Anime / Cardfight!! Vanguard (V Series)

Let it shine! Be Legendary!

Aichi: "Vanguard! It's a card game where you can become a leader and fight your way to victory!"

Kai: "Imagine it! Imagination becomes your strength!"

— Opening Narration at the beginning of episodes 3-27.

The reboot of the original Cardfight!! Vanguard series.

Cardfight!! Vanguard (V series) began airing in May 5th, 2018. The first three arcs which follow Aichi's journey once more were based on the manga made by Akira Ito, but spun around its own story when its material ran out. Also unlike the previous series, the V series goes through various time periods and even other worlds.

• Foo Fighter Arc: A young shy boy called Aichi Sendou one day met Toshiki Kai who gave him the card "Blaster Blade". When one day his card got stolen by bullies, he was forced to fight against Kai to get it back. This starts his journey to becoming a more confident person and getting more friends along with discovering the mystic powers surrounding the game and getting in conflict with the card gang Foo Fighters.
• High School Arc: Aichi begins his life as a high-schooler of Miyaji. His first step to create a Cardfight Club, but later gets into conflict against Ibuki who plans to delete Fighter's love for Vanguard and the wandering planet Brandt who wants to invade Cray and uses Earth for that goal.
• High School Arc continued: Dealing with the aftermath of the events of the previous arc, Aichi and the Cardfight Club prepare for the Vanguard Koshien while Kai and Ibuki face their own struggles.
• Shinemon Arc: Set ten years before the events of the first arc, following Shinemon Nitta's attempt to prevent the Card Capital shop from going out of business while the owner of a major card shop attempts to take it over. The 2nd half is about Shinemon's participation at the Asia Circuit and how it gets tangled with the goals of the Ryuzu Lab.
• Extra Story -IF- Arc: The world's history has been disorted resulting into the -If- World, a place where things are not resolved by Vanguard. Ibuki and Suiko travel to the -If- world where they meet the Blaster Pair comprised of Magical Girl Emi Sendou and the fairy of cards Shuka. The four of them start their journey to recover the world's true history.

A video game based on the reboot called Cardfight!! Vanguard EX and developed by FuRyu has been released on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on September 19 of 2019. It features its own storyline as well a brand new protagonist named Izuru Shidou and other game-exclusive characters.

While the series concluded on November 28th 2020 and was succeeded by overDress on April 3rd 2021. The V series received a new spin-off anime called mini vanguard Large on July 6th 2021, which is a omake-style anime which features Selka assembling the four protagonist (Aichi, Shinemon, Emi and Chrono) in order to make the planet Aniversario and enjoyable place for everyone.

Tropes that apply to Cardfight Vanguard V.

• Adapted Out: Various aspects and characters from the original series have been removed.
  • The Void entity is completely absent. As such, the Star-vaders, most notably Chaos Breaker, are absent as well, the Deletors and Star Hulks of Planet Brandt taking their place.
  • The Asia Circuit is relegated to mostly off-screen. As a result, the teams introduced there are absent, in particular SIT Genius.
  • Koutei, Gouki, and Nakagami's teammates suffer from this, with Yuri and Kaworu barely averting this by being apart of the team for the Vanguard Koshien.
  • As Kyou is an Ascended Extra here and is still a part of Foo Fighters, Team Avengers is never formed, and his would-be teammates are never shown.
  • Kai and Miwa's friend Jun is absent, as is the underground fighting ring he led.
  • Nakamurabashi, the mandated Club-Adviser the Miyaji Vanguard Club had in the original series, isn't present here.
  • The Quatre-Knights aren't formed here, and as such its unclear if their members even exist in this continuity. A spinoff manga would confirm Gaillard and Neve do exist, but are simply professional fighters now.
  • Mechanic-wise, most of the mechanics introduced with each series have been excised, including Limit Break, Legion, and Stride. Units that possessed these abilities in the original series now either lack them entirely, or have abilities that let them simulate the mechanics without being the mechanics.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: Just like the manga, it combines certain events or cards of the original series together in order to tell a more streamlined story.
  • Foo Fighter Arc 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.
  • The High School Arc takes this further. It uses plot elements of season 3 combined with the Neon Messiah movie with cards based of season 4 units appearing.
