History Anime / CardfightVanguard

* BadassDecay:
** Kourin tends to suffer this. She's initially portrayed as a strong fighter and [[CurbstompBattle curbstomps]] Aichi on their first meeting. She is then [[CurbstompBattle curbstomped]] by [[BigBad Ren]], [[spoiler: [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide Aichi]]]], and [[spoiler: [[TheAce Kai]]]] in her following three fights.
** Misaki suffers a lot from this in Season 2 so far. Fans are particularly bitter about it because not only has she had one win (against a CListFodder guy), all of her losses have been against LimitBreak Units. So the common belief is that she's losing just to promote LimitBreak [[MerchandiseDriven as an awesome mechanic.]]
*** She averts this later in the season when she rebuilds her deck from the Tsukuyomi/Amaterasu build to the soulless Scarlet Witch, [=CoCo=] build and stops losing altogether. Later she obtains the Goddess of Sun, Amaterasu crossride which has a Limit Break and she continues to win.
*** It becomes much worse in Season 4 as she loses every fight she is involved with. And this is after Season 3 where she had gone undefeated the whole season with the same clan.
** And Team Caesar. Despite being former National Champions, the only time they're capable of winning onscreen is when they're fighting Team Q4. And they now seem to be Season 2's go-to Worf candidates, since not only have they been beaten by Team SIT Genius, but [[spoiler: New [=AL4=]]] too. Though to be fair [[spoiler:Kenji does beat Ren, the only time a character other than Aichi or Kai has ever defeated Ren.]]
** Kai is the biggest offender of this. After 2 seasons of winning every fight (Not counting his first one with Aichi at the very start) only to lose to the season's BigBad, fans has noted Kai as "The guy who will win every fight in the season but lose to the final boss of that season."
*** In Legion Mate, Kai goes further into the trope, justifies it...and then averts it in the end. After becoming the Main Character he goes on to shortly lose as many fights in one season as he has lost in the entire SERIES up to that point, including losses to two characters he had easily defeated multiple times in the past. And one of his wins was [[spoiler:Ren]] who essentially threw the fight. The justification comes from the fact that [[spoiler:he wasn't using his usual Kagero or Narukami clan but the Royal Paladins. While a strong deck that he has used in the past, it's not one he's had much success with and doesn't fit his style of play]]. However, once he obtains [[spoiler:his Kagero Deck again]] he doesn't lose a fight for the rest of the season.

* ZettaiRyouiki: Asaka is a Grade B. Suiko is a grade A in her Ultra Rare getup.

* ConspicuousCGI: In ''Neon Messiah'', [[spoiler: Ibuki's Deletors are rendered in CGI, presumably to emphasise their alien and otherworldly nature.]]

** Leon also made one with [[BiggerBad VOID]] in order to resurrect Aqua Force.

[[/folder]]
[[folder:T-Z]]

There was also the sequel series. To read more about it, see: Anime/CardfightVanguardG.

As of March 2018, there has been two main series with a third series, rebooting to the first.

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[[folder: Cardfight!! Vanguard (Original Series)]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Bermuda Triangle ~Colorful Pastrale~]]
A series focused around a group of Mermaid girls, Sonata, Caro, Fina, Serena, and Canon, living in the nation of Magallanica on Planet Cray.[[/folder]]

A flash anime for the Mini Vanguard series, a 4-panel comic strip will be produced too. There are also two manga series published by Kadokawa Shoten in different magazines: one in Comp Ace and another in [[Manga/SgtFrog Kerokero]] Ace. However, ever since the discontinuation of Kerkero Ace, the manga was moved to Bushiroad's own monthly magazine, the Monthly Bushiroad. It also has a {{Prequel}} in the form of ''0 Start Set'', which depicts Kai's childhood and playing Royal Paladins before meeting Aichi. Another manga series was also serialized in the Monthly Bushiroad, titled Cardfight!! Vanguard Gaiden: Swordsman of Light, which follows the story of the units and their battle on the Planet Cray.

