Cardfight!! Vanguard Divinez (2025)

Cardfight!! Vanguard Divinez is the fifth main series of the Cardfight!! Vanguard anime, released on January 13, 2024 for TV Tokyo and TV Aichi.

Six cards known as the "Six Desires" were born with the power to change fate. Each of them has chosen a single person to partake in the "Fated Clash" in which the last one standing would have their wish granted. The story follows the one chosen by the "Fated One of Miracles" Akina Myodo, a high schooler, who never played Vanguard before, but accepts the invitation to cure his little sister, Hikari.

The series takes after the events of Will+Dress D2 with several characters from those series returning with most of them being supporting characters.

• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Played with; While the winner of the Fated Clash gets their wish granted, Gabwelius states that the losers only lose the chance to fulfill their wish. However, the person in the fox mask states that the participants of the Fated Clash will die thus putting Gabwelius' words in question. Episode 10 reveals that all the participants died as collateral of Suo's wish for "nothing" and that Taizo was the Sole Survivor simply because he didn't partake in the Fated Clash at all and didn't watch the fight between Akina and Suo. This is then played straight since this means that Akina must defeat Suo or else he and everyone else will die as collateral of Suo's wish.
• Bad Future: "Fox Mask" is Hikari from the future, who came to the past to prevent the death of Akina (and the other participants sans Taizo) in the Fated Clash.
• Big Brother Instinct: What causes Akina to join the Fated Clash is to wish for Hikari's health to improve. In return, a future version of Hikari goes back to the past to prevent her brother's death in the Fated Clash.
• Big "WHAT?!": Both Taizo and Mikoto are in disbelief over the fact Akina rearranged his deck so that he does not have a single heal trigger or sentinel, which absolutely no one right in their mind would do. However, the former does compliment Akina for his daring strategy.
• Book Ends: The fight that started the conflict between Gabwelius and Sybilt on Earth is between Akina and Nao, the first two fighting in the Fated Clash. The fight that ends the conflict between the two dragons is between Akina and Nao possessed by Sybilt.
• Brutal Honesty: Upon recognizing Taizo, Akina calls him the "guy who lost in the finals of the Vanguard Deluxe" rather than runner-up as Taizo prefers.
• Collapsing Lair: After Gabwelius destroys Sybilt, the ruins they were in starts collapsing with everyone except for Akina and Nao escaping through the entrance, while Akina and Nao are saved by Gabwelius.
• Contrived Coincidence: Aside from Taizo and Masanori, all other participants of the Fated Clash are people connected to Akina with Nao being his senpai at work, and Mikoto and Suo attending the same school as him with the latter being his classmate. For bonus points, Mikoto is an online friend of Hikari, whom she tries to meet up with to help buy her first physical deck, but due to her sickness, Akina comes instead.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Akina knows that his chances of victory are very slim against Taizo so he goes against all logic and makes his deck a complete beatdown and rush deck that runs eight Critical, seven Front, and one Over Trigger along with not having a single Sentinel to play as aggressively as possible. Due to the fact Taizo didn't know this, he ended up wasting a turn attacking rear-guards due to assuming Akina's last card in his hand was a Sentinel along with not wanting to trigger Rezael's Divine Skill.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Akina defeating Taizo is treated as this since Taizo is a high-class pro Vanguard fighter with Nao outright telling Akina that he only has a 1 in a 100 chance of defeating him.
• Didn't See That Coming: What prevents Taizo from winning his fight against Akina is his not foreseeing the risky all-out offense strategy Akina made to defeat him, which removes all Perfect Guards and Heal Triggers in Akina's deck with him also running seven Front Triggers.
• Final Boss Preview:
  • Suo defeats Masanori to showcase the strength of Blangdmire's Divine Skill.
  • Kuon, who became the Destined King, is defeated by Sybilt showcasing the power of Varga Dragres "Rakshasa".
• Foreshadowing:
  • Taizo decides to visit Hikari in the hospital before his Fated Clash fight with Akina, despite the fact she only knows him from watching the Deluxe tournament and that Akina hasn't mentioned her to him either. As it turns out, he does know her; Fox Mask, who convinced Taizo to participate in the Clash to save everyone, is actually a version of Hikari from the future.
  • At one point in the first season's intro, the Fated Clash participants appear two at a time, standing illuminated against a wall. The order they do so, left to right, is the order of them being eliminated from the Clash in the original timeline Fox Mask hails from.
  • Jinki never displays the characteristic Red Eyes, Take Warning effect that signifies Sybilt's mental pollution, not even when he uses his Divine Skill during his fight with Masanori. At the end of said fight, it's revealed this is because Gui managed to save him from being polluted in the first place, which he's hiding from the other Destined Ones.
• Gender-Concealing Voice: Initially "Fox Mask" spoke in a deep voice highly implying there is a guy underneath the mask, which hides future Hikari's identity.
• Honor Before Reason: Despite coming from an affluent family, Megumi works in a card shop to earn money to buy the cards herself rather than rely on her family's wealth.
• Horrifying the Horror: Masanori is a self-styled Card-Carrying Villain, who causes lots of problems in overDress for his own amusement, but he is outright horrified at how much of an Empty Shell Suo is and after their fight would rather not interact with him again citing "bad chemistry".
• Instant Expert: Downplayed; While Akira is the only newbie in the "Fated Clash", he manages to defeat his teacher, Nao Inabe, who is training to become a pro fighter, and Taizo, the runner-up of the Vanguard Deluxe, in the Fated Clash. Although this is downplayed since as stated, he would normally lose to them, but Nao didn't know the full power of Rezael's Divine Skill and Akina was able to grab the 1 in a 100 chance of victory through a risky strategy against Taizo.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite the efforts of "Fox Mask", the final match of the Fated Clash is still between Akina and Suo with the former managing to defeat Taizo, who in the original timeline didn't partake.
  • Even though Akina managed to change his and Suo's fates, present-day Hikari still wants to change the past.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Episode 1 shows Raika defeating Taizo in the finals of the second Vanguard Deluxe tournament, thus spoiling how Will+Dress D2 will end. Making this an even more extreme example is the fact that the manga ended around two weeks after the second season finale of Divinez aired.
• Literal Genie: When Suo won the Fated Clash in the original timeline and got his wish for "nothing", Blangdmire interprets his wish as becoming nothing with him opening a void that sucks everything within a few hundred meters including the other four participants present (Akina, Nao, Mikoto, and Masanori). Similarly, Future Hikari's wish is to change her brother's fate, which causes her to travel back in time, but while she fails to prevent Akian from facing off against Suo despite her efforts, she does help Akina win the Fated Clash by lending him her Fated One card thus still seemingly changing his fate of death. This also causes her to surmise that she still exists due to Akina still being fated to die by the Destined Showdown despite the loss of her timeline.