  • The High School Arc Continued somehow takes this even further than the previous Arc since now even characters from the G era are appearing which starts with just Mamoru Anjou and Trinity Dragon.
  • The Shinemon arc also has more G characters appearing while at the same time introducing new original characters. It also follows an original story which eventually transcends into an amalgamation of Shinemon's past as Team nippon shown in G along with Rive's work with Ryuzu. Remind 29 and 30 are partially based off the Cardfight!! Vanguard G: THE PROLOGUE manga, featuring units that only appeared there, while also referencing elements from the G anime.
  • While it is not an outright adaptation, Extra Story -IF- has a similar premise as Legion Mate. They are both about the world's history being distorted with the main characters trying to fix it and return everything to normal. For bonus points Aichi is inside a castle which the main characters try to get him out of.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • 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, 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 Demoted to Extra 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. However this is downplayed since the arc only lasted 14 episodes. On top of that only brief clips of most of the fights were shown.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the original incarnation, Chrono hid his abandonment issues and the like much better, rarely letting them show, at worst letting his temper explode if he knew people were hiding things from him. Here, the loss of Rive and inability to remember what happened that night weigh heavily on him, not helped by his feeling like a burden to Mikuru. As a result, he's much more melancholic, has almost no self-confidence, and as a result, the students at his school see him less as a bully and more like the aloof kid. Upon meeting Shin and learning about his relationship to Rive, he nearly breaks down in tears over why he can't remember anything and why no one is telling him anything.
• Adaptational Badass: Several characters.
  • Aichi is far more competent as a newbie than in the original, being able to easily defeat powerful Foo Fighter fighters with ease within a week or two after starting playing.
  • Miwa, though in this case it's probably because he's more involved in contrast to the anime's Badass Bystander version.
  • Zigzagged with Morikawa. In this version, he's less skilled than his original counterpart - who was able to pull feats like mastering Kai's Kagero deck without ever seeing it before - but he's much, MUCH better at deck building. As a result, he's doing much better in fights with a far better overall score, but he's nowhere near able to pull the epic winning streaks that his old counterpart did.
  • Ibuki runs a Deletor deck during the season he appears in - the Delete skill is far more powerful than Lock - and he has PSYQualia to boot.
  • Not a spoiler for those familiar with the manga, but Kai possesses both PSYQualia AND the Grade 4 Dragonic Nouvelle Vague. Even better, neither of those is mentioned ever again, because according to him he doesn't need them.
  • Shinemon was a badass cardfighter in the original too being a member of Team Nippon, which Rive founded and led. In this series, Shinemon is the founder and leader and on top of that eventually surpasses Rive as its strongest member.
  • It's all but stated that Ryuzu Myoujin has PSYQualia; as he admits to Rive that he can hear the voices of his units and is even shown discussing with Chronofang Tiger once. Also counts as an Adaptational Superpower Change, as he was a Peacemaker in G, but lacks this power here.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Heavily downplayed case. In the original series, despite his aunt and her uncle knowing each other for years, there was little indication Chrono and Misaki knew about each other beforehand. Here, it's shown that while not close, Misaki did know about Chrono as a kid and spent time with him, even recognizing him when he shows up at Card Capital.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Ryuzu doesn't have his Summon Magic abilities from G, but he's heavily implied to have PSYQualia.
  • All over the place in regards to what decks players use.
    • In the original series, Miwa used a Kagero deck similar to Kai's before eventually shifting to the Seal Dragons sub-clan. Here, he uses a Nova Grappler deck focused on the Hero race.
    • Downplayed in regards to Morikawa. In the original series, he had no set clan, rather he just loaded his deck with Grade 3s of various clans, but when G instituted the Clan Fight rule, he shifted focus to a Spike Brothers deck. Here, he uses Spike Brothers from the outset, and lacks the obsession with Grade 3s.
    • In the original series, because of her obsession with Kamui, Nagisa used a Nova Grappler deck. Here however, thanks to her Adaptation Personality Change, she uses a Granblue deck similar to her brother Gouki's.
    • In the original series, Kyou primarily used a Spike Brothers deck. Here, he instead uses a Murakumo deck comprised of cards that were Nubatama in the manga.
    • In the original series, Kourin primarily used a Royal Paladin deck, and temporarily used both Angel Feather and Link Joker. Here, she uses a Gold Paladin deck.
