Kazuma Shouji

Kazuma Shouji is one of the main characters in Cardfight!! Vanguard G: NEXT and Z anime. He becomes a member of Chrono's new team Team Striders alongside Taiyou Asukawa. Kazuma's Vanguard circle is blue. He becomes the host of Dragon Deity of Destruction until TRY 3 defeats Gyze, freeing Kazuma from Gyze's control.

Appearance[]

He has gray eyes and dark teal hair with a white streak. His casual clothes consist of a blue jacket and a collared, white shirt. His school uniform consist of blue suit, black trousers and white shirt. Unlike most of the boys in the school, Kazuma doesn't wear a tie and keeps his collar button opened.

After he is diffridden by Gyze, his eyes turned gold.

Personality[]

Kazuma is a passionate fighter with a no-nonsense attitude. He berated Chrono for going through the motions and explaining Vanguard's lore because he had heard it before and was disappointed when Chrono refused to explain what Stride and Generation Guarding are until the time came. Kazuma is the type of person who gives up at the first sign of a losing battle, as shown in his fight with Chrono where he abruptly quit, knowing he would've had enough shield to guard if Chrono didn't draw a trigger. His next damage check would've been a heal trigger, as shown when Chrono looked at the top card of Kazuma's deck after he quit. This, however, prompted Kazuma to act possessive, yelling at Chrono for touching his deck. He then regained his composure and left the shop.

As the series progress and thanks to Taiyou and Chrono having faith in Kazuma, Kazuma slowly and eventually regains back the feeling of never giving up in tough situations during vanguard fights, and started to have more faith in himself as well. After losing the Shiranui and knowing Shiranui is possessing Kazumi, he becomes more determined and driven to bring back Kazumi from Shiranui's control, and managed to surpass Shiranui's expectations of Kazuma during their battle in the U20 finals.

Biography[]

Cardfight Vanguard NEXT[]

Kazuma was first seen walking in the school corridor and one of his classmate invited him to join the soccer team but he refused. He is a first year high school student from Tokyo Metropolitan Harumi High School. Though he always takes a frivolous and motiveless attitude, he hides a searing heart. Despite being a novice in cardfighting, it seems that he has a connection to Vanguard from when he was a kid, from when he played with his brother. However losing to Kazumi all the time, and then getting kicked out of the family with his mother seemed to kill his passion for the game for awhile.

Kazuma later meets Chrono at Card Capital 2 and wants to learn how to play vanguard. After learning all the rules of Vanguard including Striding and G Guarding during the battle with Chrono, he soon quits after feeling that it is impossible to win. After Chrono told Kazuma not to give up and showing him his top deck is heal trigger, Kazuma yelled at Chrono and leaves after that.

Chrono would mentioned Kazuma to Taiyou and wanted to battle him to see what it was Chrono saw in him that would make Chrono want him as their third teammate. Taiyou follows Kazuma to an abandoned building where Vanguard is being used to hurt people. Kazuma steps in to break up the fights before Taiyou gets involved. He then declares he wants to fight Kazuma but he refuses. It isn't until Chrono comes in and they both start fighting over who gets to fight him that he says he'll fight Taiyou on the condition that they stop following him. Their battle nearly ends with Taiyou winning, but Kazuma decides, with a bit of support from his avatar, that he should continue the fight and wins. Despite the conditions, both Chrono and Taiyou want him on their team and he reluctantly joins them.

Until the recruitment for the U20 Tournament, he meets with Chrono's old teammates who all end up entering the tournament as rivals and promises to give their all to the fight.

During the qualifying rounds of the tournament, which was a round robin-esque tournament, Kazuma incurred one win and one loss, putting his team behind. His final opponent was Mamoru Anjou. As their fight nears the end, Kazuma decides to give up as he had no way to win, disappointing Chrono. Before the final announcements as to who would enter the U20 tournament, Kazuma decides to leave the Dragon Empire Branch HQ. Chrono follows him, hoping to get answers as to why he always quits before the fight ends. Kazuma then has flashbacks to his older brother and him playing Vanguard together and one flashback sees him giving up a battle because he cannot overcome his brother. The more Chrono pressed the issue, the more angry Kazuma got and he finally let loose a hard punch against Chrono, who responded in kind.

He then texts Chrono that he quits the team and wants nothing more to do with them and returns to the abandoned building where he meets with thugs who lost their territory in a Vanguard fight as they tell him that they sold out Kazuma as their leader only to find out that the goons kidnapped Chrono instead. Kazuma rushes off to the island where the thugs were and confronts them, demanding they release Chrono. The boss gets infuriated and decides to battle one of them, not knowing who is who (and not caring). Chrono comes forward and states he's not Kazuma and that the real Kazuma would defeat him no matter what. He's then forced into a fight where he starts with 2 damage and not being able to Counterblast where if he loses, Chrono's deck would be destroyed. Kazuma, infuriated with Chrono's faith in him, berates him for not blaming him for the outcome, already believing he'd lose. As the fight progresses, Kazuma continues to feel helpless even as Chrono cheers for him to continue. Kazuma gets annoyed and tells Chrono off, asking how when someone already strong and never giving up can get him what he wants but when he wants it, it never comes to pass. Chrono tells him that even if he doesn't believe in himself that he does. With those words, Kazuma pulls a reverse and defeats the boss before the police arrive to arrest the thugs. After that mess, he asks Chrono what he would have done if he had lost to which Chrono replies that he would have done nothing because he knew he wouldn't lose. Kazuma then returns home, with Chrono saying that he will wait for him to return to the team and mentions that the final entry tournament would be held at Card Capital.

That night, Kazuma stays up all night, improving his deck for the tournament to the point where he runs late and almost misses the deadline to enter the tournament. He makes it in time and battles Kei and defeats him, bringing their team one win and one loss, with Chrono and Tsuei's match deciding who goes to the U20. Chrono wins, securing their spot in the tournament.

