Cardfight!! Vanguard, Volume 3

The basis of the hit trading card game and animation franchise, Cardfight!! Vanguard is a modern fantasy tale of trading card playing and making friends through gaming. In the game Vanguard, each player represents an astral spirit dueling on the fictional planet Cray. The cards in players' decks, called units, represent characters from Cray that players can summon. And due to its never-before-seen gaming style, Vanguard has become popular throughout the world.

One such player is Aichi Sendou. A timid young boy in middle school, the young man has been living his life by generally keeping to himself, his shy nature making even conversing in class a bit of a challenge. However, one thing keeps him motivated—Vanguard. With his ultra-rare Blaster Blade card always on the ready within his deck, he knows that at least in the gaming world he has a chance to be different.

Akira Itou is a writer, gamer, and international best-selling comic artist. Over the last decade his work has been associated with some of the world's most popular trading card games - YuGiOh and Vanguard.

Raised in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, Itou cut his teeth as an assistant for Studio Dice and YuGiOh creator Kazuki Takahashi. After working as an assistant on the original YuGiOh comic, Itoh would evnetually come to draw the YuGiOh sequel YuGiOh R. The series was a regular feature in Shonen Jump Magazine for four years and significantly expanded the brand from comic for teens to full-blown gaming narrative. After working with the YuGiOh franchise for nearly a decade, Itoh would pair up with Japanese trading card leaders BushiRoad to develop a new card game - Vanguard. Vanguard would premiere as a serialized manga in 2010 to lay the foundation for a TRPG which would debut globally February 2011. The brand has spun-off a weekly prime-time animated TV series, which is currently available globally in English on YouTube, with Itou as the writer.