Yeah ok, people are entitled to their opinions, but honestly, I’ve even seen voice actors say that about VRAINS and Yusaku in particular, and it’s. It’s so ridiculous.
You don’t care about the main protag? So, since YOU don’t care and VRAINS doesn’t cater to YOUR specific character preferences, VRAINS is doing a poor job?
yeah ok.
I acknowledge VRAINS has got some serious flaws, especially when it comes to pacing and in terms of who gets screentime (tho, tbh, I’m not sad to see Go getting nonexistent screentime, but that’s just me), but I’m really not seeing where VRAINS isn’t trying to make Yusaku not such a one-dimensional character in real time???
also I’d love to know which YGO series didn’t have glaring serious flaws in terms of character development and screentime.
I mean, Yusaku might not have the typical character development route of other YGO main protags, but you know what? At least he has one. As beloved as Yusei Fudo is among the YGO community - including the people making these accusations about Yusaku and VRAINS - I really can’t think of a single moment in 5D’s where Yusei actually developed on-screen as a character.
“But, the Dark Signers arc?”
Right, but did that development stick after that arc? It didn’t.
Then there was the whole “dueling for fun” thing Yusei started in S2, which would be fine … except that happened in BBT and not in the actual 5D’s anime. And it’s the only time you could see a real change in Yusei’s character. Which didn’t really stick around for long either.
The only time you really see development for Yusei that actually sticks is in flashbacks for events that occurred long before the events of 5D’s even started. Which. Doesn’t really say a whole lot.
So, there ya have it. A developmentless Yusei. But, the dude isn’t perceived as an asshole by the masses, so Yusei having no development is a-okay!
(disclaimer: listen, I love Yusei with all my being. But I can’t just ignore he got like … zero consistent development tho lmao)
Meanwhile, we have Yusaku who’s dealing with his trauma from the Lost Incident and he starts off as someone who’s like “ALL HANOI KNIGHTS WILL PERISH,” and was seriously one-track minded and didn’t see dueling as fun.
But then he captures Ai and finds out his sworn enemy is actually the guy who saved him BUT ALSO the guy who indirectly started the Lost Incident for him. Which demands Yusaku to confront who he is as a person and what he wants to achieve.
Arguably, Yusaku’s still going through this process, but AT LEAST WITH VRAINS, you can visibly see the progression. Maybe it’s not clear-cut like people would want (since the masses don’t want to think THAT hard when it comes to fictional characters), but it’s sure as hell more obvious AND it’s proved to be actually effective with Yusaku than the fake development 5D’s tried to shove in for Yusei. *shrug*
As far as Yusaku’s trauma is concerned in addition to his struggle with how the hell he’s supposed to view others, ok, so it’s not a struggle not everyone can identify with.
But, just because you can’t identify with Yusaku’s struggle to even the slightest extent doesn’t mean VRAINS is doing a piss-poor job at making you care about him. Maybe that’s just a personal problem.
Not that I’m saying VRAINS’ portrayal of mental health and recovery is perfect … ‘cause it ain’t lmao. But, in a world that still thinks talking of mental health is inappropriate, the fact it’s mentioned is extremely important.
(”But Arc V did a much better job!” lmao yeah I know)
I know there’s this view that “well if the series doesn’t have a likable main character, it’s garbage” people love to hold, but honestly, having a view like that only gets you so far lmao.
anyway.
tl;dr: vrains is trying to make yusaku more likable and people don’t see that b/c it’s not overly obvious and they don’t like it ‘cause they don’t want to think it through. But, Yusaku’s gotten more development that’s stuck with him in 60ish episodes of VRAINS than Yusei did in 154 episodes of 5D’s and Yusei’s only getting a pass ‘cause people can stomach his character type.
while I’d argue that people can prefer Yusei to Yusaku without being hypocrites bc of how endearing he is crafted to be to the audience by contrast, as your argument stems from how well written their character arc is, I totally agree that a) Vrains is doing a perfectly admirable job writing their protag and b) plenty of shows can and do get by just fine without a likeable main character.
for the first point, I mean the way Yusei is designed to be charismatic in his own way, gathering allies with barely any effort just by virtue of how genuine, calmly caring and hard working he is. By contrast, Yusaku expressly pushes people away almost whenever possible, and that’s a part of the story in itself, but is also not making him come across as as pleasant as Yusei was, if that makes sense. Its just as valid that people don’t get as much enjoyment watching a MC they struggle to like as opposed to one that they do, as it is to enjoy a character for their complexity and flaws.
you make a great summary of a), and b) just requires me to point to stories where the main character is widely disliked or is the literal villain, or is in a situation so extreme that nobody can actually relate properly. The stories can be engaging of their own momentum, and even aside from that a character can be difficult to like/be endeared to, but still be engaging in order to draw you into being invested. For a lot of people it seems like Yusaku is their first foray into the latter category: it can be hard to let a show with a character you fundamentally cant understand the thought process of evoke any sort of feeling from you, but Vrains has done as good a job as any here.