    • In the original series, Rekka used an Angel Feather deck focusing on the Celestial sub-clan, while Suiko used a more generic build. Here, Suiko now has the Celestial cards, while Rekka uses a Neo Nectar deck focused on the Musketeers.
    • ZigZagged with Shingo. In the original series, while he did repeatedly switch decks, his main deck was Murakumo. Here however he uses a Nubatama deck, one comprised of the cards he used in his Murakumo deck, the Magatsu series.
    • In the original series, Shinemon used a Murakumo deck built around Yasuie. Here, he uses a Genesis deck focused on the Astral Poets.
    • In the original, Rive solely used a Tachikaze deck focused on Gaia. Here, he primarily uses a Nova Grappler deck focused on God Hand Dragon, and temporarily uses a Gear Chronicle deck focused on Chronojet.
    • In the original series Emi, after using Oracle Think Tank in her few early duels, moves on to use Bermuda Triangle as her main clan. In If, she is first seen using Gear Chronicle and then Aichi's Royal Paladin deck.
• Arc Words: 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.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Kyou Yahagi plays a far more important role than being an occasional villain of the week, as he guides Aichi to take down the Foo Fighters, and is heavily involved in the whole Psyquolia Zombie arc.
  • In the original series, Ibuki was entirely absent from the main story until the Neon Messiah movie in which he served as the Big Bad, before later becoming the Big Good in the G portion. Here, he starts out as the Wild Card amidst the battle between the Destiny Conductor and the Cardfighters, before eventually becoming the tritagonist by time of the Vanguard Koshien, and then the main character in Extra Story -If-.
  • Shinemon turned from a side character to the Protagonist. How's that for "Ascended Extra"?
  • Same goes for all his acquaintances. Mark, Rive, and Mikuru all become main characters, while in the original Mark made a once in a blue moon appearance (usually to kick ass), Rive was only random mentions and cameos, and Mikuru was a side character.
  • Remember Valeos the Diffrider from G? The guy who was being possessed by him becomes an important character with a key role in Rive's past.
  • Saya's mother of all people appears. She was only mentioned once in G.
  • In the original series, Suiko was the Tatsunagi sister to receive the least attention, thanks to Kourin being an Ascended Extra in Link Joker and Rekka forming a team of three with Mai and Emi. Here, Suiko not only has an expanded role as a neutral party after losing to Ibuki and commentating on current events, she becomes one of the leads opposite Ibuki in Extra Story -If-, making her a main character.
  • Emi finally gets to shine as one of the lead characters of Extra Story -If-.
• Big Bad:
  • 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 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 example in the form of the Destiny Conductor.
  • Esuka is this for the first half of the Shinemon Arc, but unlike the other examples, she's just a businesswoman who wants to take over Card Capital, and eventually turns out to be an In-Universe Designated Villain (she's only seen as a villain by Shinemon) and a Reasonable Authority Figure.
  • The second half of the Shinemon Arc has Ryuzu taking this role since his experiments are the focal point of the story. Until it's revealed that Tatsuya is the true big bad and had been using Ryuzu the whole time.
  • The Extra Story -IF- Arc has the -IF- World version of Aichi Sendou taken this role due to being the leader of Jammer.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The Highschool arc ends this way, although with more emphasis on the "sweet" part. Aichi defeats the Destiny Conductor, ending the threat he posed to both Planet Cray and Vanguard and freeing Takuto from being possessed. Furthermore, 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.
  • The 2nd half of the Shinemon arc ends this way, although this time with more emphasis on the "bitter" part. Shinemon was able to save Tatsuya from his own self destructive behavior and Rive managed to save his son, but at the cost of himself disappearing in a portal to Cray which in turn caused Shinemon to lose the final match at the Asia Circuit due to being too shaken by the loss of his master.
• Book Ends:
  • The first fight, or at least the first one to be fully shown on screen, and last fight of the Foo Fighter arc both feature Aichi facing against Kai with Aichi even ending both fights with Blaster Blade as his vanguard.
  • The first scene of the past or rather the Shinemon arc shown was Tatsuya running to Card Capital, the first scene of the future is Chrono being dragged to Card Capital.
  • While not shown in its entirety, the fight between Emi and Kai in the final episode of -IF- is basically a repeat of the first duel between Aichi and Kai, complete with her riding Blaster Blade while Kai already got Dragonic Overlord on the field.
