sure i can give my thoughts but it might get long. i don’t think vbs writing has been destroyed like a lot of people say but i do have my gripes with a few things

for what it’s worth i’ve been playing since june 2021 so i started when we just had mainsto, lyrics, nocturne and sbd. this probably colors some of my opinions. i guess i’ll try to hit some of the major complaints i’ve seen

1) i love lutf and i think an’s grief was handled well. i think most people who disagree are either non-vbs oshis who tuned in just for lutf or. idk. people who projected too hard maybe. <— that’s kind of mean but i feel like it happens a lot in this fandom, where people expect a character to act one way because of their own experiences, and get upset when it doesn’t line up. i felt to me it was pretty evident an just didn’t get over it in one event—she’s still holding nagi in her heart for a very long time afterward (lutf ss, oyf, world link, culminating with visiting her grave for the very first time in ors) and i thought the way they handled it fit her character just fine as someone who doesn’t wallow, who tries putting the difficult things out of mind so she can keep moving forward, etc. it was very an to me and i liked it.

on the note of lutf i know some people think akito acted ooc? which always confused me because i thought he was just fine. in fact i wrote a thread about it here when this conversation first started going around post lutf and i pretty much stand by what i said. it was perfectly in line for akito to do what he did even if it wasn’t “the right thing,” because akito’s kindness doesn’t take that form. i also thought taiga’s actions were decently justified even if it’s a bit silly for him to be picking a fight with teenagers because That was his sister. That’s 30+ years of memories and her dying swan song. I would also freak it if some little kids showed up talking smack. also jiena akina and itoken seem to love the story arc with lutf too lol they’ve talked about it a few times in interviews

as for that what else. people hated their training arc too right? i dunno i personally loved it because i could tell by the second event in it (concerto) that it was meant to parallel their first focuses, something that ORS would later confirm, and i thought that fucking rocked. the task format was also incredibly easy to figure out imo, since it was ken-san targetting what he saw as their biggest weaknesses and prompting them to overcome them in order to surpass RW. akito’s stoicism, touya’s lack of pride, an’s Moyamoya feelings, kohane’s ego… it’s all there. ummm i think people also didn’t like ken-san in concerto but that didn’t even occur to me? he had no way of knowing touya would have reacted the way he did and he’s very clearly not the kind of character to do that sort of thing maliciously. the only time i’d think he was really pushing anyone too far was kohane in ORS and her 12-man relay but that was at least over Months. which like whatever ORS is its own thing. timeskip things were also weird during the training arc with them all entirely taking place in flashbacks but once you realize bms + concerto + world link take place at the same time & wtwg + ors take place at the same time then it’s not that bad but i do wish they would have executed that better. that aside i have no notes on bms/concerto/wtwg i thought they were excellent ways to end the respective character’s arc. so yeah i wouldn’t agree that their character writing has gotten worse. in fact it’s only gotten better to me especially with touya5

as for over rad squad this is probably where the majority of my complaints lie… its a wonderfully executed event on the technical side but it’s like an underbaked cookie to me. so soggy and needed some extra time in the oven. imo they could have used an extra event or two in between to tie up some loose ends but i do like that it was kohane focus (though i would have preferred an). to begin with on the ORS complaints, re: “too rushed!” yeah i agree but not to the same extent. i don’t think RW could have been an endgame goal for vbs’s ENTIRE runtime in this game. if you were in the fandom pre-unity you remember how vbs were the laughing stock of the fandom because their plot had zero momentum. nothing was going on toward their goal and people wanted them to get it over with already. they took the longest out of any group to hit their arc ender by an extra 5 months, taking a full year and a half to even put their first event on. i know what it’s like to see vbs drag and i would much prefer the goal being hit sooner than whatever has been happening to wxs for the past year. because honestly and truly i don’t think vbs should be chasing the same goal for 8 real life years omg imagine if it was 2028 and they were still running in circles over it!!! so in that way i don’t really have a gripe with it being done already and them moving on to another goal, one that was set up in world link and makes sense with their “all people are welcome as long as they love music” theming that they’ve always had on vivid street. but yeah you just really gotta remember vbs were the only ones who hadn’t actually hit their first goal yet out of the units AND were notorious for dragging early on. in that sense i think the payoff was incredible, especially since the task events directly parallel the first focus events, which were character-driven instead of plot-driven.

