Gekiha Dan – Episode 11

It’s always nice seeing players that aren’t the protagonist do battle, this show is actually quite good at trying to vary the battles that take place, something that shows like Yu-Gi-Oh! struggle with, often using their small collection of protagonists take part in every battle.

Though I will say Vanguard is also quite excellent at setting up battles between characters that aren’t the protagonist.

It’s just a breath of fresh air really.

Onto the start of Episode 11, it looks like a Castle in the White World is being attacked for some bizarre reason.

That’s a VERY regal looking fellow with a magnificent beard, and given the statements Yuuki is making, it appears he’s asserting his right as the White World’s King. I presume this man must be the current White World’s King.

Looks like Yuuki’s resolving the Level 3 effect of Walhalance to bounce all 4000 BP and below Spirits to the hand. From right to left, it appears that this Bearded-fellow had Berserker-Magnum, Berserker-Gun, Fenrircannon Mk-II, aaaand… Skulldevil?

Bit of a random choice but while I was originally a protester of gratuitous colour mixing, I recognize it does have a place if you are unafraid to do it.

Looks like this bearded fellow got his ass whooped.

Also Kazan and Magical Crown are here too, so strange seeing Magical Crown appear serious. Kazan’s VERY in-character though.

This man seems to have the wrong idea, we just watched Yuuki, completely uninterested in Walhalance and Gungnir, receive them in the middle of a fight with someone who DID covet them.

Otherworld King had nothing to do with this.

It looks like this castle IS being conquered in the name of Otherworld King, so I can see where the old man got the idea that Yuuki had been presented with those cards by Otherworld King. Given that Otherworld King is basically revered as an Omnipotent Battler.

We know that Kajitsu showed that she bore the Green Core’s Light, so its interesting that Kazan does not refer to her as the Green Soldier.

This guy finally realizes who he’s dealing with.

Also is this Belga’s Father? He’s dressed awfully similarly.

Your Castle is on fire, you just got your ass beat at card games, and some anime-pretty boy is giving you an ultimatum.

Fucked, doesn’t begin to describe what you are in this situation.

We never hear Beard-man’s answer, he just kind of accepts what’s happening. The person shouting this declaration is Kazan.

The Locked Gate
Iron Wall Block-Golem

Interesting Episode title. It looks like the Card of the day for this episode is Block-Golem, we’ll review it when it inevitably appears.

Looks like we’re getting a nice look at Mai’s Inferior Blog.

She doesn’t seem happy with the fact that the Red World seems mostly comprised of Desert.

Also we’ve seen that QR code before. Scanning it will take you to the Gekiha Dan main page.

How dare she disrespect the sweet, beautiful nectar that is Curry.

Also from the looks of the most recent Blog post on the BackNumber there, it’s apparently October of 2009 in this setting, how intriguing.

More than anything, Dan seems to be staying sane, and this is… bothering Mai specifically for some bizarre reason.

They have been driving for at LEAST 2 episodes. This is getting a little ridiculous.

Serge mentions they should be close, and Magisa, having scouted the area, is aware that there is a barrier protecting the Horizon Ladder.

Didn’t Magisa already mention that she couldn’t crack the barrier on her first run at the thing? Which is why she returned.

This woman is down bad.

Why don’t you SPEAK HONESTLY!?

We interrupt this discussion of Magisa’s sheer ineptitude to bring you: Clackey is acting weird.

There’s nothing more adorable than Zungurii trying to cheer up Clackey by offering him a Banana.

I diagnose him with straight.

He’s being incredibly vague about it, since that could be anything, but it’s obvious he’s talking about the fact that he wants to fall in love.

Of course this vague wording clearly sets off Dan concerning the adrenaline involved with battle, not love.

Dan and Zungurii set about trying to convince an uninterested Clackey to battle.

Mai snaps a couple photos and adds them to her blog.

Dayum, the Clash King was already pretty known in Japan on Earth. Mai’s Blog is only going to increase it.

Magisa finally tears apart the confusion by declaring what it actually is.

…What the hell are you on about.

And why are the others so startled by it, you ALREADY know she’s 4000 years old!

YOU WERE THE ONE RAMBLING!

After that pisstake, we finally arrive at what appears to be a Gate.

The Gate’s walls have eroded, such that there appears to be no reason you can’t go around it, but Magisa tests with her Staff and confirms the presence of a barrier, replacing the need for walls.

In short, ain’t nobody gettin’ nowhere until they get the hell passed this Gate.