  • In the first episode of the -IF- arc, Ibuki tries to cardfight against a Jammer only to get rejected and getting saved by the Blaster Pair. In the final episode, the stage show Aichi and Emi end up being part of opens with a recreation of the same scene, with Aichi in Ibuki's place.
• Bowdlerise: In the original version, it's said many times that Esuka was a Gravure Idol in her youth. As the concept of underaged girls posing in bikini is not accepted in Western culture, the English sub and dub state instead she was a swimsuit model.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • Literally every episode preview has the characters talking about the show and the audience.
  • Happens at least once per episode in the -If- arc: Ibuki complaining about animation errors, Shuka calling out the final summoning of each episode as "This week's final card"...
• The Bus Came Back: Episode 11 of the -IF- arc marks the return of Majesty Lord Blaster, which hasn't been seen since the first season of the original series.
• Call-Forward: 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.
  • The preview of Dimension 7, Gouki and Koutei talk with Mamoru about his helpfulness and how they picture him slaving away at an exploitative company working under a feckless supervisor which in a way describes his role in G.
  • Remind 2 has Mikuru reminding Rive that he's supposed to buy diapers for his baby son whose hair can be described as a Lemniscate of Bernoulli, a mosquito coil or an archimedean spiral or in simpler terms "Swirly" which all clearly refer to Chrono.
  • Ryutaro Oyama likes to dress up in mascot costumes such as the chibi Valkerion, a clear reference towards the times he dressed up as Vangaro. At the end of the arc, we actually see him wearing the Vangaro costume once again.
  • At the end of the arc, Ryuzu gains a scar on his right eye.
  • If 2 has Ibuki saying he won't tell his name to Chrono even if they became friends.
• The Cameo:
  • As of Image 27, the Milky Holmes girls are back as recurring background cameos.
  • In Dimension 10, you can see Henri Hayao from G: Next watching the Vanguard Koshien which references his role in that season. He appears again in Dimension 12.
  • The girls from RAISE A SUILEN appear in Dimension 12 appear as part of the audience watching the fight between Aichi and Ren.
  • Nate and Jibanyan appear in the crowd during the idol concept in Remind 17.
  • Shion, Tokoha and Kumi appear briefly in Remind 29. In addition, Arte Hibino, Gastille's host from G:Z appears as well and is revealed to be Esuka's younger brother.
  • Dejiko makes a very brief appearance in the final episode of If, as a way to promote Bushiroad and Broccoli's joint partnership which started the same day as the episode aired.
• Cast from Hit Points: Arch-aider, Malkuth-melekh from the Angel Feather clan. He has a powerful ability to revive three of your units from the drop zone and give power to your entire front row, but is dealt a point of damage in the process. In the anime, this is represented by Malkuth alternatively slicing off one of his own wings with his scalpel-staff, or simply tearing it off with one hand.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • 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 a young Kouji Ibuki who returns later on as an antagonist.
  • Tatsuya disappears for a while, only to be revealed that he's the real Big Bad.
• The Chosen One: Earth and Cray both have a Singularity which allows for contact between the two worlds to happen. The Singularity of Cray is Chrono Dran and the Singularity of Earth is Chrono Shindou.
• Coming of Age Story:
  • The original plot was about Aichi going from a timid boy to a courageous youth.
  • The Shinemon arc is about Shinemon learning to find his desire to ultimately become a successful manager.
• Competitive Balance: 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 BT05: Aerial Steed Liberation, 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 horizontally.
  • Accel clans focus on offense and as a result give the imaginary gifts give the fighter a new Rear Guard Circle in the front row. (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.) Clans with this marker also have access to Front Triggers which gives all the units in the front row more power. Their units also focus more on gaining multiple attacks which for example can be done through standing or superior calling units which adds more pressure against their opponents.
    • Accel (I): As mentioned above 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.
    • 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 clans focus on a balance between offence and defense, as a result their gift markers focus on giving their units more offensive power and their Grade 3 have more base power than Grade 3 units of Accel or Protect clans for a stronger offense and defence.
    • Force (I): 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 clans focus more defense, as a result their Gift Markers gives them more ways of solidifying them and their units have more focus on superior riding units to gain more Gift Markers and/or gain more attack power with their own skill too compensate for their lack of attack power compared too Accel and Force clans.