i DO have a gripe with it being done in that slot though which was summer fes 2024. 1) fuckijg fes rates unit banner? seriously? i guess if it was any event to do that it would be the surpassing RW one 2) definitely felt like they wanted this plotline done with before 4th anni since that was their deadline with the world links. 3) ummmm yeah they could have used an extra event to cook it. arata is the biggest victim here since his arc gets nuked BUT another thing to keep in mind is that jp side of the fandom fucking HATES npcs with a burning passion and would rather they got zero screentime at all. read the comments on any jp upload of a vbs event. they call it “mobseka” which is pretty funny. so we got a lot for arasou already honestly (oyf flashback impressed me) and while i would’ve loved more i don’t think it was really on the table. but it is a shame that arata just gets shoehorned in at the end without any further development on his side. like where the fuck was he?? will we ever know…?? anyway that’s a shame but whatever. i do also hate the event name (RAD BLAST) that shit is so fucking corny and went against what they built up in lutf/oyf (painting over history in your own colors) in that i wish it had more of a specific vbs flavoring to it & their experiences instead of just. RAD for rad weekend/radder and BLAST because we’re gonna AIBOU BLAST you guys out of the water!!!!1 like just fuck off man that’s so dumb. it really dampens the event for me. also i thought it was so fucked that nobody from other units showed up… i guess it was that they didn’t want to take attention away from vbs at the time but they directly deconfirmed that anyone attended with an’s birthday afterward and the tenmas in touyamix so 😭😭😭😭😭 that’s so fucked and it could have really added to the vbs specific flavoring of it. it was my dream that they’d invite some friends to help them put on a performance only VBS could have done because of their bonds and their experiences and then RAD BLAST took a hammer to that. no power of friendship for me. and that does make me very very sad… and why i’m really not huge on ORS as the RW event. it’s also a hard watch because it’s incredibly thin in the front with really short chapters and then the later ones are 30min LOL but whatever. pacing issue. there was something else i wanted to say but i forgot? oh well.

one thing i really did love about ORS though is the ending where it’s revealed VBS are continuing the very same chain of inspiration that drove all of them by igniting a fire in the kids of vivid street and giving them something they want to surpass. i think that’s very sweet and what ive always wanted for them especially as an extension of nagi’s dream. to keep inspiring the younger generations to love singing, and those kids will grow up to battle with each other and sing and argue and sing some more… it’s really nice and i hope we get to see more of that chain going forward. rekindle pokes this a little more which i also appreciate.