The franchise was popular enough to warrant its own video game. In April 2013, the first game Ride to Victory came out in the Nintendo 3DS handheld, produced by the [=FuRyu=] Company. The game follows the player character (Chosen from 6 available) in his/her way to become the National Champion. A year later, in June 2014, a sequel game, Lock On Victory, followed suit, produced by the same company. It follows closely to the plot of Link Joker Arc where the player character (Chosen from the same 6 characters from the previous game + 5 new characters in this game, one of them voiced by Creator/NobuyukiHiyama, no less!) gets to choose which of the 3 high schools (Aichi's Miyaji, Kai's Hitsue or Ren's Fukuhara) to join and win the Vanguard High School Championship while fighting the invasion of Link Joker. A third game, Stride To Victory, introduces 10 new characters, and follows the plot of the fifth season, was released on Januray 14th, 2016. However, all three games are subjected to NoExportForYou and region "Lock"ing by a Link Joker controlled Nintendo doesn't help the matter.

There is also a confirmation of a mobile game called Cardfight!! Vanguard ZERO, slated for release in Winter 2019 for its Japanese release. Its English release is currently for sometime in 2019.

There is also the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch game, Cardfight!! Vanguard EX (also produced by [=FuRyu=]), starring a new character named Izuru Shidou, appearing alongside other characters in a new story. At the very least this game will ''not'' be region-locked, so if there is not a localized release there is still hope to play.

[[folder:Cardfight!! Vanguard (Reboot)]]
A series reboot announced in March 2018 set to start airing in Spring 2018 follows Aichi back in the beginning. It is rumored to follow more closely to the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga plot than with the Anime plot.
[[/folder]]

!!This show provides examples of:

