#never watched arc v never watched zexal

[puzzlepining]

i wanna do another poll cause im rlly curious ab this one

[antihibikase-archive]

Arc V manga plot what the fuck is going ONNNNNNN

[acerikus]

Ygo is so funny bc I fell behind with go rush AGES ago (think not long after the episode where yudias got turned back into himself after he got turned into a shirt(????)) but I never unfollowed the tag, so occasionally I just see the most wildly out of context discourse 😂

[what-dnd-class-are-they]

Character name: Kaito Tenjo (Kite)

Media: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

Information:

(Note, he also shows up in yugioh arc-v. ive only watched zexal so pulling from there Only.) -He is known as the Number Hunter (in zexal there's a specific type of card called a number card and they're really powerful and he had to hunt them down) -When he defeated someone in a duel, he took their soul -He is one of the few characters who can see Astral (yuma's spirit buddy) right from the start, the others being Yuma himself, and characters with ties to the Astral or Barian worlds -He puts himself through intense pain and physical trauma for his number hunting, all for the sake of his younger brother, Haruto (Hart in the dub) -He has an INTENSE rivalry with Mizael (Mizar in the dub) due to both of their aces being a Galaxy Eyes Dragon. Mizael has Tachyon (probably spelling that wrong), and Kaito has Photon. This reaches a peak where Kaito dies on the moon after defeating Mizael in a duel, determining the true "Master of the Galaxy-Eyes" (In the sub, he declares Mizael the true master. In the dub, he claims that title for himself. As he Should) -A scientific Genius. at age 12 he built his robot Orbital 7, he made a portal to another world (albeit with help from his mentor, V/Quinton/Christopher), and brute-forced his way into the pocket dimension Astral resides in using science. -Has Some Serious Daddy Issues. i dont know why but i feel that's important to mention. Do they make up? Kinda. -Sees himself as nothing but a means to an end. Fundamentally, he does not see himself as a person, but instead a weapon. Something to be wielded. In his duel versus Yuma post World Duel Carnival, he says he saw dueling as nothing but a means to an end (at least. in the dub. i dont know where i can watch the sub). In Yugioh in general, people tend to see their decks as an extension of themselves. This is much more obvious in Zexal closer to the end- but when Kaito says it here, it is glaringly obvious he is referring to himself. He initially forfeits the duel because he straight-up can't duel the way Yuma does. He can't view dueling- nor himself- as anything more than a tool to be used. It's only after Yuma and Astral (mainly Astral) give him a pep talk that he gets over his hangups and becomes I think the only main rival to never have lost to the protagonist. And fun fact, he only lost one non-flashback duel in Zexal, period. And that was when he was up against the guy mentally tormenting him using the face of his younger brother so grain of salt for that one -He has the WORST fashion taste. Like, okay. he did kinda slay with his number hunting uniform. But before that he dressed like the "You Know I Had To Do It To Em" guy. this isnt information needed for the poll but it is information that the people Deserve To Know. he has an objectively Bad Taste in casual clothing

@theaviskullguy

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 120-121 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 117-119 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-120: A Battle in a Different World! The Gem Beasts VS Harpie Lady

Upon opening his eyes after his life-or-death bout with Cobra, Judai finds himself in... a desert--a desert in which only the Duel Academia school building stands, making this an odd situation. Well-versed in geology, Jim posits that the Duel Academia has been flung into a different world, the strange circumstances causing disorder among the Duel Academia's students. Things turn for the worse as the Monsters made real in this world come to attack. Johan confronts the Harpie Lady invasion, but...

TURN-121: Survival in the Desert! Johan VS the Antlion

Something has caused Rei to sustain a serious injury. To acquire medicine to treat Rei, Judai and co. head for a submarine that Misawa saw, having to traverse the desert in order to get to where the submarine is. A materialized Titan appears before Judai and the others there, obstructing their way. A battle begins between Titan and Johan, and as Titan materializes his Sand Doodlebug to attack him, Johan responds with his Gem Beasts. However, with Titan summoning a Monster that is at its best in the Desert, Johan is gradually cornered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Does anyone else have sand in their everywhere

Slight delay aside, episodes 120 and 121 are now up and finalized! With Cobra out of the picture, we shift into a bit of a transition arc as we get more setup for the second half of Season 3, with a little dimension-hopping as our crew gets warped to a Desert world (featuring three suns like the Gravekeepers' world) and come face-to-face with materialized Monsters. I do appreciate how this shakes things up and gives us a setting that's away from the Academia island, and also getting the glorious [yet random] return of Misawa, 5-o'clock shadow and all; 120 effectively serves as setup for how this new world works, as well as finally getting Samejima back [as Chronos notes, he never is around for times like these] with Pegasus coming to join him, and the glowing boy getting his hand on Martin, with 121 showing us more, and also a hint at who might be behind the arm ("This pain... is your love, isn't it?"). Also, materialized Winged Kuriboh is precious.

Animation error-wise, there actually wasn't too much overall! (Which is nice since I can keep it all to one post, lol.) Though that would happen since these don't have too much going on all told. 120 gets two small fixes with the Ojamas-in-bed scene and Sapphire Pegasus's second ATK/DEF counter, while 121 gets a handful of mostly quality-of-watching ones, with one card fix and a couple of on-screen translation edits. Details under the cut below for the interested!