Zungurii tries to muscle through it but uhh… I don’t even think Disney’s Herculus could smash through this.

Dan what the hell are you going to do? You’re not physically strong in any sense of the word!

Mai notes that the Door has quite an elaborate design on it. Depicting a grand failure to press through said gate as the humans advanced upon some lady.

Aaaaaaand Clackey’s falling in love with a door.

God forbid we run into an extra curvy piece of driftwood.

Clackey’s having an anime waifu moment. With a stone-carved door.

Imagine a medieval knight carrying around a slab of rock with a picture of a lady embossed onto it and he calls it his wife.

Zungurii uh… gives the door another go.

Man really said:

It’s a giant STONE WALL.

It’s bigger than your HOUSE!

That is… not a worse idea than what Zungurii is attempting. Especially since the Gate needs to not have a Barrier in the doorframe to let people through.

Yes, even if it worked, the Violet would probably not come out of that collision unscathed, and you’d have to travel the rest of the way on foot.

I too feel the need to turn every situation into A PASSIONATE BATTLE STAKING ONE’S VERY BEING ON THE LINE!

But bonking a metal ship into a stone door doesn’t quite do it for me.

Clackey’s contributing to this about as well as Clackey does, which is not at all.

Let’s ask this random cloaked NPC who’s very evidently been here the whole time.

Honestly, she’s quite the established character, its any wonder she hasn’t had much screen time up until now.

No don’t ask me what her name is. You should know it by now.

I swear.

Jokes aside, first words out of this lady’s mouth and it’s direct and to the point.

How… Blue.

Mira’s a VERY good name. I would have named my hypothetical daughter, but then my Aunt gave birth to my cousin and used the name.

In any case, Mira appears to be the designated Gatekeeper, only she can let them through.

Dan tries to appeal to Mira, trying to convince her to open the gate by asserting that Zungurii’s family is trapped.

Ah yes, Duty before Reason.

The greatest abstract representation of a stone wall.

Much like this Gate actually-

Magisa demands a reason for Mira’s deafness concerning very real and distressful situation that requires their entry.

Fucking no it isn’t.

Have a brain Mira!

But that is an important distinction, if she’s taking orders from Kajitsu, She’s an ally of Otherworld King.

In a world where law is enforced by Card Games, being a Battler becomes as important as food.

I will say Mira’s design is very nice, simple black dress and a cool hat.

It looks like Dan’s been sniped concerning this battle. The enemy is a woman and therefore, Clackey’s motivated.

So, firstly, Clackey could not have anticipated this lady would show up, and Roses do not grow easily in this wasteland, so he’s had that trick on hand for the LONGEST TIME.

Secondly, I don’t think the colours of the roses symbolize much.

Blue roses do not occur naturally due to genetic limitations, because of this they symbolize that which is unattainable.

Yellow roses, symbolize friendship.

And as we know, White roses symbolize purity and innocence.

There’s no reason for this choice of colours, so perhaps its a more literal thing, Yellow roses symbolize Clackey, Blue roses evidently symbolize Mira given this episode’s title features a Blue card. The only question is the White Rose, I suppose it’s meant to represent the enemy they’re supposed to defeat? Yuuki?

Clackey greets her by giving her a Blue rose and attaches it to her Hat.

This would be a time where I’d scream something about non-consented touching, but Clackey moves exceptionally slowly in these scene, and Mira makes no attempt to move or stop him. And she’s quite stubborn, evidently.

We now get a formal challenge. Clackey challenges Mira.

Dan protests this, believing himself to be the designated Battler.

Mate, there are fucking 3 equally powerful battlers in this one shot alone.

And before anyone argues that Dan defeated Clackey, please remember the circumstances surrounding that battle, Clackey chose to take a life instead of watching Sophia become destroyed.

Magisa being the voice of reason, there’s no need for Dan to fight every battle.

Mira agrees to the battle, given that they’ve spared a ton of effort trying to get there, they may as well at least have a chance.

Mira’s basically, quite over-confidently, stating what her battle style is going to be.

Simply put she’s claimed she’s going to put a clock on Clackey, she’ll take one life per turn until he’s been defeated.

Simply put, if Clackey goes first he’ll have to win by turn 9.

Which is, approximately, 5 of his turns.

Mira’s Battle Form looks much like the cloak she was just wearing, if only a different colour, and the bells replaced with lives.

Mira can’t attack on the first turn, so to be able to keep her promise, she has to go second.

…Yes.

That’s how emotions work.

To skip the sappiness, Clackey believes that Mira is not being honest with how she feels and has locked her heart away, so Clackey intends to try and open her heart through this battle.

