Yugioh VRAINS starts airing this May, and here’s an attempt to put together released info so far for your convenience:
Story Summary:
Den City: A city with advanced network systems.
A company called "SOL Technology Inc" there developed a VR world called "LINK VRAINS" using advanced network technology, where people are crazy over the brand new experience of dueling in the VR world. But a mysterious duelist hacking group called "Knights of Hanoi" came to the LINK VRAINS, with the goal of destroying the "World of AI=Cybers" that exists somewhere on the network. But one duelist named "Playmaker" stood in the way of the threat to LINK VRAINS. Defeating the Knights of Hanoi in an overwhelming duel and leaving without a word, his name became instantly famous online. Turns out his real self, a high school student named Fujiki Yusaku, went after the Knights of Hanoi's activities in VRAINS in order to uncover the truth of a certain incident in the past.
The opening theme will be "With The Wind" by Tominaga "TOMMY" Hiroaki (who did the opening theme for jojo's bizzare adventure).
Other charas:
Zaizen Aoi is in the same grade as Yusaku and is a popular a charisma duelist, and goes by the handle Blue Angel in the VR world (right in picture). Onizuka Gou goes by GoOnizuka in the VR world, and sees Yusaku, whom goes by Playmaker, as a rival (left in picture).
Staff:
Director: Masahiro Hosoda (DBZ, one piece, toei “season 0″ yugioh and more)
Series composer: Shin Yoshida (ygo veteran, Zexal series composer)
Duel composer: Masahiro Hikokubo (ygo veteran, our usual duel writer)
Chara designer: Kenichi Hara (well known for beautiful animation since 5d’s)
Music director: Matsuoka Hiroki (zexal, arc-v, dark side of dimensions)
Music: Mitsumune Shinkichi (yugioh DM, dark side of dimensions and more)
Animation: Studio Gallop
Production: NAS
Cast:
Fujiki Yusaku: Shouya Ishige (seems very new to VA but has done a few stage plays including Lion King as Simba)
Air time:Wednesdays at 6:25 PM JST on TV Tokyo
Latest trailer from Anime Japan 2017:
https://twitter.com/wendy_shosho/status/845452923874136064
Best effort YGO Dark side of dimensions highlight/reactions under the cut (SPOILERS). Japanese isn’t so good etc.
Other summaries here!
http://sliferthewhydidigeta.tumblr.com/post/143702764826/yugioh-the-darkside-of-dimensions-summary-with (with duels and visual where possible!)
http://tachishini.tumblr.com/post/143242399662/yu-gi-oh-the-darkside-of-dimensions (I like this a lot it’s very on point with dramatic storytelling)
- The story afaik is about Aigami’s group called “planners”, a group that travels dimensions to reach the higher meta dimension. Sera is Aigami’s little sister and Mani is their friend, and Aigami kind of injected himself into Yugi and friend’s memories (so he could get close to Bakura and get revenge for his master)
- the movie opens with a ton of dimension bubbles all spiralling towards some kind of destruction and we zoom in on one of the bubbles, across galaxies to Kaiba’s obnoxious space station as he stares at a floating puzzle, not yet complete
- we see Kaiba’s men excavating the site where Yugi and Atem had their final duel and (we notice Mani is already hiding there with them as they work on the excavation)
- the next scene opens on a regular sunny day with Yugi and friends returning to their daily life after Atem, at lunch Yugi and friends talks about their various dreams (Anzu going overseas, Jounouchi wants to be a pro duelist but has yet to win anything, Yugi wants to make his own game) and when they go back to the classroom there’s a blue haired golden eyed kid in the corner they kinda remember but something seems off – but they recall his name being Aigami (Aigami however stares back at them with sharp golden eyes)
- after yami disappeared Yugi put some of his card in his own deck and in the sunset after school there is a sentimental moment where the words are left unsaid
- on the way home they found Aigami cornered by thugs from school pointing their phone cameras at him (“you’re real cute Aigami we’re gonna make you famous” “please don’t–”) Jounouchi leaps off a bridge to the rescue so the gang leaves but threatens Aigami to show up at night at the warehouse “or else”. Jounouchi and the gang tells him to not go but Aigami assures them that it’ll really, be fine
