Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Anime Reveals Main Staff, Lead Voice Actor

The official Twitter account for Yu-Gi-Oh! anime franchise announced the main staff and lead cast member for Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, the upcoming sixth television anime in franchise, on Saturday. The account also revealed a new key visual.

Masahiro Hosoda (Heroes ~Legend of Battle Disks~ , Nangoku Shounen Papuwa-kun) is directing the anime at GALLOP. Shin Yoshida and Ken'ichi Hara are returning from previous Yu-Gi-Oh! anime to work on series composition and character design, respectively. Masahiro Hikokubo is again handling the duel layout. Yūki Matsuoka (Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V) is serving as sound director and Shinkichi Mitsumune (Yu-Gi-Oh!) is composing the music. Hiroaki "Tommy" Tominaga (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) is performing the theme song "With the Wind."

Shōya Ishige, a voice actor who has played minor roles in Orange and Seiren, will play the protagonist Yūsaku Fujiki (pictured below). Yūsaku possesses a cool and sharp mind, and has the skills to be a hacker. He excels at quickly judging the situation at any place, and determining the thoughts of whomever he is talking to. His ace monster is named "Decode Talker," who wields a giant sword. Yūsaku transforms from his school uniform when he enters the VR space for duels.

In the VR space, he has the handle of "Playmaker." When he enters the VR space, he transforms, and he rides a board while dueling.

The staff revealed additional character designs earlier this week, but have not yet announced their cast members. Gō Onizuka (below left) goes by the handle Go Onizuka (Go鬼塚) in the VR space, and regards himself as a rival to Playmaker/Yūsaku. Aoi Zaizen (below right) goes by the handle of Blue Angel in duels in the VR space, but in reality is Yūsaku's classmate, and a famous charismatic duelist.

The site also revealed a design for what it labeled a "mysterious creature."

The theme for the new work is "Let's take one step forward and try it!" Yūsaku hates standing out, and at his school he doesn't. However, Yūsaku starts meeting others through duels, and starts moving forward.

The fifth and ongoing anime in the franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, premiered in Japan in April 2014 and will end on Sunday. The series premiered on TV in Canada in August 2015, and premiered in the United States on the Nicktoons channel in February 2016. Crunchyroll began streaming the series worldwide outside of Asia in November.​