Even before the series started, fans already made jokes about the series.
- Revolver's poses
from his second Master Duel with Playmaker are incredibly memetic. One frequent variant is having him do the exact same poses in his real life persona Kogami Ryoken. - Idol Ryoken! explanation Related to the above, Ryoken is presented as a boy band lead singer and occasionally striking those exact poses. Mirror Force is usually added as an aesthetic touch. Hilariously, his dub VA, Daniel Edwards, has described himself as a K-pop wannabe and seeing how well his Japanese voice actor Shunsuke Takeuchi can sing, this could definitely happen.
- Ryoken, The True Angel Of Hanoi.explanation Given their shared past, Fan Art of Ryoken as a literal guardian angel of Yusaku became incredible widespread. Doesn't help that they receive a lot of romantic subtext. Partly inspired by the title of the episode 7 The Angel Of Hanoi/Hanoi's Angel, which ironically referred to Blue Angel.
- Hanoi abroad!explanation After the season 1 finale, Ryoken and the rest of the Hanoi are presented as being on a naval vacation.
- Yusaku's new boyfriend./Ryoken come back.explanation Thanks to the huge amounts of Ho Yay with Yusaku he is given in the OP2 and ED3 alone, Takeru has become a source of many shipping jokes.
- Honey Trap Ryoken.explantion The flashback of the first chronological meeting of Yusaku and Ryoken, which lead to Yusaku's kidnapping gave birth to yet another Ryoken-related meme.
- Top fashion model Ryoken.explanation The smug way Ryoken walks out of the elevator made viewers note how fabulous he looks. This was caused by a mere preview.
- Axolotl Revolver.explanation Revolver's new avatar has been compared to an axolotl.
- Classic Duelist Revolver. explanation It has not gone unnoticed that Revolver uses a lot of cards from earlier eras. In fact, the cards he uses have connections to Yugi/Yami himself. (Mirror Force, Magic Cylinder, and Mind Crush).
Other Memes
- Yusaku is predetermined in the eyes of the fandom to be The Woobie by the nature of his status as a series protagonist. His Meaningful Name also heavily implies an inevitable Superpowered Evil Side. At least part of this reaction was due to how his predecessor Yuya suffered throughout his series. In addition, his surname suggests that he comes from a broken family. And then, the Lost incident/Hanoi Project was revealed...
- Until it was confirmed that VRAINS would feature duels on hover boards, many of the first fan comics featured any skater stereotype possible. Totally Radical being in full effect. And of course, there's the "Card Games On Hover Board" joke.
- "Take a step forward and try!" The Tag Line and the central theme being how kids shouldn't be intimidated to try new things often gets poked fun at as a sign that Konami has realized just how overly complicated the card game has become over the years and are trying to encourage players to not give up because of it.
- "Take a step forward and die!" or "Step forward...if you want to die." also became popular jokes among the fandom as, going into VRAINS, the new rules and focus on Links would heavily Nerf several decks.
- Link Start! explanation With the introduction of Link Monsters, several fans are starting to bring up the signature Tag Line from another VR gaming series, Sword Art Online.
- HYPE VRAINS.explanation A variation of the now infamous Hype-Trains Meme from Kingdom Hearts III coined by the fans which are still having high hopes for the series.
- Ever since Shoichi Kusanagi being a hacker assisting Playmaker while hiding behind a hot dog vendor facade was revealed, Yusaku is often depicted as a part-time hot dog vendor. The brief clip of Yusaku actually doing so in the preview for episode 47 single-handily reignited it, usually with Ryoken using it as an excuse to visit him. Also, the customer service in Café Nagi tends to be subjected to mockery, given that it is only a facade and that Shoichi has a habit of abruptly closing the place whenever Playmaker is in trouble.
- They don't teach card games at this school?!? explanation Unlike every other school featured in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yusaku's school teaches about computers instead of the card game. Naturally, many fans are confused.
