u/CursedEye03

On this day, May 10th, 2017, the first episode of VRAINS aired in Japan. That means today is the 9th anniversary of the show! Time really flies...

I really like VRAINS. It had production problems, but what we got was pretty good. The plays in the show were close to real-life Yugioh. The final season was cut short, but those last three duels were so freaking amazing! Playmaker vs Ai was so emotional.

Ever since Yusei left the prison, he had a new friend group while he was in Neo Domino City: Tanner, Yanagi, and Blister. They stuck around for about 15 episodes, although they weren't doing much... and post Dark Signers, they never did anything at all. The show just forgot about them, similarly to Yusei’s Satellite friends from the very beginning.

And it's a shame because this group had so much potential:

- Blister is a master hacker with deep connections in the underworld. He could investigate anything. That would have been really useful when Yusei and co. were trying to find out who the mysterious Ghost was in Season 2. Like he said: "I can get anywhere."

- Tanner is a competent duelist. Yanagi is a weaker duelist, but his Treasure deck was fun, and we could’ve gotten more cursed artifacts-focused duels.

I know the Signers are the heart of the series, but we could’ve had a few episodes in the second half where those three show up again.

K9 usually refers to police-trained dogs, which fits the lore well because the members of K9 are mutants. They are humans with supernatural abilities who can transform into different creatures. Lupus, for example, literally becomes a werewolf. Although he isn’t a member of the team, he acts more like a vigilante, a wild card. He’s not an enemy, but he’s not really an ally either.

Izuna is the official leader of the team, but Noroi is the de facto leader. No one can transform without his permission. That’s why he’s there: to monitor the team members and prevent them from going berserk. The problem is that his approach often clashes with Izuna’s leadership style.

Noroi isn’t exactly a nice person. He sometimes forces Jökul and Lantern to transform, even though it’s very dangerous for them. If something goes wrong, their body temperature goes out of control, and they could die.

Overall, the situation is a double-edged sword. They maintain order in the city, which is good, but the team members are essentially muzzled. They are fully controlled. KEEPER Headquarters decides when and how they can transform.