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Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V

I was hoping to cover more episodes in December, but the holidays were quite busy for me this year. Even with the new series coming out later this year, I still want to cover the rest of Arc V because it's something that I enjoy, I still need more happiness in my life and I've already made it this far.

Anyway, I thought that the first part to Yuya and Reiji vs. Leo was pretty good. Having the girls starting their own merging process added more tension and made it more difficult for both Yuya and Yuto to remain calm. Yuya and Reiji's opening moves were pretty good. They both brought out some of their cards from their earlier duels, such as Yuya's first few Pendulum cards and all of the monsters Reiji first used against Yuya back in their duel. It seemed kind of fitting given how Leo would be familiar with Odd-Eyes and Reiji would want to go all out against his father. I also liked Reiji's strategy to seal off his father's monsters. It obviously wasn't going to work in order to showcase Leo's strength, but it was a good strategy on paper at least.

Yusho's flashback with Shuzo was pretty interesting. It heavily implied, if not flat out confirmed, that Yuzu was adopted. Shuzo didn't seem like he was married beforehand, didn't like that Yusho asked about it and his memories were altered to seemingly take care of baby Yuzu. That would explain why Yuzu never knew her mother, as well as why Shuzo thought that she was born with her bracelet when his earliest memories of Yuzu has her bracelet. Saying that Yuzu was a gift from God was just adorable and Yuzu playing with her bracelet was rather cute too. I liked how Yusho started to question his own memories and that made him realize that he didn't remember Yuya's birth or how he talked to Yoko when she was pregnant. It does make my theory on the dimensions having a soft reboot a bit more questionable though. It's still possible that they did have some kind of soft reboot to include their own historical timeline, but after introducing the possibility of memories being altered, it does make you question how much history there really is in each dimension. It seemed like the dimensional counterparts just appeared in baby form and memories were altered around them if necessary, which was most likely the case for Yusho, Yoko, Shuzo, Shun and his parents. I don't know if Yuto had any parents himself since they were never brought up, but it would explain why all of the other Yuya counterparts were seemingly orphans. It does make sense given that Zarc was a demon god when he was split apart and Leo has claimed that Zarc would try to revive himself, even though it's hard to really make that claim when Leo's actions are what ultimately allowed for the Yuya counterparts to encounter each other. It does make the timeline for the different dimensions a bit more confusing though, but that's pretty typical for a Yu-Gi-Oh! series and possibly the one of the most fitting reference they could throw in there.

I liked how Reiji was still adamant about standing by Yuya. He made a pretty good point about how if the dimensions remain unfused, then Zarc wouldn't be revived. I especially liked how Reiji called Yuya his friend. While they haven't had as much interaction to buildup to that moment, I think moments like that scene and Reiji reassuring Yuya in the previous moment helped to give it more weight. Plus, watching Yuya affecting other dimensions with his dueling fits with Reiji's character. They could have emphasized that a bit more, but Reiji has always been a working on the side kind of character who only takes action when he thinks it's necessary to do so. That has limited what they can do with him, but it does make his actions and speeches stand out more when he's normally a pretty calm and reserved person. Plus, I think that they wrote themselves into a bit of a corner with making Reiji so strong right off the start. He was already overpowered and they obviously couldn't have him lose to anyone besides Yuya or possibly Leo. They could have done the whole have the rival lose to a new villain to hype them up, but I'm glad that they didn't do that. It wouldn't have worked with Jean given how incompetent he was and they certainly didn't need to hype Yuri up even more than they ended up doing. I think keeping him on the sidelines with only dueling himself when he felt was necessary worked to help balance out his overpowered skills. Like I said, it does limit what they could do with Reiji and they probably could have found more for him to do even with that kind of role, but I think it generally worked well for his character. It was still a nice moment and it felt genuine enough to where it worked for me. Plus, a part of me might have wanted to see Reiji get more screentime given how I liked his role in the past few episodes.

I also really liked how Reiji pointed out that Leo was the one causing Zarc's revival through his selfish goal for a couple of reasons. I just love that the show nor the characters are treating Leo like a sympathetic villain after learning his backstory and motivation. While I didn't think that the chances of them going in that direction were huge, a part of me was still worried if they'd find some way to make him sympathetic in spite of everything he's done. But instead, Reiji continued to just call him out on his actions and it's pretty much true. If it wasn't for Leo starting the Dimensional War, the chances are excellent that Zarc wouldn't be close to reviving now. I know that Leo said that it was Zarc's will to be revived and that he's already started, but it's kind of hard to make that claim when Yuya and Yuto only met due to the war. Heartland wouldn't have the technology to travel between dimensions if it wasn't for Academia soldiers attacking their home in the first place. Even the power of Yugo's Clear Wing Synchro Dragon allowing him to travel between dimensions seemingly only happened after Yuri captured Rin. If Leo didn't try to merge the dimensions back together and revive Ray, then none of the Yuya counterparts would have met with each other most likely. They would have had peaceful lives with their friends and families. It's another reason why Leo is even more of a threat than Zarc. He's trying to destroy four worlds instead of just one and causing more destruction as a result. It was sweet how both Yuya and Yuto wanted to emphasize that they want to bring people smiles through their dueling instead of causing destruction. It even made Ruri remember the promise she made with Yuto. It was a nice way to emphasize their connection and Yuto and Ruri's relationship is still surprisingly sweet.

Leo using Pendulum cards was a big surprise. I guess that they could have gotten the ability to create Pendulum cards through Dennis or possibly Serena since she had Pendulum cards when she was captured. It's possible that Sora's memories could have given them some information as well, but I doubt that would be enough to create Pendulum cards from scratch. It was a Pendulum Fusion to boot and it worked nicely with Leo's deck. I was hoping that they'd at least ask Leo about how he got those cards, but there were at least a couple of possible explanations, so it wasn't too jarring that they didn't. Plus, they did need to focus on just defeating him, so wondering about how he got a hold of Pendulum cards would be a minor detail by comparison. Leo was able to break through Reiji's combo pretty easily. He may not have anything besides Fusion monsters, but it's possible that he does given that he's originally from Standard.

Even though Yuya and Yuto wanted to stay calm in order to avoid Zarc's resurrection, seeing Yuzu and Ruri in danger would set them off. Yuya doesn't handle losing people well and they both care about the girls deeply, so seeing them starting to merge would get them angry and defensive. Zarc speaking through Yuya to talk about how he was divided despite giving the people what they wanted was interesting. It makes me hope that we'll get Zarc's point of view on the story and why he thought that going that far with his dueling was okay. The crowd was praising his violent dueling, but Zarc isn't entirely blameless here, so getting his perspective would be interesting. I liked that Reiji was still determined to stand by Yuya even when he was going into his Berserk Mode. He has seen that happening before, but not right up close and this was right after learning what exactly the Berserk Mode is too. Yuya being able to talk to him for a moment was really nice, but Zarc was still able to take over soon afterwards.