Typical womanizer things.

Clackey starts off by playing a new card, Gremly.

A Yellow Cost 2 from BS06, when destroyed at any level other than 1 you can refresh a Light Spirit.

Cost 2s, thanks to Royal Potion tend to be suited toward rush tactics, Gremly in this case is only really at his best when the opponent is on 1 life, or when you’re defending.

Fun fact, on the original Battle Spirits translation, Light was localized as “Brilliance”, but in Saga the Keyword was localized as “Luster”

Clackey only has 1 Core left, he could raise Gremly to Lv2 but eh, 2000 BP isn’t much better. So he ends his turn.

It’s Mira’s turn, and if it wasn’t obvious, she’s playing a Blue Deck.

Mira opens with Rock-Golem at Lv2.

Clackey notes that Mira’s language treats Clackey like a trespasser, as if he’s treading on ground that doesn’t belong to him. In a place he should not be.

Which, is technically true from Otherworld King’s point of view but why would Mira care if she’s just a Gatekeeper?

There’s a word for what Clackey is right now. It’s 6 letters long, begins with a C.

That’s right, Cringe.

Mira attacks with Rock-Golem and activates Demolish, as Rock-Golem is Level 2, Clackey loses 2 cards from his deck.

He lost some, curious cards. The Princess-Snowwhite and The Angelia Throne.

A card that exemplifies how little Clackey thinks of his card choices when constructing his deck. A BS05 card designed to support White cards, and a card named “Dwarf-Seven”

To summarise, she can make herself the sole target of any Spirit or Magic that would include a White “Ice Princess” as a Target. This can also include board wipes, as in JP Battle Spirits, when using a card that destroys all of a certain kind of card, you’re considered to be targeting all instances of it. An effect bouncing all Spirits with 4000 BP or less is considered to target all such spirits.

But as far as we know, Clackey isn’t using any White Ice Princess.

The card it mentions in the 2nd effect, Dwarf-Seven is this Vanilla that’s relatively easy to play with an established board. A White Ice Princess and Dwarf-Seven allows Snowwhite to absorb destruction for her allies, and then return herself to the hand.

It’s not a very good combo, quite gimmicky.

The Angelia Throne is a bit more usable, at Level 2 and above you can switch the core arrangements of 2 Spirits on the opposing field. This follows nicely into her Level 3, which makes her a Purple Spirit, allowing her to provide reduction for Purple Core removal which is likely why you would use her first effect in the first place.

Doesn’t matter though, both are now in the bin.

And Clackey has 33 cards left in his deck.

I’d be pretty surprised as well, Mira shouldn’t be concerning herself with Deck destruction if her aim is to reduce Clackey’s Life to 0 on the 10th turn.

Clackey losing the precious Waifus in his deck makes him immensely upset.

Clackey takes from the life, score is 5-4.

It would be possible for Clackey to block with Gremly, which will shut down Mira’s countdown declaration.

But consider the benefit of this, yes, you disprove her declaration, but you’d also be in a significantly worse position than if you just went along with it.

The Gate Bell rings, signalling the End of Mira’s Turn.

Clackey Ray has 4 turns left.

We interrupt this program to bring you what appears to be the Green world, but I could be wrong?

Seems Yuuki’s going on an Invading Spree of White Castles.

To be fair given the landscape this could still be the White World, all things considered.

That was… a very brief interruption, and now we’ve got some turn skips.

Mira has Rock-Golem and 2 Soldier Gustavs on her field.

Clackey appears to still have Gremly, but has added The Fairy Tanya and Froger to his field.

Mira appears to have lost a life at some point as well. The far left Life point is greyed out.

Mira finally summons our episode title card, Block-Golem.

It’s like if Minecraft Steve got fucking Power Armor.

Block-Golem is a Cost 3 Artificial Soldier from BS06, and has an effect that synergizes well along side Castle-Golem. In that it mills cards based on how many nexuses you control.

Blue can amass many nexuses at once though, so with 2 Nexuses, this Cost 3 card is milling a maximum of 4 cards, which at least is more than most Demolish Spirits can reach.

Dan notes the card is foreign to him, though I’m fairly sure we see it later at some point.

That would certainly vibe with a strategy that attempts to snatch a life from an opponent once a turn.
This of course assumes Clackey doesn’t get block-happy anyhow.

Mira attacks with Rock-Golem, activating Demolish

This time, Clackey loses The GreatAngelia Seraphy and The Fairy Tinguly.

