Camping With the Dragwizard
And here it is! The last fictional character birthday of November! Today, we'll be playing some more card games and fighting our way to victory! Now devour everything until you achieve the world that you desire and surpass everything! Everyone, say happy birthday to Kazuma Shoji from Cardfight!! Vanguard G NEXT!
Kazuma Shoji is one of the newest main characters introduced within the fourth season of Cardfight!! Vanguard G known as Cardfight!! Vanguard G: NEXT, and would return in the fifth season known as G: Z to fight against the newest threat. He's the newest rival to the protagonist, Chrono Shindou, and often bickers with him due to their opposing personalities. When he was young, his single mother married into the prestigious Onimaru family where Kazuma would bond with Kazumi Onimaru and become inseparable brothers as Kazumi would spark Kazuma's love for Vanguard (even though he could never win against his older brother), creating a bond with Dragheart, Luard. Despite that, the Onimaru family would berate him for "trying to show off" and him and his mother would be kicked out of the family. Kazuma would abandon Luard and Vanguard until his first year in high school where he would ask Chrono (who was working at a card shop at the time) to teach him to play Vanguard. Due to their rocky start, Kazuma would quit after realizing he couldn't win, yet Chrono would keep approaching him due to his talent to be a Vanguard Fighter. He would be roped into Chrono's new team called Team Striders to participate in the Under20, a championship for Vanguard players under the age of 20 to have a chance to go pro! Reluctantly, Kazuma joined until he found Kazumi was one of the champions from last year's Under20, reigniting the desire to beat Kazumi once and for all!...and yet...a new world ending plot was once again lurking withing the shadows. As Chrono attempts to stop it, Kazuma gets dragged along.
Personality wise, Kazuma is a tsundere who gives up too easily. After losing multiple times in Vanguard to his older brother, he's developed a bit of an inferiority complex in order to prove to himself that he can do something. No matter the odds, Kazuma would give up at the first sign of trouble, even if he might win in the end. Despite this, Kazuma is a kind and caring person who does care about his family and friends, but shuts himself off to avoid feeling disappointed. Because of this, he often has trouble displaying those emotions, especially his love towards his friends and family. As the story progresses, Kazuma becomes more confident in his abilities and is able to overcome his demons!
Kazuma is voiced by Shogo Batori who's known for voicing Gerupa from Restaurant to Another World, Sun Ce from Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Prince Johan from Barbie: Princess Adventure, Y'sai from Monster Hunter Wilds, Bayo from The Beachbuds, Sprout Cloverleaf from My Little Pony: A New Generation, Samuel Jordan from Resident Evil Resistance, Bi Shu from Thunderbolt Fantasy: Sword Seekers 2, Hiroaki Matsushita from The Dinner Table Detective, and so much more!
Kazuma runs a Shadow Paladin Clan deck, hailing from the United Sanctuary Nation, a nation filled with technological knights and mages. The Shadow Paladin Clan is a secret society who assists the United Sanctuary with their power! This is shown through their mechanic of sacrificing their own allies to gain even greater power while also putting their opponent at a disadvantage! Unlike the great knights that fight on the front lines, Kazuma has had an everlasting contract with the Dragwizards, mages that specialize in researching the ancient art of "Dragshift", an ability to reconstruct your entire body to become a dragon! These Dragwizards focus on the keyword known as "Ritual" which is only active if your graveyard has a certain amount of level 1 cards (For example, if you have three level 1 cards in the grave, you can activate Ritual 3 and Ritual 5)! Kazuma runs the immature leader known as Dragheart, Luard, a level 3 card that focuses on the newest evolution mechanic at the time! When he evolves, Luard is able to call two level 1 cards from your deck to your field! Like with all mechanics, this evolution mechanic has a cost of discarding any amount of cards that have their levels equal to 3 (so discard a level 1 and 2 or discard a level 3 card), but Luard is able to bypass that mechanic! With Ritual 3 active, Luard can return two cards from your graveyard to the bottom of the deck in order to evolve for free while refilling your deck! Luard is a very powerful deck when he first came out, and he continues to be a meta threat today even as the game has evolved through multiple formats! Hell, a bunch of his staple cards have been used in multiple Shadow Paladin decks! When you fight Luard, you better be prepared!
Kazuma is another very adorable good boy who deserves a lot of love! As you can see from his bio, he's been through so much throughout his childhood, and he really does need a lot of hugs- he's such a cute tsundere who has grown so much over the course of the story; from a dark and brooding tsundere who doesn't have a lot of friends, to someone who's finally able to call Chrono by his first name and call him his best friend! Kazuma is another man that my sister and I adore just for his development and also uh- his ace unit is hot- like Luard is HELLA hot like HOT DRAGON MAN YOU GUYS SHOULD LOOK AT HIM HE HOT LOL
And like with the rest of the G era main cast, Kazuma was included in the Portrait Visual Gift series, a special panel that details the life of the G era cast for the 10th anniversary of Vanguard G! Kazuma says Chrono's name SO much and like omfg he said one of his likes is Chrono, and he also loves to go camping a lot! He's looking forward to hanging out with Chrono more lol THAT'S SO GAY
AND SINCE I LOVE KAZUMA SO MUCH, HERE'S A FIC FOR HIM!
Kazuma Shouji x Gender-Neutral Reader
"I thought you wanted some alone time on these trips…"
"…so…?" Shoji Kazuma grumbled, resting his back against the portable chair he brought with him, warming his hands by the campfire. "I…don't mind having company while I'm camping…."
"Hmmmm~" you hummed, placing the pot of curry above the campfire. "Are you suuuure~?"
"Y-yes.." he muttered. "I'm sure..a-and..well…" he sighed, another soft blush appearing on his face as he glanced away. "I..I wanted to show you how fun camping can be…"
You playfully giggle, reaching your gloved hand over to his, gently wrapping it within yours. "You're so sweet, Kazuma~"
Kazuma blushed as he heard his stomach growl, reaching to take the lid off of the pot. "Enough talking, I'm starving!…wait, why's the curry so red?!"
You huffed, giving him the most confident smile you could muster. "It's my own special homemade spicy curry~! You said you wanted curry for dinner, so I brought my famous spicy curry~!"
"Y-yeah, but-!" Kazuma gulped, the menacing red color staring deep into his soul. "T…that looks a bit…um…"
"Too spicy?" you winked. "Don't worry, I made sure to lower the spice before hand so you can handle it~ just trust me~"
"…if…you say so…"
Happy birthday Kazuma!