Cardfight!! Vanguard G Stride Gate

Stride Gate is essentially the Link Joker of G with a big epic villainous plot that needs to be foiled. Sadly though it’s still shit and like Legion Mate tier at best primarily to the characters. Chrono again is an awful main character and when the MC sucks so does the whole series that is law. Perhaps if the MC decent enough to be bearable the work can be offloaded to the supporting cast but obnoxious trash like Chrono that only exists to critsack and beat the bad guy with no real characterisation or arc can’t be redeemed. Not that the supporting cast is especiallygood to begin with: Tokoha is still nothing the character, Shion is alright and his showdown with Shouma was really good but outside of Company the rest are just there and kinda forgettable. Company is a mixed bag: Ryuzu had some aura with epic soundtrack/units on top of actually beating Chrono (meaningless though) and owning Ibuki, Shouma easily the best G character with his almost sadistic manipulative personality but the others IDK. The kid is just lame with a goofy backstory (light bullying presented in this edgy way), the redheaded vampire is your typical brooding guy with sad backstory, the bug guy sucked hard and Am sucked even harder. We’re somehow expected to sympathise with her just because her girlfriend is in danger annd she’s crying despite what she done. She doesn’t face any consequences either again just because she’s a cute girl crying. Even then it’s hard to see what’s likeable about her: boring personality, no chemistry with anyone etc. She’s not even a character really. The characterisation across the board is just weaker in G, a lot of characters don’t have much personality and just exist. Legion Mate and Asia Circuit have similar issues around insufferable characters that you’re expected to just put up with. Another issue with Company is their goals are just weird. Basically Infinite Tsukuyomi ripoff of putting everyone in a dream to prevent suffering leading to sheltered teenagers lecturing people who’ve lost loved ones about life while playing a card game it’s really awkward to watch. Just cringey tbh. Another issue is the writing isn’t passable enough to support this kind of plotline, it’s very juvenile with all kinds of events that don’t make sense, awful dialogue and paper thin characters. Stride Gate and GIRS CRISIS just lacked a lot of important traits necessary to succeed. A solid MC with conflicts and an arc (Like Aichi), likeable characters rather than cardboard cutouts (Shouma and Shion aside) and a solid story are just nowhere to be seen in either of those. And sadly Stride Gate is as good as it got for G.