Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS/Characters/Café Nagi/Confidants

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Confidants

Yusaku Fujiki/Playmaker

A first-year high school student who doesn't like standing out, Yusaku is convinced to try VR Dueling. Uses a Cyberse Deck. As a Charisma Duelist, he is known as Playmaker.

Voiced by:Shouya Ishige (Japanese),Jake Paque (English)

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Ambiguous Disorder:Yusaku has No Social Skills; he is very blunt and direct and doesn't seem to realize that he comes off as rude this way; his emotions don't show on his face or body language even when he verbally states he is enjoying himself; and he has a tendency to list things in carefully ordered categories (of three), going so far as to stretch two ideas to fit three bullet points. These are all potential symptoms of autism.His Revenge Before Reason and Unstoppable Rage on the Knights of Hanoi also indicated that he has developed a posttraumatic embitterment disorder as a result of his Dark and Troubled Past .
  • Aloof Ally:As Playmaker, he has been praised by other Charisma Duelists for his skill and talent. Not that he cares.
  • Anime Hair:The common hair style for every Yugioh protagonist
  • Amnesiac Hero:Subverted, he lost his memories long ago, but has lived long enough to get a have a stable personality, albeit one that's a Jerkass
  • Anti Hero:Yusaku is neither Hot-Blooded nor an All-Loving Hero, but a standoffish, serious, and distant Ice King.He would even go so far as to give the Knight of Hanoi a very brutal The Reason You Suck Speech, which is something that only Kaiba archetypes would usually do.
  • Achievements in Ignorance:Justified. He knows how to use a hover board and do speed duels on his first try, but he figures out right away that he must've done both of these things prior to losing his memory.
  • The Atoner: After realizing that Revolver was the same individual who motivated Yusaku during the Lost Incident with the "three reasons" Survival Mantra, Yusaku tries to enforce this trope on him, attempting to convince him to amend his ways by stopping the Tower of Hanoi and walking a new path. Revolver declines, however, and will stop the Tower of Hanoi only when he's defeated in a Duel.
  • Awesome By Analysis:Said to be a genius duelist and hacker who excels at reading people. See EstablishingCharacterMoment below.
  • Badass Back:His Powercode Talker pierces through Faust's Spreader Queen, not bothering to look back as the latter is destroyed.
  • Badass Baritone:Sports a deep voice.His voice is much deeper than any other Yu-Gi-Oh protagonist even being deeper than Atem and Yusei.
  • Badass Boast:"Knights of Hanoi. Wherever you choose to run rampant, I will appear. My name is Playmaker!"
  • Badass Bookworm:He's a hacker who gains fame in the Network World for defeating the Knights of Hanoi in fierce Duels.
  • Badass in Distress:Playmaker gets captured by Ghost Girl so he can be interrogated regarding Aoi/Blue Angel's comatose state.
  • Bad Dreams: Experiences horrific Recurring Dreams of his days of imprisonment, permanently hampering his ability to fall sleep properly. After Season 1, it's unclear if he has recovered from it since the the defeat of the Knights of Hanoi and the death of Kogami.
  • Big Freaking Sword:His Decode Talker wields a greatsword.
  • Big Damn Heroes:As Playmaker he is prone to do this
    • As Playmaker, he saves Blue Angel from being erased by Cracking Dragon.
    • In 15 he saved Ghost Girl before she gets eaten by data storm
    • Saves Shoichi when he got cornered by the Knights of Hanoi in LINK VRAINS a year prior to the series. On a later date he does it again, but this time Shoichi returned the favor after he tried to escape from them.
  • Beginner's Luck:Justified. He knows how to use a hover board and do speed duels on his first try, but he figures out right away that he must've done both of these things prior to losing his memory.
  • Bishonen:See his anime design he looks much more attractive and taller than his predoocseeors
  • Bishie Sparkle: Lonely Brave's deluded fantasy of a bishonen Playmaker is complete with white sparkles.
  • Broken Ace
  • Broken Bird:His Dark and Troubled Past and The Hanoi Project has made him qualify this trope which causes him to be more bitter,sour and vengful driving towards revenge.
  • Brutal Honesty:Playmaker doesn't mince his words when he dismissively remarks that he is disinterested in GO and Blue Angel.
  • Break The Cutie: Yusaku was an adorable child and was very happy.Fancy watching that child get tortured and starved for six months.
  • Catch Phrase:Some variation of three reasons when analyzing situations or reading people.
  • Cyber Goth:Yusaku uses the Cyberse archetype, which all fit this theme.
  • The Comically Serious:When Kusanagi and Ai teases him over his lack of social skills with womens Yusaku doesnt react at all not even reacting in anger or embrassement and he maintains a deadpan stoic expression as usual and again in 12 he is this with Kusanagi after Ignis shows of his body to them he doesnt react and ignores him
  • The Cynic:He loses all his hope to live and find humanity due to being Kidnap as a child and being treated badly during the Lost Incident.After losing a duel and badly getting totured and not getting enough food he finds fifficult to enjoy dueling,having a happy life and making new freinds and talking about future and he sees this world as a cruel place and is very sour and cynical deepdown.
  • Convenient Color Change: It's something really easy to miss upon initial viewings, but whenever Playmaker duels and performs an extra deck summoning or activates his skill, his suit tends to glow different colors to match the action he's taking.
    • Normally/Link Summoning: Standard Yellow
    • Storm Access: His suit glows a yellowish orange color
    • Ritual Summoning: His suit glows blue
    • Fusion Summoning: His suit glows a light shade of purple
    • Synchro Summoning': His suit glows a light shade of green
    • XYZ Summoning: His suit glows a darker shade of purple color or indigo
  • Dark and Troubled Past: One of the most cruel childhoods in the franchise. He and five other children were kidnapped by the perpetrators of the Hanoi Project and kept isolated in almost empty rooms, one child in each. The only thing there was in the rooms were the [=VR=] equipment used to duel against difficult opponents. Defeat WASN'T option. First, they'd be punished for their loss with an electroshock, THEN they'd be deprived of (enough) food. Those kids were literally fighting for their food and risking a heart attack (among other health risks) in the process. Other than that, they've been exposed to isolation for continued periods of time. The whole nightmare lasted for half a year until the kids were abruptly released. HopeSpot You think it finally was over? LittleNo Nope. Despite of the efforts of the therapists (yes, you read that right, despite YuGiOhGX track recordof the previous series), the amount of stress the six children went through was just too much. Yusaku is even shown having nightmares of himself facing the virtual opponent again. In fact, it is heavily implied that Yusaku may be the one who got the luckiest, as everyone else are broken even worse than him. No wonder the poor guy isn't dueling for fun - to him dueling is a symbol of everything he lost, permanently.]]
  • Dark Is Not Evil:His Decode Talker are dark monsters
  • Deadpan Snarker:Doesn't say much when he responds to the AI in Naoki's Duel Disk.
    • -->AI in Naoki's Duel Disk: Hello there.
    • -->Yusaku: Yeah, hi.
  • Defrosting Ice King:Towards Ai he was very mean and a Jerkass to Ai when he first met him and find him nothing more than a annoyance as the show goes he gradually soften up to Ai and comes to care for him deeply and when Ignis came back he Smiled and Playfully teased him for coming back as hostage
  • Determinator: Yusaku isn't the type to give up easily, or at all.
  • Electric Torture:Back when he was in confinement, he would be electrocuted every time he lost a Duel in the VR space and be denied food.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: In-universe and lampshaded by Revolver, after Playmaker defeats a Knight of Hanoi.
