News: Miyano Mamoru to Voice Ibuki Kouji, Neon Messiah Spoilers Leaked to Twitter

Over the 25th a prescreening of the upcoming Cardfight!! Vanguard film, Neon Messiah, was held in Japan, and spoilers for the movie were leaked through Twitter by some of those attending. According to this information, the film's key antagonist Ibuki Kouji will be voiced by celebrity voice actor Miyano Mamoru, known for his past roles as Yagami Light in Death Note and Setsuna F. Seiei in Mobile Suit Gundam 00.

From these same sources, the Kagerou grade 3 Dragonic Overlord is to receive a Legion remake in the film as Dragonic Overlord the Great (ドラゴニックオーバーロード・ザ・グレート Doragonikku Oobaaroodo Za Gureeto.) His mate has not been made public. Furthermore, as Neon Messiah is stated to be a general-interest film, card effects in the movie are not gone into in-depth.

Warning: Spoilers for Neon Messiah follow. The veracity of this information cannot be wholly confirmed.
The film's protagonist is said to be Sendou Aichi, returning after his long absence this past season, while the heroine is Tokura Misaki, and Kai Toshiki serves a supporting role.

According to these leaks there are at least seven fights in the film; Leon vs Gaillard (Leon's victory), Misaki vs Christopher Lo (Misaki's victory), Katsuragi Kamui vs Philip Neve (Kamui's victory), Kai Toshiki vs Mitsusada Kenji (Kai's victory), Sendou Aichi vs Ibuki Kouji (outcome unclear; Blaster Blade is deleted by Ibuki's Wokshyz but the rest of the Royal Paladins are safe), Leon and Misaki vs Ibuki (Ibuki's victory) and Aichi vs Tatsunagi Takuto. This last fight is said to be a battle to undelete Blaster Blade, involving Aichi's power of PSY Qualia. These users did not mention the apparent finale featured in the most recent trailer, where Aichi confronts Ibuki alongside Kai, nor Ren's fight with Ibuki hinted at in the same.

The return of Takuto has come as a shock to many, as fans were under the impression that Takuto would not be returning after his departure in Link Joker. The character in general has been poorly received in the past, with his status among fans comparable to Tingle of the Legend of Zelda series. The titular Messiah are said to be a pair of grade 0 and grade 4 cards, with the 0 as the Neon Messiah. The name of the grade 4 unit is Harmonics Messiah.

Aichi and Kai allegedly sit on a bed in one scene of the film; this is likely a form of fanservice in reference to the album cover of their previous duet character song, Fate Breaker. Aichi is also said to take off his shirt for one scene.

News: Neon Messiah PV Teases Seeker Alfred

Over the first day of the 86th annual Comiket, Bushiroad of Japan aired the third trailer for the upcoming pair of Cardfight!! Vanguard films The 3 Games and Neon Messiah, soon after making it available via YouTube. Both films were announced at this year's Great Vanguard Festival, with The 3 Games serving as the live action sequel to the 2012 live action drama starring Japanese musician and actor Daigo, and Neon Messiah as the followup to the currently-airing fourth season of the animated series, Legion Mate. The previous trailer showed Sendou Aichi and Kai Toshiki's return to playing the Royal Paladin and Kagerou clans, as well as several of the upcoming fights in the film. This most recent trailer focuses on Aichi's new Legion card and the debut of antagonist Ibuki Kouji, a friend from Kai's childhood bearing the powers of Link Joker and its Deleter subclan. Due for a September 13th release date that will coincide with the upcoming 2014 World Championship qualifiers, the film is to be accompanied by the special booster set Movie Booster 01: Neon Messiah and the trial deck VG-MTD01: Malefic Deleter. The latter will feature Ibuki's core grade 3, Docking Deleter Graywon.

Although once stated to be set between the Link Joker and Legion Mate chapters of the anime, the most recent announcements place the film after the fourth season. Neon Messiah is to follow Aichi and Kai as they enter the Messiah Scramble, a major tournament involving many of the series' previous characters. Amid this an "annihilation crisis" is emerges, causing the units on players' cards to vanish. Of note, the fighters shown in the trailer appear to have locked vanguards at the moment that their units disappear.

As part of the Messiah Scramble, Kai and Aichi engage Ibuki in a tagfight. In succession the trailer shows Team Q4 and several background characters attending the Messiah Scramble, Ren suffering an apparent defeat, Ibuki and Docking Deleter Graywon, Aichi riding Seeker Alfred and Legioning, Kai and Aichi touching down in an arena against Ibuki, and Alfred battling Graywon.

Ibuki's key card is also shown off in several brief shots, with a partial view of its card art revealing that it has no Legion symbol. The background of the artwork matches up with previous promotional images for Malefic Deleter, identifying the card as Graywon.

Subsequent updates to Neon Messiah's merchandise page have shown that the new grade 3 does not have a limit break or mate, but that its first skill is a main phase counterblast 2 with no other activation conditions. This suggests that Graywon will return to the mechanics of the first season, being able to use its ability as soon as it has the damage to do so.

As no official transcriptions have been given as of yet, the name of the new Alfred unit is ambiguous. Aichi calls it as こうげんの探索者アルフレッドエクシブ Kougen no Shiikaa Arufureddo Ekushibu. Kougen has several associated kanji, but a likely written forms of it is 光源 "Light source." Ekushibu has been variously proposed as a corruption of Excalibur ("Exclib") or a phonetic rendition of the Roman numerals XIV "Fourteen." Some have disputed the Ekushibu transcription in favor of Ekusuemu "XM." At this time CFPro will use the placeholder translation "Light Origin Seeker, Alfred XIV."

Neon Messiah's opening theme will be an arrangement of OP07 "V-ROAD" performed by a live orchestra. This trailer uses Ultra Rare's latest single "Bravery Flame" as its theme. Neon Messiah will use a combination of hand-drawn and computer generated animation techniques for its fight sequences, blending the appearances of units across two mediums. The trailer is hosted below, with translations. Neon Messiah's PV begins at the 36 second mark.

Boy: My unit is...
Caption: Vanguard annihilation crisis!?
Aichi: Every day we share the same dream. The dream of a wish that I entrusted to Blaster Blade.
Caption: The exhibition of the "Messiah Scramble."
Ren: He has a hand in this Messiah Scramble. Please be careful. That man...
Caption: Masterminding the "Deleters."
Ren: Ibuki Kouji.
Caption: Aichi and Kai's tag match!!
Aichi: Kai-kun, let's go!
Kai: Yeah!
Aichi: Ride! Light Origin Seeker, Alfred XIV! Seek mate; Blaster Blade!
Kai: Ibuki...I will definitely never forgive you! Our bond with our vanguards are not that weak!
Caption: Ibuki Kouji's goal is...?
Aichi: We will...protect our world, protect Vanguard!