The next day, Chrono takes his team out for a relaxing day of fun before the U20 begins. Kazuma begins to open up a bit about his past and why he was the way he was and decides that he's done giving up before the end for the sake of those who believe in him. During the opening ceremonies of the U20, Team Diffriders presented themselves with Kazuma giving a shocked expression upon seeing his his stepbrother Kazumi Onimaru, someone who he thought was long gone.

As the second stage commences, it's set up so similarly to the G Quest held by the Dragon Empire where you gain points on defeating your opponents and those who lose get 'locked up' and can only be saved if a teammate defeats another fighter and that the first 16 teams to get to 50 points would move on. Chrono's team did well enough before calling it a day and watch in amazement when they learn Diffriders took one of the 16 spots on the first day.

GZ[]

In this series, Kazuma is one of the targets of the Apostles as a suitable vessels to host Gyze. As a result, Kazumi decides to keep a close eye from the Apostle to protect him from being targetted by them.

However, in episode 5, Kazuma was taken by Dumjid, and after learning Chrono and the others are being held in Relics, Kazuma decides to fight Dumjid to bring his friends back. Even though Kazuma managed to pull off the Ritual 7 ability of Dragstrider, Luard and tried to win the game, Dumjid managed to pull through with a Generation Guard. Kazuma loses the cardfight after Dumjid Ultimate Strides Dragon Empire's Zeroth Dragon, Zeroth Dragon of Inferno, Drachma. Kazuma was later sent to Relics and meet Chrono, Taiyou, Tsuneto and Rin there, being candidates to be Gyze's Vessel.

Eventually, Kazuma and the others was freed from Relics after the Relics Generator was overloaded. Kazuma was later ordered to take a rest, with Kazumi deciding to protect Kazuma from the Apostles at all costs, keeping a close eye on him.

Kazuma later has a talk with Kazumi that it was all thanks to Chrono that he gains back to feeling of not giving up and wishing to repay Chrono for his efforts. Kazuma then entrusted Kazumi to be Chrono's bodyguard in order to protect him from the Apostles. Soon, he meet Chaos Breaker with Taiyou after they had finished their meal, and battles Chaos Breaker for Chrono's sake. However, during the cardfight, his determination caused the Gyze symbol to appear on his hand, deeming as a suitable vessel for Gyze. Kazuma then tries to win and settle the game with Dragstrider Luard, but failed after failing to draw enough triggers to break through Chaos Breaker's guard. Even though Kazuma tries to survive Chaos Breaker's Zeroth Dragon of Destroy Star, Stark turn, he was eventually defeated and becoming the host to Dragon Deity of Destruction, while knowing Chrono will definitely beat Gyze.

While being possessed by Gyze and being controlled by Gyze, Kazuma himself called out to Kazumi, during the battle between Kazumi and Gyze. Kazuma's body was later loaded into Gyze's mechanical pod after being fully awakened, and still maintaining Kazuma as his vessel.

After TRY 3 defeats Gyze, Kazuma was freed from Gyze's control as the Gyze symbol in his hand fade away. Kazuma then reunites with his older brother Kazumi, and meet Taiyou. After that, he witnesses TRY3 saving the universe from being turned into nothing.

A few days after the event, Kazuma, along with Chrono and Kumi Okazaki, participate in the revived G Quest Event since they all go to the same school. The trio participate in the Quiz Event where Kumi hits the buzzard even before the question is asked, shocking everyone. He later decides to help Chrono out with physics since Kazuma had a better comprehension of the subject and is later seen in what appears to be a dream of Chrono fulfilling his dream of going into space.

Deck[]

Kazuma uses a Shadow Paladin deck with Dragheart, Luard as his ace, focusing on the Shadow Paladin keyword, Ritual, in order to activate a variety of effects based on the amount of Grade 1 units in his Drop Zone.

His deck is well balanced, focusing on aggressively calling and attacking while retiring both his own and his opponent's rear-guards, and quickly fulfilling Ritual. Luard's second skill allows him to Stride even if he can't pay the cost while refilling his deck with more Grade 1 cards to call.

Deck

Gallery[]

For a full gallery of Kazuma, see Kazuma Shouji/Gallery.

Battles[]

Record (Season 8)
Opponent(s)	Episode(s)	Outcome
Chrono Shindou	Turn 2	Forfeit (Lose)
Unknown fighter	Turn 3	Undetermined
Taiyou Asukawa	Turn 3	Win
Henri Hayao	Turn 6	Win
Tokoha Anjou	Turn 9	Lose
Mamoru Anjou	Turn 10	Forfeit (Lose)
Bad End Boss	Turn 11	Win
Kei Nagara	Turn 12-Turn 13	Win
Chrono Shindou	Turn 14	Undetermined
Makoto Asada	Turn 16	Lose
Luna Yumizuki	Turn 21	Win
Fighter	Turn 25	Win
Tsuneto Tado	Turn 29	Lose
Tsuneto Tado	Turn 29	Undetermined
Chrono Shindou	Turn 29	Undetermined
Shiranui	Turn 34	Lose
Satoru Enishi	Turn 43-Turn 44	Lose
Yuichirou Kanzaki	Turn 45	Lose
Dumjid	Turn 48	Win
Shiranui	Turn 49	Lose
Kazumi Onimaru	Turn 52	Undetermined

Record (Season 9)
Opponent(s)	Episode(s)	Outcome
Dumjid	Turn 5	Lose
Relics	Turn 7	Win
Chaos Breaker	Turn 13	Lose

Trivia[]

Kazuma Shouji's official twitter account can be found at https://twitter.com/Ritual_kzm.
He has a crush on Luna Yumizuki.