Oof, a BS04 Master Rare, GreatAngelia Seraphy can basically make every Divine Spirit in your hand a 1 core cost as long as you give up their effects on Summon.

That restriction is almost certainly in place due to Mikafar and Valiero, no questions asked.

At Lv2 and Lv3 it gets Light. But you need at least 4 cores to get it to Lv2, and 5 for Lv3. This is quite unusual as its common for most Yellow Spirits to have very low Core requirements for higher levels due to their reliance on one-off Magic.

The other card is The Fairy Tinguly, who’s sat in a cup of Tea, how adorable.

She’s another card that gets the most benefit in a deck of mixed colours, making all your Spirits become Yellow the turn she’s summoned. It’s possible to try and pull this off at Max reduction but I’m not sure what the benefit of pulling this off would be other than providing more reduction than you already have.

They can’t ALL be your favourite, Clackey.

Clackey eats the damage and loses a life to Rock-Golem’s attack.

That’s another thing about Mira’s declaration, he can basically end her attack step by simply taking lifes as early as possible, as she won’t resort to swinging again to uphold her declaration.

From the looks of things, that’s his 2nd life gone, so it’s currently Turn 4.

Meaning on Turn 3, he played The Fairy Tanya and Froger and attacked with one of his spirits which Mira wouldn’t have been able to block.

Mira on the follow-up turn, played 2 Soldier Gustavs which were free, and then played Block-Golem.

Doing a quick calculation, yes, she has enough core to do that.

There are three rings left before Clackey loses the game.

Serge and Mai notice that Mira’s playing excessively defensively. Asserting that she must feel helpless to justify the need for defense.

Mai appears to believe that “strong and cold” are things you develop when you are alone for an extended period of time.

Clackey moves, he levels up The Fairy Tanya and then passes.

The Fairy Tanya is strong enough to swing without losing but Clackey appears to be reserving himself.

Dan’s hamster on a wheel becomes incredibly derailed when Clackey didn’t attack the second it was safe to.

Yes, leaving your resources all at the ready does leave you in a better position to counter attack, ‘specially when your turn comes right after and all your resources come back.

Mira plays a 2nd Block-Golem.

…Um, having 5 Spirits doesn’t make a Perfect Defense.

By that logic having 6 makes MORE perfect defense.

and so on and so on.

Finally some Battles in this field full of Spirits.

an attack from Block-Golem is blocked by Frogger.

I’m not gonna lie, Frogger got completely disrespected there.

From this we can surmise Froger was level 1, at Level 2 it would have tied with Block-Golem.

Clackey’s defining Battler trait, his kindness to the Spirits, is exemplified here.

Lv2 Rock-Golem attacks, it’s Demolish effect sends The Angelia Archre and The Angelia Curio to the Trash.

What kind of mixed hell is this deck!?

At least this one seems to vaguely function in Clackey’s Deck, The Angelia Archre is a BS03 Divine Spirit MASTER RARE.

High Cost and incredibly low BP, but can provide extra reduction symbols to the cards in your hand at all times.

Shame it dies to a small gust of wind.

Now this on the other hand makes no bloody sense, a BS03 Divine Spirit with no Green symbols or reduction that ONLY SUPPORTS GREEN!

We haven’t even SEEN a Green Nexus in this anime yet!

Oh geez, that Barrier shattered on Impact.

That puts Clackey to 2 lives left.

Yeah that IS a bit odd, Clackey hasn’t fired one Magic this entire game, just been playing a rather pathetic game of “build-a-board”

And Mira’s winning.

Much like in the case with when Dan bricked, a Hand with no Magic is almost as bad as a hand with no spirits.

Because it means you can’t rescue yourself if you fall on the back foot in terms of board presence.

Hm, that hand is rather sizeable.

His plan might be to gather core for a turnaround Magic Combo rather than just flailing because he has no such Magic.

I’d take that taunt any day. But I am not smart.

Mira on the other hand has 3 very specific reasons to not take that bait.

1. She’s not me.
2. She’s smart
3. She literally has made an ultimatum and if Clackey loses any more lives this turn she’ll look REAL stupid.

Anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to the dialogue… like, maybe, the young and unattentive audience this show is designed for, might miss the fact that she LITERALLY HAS BEEN SAYING SHE’LL ONLY TAKE 1 LIFE PER TURN AND HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY REFERENCING THAT FACT.

Oh hey, a rare fuckup.

Serge explains to Mai that the way she’s using the Gong only allows her to take 1 life per turn, but that even IF she were to attack again now, she’d only be able to block once.