Yuya's new Fusion monster was certainly a surprise. It was such a huge contrast to his usual Entermate monsters and seeing it use that machine gun was just terrifying. It was so non-Yuya that it was painful to watch it. It showed just how much influence Zarc had over Yuya at that point. Yusho thinking of how Zarc possibly chose him in order to be revived as a duelist as a creepy thought. It's hard to say how much control Zarc had over where his pieces were reborn in the other dimensions, but it's possible that was indeed the case. Zarc was a demon god when he was split apart and he would want to be reborn. It's possible that Ray's pieces knew where to go as a result of Zarc's actions too given that most of the Yuzu counterparts were close with the Yuya counterparts. The contrast between the innocent baby Yuya in Yusho's memories and the Berserk Mode Yuya using monster to attack Leo was quite painful too. Obviously, Yuay won't be able to defeat Leo that quickly, but ending it with his last attack was a pretty intense way to end the episode.

The preview looked pretty good. It seemed like the others were having doubts over if it's Yuya or Zarc during the duel. Reiji still trying to help Yuya with his reassurance sounds pretty nice though.
 
I thought that the conclusion to Yuya and Reiji vs. Leo was pretty good. It was obvious that Leo was going to survive the attack, but using one of Reiji's monsters to do so was a surprising twist. It certainly caught Reiji off guard that his monster actually helped his father. I really liked that Reiji continued to call Leo out on his method. As I said before, he is basically becoming another Zarc. One could argue that his goal of merging the dimensions and reviving his daughter is more noble than what Zarc did, but in the end, they were both endangering people in order to fulfill their own desires. Much like Zarc, Leo doesn't even care about all of the destruction he has caused because he's so focused on getting Ray back. He may not even consider any of the other people around him as people in a sense given that they aren't from the original world like he is. They are just a product of the dimensional split and therefore don't matter to him. I just love that not only is Reiji continuing to call Leo out, but they haven't tried to make Leo sympathetic in the slightest.

Reiji sacrificing his two monsters to summon D/D/D King Hell Armageddon was pretty smart. His monsters offered protection for Leo and couldn't attack, so bringing out a level eight Pendulum monster made sense. He was even able to use another Spell card to damage Leo's life points some more. It was really nice how he wanted to check on Yuya and reassure him that the duel would be over soon. Obviously, that wasn't going to happen that fast, but it was a nice moment to show that he cared and to give a bit more weight to their friendship. Leo not only had a Trap card to protect himself, but he destroyed Reiji's monster and Fusion summoned a new monster. This was the Pendulum Fusion card instead of what I mentioned earlier. It is still surprising that he got that before Yuya did, but it did have a pretty cool design.

I really liked Leo's speech about Reiji. As much as I love Reiji calling Leo out, he was also able to pretty much hit the nail on Reiji's dueling style here. He knew how Reiji would plan to deal with him and set up counterattacks to deal with it. Reiji is pretty straightforward in that he deals with what he has right in front of him. He has backup plans, as seen through this duel and throughout the series as well, but they're still based on what he is dealing with right in front of him. That normally works out fine, especially when he has a lot of power within his deck, but now he's dealing with someone who knows him completely and would naturally know how to fight him as well. This is the first time Reiji has really been thrown off his guard and I'm so glad that it's against Leo. While Reiji certainly could have benefited from having more conflict throughout the series, I think it means a lot more for Reiji that he's struggling against Leo rather than someone else. They could have done the typical rival losing to the villain character to hype them up concept, but like I said before, I don't think that would have fit with the other villains in this series. Reiji has spent years planning on fighting his father, he was upset over how Leo abandoned him and his mother and knowing that Leo cares about Ray far more than him or Himika probably makes that abandonment sting even more. He has been prepared to fight against Leo and even claim against Jean that he'd break down the door to Academia himself. He was confident that he and the Lancers could defeat him. Instead, he is struggling against Leo, his father is calling him out on his straightforward dueling style and he was unable to land a single hit during this duel. I'm pretty sure Yuya landed more attacks against Leo than Reiji did. That could make Reiji question his strength or at least how prepared he really is to fight Leo. This is the other reason why I'm glad that they didn't have Reiji lose earlier. I think that would have reduced the impact that this scene had for his character. And this couldn't have worked with any other villain since there wouldn't be that personal connection that Leo has for Reiji. There still could have been ways for Reiji to struggle and have conflict besides struggling in a duel, but I do think it was a good call to wait until he faced Leo before having a big struggle in a duel. The fact that Leo was still asking Reiji to join him against Yuya was still kind of messed up. He was basically expecting Reiji to ignore all of those years of abandonment and help Leo revive Ray instead of helping someone who he considers his friend. Leo calling him a second rate duelist and planner hurt a lot more for Reiji than if anyone else made that claim. I never knew how much I wanted Reiji to be more emotional and have more conflict until these last couple of episodes, so that was great.

Leo going after the Spell cards with his monster's effect to cause more damage was pretty effective. He was quite happy with his daughter's revival close at hand. It makes sense that a parent would want their child as their priority, but it does make it seem like that's the only person he cares about and adds more to my theory in that none of the other people in the four dimensions matter to Leo because they aren't from the original world. Obviously, Leo would go after Yuya first, but I liked how Reiji was worried about how his monster would defeat Yuya. I really liked how Yuya going for an Action Card reassured Reiji that Yuya was still in there. There was also a nice bit of voice acting during that scene. Yuya sounded more like himself when he was using the Action Card and had a deeper voice when Zarc was talking.

Reiji trying to reassure Yuya that they can defeat Leo together and that he'd save him from the demon within him afterwards was really sweet. Even Yuya was able to talk briefly to Reiji as a result. There was some genuine concern from Reiji there and even with the lack of interactions between the two, that kind of genuineness still kind of works for me to make it effective. I still think that this needed a bit more buildup, but I think it still generally works because Reiji's faith in Yuya and determination to help him does come off as sincere to me and that does help quite a bit. I really liked how they handled Yuya's struggle during this episode. He was trying to force Zarc back and it was a struggle for him to even talk. His soul was being consumed, Zarc was trying to take over his body and the fact that all of the counterparts were in the same area made it more intense too. Just moving around to get that Action Card probably took a lot out of Yuya. It was painful to see Yuya struggle so much, but the struggle itself was handled pretty effectively.