    • -->Revolver: Playmaker... to think he'd be such a dark horse...
  • Emotionless Boy:Of The Stoic type he is more emotionless than Aoi and hardly changes experession
  • Establishing Character Moment:Yusaku's first appearance is when he's woken up by Naoki at the end of their class. In quick succession Naoki shows off his Duel Disk, discusses Link VRAINS and asks Yusaku if he wants help improving his Dueling skills. Yusaku (who doesn't even know Noaki's name despite being in the same class for a month) has already analysed him by this point and replies no, because there are three reasons he thinks Naoki is a mediocre Duelist. . He talks about his new Duel Disk but not his deck, 2. He hasn't been to Link VRAINS (suggesting a lack of confidence) and 3. "What kind of Duelist judges someone by appearance, anyway?.He does add that he also picked up three reasons Naoki is a good person, but by that point Naoki is too miffed to care.
  • Everyone Has Standards: In spite of his vengeful spirit, he is unwilling to sacrifice uninvolved parties, as demonstrated when Spectre reveals an imprisoned Akira in front of him, who increasingly risks being infected by the prison's virus as Spectre takes damage.
  • Expy
    • Appears to be this for Yusei], being a cool-headed economically troubled Teen Genius and all, but his Playmaker account resembles a Darker and Edgier version of Yuma's first ZEXAL form.
    • His Decode Talker looks like an odd combination between Buster Blader, and Elemental HERO Sparkman. It also serves a similar role to Yusei's Junk Warrior, being a secondary ace monster with 2300 ATK.
    • Shares a few elements with Shark, both being orphans with a Mysterious Past to the audience, someone they want to get revenge on, a Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality, and wanting so help/save someone who has a younger sibling bond with a main cast member.
  • Foil
    • To Yuya Their attitude, deck themes, and appearances are opposites to each other: While Yuya is an entertainer and a All-Loving Hero who enjoys the limelight, Yusaku is an expert hacker and a ruthless Anti-Hero who would rather sit on the sidelines. Yuya believes Dueling should be fun to both himself and everyone watching and never a war tool, while Yusaku doesn't enjoy it and uses it as a tool for his Revenge. Yuya uses a deck full of clowns, circus animals, dragons, and classic magicians, while Yusaku's deck is themed after VR beings, with the added difference of Yuya using a specific archetype with a large amount of monster types while Yusaku uses various Cyberse-type monsters that don't share an archetype. And finally, Yuya has a bright and colorful appearance, while Yusaku appears to be more bleak and realistic.
    • He's also this to all the previous main characters, because he has no personal interest in Dueling and only uses Duel Monsters as a weapon to use for eliminating the Knights of Hanoi. While the previous main characters would never think of turning down a challenge due to their honor as Duelists, Yusaku only accepts if it will achieve his goals and isn't concerned if his reputation suffers for backing down.
    • He is also this to Ai they both lost their memories wanted to regain them while Ai is a comic relief who likes to joke around and will always remain positive Yusaku on the other hand is very serious and cold who never fools around
    • He is also this to Akira they both are stoic level headed young mans who had Dark and Troubled Past despite facing this Akira stiil tries his best to forget about his past and tried to have a happy life and make new friends Yusaku on the other hand is more cynical about it and believes he cant enjoy dueling or have a happy life and make new friends which is justified.
    • He is also this to Specter they both were one of the 6 children that got kidnap during the events of Lost Incident. While Specter enjoyed it and felt like time has moved for him Yusaku on the other hand hates the incident and finds it like hell and . Specter ends up working with the people who were involved during the Lost Incident while Yusaku seeks revenge on them for ruining his childhood.
  • The Fettered: In spite of his vengeful spirit towards the Knights of Hanoi for his stolen past, he is above letting uninvolved parties come to
  • Fighting the Lancer: Towards the end of the second season, he ends up fighting Kusanagi of all people because Lightning blackmailed him into fighting Playmaker in order to save his brother. harm.
  • The Gadfly:Claims that he appeared during Dark Onizuka and Genome's Duel so that he can scoff at the former when he loses, to Dark Onizuka's irritation.
  • Genre Savvy:Yusaku carries around a casual LIGHT deck in case another duelist wants to see his deck, and so he doesn't blow his cover.
  • Good Is Not Nice:To unbelievable degrees. He's a hacker, a No-Nonsense Nemesis and a cold-hearted Jerkass who wants to Revenge make the Knights of Hanoi pay the price for their involvement in the "past incident".
  • Good Old Ways:Downplayed, but he uses an older modeled Duel Disk which requires physical cards, as opposed to Duel Disks which can utilize cards in data format.
  • Golden Super Mode:As Playmaker, Yusaku's hair changes color, with the dark blue part becoming magenta, the bright blue part becoming a yellow-ish gold, and the bright pink parts becoming hot pink.
  • The Hero:of VRAINS
  • Hidden Heart of Gold:
    • He isnt a Jerkass deep down and he has strong sense of justice and will help anyone in need who gets hurt by Hanoi even Revolver also noted this.
    • Other than Hanoi Yusaku doesnt hate or have grudge on people who he doesnt consider them as his enimes and he forgived Akira easily despite the latter giving him a Cold Blooded Torture
    • He is caring deep down even if he doesnt show it.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:Subverted. Playmaker's Summoning of Stack Reviver while Cracking Dragon is present on the Knight of Hanoi's Field would've costed the former the Duel if his Monster boasts an original ATK of at least 400 (Playmaker had exactly 400 LP left at the time he Summoned it)
  • Heal Thyself:When a Link Monster co-linked to his Binary Sorceress battles an opponent's Monster and inflicts battle damage to them, he gains LP equal to the amount of damage inflicted.
  • Hope Bringer: Shoichi outright calls Playmaker everyone's hope which is why he can't lose even if he has to fight against Shoichi himself.
  • Invincible Hero: Although he has gotten hurt in his battles, so far, Playmaker has thoroughly been invincible and has not lost a single battle (those where he 'lost' was when Revolver forced a draw)
  • Ice King:He's aloof and is not the type of person whom other people can easily approach to.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal:Prefers to be this until his first play in VR Dueling.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons:One of his Link Monsters is Firewall Dragon, but it is a Cyberse-Type instead of Dragon-Type.
  • Irony:He doesn't like to stand out but his account name is "Playmaker" and becomes well-known in the Network World for dealing with the threat the Knights of Hanoi poses.
    • Justified. He only cares about not standing out at school and in real life, since as a hacker he could get in a lot of trouble if anyone connected his online persona to his real identity.
    • To follow up with the above, he has made it a point that he wants others to stay away from his battles. However, as VRAINS as a whole it typically under attack, he ends up collaborating with Go and Blue Angel.
  • Ill Boy::Downplayed but he has severe PTSD. His methods of eating are unhealthy and he frequently looks tired and collapse after logging out of LINK VRAINS
  • Jade Colored Glasses: When he was younger, Yusaku used to be much happier and loved dueling. However,after the incident, Yusaku had trouble living day to day life and is still recovering from the lingering effects of trauma since then. He became jaded and cynical, becoming consumed with revenge for the one who did this to him and the five other children.
  • Kid Detective:He is a hacker who solves mysterious in cool manner
  • Kick the Dog:What Go thinks of him showing up and "snatching" the spotlight (even if it's unintentional). In Playmaker's defese though, he didn't ask for fame in the first place.