- Aigami does show up at night at the warehouse where the gang was waiting and they prepared an entire film studio and a real DV cam (“starting with some PAIN”) they laugh but Aigami laughs even creepier and took out his Cube, other children with glowing eyes appear out of the darkness, and he banished them to another dimension as they disappear one by one screaming in rays of golden light
- We take a moment to ADMIRE Kaiba and Atem’s dream duel in a church setting and boy it is ever so glorious (the duel now start with 8000 LP)
- Kaiba not only build a space station for the sole purpose of completing the puzzle but also reconstructed an entire replica of Atem from his memories and a new solid vision system (that projects images directly to the brain) so he can duel Atem as realistically as possible (he’s not satisfied with crushing a mere hologram however)
- Back in neo domino, Yugi and friends learns of the thug’s disappearance on newspaper when they were hanging out at the mall, otogi and otogi’s DAD are at the cafe serving their table
- Kaiba reveals KC’s brand new duel disk and Jounouchi TAKES OFF HIS DOG SUIT HEAD TO LOOK AT THE AD
- speaking of Jounouchi wears a dog suit at the part time job and still had weird boner dreams about Kaiba he literally dreamed about Kaiba afterwards “do you want this (brand new duel disk) Jounouchi?? do you want this?? HAHAHAH”
- Aigami remembers a prophecy about how the seven items being able to open the door to another dimension but when the pharaoh’s soul is revived a second time they will lose their future and become bound to the world), and also an implied terrible fate of shin-sama, one who told them a prophecy and declares that the one responsible is in this world and storms off in a rage (despite his sister trying to stop him)
- Mani was already there when the excavation party started and he’s giving info back to Aigami in neo domino, who is keeping tabs on Yugi’s party in neo domino
- Aigami teleported himself to the excavation site after being told by Mani that Kaiba’s team had found the puzzle, but to his great surprise, Kaiba calls him out right away by both his fake and real name (you were in the city 3 minutes ago but you are here now COME OUT IMMEDIATELY DIVA–or AIGAMI I KNOW YOU’RE THERE)
- btw Kaiba also literally owns the city now he’s implied to be able to keep tabs on everyone in the city in real time thanks to new duel disk system that links everyone to a cloud network almost like a pseudo collective consciousness(?) (and that is beyond expectation for even Yugi and friends (later on))
- Aigami tried his cube on Kaiba but was surprised that it didn’t work when Kaiba activated his duel system--likely working similarly to his own collective consciousness system
- while waiting on the security lock on the puzzle excavation to open Kaiba duels Aigami “I’LL MAKE YOU REGRET CHALLENGING ME” –by Kaiba
- when duelling with Aigami a dark portal opens above the whole field and their duel becomes a “dimension duel” with different rules than usual
- normal summon becomes “dimension summon” where high lvl monster can be summoned without needing sacrifices but their stats are determined by the SPIRIT POWER of the summoner (I’m not kidding) (but max stats are capped at the monster’s original atk/def)
- atk/def of monsters are “stats”. battle damage is not dealt normally but when a monster is destroyed the owner takes damage to the “stats” (atk+def) of the destroyed monster
- monsters that attacked Aigami’s cube monsters becomes “undimensioned” and their stats (atk/def) becomes 0
- after being cornered Kaiba ends their duel in the most spectacular obelisk summon where Aigami is shocked:
Aigami: “but monster effects should be negated–”
Kaiba: “that’s no monster. IT’S A GOD”
- the security on the puzzle unlocks and just as they were taking off Aigami teleported himself and tried grabbed pieces of the puzzle but Mokuba HEADBUTTED him off the rope
- (after the coast is clear Mani is surprised to find the millennium ring at the bottom of the pit)
- Kaiba revealed earlier that the reason for the overextravagant space station is to be able to have a super computer scan the pieces and recreate the puzzle in zero gravity therefore reducing the build time from several years to around 8 hours – but the computer reported back that it can’t be completed since 2 pieces went missing and Kaiba realizes Aigami took them