Quick housekeeping: I re-finalized episode 46 after an "I activate an Quick-Play" typo was brought to my attention (a holdover from my "Instant Magic" days--thanks to Lyeat Akiyama over on NAC for the heads-up [pls let me know if you find typos while watching!]), as well as 119 after missing an update to the Program Marketing credit in the ED (Kenrou Utsumi taking over from Machiko Ishii as of 119). The 119 link in 117-119's release post now links to the re-uploaded version, as does 46's in its post; I've updated both links in the Masterpost and will be posting the re-finalized hardsub/script/MKV for 46 and hardsub for 119 on NAC soon as I post these.

Anywho, enjoy! With these done, I'll be getting into the ZEXAL stretch of TFSP for a bit as I revise what I'd already worked on for Yuma's story and then start on the next one, as well as getting my ARC-V "Dub-Uncut" edit for episode 1 finally off my backburner (subsequent episodes shouldn't take that long lol--though it's funny, I wasn't going to sub ARC-V since Crunchyroll's done so, but in revising their subs to use with my DU releases [since I want to release dual-audio versions], I still revised quite a bit like it'd be my own take anyway lol, so I guess I am in some way 🙃). After that, it'll be onto GX 122-123 as we get into the Invasion of the Body-Snatchers Duel Zombies stretch of this arc--stay tuned!

Fixes & Edits! (120)

As Manjoume gets up from his Infirmary bed, he pushes the bed sheets down to the foot of the bed, revealing the Ojamas--now materialized--under them. But as the sheets pass over them, there's a quick frame of sheet movement (lasting for three frames) where the sheets are drawn over Ojama Yellow's eyes (partially over his left eye and fully over his right). A quick fix in Sony Vegas by masking Ojama Yellow's eyes from the prior frame on top of the sheets.

As a persistent Harpie Lady comes back for an attack, Johan re-summons Sapphire Pegasus to take her on--but for a quick frame just before his ATK/DEF counter disappears, we can see it start decreasing. A quick fix in Vegas as I masked in the counter from the frame just before to hold it in place (couldn't just hold the frame prior as a whole as the scene started to fade into showing Johan and co. on this last counter frame).

Fixes & Edits! (121)

As Titan asks Johan if he will be his opponent, their split-screen levels up as it becomes a split-screen of their Disks activating, but the split with Titan's starts sliding in a frame before Johan's, causing both to be uneven as they slide in. Fixed in Vegas by masking in Titan's Disk split to start its slide-in with Johan's Disk split.

After the eyecatch, Johan bemoans how his Gem Beasts are at a huge disadvantage on the Desert field effectively in play, before Titan slides in on a split-screen to gloat about how there's nowhere to escape in this world of endless sand--but Johan starts moving for his slide-in a frame early; fixed in Vegas by editing Titan's slide-in for 3-4 frames to time it with Johan's moving. Then, as their split-screen splits to show Cobalt Eagle being summoned by Johan, Johan's split takes a frame longer than Titan's to slide offscreen; fixed in Vegas by just replacing this frame with the following no-split one.

For the hardsub: as Amon sneaks around in the Garam submarine, he finds his bio information on a computer, which he goes on to delete; I set up this edit back when handling his bio in 111 to get it out of the way, applying my translation of his bio to this screen using the CC Power Pin effect in AfterEffects, masking in the edges for blending. (And, of course, edited a dub version for reasons.)

Later, to deal with the Devil Scorpion onslaught, Judai summons Clayman in Defense Mode to hold them off, but the card's reversed as he plays it on his Disk, with its name box facing to the right. Fixed using AfterEffects to apply a correctly facing proxy, masking Judai's fingers onto it and using some motion tracking during the initial rapid blurry zoom-out, while also masking the original card border around it for blending; I then used Vegas to re-zoom the post-rapid-zoom-out fix into the remaining bit of the shot to keep the card consistently edited (since the motion tracking didn't come out perfectly for that part).

After 8-Claws Scorpion's able to take out a face-down Clayman, Johan summons Amethyst Cat and Topaz Tiger to corner and deal with all the Scorpions, but for a quick frame after they're summoned, as they start to split apart from their split-screen, Amethyst's isn't given a border (it gets a border in the frame after). Fixed in Vegas by applying a quick border to her split, masking in part of the following shot of Johan behind the two splits.

For the hardsub: in the preview for 122, as we see Manjoume hanging out in the Food Storage facility, there are posters with Mrs. Tome behind him, saying "Our Food's Important" and "No Stealin' Allowed 🧡"; wanting to translate these in 122 proper--madman that I am as there are about 22-23 total shots I'll be editing--I worked on translating these there first. I worked off the best front-facing shots of them that there were in the episode and made a full translated copy of each poster, repainting Tome as needed to cover up the Japanese text (annoyingly, I couldn't get the border on the heart to blur nicely but oh well), which I then used AfterEffects to Power Pin into place, masking in only the bits with the translated text. Then, for this shot, I used some motion tracking to track the panning across the shot, and then applied that tracked motion to the edit.

Also for the hardsub, the subsequent shot after #6 shows Manjoume with the Ojamas fading in to join him, with the poster on the right behind him; I applied my translation for that poster there, masking in the top tip of Manjoume's hair over the edit as needed.