    • Protect (I): 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).
• Continuity Reboot: 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 with many Call Forwards.
• Cosmic Retcon:
  • Downplayed example. 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.
  • Discussed in the Shinemon arc in regards to Gear Chronicle's time manipulation abilities and potential effects, but eventually it doesn't come to pass.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Misaki finds herself on the losing end of two, first against Ren in Image 17 and then against PSYQualia Zombie Aichi in Image 46 who both defeat her before she can even ride to Grade 3.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • Downplayed, but instead of Foo Fighters being a team for national tournaments. They are In-Universe "Stop Having Fun" Guys that take over card shops and force people to play "Serious Fights" that involve wearing gloves that electrocute them whenever they take damage.
  • Happens again in the Shinemon arc when Ryuzu Myoujin appears and taken even fruther when the true Big Bad is revealed.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • 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 early episodes of the second arc (albeit both the twins and the council members are given a bit more time in the third arc).
  • During the Vanguard Koshien, Yuri and Kaoru "Kaboom" Komatsubara can be sen as part of the school team Gouki, Koutei and Mamoru are in.
  • As the plot of G is largely kept to the final two episodes of Shinemon, and only covers Chrono's introduction to Vanguard, most of the G cast are giving cameos at best, with Shion, Tokoha, and Kumi in particular being shown watching Chrono from afar at school, the latter two asking Chrono about his Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life, and the former noticing him arrive at Card Capital as he's leaving. The few exceptions are ones giving connections to the prior cast, such a Mamoru forming a bond with Kai, or the characters tied to Shin's past.
• Denser and Wackier: The first half of the Extra Story -iF- series is this in spades. Aside from the initial premise alone (Emi as a magical girl), the episodes are chuck full of several comedic gags, scenarios and dialogues complete with meta humor and the occasional fourth-wall breaking.
• Distant Finale: The epilogue of the Shinemon series takes place 10 years after the events of its second half and thus around the same time as the beginning of the G storyline.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: The Big Bad of the Shinemon arc is revealed to be Tatsuya of all people. He had used his secret wealth inherited from his late parents to fund Ryuzu's research, and Ryuzu's Dragon was actually his dragon, all for the sake of bringing his parents back to life.
• Duels Decide Everything: Averted in the -IF- arc, as the Blaster Pair points out that cardfighting against the Jammers is ludicrous. Since the Jammers are murderous alien monsters, they're right.
• Final Boss Preview:
  • 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, the Destiny Conductor, and being defeated by him.
  • In their first fight Esuka was able to block Shinemon's Valkerion Triple Drive attack and defeat him to show off her skill as a fighter.
  • Ryuzu uses his Gear Chronicle deck to defeat both Shinemon and Esuka who are both national players, but this is actually a subversion since the true Big Bad is actually Tatsuya who in turn plays this straight by showing off his strength by defeating Ryuzu with his new Angel Feather deck.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • Due to the Shinemon arc being a prequel, it's already set in stone that Shinemon will succeed in protecting Card Capital and will officially become the manager of the shop. Also due to the state of the shop, there were already subtle hints Shinemon would not win the National championship since if he used to be a famous professional cardfighter, the cardshop would be much busier. Then again, Shin goes out of his way to distance himself from his former Cardfighter persona and could still bring in customers as the legendary cardfighter Shinemon Nitta. Even the main group doesn't know they are the same person.
  • The moment Ryuzu Myoujin appeared, it was obvious that the events that led to G would happen again.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In Image 6, Kai notes that the "Wind" has picked up, hinting that he may gain PSYqualia like his Manga counterpart. Confirmed, as of Image 25.
  • Rive has to leave for work at the oddest hours, but it's never clarified what his work is. When we find out...
• Genre Shift: The World of -IF- arc changes genre to Magical Girls, but still retains the card game aspect by giving them and the enemy Summon Magic.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
  • In the Foo Fighters and High School Arcs the episodes are called "Images".
  • In the High School Arc Continued the episodes are called "Dimensions".
  • In the Shinemon arc the episodes are called "Remind", which clearly is a reminder that the arc is a Prequel.
  • In the -If- arc the episodes are called "ifs", referring to how most episodes are set in alternate dimensions slightly differing from the main one.