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[[folder: Tropes associated with Cardfight! Vanguard]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tropes associated with Cardfight! Vanguard (2018)]]
* AdaptationAmalgamation: Just like the manga, it combines certain events or cards of the original series together in order to tell a more streamlined story.
** Season 1 is rather downplayed since it uses many plot elements of season 1 with characters added from the first 2 seasons to give some characters more focus compared to the manga.
** Season 2 takes this even further. It uses plot elements of season 3 combined with the Neon Messiah movie with cards based of season 4 units appearing.
* AdaptationExpansion: Compared to the manga. More time is spent focused on the characters; some elements are also added from the original series, making this a combination of both the original series and the manga.
** Images 37 to 40 expand upon events that either happened off-panel or were only briefly shown in the manga, [[spoiler:Kyou being turned into a [=PSYqualia Zombie=] and Shingo fighting against Rekka]], using it as an opportunity to give increased roles to characters, namely Kai and Kamui, that were DemotedToExtra in the manga's second part.
** The high school tournament in the manga was covered in the span of two chapters and mostly served as an epilogue for the story. Here, the Vanguard Koshien is expanded into being its own arc.
* ArcWords: The expression "serious fight" is repeated several times during the first arc, usually in regards to the Foo Fighters organization or by Ren and Kai. What it means vary based on who is using it.
* BigBad: As the leader of the Foo Fighters group of cardfighters, and the strongest among them, Ren is this for the first arc. However, it was [[DragonInChief Tetsu]] who was responsible for the events of said arc as it was him who proposed the group raids other card shops.
** The second arc has a straighter exemple in the form of [[spoiler:the Destiny Conductor]].
* BittersweetEnding: The Highschool arc ends this way, although with more emphasis on the "sweet" part. [[spoiler:Aichi defeats the Destiny Conductor, ending the threat he posed to both Planet Cray and Vanguard and freeing Takuto from being possessed. Furhermore, the fate of the Conductor's own planet, Brandt, is implied to have changed for the better and Ibuki is regaining his love of Vanguard. At the same time, the Conductor's defeat causes the Tatsunagi sisters to be freed from their role as Takuto's Called Walkers but this also means that their destiny will return from normal and their friends will lose their memories of them since it will be as though their current selves will have never existed. However, Aichi and the other members of the Miyaji Cardfight Club promise to Kourin they will meet again at the Vanguard Koshien. Additionally, the fighters "deleted" by Ibuki still have their connection to Vanguard severed although it seems possible for them to eventually regain it.]]
* BookEnds: The first fight, or at least the firts one to be fully shown on screen, and last fight of the show's first arc both feature Aichi facing against Kai. Aichi even ends both fights with Blaster Blade as his vanguard.
* CallForward: Several are made toward the ''G'' series, especially during the continuation of the Highschool arc, such as younger versions of characters that debuted in it appearing.
** As shown in the third opening, Gouki and Koutei are shown to be attending Harumi High School, the same school Chrono attended from ''NEXT'' onwards, with Mamoru Anjou, Tokoha's older brother, as a fellow student.
** The members of Trinity Dragon make an appearance during Dimension 5.
* TheCameo: As of episode 27, the Milky Holmes girls are back as recurring background cameos.
* ChekhovsGunman: The [=ULTRARARE=] sisters appear in the first episode in an in-universe advertisement for the card game, which is earlier than their appearance in the manga.
** A flashback in Image 2 and a few shots the first ending show that when they were young, Kai and Miwa hanged with a third kid whose name isn't given. People who have read the manga or watched either ''Neon Messiah'' or ''G'' will recognize him as [[spoiler: a young Kouji Ibuki who returns later on as an antagonist.]]
* CompetitiveBalance: With the V Series reboot, every major Grade 3 unit comes with one of three Imaginary Gifts on ride. This is represented by a marker, a special card that represents the Gift. What they are depends on the clan. In addition, starting from the 3rd arc's support onward, you can now choose one of two versions of that clan's Imaginary Gift. But once you choose one version, you must stick with that type of Imaginary Gift for the remainder of the fight. For clarification, the first version is oriented vertically while the second version is oriented horrizontally.
** Accel: The gift marker grants the player an extra Rear Guard circle in the front row and while you cannot boost it with a unit, any unit on it gains an extra 10,000 power on that player's turn. The first Accel marker will be placed next to the left most circle on the left, then the right most circle on the right, and then the left again and so on and so forth.
*** Accel II: Like Accel I gift marker also grants the player an extra Rear Guard circle in the front row oriented the same way. This time, it only gives an extra 5,000 power on that player's turn, but once the marker is placed, that player draws a card.
** Force: The gift marker is placed on a Vanguard or Rear Guard circle and grants that circle an extra 10,000 power on that player's turn. Multiple markers can be used on a single circle and they do stack (if a circle has two Force Gifts on them, that circle will have an extra 20,000 power on your turn).
*** Force II: The gift marker is placed on a Vanguard or Rear Guard circle. Any unit on the Force II circle now has a base critical score of 2. Because of this, multiple markers on a single circle do not stack (if a circle has two Force II Gifts on them, that unit will still only have 2 base criticals).
** Protect: The gift marker is placed into that player's hand and acts like a Perfect Guard unit. It is still identified as a Sentinel card thus is affected by cards that prevent Sentinels from being used.
*** Protect II: The gift marker is placed on a Rear Guard circle and grants that circle an extra 5,000 power and 10,000 shield at all times. Like Force I, Protect II Gifts can stack on a single circle (if a circle has two Protect II Gifts on them, that circle will have an extra 10,000 power and 20,000 shield during either player's turn).
* ContinuityReboot: Towards the original anime ''and'' manga. Being a mix of the manga story and characters, but with characters that only appeared in the anime such as Gouki, Nagisa and Leon also appearing. Later on, characters from ''G'' start appearing as well.
