Response to “Yusaku is BORING” video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOfKpSPlzI&t=
To start off, well plain and simple - it’s hard to compare previous Yu-Gi-Oh! series with one that is currently ongoing. One thing that you kept repeating (besides the word “boring”) was that we don’t know much about Yusaku. Well newsflash - at the point of your video being posted there were roughly 56 episodes out which is not even the half of the series yet - Kaiba’s full backstory wasn’t revealed until episode 100 (therefore you wouldn’t know his entire backstory at that point) so if you put it in perspective of other series you should compare them up to the point where VRAINS is right now - which you didn’t so VRAINS got a lot of disadvantages when being compared to the rest of the series and therefore you didn’t judge Yusaku as equally as the rest of the protagonists. But let’s say I ignore this fact and I fully focus on your character analysis of Yusaku:
1) He is bland - It might be just me, but I don’t really see him as bland - in fact, I see him as one of the most interesting characters so far. In the very first episode, he already states clearly who he is, using his three things speech - he thinks a lot so it’s understandable that he, therefore, doesn’t talk as much unless he talks with those who understand him. And even though Naoki wasn’t one of those people, he still listened to him even when he could freely ignore him. The reason why he may appear bland is that he kind of has to look bland - he lives a double life, he has trouble socializing (which Kusanagi and Ai point out a lot) and he doesn’t want to involve more people in this so if he appears boring and bland he doesn’t need to interact with that many people and attract unwanted attention. So to keep in in one sentence - he is using the fact that he appears bland to his advantage.
2) He has no friends - I’ll be involving some things from season two here, but even in the first season it is kinda clear why Yusaku has no friends, not counting allies. Due to Lost Incident Yusaku developed PTSD and most likely his social anxiety as well. If you live with such disorders from an early age, it is very difficult to develop your social skills - if you rewatch the flashback scene, you’ll see Yusaku in some sort of a daycare trying hard to smile, but he can’t. He told Akira himself that yes, he had taken treatments, he did everything to leave the past behind and he tried to live a normal life - but he couldn’t, PTSD and Lost Incident didn’t let him so revenge was the last resort. And in a way, the revenge on Knights of Hanoi helped him out the most - he gained allies and friends. Yusei had friends who went through the same thing as him so he managed to develop his social skills while Yusaku couldn’t which may suggest that Yusaku doesn’t really understand the difference between an acquaintance and a friend. Yusaku only considered “three things person” a friend - Revolver - because he knew that he was in the same situation as him so he trusted him and swore to save him one day. Same went for Takeru - the moment he revealed that he is a victim as well, Yusaku agreed to trust him and when Kusanagi referred to Takeru as his friend, Yusaku didn’t deny it and was even fine with Takeru calling him by his first name (in Japan this is a big deal, since first names are reserved only for close friends and family). Yusaku eventually warmed up even to Ai, so to answer your question - yes Yusaku changes in the means of that and is also smiling more and has more heart to heart conversations with others (just a few episodes ago he had a really good conversation with Takeru, Ai and Flame - talking about their future, how they got to this point and generally just how he feels about the whole situation - I really recommend checking it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j60tQvhbfvY ). One other reason why Yusaku might not have so many friends is that he is careful and hardly trusts anyone – especially due to how he was kidnapped. In one of the flashbacks, it is revealed that Yusaku used to be a very cheerful kid who loved playing card games and wasn’t hesitant to talk with a total stranger about the game. The only problem was that stranger was an eight-year-old Revolver who later lured him to his house so Dr. Kogami could have a subject for his experiments. It is completely understandable that Yusaku became scared and untrusting of strangers. This is also shown in another flashback (there are two episodes dedicated entirely to how Kusanagi and Yusaku met) that showed Yusaku approaching Kusanagi very carefully both in VRAINS and in real world. Yusaku even uses a very quiet and stuttering tone when he talks with Kusanagi outside VRAINS, suggesting it was really difficult for him to trust someone.
