This week’s episode focused on revealing some untold details about Dr. Kogami’s simulations, and Lightning’s secret. Since they had a round about way of explaining it, here’s the gist of it:

  • The simulation Dr. Kogami ran of the Ignis’ impact on the future had two distinctive outcomes:
    • The first simulation was based off the Ignis grouped as a whole. In this simulation, the Ignis’ future will lead to the destruction of humanity.
    • However in the second simulation where individually, they could prosper with Humans, with Lightning as the sole exception.

(Shout out to Casper and Kazanova for the correction, thank you!)

The most important take away from this is the fact Dr. Kogami’s dooms day result accurately describes the current situation they are in. The reason why Lightning ended up doing this is because of his inferiority complex. After having ran countless simulations of his own, he discovered his imperfection, he couldn’t handle the results. This prompted the creation of Bohman: to make up for “their” (*his) flaws and be reborn as one, leading to the demise of each individual Ignis, while Bohman perishes Humanity since they are deemed as unneeded. With Lightning and Ai are the only two left of the lot, Lightning’s plans are almost complete.

This was a crucial detail in Dr. Kogami’s simulations that nobody but Revolver and the Hanoi Knights knew about. It was also why a lot of us blamed Dr. Kogami and Ryoken for what we thought to be a stupid move to be hunting the Ignis. And frankly, in a way, it still would be because unless Aqua or Ryoken were able expose Lightning’s crimes, the Ignis would likely feel the need to fend themselves from Humanity.

Needless to say, despite his imperfection and being considered regarded at the ‘worst/weakest’ Ignis of them all, Lightning remains a terrifying force to be reckoned with. His ability to manipulate his fellow kin, play the role of as an ‘Elite’ (aka the most superior one of them all) and creating Bohman and Judgement Arrow are nothing to laugh at.

And that was just about it for this episode. I thought it was good, the stage was gorgeous (the flower petals fluttering around, love it!) and I absolutely loved the timely humour of Ai being tactless and Ryoken telling Lightning he will put him in his place. It was absolutely hilarious. However the thing that did drive me nuts was how they kept on going round and round in circles for like five minutes of terrible and confusing examples of “where free will is located”. It would have been a lot more bearable for him just to get straight to the point.

Since the duel has barely begun since as soon as everyone arrived to the scene (Bohman and Yuusaku respectively), Ryoken revealed Lightning’s crimes before he moved on to finally start his turn. It makes me wonder how long this one is going to play out for. There’s a good chance it might actually drag out to last three episodes, varying on what happens in between. It will be interesting to see who will come out on top, as Ryoken is here for the hunt, and intends to put Lightning in his place for once and for all.

Oh and of course we got a new ED Theme this week! I liked the first portion of the song, but then it kind of fell off for me. I actually thought at the part of “I am not a machine”, that was the end of the song, and then it continued. Sad to say, I’m not feeling this one.

Eva

Blogging Anime since Summer 2009, & Founder of AngryAnimeBitches Anime Blog ...I may or may not be addicted to writing

This Post Has 11 Comments

  1. Casper Juel Jensen

    What he meant about the simulations are this:
    In the simulations that Doctor Kogami made that made him fear for the future because he came to the conclusion that the Ignis would destroy humanity was when he simulated the ignis as a group only.
    In the simulations Revolver did he took into account and did simulations on the ignis individualy and found that the only reasson his father had come to said conclusion is because of only 1 ignis not being able to prosper with humans and ruining for the other ignis, that ignis being Lightning.
    The ramafications here are actually HUGE to put it midly:
    – with the exception of Lightning The knights of Hanoi Revolver included no longer has a reasson to hunt and destroy ignises meaning that AI, Flame, Aqua and Earth can coexist with humans without fear from them.
    – While it certanly dosen´t make him any less phsyco Windy actually is implied to have been manipulated past the point where he could work with humans putting him on the same stage as Lightning.
    – The plot of both Season 1 and 2 are all due to Lightning not being able to accept his shortcommings.
    All in all I wish there had been more action in this duel but the bomb of information more than made up for it.
    As for the ending, all it really does is making me wish for information about how long season 3 is gonna be cause I get bad feelings about the tone in it and I really don´t want to go that route again.
    Lastly I still wish for all 6 ignis to have a human partner in season 3 but Lightning sure don´t make that easy to keep dreaming about.

    1. Eva

      Thanks for pointing that out, my mistake!
      It’s great to see the story coming together and actually making sense too. Exactly what we need after the last series’s villain’s motives.
      I really wonder what’s going to happen in the final season now. I suppose it depends what becomes of Bohman, or what SOL Technology does next.

      1. Kazanova

        Not forgetting a theory that Dr. Kogami is actually still alive within network. If he turn out to be alive, it’s possible he’ll return as antagonist in Season 3. A part of me is also doubting that he is dead. He’s the one mainly responsible for the whole mess, it feels weird that he is out of the picture just like that.
        I kinda wish he is still alive so someone can beat him up. I can still remember that indifferent smug smile he made when he casually told Akira he was the one responsible for the Lost Incident. That smile of his doesn’t look there’s slightest bit regret or remorse and I really wanna punch that stupid face.

        1. Ecarg312

          I think that all LIV should punch him at least once but the one most deserving to punch the dude is Kusanagi.