  • Light Is Good:His Firewall Dragon is a LIGHT Monster.
  • Limited Wardrobe:Apart from his digital avatar, he's only seen wearing his school uniform, possibly because he can't afford any other clothes.
  • The Magic Poker Equation: His Skill, Storm Access, allows him to randomly add a card found in a Data Storm to his deck. Naturally, the first time he uses it he gains Decode Talker, which is perfectly suited to winning him the duel.
  • Meaningful Name:Yusaku's surname, Fujiki, is Japanese for "wisteria tree".
  • Memetic Hair:His hair is often associated with that of a wisteria; see also Meaningful Name.
  • Multicolored Hair:He has dark blue hair, complete with light blue bangs and traces of pink.
  • Mysterious Past:To the audience. As of episode 4, what happened to him is a major mystery for the viewers.
  • Mysterious Protector:His role as Playmaker. He doesn't even bother revealing his secret identity to others.
  • My Significance Sense Is Tingling:Appears to have he power to "sense" things. Though he might know how it works, the audience doesn't. So far he's used it to:
    • Comprehend and decrypt parts of an extremely complex (and original) algorithm after just a few days of studying it
    • Sense when Revolver's digital presence is nearby (while Yusaku is in the real world
    • Determine that Go isn't a real Knight of Hanoi
  • Naive Newcomer: He's far from naive and he uses Duel Monsters as his personal weapons but he's likely new to Speed Dueling.which Yusaku himself lampshades by questioning whether or not he already knows how to Speed Duel.
  • Nice Job Breaking It Hero: In his second Master Duel against Revolver. Had Playmaker not negated the Effect of Topologic Bomber Dragon, Revolver wouldn't have been able to perform multiple Link Summons due to Topologic Bomber's Effect, much less even Extra Link.
  • No-Nonsense Nemesis: He is not dueling for fun but for Revenge
  • No Social Skills: Kinda. His idea of getting close to Aoi is stalking her around the school, and see BrutalHonesty.
  • Not So Stoic:
    • In Episode 6, he gets a bit agitated as Ignis reads off the inflammatory internet comments about Playmaker not accepting Blue Angel's challenge. Ignis teases that contrary to his attitude, Yusaku does care what other people think of him.
    • Playmaker loses his cool and snaps at Akira in rage after the latter claims that he understands what it's like to lose a loved one.
  • Online Alias: Playmaker
  • Ordinary High School Student: Acts as one but has been working as Playmaker for a while
  • One-Hit Polykill: During his duel with Spectre
    • Defied by Spectre. Playmaker attempts to wipe out the entirety of Spectre's LP with the 4000 ATK Multi Sledgehammer, only for Spectre to negate the attack with his Sunavalon Glorious Growth Continuous Trap and redirect it to Sunvine Gardna.
    • Played straight in part three, where in addition to increasing Excode Talker's ATK to 4000, Playmaker's Link Atrocity reduces the ATK of Spectre's Sunavalon Dryatrentiay to 0, allowing Playmaker to deplete all of Spectre's LP with a single attack.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Spends episode 8 trying to help Aoi/Blue Angel, from taking her to the hospital when he finds her comatose body to willingly walking into a trap to find the computer program that could cure her.
    • In episode 10 he showed genuine concern and worry to Ignis after he was deleted by Revolver's "Fire Prison"
  • The Reason You Suck Speech: Playmaker dismisses the Knight of Hanoi he defeats in Episode 2, in that the latter has no right to call himself a Duelist.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The quite and emotionless blue oni to Ignis's red
  • Rei Ayanami Expy: In a male version of this trope he certinely qualifies being her expy Like Rei he is very stoic and emotionless with No Social Skills and has a Mysterious Past
  • Revenge:Vows to avenge his and Shoichi's little brother's as-of-yet unknown past.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Playmaker refuses to relent and allow Akira to handle everything related to the ten-year old incident, even after listening to Akira's past.Later, as pointed out by Spectre, the trope is actually subverted, as despite his desire for revenge, he doesn't have the heart to be cruel and let people suffer for his revenge.
  • Relative Button: If you value your dignity, never, ever tell him to let go of his past hurts (which scarred him and Jin Kusanagi's little brother) and live his present life in happiness. Akira learns this the hard way.
  • Rage Breaking Point::He and Kusanagi snap at Akira, who claims that he understands what it's like to lose a loved one.
  • Rule of Three:Has a habit of listing three things about a given situation or person.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Go and Blue Angel attempt to confront Playmaker in a Duel after he defeats a Knight of Hanoi, but dismissively remarks that he has no interest in either of them, and proceeds to log out of Link VRAINS.
  • Serious Business:He treats Dueling as a means of hunting down the Knights of Hanoi.
  • Sherlock Scan: In his Establishing Character Moment, he deduces Naoki's personality and skill level in dueling just by listening to him talk about duel disks and VRAINS. This carries over into his duels, where he's very good at analyzing the field and makes moves that seem poor to onlookers, but serve a greater strategy Yusaku is working towards.
  • Shrinking Violet:Averted the reason why he doesn't like to stand out isnt because he is shy or timid but because he is a hacker
    • Played a little straight in #6, where he has no idea how to approach Aoi, and gets nervous before entering the Duel Club room.
  • The Smart Guy:Said to be extremely smart and clever
  • The Stoic: Prefers to distance himself from others due to his Playmaker business.
  • Stop Having Fun Guy:In-universe; he doesn't Duel for fun, and only sees it as a means of hunting down the Knights of Hanoi
  • Sugar and Ice Personality:Yusaku is generally cold,aloof,standoffish and distant with No Social Skills and he may be the first protoganist who is an anti hero but he isnt a bad person deep down and he is actually very kind hearted,caring and has a good heart deep down even if he doesnt show it.He only shows his icy side to everyone else but sugar and kind side to Kusanagi
  • Tall Dark and Bishojo: Male version, he has dark hair, and is very stoic and aloof most of the time.
  • Teen Genius:Said to be an incredibly smart person, good at reading people, and quick-witted.
  • Theme Naming:Like the other protaganist he has kanji 遊. Unlike the previous main protagonists, however, his name has three syllables as opposed to two.
  • Tron Lines:His VR body suit has these
  • Tsurime Eyes:Highlighting his aloofness.The sharpness of his eyes also highlights his determination for revenge against those involved in the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project.
  • The Unchosen One:Yusaku is neither The Chosen One (Yugi,Jaden,Yusei,Yuma) nor an Apocalypse Maiden (Yuya.He just happened to capture Ignis by chance.
  • Unstoppable Rage:Towards the Knights of Hanoi and he's still sour about the "Lost Incident" until now.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid:He used to be a happy cheerful kid who enjoyed dueling and loved duel monsters before getting kidnap for Hanoi Project
  • Vigilante Man:Hunts down the Knights of Hanoi and is branded as an Ensemble Darkhorse by the Charisma Duelists, but SOL Technology Inc. sees him as a hacker.He also trusts only himself to uncover the truth about the ten-year old incident.
  • When He Smiles: During his second Master Duel against Revolver. In spite of the face of adversity he's in after being overwhelmed by Revolver's Extra Linked Monsters, Playmaker manages to smile, to Ai's surprise.
  • [[Worlds BestWarrior: The best duelist in VRAINs and is so far undefeated.
  • You Are Too Late:
    • Fails to stop Makoto from being forcefully dragged into LINK VRAINS (and subsequently being turned into an Another victim).
    • Playmaker is powerless to do anything to prevent Ghost Girl from being purged and the Tower of Hanoi's activation.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair:Most of his hair is blue with pink shades

