall 9/10