• Missing Mom: Akina and Hikari's mother is absent in their life after the divorce.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Taizo's stance on the whole idea of Fated Clash's wish. Yes, he could win it and use the wish to become the master of both the business and Vanguard worlds like he always wanted... but half his reason for doing so is for the sake of succeeding in both fields on his own merits. All the wish would do is shortcut him to the top. He only ends up participating at all because the Fox Mask convinced him to win to save the other competitors from the "fate of death" that surrounds the contest.
• One Extra Member: There are six fighters wielding the "Six Desires" each of them representing a nation of Cray. However much to the surprise of Gabwelius, the person in the fox mask is the holder of the seventh card, who is later revealed to be Hikari from the future.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Masanori is always playful and mocking in his fights yet he is outright unnerved by Suo, who not only lacks a single reaction to his taunts, but more or less is a complete Empty Shell. When Suo wins the fight with his ace's Divine Skill, which makes Masanori feel completely helpless against the overwhelming attack. He is brought down to his knees.
• Plot Parallel: Since the Fated One cards are interconnected with the actual units on Cray, there are even more parallels between the stories:
  • Mikoto, who uses Krysrain, fights against Megumi, who uses Magnolia. On Cray Krysrain and Magnolia are friends.
  • Just like how the Fated One of Time, Liael゠Amorta comes from a future where everything was reduced to Zero by Blangdmire, Liael = Amorta's user, Hikari Myodo, also comes from a future, where Suo causes the death of Akina and the other Fated Clash participants sans Taizo after winning the Fated Clash of her timeline.
  • Liael = Amorta's "egg" is kept by Welstra until it hatches just like how Taizo gives shelter to Future Hikari.
  • After Rezael defeats Blangdmire with Liael = Amorta's help, he takes the Fated One of Zero on a journey to help him develop as a person reflecting how Akina helps and befriends Suo to grow away from the Empty Shell he became after his parents' death.
  • Varga is possessed by Sybilt and backstabs Liael = Amorta to take her power just like how Sybilt parasitized Future Hikari's body before switching over to Nao to regain their full strength.
  • Masanori is the most proactive in dealing with Sybilt's threat and helps Gabwelius regain his summoning method just like how Zorga Nadir was crucial in defeating Sybilt by transferring Liael = Amorta's soul inside Gabwelius, which in turn parallels Gabwelius sealing himself in Future Hikari to save her existence.
• Point of Divergence: Future Hikari is able to change fate by lending Akina her Fated One of Time card to use against Suo, which became instrumental in his victory against Suo. This then causes the Destined Showdown to be held rather than another Fated Clash like Future Hikari's future.
• Prophecy Twist: When Hikari won her Fated Clash in the future and wished to change her brother's fate of death, she initially thought she had to prevent Akina and Suo from partaking in the Fated Clash by trying to convince them to drop out and when that didn't work got Taizo to partake to defeat her brother, which also didn't work. However, what truly allowed her to change Akina's fate was her lending him her Fated One card, whose skill works as a Man of Kryptonite against Blangdmire's game-ending Divine Skill.
• Screw Destiny: "Fox Mask" attempts to do this by making either Akina or Suo lose or withdraw from the Fated Clash, but ends up unsuccessful with the two still being the last fighters remaining. However, Taizo believes that Akina can alter his fate since despite the low odds in their fight, Akina can still grab the small chance of victory in his hands. Once "Fox Mask" reveals her identity, she and Akina fight to decide, who shall be the one to defy fate with Hikari wanting Akina to give up on the Fated Clash and Akina desiring to fight against Suo despite his low odds of victory.
• Secret-Keeper: Taizo is the only one who knows the true identity of "Fox Mask", but keeps it a secret as part of their deal.
• Sequel Hook:
  • In the post-credits scene of season 1, a being similar to Gabwelius starts talking about that with fate now changed, she will start the "Destined Showdown" setting up the events of season 2.
  • In the post-credits scene of season 2, Taizo leaves to visit a friend, who is implied to be Michiru, who is shown to have recovered from his coma and is holding an invitation for the third Vanguard Deluxe.
• Spit Take: Mikoto does this to Akina when he is the one who helps her buy a physical deck from a card shop due to recognizing him from the Fated Clash.
• Straw Nihilist: After the death of his parents, Suo's only desire is absolutely nothing. When he won the Fated Clash in the original timeline, his wish caused a hole to open, which sucks the whole stadium and all present participants inside highly implying they are all killed with nothing left behind thus truly becoming nothing.
• Talk to the Fist: Upon meeting Gabwelius, a flying chibi dragon thing from Cray, Akira's first response is to punch the mysterious creature that startled him.
• Tempting Fate: At the summer camp ten years ago, Masanori warns Hikari not to go off on her own unless she wants to get lost on a mountain with mysterious powers. Shortly afterwards, Sybilt attracts her attention causing Hikari to go off on her own to Sybilt's ruins.
• There Can Only Be One: In the Fated Clash, six fighters compete against each other until there is only one remaining.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: What Akina essentially is to Suo due to Akina genuinely wanting to be his friend despite Suo's sheer lack of disinterest in him.
• Twinkle in the Sky: In the first episode of season 1, Akina punched Gabwelius so hard that he sent the plush flying into the sky.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: When Akina trains for his fight against Taizo. Akina and Nao discuss the unorthodox plan Akina made. On Taizo's last turn, Akina reveals that he has removed all Sentinels and Heal Triggers in his deck in favor of Front Triggers and more offensive cards meaning that Taizo just wasted his turn playing defensively when he could have won if he went all out.
• Vagueness Is Coming: A person in a fox mask tells Akina to withdraw from the Fated Fight or else he will die.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 10 of season 1 reveals that in the original timeline, all participants aside from Taizo, who did not take part in the Fated Clash, were all killed by Suo, whose wish for "nothing" sucked him and the surrounding area into a black hole with nothing left behind.
  • Episode 4 of Season 2 reveals that not only is Jinki Not Brainwashed and actively working against Sybilt from within the Destined Ones, but that Sybilt would've had to have known about Gabwelius' summoning location beforehand to sabotage it and cause the Destined Showdown to begin with. Meaning that one of the Fated Ones must be possessed by them, not one of the Destined Ones as previously thought.
• Wham Line: Episode 4 of Season 2 throws a major curveball to the setup of the Destined Showdown. Jinki defeats Masanori, who grabs his arm instead of taking his handshake and pulls him in to whisper this into his ear.