Except as we can see from the field… this is completely fucking false.

2 Exhausted Spirits and 3 Refreshed. If she attacked again, she’d have 3 Exhausted and 2 Refreshed.

2 Refreshed means 2 Blockers.

2 Blockers means she can block twice.

Which is, drum roll please.

MORE THAN ONE!

My brain cells may be diminishing at a slower rate this time, but oh it hurts so much more when they DO vanish.

She said, under no uncertain terms, “Each time the Gong rings, I will have taken one of your lives until you are defeated”

Are you telling me there was something confusing about that statement Dan?

Are all the lights on upstairs there, Dan?

Which means Clackey gets about 2 turns to find a win condition.

Score is currently 4-2, in Mira’s favor.

Clackey’s turn, it’s turn 7, he’s lost 3 lives. So he’s got 10 core to work with.

Ah yes, the age old “risk” talking point when it comes to Blue and this isn’t the first time it’ll be brought up in this entire series.

I believe I discussed this in the Catastrophe-Dragon episode. But if you haven’t read that post, I recommend you read it, and then I’ll summarise for anyone who wants to keep reading.

This seems to be the voice of the R&D department trying to say “Deck destruction isn’t a broken strategy” by basically claiming that through Deck destruction, due to the lack of cards in the deck, it becomes statistically more likely that you’ll draw a way to defeat an opponent trying to destroy your deck.

e.g. by milling cards, you get faster access to your outs.

Again, my argument against this was something along the lines of: “If they STILL EXIST in your deck”

Because if they mill all your outs, you can’t bloody draw any can you?

Anyway, moving on.

Clackey levels down Tanya and Gremly down to Level 1.

That’s 8 core unused now.

Clackey brings out his Key Spirit, The GreatAngelia Sophia at Lv2.

That’s 4 core spent and 3 of it used to level her, Clackey has 1 Core unaccounted for.

That’ll do it, Sophia’s effect when summoned allows Clackey to play an Imaginary Beast Family card from his hand without paying any cost, as long as the card he summons doesn’t use it’s own effect when summoned.

So he chooses to drop his other signature card, The Cost 7 CleverBeast Iberix which lacks an effect when summoned.

Granted, that’s the last of his core. He’ll be unable to use much Magic in this state.

Once again, more Deck destruction antics avoided by just not having your best cards milled.

About as good a plan as just “drawing the out”

Well at least in the case of Dan he at least lost Siegwurm, so.

And Mira only milled, what, 6 cards at this point?

So not the highest likelihood that they’d get lost, but then why make so much fuss over the deck destruction?

Hah!
With what!?

Yeah! Exactly! The fuck was he gonna do?

He has no core to play any magic and he wouldn’t win with a full attack.

So what would be the point?

Apparently, this makes Zungurii REAL mad because Clackey isn’t getting aggressive.

I suppose the concern is warranted, Clackey basically has to take all 4 lives on his next turn or Mira’s “promise” will be delivered.

Well of course he is, what, you think he played his spirits just because they’re pretty to look at?…

…Actually don’t answer that.

She has twatted you once a turn, and you’ve let her.

And she’s erected a wall of golems.

I wouldn’t call that “Bloodthirsty”

You had to apologize, quite sadly, to Frogger after he got his ass whooped by Block-Golem.

Does that sound fun?

Well, yeah I suppose getting smacked by a Rock-Golem every turn isn’t particularly interesting.

…I’ve lost the plot, bitter about losing your Spirits?

Gonna go out on a limb and guess that Clackey was JUST trying to get one of his favoured Spirits out onto the board before Deck Destruction could wipe them out, and is bitter he didn’t get to use the earlier cards he lost.

We interrupt this program to give you progress on Yuuki’s latest Arson attempt.

It appears Yuuki is still seizing castles.

Is there any other things of note for this scene that this actively explains? Or are we just getting an update that yes: He did infact invade more castles and it’s working?

Oh, this actually IS worthy of note.

Yes, Yuuki staring at his latest work of Arson and commenting on the Crimson Flames IS worthy of note for narrative reasons.

Yuuki’s clearly making massive grabs for power at this point because he not only bears the White Core’s Light but now holds Walhalance and Gungnir, proof of the White World’s King.

And clearly in assaulting the White World’s castles he’s setting them alight.