• In Spite of a Nail: While in this version of events Rive never erased Chrono's memories of Vanguard and the experiments, Chrono still doesn't remember because he was too young.
• Invisible to Normals: Sanctuary, the creepy castle in -IF-. Only people aware of the anomalies can see it.
• Lighter and Softer: The High School arc and the beginning of Shinemon arc are very lighthearted and goofy with tones of comedic scenes.
• Mad Scientist: Ryuzu and Tatsuya.
• The Man in Front of the Man: Tatsuya is first shown as one of Ryuzu Lab's interns, but later revealed that he's the one who funded Ryuzu's research in the first place.
• Mysterious Backer:
  • Played with. In the -IF- arc, Mask the Dark is clearly Ren in a Paper-Thin Disguise, something that Ibuki immediately lampshades. However, he acts exactly as this trope towards Emi and Shuka, who have no idea who he is (they never met him), helping them out in pinches to even the odds, only to disappear right afterwards.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In Remind 2 Shinemon uses the same pencil trick Chrono used during an exam.
  • The opening shows Shinemon, Mark and Rive wearing the outfits they wore as Team Nippon.
  • Whenever Ryuzu fights, the scenery where the fight takes place is the same as the one where Chrono had his final match against Kamui (the roof of the large brass factory-looking building with the huge gears).
  • In -If- 12, that world's Ren insist that he and Ibuki should continue their fight even as the building is collapsing, bringing in mind the "CARDFIGHTS ON AVALANCHES" scene from the original series's Asia Circuit.
• No Antagonist: The Vanguard Koshien didn't have any antagonist or greater power with a nefarious goal, it was just a regular tournament.
• Not His Sled:
  • While the plot is still mostly the same, some of the fights tend to go differently since the game has developed a lot throughout the years although this series is a Continuity Reboot.
  • The details of several major events are different as well; a big example are the events that led to Rive's disappearance.
• Obvious Rule Patch: 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. also, Front Triggers are currently exclusive to Accel clans. Also, unless they are a Sentinel trigger, triggers do not provide any extra effects.
    • 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). Vanilla units (units with no skills) have also been adjusted to do one of two things, either gain more base shield ^note Grade 1 units would have 15,000 shield and Grade 2 units would have 10,000, or lose all shield to have more power. Later expansions also introduced Critical Triggers with 30,000 shield and the Sentinel keyword.
  • 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. For Murakumo, in addition to bonuses to units of the same name, they also focus on disruption.
    • 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 front row rearguards as well as manipulate the positions of the opponent's rearguards so as to be be different from Kagero.
    • Due to the lack of G-Units, Gear Chronicle now superior rides Grade 4 units from the deck which retires themselves at the end of the turn and re-riding a Grade 3 for another Imaginary Gift. Gear Chronicle Grade 4 units also lack an Imaginary Gift unlike the Grade 4 units of other clans to make them more balanced.
    • Lock was always a controversial mechanic, thus Link Joker decides to use other mechanics while giving it more offensive options. Deletors still delete the Vanguard, Brandt switches trigger effects, and Messiahs still lock themselves. As sort of a spiritual successor to Lock, Darkface and Darkface Gredora of the Megacolony clan both include the Cradle ability, which wipes away their skills, power, and thier ability to attack or boost, essentially they are soft locked as they still have presence on the field as units and can be replaced, but upon retiring the cradled unit, the player causing the cradle gets a card of the same grade as the retired unit to discourage replacing them. It's only until the return of the popular Star-Vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon do we see lock as it once was.
    • To distinguish themselves from self-retire clans like Shadow Paladin, Tachikaze, and eventually Granblue, the Great Nature clan instead focuses on a lottery system, acquiring skills based on what card they mill off the top of their deck.
• The One with a Personal Life: After the 10 year Time Skip, Shinemon has now taken over Card Capital as the new owner and manager, and focuses on raising his orphaned niece, while all his friends continue their cardfighting careers. When those friends come back to invite him to join in a team tournament with them, Shin considers taking them up on the offer, but he declines because he has long since withdrawn from the professional scene and has other worries.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Happens twice during the end of the Shinemon arc.
  • First, Tatsuya starts acting extremely creepy, before he reveals that he's The Man in Front of the Man.
