Remember when you were a kid and the worse thing that could happen to you after losing a game is getting sent to the Shadow Realm? Yeah? Good times. Nowadays, you gotta be careful because there’s a chance your opponent might summon Chronojet Dragon from Planet Cray just to punch you in the face.

[Chronojet Dragon smacking Kanzaki] Cardfight! Vanguard G Episode 46

Now, yeah, I guess that’s not so bad. I guess Kanzaki did kinda deserve that punch and throwing punches doesn’t exactly make an anime dark. After all, Shion gave Shinonome that smacking which BDSM Fujoshis loved so much. Hey! Speaking of Shion, remember that time when his entire company got swindled over a cardfight and his family left him to live alone? Eh, I guess that’s still a bit light-hearted compared to the other things to come.

[Shion giving Shinonome some Love] Cardfight! Vanguard GIRS Crisis Episode 25

Of course, the G-Era is home to most of these spicy scenes. But let’s get away from children’s violence and move on to the adult stuff. Let’s look at a scene which makes you question if this anime is still a show for kids.

[Lit Ryuzu Myoujin] Cardfight! Vanguard Stride Gate Epsidoe 27

If you look at this picture closely, you can see a man in the middle of that fire. And no, that’s not some kind of powerful flame aura around him, he’s legitimately getting burned alive.

To spoil you guys, Ryuzu Myoujin eventually transferred his consciousness to another body to continue his research so he didn’t technically die. Although, it’s really important to note that this scene happened in front of 3 children and their very responsible adult guardian.

Even though we consider this as the darkest scene in the entire series, Cardfight! Vanguard: G Next Episode 7, Bushiroad ramped-up their story writing even more and decided to make a twist to be remembered.

[Moments before disaster] Cardfight Vanguard G Next Episode 7

A small percentage of the Tokoha fanboys at the beginning of this episode got really triggered that Bushiroad had introduced a love interest for the Ranunculus Queen. I mean, they really did do a good job building up this character throughout a 20 minute episode to convince us that we’ll finally see an actual successful romance development in the anime (Kai X Aichi doesn’t count).

Oh boy, were we wrong. With the death of Miguel Torres, a lot of the CFV fans were really surprised at the sudden plot twist at the end of the episode. Fortunately for him though, Miguel got reincarnated as a cardboard G-Guardian nobody ever uses.

[Miguel/Antero pre-death] Cardfight Vanguard G Next Episode 7

Tokoha went on to be in a depressed state for several episodes which affected his cardfighting life which is really important in Japanese society. Although, when it comes to getting your life getting destroyed thanks to cardfighting gone wrong, this next character definitely has it the worst.

[Tatsuya Tachibana] Cardfight Vanguard Remind 25

Tatsuya Tachibana‘s character is so tragic since he was introduced in the Shinemon Arc but had very little importance or relevance in the story. Now, to make him relevant, the studio behind the anime decided to kill of his entire family and village for the sake of character development.

This tragedy led him on a mission to summon a unit from cray which he thinks is capable of bringing dead units back to life. However, at the cost of his own life which he was very prepared to pay.

[Tatsuya’s Parents] Cardfight! Vanguard Remind 27

Ultimately, Shinemon Nitta decided that he won’t allow Tatsuya to pay the price and instead beat the living crap out of him in a cardfight so that he can save his life.

To date, it looks like the Cardfight! Vanguard is leaning more and more towards more mature audiences (trying to lure them in with Esuka). The real question now is: will the anime will only get more interesting from here on? Truck-kun knows the answer.