* CosmicRetcon: Downplayed exemple. [[spoiler:The defeat of the Destiny Conductor means that Kourin, Suiko and Rekka lose their status as Called Walkers and their destiny will return to what it should have been, erasing them from their friends' memories and making it as though they never met them. However, it is later shown the consequences of the events that took place and led to the Conductor's defeat remain and some of the people affected have a feeling that something is missing.]]
* CurbStompBattle: Misaki finds herself on the losing end of two, first against Ren in Image 17 and then against [[spoiler:[=PSYQualia=] Zombie Aichi]] in Image 46 who both defeat her before she can even ride to Grade 3.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Downplayed, but instead of Foo Fighters being a team for national tournaments. They are In-Universe StopHavingFunGuys that take over card shops and force people to play "Serious Fights" that involve wearing gloves that electrocute them whenever they take damage.
* DemotedToExtra: Many side characters from the original series here make only brief cameos. Kamui's two pals Eiji and Reiji appear only in a flashback where Kyou defeats them in a Serious Fight and they quit playing Vanguard because of that, various minor characters from original Season 1 like Osamu or Team Brilliant Stars appear briefly to get curb stomped by Aichi in his fight against Foo Fighters members, while the other two members of Team Caesar, Jillian and Sharlene, and the Miyaji High school council have only brief cameos in episode 27.
* FinalBossPreview: Image 17 has Ren defeat Misaki right after she won against Asaka, showing how strong he and his [=PSYQualia=] are.
** This happens again during the second arc with Ren fighting against said arc's main antagonist, [[spoiler: the Destiny Conductor]], and being defeated by him.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In Image 6, Kai notes that the "Wind" has picked up, hinting that he may have Psyqualia like his Manga counterpart. [[spoiler:Confirmed, as of Image 25.]]
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: This time episodes are called "Images".
* ObviousRulePatch: Inevitable considering Bushiroad restarted the game from the beginning. Three new rules were incorporated to help balance out the early game.
** For Premium, if you already have a Grade 3 Vanguard, you are allowed to stride at the beginning of the Ride Phase. This eliminates any deck that attempts to stall out G-Era decks that require Striding to function.
** G-Assist are now just Assist due to the lack of G-Zone in the reboot. The Assist function works nearly the same, you reveal your hand if you cannot ride to the next grade if you are not already at grade 3, check the top five cards, add a card with the next grade to your hand, take two cards from your hand and remove them from the game. This helps Premium players as it maintains their G-Zone.
** Finally you are allowed to guard from hand with any grade. For example, if you are at grade 1, you can guard with a grade 2 card if you want. This helps alleviate pressure in the early game without having to worry about grade limits.
** To expand on this, several values have been adjusted.
*** Base powers have been universally increased. More specifically, Grade 3 units that are in a Force clan are at a base power of 13,000, Grade 3 units in the Accel and Protect clans are at 12,000 base power.
*** Triggers have increased their power increases from 5,000 to 10,000 power. In addition, Front Triggers have been introduced giving all units in the front row an additional 10,000 power. This is meant to be a replacement for the Stand Triggers which will no longer be printed for the current Standard format. Finally, Front Triggers are currently exclusive to Accel clans.
*** Shield values have also been adjusted. Heal Trigger units are 20,000 shield, Front and Critical Trigger units are 15,000 shield, most Grade 1 units are 10,000 shield, and some draw triggers have the Sentinel keyword (though all sentinels are still 0 shield no matter what grade they are).
** In addition to using the Imaginary Gifts to have less overlap between the core mechanics of certain clans, several of them had their playstyle overhauled to various extents.
*** Tachikaze still retire their rearguards but now also have the new Equip Gauge mechanic to further distinguish themselves from Shadow Paladins.
*** Murakumo no longer share their focus of having multiple units with the same name with Neo Nectar as the latter focus on the newly-introduced Token mechanic which also help distinguish them from the Paladin clans.
*** Narukami's old mechanic of forcing the opponent to choose which rearguards are going to be retired was given to Shadow Paladin and they were instead given the ability to directly bind the opponent's rearguards as well as manipulate the positions of the opponent's rearguards so as to be be different from Kagero.
* PragmaticAdaptation: Compared to the original Vanguard series, fights are quicker and the plot moves faster.
* PsychicPowers: [=PSYqualia=] returns to the forefront as a plot element. It plays a major role in the first arc [[spoiler: and in the second one as well.]]
[[/folder]]