I liked how even after summoning Dark Rebellion, Yuzu and Reiji knew that Yuya was still in there. All of the Yuzu counterparts had faith in Yuya. Yuzu and Serena actually know him and Ruri would have faith due to Yuto being inside of his soul. Rin has no connection to Yuya, so it does feel kind of weird she'd say that, but she wants to get out of there and Yuya would be their best chance to get out of there. I really liked that Reiji said he believes in Yuya and his dueling that brings peace and smiles to the future. It's moments like that one that make me like their friendship more. I think it might also help that I can believe Reiji has faith in Yuya more so than when Yuya began to trust Reiji in the Synchro arc. Even how Yuya started to call Reiji by his name was rather sudden and I don't think that Reiji had said or done much for Yuya to really change how he saw Reiji. In this case, Reiji gaining more faith in Yuya after seeing what he did in Synchro and learning about what happened in Xyz sounds more believable to me. As I've said before, they still could have focused more on Reiji watching Yuya's actions on the sideline, but it still generally works, The fact that it gives Reiji some more to do and react to might also help a bit.

Seeing Yuya summon Odd Eyes Raging Dragon was pretty awesome. The Supreme King Violent Dragon part of the name certainly caught Leo's attention. I was surprised with all of the damage Reiji suddenly got. Leo's Trap card was pretty overpowered when it allowed him to steal a monster, Fusion summon and deal the damage to Reiji once that monster was destroyed in battle. I liked that Yuzu's voice reached out to Yuya. It showed just how strong their connection is and how much they care about each other. Even the prayers from all of the girls seemed to have an effect on Yuya for awhile, but Leo just had to increase the power of Arc-V to start merging the girls and have them fading away. That moment showed that Zarc's presence could be controlled/subdued and he still went with his plans. And of course Yuya would be in his Berserk Mode after seeing the girls in even more danger. It was pretty cool to see Yuya knock Leo right into his chair with his attack though.

I thought that Yuya was about to win and defeat both Reiji and Leo right when Yusho jumped in. I was worried that he'd sacrifice himself to save Yuya then, but he used that Trap card to trap Yuya and end the duel. It certainly would have been interesting if Yuya had won right then and there, but it might have allowed for Zarc to take over even more and it might not have caused Leo to free the girls either. At first, I was worried that Yusho didn't believe in Yuya, but he did. He realized that Leo's story was true and knew that Yuzu became Shuzo's daughter to prevent Zarc's revival, but he still recognized Yuya as his son and didn't want him to become a demon, which was pretty sweet. Yusho has been kind of the opposite of Leo in a lot of ways, so I should have expected that he still had faith in Yuya. I was just a bit nervous after the flashbacks from the previous episode.

The preview looked pretty good. We get to see Yugo vs. Yuri and even Ed and Kaito throw themselves in the match, so that should be interesting to see.
 
I thought that Ed and Kaito vs. Yugo and Yuri was pretty good. We got to see Ed and Kaito reunite with Yusho and learn the truth about Yuya. It was nice that Ed was able to give back the other half of Smile World to Yusho. He was holding onto that card for a long time and he finally understands the ideals of Entertainment Dueling. Yusho wasn't able to do that, but Yuya was and I still love that. Yugo and Yuri arguing over who would absorb who was pretty funny. It was a fun way to show that their personalities weren't completely gone despite being possessed. It might be a bit easier for them to retain their personalities than it is for Yuya since he's already merged with Yuto and Zarc seems to have a stronger hold on Yuya out of the other counterparts.

The duel itself was pretty nice and it was cool to see Ed and Kaito team up together. I still love the cool factor of seeing a GX era character interacting with Zexal era one. Kaito made good use of his monsters' abilities to get both Galaxy Eyes and Neo Galaxy Eyes Cipher Dragon out. Until Yugo was able to summon a new monster, he was able to get the field empty pretty quickly. There was a nice bit of back and forth with the opening move between Kaito and Yugo, so that was a neat way to start off the match.

I liked the flashback between Sora and Ed before he left for Standard. The idea that Sora would choose to invade Standard on his own because he doesn't need an army would fit with how cocky he was back then. It's one reason why I didn't like Sora for so long. He was always interesting and mysterious, but that cocky attitude just rubbed me the wrong way all the time until he started his redemption arc. The fact that he didn't like Ed would also fit with that attitude. I'd have a hard time seeing Sora taking orders from anyone besides Leo back then. Sora never struck me as the loyal soldier who would follow another commander like Ed, especially when Ed shouldn't be that much older than Sora. Still, it was a nice flashback to show how different both characters had turned out. Neither one of them would have expected that they'd abandon Academia by the time they met each other again.

Ed's strategy was pretty good. He was able avoid some damage and gain a new monster for his hand. I liked that hearing Rin's name did shake him up a bit. If Rin was actually there, then that would have most likely had more of an impact on Yugo, if not snap him out completely since he does care about her and Rin would have some impact on Yugo's Berserk Mode much like Yuzu has for Yuya. It was enough for Ed to see that there was a bit of Yugo still left in there. Yugo being able to summon Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon was pretty cool and there was some nice teamwork between Kaito and Ed that saved Ed from that attack. I really liked how Ed's determination to reach out to Yugo reflected his development. He even said that he wasn't done talking to Yugo at one point, referring to how dueling is a form of communication. I really like Ed's development and showcasing that further through a duel was pretty great. Admittedly, this would hold a lot more weight if Ed was reaching out to Yuya since they have a connection or at least if there was more to Ed and Yugo's relationship. All they've done at this point was running around trying to find the Professor. Granted, it's not like the show is trying convince the audience that they are friends exactly. It was more like Ed was trying to call out to Yugo because of how it would help Yuya in the end, which does kind of work and makes the callback to his development work as well.

I would have liked to see more D-Hero Fusion monsters, but the match was clearly all about ace monsters and their upgrades. It also helped that Duskutopiaguy had a pretty cool design and reflected Ed's development. He went from being full of anger and despair, unable to understand what dueling can really do, to being full of hope and wanting to reach out to others through his dueling much like what Yuya did with him before. That does give his ace upgrade a really cool touch to make it stand out more. It was pretty funny how Yugo's name gag is what finally snapped him out of his Berserk Mode. It was more like the final straw after it was already weakened from the attack, but that was a still a funny and unexpected twist.