Ai

A mysterious AI program, sought after by the Knights of Hanoi and SOL Technology Inc., that Yusaku captures by accident.

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Michael Liscio Jr. (English)

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Adorkable:His comic relief antics are really dorky
  • A Dog Named "Dog":Ignis is given the name Ai by Yusaku because he's an AI.
  • Amnesia:Before he could escape, a Cracking Dragon devoured most of his body, leaving his memories heavily fragmented or outright gone.
  • Artificial Intelligence: One that Yusaku captures by accident, and is sought after by the Knights of Hanoi and SOL Technology Inc.
  • The Atoner:In episode #42, seeing Playmaker continuously fail to perform Storm Access and even getting a forearm ripped off, Ai stepped in and transformed into a larger version of himself to prevent Playmaker from falling. Ai then proceeded to sacrifice a part of himself to repair Playmaker's arm and shield him from the flying debris. He really could have been erased. Even if he could have been erased either by Playmaker losing or being destroyed by the debris and had the slightest chance of surviving by saving Playmaker, he still saved Playmaker from certain death while risking his own life. Ai may have been willing to sacrifice himself because he wanted to make it up to Playmaker for lying about losing his memories.
  • Bad Bad Acting: In spades, it's not at all surprising to see Ai dramatically panic about Playmaker being backed into a corner to lull their adversary into a false sense of security only for said opponent or even Playmaker himself to tell him he isn't fooling anyone with his act and they can see right through him.
  • Beware the Silly Ones:After the Knight of Hanoi is about to blow himself up...Ignis transforms into and Eldritch Abomination...and devours him.
    • Later, when Revolver loses against Playmaker in their master duel, he does so again and tears his arm off.
  • Butt Monkey:You can't help feeling sorry for the poor thing after everything that happens to him. UpToEleven And that is after just one episode.
    • In Episode 12 he finally gets some of his Data back so he can reform his original body!... But he's only big enough to be held like a doll and doesn't impress anyone, he didn't even get any of his memories back.
  • Catch Phrase:"Take hold of the wind, Playmaker!"
  • Chew Toy: Literally! He barely escaped after being followed and almost devoured by a Cracking Dragon.
  • Cosmic Plaything: Despite of him dismissing the idea of prayer, he is obviously hated by the Universe.
  • Cowardly Lion
  • Cry Cute:A comical variant, where he tears up over his Embarrassing Nickname.
  • Deadpan Snarker:Even more so than Yusaku being an AI doesnt stop him from being snarky
  • Distressed Dude:In the first episode he is targeted by both Knights of Hanoi and SOL and later he gets taken to hostage by Yusaku
  • Embarrassing Nickname:"Ai", courtesy of Yusaku. Later subverted when he openly embraces his nickname after Playmaker appears to confront Genome.
  • Eldrich Abomination:Shapeshifts into some sort of monstrosity to consume a Knight of Hanoi who was about to blow himself up to eliminate Playmaker.
  • Expy
    • He like a trickster version of Astral and his personality is similar to Orbital 7.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes:Claims that his own people dislike him.
  • Foil
    • To Atem,Yubel and Astral.Unlike any of them, he is much more goofy and amiable. Also, his purpose is immediately made clear upon his introduction, unlike his more mysterious predecessors.
    • His attitude makes him one to Yusaku.
  • The Gadfly:Being an AI doesn't make him any less capable of teasing Yusaku for being unable to talk to girls.
  • Heroic Wannabe:
  • Humiliation Conga:The first episode alone has him go through all kinds of trouble, but Yusaku capturing him is definitely were humiliation after humiliation keep happening to him.
  • Hidden Depths:Yusaku suspects him of being the one who was responsible for sending and installing Cyberse Wizard's card data into Naoki's Duel Disk.
  • Keet
  • Large Ham:Not to the same extent as Flame, but it's definitely there. Normally a total goofball, but when Playmaker is dueling and it looks like they're backed into a corner or really are backed into a corner, Ai tends to dramatically panic over the situation or mimic Playmaker's action, or gloat in about Playmaker's strategies in an over-the-top manner.
  • Lovable Coward:After everything he has been through in just the first episode, his cowardice is entirely a Justified Trope.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac:Though not aggressive about it, Ignis had three sex-scenes on-screen in the first twenty episodes alone. His first guess as to why Yusaku is always busy is that he's making out with Shoichi.
  • MacGuffin:Both the Knights of Hanoi and SOL consider him as this for unknown reasons
  • No Name Given: Before the premier it's only referred to as a "mysterious lifeform".'
  • "No Respect" Guy:Everyone is after him, but no one takes him seriously
  • Odd Name Out: He's Ai while the other Ignis names are related to their element. Justified in that Flame started the trend and Yusaku was unaware of the elemental basis of the Ignis when he named them.
  • Plucky Comic Relief:He serves as the main comic relief for the show
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni:The jokissh self centred red oni to Yusaku's blue
  • Saying Too Much:Ai's "panicking" in an attempt to goad Ghost Girl's Primebanshee into attacking Playmaker's Lockout Gardna fails after her AI informs her of Storm Access and the prerequisite to activate it.
  • The Slacker: Back in the Cyberse World, Ai was very carefree and wasn't the working type, and thus was deemed an annoyance by the other Ignis.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Is his Embarrassing Nickname "Eye" or "Ai"? The anime goes with the latter.
  • What Measure Is a Non Human:Most people only see it as a tool. Yusaku's poor treatment of it comes from the fact that he doesn't think it can feel or actually think, just that it's programmed to keep itself out of anyone's control.

Shoichi Kusanagi (Cal Kolter)/Unnamed

A hacker who shares the same motives as Yusaku. The Mysterious Hot-dog Vendor: He works as a hot-dog vendor in the city. However, that is merely a cover, as he is actually a skilled hacker who supports Playmaker in Dueling.

Voiced by: Subaru Kimura (Japanese),Sam Black (English)

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Apologetic Attacker: He hates that he is blackmailed by Lightning to beat Playmaker or Jin's data will be destroyed and apologizes, but Jin is more important to him.
  • Berserk Button: Trivializing his past. Even a mention of his and his brother's past by anyone who is not Yusaku is enough to enrage the normally laid-back Kusanagi.
  • Big Brother Instinct: He seems to be involved in Yusaku's mission in order to help his little brother. Downplayed with Yusaku, as he helps him fight life or death battles.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Subvereted Kusanagi attempts to do this to Akira while he was trapped in the trony prision hacking and working out to free him from it only for Akira to sacrifice himself to avoid burdening Playmaker in which he fails to free Akira on time and Kusanagi doesn't take it well
  • Beware the Nice Ones: He is one of the most friendly and easygoing character in the show but dont piss him off
  • The Confidant: To Yusaku, as possibly the only person who knows about Yusaku's abilities.
  • Cool Big Bro: Acts this to Yusaku
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He may be a hot dog vendor but he is actually a skilled hacker.
  • Crazy Prepared: He anticipated the possibility that spoiler:Lightning would invoke a HostageSituation by putting his little brother's consciousness at stake, thus he sends an unfinished program, intended to hack into Mirror LINK VRAINS, to the Lieutenants of Hanoi, who then promptly work on it
  • Dark and Troubled Past: His younger brother was in the same place as Yusaku.
  • Dub Name Change: He is known as Cal Kolter in the dub
  • The Gadfly: Show some shades of this, teasing Yusaku over his lack of social skills with women.
  • Hacker Cave: His hotdog van doubles as one.
  • Mission Control: Operates as Playmaker's, monitoring his activity and the goings-on of LINK VRAINS from within his hotdog stand.
  • Nice Guy: He seems to be very friendly and the only person Yusaku is most comfortable talking with.
  • Non-Action Guy: Doesn't do any Dueling himself, instead serving as Yusaku's Mission Control.Justified, as his own Dueling skills are novice at best.Come his Duel with Playmaker, however, Kusanagi not only turns out to indeed be knowledgeable about Duel Monsters than he previously claimed to be, but also assaults his opponent without mercy.
  • Nothing Personal: He claims to bear no ill will towards Playmaker, and is Dueling because he values his little brother above everything else.
  • The Narrator: Narrates the episode previews.
  • Online Alias: Unnamed.
  • Parental Substitute: Possibly. He seems to be the closest thing Yusaku has to a guardian, though he acts more like a brother-figure.
  • Rage Breaking Point: He and Yusaku snap at Akira, who claims that he understands what it's like to lose a loved one.
  • Revenge: Though he is good at hiding it.It is shown deep down he has a deep grudge towards Hanoi for what they did to his brother
  • Sorry I'm Dying: After Playmaker defeats him, Kusanagi can do little but to apologise to his little brother before disintegrating completely.
  • The Unfettered: Exploited by Lightning. Kusanagi has no qualms about mercilessly going all-out against Playmaker to ensure the safety of Jin's consciousness, and doesn't give a damn if it comes at the cost of Playmaker's existence. This turns out to be an act, however, as Kusanagi predicted that Lightning would use Jin as a bargaining chip to coax Playmaker and Kusanagi into turning against each other, and Kusanagi entrusted Yusaku to move forward in his stead after he's gone.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: He has dark purple hair

Takeru Homura/Soulburner

A student of Den City High School. In LINK VRAINS, he is known as Soulburner.He is also one of the victims of Lost Incident.Takeru uses a Salamangreat deck, an archetype of FIRE Cyberse-Type Monsters focused on a Beatdown strategy, but unlike Yusaku whose deck focuses on Link Summoning multiple Link Monsters and using their effects together for power, his deck focuses more on summoning one strong monster like his ace Salamangreat Heatlio whose effects alone are enough to defeat his opponents. His deck also utilizes Reincarnation Link Summon this allows him to use Link Monsters as the only material in order to summon a copy of the same monster, but with an effect it couldn't use before. His deck just like Playmaker's is capable of using Ritual and Fusion Summon which he uses as an alternative when his Link Monsters aren't enough.