- Aigami gives a piece of puzzle to Sera (they worry what would happen if the pharaoh’s soul is revived, Sera says she’ll find an ally in this world) but Sera entrusted the piece to Yugi after showing him who the planners are
- Shadi is the original one who gave children like Aigami and Sera dimensional traveling “planners” powers just like him (so I guess he could also be a planner himself) but he’s even more mysterious now cos he came to the children in a flash of light where did he even come from what’s his real purpose
- Bakura’s past BAKURA’S DAD small Bakura murdered Shadi and Aigami Remembered and swears to kill him back
- ^^THIS WAS ACTUALLY A ONE LINER PLOT POINT BACK IN BATTLE CITY (MALIK VS. BAKURA), WHERE BAKURA WAS SHOCKED TO HEAR MALIK SAY SHADI WAS STILL ALIVE “he should’ve died..5 years ago..” (INCREDIBLE)
- Aigami reveals his group has the power of “collective consciousness” and they seem to be able to move people between parallel dimensions – he corners Jounouchi and Bakura, throws Jounouchi into a parallel dimension tells him everyone in the world shares one collective consciousness and everything you see is an illusion (like the matrix) and if no one remembers you then you don’t exist and the world around him starts to crumple into the black hole in the sky
- Aigami forces Bakura to remember what happened in their past–when Shadi teaches them about the millenium items and how everyone has terror in their hearts and history repeats itself, even though Aigami says he has none, but that’s when Bakura’s dad found them
- Bakura’s dad stumbles upon them tries to buy the sennen ring with a bag of money but shadi says he has to wear the ring to find out. he puts on the ring but gets knocked out by the darkness that poured out, but the ring reacted to small Bakura after he picked it up (he was hiding in a corner the whole time) and he murdered Shadi and blasted away all the children (and that part Aigami Rememberd)
- Aigami tells Bakura to show his true self but Bakura breaks down in tears cos he felt so bad that the ring killed someone important to Aigami which causes Aigami to hesitate – but Mani (who came across the ring earlier) comes along as if under the influence of the ring to want to use the ring to get revenge but he gets swallowed in darkness (he painfully tells Aigami to stay Away) instead and disappears. Aigami later finds Mani in a dark dimension desert with the ring, crumpling to dust and he breaks down a little
- Yugi and Honda realizes Jounouchi and Bakura are gone so they go out to look for them but Aigami confronts them (in front of the battle city clock) and tells them Jounouchi is lost in the crevice of the dimensions, and how he actually planted himself into their heads, the power of collective consciousness and how they should also disappear
- Jounouchi struggles to find someone here who remembers him but found no one and he’s about to give up collapsed in front of the battle city clock dial – but he sees a familiar figure that looks just like yami in front of the clock dial and he is transported back to their world (to Aigami’s great surprise and Yugi party’s delight)
- Aigami retreats and later contemplates alone while lost in thoughts, but Kaiba’s team swoops in and kidnaps him and gives him bondage eyepatch to stop his teleporting powers and puts him on a bondage chair in their lab
- Mokuba questions him about the piece of puzzle in his dimension cube thing which Kaiba’s team can’t open, Aigami laughs at them for he only has 1 piece of puzzle inside and (where even is the other piece) – that’s when Mokuba sneers back cos they already know and brings up pics of his sister on screen threateningly and that wiped the sneer from his face
- Kaiba standing in the middle of the crosswalk (blocking all traffic) to invite Yugi to his tournament
- Yugi wasn’t interested since Bakura is still missing but Kaiba tells him Aigami is in his possession and he knows Yugi had the last piece of puzzle (to Yugi’s surprise like how did you) and reveals his plan of calling back Atem’s soul
- Sera shows up after Kaiba to explain what happens if the pharaoh’s soul is revived a second time (they’ll be bound to the world) and how they’re the same “chosen kind” and wants Yugi to save his brother
- @ Kaiba tournament
- Kaiba reveals the new duel disk in a most spectacular fashion where a blue eyes BURST STREAMS DOWN A JET PLANE and everyone’s like holy shit this is all solid vision??