The fact that Yuri was just standing watching the others duel each other throughout most of the episode was kind of weird, but it was leading up to his own ace upgrade. Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon looked a bit too busy for my tastes. Much like Starve Venom, it does fit with Yuri's personality, but I feel like there was just a bit too much going on with Greedy Venom's design to make it work for me. Ed and Kaito losing while allowing Yugo to keep on fighting was an interesting twist. I was worried that they'd be carded afterwards, but fortunately, they were just knocked out, which is at least a less sad route to go with. Yugo did look pretty confident and cool as he started to face off against Yuri again.

The preview was pretty interesting. The girls were already being knocked out and Ray's spirit showing up to Reira is an interesting development. I wouldn't have expected Reiji vs. Reira, but that sounds like an interesting duel too.
 
I thought that Reiji vs. Reira was pretty good. I thought that we'd see a conversation between Reira and Ray, but since Ray is just a spirit, I guess just showing up in a vision or speaking to Reira makes sense too. I was surprised that she actually wanted to be revived or at least she didn't express any anger towards her father. Leo has become basically another Zarc and his actions has hurt a lot of people. I thought that she'd be more upset at him given that the four dimensions would most likely be fine if Leo didn't try to merge them together to get her back. Granted, she might just be focusing on the more immediate problem with Zarc's upcoming revival and she knows that she's the only one who can defeat him, so that is understandable in that regard. I doubt that it will come down to Ray defeating Zarc again, or at least I suspect that there will be more of a twist to it than that, but she may react to her father once she is revived.

Reira commenting on how Ray is Reiji's real sister heavily implied some new emotional issues for him. Reira may not see himself as Reiji's real brother since they aren't related. I doubt that Reiji really cares about blood relations, especially when his father abandoned him before, but it's a pretty unique conflict that I kind of wished they had focused on a bit more before the duel. It might have been something that Reira felt for awhile and it came out once he found out that Reiji actually has a blood-related sibling. However, I doubt that Reiji really has any kind of desire to see Ray. Not only because of the kind of destruction merging the four dimensions could have for all of the people living there, but he didn't even know about her until a little bit ago. Ray is basically just a ghost to Reiji and Leo abandoning his new family in favor of her probably doesn't make Reiji particularly eager to meet her either. Plus, he did have a good point on how people could be potentially destroyed if the four dimensions merge together. He was focusing on all of the innocent people, including the ones that they know, more so than a sibling he didn't even know he had before all this. Reira challenging Reiji was a bit surprising, but it did show how determined he was to help revive Ray.

The duel itself was pretty nice. Reiji started off really strong with going from Pendulum summoning to the various other summoning methods. It does make him more of a challenging and intimidating figure to challenge, especially with that Trap card Contract With Eternal Darkness. Even with giving up a thousand life points, it seemed pretty overpowered, but that was basically the point. Reiji wanted to look untouchable so that Reira would be too intimidated to attack and choose to back down. Instead, Reira decided to keep fighting back and that clearly shocked Reiji. Reira did have a good idea to use his Film Magician to destroy Reiji's monster in battle and when that didn't work, he used the darkness and the attack to grab an Action Card. He said that this is the way Lancers fight and that's true, but the way Reira lured Reiji into a false sense of security while getting an Action Card reminded me more of Yuya's dueling style than anything else.

Reiji clearly underestimated Reira. He was so focused on the idea of Reira being just a vessel that he didn't recognize that he has gain much more of a sense of self. He also taught Reira how to duel, so that would give Reiji even more confidence. He's already an extremely strong duelist and he knows Reira's deck and dueling style, so the idea that Reira could defeat him wouldn't even enter his mind. I don't think this means Reiji doesn't care about Reira. He clearly was worried when Reira was unconscious, but I don't think he realized how much Reira has really changed. Reiji still sees Reira as the quite traumatized child who only mimics his opponents' strength in order to survive. But that isn't who Reira is anymore. He is still clearly traumatized and I really appreciate how that didn't just magically disappear after he gained more confidence, but Reira has far more strength and determination than when he first appeared. You can even tell how much he's changed from his facial features and body language. In his first duel, Reira was quite, barely talking outside of the duel and really only there because Himika most likely wanted to train him some more as a solider. Now Reira has the strength to not only fight alongside Reiji, but also to also go against him when he thinks he's doing something wrong. It's a really great and effective way to show how much Reira has changed. It also takes me back to think of my first impressions on Reira. I thought that Reira was going to be the Arc V version of Haruto where he just exists as the rival's little brother, but that's not the case at all. He is more than just Reiji's little brother, he has some of the best character development in the series and he turned out to be one of my favorite characters in the series too.

I really liked how the duel showed how much stronger Reira has become. He was able to get rid of Reiji's Trap card and deal him some damage too. His new monster could symbolize Reira's new strength as well. Despite being familiar with Reira's deck, Reiji didn't recognize it, much like how he doesn't recognize how strong Reira has become. Even the elements of Reiji's monsters helped with Reira's attack, similar to what happened with Leo. It was a surprisingly intense note to end that part of the duel with Reiji wondering if he created the monster known as Reira. Again, he doesn't think of Reira as a monster exactly, but he didn't realize that his actions allowed for Reira to nearly surpass him after all this time. While I'm not sure if his struggle against Leo was playing around in his mind, it might have been a factor when his confidence led him to underestimate his opponent again. Not to mention it provided an interesting bit of conflict between the two brothers and that's something that couldn't have happened earlier in the series.

Seeing Yuzu being sent into Arc-V was both shocking and heartbreaking. It was lucky that Yuya didn't see that happening since that would have led to a huge rampage. Fortunately, they said that she was inside Arc-V, so she isn't gone per say, but it was still sad and unexpected. I didn't think that the girls would start disappearing this soon.

The rest of Yugo vs. Yuri was pretty intense. While I still don't care for Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon's design, its effects are pretty nice and make it even harder to destroy it for good. Yugo did put in a good effort with using that Trap card to get Clear Wing Synchro Dragon back and use its effect to power up enough to defeat Yuri. Too bad that Yuri had a way to not only reduce the damage, but get Starve Venom Fusion Dragon back afterwards. It was expected that Yugo would lose, but it was still pretty sad, especially when he tried so hard to win after both Ed and Kaito lost to help him keep dueling. Even the shot of Yugo flying backwards in defeat looked like he was in a lot of pain.

The preview looked pretty good. While Yuri vs. Yusho is also another match with an obvious outcome, it looks pretty good and seeing more of Yusho's deck sounds pretty neat too.
 