Also also for the hardsub: during the "Just After This!" preview clip before the best card segment, we see Manjoume prepping his Disk in front of that second poster; I applied my edit to this scene, as well, masking in Manjoume's hair over it, but I also had to take some of the frames and touch them up in Photoshop, since the color of the original text was bleeding into his hair. The poster on the left also appears in the shot as Manjoume plays Tribute to the Dead/Doomed; I applied my edit there as well, masking Manjoume's shoulder over it and dimming it as the shot dims while the light from the card radiates out.

[orphetoon]

ok yugioh fans who have actually kept up with the series which one of the “”””new”””” ones should i watch

[newspropaganda]

The Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom constantly fails when they don’t gatekeep 5D’s and blame everything on supposed "production problems" that aren’t even real. I could give you countless reasons why ARC-V, GX, Duel Monsters, Zexal, VRAINS, SEVENS, and GO RUSH!! are worse than 5D’s. The real issue is that either you never watched 5D’s, you joined the fandom too late, or you’re clueless. There’s so much wrong with this fandom that I’d love to expose every day, but it feels like a waste. I can’t take anyone in this fandom seriously anymore, nor can I respect them.

You have so much to learn about why 5D’s broke the mold. The duels weren’t just duels; they meant something deeper to the characters and fans. Anything after the Dark Signer arc is still solid, but you continue to hate it. Well, guess what? Battle City is just as "mid" as you say 5D’s is. GX seasons 3 and 4 couldn’t even develop Judai’s friends properly. Zexal II was never good. ARC-V seasons 1 and 3 are its worst arcs, no matter how much you defend them. VRAINS was destroyed by The Dark Side of Dimensions, SEVENS was wrecked by the pandemic, and GO RUSH!! is just silly. It’s hard to respect because it’s made for people who never even watched Yu-Gi-Oh!.

People are so blinded by their own biases that they fall into the stereotype that "Yu-Gi-Oh!'s production quality was never good." That’s like saying the quality of production strips the shows of humanity, making them feel soulless—like how Donald Trump might talk if he dated unattractive women.

How can you even call yourselves a community when you keep blaming 5D’s for everything? That’s the real issue here! You call 5D’s weak because of so-called "production problems." Fine, let’s compare it to the shows I’ve mentioned, and see if it makes you feel as insecure as I do. You stupid Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom.

GX is the worst in terms of production. It came out in 2004, and its animation budget was terrible. It was mostly a Judai Yuki show, with the writers clearly biased toward him, leaving hardly any impact on the other characters. When you rewatch it, you realize how undeveloped his friends were. The whole series was such a mess that Konami decided never to make a show like that again. It was too "episode-of-the-week," the duels were awful, the setting was trash, and it’s only called "GOAT" by the fandom because of lies. It’s mostly remembered for nostalgia.

If people claim 5D’s became like Married with Children during Season 3, then GX was the "Judai Yuki steals your screentime every week" show. Why do you think Judai is so overrated? It’s because he stole all the screentime, not because of the Elemental HERO support, which you fanboys keep using as an excuse. And don’t even get me started on what that Tokusatsu fanboy, Des Shinta, said in his videos.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom will always be nothing more than trash that can’t respect the older shows, because their Gen Z and Alpha fans are too attached to their mainstream BS.

#NoLifeYugiohFans

[cyberdragoninfinity]

saw your arc-v livepostings on twitter n' your z-one/aporia posts and now i really wanna get into the show and into ygo in general. do you have any recommendations on where to start so that it won't be too confusing for a poor sap such as i if you can? please and thank you (:

WAHHH IM HONORED THAT MY SILLY POSTING HAS INSPIRED YA TO CHECK OUT YUGIOH!! ;w;

yugioh really is something truly special and an absolute blast to really dig into, but it IS a very big franchise.... forgive me for being a bit inexperienced at giving recommendations, but I shall do my best!! here's some pointers that I think could be helpful if ya wanna get into the show(s) (not getting into the mangas too much on this, for the sake of brevity LOL) (the spinoff mangas are fun reads, though!)

ok so the thing with yugioh is there are Eight Different 'Main' Yugioh Series (and a few little stray other series but we ain talkin bout those right now)--my recommendations are focusing on the first five series, since those the ones i've seen (though ive heard glowing reviews for VRAINS and Sevens and you could certainly go check either of those out if you wanted to! You don't really need to know anything about the plots of the other series to follow those stories)

as a yugioh fan i am of course obligated to recommend Duel Monsters as a starter. It's the OG, just absolute Yugioh at its most tried and true Yugioh, it Is that good, the dub and sub are both classics--but IF i am being my most honest true self, if my arc-v postin and zoneporia chattering have got ya ygo hooked then I would recc maybe taking a gander at one of the spinoff series first instead ;3

(In general what's cool about yugioh is you can basically pick up any of the series as your 'first' ygo experience to start with and have a great time with it! I know tons of people who've all started with different series/only are invested in 1-2 series,Theyre all made to be their own self-contained plots, and there's really something for everyone among 'em! you could honestly just read wiki blurbs on each series and go with whatever one sounds most interesting to you, and that's a fine start right there.) (though sometimes youll see characters from one series show up in another one, the Entire Storyline isnt Hinged on that--i.e. a bunch of alternate version GX/5D's/Zexal characters show up in ARC-V, but you dont need to have seen all those series to watch arc-v or follow its plot.) also idgaf what anyone says, the dubs are just as wonderful a watch as the subs are when it comes to ygos--you have to deal with some scene censorship or dialogue changes, but to me it doesn't really impede the experience. (in fact I almost want to recommend the dubs MORE for someone just starting to get into yugioh--it can be easier to follow the duels sometimes. AND a lot of the dubs are free on Youtube!!)