The Crimson Flames he’s created seem to remind him of Dan, from this we could interpret this in one of a few ways:

1. He feels that his creation of these Crimson Flames have likened him more to Dan.
2. Perhaps the Flames reminding him of Dan is giving him some guilt as Dan would likely never stand for this sort of thing.
3. Perhaps Dan has left a lasting impression on him, such that even vague representations of him, like these flames, call him to mind.
4. Or perhaps he’s feeling a premonition about another battle with Dan.

But it could also be a kind of foreshadowing in a way. He does this in the name of Otherworld King, the fact that they’re approaching this in this manner might be suggestive of Otherworld King’s preferred colour of choice: Red.

Of course, we haven’t seen Otherworld King battle, so we have no way of confirming this at this point in time.

It’s Mira’s Turn and she adds yet ANOTHER spirit to her board, this time a 3rd Soldier Gustav.

Clackey now goes for “Card games as therapy” angle, claiming that Mira’s playstyle exemplifies some vulnerability.

Mira deflects, claiming that anyone would raise defenses against an advancing enemy.

Except this is a card game, defense alone won’t win, and your 1-life per turn looks more like a crutch from a gameplay analysis.

Clackey seems to notice something in the Gate’s design this time.

For anyone who’s as slow as I am, Mira appears out of nowhere with no warning to block some magical gates. The gates themselves depict a long-haired lady.

One might put 2 and 2 together and surmise that Mira is representative of the Lady on the Gate in some way.

Mira attacks with Block-Golem, and the Spirit literally RECONSTRUCTS ITSELF in prime position to beat Clackey’s ass.

What’s bothering me is that Block-Golem here is the feature card, yet it hasn’t unveiled any effects because Mira hasn’t used a Nexus.

Not much of a “feature” if its being used like a glorified vanilla.

Anyway, Clackey has one life remaining.

Mira announces that her next turn will be the last one.

One could say that her next turn will be the uh…

(Maybe I’ll do Vanguard after I finish off Battle Spirits… That show is ALSO quite nice)

He ain’t wrong.

Clackey’s got 12 core to work with, 6 of which are accounted for on his currently 4 Spirits.

He needs to punch through 5 Blockers, and 4 lives.

This would, on average, require 9 attacks, but with only 3 cards in his hand, which will become 4, he can only produce 8 spirits max.

It’s not happening. He needs some other way to get around the Blockers.

Clackey once again, is more interested in Mira than the fight, but it’s quite hard to ignore an opponent that’s evidently carrying some baggage.

Clackey’s probing has led him to realize the connection between Mira and the woman on the wall, which appears to have gotten a rise out of Mira.

Oh geez.

Clackey’s levelled up Gremly, Tanya and Iberix to Level 2, and Sophia to Level 3.

In total, that action required all 6 core remaining in his reserve.

Which means if Clackey’s going to use Magic, he’ll have to pay off his Spirits.

Though Mira herself appears Human, then again if she’s an Otherworld Resident, then Human or not, if it was Humans that ruined her life she might hold some specific resentment toward them.

Good ol’ fashioned fantastic racism.

This statement from Clackey seems to cause Mira to relive, if briefly, the memories associated with the design on the Gate.

Naturally, thinking about it causes her an immense amount of distress, it’s no different to a victim of any traumatic event, such that some will argue that pressing on the point is in effect causing them to relive the event for real, and that such topics should be dropped out of consideration for the victim.

That being said, my hot take on this is that if you’re having to avoid talking about something that has occurred, you haven’t moved passed it, and you give it control over you. So no matter how painful, talking about traumatic events is important, because your silence will only make yourself suffer longer, and you’ll even begin to affect the emotions of the people around you.

It is better to feel an immense amount of pain in a short span of time than it is to feel a lesser amount of pain over the course of many years.

Just be sure to talk with someone whom you trust and who welcomes the talk, like a therapist, etc.

Because even if it doesn’t go away immediately, people who are informed about your pain are in a better position to give you the support you need.

Clackey continues this topic of conversation by morphing into Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures.

Oh I don’t like where this is going.

Suddenly Yuuki burning down Castles in the background becomes a lot more significant.

So, here’s the gist, Humans invaded Mira’s Castle and wiped the whole thing out, setting it ablaze.

In Mira’s despair, Kajitsu introduced herself to her, and became friends through Kajitsu’s kindness.

Now, who do the Humans work for? Otherworld King.

We know Yuuki is currently setting Castles on Fire for Otherworld King.

Which means that there’s a strong possibility that Kajitsu was taking advantage of the destruction she was complicit in.

To summarise again, Mira has become insanely distrustful of Humans ever since her Castle was destroyed, blanket distrust is not a safe coping mechanism for having one’s trust broken. So naturally Clackey’s going to have to pry her heart open.