- Aoi's changes in avatar from Blue Angel, to Blue Girl & then Blue Maiden has been compared to her creating new accounts to avoid having to pay to use Link VRAINS.
- After the Ferris wheel scene in episode 50, there have been many jokes related to that other Ferris wheel scene.
- Soulburner's scarf has become a source of various jokes on its own.
- As the similarities between him and Shun became more and more obvious, Kengo Dojun/Blood Shepherd is frequently 'starring' in parody comics where he takes the role of Shun. Yes, even the infamous Gut Punch scene.
- While he is more likely to simply have average understanding of technologies, Takeru's usually regarded as literally Hopeless with Tech in fan comics, destroying any computer he comes in contact with.
- "I found you, faker!"explanation When Bohman claims that he is the real Yusaku and Playmaker was the fake who stole his body, fans couldn't help but reference this quote from a certain game.
- "I am socially awkward."explanation Earth's Catchphrase, which also highlights his characterisation as The Spock.
- Crystal Heart is cursed. explanation Anytime G Golem Crystal Heart (or, in Blue Maiden's case, Marincess Crystal Heart) is summoned during a duel, the person who summoned it always loses. Examples include Earth (twice), GO and Blue Maiden.
- Everything is Lightning's fault.explanation After it's revealed in episode 98 that Lightning is involved in so many bad things happening to characters in the series including Jin Kusanagi's broken psyche to Dr. Kogami's computer virus infection, redditors begin to blame everything on Lightning.
- The fact that the show has 3 recap episodes within its first 30 episodes has lead to many fans referring to VRAINS as "Yu-Gi-Oh!: Recap".
- But your monster is still destroyed!explanation The popular "But you still take the damage!" meme from the previous series was still fresh in fans' minds when the opposite effect started to happen a lot in this series (damage negation when a monster is destroyed in battle). Naturally, fans took notice.
- Giraffe Bohman explanation (spoilers) When he defeats Soulburner, Bohman is shown from a worm's eye view that makes his shoulders and chest look abnormally wide in an episode brimming with weird animation.
- Sora? explanation Roboppi's human appearance was mistaken by many for Sora from Arc V in their first appearance.
- "No, I didn't do anything." explanation (spoilers) One of Aoi's lines in the last episode, usually brought up due to her status as a wasted character in season 3.
- "Careful who you call ugly during the previous season." explanation (spoilers) Usually refers to Revolver after changing his avatar and revealing his real self or Ai, who became a Bishōnen in season 3.
- "Shut up, Ai." explanation (spoilers) Common quote and a running gag involving Playmaker, who's telling Ai way too often to be quiet. Some people jokingly say this is his actual catchphrase.
- "You were the best hostage." explanation (spoilers) Playmaker doesn't want to admit that Ai is his partner and thinks he is a hostage for the most part of the series until the very end where he admits that Ai was the best partner he could've wished for. Some fans love to rewrite this into common Playmaker speech, changing "partner" to "hostage".
- Pandor should have played Topologina Nabee. explanation (spoilers) Jokes about Topologina Nabee exploded after episode 109 after Ai's hilarious reaction about the card and even says Pandor might have won had she summoned Topologina Nabee (which doesn't exist). Fans now say that Nabee is the best way to defeat Ai and are now clamoring for an actual Nabee card to be made.
- BANNED/Decode Talker is Yusaku's aceexplanation Firewall Dragon became a source of jokes after it's Demoted to Extra in the anime then banned in the card game. Saying that Decode Talker is Yusaku's real ace is very common in social circles and even Konami themselves tended to market Decode Talker as his ace even after Firewall Dragon was unbanned with an errata. Later became an Ascended Meme in Duel Links, where Decode Talker was made available before Firewall Dragon, and had a summoning animation before Firewall Dragon itself got one.
- Blue Angel's defeat against Specter and the way she faceplants to the ground became a Never Live It Down moment for Aoi.
