This post is comprised of my reactions in a Discord chat which I shared while watching episodes of Shadowverse Flame for the r/anime Awards 2023. Scores and comments may not reflect my present thoughts on the series, but generally reflect how I felt as I was watching each episode.

Watch Link: Crunchyroll

This was a cute picture from Episode 9 that I wanted to share at the start of the post because it felt fitting

Episode 1

I'm less than 2 minutes in and already we have furry…

Well damn, should be a shoe-in for a public nomination then

The subtitlers had 1 job and they fucked it up

College aged anime characters?!?

Ah ok, never mind then I guess

wtf I'm being tricked into watching Digimon

Episode 2

This we can agree on

Ep 2 done. The episodes do go by fast. Not a fan of the main character so far to be honest. Like, he's not just socially inept (although he is also very much that), he's downright rude. Dude abuses his first friend (Subaru) very easily, and when this chick (Shinobu) gives him food when he's starving and legit in trouble, he repays her by...going to the club which she is the leader of to beat her at card games and poach members? I'd have been insulted if I were her. Here's this dude I just helped out, and now he wants to come in and poach members of my club? I get that the idea is he's gonna reignite her love for the game or some shit, but in terms of the premise of the scenario, the MC just comes off as downright rude, and everyone is way too accommodating of him.

Subaru is fine so far, he's an ok friend character. Not the archetype I usually enjoy a lot, but he doesn't seem bad so far. Itsuki is pretty nothing so far, kinda just defined by wanting to keep this club around for some reason. Shinobu is probably my favorite character so far, she's kind and has some intrigue to her.

I hope Shinobu kicks this dude's ass, but I think he's gonna pull some bullshit to win somehow and I'm gonna be upset that this person who clearly knows what they're doing is gonna be beaten by a complete rookie

Episode 3

It's Akane from Gridman with a big jester witch hat!

Ok bro actually just cheated, because dude you do already have a Drago Weapon in play, it's arming your first dragon, unless I'm misunderstanding and it has to be unused or something?

Also Storm cards seem busted since they let you attack the enemy directly past the followers, like dude's about to win just because he has Storm cards

How does evolving work in this game? Does it cost anything? Because they seem to be using it randomly.

“Then I took an arrow to the knee…”

Sent that dude flying holy shit

This sport seems dangerous...

Wait, wtf happened? He went flying out of that circle he landed in, since that's where he was standing to battle Shinobu, but looking at the above screenshot where he landed, this implies he was standing where Shinobu is now, which he wasn't, and now he's landed back where he was standing before? wtf is going on? The space of where everyone was standing and where he landed don't make sense

18 minutes of Ep 3 was spent just finishing up the battle from Ep 2 lol

Not a fan of the twist at the end of Ep 3 :/

Dude wanted to have fun and battle Shinobu, but her getting help feels kinda ass. Why couldn't we have these 2 having fun playing each other? That was, like, the one feelsgood part of the whole episode, and they just take it away from us.

Is it just so we can introduce this "real" president of the club? Because I feel like this twist could have been done better.

Episode 4

Same, Light. Same.

Ok but he didn't. Y'all basically just fought, since Shinobu was following your orders.

Also tfw we're going from being in a card game battle to being in another card game battle.

Did not notice this during the first battle LMAO

Episode 5

I need the subs to stop calling this man "Light" then

Of...of course not? That's how expectations work?

wtf why did this show do this? This is a kid's show right?

Episode 7

Apparently when you literally cheat, it can win

The rules about evolution are super inconsistent so far, but we just saw this dude's action points, he did not have enough for an evolve and to play another card.

This guy is unbearable jfc

Ok, evolution makes sense now. It's a different point pool, although they still have yet to say how this works.

Episode 8

Mommy? Sorry. M-Mommy? Sorry.

Episode 12

I'm a full cour in now. I'm enjoying myself. The cast is a mixed bag. I like Tsubasa, Itsuki, Ren, and Shinobu. Fuwari is alright. Light, Gentleman, and Subaru are sometimes annoying, but overall I'm warming up to them. Gym bro is very annoying, although I gotta give him props for actually being realistic in calling out Seventh Flame for poaching members, granted he doesn't stick with it. Things are progressing well enough. I do think Light is way too strong way too fast. Themes and whatnot lack depth overall, but there's plenty of time still to explore the themes. Just generally things are going smoothly, but nothing is particularly exceptional either. I'll continue for now and probably keep posting pics and comments, and give another report like this another cour in.