At this point i doubt Roger will ever relevant now, if we see him again then most likely his redeemed version or Roger in the shit because Zarc rampage.
 
Garcher said:
At this point i doubt Roger will ever relevant now, if we see him again then most likely his redeemed version or Roger in the shit because Zarc rampage.
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I doubt that they'd be interested in redeeming Jean at this point. He was pretty awful and they never showed any interest in redeeming him or making him sympathetic beforehand. It would be satisfying to see him being crushed by Zarc's rampage, especially when his attempts to control Yuya quite possibly helped with his revival, but I don't know if they'd do that. Even with characters from different dimensions showing up, I don't know if they'd bring Jean back. Leaving Jean lost between the dimensions would be a fitting end for his character.

Anyway, I thought that the first part of Yuri vs. Yusho was pretty good. Yuri was happier with his duel with Yugo than I thought he would be. He wanted to have fun with his opponents and he got that with Yugo, especially when they were both wanting to merge with each other throughout most of the duel. Apologizing for considering Yugo such a bother for so long was a surprise given Yuri's usual attitude. I knew that Yugo would be absorbed. He'd have to be in order for Zarc to be revived, but it was still pretty sad. The darkness within Yuri just ate Yugo and at the last moment, Yugo was okay with that because of his own darkness wanting to merge together. It was more intense than I expected it to be. Yugo is one of my favorite characters in the series and even though it was a necessity for the storyline, it still felt pretty sad to see him go.

A part of me was actually kind of surprised that Reira didn't beat Reiji. It seemed like they were building up to that with Reira's development and the cliffhanger ending definitely gave that impression as well. But Reiji saved himself with an Action Card. I really liked that Reiji admitted that he underestimated Reira. That was obviously the case, but I was glad that they addressed it and that Reiji told Reira that himself. He respected Reira's decision to help with Ray's revival, but he was still determined to save the four dimensions and was willing to use his full strength against Reira. The way he won the duel was pretty cool and he was worried about Reira afterwards as well.

Yuri definitely had a dramatic entrance, but I was worried if they had carded so many characters off-screen. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. That would have made me so upset. The idea of Yuri leaving them to go find Yuya was believable at least. Reiji trying to help out Yusho was nice, but Yuri was just too impatient to get to Yuya to deal with more opponents. I really liked how Yusho was determined to help out Yuya and still recognized him as his son. Even with Zarc possibly choosing Yusho to raise Yuya in order to be revived as a duelist, that didn't change anything for Yusho. He still had love for his son and that was quite touching. Poor Yuya was still trying to fight off Zarc while Yuri just took it as a sign that Yuya wanted to merge as well. I liked that Yusho wanted to avenge Asuka and his other fallen students. It was nice to see that he cared about his students too.

Leo was rushing through Ray's revival, which didn't seem like a good idea. Both Reira and Ray pointed out that Zarc's revival is at hand, which is why Ray wants to be revived as well, but I doubt that things will play out like either Ray or Leo want it to.

The duel itself was pretty good. Yusho's performance style was pretty fun. Even though he wanted to protect Yuya and avenge his students, he was in control, was relatively calm given the high stakes and wanted to put on a good show. We already knew that he had an Entermate Deck, but it was nice to see more of his cards and how different his deck is from Yuya's. There was even more of an emphasis on showmanship with his deck, especially with his Spell cards. I also liked that Yusho's ace monster is a Magician since that might be a little reference to Yugi's Spellcaster deck. He had a pretty cool combo with his Spell card to protect Sky Magician and narrow down Yuri's trump card.

I really liked Yusho's performance style not just because it reminds me of Yuya's, but also because of just how much control he has over the situation and his own emotions. The stakes were high in this duel. Yuya was in danger of merging with Yuri to revive Zarc, he was facing against the duelist who carded many of his students and he knew he'd be carded if he lost to Yuri, but in spite of all of that, Yusho was completely calm. He was talking about having a fun duel and making Yuri smile, but that didn't mean he wasn't taking the duel seriously. He clearly was throughout the episode. Even making Yuri smile wasn't the same thing as forgiving him. I think that he wanted to show Yuri that duels can be entertaining without hurting people. He may have wanted to change Yuri's ways along with preventing Zarc's revival, but I don't think that's the same thing as forgiveness. At most, I think it would be something like returning Yuri to his true self, much like what Yuya did with BB during their duel. Granted, that doesn't quite work when this pretty much is Yuri's true self and I don't think that there's much room to make Yuri look like a victim of Academia like what happened with BB, but I still like that intent. Wanting to make people smile through an entertainment duel and hope for them to change for the better is the kind of optimistic message I can get behind. It's naive and unrealistic as can be, but it fits nicely with the tone of the series, its overall message and with Yusho's character, so it works for me.

Hearing Yusho say Yuya's catchphrase was such a trip. You can really see where Yuya got some of his dueling style from and why he admires Yusho so much. That was a really nice bit of detail and it made it all the more believable that Yusho's dueling was reaching Yuya's heart. He was still fighting off Zarc's influence, but more of his own personality was shining through. It was pretty cool to see how Yusho figured out Yuri had Super Polymerization. He was able to pick up subtle hints from Yuri's dialogue, used his Spell cards to eliminate any Trap cards Yuri could have had and figured out why Yuri would want to change his monster into a Dark type. It really showed how much of a good duelist Yusho is along with being a good performer. This was the first time Yuya had seen his father duel in years, so that would make it even more effective. After seeing Yuya in pain for so many episodes, it was heartwarming to see him be happy again.

The preview looked pretty good. Yuri seemed to be doing some serious damage to Yusho as a result of his performance. Even with the obvious outcome, it should an interesting rest of the match.
 
I thought that the conclusion to Yuri vs. Yusho was pretty good. Yuri being entertained by Yusho made sense. While he does enjoy carding people, he never had an opponent put on a performance like Yusho has before, so that would appeal to him to an extent at least. Most people from Academia do seem to find the idea of Entertainment Dueling enjoyable since the students are children who haven't experienced dueling as anything other than a means of war. I loved how Yuya was back to normal as a result of watching his father duel. Even Reiji was happy to see that Yuya wasn't struggling against Zarc's influence anymore. Yusho's dueling was even more effective of bringing Yuya back than the girls praying before, so that shows how much Yusho's dueling touched Yuya's heart. He idolizes his father immensely and he hasn't seen Yusho dueling in years either. Seeing Yusho perform again would definitely make Yuya happy and after all of the struggle he's been through, seeing him with a smile was really nice, even if it was only for awhile.