Clackey attacks with Sophia at Level 3.

Since he’s not played a Spirit, Clackey’s going to have to somehow nail all 4 lives with only his 4 spirits.

Mira meets Sophia using Block-Golem.

Clackey fires off a Yellow Magic, Wing Boots.

A Magic from SD02, so not quite as new as BS06’s pool of cards.

Firstly of note, Iberix is providing a Yellow reduction to this card, so it has 4 Yellow reduction, being 4 cost, and Clackey having 4 Yellow symbols, he’s able to play this card for free.

Basically, while resolving the Showdown step, if your Spirit’s Level is higher than the opposing Spirit’s level. The attack isn’t considered to be blocked, which is to say that the Attack will automatically go to the life AFTER the block has been declared, and your Spirit won’t be destroyed.

Allowing you to take a life even though you’ve already been blocked.

Unfortunately, this only allows you to “target” a spirit, meaning Clackey can only grant this benefit to one spirit for the turn per use of this Magic.

Keyphrase: Per Use.

It’s nice when the visual effect is representative of the card’s design.

Dan once again showing off his immense familiarity with the game, Zungurii is unfamiliar with the effect of Wing Boots because this is the first time he’s seen it, so Dan explains the effect to him.

Yes, unfortunately because Mira has no Level 3 spirits, Sophia is basically unblockable.

There’s a rub in the sense that Rock-Golem is at least Level 2.

I’ll explain a bit later

Mira loses a life, dropping her to 3.

From Lv2 upwards, Sophia is a Light Spirit, so Wing Boots returns to Clackey’s hand at the end of Sophia’s battle if it remains on the field.

Iberix has the same ability, meaning Clackey can get three uses out of Wing Boots.

The issue is that Rock-Golem being Level 2 means Mira can block one of the upcoming attacks, so Clackey still needs a way to get that last life.

Ah yes, where Dan’s specialty is Clash, Clackey’s is Light, and Mai’s of course, is Curse.

That would make Yuuki’s specialty Armor, and and Suzuri’s specialty Demolish.

We’ve yet to see the Green Soldier, so we’re still holding out on that one.

Clackey attacks with Iberix, during Flash timing he plays Wing Boots again.

Mira could block this with Rock-Golem, but decides to take a life.

Thanks to Iberix’s Light, Wing Boots returns to Clackey’s hand.

This time Clackey attacks with Tanya, once again using Wing Boots.

Tanya isn’t a Spirit with Light, so Wing Boots won’t return after this use.

Reminder: Rock-Golem can still block this attack as Tanya is only Level 2.

Mira takes a life from Tanya, leaving her with 1 life remaining.

Gremly will get blocked for sure when it attacks, however we read it’s effect further up.

Clackey once again asks Mira for details on what happened in her past to make her so defensive.

Welp, Clackey, she’s way too old for you already.

So, in summary:

Mira was left in charge of the gate and erroneously allowed Knights with evil intentions to enter the town, believing their lie that they needed to rest.

Due to this misplaced trust, her entire town was destroyed and she lost everything.

And therefore she’s had persistent trust issues ever since.

What, you want my opinion? I’ve got only one word for this: Understandable.

To be guarding this gate under the orders of Kajitsu for hundreds of years and not be aware that she’s committing the same atrocities would be very difficult.

Though Mira’s silence concerning this matter seals the deal, she’s fully aware, it’s just that Kajitsu offered kindness at a time when Mira was most vulnerable and had no one, much like how many animals with nowhere to go and no one to follow will take a chance trusting the first seemingly sentient thing it comes across.

Though this offers a very strange plothole, Kajitsu is only 12 years old during the time of this anime, and this event supposedly took place hundreds of years ago, there’s no decent timespan for Kajitsu to appear.

Kajitsu isn’t 100s of years old.

Though I think I have an explanation for this plot-hole if it isn’t addressed shortly.

Clackey attacks with Gremly, since he lacks Wing Boots, he can’t make Gremly unblockable.

It’s at this point Mira has made a game-losing mistake.

She’s chosen Gremly as the Spirit to be blocked by Rock-Golem, Rock-Golem being Level 2 could have blocked any of the last 2 attacks.

It’s at this point I questioned the show’s logic here… So I did a bit of digging.

So initially, google translate APPEARS to tell me “Greater than or equal”

Which would suggest that the existing Wiki entry is wrong.