- KAIBA’s GLORIOUS SALES PITCH “the soul is trapped in the prison of the body. the body is the weapon for the soul. but we’re trapped in the body until we die. conflicts happen, history repeats itself BUT WITH THIS NEW SYSTEM YOU WILL BE FREED FROM THE PRISON AND YOUR CARDS WILL BE YOUR SWORD”
- Yugi insists that he duels Aigami instead of Kaiba because he wants to bring back Bakura – Aigami uses a ton of burn effect to deal damage and when Yugi’s about to lose he tries to convince Yugi to surrender and join the planners on their travels to the higher meta dimension (since he is also a chosen one) and forget about this world but Yugi refuses saying that they have a future here (he made a promise to not lose) – defeats Aigami with a triple trap infinite loop as he vanishes into nothingness (Bakura is returned to their world after Aigami’s defeat)
- Yugi decides to face Kaiba instead of completing the puzzle, and at the height of their REALLY COOL DUEL he threw Kaiba a card – and Kaiba was surprised that it’s a symbolic card, monster reborn
- At some point during the duel Aigami is seen wondering in the same dark dimension desert that Mani disappeared in, he himself about to suffer the same fate but he saw the ring, and darkness swallows him as soon as he touches it
- Kaiba brings out the puzzle again in the middle of their duel, Yugi completes the puzzle knowingly in front of Kaiba apologetically (as if he knew) and as expected, nothing happens, and he turns to Kaiba like I’m sorry but the pharaoh’s soul isn’t there anymore and Kaiba had the most hurt and indignant look on his face like I WONT ACCEPT THIS I’ll BEAT YOU UP AND CALL HIM OUT
- Kaiba angrily uses the symbolic monster reborn Yugi gave him on Deep eyes white dragon but Yugi counters with gandora X, destroying it and adding its atk to gandora’s own atk for game but Kaiba smiles – with 100 LP remaining instead. but that’s when Aigami’s cube materializes and to everyone’s surprise he emerges from it twisted like a mutulated cube dragon, the cube rises to the sky opening a door threatening to swallow everything into the dark dimension – people starts to demateralize from the stadium starting with their heads, and not even his sister could stop him
- Kaiba and Yugi teams up to stop Aigami and soon realizes their LP is on the line, when they lose LP parts of their body dematerializes into dark particles (like the games of darkness in the original seasons)
- Kaiba takes fatal damage for Yugi and before he disappears, he tells Yugi to call out to “him” (in the puzzle). Yugi puts on the puzzle and continues to duel - after taking more beating Yugi tries to draw but he runs out of strength and the light kinda disappear from his eyes, and he’s about to collapse.. but a flash of light falls from the sky and Atem stands in Yugi’s body in a golden stream majestically (almost like his season 0 self), draws mahad from the deck and finishes off Aigami’s remaining monster in a flash of light, light beams down on the city evacuating the darkness – Yugi splits in half as the two finally come face to face to each other, smiling, Yugi nods at Atem and both Atem and the puzzle disappears in a flash of light (they never talk in the entire scene)
- in the end Kaiba bids Yugi farewell and Yugi thanks Kaiba, and Aigami and the other planners loses their powers – their forehead triangles disappear in gentle flashes of light into the night sky, Mani also came back and he was glad it turned out this way
- Yugi and friends graduate and parts way to their dreams and the planners children also parts ways towards a normal life
- at the very very end Kaiba got a hold of Aigami’s cube and as he sits in a new contraption in the space elevator Mokuba asks him worrily – are you sure you wanna do this and it be dangerous, Kaiba’s very sure, I’m leaving everything up to you Mokuba, and activates the DIMENSION DUEL SYSTEM as he dashes down the space elevator in the machine, the entire space elevator dematerializes in a flash of golden light like Aigami’s cube power, and next thing we see Kaiba’s walking down a desert to none other than the same palace Atem use to reside in– same as the one in memory world, and as he walks in the hall, he’s greeted with Atem’s familiar face, Atem gets up, smiles, and Kaiba readies his duel disk.