From the first episode its apparent he’s not cruel, but definitely thinks differently from what’s expected of him/other characters around him/the audience - yeah its hard to get why he said those things to Naoki, but its made apparent that we aren’t MEANT to get him properly, not yet at least. As the story goes on it becomes apparent that this distance between the protagonist and the audience id due to a mix of his detective archetype (where its common for inner thoughts to be kept from the audience alongside the other characters until the last minute) and the trauma of, not just the Incident itself, but the proceeding decade of perceived isolation and failure to make any sort of improvement. It arguably even comes full circle with the audience able to understand why he feels disconnected from the rest of his world, seeing as WE have experienced that with his very character. But, either way, the writers fed us clues and hints and information at the right moments to lead to small bursts of deeper understanding of his previously mysterious thoughts, from the SP being responsible for his Three Things quirk to episode 19′s revelation to his duel with Spectre to his confrontation with Ryouken etc. At times this means understanding both where he was before this point in the series, and how this very moment has changed him somehow at the same time, but the show handles it at least as well as character progression in previous series.
that got a bit out of hand, but ultimately the point I wanted to make was that, like Chibi said, development isn’t a problem, and its fine to not enjoy a character as much if they’re not crafted to be as appealingly pleasant as others - but there’s a difference between a character being un-endearing to your tastes, being static in terms of development, being written boringly, and being written badly. And, in the case of Vrains, while I cant say anything about the 2 subjective points, they clearly had a set goal when writing that they have achieved to a more than acceptable degree and as a result it is objectively not static nor badly written.
I’m actually in the minority camp that refuses to rank the YGO main protags above each other not only b/c I like them all for wildly different reasons, but also b/c I’m starting to notice people who vehemently prefer a certain main protag (unless it’s Yugi) give off this … vibe. Not wholly a bad thing or a good thing, but it’s just something I don’t want to be. That’s partially why this post came to be tbh.
Of course people can prefer Yusei over Yusaku w/o being hypocritical. If I implied that earlier, that’s my bad. People have preferences and it can’t be helped, after all.
The problem, in my view, isn’t that people like Yusei over Yusaku. Hell, that’s just a fact of life at this point. Yusei’s freakin’ key words are “kizuna” and “nakama” for crying out loud like True Shounen Main Protag Everyone Loves right there. Tho, even that’s ironic, considering Yusei’s first words in 5D’s was “Was he dueling a wimp?” and he beat up people from time to time lmao.
My problem is that people don’t think VRAINS is doing enough to make them care about Yusaku. But VRAINS is literally bending itself backwards to do so, especially since Yusaku didn’t exactly have a Squad of Friends to begin with like the other main protags.
(”But what about Judai?” you might ask. well yeah, but he had at least two friends by the end of episode 1. Yusaku … didn’t have any, per him lmao)
Meanwhile, some of these same people place Yusei on a pedestal in terms of ideal characters who deserve respect even though most of the reason we care about him is that he grew up in extremely crappy circumstances and is still a caring dude in spite of that.
Which isn’t really a problem … except we weren’t exactly shown why Yusei was so nice in spite of it all. No insight into his thinking or his constant process of choosing to be kind rather than being nasty. Nothing.
We know or at least have a good understanding why Crow-sama and Jack reacted and did what they did, but Yusei? Not really.
And, on top of that, I remember one thing that really stood out to me when I rewatched 5D’s about 2 years ago was that Crow-sama, Jack, and Kiryu ALL made some comment about Yusei not really changing. (”You haven’t changed at all, Yusei!”) One character making that comment, I would let it slide b/c it’s just one character, but if THREE characters are saying the same thing, something’s up.
And, naturally, the whole “you haven’t changed” comment was never brought up ever again outside the Dark Signer arc. And Yusei’s character arguably took a nosedive as a result. Go freakin’ figure.
Meanwhile, VRAINS is literally trying so hard - recap episodes and all - maybe not to make Yusaku likable like his predecessors, but at least give him the chances to develop as a human being, above all else. In other words, making sure he doesn’t become Yusei 2.0 (since this is the new-gen 5D’s) in terms of development.
It’s a slow process, but with what Yusaku had to go through and how he coped with his trauma, the slow process is believable.
Everyone’s got their preferences. But people shouldn’t let those preferences blind them so much that they can’t take a step back and see what’s actually going on in the media they’re consuming.
The franchises you love don’t have to cater to your preferences. Even if your preferences were the basis for them in the past.
(everything else I agree with, I just wanted to clarify some things lmao)