Mature? Best? Overdressed? | Cardfight Vanguard Overdress Review (S1)

So, I'm a big fan of card battling anime, right?  And I never got to watch Cardfight Vanguard, so I decided to remedy that. I got on a subreddit  and I was like, 'Hey guys, you like Cardfight Vanguard. What is the best place for me to jump  in at as a newbie?' And, for some reason, they told me Cardfight Vanguard Overdress. They told  me it was a more mature take, a better storyline, something good for the newbies. Y'all pranked  me hard, man, because this ain't it, Chief. This ain't it. Where d

o I even begin? The first  thing that I do want to bring up is the freaking pacing. The pacing of this show is trash, complete  and utter garbage. The first few episodes are just getting to know your main character, right? And  our main character, we get to learn on our first episode, the first thing our main character does  on the first episode is cross-dress and then he walks around town and lets people assume that he  is a girl. This is a card battling anime, by the way. He lets them assume h

e is a girl and then, oh  no surprise, it's a dude, and now their friends, and he watches a cardfight Vanguard fight. I don't  know what they're actually called, you know why? Because the show doesn't actually describe it.  Again, I am a newcomer. This is just a review on the first season, by the way. I am a newcomer.  There's a card fight going on, right? Two guys, they're up there at the table, they start laying  down cards. Nobody ever says, 'This is how you play the game' to this guy. He jus

t watches  it happens and understands. And yeah, I don't, I don't because they don't explain anything.  Yu-Gi-Oh does. I don't know if the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh does. I haven't watched that in a while,  but Yu-Gi-Oh GX does. Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS does. Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal does. And it doesn't have to do it like  face value, it doesn't have to completely explain everything like Zexal does back and forth. It  doesn't have to go that far, but it can at least have the character be like, 'You know what happens 

when I do do this with this card? Your card, that number right there, does this amount of damage.'  Like it can do that without it feeling like it's explaining it to me. You have a newbie on the  show. The dude doesn't play Cardfight Vanguard, and yet you don't gotta freaking do where we learn  how to do it. It makes the show fundamentally broken, but that's okay, right? Because even  though it's called Cardfight, the card fighting is minimal. This is a slice of life drama.  I don't know if it'

s supposed to be a comedy or not because I never really laughed. A lot of  the hilarious moments are cringe. They're cringe, and that has a lot to do with the fact that the  dialogue is very cliche, and I mean, if you can expect it, if you can even think of it, then  you're probably gonna get it. Right? It is very cheesy. The characters spout off cringe-worthy  catchphrases and one-liners, and they fail to add any real depth or substance to anything. They just  talk a lot, and there's a lot of t

hose hilarious miscommunication things where girls like listening  in and these guys are talking, and it sounds like they're being sexual, which makes me think that  it's not for kids because kids wouldn't understand that, and if kids even question it then that's  kind of messed up, because it's not subtle at all, but the story isn't really mature either like  everybody claimed it was going to be. Tthe maturity in this story. Doesn't exist because  everything feels disconnected and disjointed, a

nd it's plagued by poor writing and plot holes  and inconsistencies that undermine the credibility and coherence of literally everything. It fails  to live up to any potential that any people that they're like, 'Oh, it's so great.' Thanks for  that. My expectations were all the way up here, and then the dad-blame anime just shoved it  straight down so far that I feel like I'm fighting hell with a squirt gun trying to get  out. It doesn't explore any themes. It doesn't explore any messages. It le

aves me with nothing  to take away from the story. It feels shallow, it feels generic, like it's lacking all substance  altogether. And in the animation quality, maybe that'll make up for it, right? Maybe it will,  maybe it will. No, no, it won't. It is subpar, and the animation sequences, they're not very  good either. At the end of the card fights, whenever they actually happen, and they only last  like two turns because we always have to start in the middle of them or towards the end of them

for  some reason that makes absolutely no sense to me, and we skip around sometimes. If we do start  at the beginning, oh shoot, the Magic Dragon, we just skip to the end. Why God knows, I don't, I  have no clue. That's why I don't know how to play the game. What was I talking about before I got  off that? Uh, shoot, oh yeah, the animation, man. This thing has broken my brain. The animation,  the only good part that I can say is at the end of those battles, that's where I got caught  off at, at

the end of those battles, there is an animation where they're the two main monsters  are fighting, and the characters are like, 'Oh, I'm coming at you, no, I can't lose my hopes and  dreams,' you know, that over-the-top anime stuff. I'm not even mocking that, like that is anime,  bro. That's anime, is anime can be anime, but those scenes are the only good part. But they last  three seconds, and they get progressively worse. I think I'm just so disappointed because I wanted  to like it. Even the

soundtrack is forgettable. It fails to add any real emotion or impact to any  of the scenes that it accompanies. It feels like an afterthought rather than any integral part  of the anime. Like when I want to hear music, I want to feel that emotional scene. I wanted to  amplify the scene that it's in. If we're having a cheerful scene where we're galloping around  the freaking park like horses, then good gosh, put something in there that's upbeat, makes me  feel like galloping too. But no, no, we

don't. Nothing makes sense. It's about as bad as Future  Diary. I watched the dub. I don't know if it's different in the sub. I never watched a sub,  and I don't feel like re-watching Future Diary just to watch the sub. If I'm re-watching it, I'm  re-watching the dub because that's what I grew up with. Again, this is a tangent because I'm just  so tired of talking about this show because I'm tired of thinking about this show. But in Future  Diary, whenever they're they're at the park, wow, what

a good example I made earlier. They're at  the freaking park, and there's freaking music accompanying it that makes it sound like this is  the most cheerful, upbeat anime ever, even though they're in the middle of a game of death. And  it's so out of place. Take that scene and that out-of-placeness and just apply it to every aspect  of this show because nothing feels coherent. Nothing fits together well, and when you put the  music over on top of it, it's like a parody. Oh, the characters, maybe