ANYWAY Z-one and Aporia are from Yugioh 5D's!! The, Last twenty episodes or so. Of 5D's. 🥴 <--the suffering nicherfaverrrr. So if you want to meet them properly you Do unfortunately have to be in for the long haul (i am of course biased and will say: Worth It.) 5D's is all around fantastic though; it has its slow spots, but the duels get crazy fun on those damn motorcycles, so even if you do buckle in for the All of It you'll have a good time--there are some chunks in the second half of the show that never got dubbed though (sad!) which is just something to keep in mind.

RE: Arc-V! since youve seen me tweetin about it, I will say, the first 50 episodes or so of it, that first season, does make for a really great crash course intro to yugioh and its worlds/how dueling works, since it touches upon all the main types of summoning as part of its plot, and talks about how they work. You get to learn about them as the characters do, which is really cool! My main hesitance from suggesting it 100% as a starter series is that it gets. fucking Bonkers. like characters from the other series showing up aside there is just So Much Going On in Arc-V At Any Given Point. IT CAN BE A BIT OVERWHELMING. AND APPARENTLY ITS ENDING IS. NOT VERY GOOD. which might not be very fun for a first time ygo experience 😭BUT BY ALL MEANS GIVE IT A WHIRL IF YOU'RE INTERESTED. I'm having fun with it at least, hehehe.

OK HONESTLY. HONESTLY. I think if I have one good recommendation to take away from all of this: watch Zexal. Zexal is a fantastic starter yugioh, I can't recommend giving it a go enough. Yuma as a protagonist starts out dogshit at the game and gets better over the course of the series, and that really helps the viewer follow along with the card game and start to understand it at a nice pace without getting confused over all the finer points of it. It does a really nice job of explaining how things work imo! It's also just, a gorgeous show. It's one of the most beautiful cartoons ive ever seen art direction wise. It's so kind and so fun and goes hard as hell and the characters are so full of love and personality. AND THE WHOLE DUB IS FREE ON YOUTUBE. BTW. BONUS.

THIS ENDED UP SO LONG SORRY tl;dr you can pretty much start with whatever yugioh sounds most interesting to you personally as your first series and you won't be missing any critical lore! Also Zexal is one of the best, consistently good and really easy to pick up. I think if you could only ever watch one yugioh make it that one.

also this is a less a recommendation and more just "little things about watching yugioh to keep in mind" but: don't let the card game aspect intimidate ya too much! the show really does it's best to explain how cards work and keeps it engaging; it's a show geared towards kids so of course it tries to keep things pretty easy to follow along, game-wise (also do not listen to the 'The Duels Arent Important' Crowd they are Wrong. yugioh is a sports anime but the sport is a card game. that's the crux of its storytelling. and it's genuinely really cool!!!) And if you're interested in giving the game itself a whirl, Duel Links is pretty beginner friendly imo!

I HOPE THATS AT LEAST SOMEWHAT HELPFUL the trials and tribulations of recommending where to start with a franchise that boasts some 1000+ episodes across 8 series is mighty but that should give ya some sort of idea!! whatever you end up going with I hope you have a ton of fun! YUGIOHHHH

[tvok]

hey im interested in getting into ygo do u have any recs or recommended orders of reading/watching theres a lot from the looks of it on anilist so i was wondering about your preferences o:

ANON I ABSOLUTELY DOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I'm only about halfway through the sequels (i just started arc-v) so I'm not like the most knowledgable person in the world but I can give you my personal recs. COME CLOSER!!!!!

First of all, every yugioh series is totally independent from each other (sort of - gx is set directly after dm and leans on its worldbuilding quite a bit, and 5ds takes place in the same universe as well though a bit further in the future, but you can watch them on their own with no problem) so if there's one in particular that grabs you there's nothing stopping you from jumping straight to it - that being said I've been watching all of the anime in release order (ygo dm -> gx -> 5ds -> zexal -> arc-v (i am here) -> vrains -> sevens -> go rush) and I've been enjoying it a lot. I also wouldn't recommend watching arc-v in particular without having watched the ones before it as it probably won't really have any impact for you. Now for specific recommendations (in order) !!!! SORRY THIS GOT REALLY LONG.

yugioh manga - START HERE !!!!! the original story by kazuki takahashi. high school boy inherits an ancient magical artifact containing a spirit that's really, really good at playing games (and inflicting psychological torment on bullies). I have to give it a warning for some shonen-typical creepiness towards female characters in the early chapters, but it's REALLY worth reading and it's a story that's so near and dear to my heart. this is the fastest and easiest way to start loving yugioh. Its worth noting that the original ygo manga is the ONLY manga (afaik) that tells the same story as its anime + i haven't read any of the others aside from a little bit of the gx manga, so the rest of my recs are anime-only

(optional) yugioh season 0 / 1998 / toei - a one-season anime based on the early manga chapters. if you like the horror vibes of the manga you'll enjoy this a lot. really fun 90s animation with a killer soundtrack, but generally not considered """canon"""

yugioh duel monsters - this is the one most people watched as a kid. it's an adaptation of the manga, but with most of the early chapters cut out so as to get straight to the card games + some extra arcs added in. this is most people's favorites and the most popular! you can also watch this in lieu of the manga, but you will be missing a LOT of the early story or experiencing it in condensed form (and the plot of ygo dm is already patchy At Best).