Episode 13

Oh, I guess I can comment some on the card battles. The turns progress pretty fast, but it's very unclear wtf is going on sometimes. I've commented a few times on points where I either didn't understand the rules or it seemed like someone was cheating, and while I understand them better now and think it's been fairly consistent with that new understanding, it's still somewhat unclear. I'm actually kinda surprised how much runtime of each episode is just card battles. Like, some battles last multiple episodes. I know this is a cardgame anime, but I was expecting more Slice-of-Life vibes at least early on, some more time outside the card battles. Ep 13 so far is giving me some of that at least. I'll also praise the card battles for not feeling like they drag on forever. They're long, and that's not great, but they've got a flow to them that lets the 24 minutes in an episode pass relatively quickly. I've not grown too bored during any fights, and that's a mark in the show's favor I think.

To talk about the production for a second, it's not great. I've delved into some of the confusing shots above, and that's not the only example.

I do like the character designs some. There's some cool stuff in terms of creature design for different decks, but the human characters are also varied and interesting. Some are better than others.

Animation is standard, and the reuse of animation is sometimes tedious. Backgrounds are standard to bland or bad. Very much the futuristic school basic aesthetic. The fights aren't really animated either.

Sound is unremarkable.

It's probably in a lower production tier than a lot of our shortlists

What are the stats on this stat graph?

Episode 14

Ok this has been bothering me for a while, and I didn't wanna bring it up before the show really explored it, but why do so many people quit after losing to Haruma? Clearly they're not forced to, since Fuwari is not only still playing but is successful. Why don't more students just say "No, fuck off you jerk" after they lose and he gloats? I assume it'll be something like "Haruma shows them the difference in their abilities" or "Haruma makes Shadowverse not fun", but with the latter, I feel like that would just make people not wanna play with Haruma, and wouldn't actually make them quit. And so many people quit that Haruma shut down Seventh Flame before and had Third Feather on the ropes. Is it just the harassment and pestering that gets people to quit? Why has no disciplinary action been taken against him if so? There are teachers here, clearly there's an administration. Is he just allowed to do as he pleases because he wins the card game the world revolves around? I know the show will probably answer some of this, but it's been bugging me all this time, because I just don't see a way for it to make sense.

This guy is an excellent judge of character I see

Episode 16

All these middle schoolers out here like "Back when I enjoyed things..."

(from Episode 3)

Episode 18

Very curious if this was a translation thing or what he actually said lol

Episode 21

All this time, I just didn't understand.

Episode 22

I think I got to the gay part of the show

Would be a good pout but it's leading into a laugh smh

lmao the CGDCT episode is the best looking episode so far wtf

Episode 22 is my favorite episode of the show so far. Helps that there were 0 battles and almost 0 Light, but in general just seeing Ren and Tsubasa go have fun was cool.

Episode 23

The double meaning of "bright" makes this line pretty funny (at least in English)

Episode 24

Does he ever not?

Post-Episode 25 Thoughts

Still overall enjoying the show. Light still sucks and is getting too good at the card game way too fast. Gentleman has gotten a big boost now that they are a bit more fleshed out in terms of motivation and reasoning for their attitude, plus getting to see a bit more expressiveness through their irl form. Tsubasa is still my favorite character in the show, and her episodes with Ren and Gentleman were a huge boon, easily my favorite bit of the show so far. Itsuki is still alright, bit preachy but hopefully the show plays off it well. Subaru still meh, no real change, still kinda annoying. Ren is still good, still brings good energy and had some good moments with Tsubasa.

The episodes still flow pretty fast, but the battles being such a massive amount of the show kinda sucks when most of the battles are filled with explaining card effects and game mechanics the show has now gone over countless times. So much of every episode is card animations we've seen a billion times, explanations of the effects of cards we've heard a billion times, explanations of how the game is played we've heard a billion times...and like a sprinkling of emotional dialogue from the characters. I think that the themes about passion and understanding explored during the battles in different ways for different characters are pretty alright (although the dialogue is pretty heavy-handed and lacks subtlety), but there's just so much screentime wasted on explaining every little detail of the card game. That's a lot of what made Episode 22 special to me honestly. We got to have a big chunk of actual dedicated screentime to the characters connecting without being constantly interrupted by the card game.

Episode 26

2nd opening theme not as good as the first, but still fun

Lame that they didn't replace Tsubasa with one of her friends as the club leader for Third Feather.