There was a pretty nice back and forth motion with Yuri and Yusho's strategies. Yuri kept trying to get rid of his monsters and reduce his life points, but Yusho was able to overcome that combo. I liked how Yusho getting rid of that Continuous Spell card was used for his performance and tied into Yuya's flashback from when he first saw Yusho duel. It really showed how deeply Yuya believes his in father and seeing innocent little Yuya was nice too. Yusho's combo was pretty effective. Not only did he get rid of the Spell Card, but got two monsters out on the field, including Sky Magician after using its effect, and was able to use both it and Sky Pupil to take out Yuri's monster. It really showed that Yusho is a strong duelist and an entertainer. It also made it much easier to believe that he could have been the strongest duelist and Champion of Miami City if he didn't leave Standard when he did.

Of course, Yuri didn't find the duel as fun as he did before because he was losing now. He thought that Yusho was fun and entertaining, but it would only matter if he was still in control and able to win in the end. That is how Yuri sees entertainment. Like I said before, I don't think that Yusho wanted to change Yuri completely by making him smile through dueling, but rather just perform in order to show him that there are other ways of dueling. I don't think that would have happened even if the outcome was different, but I figured that was what Yusho wanted to do. Yuri teasing Yuya that they'd be together like with Yugo was kind of creepy and he was trying to catch Yusho off guard by claiming that Super Polymerization wasn't his trump card. It was true, but it still caught everyone off guard given how Yusho made his prediction with such confidence beforehand.

I knew that Yuri would bring out Starve Venom, but I wasn't expecting him to bring out Clear Wing Synchro Dragon too. I thought that they'd save that for his match with Yuya. It seemed a bit odd that a Polymerization card would allow for Yuri to use one of his monsters as a Tuner, but I could believe that Zarc's powers created that card so that Yuri could use both dragons. While Yuya seems to have the most of Zarc's powers given that he's able to hear monsters calling out to him and create them as a result, merging with Yugo could have allowed for Yuri to gain more of Zarc's powers and thus created cards in order to use Clear Wing. They needed some way to have Yuri use it for at least Yuya, so I can go with it. Plus, they probably wanted to get both dragons on the field to affect both Yuya and Yuto.

I have to admit that Yuri's combo was both impressive and fitting for his character. It was basically a loop effect that gave Yusho more damage every time he went through the cycle, so it was like he was slowly torturing Yusho, especially when there wasn't anything Yusho could do to stop it by that point. It was also an effective way of using Clear Wing's effect to his own advantage. It was indeed Yuri's entertainment in full swing. Yuya's reaction was so sad, especially when he was so confident that his father would win. Even Reiji tried to step in to help him. Granted, I don't think that there was anything Reiji could have done to help Yusho at that point and he would have been carded as well most likely, but it was still nice to see how Yusho losing was affecting him as well. I liked that Yusho wanted to keep his pride as an entertainment duelist and for Yuya to carve that into his heart. Yuri's obsession with merging with Yuya was still kind of creepy, but I liked how Yusho still considered Yuya to be his son right to the end.

It was painfully obvious that Yusho was going to lose the duel and be carded, but Yuya's expression just crushed my heart. He was able to get control back long enough to see his father smile at him one more time. Yuya had such a strong belief in his father and it wasn't unfounded given the skills he showed throughout this match. Seeing Yusho lose hit Yuya extremely hard not only because of how much he idolizes his father, but this was the first time he has seen Yusho duel in years. I think that was a huge reason as to why this duel touched Yuya's heart so much. It would have most likely worked regardless of that detail, but Yuya finally found his father and saw him duel for the first time in years. That would definitely add more happiness to see Yusho duel again for Yuya. I didn't think I'd like Yusho so much given my issues with his advice to Yuya at the beginning of the series and recklessly going to Academia without telling his family anything, but these last few episodes have fleshed him out quite nicely. He does genuinely care about Yuya, even after realizing that they aren't related by blood, and his dueling showed that he is a strong entertainment duelist. He is still one of the few good father figures in this franchise. Yuya's expressions alone broke my heart, but even if that somehow wasn't the case, I'd still feel pretty sad over losing Yusho given that he did become surprisingly likable over the course of the past few episodes.

I knew that Yuya would got into his Berserk Mode after seeing his father being carded, but that was more intense than I thought it would be. I can't say that I blame him given the situation. Yuya just got his father back and as shown many times before, Yuya does not handle losing people all well. Seeing his father being carded would hit him extremely hard. It makes me hope that they aren't going to redeem Yuri. All of the other counterparts deserve happiness, but not Yuri after everything he's done. You can't even say that it's all because of Zarc's influence when Yuri has always enjoyed carding people and causing destruction. Sure, he was raised in Academia and Leo was extremely stupid for encouraging that mindset in Yuri, especially when he knew that Yuri was a piece of Zarc reborn, but I don't think you could just brush everything Yuri has done as just because of Zarc's influence. All of the counterparts have Zarc's influence in them, but Yuya, Yuto and Yugo don't crave destruction all the time either. The show hasn't been afraid of making characters without a redemption arc. Jean is a perfect example of that and hopefully Leo won't be redeemed either, but I don't know if they'll do that with Yuri. I'm hoping that they do given all of his actions.

The preview looked pretty good. Yuya vs. Yuri sounds like a good match and it's something that fans have wanted for ages. The fact that they're voiced by the same voice actor also gives it a nice unique touch.
 
I thought that the first part to Yuya vs. Yuri was pretty good. Like I said before, Yuya's anger was completely understandable. He just saw his father be carded right in from of him soon after they were reunited. He would be dealing with a lot of rage over that and it was even more intense due to his Berserk Mode. He obviously couldn't ignore what Yuri did, even knowing what could happen if they crossed paths and Reiji urging Yuya to not go near Yuri either. He'd want to deal with Yuri and get his father's card back, which Yuri obviously wouldn't do without a duel first. Yuri did start off pretty strong with getting Starve Venom out right away. It was an effective way to throw Yuya off his guard to see the monster that defeated his father and the dragon being out on the field did cause Yuya more physical pain as well.