yugioh gx - direct anime sequel to ygo dm. boy goes to gamer school to become the next king of games + high school shenanigans ensue. gx is a really charming, goofy romp with a super lighthearted s1, an interesting s2 and a shockingly engrossing s3. s4 (the last 25 episodes or so) never got dubbed in english so if you're a dub enjoyer like me you'll have to switch to subs to get the full story

yugioh 5ds - direct sequel to gx, though further in the future than gx was to dm. card games on motorcycles are real and so is class warfare and the surveillance state. iirc this is the only yugioh anime that was rated 4+ - it has a slightly more mature tone but there's still plenty of lighthearted fun to be had. Really strong s1 with a second season that falls off a little bit, at least to me, but is still absolutely worth watching. s2 is missing a number of episodes in the english dub, so again if you're a dub enjoyer you will find yourself quite confused by the end. its probably worth watching s2 entirely sub-only (something i still need to do)

yugioh zexal - the first of the sequels that is possibly set in a different universe entirely (or just the really distant future). middle school boy gets a magic necklace from his dad that has an alien inside. zexal is a lot of peoples favorites and now that I've watched it I GET IT. Really strong story + pacing from beginning to end and a really endearing cast of characters. It's silly and goofy and fun but DAMN DOES IT COHERE.

yugioh arc-v - the first of the sequels that is DEFINITELY set in a different universe entirely. this is the one I'm watching currently so i don't have much to say about it yet GET BACK TO ME ON THIS ONE. this one boy's dream is to become the greatest clown who ever lived (tragic) (inspiring)

INHALES LOUDLY. that was probably more info than you wanted BUT I HOPE THAT HELPED AT LEAST A LITTLE BIT? again I recommend reading the original ygo manga first and i think that will give you a good idea of whether you are down with the yugioh silliness or not. It's important to remember that this is a very silly anime series about card games but like. As long as you can buy into the worldbuilding and accept that this is just How Things Are in the world of ygo, it's suuuuuuuch a fun world to sink your teeth into.

[team-frightfur]

Revelations from Zexal blind watch. The way action cards scatter and sound in arc V is a zexal reference.

Edit: kotori’s skirt is too short for the ass shot in that ending, Zexal...

Edit 2: i disagree with Astral’s feet.

Edit 3: I very agree with Yuma. He’s like, a complete dumbass, awful duellist, but like in an endearing way. Stupid golden retriever. If Yugo was a protag. I’ve never been more happy than when he topdecked so hard he landed on his back and broke his spine, only to leap 10 ft in the air. My child he’s mine now.

Edit 4:

They want to climb onto plants and eat leaves. Im love them.

Edit 5: the cars shutting down after the cyberterrorism attack implies that they’re all teslas. This is a dystopia worse than both Satellite and the Commons.

Edit 6: Show at strongest when Yuma and Astral are being funny. Show at weakest when its focusing on shitty monster of the week storylines and people who don’t matter.

Edit 7: Astral every single day of his life: Oh god I’m gonna die. Please Yuma. Please Yuma I don’t want to die. Yuma Please.

Edit 8: Sora’s intro is a zexal reference lmao.

Peak Comedy.

[scratchface]

5-minute thoughts on every ygo show?

Duel Monsters: The OG, which we must respect. Lots of incredibly interesting concepts packed into a fun series overflowing with style, but holy shit, it does not hold up without twelve shots of nostalgia blurring your vision. There's lots of great, iconic moments that will live on in people's hearts forever, but for every minute of Peak Television, there's thirty more of boring B plots and nonsensical plot writing. Battle City deserves to be remembered fondly, but it was consistently downhill from there.

Favorite character: the Spirit/Bakura. Always a delight to have on screen, elevated every scene he was in, even at the series' wonkiest.

GX: My original favorite! GX is a wild ride of highs, lows, and absurdity. The non-plot essential episodes here are a lot more fun than those of DM, and it made great use of the inherent absurdity of the setting (boarding school for learning a children's cardgame) to go completely bananas. It is a lot of fun to rewatch season two and three, which are packed with fun side characters, crazy antics, and of course, Judai's endless charisma. While far from perfect, every time I revisit it, I can't help but think the whole series is incredibly charming.

Favorite character: Judai. Special mention to O'Brien and Jim, though—they're my special little guys.

5Ds: The one I don't know too well, because I don't remember much of it and I've never managed to rewatch more than a few episodes at a time before dropping it. Everyone always praises it, but I just can't get into it. Zero appeal to me. Yusei seems cool, I guess.

Favorite character: Aki

Zexal: The best one. Like, objectively—yeah, I know, I refused to accept that at first too! I didn't want Zexal to be the best YGO either! But it is! It just is! I've rewatched it many times, thinking, "this time, with a more critical eye, I will realize its not that good!" but NO, it is that good—hell, I think it actually gets better every time you watch it! Which is crazy, 'cause so many of the first ~30 episodes are so so bad. But then it just gets better with every storyline! I could go on for hours about how much I love Zexal now; the setting, the cast, the plot. What seemed like a conflict between aliens actually turning out to be a war between heaven and hell was the sickest plot twist of all time.

Favorite character: Shark/Nasch, no contest. But shout out to everyone else too: Zexal has by far the best cast of any of the YGOs.