  • When Shinemon arrives at the tournament after witnessing Rive being dragged to Cray, he merely sets his deck down without a single word. Even Kanzaki is freaked out.
• Origins Episode: Episode 7 of the -If- arc is a brief flashback episode showing how Emi and Shuka first met and became the Blaster Pair.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Ren as Mask the Dark in If. When he first appears, Ibuki recognizes him immediately.
  Ibuki: You're Ren, right?
  Mask the Dark: Aww, come on. Who calls a guy by name when his face is hidden by a mask, Bukki?
  • Even more obvious with "Mask the Rekka", as Suiko makes her immediately notice.
• Parental Abandonment: All over the place. There's hardly any character whose parents are not dead or missing. And if they're not either of the above, then they're simply not mentioned.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Compared to the original Vanguard series, fights are quicker and the plot moves faster.
• Prequel: The 4th arc is a prequel focusing on Shinemon "Shin" Nitta's past, ten years before Aichi and Kai's reunion in the first episode. However it is actually a prequel towards a potential G adaptation.
• Psychic Powers: PSYqualia returns to the forefront as a plot element. It plays a major role in the first arc and in the second one as well.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Zigzagged with Misaki and Shin. A line early on implied that Shin was changed from being Misaki's uncle to being her older cousin, but in the Shinemon arc he's referred again as her uncle.
• Screw Destiny: The PSYQualia Zombies gain the ability to foresee visions of their victory against their opponents. Some characters such as Kai, Ibuki, and Ren are able to defy those visions.
• Sequel Hook: The end of the Shinemon arc leaves the door open for a future adaptation of the G storyline along with several unanswered questions and loose plot threats which include Rive's whereabouts, the purpose of the Singularities, Chronotiger Rebellion's goal and why Cray units appeared on Earth in the first place.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The plot of the Extra Story -IF- Arc is Ibuki, Suiko and the Blaster pair fixing distortions made in both the past and future with the first one being Ibuki putting the deck in Chrono's shoelocker.
• Shout-Out:
  • The next episode anticipations very often have a reference joke or two snuck in.
  • The Shinemon arc recap has Kanzaki drawn in JOJO's Signature Style. Doubles as Actor Allusion since he is voiced by Takehito Koyasu, the same voice actor as Dio.
  • Shuka's calling for "This week's final card" in the -If- arc is reminescent of Yatterwan's "This week's surprise robots" call.
  • During the -If- arc, multiple characters (Ren, Emi and Shuka in -If- 6, Ibuki in -If- 9 and Rekka in -If- 13) present themselves as "Just a regular high school student/pair of magical girls/beautiful warrior woman, passing by".
  • In -If- 8, Mask the Dark introducing himself by throwing a Blaster Dark card in between Emi and Misaki, much like Tuxedo Mask with his roses.
  • In -If- 9, Shuka wears a detective outfit similar to the one worn by Nero Yuzurizaki when interrogating Ren/Mask the Dark if he was the one who spiked Emi's tea with ghost pepper. He actually asks her "which Holmes is she supposed to be".
  • In -If- 11, many of the proposal for a Vanguard Association mascot are references:
    • Tonori and Nanami's first idea is of a robot cat from the future. The sketch shown is pixellated and covered with a Jammer mark, and Kanzaki rejects it because they would be sued if the association used it.
    • Oyama's presentation is a chibi version of Mask the Dark called Mask the Vanguard RX, who is also presented as a "child of the wild"^note Kamen Rider BLACK RX presented himself as a "child of the sun".
    • Kanzaki's presentation is a Combining Mecha made of kitties called Meowtron^note Gonyanion in the original version, whose cat head emerges from a more Gundam-like head.
    • Ryuzu and Tetsuya's mascot is Interspacial Vangabang, complete with parody of the Ball of Light Transformation.
  • In -If- 12, Ibuki knocks out that world's Ren with a punch in the gut when it became obvious that the guy was out of control. The scene is an almost shot-for-shot recreation of a similar scene in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.
• Shrouded in Myth: Due to the fact Gear Chronicle only made one public appearance, it gained the rumor of being a legendary clan that may not even exist.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • In order to stop Ibuki from Deleting other fighters' love for Vanguad, Aichi simply take his deck away to prevent him from fighting.