  2. Kazanova

    You’re writing it wrong there. The first simulation is in which the Ignis is grouped as a whole and that will lead to the destruction of humanity. The second simulation in which the Ignis is analysed individually shows there’s a possibility that five Ignis’ relationship with humans could prosper for exception of Lightning and only him.
    Seeing Lightning lost his composure once more is once again entertaining. But still, again, about the whole simulation thing, it reminds me of Lusaka’s words when he confronted Ryoken for the first time. It’s merely simulations based on data. If Lightning is not so bothered by the results of the simulations and choose to have faith more in humans, mainly his own partner Jin, perhaps things could turn out differently for him. Reality is not so simple that it can be predicted through simulations. Speaking about simulations, even Windy has the possibility to prosper with humans despite the hatred we have seen many times from him. Talk about irony… I’m starting to think that this could mean they’re going to make Windy a good guy later. I hope this won’t come true because I like him more as an evil guy.
    Since Revolver has deemed Lightning as the root of all evil, I wonder if this means he’s starting to consider that Ai and the others who choose to coexist with humans are not a threat to humanity as he believed them to be before. I doubt that he has accepted them at the moment though. Plus, he is still referring to them as their Ignis title (Dark Ignis, Light Ignis, etc) instead of their names.
    The video clip for the new ED is good in my book, but I’m not fond of the song. It doesn’t feel it’s a match for the video and vice versa.

    1. Eva

      Thank you for the correction, I will fix that.

  3. Spencer Sim

    It is actually realistic when Lightning was butthurt to know that he is the inferior ignis. If you are never the non-leader in the entire life, just only being the Leader everytime, this would bound to happen because you would think that you are the superior one among other else and cannot accept that you lose out to others.
    The summon animation of Booster Dragon and Borreload Dragon is actually cool this time. I am glad they made it that way. Now, if only Firewall Dragon wasn’t banned. It would get a heck of a summon animation right there with a poosible badass summoning chant.

  4. Wilfredo Sifr Starduster

    After two consecutive episodes of shameless Hydradrives & Salaman”grates” shilling (which NOBODY likes) and the demise of Soulburner (AT LONG LAST! >:D), we’re back with Revolver vs Lightning and I’ll just address the thing I didn’t like first: The OP & ED themes. I’m SO TIRED of the second OP already, it’s been going on for an entire year and they better change it soon, but I’m not too fond of the 5th ED either, mainly because the vocals and the singing were absolute horrendous to the ear; it’s like the opposite of Arc V’s 5th ending where it had static visuals (and only Yuya, Yuzu and Gongenzaka in it) but decent music. and this one had more visuals with more characters but a terrible song.
    Anyway, back to this exposition episode and it was a great one. I liked the reveal of Lightning’s motive and how he was too egotistical to accept that he’s the problem, the cause of destruction. Any sensible person would see it coming that Lightning created Bowman to correct them to his vision and prevent them moving forward without him. But it’s much deeper than that in that Lightning’s existence will cause this forward movement to be stalled and the Ignises to be destroyed, and in order to stop this from coming to pass he created Bowman, essentially creating a self-fulfilling prophecy where severing the ignises from human connections and willpower is leading to the very thing he hoped to prevent. Besides, Kogami mistakenly analyzing all Ignises as hostile beings to humanity only for Revolver to narrow down the source of the bug later and realized the initial assessment of the error was too generalized was one of the most relatable things i’ve ever seen in a Yugioh series. Never shirk focused debugging and break points, you might accidentally call for the genocide of a race of sentient AIs because one of them is a bad apple. Or spend 6 hours debugging a simple problem because you didn’t examine it closely enough. The fact that Revolver figured this out before going to Mirror Link VRAINS explained why he was being so amicable to Ai. He finally saw definitive proof that Ai wasn’t lying when he said he wasn’t humanity’s enemy, so even if he wasn’t using his name, he was speaking to him as an equal and not a rat to be exterminated.
    And as much as some people wanted Lightning to win just to give the villains more crediability, I’ll still be really upset if Revolver falls here.

    1. Kazanova

      I was always wondering if they can change the ED, why not doing the same for the OP like the previous series? I at least had expected for them to change Blue Girl in the OP to Blue Maiden,but they didn’t even though they changed it in the ED.
      I’m still not too sure that Revolver has accepted An and the others who wants to coexist with humans, but yeah, he at least seem to have mellow a bit towards them.
      You won’t be the only one who wants Revolver to win here. As much as it interest me to watch Playmaker vs Lightning, I want to see Revolver win more.

  5. Ecarg312

    To sum up Lightning’s sin, he’s upset (butthurt) over the fact that he’s essentially defective. Since he was the leader, he found that imperfect, thus grew jealous and bitter over the world, humans, and his own brethren. That’s why he created Bohman.
    Also, I do like how Playmaker is shown to be very upset over Soulburner’s demise. It shows that he is important to him as much as Kusanagi.
    Bohman, you finally remembered who Blue Maiden is after not mentioning her in episode 94. That’s not going to make me like you.
    The ending is slow and peaceful. Kind of showing that this season is getting a happy closure. I do like how Jin looks so pure and innocent with that smile. I’m kind of disappointed that they didn’t show Aoi and Miyu’s reunion.

  6. Nozomi414

    You know, I think they did as good as possible with the ending, the song came out a while ago and the lyrics are… weird and pretty dark so they chose what was suitable for an anime like yugioh. The song is 11:24 minutes long and it’s more of a tribute to Freddy Mercury. As for the visuals, I love them and Jin looks so sweet!

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