on rekindle, i thought it was just fine. which is funny since i’m usually terribly obsessed with akito events and will pick them apart over and over but this one really didn’t do much for me…? the bar was pretty high unfortunately as the first unit event postRB and every akito oshi was hoping he’d explode and well we got a little bit of that. i did adore the akty sbd-callback interaction as a very subtle way of showing their relationship (touya has a kneejerk reaction but says he’ll wait for akito anyway and trust him) it’s nice. i also loved what KAITO said about stumbling across coincidences anywhere in the world and seeing what can spark you again, the same way akito just Happened to stumble across RW, because vbs is built on those fated encounters especially for their aibou pairs. if kohane took a different route to the CD shop, if ena remembered her shoes, etc… especially with what wl2 will be about (what-if scenarios) i think that’s a nice touch. the little white boys are kinda whatever but hey they’re the first new vbs npcs we’ve gotten since nagi in lsv 😭 so new blood is nice and they are honestly really funny foreigner whiteboys. they are somewhat convenient though. but they do manage to spark akito a little bit. importantly not all the way, i think at best they stopped him from smoldering completely. akito says something about this later at the end when they’re talking about going to america—he wants to go to Find something that can really spark him, because the da vinki twins taught him there’s all sorts of music he doesn’t know about in the world, crazy songs from people across the planet, and he wants to seek them out, even to the ends of the earth…!! and i think that’s cool. it lines up really neatly to touya’s long established “goal” of “i want to see sceneries i’ve never witnessed before with my own eyes, past the horizon of our dream” have new experiences etc etc. i enjoy that. akito got a bit of kindling here but he really needs something to properly ignite him. and he’s not the sort to mope around and drag everyone else down with his issues—he muses on this in his room because he wants to deal with the problem as soon as possible and he’s always been pretty funny about that. like OK How do i fix my brain so i can keep singing good. Tell me how so i can do it. FAST. exaggerating but yeah. also on the notion that he needs to break himself down completely between goals before he can build himself back up, i.e. he gave up everything he is in ORS (“god, buddha, whoever else, just this once, let me burn myself up until there’s nothing but ashes!” oops! did exactly that) ++ extreme listlessness after quitting soccer where i think it’s just a necessary part of how he shifts gears. putting his everything into a goal until he destroys himself completely, then slowly puts the pieces back together until something puts Fuel in his Tank. i jsut thought about that. but yes for better or worse akito is someone who doesn’t know how to stop and will always find a way to keep burning. i feel like i just started yapping about rekindle for far too long despite saying it didnt make me crazy. i liked it well enough i guess it was just 100% a setup event LOL. i do wish we had more of akito moping but i also recognize that’s not really his character either so. it’s alright. OH I JUST REMEMBERED with the white boys and their mysterious knowledge—weird but i thought it was a cool parallel to vbs & taiga themselves. i felt that same feeling of “what? what do they know about that dream? what do they know about how much it took to get there? how can they say they’re gonna surpass it just like that?” and then i realized OHHH. that’s the exact feeling taiga must have had toward vbs. and we’re the ones feeling it now. because vbs is so fucking cyclical it’s not even funny. (it’s funny i love it) so. cool to me! interested in seeing where that thread goes.

then time to take off—liked this one a lot. i’ll keep it brief because this is already running away from me but i seriously love the amount of aoyagifam lore we got. and remember what i said about vbs being ridiculously cyclical? yeah bringing touya to where his brother studies, learning that’s where his father ALSO studied, and being told that he strongly takes after him… the cycles!!! they continue!!!! it’s great!!!!! and i could yap about haven forever but it’s such a beautiful event that continues to tap on the core themes of “music is what connects us, even across genres and cultures, because we simply love it” and touya learning to reevaluate everything he knew, how he was subconsciously categorizing music into genres that couldn’t overlap, using violins and pianos not just for classical but jazz as well. awesome shit really. and wanting to learn more about his father too because he is so so forgiving. so freedompilled YEAH AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE 🦅🦅🦅 GET GAY MARRIED BEFORE THAT GETS OVERTURNED🦅🦅🦅 umm . Ywha❤️ good event! good burger times were had by all.

as an attempt at a conclusion—yes there have been times where i haven’t been fully satisfied with vbs’ pacing but to me character writing has always been and continues to be their strong suit. i can’t think of an event where i thought “no he wouldn’t do that” because vbs is excellent at making you recontextualize things or setting up callbacks years in advance. i have pretty strong faith in the writing team and the seiyuus who perform it. i’ll admit i’ve been less invested probably since …? wtwg? but that’s mostly because i love interpersonal conflict and vbs have been very medicated plot heavy. usually if i have an idea for something the writing team is able to execute it better (aside from ORS) so i don’t have much to complain about. my main hope is that they shift gears into an akty arc after the ankh one wrapped up with ORS and i do have a lot of thoughts regarding that paper trail… i dunno i’m pretty easy to please ultimately and i’ll be here with vbs for a long time no matter what they do. i’m excited about the america arc (arata kicked around in america for three years at the age of 16 after all???) and it’s a very good and tangible way to make progress on their “take over the world!” arc. i hope it’s like wxs ambassador arc (where they also went to america!) and they get stuck on an island next. joking. maybe?

umm this was extremely long i’m so sorry. if you have any follow up questions feel free to shoot them my way. and obligatory everyone is welcome to their own opinions these are just mine. please enjoy my extraordinarily long yapfest and stream haven ❤️ biglove vbs