I thought it was really touching how Yuya drew Smile World right when he needed it the most. Remembering his father's words allowed for Yuya to calm down a bit from his Berserk Mode. Some might take issue with that since Yuya hasn't needed to rely on his father's words for quite some time and he has gained more confidence over the course of the series. However, having more confidence doesn't fix every emotional problem. We've seen how Yuya is still emotional fragile even with his character development, such as how he was still crying over his carded friends after reaching out to BB. I don't think it goes against his development. He still has come a long way from the first episode, but being a confident and stronger person doesn't make him emotionally invulnerable or instantly makes all of his emotional trauma from losing his father magically disappear, which I find quite refreshing and realistic. Emotional damage like childhood trauma is hard to eliminate completely and for many people, they deal with emotional and mental scars that they can never get rid of on a daily basis. It helps to make Yuya more realistic, interesting and sympathetic in that regard.

Besides all that, he has gone through a lot of traumatic events recently. He found out that he was the reincarnation of a demon, has been fighting against Zarc's growing influence over him with all four counterparts in the same area and saw his father carded right in front of him. He was so consumed with rage after all of that and he needed something to pull him out of it, or at least calm him down enough to focus on the duel. Both Smile World and his father's words were his lifeline. It didn't solve his problems completely, but it allowed enough of his own personality to shine through Zarc's influence, even though he was still clearly fighting back. A character needed emotional support and reassurance during a traumatic situation is not a sign of weakness or regression in my opinion. It depends on the exact situation and execution of course, but for this situation, I thought that relying on Yusho's card and words was completely understandable for Yuya.

Yuya's new Entermate Drago Remora was so cute, but he was still struggling with both Odd Eyes and Starve Venom out of the field. I liked that Reiji was pointing out that he was fighting against Zarc's influence for everyone's shake. Reira had learned from Ray that Zarc's resurrection couldn't be stopped now, but in spite of all of the pain he was dealing with, Yuya was still trying to fight back. Obviously, Zarc will have to be awakened for the story to progress, but I do find Yuya's determination to resist Zarc admirable. Even though it's so painful and he's so close to merge with all of his counterparts, Yuya still fights back not only for himself, but for his friends as well.

Yuya was able to make a good combo with Odd Eyes and Drago Remora, but that just allowed for Yuri to bring out Clear Wing with his new Tuner monster. Even with Zarc's influence most likely creating new cards for Yuri to use for Clear Wing, it is still kind of strange to see Yuri with these new cards. I think it's because I'm more used to seeing protagonists with a bunch of new cards all of a sudden rather than any other characters. Fortunately, Yuya was able to seal off the effects of monsters on the field to prevent Yuri from using that combo again, but then Yuri was able to take out Yuya's monsters with a couple of attacks.

Yuya was being smart with trying to get Dark Rebellion out without summoning Odd-Eyes again. They could barely fight off the darkness with two or three dragons, but all four being out on the field would be overwhelming for both Yuya and Yuto. I liked how Yuto was trying to reassure Yuya though. He had faith in Yuya and that he'd be able to save him from the darkness. It was a nice scene that provided a bit more weight to their friendship and gave Yuya some much needed extra reassurance. Drop Gallop was also an adorable card and it did have a pretty useful effect so that Yuya could get two level four monsters on the field.

I really liked how Yuya was able to fight off the pain from all four dragons being out on the field by thinking of all the friends he made throughout the series. It was a touching moment that showed how important all of those characters were to him. Yuzu was clearly what broke Yuya out of it the most, but the images of all of his friends throughout the four dimensions helped him out as well. Otherwise, they would have just had Yuzu appear instead. It was a good moment that gave Yuya some hope that he had been able to fight off Zarc's influence. Too bad that Yuri had a Trap Card that gave him control over Dark Rebellion after all that struggle. Yugo appeared again, but he was possessed and so was Yuto after losing Dark Rebellion. Poor Yuya was just screaming and struggling by the time the preparations for Arc-V were ready. Yuya screaming in pain always breaks my heart.

The preview looked pretty good. Yuya was still struggling against Zarc, while the others were consumed by it. It should be an intense conclusion to the duel.
 
I thought that the conclusion to Yuya vs. Yuri was really good. Seeing the Fusion dimension being distorted was pretty unsettling. Leo was more focused on reviving Ray than anything else, which still gives the impression that he cares about getting her back than just restoring the dimensions. He is her father and obviously cares for her, but it made me think that he saw the dimensions coming together again as just a bonus for getting Ray back more than anything else. Plus, he's still basically Zarc 2.0 for endangering countless people for his own selfish desires.

Poor Yuya was just struggling and suffering throughout this match. Not only was Yuto consumed by the darkness, but they were trying to drag Yuya with them as well. I really liked how Reiji was trying to help Yuya. He was still reaching out to help him through the pain because he knew how much Yuya didn't want to become a demon. He knew that Yuya wants to make people happy and smile. Reminding Yuya about his father was a good way to get him back to his senses, even though Yuri was dismissive as ever. Even with that encouragement, it was still a struggle for Yuya to keep on dueling, but he wanted to fight on until the end like his father did. Yuri responded with some pretty big hits on Yuya's life points and prevented him from using Action Cards to reduce the damage to boot.

The isolation dome did look pretty cool, especially when you could see the Earth, but it did make the situation more intense. Even Reira couldn't hear Ray's voice anymore. At least Sora and Ed finally arrived on the scene and learned what happened to Yuya's father. I really liked how everyone was willing to jump in to help Yuya duel. Granted, it would have made Yuri look even more overpowered if it took that many characters teaming up together in order to defeat him, but I like the intent of everyone wanting to help instead of standing on the sidelines. It helped to make Yuya's friendships with them more endearing/believable. Given the twist at the end, it was probably for the best that didn't happen.

It was good that Yuya was able to avoid that attack from Dark Rebellion, but having to give up Smile World when he couldn't use an Action Card clearly broke him. The fact that the Trap card Yuya used was called Farewell made the ending even more heartbreaking too. Yuya imagining that his father was leaving him was so sad. Obviously, Yusho wouldn't do that, but Yuya would when he was at such a low emotional state and doesn't handle loss well to begin with. Smile World was what reminded him of Yusho in the heat of his anger and allowed enough of Yuya's own personality to shine through Zarc's influence. Losing the card would make Yuya feel like his father wasn't watching over him anymore. Yuya's clear emotional breakdown was so heartbreaking and painful to watch that it brought me to tears. The combination of the grief/sadness in his voice and the panic in his facial expression just shattered my own heart. Yuya has always worn his heart on his sleeve, so when he feels sadness, pain or anger, it can look quite intense for him and shows through his face/voice pretty easily as well. Yuya has been through so much lately with finding out about Zarc and losing his father again. He has been struggling physically against Zarc's influence and it has put a significant strain on Yuya's body. His soul is basically being consumed by darkness and it does look like he's struggling to breath or having a heart attack at times. He was dealing with so much physical, emotional and mental stresses lately and Smile World was his last hope. It was his light pulling him out of the darkness enough to keep fighting back. Losing Smile World was a heavy blow for Yuya emotionally and mentally. And like I said before, needing a lifeline through an emotionally stressful situation does not negate Yuya's development. It is not weakness for someone dealing with trauma to need something to hold onto, whether it's physical or just the support of other people, in order to find more strength. Given the situation he was in, it made complete sense for Yuya to rely on Smile World for reassurance and comfort.