they're better. No, they're  not. I'm not even gonna sit over here and try to convince you that some of them don't suck because  they're all very, very cliche. They're trophy, they lack any real chemistry or meaningful  interactions. It makes it difficult for me to care about them, their relationships, their  conflicts, anything involving them. And whenever we do get good genuine moments, the stupid cringy  dialogue ruins it. Towards the end of the season, things start to pick up, but then char

acters  feel like they're getting flip-flopped around in how they're originally portrayed. Plot  twists, they're not that way anymore, but there's no build-up, so it feels out of place.  And then we do get some kind of interactions, and they're kind of getting a little better, but  then something has to happen and just Stonewall it and throw it off a balcony into lava. All I  wanted to do was lots of card battle anime, learn how to play the card game based on it, want to  play the card game by t

he cards, love the anime, love the series, love the franchise, make a big  video, and everybody could be happy. And here we are. I watched an anime that was recommended as  one of the better ones. Really hope it was a prank and they weren't serious. The first few episodes  were slow, didn't do anything for me. Again, the first episode centered around our main character  cross-dressing and accidentally being confused as a woman, and it wasn't funny. I don't know if it  was supposed to be funny. I

t honestly just made me kind of uncomfortable because he's letting all  these dudes blush and be like, "Oh, pretty girl," and like gross. It is so gross. It is. I don't  know who this is for. I came in expecting that mature storyline, and I skipped over it earlier,  but I'm not even kidding when I tell you that it's not here. It's not here. And at the end, whenever  they start bringing up that somebody is doing bad things and ruining lives of cardon fighters, most  people would have already drop

ped off. Honestly, I would have recommended for you to already have  dropped off because at that point, you have just suffered through nine-eight episodes that feel  like filler that have a lot of Slice of Life stuff that doesn't even develop the characters into  being somebody that we can care about, that has a lot of things happen that have nothing to do with  the card game. The card game that's in the title, the card game that it's based on, the card game  that is supposed to be integral to t

he lives of our characters. You know, the card game that would  make that mature aspect that gets brought up at the end important, but since we don't spend much  time actually getting involved in that card game, it's hard to care. Our main character is  trash, filth, garbage. I don't know if he's supposed to be a self-insert character. Our  supporting characters get it a little bit better, but whenever they try to develop some of them,  it feels rushed. And since we don't actually know much abou

t them before the show starts, and  there's no flashbacks to make me think, "Wow, this character doing this should be a surprise to  me like everybody else." It's not one. Everything is an issue. I couldn't recommend this to  anybody. I watched Sword Guy: The Animation, I'm gonna talk about it. Actually, you know what  screw it? I'm gonna make a review on Sword Guy: The Animation. Now you write that down. And  somehow, I think it was better than this one, but I'm gonna be pretty hard on it too.

So,  if you've actually watched Cardfight Vanguard, any series, please give me one that'll actually  be welcoming to newcomers. Give me a Cardfight Vanguard series that's actually going to welcome  me with open arms. Explain to me what Cardfight is, introduce me to the world, as if it would if  the internet didn't exist. I shouldn't be required to search up how to play Cardfight Vanguard  when there's an actual show dedicated to it. Oh, was there anything good about Cardfight Vanguard:  Overdres

s? This may sound contradictory, but hold your horses, let me explain. The  music is a good part of Cardfight Vanguard: Overdress, but only outside of the context of  the show. Like if you listen to it, but not because you're watching this show and are being  forced to listen to it, you might like it. Yeah, I'm gonna leave that on that. Okay, I'm not gonna  explain that anymore. I'll end up second-guessing myself. Another good thing I can say is  the voice acting isn't too bad. Honestly, even th

e dub and the sub have decent voice acting,  but they don't get much to work with. So, again, I don't want to tear this thing apart. I already  did, and now I feel kind of bad. The color and lighting is decent. They like focusing on vibrant  and eye-catching visuals, and that's about all the animation has going for it too. Oh, I really hate  that. I'm so sorry. I would love to be able to sit over here and say that everybody involved tried  their best, but it just doesn't feel like it. It just fe

els like treaded ground. It feels like  I'm drowning in the same water with trash anime that I've been in for years. It just feels like  something else that you wouldn't really miss out on if you decided to skip it. It's gonna get lost  in obscurity. Because unless you're a die-hard fan, I honestly doubt you made it to season two.  The only reason I made it through season one, I just wanted to know. I just wanted to know  how to play the game and Dad-goneit, it didn't do it. It just didn't do it

. I wanted to like it.  I wanted to say that you guys did great. I wanted to be able to be respectful enough in a sense that  I could congratulate you on your accomplishments when it comes to this show. But everybody  involved, you just, you let me down. Separate things could have worked, but when it comes  together, the eggs are spoiled in the cake, the frosting is outdated, the cake is dry, it's nasty.  I'm lactose intolerant, it just doesn't work. And that is my review on the first season of

Cardfight  Vanguard Overdress. If it gets better, please, please be honest with me here. Okay, do not make  me sit through hell again if it gets better in season 2. Let me know. I need to know. I want to  know. I will cover season 2 if it does, but be honest with me. Please don't make me torture  myself again. Oh, if you enjoyed this video, seriously though, if you've listened to  me this long, I really appreciate you. And if you want to hear more news, reviews, and  whatever else we choose, sta

y tuned. I mean, subscribe. I'd love to have you, and I'd love to  talk to you in the comments below. If you have anything to say regarding Cardfight Vanguard,  other card battling anime, or if you just want to tell me I'm wrong respectfully, I'm  totally down to discuss my opinions, my thoughts, and my feelings with you. Above all  else though, thank you. Have a great day. [Music]