Voiced by: Yuuki Kaji (Japanese)

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: His Soulburner persona in a nutshell. Aside from the colors that represent the most common colors of fire (gray is likely to symbolize ash), his hairstyle and scarf also look like a fire. Not surprising given that he uses a FIRE deck and his partner is the Ignis that is not only literally calling himself Flame, but also being the Ignis that specifically represents the FIRE Attribute. Its pretty obvious where he got the inspiration.
  • Badass Boast:Utters one to Bit and Boot before dueling them, accompanied by his crushing a ball of fire in his hand.
  • Big Entrance:Soulburner appears from a whirling burst of flame, and confronts the Bit and Boot pair in Playmaker's stead so that he can concentrate on tailing Bohman and Haru.
  • Break Them by Talking:Soulburner gets on GO's bad side by pointing out that he's incapable of anything but throwing a hissy fit, all because he's no longer number one in LINK VRAINS. This pisses off GO big time.
  • Broken Pedestal: A downplayed case with Go. He still respects him as a duelist but dislikes how he's acting recently.
  • Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl:Although only ambiguously Romantic with Kiku, he was brooding and distant back home, while she tried to coax him out of his behavior.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: He's another victim of the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project. After being rescued, he was taken in by his grandparents and learned his parents died while searching for him, leaving him an Empty Shell and angry at the world, often skipping school for large periods. When he saw Playmaker, Blue Angel, and Go fight Hanoi, he felt like time started moving for him again and left for Den City to meet and work with them.
  • Cyberspace: He uses a Cyberse deck.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Prior to his departure to Den City, Soulburner had his hair slicked back like a Delinquent, and later changed it to a more unassuming, kinder style to help him better fit in as a student in Den City.
  • Expy:
    • Of Johan, being a similar character to the main protagonist and joining partway through the series and establishing a great rapport with him.
    • A clear one of Katsuya Jonouchi, being the more fiery duelist with a gambling gimmick.

His New Transfer Student status and softer real life appearance also make him this to Johan and Bruno.

  • Fashionable Asymmetry: As Soulburner, his right hand is partly exposed, while on his left hand he wears a red gauntlet.
  • Hero Worshipper:Go Onizuka was his hero, his behavior and heroism in the Hanoi incident being what inspired him to come out again, and seeing him wallow in self-pity and be a bounty hunter upsets Soulburner, giving him a Broken Pedestal.
  • Hidden Depths: Takeru may appear cheerful and spirited now, but he wasn't always like that. He got upset when Flame called him out on having been a shut-in who could only fight his own demons and not fight enemies like Yusaku had. He used to describe himself and feeling empty and angry at everything, and that time stopped for him, only starting after learning about the heroes of VRAINS
  • Hikikomori: After hearing of his parents' deaths while they were searching for him, Takeru grew to hate everything and closed himself off from society. He eventually gets out of it after he read the news about Playmaker, Blue Angel, and GO saving LINK VRAINS from the Knights of Hanoi, motivated to move forward and Duel again.
  • Ill Boy:It may not be noticeable at first, but he also has PTSD like Yusaku. This is shown when he gets caught by Blood Shepherd's trap, the shock of the trap causes him to have falshbacks to the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project.
  • Keet:He seems to be this based on how he glomps Yusaku in the second opening.
  • The Lancer: Quickly becomes this upon joining Cafe Nagi, doubling as Playmaker's Sidekick/Number Two.
  • Logical Weakness: As his Burning Draw skill reduces his LP to 100, effects that burn him upon drawing, like the Trickstars, are naturally a problem for him. He cannot use his Skill in such situations until the card is either removed or he has a negation effect in play.
  • Megane: His real life persona wears green glasses.
  • New Transfer Student: He transfers into Den Academy to establish connections with Yusaku, as they were both hostages of the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project.
  • Online Alias: Soulburner.
  • Playing with Fire: Soulburner uses a fire-themed avatar,and a Salamangreat deck, which is composed of FIRE Monsters.
  • Primal Fear: Takeru is afraid of Ghosts, likely due to his experiences with the Zombie-Type Despair From the DArk during the Lost Incident
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni:Soulburner's hot-bloodedness contrasts Playmaker's stoicism and no-nonsense front.
  • Revenge:He seeks this against Revolver for the Hanoi incident, blaming him for his parents' deaths, and dules him after Revolver attempts an EnemyMine with them.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Soulburner lets his animosity towards the Knights of Hanoi overcloud his better judgment, adamant on avenging the deaths of his parents by taking his rage out on Revolver. However, his hesitation to finish off Revolver in a single turn causes him to break down, abruptly ending the Duel.
  • Signature Move: His Skill, Burning Draw, has him pay LP so that he only has 100 left, and allows him to draw a card for every 1000 LP he pays. In addition to being a high-risk move, it is also physically taxing.
  • Sixth Ranger:Joins Yusaku and the others as a main character for season 2.
  • Sorry That I'm Dying:While After losing to Bohman, Soulburner can do little but apologise to Flame for failing to keep their promise with each other, before he disintegrates and gets absorbed by Bohman.
  • Shrinking Violet: While he comes across as Keet, he gets easily flustered when praise is put on him out of a lack of self confidence.
  • The Worf Effect:Soulburner maintained a consecutive winning streak up until his defeat at Bohman's hands, once again demonstrating the threat Bohman poses as the future next generation Ignis.
  • You Are Too Late:By the time Soulburner arrives at the entrance of the restricted area, Haru has already escaped into the restricted area without triggering its emergency defenses.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: His Soulburner persona's hair has two opposite shades of blue.

Flame

One of the six Ignis created by Kogami who acts as Soulburners support during duels.

Voiced by:Taku Yashiro(Japanese)

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: He is an Ignis (an AI named after the recurring mythological theme of the theft of fire allowing humans to evolve) who not only named himself Flame, but also is the only one among the six Ignis to actually represent the FIRE attribute.
  • Catch Phrase: Every time Soulburner activates Burning Draw, Flame exclaims "Burn your soul, Soulburner!".
  • Hot-Blooded: He's quick to get fired up.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:Flame sacrifices himself to prevent Windy from devouring Soulburner, enabling him to continue dueling Bohman.
  • Irony:Just like Ai he doesn't really have any dueling skills or knowledge despite being an AI that was born through the torture of kids by
  • Insane Troll Logic: Flame deduces that GO will "go go" and attack based on what his Online Alias suggests. Soulburner can only look at Flame with bewilderment in response. dueling.
  • Large Ham:He's just as bombastic, if not more so, as Soulburner. Just listen to him exclaim "BURN YOUR SOUL, SOULBURNER!!!".
  • Not So Above It All: Flame may be more level-headed than Ai is and doesn't appreciate being compared to the likes of him, but at the same time, he wastes no time demonstrating that he's quick to get fired up during Soulburner and BitBoot's Duel.
  • Not So Different: Despite being more level-headed then Ai and not wanting to be associated with him, he has the same (lack of) dueling skill and knowledge that Ai has and when it looked like Soulburner was about to lose, he loses hope just like Ai does and says it's over for them, because he didn't even know the effect of Salamangreat Heatlio that would let Soulburner win in episode 49.
  • Playing With Fire: He is an Ignis that named himself "Flame", and his physical appearance is flame-based.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni:Despite his color scheme Flame is more level headed contrast to Ai who tends to make a drama out of situations.

Allies

Aoi Zaizen (Skye Zaizen)/Blue Angel/Blue Girl/Blue Maiden

A classmate of Yusaku's who uses a Trickstar deck. As a Charisma Duelist, she is known as Blue Angel. In Season 2 she goes by the name Blue Girl in order to help her brother Akira in his search for the Ignis. However she changes her name once again to Blue Maiden after deciding to partner with the Water Ignis, Aqua and fight alongside Playmaker again in order to defeat Lightning and save her Aqua's Origin and Childhood Friend, Miyu she also changes her deck into Marincesses given to her by Aqua .