Arc-V: The disappointment. The opposite of Zexal. While Zexal starts with its weakest batch of episodes, Arc-V starts with its strongest, and its all downhill from there. So many duels in the first 50 episodes are just incredible, and there's so much intrigue, and every episode left you wondering. And then it just...struggles and flails its way to the end. Very little of ending is in anyway satisfying. If I think about it too much I get frustrated.

Favorite character: Sora! Sora does so much of the heavy lifting in keeping the plot of this series moving when everyone else seems determined to bring it to a screeching halt and nobody gives him enough credit for that.

Vrains: Ah, Vrains. If Arc-V started strong and ended by dragging its own corpse over the finish line, Vrains was struggling to keep its head above water from the start. Its an almost impressive blend of fantastic main characters with great depth (Yusaku, Ryoken, Ai) and the worst supporting cast you've ever seen. What characters weren't bad from conception get fumbled horribly at every opportunity. And yet, the conflict of the first season remains incredibly compelling. Yusaku and Ryoken's relationship remains one of the most fascinating I've seen in fiction. Unfortunately, its blatantly clear that the writers didn't have a plan. Big 'first draft' vibes. Could have been drastically improved if the writers had, you know, allowed the other Origins and Ignis to do things instead of giving Aoi three costume changes.

Favorite character: Yusaku. Love him.

[johnnyd2]

Day 9: Light Across the Aether  Arc V Month 2023

Day 9: Light Across the Aether 

@arcvmonth​

CW Language

Figured I would reply to this with a certain other earlier moment involving Shun/Shay.

THIS! This one moment from Episode 34,represented the exact point where Arc V turned from “standard fair” to “Amazing Tier!” (at least until Synchro arc and the production issues kneecapped it later onwards). Of course I am referring to Shun’s SECOND RUM in the same duel to evolve and Summon Revolution FalconThe music, “Evolving Falcon” is perhaps one of, if not right the most epic piece of Yugioh Music and is right up there with “Fang of Critias” as one of the all time greats to go with this GOAT of a scene!

This music is the tip of how awesome this one duel finisher is! For one, Sora finally snapping and revealing his true colors (at least until Synchro Dimension rolled it back XP). This is when the role of the other dimensions got real. Shit got serious yo! Shun and Raidraptors quickly flew (pun intended lol) to the top of my favorite Arc V character list. Granted thats probably the Zexal/Xyz “Scum” fan within me speaking. But still.

I kept on replaying this scene on YT over and over JUST to hear this treat to my ears. (At least until we finally got it on the 3rd and sadly last Sound Duel for Arc V).

And Shun’s speech and oath to get Ruri/Lulu back, accompanied by the buildup to the main part of this music. Then the track bursting in response to a SECOND Rankup Magic from Shun (in the same episode none the less!) It is a true beauty to watch

Seeing Sora get nuked and crushed is satisfying, yet shocking. Sora and his “pals” never showed mercy to Kurosaki’s Xyz Comrades. Neither did Shun. Hell he probably wouldve carded Sora right then and there had it not been for Reiji leashing ihim in.

Everything that happens from that point on. The escalation of the stakes of Arc V’s dimension hopping storyline. The impending threat of Academia and the Obelisk Force. It all starts with this Act of Rebellion.

cheesy yes. But i love this episode

thank you for reading.

[dragontamer05]

Thoughts / sort of rating of the Yugioh dubs;

DM- Look for all it's flaws, weird edits and censorship over all it's fairly decent. Most of the voices are good, generally speaking the tone and story are still relatively in tact. No episodes were skipped or out right cut, although changes were made.

Are somethings handles better/ make more sense in the orignal form for sure but during a time among a sea of very mixed dubs (and even compared to some of the other series 4kids/4K tried) It's honestly pretty good.

GX- Look while I admit to having some nostalgia for it's just.. not great. The joke meter got turned farther up and while some areas they did manage to keep the tone/ emotion- particularly there's a few good lines of Jaden/Judai from the dub when desperately going after Jesse/Johan

BUt oh boy is it sure just a product of its time with just some of the dialogue feeling very peak 2000s energy. And also a lot more questionable voice choices for characters (some is decent tho)

I'll sooner recommend someone watch the sub first if genuinely interested in the series. But if you've got a bit of nostalgia or just want to have some fun riffing on something it can be a fun watch.

Other majour problem is due to the desire of wanting to get on the next series fast as possible it never got completed and never got s4

5Ds- A mess.

Once again for a lot of the main cast voices are okay but definitely getting worse/more extreme in their attempts to try and hide death / censor or alter things. Whole chunks of it simply was not dubbed at all which I'm sure made pacing weird.

Never actually watched it all but oof. Even if everything else was great just the fact that there is a good chunk that got cut / not translated makes it hard to recommend watching it.

Might be a fun curious watch I guess but probably the dub series with some of the most issues (maybe)

Zexal- Well at least it got completed, like DM did so that's something. Personally kind eh about some of the voices. Astral's is great love it, Yuma is okay but I can understand how it may get annoying for some.

Another one with pretty bad censorship problems that I think even some who's only watched dub could probably figure seem off.

Probably could have ended up a lot worse truth be told but even looking at how DM was handled probably could have been better in places.

Still suggest subs over dub generally but if knowing of the changes doesn't bother you / okay with the voices I mean there's worse out there.