* CallForward: As shown in the third opening, Gouki and Koutei are shown to be attending Harumi High School, the same school Chrono attended from ''NEXT'' onwards, with Mamoru Anjou, Tokoha's older brother, as a fellow student.

* ContinuityReboot: Towards the original anime ''and'' manga. Being a mix of the manga story and characters, but with characters that only appeared in the anime such as Gouki, Nagisa and Leon also appearing.

*** Force II: The gift marker is place on a Vanguard or Rear Guard circle. Any unit on the Force II circle now has a base critical score of 2. Because of this, multiple markers on a single circle do not stack (if a circle has two Force II Gifts on them, that unit will still only have 2 base criticals).

* CompetitiveBalance: With the V Series reboot, every major Grade 3 unit comes with one of three Imaginary Gifts on ride. This is represented by a marker, a special card that represents the Gift. What they are depends on the clan. In addition, starting from the 3rd arc's support onward, you can now choose one of two versions of that clan's Imaginary Gift. But once you choose one version, you must stick with that Imaginary Gift for the remainder of the fight.

* CompetitiveBalance: With the V Series reboot, every major Grade 3 unit comes with one of three Imaginary Gifts on ride. This is represented by a marker, a special card that represents the Gift. What they are depends on the clan:

** Force: The gift marker is placed on a Vanguard or Rear Guard circle (or under the unit that circle is on) and grants that circle an extra 10,000 power on that player's turn. Multiple markers can be used on a single circle and they do stack (if a circle has two Force Gifts on them, that circle will have an extra 20,000 power on your turn).
** Protect: The gift marker is placed into that player's hand and acts like a Perfect Guard unit. It also has the most utility as it can be used for discarding effects.

*** Triggers have increased thier power increases from 5,000 to 10,000 power. In addition, Front Triggers have been introduced giving all units in the front row an additional 10,000 power. This is meant to be a replacement for the Stand Triggers which will no longer be printed for the current Standard format.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In Image 6, Kai notes that the "Wind" has picked up, hinting that he may have Psyqualia like his Manga counterpart.
** [[spoiler:Confirmed, as of Image 25.]]

** Season 2 takes this even further. It's based of the plot elements of season 3 combined with the movie Neon Messiah with cards based of season 4 units appearing.

* ArcWords: The expression "serious fight" is repeated several times, usually in regards to the Foo Fighters organization or by Ren and Kai. What it means vary based on who is using it.

* ChekhovsGunman: A flashback in Image 2 and a few shots the first ending show that when they were young, Kai and Miwa hanged with a third kid whose name isn't given. People who have read the manga or watched either ''Neon Messiah'' or ''G'' will recognize him as [[spoiler: a young Kouji Ibuki who returns later on as an antagonist.]]

A series reboot announced in March 2018 set to start airing in Spring 2018 follows Aichi back in the beginning. It is rumored to follow more closely to the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga plot than with the Anime plot. There is also a confirmation of a Bermuda Triangle series produced separately from the main anime.

There is also a confirmation of a mobile game called Cardfight!! Vanguard ZERO coming out in Winter 2018 for English and Japanese.

Episodes are now available subbed on [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/cardfight-vanguard Crunchyroll]] and subbed and dubbed on [[https://www.youtube.com/CARDFIGHTVanguard Youtube]]. Though it should be noted that Legion Mate was skipped over in the dub in favor of G.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: in Image 6, Kai notes that the "Wind" has picked up, hinting that he may have Psyqualia like his Manga counterpart.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Downplayed, but instead of Foo Fighters being a team for national tournaments. They are In-Universe StopHavingFunGuys that take over cardshops and force people to play "Serious Fights" that involve wearing gloves that electrocute them whenever they take damage.

* FiveBadBand:
** Season 3: Although there's not a real group defined within the Reverse fighters, the roles are roughly filled among the major cases.
*** BigBad: [[spoiler:Void Agent Takuto.]]
*** TheDragon: [[spoiler: Kai.]]
*** TheBrute: [[spoiler: Miwa/Kamui/Koutei.]]
*** TheEvilGenius: [[spoiler: Suiko/Tetsu.]]
*** TheDarkChick: [[spoiler: Kourin/Asaka.]]

* TakeAThirdOption: When Aichi is faced with decision of [[spoiler:whether or not to accept [[PsychicPowers Psyqualia]] and [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide the personality that comes with it]]]], he finally decides instead [[spoiler:that he can accept both sides of himself, without rejecting either Psyqualia or the part of himself that wants to fight without it]]. This leads to [[spoiler: [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome his riding of Majesty Lord Blaster and ultimate victory over Ren]]]].

** In Episode 82, the first opening, ''Vanguard'' plays during [[spoiler: Koutei's Final Turn]]. [[Music/JAMProject It's]] [[HotBlooded very]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome appropriate.]]

* DemotedToExtra: Many side characters from the original series here make only brief cameos. Kamui's two pals Eiji and Reiji appear only in a flashback where Kyou defeats them in a Serious Fight and they quit playing Vanguard because of that, various minor characters from original Season 1 like Osamu or Team Brilliant Stars appear briefly to get curb stomped by Aichi in his fight against Foo Fighters members, while the other two members of Team Caesar, Leon's sisters and the Miyagi High school council have only brief cameos in episode 27.