However, reading the japanese, it reads “バトル解決時、そのスピリットのLvがブロックした相手のスピリット以上のとき”

In English lettering, that pronounces as “Batoru kaiketsu-ji, sono supiritto no Lv ga burokku shita aite no supiritto ijo no toki.”

I’ve had a hard time translating this specific line, at first it feels like a rough translation is “At the end of battle, when a spirit blocks when your spirit has a higher level”, the key part here is “Ijo no Toki” which is “When higher”

So I thought “oi, what the hell?”, I don’t put stock in Google Translate’s attempts to translate it, and the japanese seems to suggest what the Wiki is saying.

But in checking the rulings for Wing Boots listed on Batspi.com.

Q1.自分のLv2のスピリットがアタックして、相手のLv2のスピリットにブロックされた後、このマジックの効果を使った。これでブロックされなかったものとして扱って、相手のライフを減らせる？

A1.はい、減らせます。

I find the above.

Translated, this question is quite simply asking, if a Lv2 Spirit blocks a Lv2 Spirit under the effects of Wing Boots, will Wing Boots kick in and reduce the life.

That answer says “Hai, Herasemasu”, or “Yes, it can be reduced”

So the wording on the card DOES NOT make it clear what the card fucking does!

Wing Boots, despite specifying a scenario for the effect to occur, ALSO triggers in a scenario not fucking specified by the card!

Ugh, In any case, I found an interesting ruling concerning this card since I need SOMETHING to brighten my day after that.

Namely, that the Level is checked upon resolution of the battle, which means that both spirits need to exist when flash timing ends. If you somehow get rid of your blocking Spirit before flash timing is over, Wing Boots won’t go off because you lack a spirit to compare levels with.

Back to the battle, this means even if Mira blocked with Rock-Golem, equal levels aren’t enough to snuff out Wing Boots’ effect.

There are no good frames concerning this battle, Rock-Golem at 3000 BP knocks the 2000 BP Gremly out of the way.

Gremly’s effect kicks in when it’s destroyed. Allowing Clackey to refresh a Light Spirit.

His selection is, of course, Sophia.

Clackey once again attacks with Sophia, the effects of Wing Boots remain on the Spirit until the turn ends, so a refreshed Sophia can still benefit from it’s effects.

Sophia’s attack is unable to be blocked safely, so Mira’s last life is taken, making Clackey the winner.

Praise from the peanut gallery!

More importantly, Clackey’s noticed that his opponent has gone missing all of a sudden.

Clackey despairs for a bit, thinking she’d run off and closed her heart more, believing his attempts to free her were in vain, but Mai points out that the image on the Gate has changed, the Tear on the lady’s face is gone, she’s smiling, and most importantly, the rose Clackey gave Mira is now present on the Gate.

This suggests that Mira was in fact the Woman depicted on the Gate, brought to reality.

Which brings me to the earlier plot-hole, if her spirit was bound to the gate because of her mistake, it’s possible Kajitsu only turned up recently to offer her kindness, because the gate depicts the memory of her town burning, that might just be how she remembers the memory because that’s what the world looks like from inside that mural.

Having appeased the Gate Spirit, the Gate now opens.

I wonder why they aren’t taking the Violet through it?

Is where they’re going close enough that they can make it on foot?

Looks like they were just getting a lay o’ the land.

The Horizon Ladder is visible in the distance.

Well that’s concerning, Kajitsu welcomes Yuuki back onto the Horizon Ladder, but Yuuki’s holding something glowing a BRIGHT red.

It appears to be some kind of Red… well, “Core”

Not like a Battle Spirits Core, like a Power source kind of Core.

Well that’s not fucking ominous at all.

The question likely in everyone’s mind here is, “What is that fucking thing, and where the hell did Yuuki get it?”

And that’s all folks!

This episode was kind of a meh one, it’s glorified filler.

The reason why I say this is because the events of the episode don’t trigger a change in the status quo, that Gate never appears again and neither does Mira, the fact that nothing changed about the current situation from the beginning of the episode til the end means that plot-wise this episode was mostly irrelevant.

So when that happens in your Card Game anime, your battle needs to be somewhat showy, perhaps unveiling new cards or showing some other narrative significance.

The only thing this Episode does is show that Yuuki has Dan on his mind, and Clackey’s use of Wing Boots, a card that isn’t even that new–

Actually I tell a lie, SD02 comes out after BS06 in terms of release schedule, so Wing Boots is actually a very new card.

I think I got my wires crossed with SD01.

Ah well, clearly I need a hot minute to take a break, so I’ll see you muppets in the next one! Cheerio!