Arc V-

Decent. A clear sign of things to change and improvements. Complete series, still some expected censorship and changes here and there but otherwise fairly faithful to the source. No egregious changes even any allusions to death if altered it's in away that still makes sense / doesn't totally negate it just perhaps stated less overtly or something.

Serious moments often able to be kept serious (compared to some from what I recall just the usage of jokes didn't feel as egregious / bad)

Voicing pretty good over all with only a few characters that make me question the voice direction.

Overall, for sure worth watching it's fun (also there are just some great very quotable lines that got me laughing)

Likely helped in part by being owned by Konami thus I'd assume giving them some control/input on how things go

Vrains-

So good. Voice acting great and just everything was handled well I think.

Once again Complete series, some of the typical changes that are just usual stuff at this point but for a series that can get as dark and serious as it does they handled it pretty well. I think honestly they even have a few lines that just wow.

Like as much as it would be great to have them do a dub where nothing gets changed (say for anything that is typically might happen for any localization- i.e like changing a joke that doesn't work in translation or whatever) I'd say it's pretty darn close and over solid job.

I know some people we kinda eh on that ending/scene in the last episode and I get it, wasn't what was expected or hoped for maybe but I thought it was fine. Far from the worst thing they could have done and it still felt at least fitting/ pretty in character. And if your someone watching only dub I think they still manage to hit and keep the emotion of that scene just doing it in a different way.

Sevens-

As it is, Sevens is a pretty goofy show with big Saturday morning cartoons energy. From the get go it had the makings of what would be a fun dub and they nailed.

Voice choices are so good, continuing on the track of completing series and whatever changes might have been made be it dialogue or what have was nothing that I ever noticed or affected the plot/story in anyway.

Like obviously the script can't/won't be word for word exact but I'm pretty sure more often then not whatever was used or said was pretty close to/equivalent there of whatever was in the original anyway.

It's good, it's fun and silly and I can promise that despite what you may think I'd argue the vast majority of jokes come straight from the Sub itself or at the very least it keeps within the general tone /feeling of something the character would say. Never came across any moment where a joke was used that did feel quite right.

As said as it is Sevens is a pretty silly and fun show even in its original form and the Dub does a great job of keeping the spirit alive and story intact

Sub or dub I strongly recommend watching it anyway. Yes it's animated by a different group- no longer done by Studio Gallop. But honestly it fits and works. I have no idea how much was already planned out before the switch was made or any of the behind the scenes but regardless the art/animation style really fits well the tone of the series - and you can still look at it and go 'that's a yugioh'

Plus after the plot of Vrains ngl kinda nice n fun to have what Sevens brought.

Also look it's time to accept that for as much as it is a series that anyone can enjoy the target demographic IS technically kids / a younger audience (and trying to use this as a means to attract more of that younger audience get them interested)

Go Rush doesn't have a dub yet but I'm hyped and am sure it'll be a blast to.

[borreloadsavagedragon]

alright tell all of us your thoughts about kaito :)

I did not forget… I have just been con crunching but now I’m free to become the worse

Minor Zexal and Arc V spoiling ahoy

How I feel about this character:

Oh no you’ve opened a floodgate… welcome to oversharing hour with Jay

I’m very normal about Kaito, just ignore the two full cosplays + the EVA foam Orbital work in progress I have mapped out, the wall scroll that’s at my work computer, my ita pin bag, and the fact that I’ve done everything I can to make his deck competitive viable and god dammit am I still trying please print this deck a god damn banger starter, Konami, I can’t keep doing this without your help-

Short story but I used to be suuuuper YGO Vrains favoring from 2020 into early 2022, but I found myself drifting from it because one can only tolerate so much subtweeting and catty behavior over personal preferences, and I’d never really finished Zexal before, just has a half baked idea how it ends, like I watched a chunk of it when it first aired but never finished and proceeded to forgot most of it, so I picked it back up after deciding to pick up Kaito to write in an RP server with some friends because I remembered liking him and… well I didn’t stand a chance when I got back to him fjdhdhd

I deeply relate to the theme of self-inflicted loneliness because it’s easier to be by yourself, just getting walked out on, left in the dark, or even being shafted for reasons out of my own control, I really get that

Also taking on too much if it means the people you love will be ok even if the ending result is you’re not ok, where he is after his Duel with Yuma at the end of Zexal I and getting to repair all of those relationships he was damaged by is where I want to get to in life

Bonus fact that’s minor spoilers for another spin off, but I’m… not a huge fan of his portrayal in Arc V, I like that he’s there and acknowledge that it’s a different Kaito and I love all Kaito Tenjos as they exist, including the Structures Cosplayer, but… yeah, not a fan, I’m a big fan of showing vs telling and Arc V to me feels like it’s ALL telling for all of its supporting cast most of the time

All the people I ship romantically

The better question is who I don’t honestly because that list is far smaller, but if I had to pick favorites I’m very partial to Ryouga, Mizael, and Edo-

Something about rivals to lovers resonates with my very being, even if Edo is less of a rival and more of an enemy until Arc V does it’s usual-

I’ve written for Challenge and AntiHero both already actually, my docs is 99% Challenge Wips that are slowly coming along tbh, and GalaxyMaster takes more time to write since most of those are… you know what I’m getting at LOL

I stg Gallop's one mission was to make Kaito Tenjo a dating sim protagonist because I have no other excuse for why they gave him so many boyfriends and even girlfriends across Zexal and Arc V, Yugioh’s surprising most eligible bachelor

My non-romantic OTP

nervous laughter

Chris.