  Masanori: You haven't actually been mentally polluted, have you?

• Wham Shot:
  • Episode 9 of season 1 has "Fox Mask" unmasking themselves revealing that they are an older Hikari from the future.
  • Episode 7 of Season 2 ends with Hikari defeating Akina, making the results of the Destined Showdown a tie and forcing a tie breaker. Hikari immediately volunteers herself, but when the Fated Ones are trying to decide if Akina should face her again, Future!Hikari arrives on the scene, saying she counts as a Fated One as well and declaring that she'll be their representative.
  • The post-credits scene of episode 13 of Season 2 shows Michiru woken up from his coma holding an invitation for the Vanguard Deluxe.
• Whole Episode Flashback: The first half of episode 10 of season 2 takes place in a flashback depicting the Fated Ones and Kuon going to a summer camp showcasing how Sybilt possessed Hikari's body causing her illness.
• The Worf Effect:
  • This is usually done to characters from overDress and will+Dress to showcase the strength of the Divine Skills from the "Fated One" cards, such as Megumi losing to Mikoto and Shinobu losing to Masanori.
  • Masanori is brought to his knees by Suo to showcase just how terrifying the Empty Shell is.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Implied; When the fox-masked person tries to get Suo Yobitsugi to withdraw from the Fated Fight, Suo, who couldn't care less about it, decides his participation by shuffling the Fated One of Zero card in his deck and only joins the clash if he were to draw that card. Despite the 1 in 50 odds, Suo drew it. "Fox Mask" outright says this trope when the Fated Clash's final fight will be between Akina and Suo despite their attempts to stop it. Gabwelius confirms that the only way to leave the Fated Clash is by not wanting to participate as shown by Taizo refusing without any problem, which spares his future counterpart from Suo's wish.