Voiced by: Yuki Nakashima (Japanese),Emily Carmer (English)

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Action Girl:She is also a very skilled duelist and she can put her opponents in big disadvantage during her duels
  • Adrenaline Makeover: Her VRAINS Avatar transition from the cutesy Blue Angel to the mysterious and spicy Blue Girl that resemble and idol rocker. Justified in that Blue Girl is better for the stealthier operations she is doing with Ghost Girl, while Blue Angel sticks out. It is emphasized by a few of her new cards and effects, such as Trickstar Gig, and her fusion monster, Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar.
  • Amazon Brigade:All of her Trickstars and Marincess monsters are females. Subverted come her next upgrade, Blue Maiden, which is girlier.
  • Ambiguous Disorder:Out of Vrains her lack of emotion and suspicion of others (if not for good reason) bring up a few possible ailments, among them depression.
  • Angelic Beauty:Her Trickstar deck and VR forms are these
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance:Her blazer is designed to look like her tie has blue wings, and her stage name is "Blue Angel."
  • Animal Motif:PrettyButterflies, as shown by her backup avatar being a simple butterfly.
  • Badass Adorable:She is kawai and cute as Blue Angel.As Blue Angel she has most of her cute movements
  • Breast Expansion:Blue Angel has noticebly bigger breast than Aoi in real life she might have added a bigger buxom to her Blue Angel avatar to play better the Idol persona.
  • Broken Angel:After losing to Spectre, he causes her Blue Angel wings to break.
  • Broken Pedestal: Due to her brother's work, Aoi has a positive view of SOL Technologies and believes that they will help the Ignis. After watching Queen and the scientists kill Earth as he is begging, she cries, at a complete loss.
  • Big Brother Worship:Has a brother complex, and wants to admit to him that she Duels.She also has a minor case for Cool Big Sis Emma, even patterning her Blue Girl avatar after Ghost Girl's look.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • Saves Playmaker by launching his D-Board back to him with an energy lasso after he falls off.
    • Again in 16 she saves him before the Prototype AI can take his duel disk
  • Bifauxnen:She is a girl and wears skirt but she looks more boyish.Averted as Blue Angel where she is a girly Idol Singer.
  • Boobs of Steel:As Blue Angel she has big breast and is considered to be one of the best duelist in LINKV VRAINS
  • Boyish Short Hair:Her hair reaches down her lower nape averted in her VR form where she has long hair and is tied into Girlish Pigtails
  • Break the Cutie:
    • She ends up getting corrupted by Specter and her duel with Playmaker has made her humilated in front of the audience
    • She again suffers this trope during and after her duel with Spectre see Humiliation Conga below
  • Cain and Abel:The cain to Akira's Able
  • The Corruption:Afflicted by this by the appropriately named Dark Angel card that Specter slips into her deck, making her go berserk.
  • Color Character: BLUE Angel
  • Color Motif:BLUE, fitting Aoi in her real name, Online Alias, and due to being blue, i.e depressed, for a long time.
  • Convenient Coma:Ends up being one after her duel with Playmaker
  • Curtains Match the Window:She has light brown hair and eyes
  • Clothing Damage:After her loss to Spectre her skirt becomes tattered.
  • Conflict Ball: In Episode 55 and 56, after Playmaker and Soulburner refuse her offer for her and Akira to help them due to SOL Technologies involvement in the Lost Incident, she gets pissed off and demands they give Ai and Flame over so they can find the other Ignis's. Playmaker and Ghost Girl themselves are surprised at her behavior. Once she begins the duel she does return to being more civil.
  • Cyber Punk: Initially, Aoi ran a Trickstar deck, but thanks to her partnership with the Water Ignis, Aqua, Aoi in her Blue Maiden avatar now has access to Cyberse monsters in the form of Marincesses which replaced her Trickstars and soundly defeated Haru, an inferior variant of Bohman with relatively low difficulty
  • Character Development:Initially cold and standoffish and participating in the plot to win her brother's approval or get revenge on the Knight of Hanoi for what they did to her, Aoi wants to participate in the plot for the sake of protecting Vrains from the evil Ignis, and rather take action than sit around and do nothing.
  • Dark Action Girl:Became this tempory when she was under the influence of Hanoi spell card and she came extremly close to defeat playmaker even if she lost
  • Dangerously-Short Skirt:Its short as Kotori from zexal
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts:One of the Trickstar's main focuses is dealing small amounts of burn damage under certain conditions.
  • Death Glare:Gave a stern creepy one to Naoki when he started barging to Yusaku about her brother
  • Dub Name Change: To Skye Zaizen, having implications of blue sky where angels come from.
  • Digital Avatar: An angelic idol singer as Blue Angel and a more serious mercenary one as Blue Girl and then Magical Girl Warrior Blue Maiden.
  • Discard and Draw:After teaming up with Aqua she gets a new Marincess deck and a new Skill, Shape of the Sea, which lets her summon a monster from the grave that has equal or fewer attack points than the damage she just took.
  • Designated Girl Fight: During the Tower of Hanoi arc Aoi faces off against Baira, the only female member of the Knights of Hanoi initially to blow off steam because she was in a bad mood, but upon learning the Baira was the one who created the another program that put her in a coma twenty episodes prior
  • Determined Defeatist:Becomes this in the climax of her duel against Bohman. Despite knowing that she cannot win against him, with some encouragement from her brother, Aoi pulls off all the stops to ensure that she does not go gentle. Bohman acknowledges her as a WorthyOpponent because of this.
  • The Determinator: Has become this in Season 2
  • Escapism:Aoi's Blue Angel persona is revealed to be based upon a Blue Angel in a book her brother always read to her as a child, about a lonely angel that cried blue tears and pretended she was didn't hate being alone, but eventually befriended other angels and fought against the forces of evil to find happiness. Her taking on this persona in Vrains is her own attempt to do so.
  • Emotionless Girl:She is stoic and emotionless as Yusaku in real life compared to her Genki Girl self as Bue Angel
  • Empty Eyes:While Brainwashed and Crazy Her eyes lose all luster, marking her possession.
  • Expy: She's usually seen as a Bifauxnen amalagamation of Anzu, Asuka, and Aki. Her first name even starts with the letter "A".Her being a orphaned Lonely Rich Kid makes her similar to Mai
  • Face Plant:A dark example, where Blue Angel gets blown away before landing on the ground head-first, courtesy of Spectre. Ouch.
  • Facial Markings:As Blue Angel, Aoi has a clover on her cheek, as part of her idol image.
  • Feather Motif:White feathers fall and scatter while she is trapped in her mind due to the Knights.
  • Flower Motif:Her Trickstar monsters are named after various flowers.
  • Foil:To Go Onizuka. While in the Hanoi arc Blue Angel realized she wants to duel for others and not just herself, Go comes to the conclusion it is ok to duel for himself and not others. In addition, while Blue Angel is grateful to Playmaker for saving her and doesn't appear bothered by being overshadowed, Go deeply resents it and will stop at nothing to beat Playmaker for the sake of his pride.
  • Fingerless Gloves: Elbow-length ones as Blue Girl
  • Friendless Background: Aoi had no friends as a child except one briefly, Miyu, but the friendship fell apart when she took the fall for Miyu having lost her mother's ring.
  • Genki Girl:As Blue Angel her personality is this being happy and cheery who gets excited so easily contrast to her Aoi personality.
  • Girlish Pigtails: As Blue Angel, her hair is tied up like this.
  • Girls Love Stuffed Animals: As a child, she carried around a stuffed doll of Evilswarm Mandragoa.
  • Hair Decorations: Her twintails in her VR form are held up by dark blue bows.
  • Humiliation Conga:Suffers this twice
    • The first one was when dueling playmaker after she was being infected by Hanoi virus she went insane an end up being defeted by him and this was broadcast live to her brother and her fans and she went in coma after being defeated by him and recived many abuse in socail media the next ep which damaged her reputation as charisma duelist she soon got better though
    • She again suffers this during her duel with Spectre who humilated her by Break Them by Talking and giving her a Reason You Suck Speech which made he brutally defeats her.
