*may include spoilers for season 1, but considering you're looking at this I assume you've already watched it* I'm slightly frustrated with this so I'm writing an early review. Everything that season 1 did amazingly, season 2 just didn't do. There's so many plot holes and no direction to the plot 20 episodes in (51% of the way in). All he wants to do is meet a boy that did something weird to him and Kai. Then nothing really happens halfway through. After I'd finished season 1, I was excited to continue the series only to be met with disappointment. Apparently the primary antagonist of season1 completely forgot why he was the primary antagonist, and apparently so did Kai. He forgot why he hated Ren, but that doesn't even matter, he just goes against what he said in season 1 which leaves you feeling like 'okay then', apparently season 1 never happened. Everyone just happened to forget about psyqualia even though it was the big major plot point for season 1.

Originally I was going to give this a 6, only because I can still enjoy it, even though the story sucks for the first half of the season. But after watching it a bit more it gets a lot better, good enough to give a 7. Season 1 was just, wow, amazing. I loved it. Season 2, Kai, one of the best characters that built up the story and character development for him, Aichi and the rest of Team Q4 (and the supporting characters Miwa and Morikawa), is just not there. But all that is just knocked down and irrelevant as he is missing for half of the season without any references and everything he did in season 1 just didn't matter and the very few fights we see him in last about 30 seconds. The foundation of the story just didn't matter. However, Misaki actually has a good part in Asia Circuit-hen. Which is nice, I've been waiting to see more of her and see her have more impact in the series, other than winning 1 fight against Team Asteroid.

Still, I won't knock the season entirely in this review. Aichi isn't the typical OP protagonist, even though the opportunities are there for him to be OP. The cardfights aren't clichéd, but if you've watched season 1 you can still kind of guess the outcome. I was sad to see the first opening go after the new arc, but the new one isn't all that bad. That being said, I still prefer the first one. The sound tracks, however, are more memorable. I'm not sure if I've become more aware of them considering my last review on the first season wasn't too long ago.

The characters are still great. Ren is a lot more likeable, although his personality is a lot more different compared to season 1. It is to be expected since he's not completely obsessed with the power of psyqualia. Well, kinda. People don't hate each other which is nice to see, but there is still some competitive spirit and clashing/competitive BSing between characters (like Asaka and Misaki, but you can see the get along later on anyway).

To summarise, you won't be watching season 2 for the plot for the first half of the season. But if you don't plan on playing the game, you won't be watching vanguard for the cardfighting game anyway. So, for those plot/character-only people, try to stay patient until around episode 18/19, it gets better and there's some kind of direction and motive for the characters.

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Now that I've actually finished it, I can safely bump the story up to 6, but overall it remains at a 7. I think it could have definitely done better and had a strong, proper direction in the beginning.

The ending was indeed thrilling and the last 5 episodes were pretty solid. It was worth the wait.