  • Because the Shinemon arc is far more grounded compared to the previous seasons, you tend to see a lot of this with the arc:
    • Shinemon holing himself up in Capital to protect it naturally causes him to miss class and thus he risks failing class and repeating a year.
    • It turns out that contrary to Shinemon's expectations that running a shop is a lot harder than it looks. Esuka was able to make several points in which Shinemon and other others failed in which includes: The fact that some of the customers don't take Shinemon serious as manager at first since he's still in high school and Esuka even stated that most customers came because they were returning customers. While he and his friends were able to make a fun event, they weren't able to profit from it since they are all too young to understand how the business side of a store works, not to mention the fact that a manager should be able to organize it by himself and can't rely on volunteers to help him. And the final nail to coffin is the reveal that luck and Contrived Coincidence sometimes doesn't truly exist since it turns out the person who helped them pay for the Valkerion costume through buying the tuna from them was actualy Esuka's butler in disguise.
    • Rive tries out the Gear Chronicle deck he got from Ryuzu at the Asia Circuit and he naturally loses, because not only is he fighting against a very skilled player at regional if not national level, but it is also the first time he uses it and there isn't any knowledge of the clan he could learn beforehand. In contrast Shinemon and Nanami were able to blitz trough the rankings at Esuka's with the Kagero deck from that shop since it was explicidly made for beginners and thus easier to use.
    • What happens when you leave a grieving Child Prodigy with a fat inheritance and a lot of means, but absolutely no supervision or emotional support? Their mental state makes a downwards spiral, they become reckless and potentially suicidal, loose their ability to think clearly, and think they're entitled to do whatever they want. That's what happens with Tatsuya.
    • In the end Shinemon loses the fight against Kanzaki at the Asia Circuit since there is no way he can fight normally after someone close to him just suddenly disapeared in front of his eyes.
    • After the 10 year time-skip, Kanzaki, Ryotaro and Ryuzu don't recognise Shinemon because he has changed too much and they haven't kept in touch.
    • Chrono doesn't recall the events from ten years ago because he was too young at the time. What little he does remember only It Makes Sense in Context, and Chrono doesn't have any. Not to mention, it took an external factor for him to remember that tiny bit, rather than recall it on him own.
    • Mikuru started her own business in the make-up industry which she dreamt since she was a child... but she's in the red and doesn't have the time to spend with Chrono.
    • Chrono is aware of his aunt's financial situation, which is why he's trying to make money and live on his own. You can't hide that stuff from the one keeping house.
    • By the time Aichi's era began, Shin has become a full time manager of Card Capital, thus after so many years apart, Nanami finds herself disappointed that Shin can't join her for one more tournament. Shin has moved on from his life as a fighter and has drifted apart from his old friends, and while this can be a chance to reconnect, he has too many responsibilities to go with her.
  • In the second episode of the -If- Arc, Ibuki tries to fight a Jammer by playing a game of Vanguard against him... only to be attacked by it since, as Emi and Shuka put it, playing a cardgame against a monster is a ridiculous idea.
  • Due to Eru's actual demonic hand causing other students to disappear, the student council of Miyaji have been notified about the incidents and tried confronting him only to meet the same fate.
• Tempting Fate: Both Shinemon and Esuka, in two separate occasions, against Chronotiger Rebellion: "There's no way he can deal four damage in one attack!" Guess what happens.
• Token Non-Human: In the -If- arc, Shuka reveals to Suiko that she is in fact an Elemental and asks her not to tell Emi.
• Trapped in the Past: Inverted. Ibuki, Suiko and the Blaster Pair are trapped in the future. The former two are trapped until they fix Ibuki's future mistake while the latter were trapped after a failed attack against the Sanctuary.
• Uniqueness Decay: In the original and G series, Aqua Force is a legendary clan only used by Soryu Clan, but in this series it is implied that it is not any different from any other clan.
• Wham Shot: Remind 2 ends with Esuka looking at a picture of her along with Misaki and her parents.
  • If 21 haves Suiko deciding to transform into King of Knights, Alfred after reading into the Akashic Book and having a vision of her giving Alfred to Aichi from the original anime series.
• Wolf Pack Boss: Episode 11 of the -IF- series has Emi and Shuka facing against Chronotiger Rebellion, Claret Sword Dragon and Draconic Vanquisher all at once.

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