  • Human Sacrifice:After her loss to Spectre, she is converted into data and absorbed into the Tower of Hanoi.
  • Hero Antagonist: Like Akira before her, she duels Soulburner after Playmaker and he rejected her and Ghost Girls attempts to help them to find out what the Ignis really meant, and they initiated the duel as Windy's sketchy suggestion. Even then the duel is rather civil, unlike the rage-filled duel Soulburner had with Go.
  • Idol Singer: In addition to resembling a Magical Girl, Blue Angel also takes on the appearance of an idol.
  • Lovely Angels: Forms a duo with Ghost Girl in Season 2 as Blue Girl
  • Lady of War: Her Trickstar Lightstage are this fitting her calm and quite personality
  • Lonely Rich Kid:She lives in a well-to-do apartment, essentially alone due to her step brother's constant working.
  • Luminescent Blush:Has this when ordering food from Yusaku in the Season 2 premiere.
  • Love Freak: Accused of this by Spectre, who mocks her for her Blue Love that she shares for others in her attempt to be Blue Angel.
  • Magical Girl: Blue Angel take on the appearance of a blue-haired magical girl with twintails and angelic wings marked with hearts and purple four-leaf clovers.
  • Magical Girl Warrior: Her transformation from Blue Girl moves her away from Rock Idol and to this, complete with a Transformation Sequence, and she explicitly calls it her battle form.
  • Magical Incantation: While all the characters invoke one when Link Summoning, Aoi's reflects her character change. As Blue Angel she involved the circuit of dreams and hope. As Blue Girl she invokes the Circuit of determination and courage..As Blue Maiden she invokes the circuit of friendship and bonds.
  • Meaningful Name: Her online handle, Blue Angel, references the fact that she uses a Trickstar Deck, which is composed of Fairy-Types.
  • Multicolored Hair: As Blue Angel, her blue hair sports light blue highlights.
  • Nice Girl:She may have a hard time trusting most people, but she is still a sweet girl and is eager to help people in need if they help her.
  • Online Alias: Blue Angel.In Season 2 when working with Ghost Girl she is known as Blue Girl changes her name once again to Blue Maiden after partnering with Aqua
  • Older Alter Ego: While Blue Angel acts younger like Miyu did, and Blue Girl looks largely like Aoi, her Blue Maiden persona looks like a mature woman in her twenties.
  • One Degree of Separation: Aoi is not a Lost Incident victim, but she was friends with Miyu, who was Aqua's origin.
  • Parental Abandonment:She and Akira's parents died in a accident when they were young
  • Proper Tights With a Skirt: In the dub in her school uniform.
  • Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Her Transformation Sequence from Blue Girl to Maiden gives her longer hair than Blue Girl and slightly longer than Blue Angel, fitting her Magical Girl Warrior appearance
  • Reality Ensues: Due to Blue Angel being a popular duelist, her deck is well-known, characters such as Baira and Specter to know how to counter her typical strategies.
  • Split Personality:As Aoi she is serious,quite,calm and collected who hates standing out like Yusaku but as Blue Angel she is cheery,energetic,upbeat and perky
  • Stepford Smiler:Her bubbly and cheerful personality in LINK VRAINS is actually a facade and the reason why she is so bubbly in LINK VRAINS is because she hides her sadness while in the chaos of LINK VRAINS.
  • Strong Family Resemblance:Looks like a younger version of her mom
  • Slipknot Ponytail:After her defeat by Playmaker, her twin-tails fall out as she falls.
  • Sugar and Ice Personality: she's cruel underneath her energetic surface. This is reflected in Holly Angel's counterpart, Trickstar Sweet Devil, who uses a staff lined with thorns to attack, but is a LIGHT monster.
  • Shrinking Violet: Particularly as a child, she was polite and timid, holding on to her mother in a flashback. As a teen she's more reserved and quiet than outright shy.
  • Tall Dark and Bishojo:Oh yes
  • Trauma Conga Line:Basically the latter half of Episode 7 is this for her. First, she learns that her Gradual Grinder strategy allowed Playmaker to use his game breaking skill to get the monster he needed. Then she starts feeling the effect of the "Dark Angel" card which messes with her mind. After that, she realizes that Playmaker is about to OneHitKill her and tries to reduce him to 0 LP before he can do so, only to to be stopped and forced to use the "Dark Angel" card. This results in her getting MindRape from Hanoi's program. Finally, she loses anyway and is put into a coma in the next episode. To top it off, this was all streamed live to both her fans and her brother.
  • The Only one Allowed to Defeat You: Aoi seems to have a sense of rivalry with Playmaker (not that he's interested anyway), immediately challenging him to a duel after he defeats the first Knight of Hanoi in Ep.2. While making her entranceto save Playmaker from being double teamed by two Sol Tech. AIs, she makes it known to them that she intends to be the person to beat Playmaker.
  • Troll: The Trickstar's secondary focus is to mess with her opponents by forcing them into a serious disadvantage. For example banishing their entire hand and making them draw a new one thus thinning their decks or suppressing one of their Set Cards and forcing them into sending the card to Graveyard if it can't be activated during End Phase.
  • Taking the Heat:She took the blame for losing Miyu's mother's ring, though it didn't go well for her at all, as she was warned by Miyu's mother not to get involved with her daughter ever again.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Blue Angel initially challenges Baira of the Knights of Hanoi because she happened to be in a bad mood, only to harbor a grudge against Baira after Aoi finds out that she was responsible not only for her condition, but for the Anothers in general.
  • Transformation Sequence: Her upgrade from Blue Girl to Blue Maiden comes with a Magical Girl style transformation that makes her look mature and elegant.
  • The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: While Yusaku does show genuine concern for Aoi's well being and Aoi doesn't treat Yusaku coldly like she does most people aside from her brother and Emma. Aoi is the only female lead in a Yu-Gi-Oh! anime that isn't actually friends with the main protagonist.
    • Anzu, Kotori, and Yuzu were friends with Yugi, Yuma, and Yuya respectively since they were kids before their series began. Asuka befriended Judai within the first few episodes of GX, while Akiza took roughly 1/3 of 5Ds to actually become Yusei's friend. Halfway through the series and outside of being classmates, Yusaku and Aoi hardly talk to each other outside of formal greetings and are allies at best and even then that's a fairly recent development.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Come Season 2 she had worked on remedying her Weak, but Skilled nature, upgrading her deck with a fusion monster and more abilities that allow her monsters to have higher attack. Unfortunately she is still leftOvershadowed by Awesome.
  • Vocal Evolution:During her Duel against Spectre, her voice is somewhat deeper, highlighting her determination to defeat him.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Aoi herself notes that her decks weakness is her monsters low attack, despite its devastating effects and works in Season 2 to make her deck stronger by including methods to increase her monsters attacks.
  • Waistcoat of Style:The Blue Maiden avatar comes with a stylish black and white waistcoat that goes past her skirt, an upgrade of the more simplistic vest she had as Blue Girl.
  • When She Smiles: Aoi is normally aloof and showed signs of depression and axiety throughout Season 1, but whenever we see Aoi give a [genuine smile], it's [nothing short] of [beautiful!]
  • Well Done Daughter Girl:More like "well done, sister" girl, but she strongly desires to be acknowledged by her older brother.
  • Winged Humanoid: Sports a pair of white wings engraved with hearts and purple four-leaf clovers in her VR form.
  • Wings Do Nothing: Blue Angel sports white angelic wings, but are only there for show.
  • Whip It Good:Uses an energy lasso to launch Playmaker's D-Board back to him.
  • Won't Work On Me: Her Bella Madonna is unaffected by other card effects while its Link Arrows point to no Monsters.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: As Blue Angel, she sports blue hair with light blue highlights.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Blue Angel's socks reaches up to her thighs, complemented with a large, puffy skirt. Downplayed with Aoi's real life appearance, who wears a Dangerously Short Skirt and socks that don't reach her knees.As Blue Girl she wears hotpants with socks and boots like Emma.