Also something that's annoyed me a bit is they never show more than 3 members for First Reaper or Third Feather, even in the club room, but they made a huge deal out of there needing to be at least 6 members of any club. Would not have been hard for them to add a few more background characters.

This twist of having Seventh Flame need to face each club in sequence instead of an actual bracket is annoying just in terms of variety in the fights

Episode 28

Fucking bullshit.

I am interested by how this tournament is being used to reconcile each of 7th Flame's members' pasts and have them face some representation of their past hangups. Gentleman faces Shinobu, Tsubasa faces her old senpai. I'm sure Ren will face her old club president from 5th Sword, Itsuki will face the 2nd Blood president, and Light will face Haruma. Not yet sure who Subaru will face from 4th Wind, probably mommy, but that doesn't feel like as much of a reconciliation. Bit convenient that the minimum club size which the characters have met but not exceeded is just enough so that everyone gets to play 1 round in the tournament.

Episode 30

I guess the 4th Wind battle is as pointless as I feared it'd be

They really just ripped off the design for Cerberus from Shingeki no Bahamut (another anime with a card game), didn't they?

Episode 31

Itsuki and his furry deck...

It keeps cutting to the dude with the Tsubasa headband on his phone during other people's matches lmao

Episode 35

The fucking pan up and she unzipped her jacket just to go get Gentleman lol. Really going for it in this episode.

Lap pillow angle for the mommy character.

So many slow pans of the girls in swimsuits

Episode 36

Kind of is, yeah...

It's not like anyone wears the same fucking uniform anyway

Post-Episode 37 Thoughts

Update time I guess, since I finished Ep 37. I like this show! Glad it was recommended.

The tournament arc, as discussed a bit above, was a nice way to help most of the cast confront parts of their past which haunt them and move past them. They vary in quality and none of them are super profound, but it's just kind of a nice arc which systematically uses card games to explore characters and their relationships and hang-ups.

The 2 episode beach arc to bridge between the tournament and this next arc about confronting Mikado was chill. A couple of Slice of Life episodes, and I like Slice of Life episodes. Also some good Shion content.

Starting the arc to confront Mikado, bit worried this season will end on a dud arc. I'm not sure how much more the 5 members of 7th Flame besides Light have to develop, as most of their hang-ups that have been presented so far have been decently resolved. Subaru still has to confront his brother and dad I guess. Itsuki maybe has some stuff to resolve with Haruma and his club being disbanded before? Tsubasa, Shion, and Ren feel rather settled though. So that leaves...Light...and so far the arc is very centered on him. I am not a Light fan, so if this is the direction of the final arc, we may be in trouble. I guess I'm glad he's facing some challenge at least.

A lot of my general stuff about the show before still stands, involving the card game and pacing. Overall just chillin', and that's cool. I dunno if I'll support this for nomination, but it's middle of the pack for me right now I think.

Episode 38

Dragnil you naughty boy

I guess this is this world's version of snow days or hurricane days, just got days stockpiled in case some org drops a tourney on the students

There are students at this Shadowverse College who just don't give a fuck about Shadowverse and aren't in Shadowverse clubs, right? What are they doing with this time?

Also gee, I wonder who the 7 will be to challenge the Shadows. Will it be the 6 main characters and the current antagonist of the arc?

Likes: Equality

Couple grown ass adults targeting this middle school kid and they wanna beat him up 2 v 1, what fucking losers

Is this supposed to be turning the audience on? wtf is happening here?

Never change, Light. Never change.

This rule is introduced in Ep 38.

38 episodes in and there are still new rules to the game that the audience and the main character don't fucking know

Bro has a problem...

Episode 39

You really don't have to take it back...

Bro can't keep getting away with it

Why did the show suddenly become horny?

Episode 40

I didn't comment on it when it first showed up, but gunslinger cowboy dragon was not the third form I expected for the main dude's best card

Episode 41

Shion no...

I do kinda respect how hard they've been dabbing on Light as just an absolute idiot recently

Episode 44

Is this the gay I was promised?

lmao the little hop this dude did

Episode 45

I ship it

The face when you draw the wrong furry

Episode 46

Uhhhhh…

God this conversation has so many banger out of context lines

And that…was all I ended up writing about the show at the time. I did finish the first 50 episode season of the show, but I didn’t end up commentating on the final 4 episodes or doing a big retrospective write-up. Overall, many of my checkpoint write-ups covered my thoughts throughout, and not too much changed after that.

Shadowverse Flame: r/anime Awards Liveblog