I like to think of them more as divorcees who are just fine staying apart

Also gestures vaguely at the first answer

My unpopular opinion

I don’t know if I have many tbh, besides disliking Arc V’s rendition of him / not liking mentor at all lol— Like maybe how I genuinely believe he’s the strongest rival bc his record was the best even after he was put up against forces behind human understand and was even considered dying majority of the time of Zexal while remaining arguably mostly human, Zexal’s wack

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

Oh my god, the duel I hate the most in all of YGO is Kaito’s duel against Heartland because not letting Kaito win against someone who’s become representative of the garbage he was put through is SO UNSATISFYING

Yuma coming in and finishing it up is symbolic in its own right because of the importance of bonds, but to me that was and always should have been Kaito’s moment, let Yuma and Astral show up literally any other time and I’m fine with it

ALSO WE DON'T GET THE RYOUGA AND KAITO GRUDGE MATCH, though Kaito solos everytime, I’m so sorry Ryouga

[krakenshaped]

wanted to say the archetype i was thinking of on that one post wasn’t doodle beasts but it was smth we seen in the rush duel game but idr what they’re called but it’s like dinos made of ??? office supplies?? idk they’re very cute tho!!!

(tho doodle beasts r also great but the thing we were thinking of wasn’t that @ the time, but we appreciate the lending a hand anyway <3)

but we r deranged abt arc-v so we could never forget doodle beasts… (one of the side characters uses them on screen approximately like. once. and u do not see the entire duel iirc lmao.)

OH OOPS MY BAD!! I haven't actually watched Go rush or played the game yet (it's on my watchlist cause I've heard it's really good) so I assumed it was doodle beasts

I have no idea what it could be however if you do find em you should post about them because they sound so cool :D I'm a sucker for that kind of aesthetic! I didn't even know doodle beasts were in arc-v, I won't lie, I need to catch up on the anime, I haven't watched any yugioh anime past Zexal LOL

Is the go rush game good? I've heard that the format is really fun but I haven't heard a lot about the video game

[hyperfixatinglove]

Hey Roe! How about 🌱, 🥀, 🧾 and 🔒 from the sleepover asks? (Choose any f/os you like!)

@noire-lover Love to see you on my dash again & screaming for the name usage ♥

🌱 Who was your first F/O?

My first ever was Michelangelo from TMNT 2003 :D I was like kindergarden age when I imagined myself w him on rooftops haha. He was in my F/O list for a while but I didn't like my s/i. She was like mutated cat since Mikey is mutated turtle. I still have soft spot for him. If I could find my native dub of 2003 TMNT more easily perhaps he would still be in the list. Mikey is the reason I tend to drift towards guys with humor (like Frank West). The first F/O on my official list was Ushio of course.

🥀 Talk about some of your fictional crushes and why they aren’t your F/O!

Mentioned Mikey above so perhaps I could discuss this. I have a lot of fleeting crushes, usually from random video games I watch on YT that never make it on my f/o list. Some aren't even crushes it's just romantic interest, possibility that never goes anywhere.

Some of these for example are Joel Miller from tlou game & John Bradford from xcom 2 who's below.

Hilariously I'm sorta haunted by Troy Baker & Brian Bloom as characters they voice is someone I often find myself having minicrushes on. Both Blazkowicz & Bradford are voiced by Brian Bloom for example, but only one is on my f/o list.

🧾 What’s your favorite headcanon someone else has made about your F/O?

I usually stay far away from general fandom & for my f/os don't even have big enough fandom for me to see headcanons. However someone had headcanon made into a fic of Ushio being reincarnated over all the YGO series since he makes cameo appearance in quite many of them (GX, Zexal, Arc V to name few) and him being aware of the fact he had lived multiply lifetimes, even vaguely remembering some details. And some details staying the same like him being an ass first and then changing and being aware that it had happened before. It just seemed fascinating to me.

🔒 What does your platonic F/O think about your F/O? Are they overprotective of you?

Hakon and Deacon are definitely overprotective of me! If I had f/o from Days Gone, Deek would be the overprotective grumpy big brother type.

But I have ton of platonic f/os I don't list like entire 5ds group from YGO 5ds or Alan Wake from the same named game. I think Alan would be on guard if I ever showed him a bf - he's keeping an eye on them, maybe talking about it with Alice who gently laughs it off and calls her husband paranoid.

Vergil would "warn" me about Jesse, how closed off and intimidating he is and asking if I'm sure and would be nervous while tinkering with his projects for Rentier Institute. He just wants me to be safe & he has nothing againt Jesse himself, but he can be off putting & appear like a brute.

T-Bone and Clara would be hilarious if I'd ever tell them I date Aiden. T-Bone would just laugh like I made the biggest joke and then say "I hope you know what you're doing" while Clara just cocks an eyebrow silently. Later T-Bone would call Aiden and kinda give him the threat call cause "She's damn civilian Aiden! What the fuck are you thinking?!". He would get fellow hacker as someone to date, but hates civilians getting involved since the incident with Blume & his own hacking in 2003

Jason Kolchek would hilarious. He and Eric aren't that close & Jason doesn't have the highest opinion of his ex-Colonel so he simply doesn't understand just what can I see in him. It's like him with women, do not compute (Jason's def gay ok) so sometimes he says something brutal and Salim will soften it and I'm just baffled.