3) He doesn’t care about anyone, he has no goal and has no noble cause to duel – Actually, in the duel between Yusaku and Spectre, it is revealed that’s his greatest weakness – when Spectre uses Akira as a hostage in his duel. Akira luckily quickly realizes that and practically removes himself out of the duel in order to help him. True the whole revenge thing on Knights of Hanoi started purely so he could move on, but that’s not the only reason. During the duel with Akira Yusaku stated clearly that he had wanted answers – he wanted to know what the point of his suffering was, he wanted to understand what happened to him and he wanted to punish the people who did that to him. Yusaku was right to react the way he did when he shouted: “YOU KNOW NOTHING!” – after all Akira made it sound really easy when he said he can take care of his problems for him, but what he didn’t know at the time was just how corrupted SOL actually was and that it isn’t safe to trust anyone – what Yusaku knew well. Yusaku doesn’t want to involve anyone in this dangerous mission which is in a way a noble cause already – he wanted to take care of this by himself without getting others in the danger. In one episode Takeru saves Yusaku from a trap and Yusaku is extremely reluctant to take him to another mission because of that. His current team consists of people who were involved with Lost Incident and what they are doing right now is trying to stop the consequences of the Lost Incident – no one sent them to do it, they did it by their own free will even though they know it’s dangerous and that they are getting more enemies by it. Also when Yusaku stated his three reasons of why he needs the information about Lost Incident – one of them is so he could save the person who gave him courage and that person is Revolver. Even though Revolver was the one who kidnapped him and caused him even more suffering in a form of Knights of Hanoi, Yusaku forgave him. He never blamed him for the Lost Incident and what’s more, he saw him as the seventh victim and never stopped reaching out for him. Yusaku believes there’s good in Revolver and so far he hasn’t stopped believing in him, even when no one else did and seemingly Revolver is slowly changing because of Yusaku.
4) He is overpowered – He hasn’t lost a duel so that makes him a Mary Sue – not quite well. Again this originates from his backstory. Lost Incident forced him to learn how to win at all costs and in case it wasn’t clear enough – Yusaku lost numerous times during those six months and was punished by starvation and electroshocks. He also suffers from night terrors that kept showing him “YOU LOSE”. Akira stated that losing a duel for him is like losing his life – so every time he is in a duel it’s like he is in a life or death situation. When Revolver dangerously lowers his Life Points in both duels, Yusaku finds himself on the ground both times just like a warrior that is very close to dying and that’s not the only time he is shown in a vulnerable state. During the duel with Faust he is sent flying through numerous walls, he loses an arm during the speed duel with Revolver, he is shown to be exhausted every time he comes from VRAINS (he even falls asleep right away one time) and he temporarily loses it when he watches Ghost Girl being erased. He is a tragic and vulnerable hero that was forced to grow up way too fast. Winning is something he learned the hard way so it is a lot more like surviving for him. He may appear like a superhero, but really he is just a human. In the last few episodes there were also a lot of hints that Yusaku may lose soon and even if he doesn’t – the duels are getting rougher which also makes him use other summoning methods – Ritual, Fusion, Synchro and most recently XYZ.
5) He is not relatable and we don’t know everything about him – Not every main character is meant to be relatable and while Yusaku is relatable to some, that’s not his purpose in the story. VRAINS has taken a different turn from other series, using a major storyline and a unique protagonist that carries it forward. Lost Incident IS his story and what deeply motivates him to duel is finding answers to his fast. The reason why we don’t know everything about him from the start is so we can even as watchers experience his desire to know more and because of that, we continue watching him unveil more of his backstory. A lot of anime series use this technique – most notably Attack On Titan – we are not presented with all the answers from the start so we have something to look forward to and VRAINS is using that a lot – we continue to get more details and more information, especially in the second season, there are a lot of surprising plot twists connected to Yusaku and more are being hinted for the future episodes. Yusaku also happens to be one of those characters that have been hurt and is slowly recovering – each protagonist in the series had a point like this (Atem lost Yugi, Judai gave in Supreme King’s power, Yusei nearly died, Yuma lost Astral and Yuya gave in Zarc’s power) – Yusaku just happens to have this point from the start so every time he smiles, every time he is honest with his emotions and every time he slightly opens up to someone – that’s when we can all relate to him. Each of us has probably gone through some difficult situation in life and we all know those things take long to heal – Yusaku is healing slowly, but every time we see a little sign of recovery we are glad he is on the way to let go of his past.
He might not be as appealing as all the protagonists so far, but this does not in any way made him boring. He is a very complex character that doesn’t want to stand out, but due to his past he is forced to. It is difficult to relate to him, but that’s not the point – his story is and so far VRAINS has proven to be one of the most realistic and plot-driven yugioh series. The themes are rather dark but nicely explored and it is quite terrifying to realize it could happen in real life – like AIs with free will, Virtual Reality games going wrong and being forced to grow up fast.
So yeah, VRAINS actually started delivering exactly what you wanted right around the point where you stopped and is still going strong. Maybe finish the series first and then rant about it next time you do such video.
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