Ema Bessho/Ghost Girl (Ghost Gal)

A young woman hired by Akira to spy on Playmaker. She is known as Ghost Girl in LINK VRAINS. She plays using the Altergeist archetype. Her deck focuses on swarming the field with Altergeist Monsters and set up many Trap cards from her deck with their effects. Her Skill, Secret Cure, allows her to excavate cards from her deck until a Monster Card is revealed. She can than add the Monster Card to her hand while the other cards are send to the GY and both players gain LP equal to its ATK.

Voiced by: Yuna Kamakura (Japanese), Megan MacPhee (English)

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Action Girl:She doubles as Dark Action Girl she is a very talented and a skilled duelist and is one of the toughest opponents Playmaker has faced
  • A Day in the Limelight: Episode 53 focuses more on her backstory and her interactions with Akira & Blood Shepard 3 years ago
  • Alliterative Name: Her Online Alias, Ghost Girl.
  • Alpha Bitch:The most bitchiest and unpleasent female character in franchise she is very selfish and cunning. It turns out to be subverted later on and it shows not all her action are for monetary and she is very heroic.
  • Awesome By Analysis:She uses her skill and strategy to lock down Playmaker, using methods to keep Playmaker's lifepoints above 1000 so he can't use Storm Access on her, only failing because he used an effect to lower his lifepoints twice, using her own skill to stop the first time.
  • Badass Adorable:Not to the level of Blue Angel but she does have some cute movements especially during her duel aganist Playmaker and her fanservice pose to Frog and Pigeon when she deleted their data
  • Bait and Switch:Disguises herself as Blue Angel to lure Playmaker into Link VRAINS and capture him for interrogation.
  • Big Damn Heroes: She was able to complete the escape program and give it to Soulburner so that he could escape his duel against Blood Shepherd. The interesting twist is that it could also be considered this to Blood Shepherd, because Soulburner was going to win the duel with a direct attack, but Blood Shepherd also has a face-down card which may have won him the duel, making the true victor and person she saved unknown.
  • Biker Babe:Seen riding (and jumping off of) a motorcycle in the OP.
  • Blood Knight:Very interested in dueling Playmaker, though Akira makes it clear she is to find his identify instead.
  • Brought to You by the Letter "S": Ghost Girl's NEW LINK VRAINS avatar has her wear a belt buckle with a yellow "G" on it.
  • Cool Big Sis: Acts like one to Aoi, being concerned about her well being and acting in a cool elder sister fashion, and is pleased when Aoi's stealth avatar resembles her Ghost Girl one, even naming it Blue Girl, even if she was worried about Akira sending Aoi with her.
  • Cool Mask:Ghost Girl covers her mouth with a black mask.
  • Costume Evolution: Come Season 2 her avatar is partially redesigned, using some brighter colors and ditching her face mask
  • Dub Name Change: Her Online Alias is known as Ghost Gal
  • Disappeared Dad:Her father, whom she shares with her half-brother, Blood Shepherd, is revealed to have died of an illness the previous year, but revealed her never forgot about his son and asked her to help him if she ever had the chance.
  • Everyone Has Standards:Ghost Girl may be very fascinated by treasure, but she has no intention of hunting down Playmaker, a fugitive in NEW LINK VRAINS, just to reap the monetary reward that comes with his capture.
  • Expy:
    • Appears to be for Mai as they both have very similar personality and have a great pride for their beauty and are willing to use dirty tricks against mens Though Mai soon got better
    • She is also this Luka Millfy they both are cunning and greedy and would sell anything at high price
  • Graceful Loser:Has no hard feelings losing to Playmaker, and hands over the backdoor to SOL Technologies' data bank to him as promised.
  • The Gadfly: Ghost Gal has a playful flirtatious personality and enjoys teasing others, particularly the Zaizen siblings, at one point even annoying Aoi by asking if she was dreaming about cute guys.
  • Heal Thyself:Her Secret Cure Skill has her excavate her deck until she reveals a Monster card (other cards revealed prior is sent to the Graveyard), which is then added to her hand, and she and her opponent both gain LP equal to that Monster's ATK.
  • Hired Guns:She's a mercenary duelist, hacker, and investigator that works for Akira, but also takes jobs for others in SOL Technology.
  • Human Sacrifice:After losing to Revolver, Ghost Girl is converted into data and absorbed into Hanoi's seed, becoming the base power source for their tool to destroy VRAINS, the Tower of Hanoi. Whether or not there is the possibility of saving her is unknown.
  • Hero Antagonist: Like Akira and Aoi, while she doesn't become a Bounty Hunter against Playmaker, she still works against him and Soulburner due to a worry if the Ignis would be enemies of humanity. She drops this in episode 76 after learning what SOL did to Earth where she now supports Playmaker for co-existence.
  • Hot Witch:In contrast to Aoi's Magical Girl, she is thematically one a spellcaster duelist, though her Altergeists themselves are rather unnerving. She is also thematically a Squishy Wizard, as her Altergeist deck has powerful and tricky abilities that show great power and technique, but in her duels, once she gets hit she goes down.
  • [[I Owe You My Life[[: Due to Playmaker's actions back during the Tower of Hanoi incident, Ghost Girl refuses to become a bounty hunter.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence:Ghost Girl warns Playmaker of Revolver's unknown Trap card as she gets purged from LINK VRAINS entirely.
  • Know When To Fold Them: After Blue Girl is forcibly logged out after her loss to Soulburner, Ghost Girl opts to go, unable to go on without her partner, and not having the heart to attack Soulburner when he is exhausted.
  • Lovely Angels: Forms a duo with Aoi in Season 2.
  • Long Lost Sibling: She is the younger half sister of Kengo Dojun
  • Ninja:
  • Online Alias: Ghost Girl
  • Our Ghosts Are Different:Although the actually archetype is made up of spellcasters, the Altergeists are made up of poltergeists from around the world
  • Pragmatic Hero: Although herioc, not very much of an idealist and willing to do shady and illegal acts such as infiltrating and stealing SOL's company data
  • Shipper on Deck: In the dub, she makes the offhand comment "I ship it" when commenting on how Playmaker saved Blue Angel.
  • Something About a Rose:She throws a rose at Playmaker's feet to spring a trap on Playmaker.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Multiple shades of pink and purple

Aqua

One of the six Ignis created by Kogami. Is based on the WATER attribute.

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese)

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: More often than not she had to look after Ai so he didn't injure himself, much to Earth's annoyance.
  • Dope Slap: Gave one to Ai so hard it sent him and Linkuriboh through the ground, leaving Impact Silhouettes for both of them.
  • Girlish Pigtails: She has them on her head.
  • Hartman Hips: Aqua has a very pronounced waistline styled to look like a teardrop, highlighting her feminine appearance.
  • Healing Hands:After Earth badly damages his hands freeing her, she heals them and later tried to heal Miyu from Lightning's virus but failed.
  • It Has Been an Honor:Aqua compliments Blue Maiden on a well-fought battle despite knowing she couldn't defeat Bohman, and is happy to have been her partner.
  • Mysterious Waif: Of the Ignis properly introduced, Aqua is the most mysterious. Just before the Cyberse World was attacked, she warned Earth that he needed to pick a side in the human-ignis conflict, purposely withholding her own decision knowing he'd just follow her if she didn't. Her warning the Cyberse World would be split concerns along with foreknowledge of the attack has both Earth and Playmaker concerned, and her current whereabouts are unknown.
  • Living Lie Detector: Ai and Earth both claim she could easily discern truth from lie.
  • Making a Splash: She is an Ignis based on the WATER attribute, with her entire body being primarily light blue, a colour also commonly associated with the water element.
  • Number Two: She served as the Sub-Leader of the Ignis before the Cyberse World was destroyed.
  • Nice Girl: Aqua is kind, caring, and motherly.
  • Proper Lady: Her behavior is very proper from the way she speaks to her hand gestures...only when she's not scolding Ai and giving him dope slaps for being lazy.
  • Shoulder Teammate: After being saved from Blood Shepherd by Aoi, Aqua hangs out on her shoulder for the rest of the episode, though she moves to the duel disk properly come Episode 77.
  • Smurfette Principle: She is the only female Ignis.
  • Technicolor Eyes: Has glowing pink eyes that can also turn into different shades of blue when using her ability.
  • Telepathy: Aqua has a degree of telepathy that lets her be a Living Lie Detector and can glean memories from Miyu and tell Blue Girl's real appearance and name.
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Has pink eyelashes to emphasize her feminine appearance.
  • Tsundere: Based on their interactions, while Aqua is rather strict and annoyed by Ai's antics, she was genuinely concerned and worried when Ai was in danger, implying she does care more about him than she is willing to admit.
  • Water Is Blue: The WATER Ignis with a blue body and fittingly she ends paired with Aoi/Blue Angel.
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