I liked that Reiji and the others were quick to help reassure Yuya though. It was a good way to help remind Yuya that he has his own dueling that he can rely on in order to win. Being reminded of that doesn't negate Yuya's earlier development either given the situation he's in, but it was a nice gesture to help him recall his own strengths in order to keep on fighting. It also helped to make Yuya's friendships with those characters, especially Reiji, feel more genuine and sincere. They all believed in Yuya and had faith that he'd save the world. And it did seem to work until Reiji mentioned that Yuya should just focus on winning. The intent was nice and I don't blame Reiji for what happened at the end, but it was not the best choice of words on his part.

Yuya was able to turn the duel around pretty effectively. He was able to get both Dark Rebellion and Clear Wing back. Yuri tried to block him with a new monster, but that just made Clear Wing stronger. It was cool to see Yuto and Yugo through their dragons. It really was like they had come back to fight along side Yuya. Yuri's Ridicule World was an interesting Trap card. It seemed like the opposite of Smile World, which was fitting given that Yuri is basically the opposite of Yuya. Yuri thought that he had the duel in the bag, but Odd Eyes' effect basically allowed for Yuya to win instead. Yuri did finally smile through this duel, but it was laughter in the shock that he was finally losing it. Yuri was much calmer about losing than I thought he would be. He wanted to keep on winning so he could be the strongest duelist around, but he would see this as losing to himself given the whole situation with Zarc.

Sadly, I had a strong feeling that there would be some twist with Zarc's revival. It obviously had to happen, but they wouldn't have Yuri win after he defeated so many other characters before this match either. Yuya's expression when Zarc took full control was so painful and sad. I think it was a combination of losing Smile World and Reiji's line about focus on just winning that allowed Zarc to take over. Losing Smile World was such a heavy blow for Yuya. It broke his heart and I don't think that there was any recovery from that point. Even with all of the encouragement from the others, the physical, emotional and mental damage was too much for Yuya to bear and still be able to fight off Zarc. I think Yuya still had control during the emotional breakdown and throughout most of the reassurance from the other characters, but once the focus on winning line came up, I think Zarc's influence was able to overshadow Yuya completely due to his weakened emotional state. I thought that there was something strange when Yuya called himself the creator of Pendulum summoning and that he'd believe in those created by Pendulum summoning as well. It wasn't out of character per say, but it seemed really weird to me, especially when I don't think Yuya has called himself the creator of Pendulum summoning before. Not to mention it was an odd way to refer to his own monsters. Even the way Time Gazer and Star Gazer were looking at Yuya seemed a bit off. So even though Yuya was able to win the duel, Yuri basically got what he wanted and Zarc was reborn.

The preview looked pretty good. Even though the outcome is obvious, Sora and Ed teaming up to fight against Zarc sounds like a pretty interesting match up.
 
I thought that Sora and Ed vs. Zarc was pretty good. It was pretty intense to see that Zarc's form was shown throughout all four dimensions. Seeing some of the older characters was nice though, especially Shuzo and the three little kids. I've also been wondering how the Standard dimension has been doing for ages, so it was nice to see a bit of it again. It would have been interesting to see how Yoko would have reacted to Zarc as well. I kind of liked how the Academia students reacted to Zarc. They were all fed lies about how Academia was trying to create a utopia through the Arc Area Project, but it turned out that their actions helped to revive a demon instead. It was interesting that Zarc claimed that humans gave birth to him. It still felt like a bit of social commentary given that he is the result of the audience demanding more violent duels. At least Reira could hear Ray again. I assume that he was referring to Leo as Father because that's what Ray said to him. He calls Reiji brother despite not being blood related, but that makes sense given that they have interacted with each other and he idolizes Reiji anyway.

It was kind of funny how Zarc wanted someone to duel him while he was destroying everything around him. He can't really expect to find anyone to challenge him if he endangers or kills everyone around him after all. I liked the scene with Sora and Ed watching Zarc destroy their world. Even though Ed is no longer part of Academia, he would feel responsible for this destruction as the former Commander in Chief of Academia. Sora refusing to help Ed, but allowing for Ed to help him was pretty fitting for his personality. That was one way to make his cocky attitude more endearing. Offering Ed a lollipop was also kind of cute.

I was not expecting Zarc to look like a demon possessed Yuya, but that does make sense when Zarc always had a stronger control over Yuya and he seemed to be the main counterpart out of the group as well. The cracked demonic skin and how he ripped through Yuya's clothes also kind of worked given that how he was always causing Yuya and the other counterparts so much physical pain. It would also make the other characters more determined that Yuya was still there if Zarc still physically looked like him. Dismissing Yuya as just one of his fragment pieces meant to help with his revival was sad, but it did provide an interesting connection to Leo. Leo also saw the Yuzu counterparts as just pieces of Ray rather than four individual girls with their own lives and connections. Even though they are reincarnations of Zarc and Ray, the audience can't really see the counterparts like that. We've spent time with the characters, getting to know them and see what connections they have with other characters. They were even able to do that with Rin and to a lesser extent Ruri despite relying primarily on flashbacks. It made sense as to why both Zarc and Leo treated the counterparts like that, but I thought it was interesting in that the audience can't really dismiss any of them as just pieces of Zarc and Ray. It also made Zarc and Leo more similar in the regard. Zarc claiming that Yuya no longer exist was really sad though.

The duel itself was pretty good. Zarc's cards were overpowered, but it was kind of expected given that he is a demonic god. I thought that his Dragon Darkvrm looked pretty cool though. Zarc doing a Pendulum summoning right off the bat probably gave them more hope that Yuya's heart was buried deep within Zarc. I really liked how Ed tried to shout out to Yuya throughout his turn. Even though Zarc just kept ignoring him, Ed was still trying to reach out to Yuya in the hopes that he'd get some sign that he was still there. Yuya was the one who made Ed realize that dueling wasn't a tool of war, made him finally understand what Yusho had tried to teach him years ago and I really like their friendship, so seeing him try so hard to find Yuya with no luck was pretty sad. Ed did have a good combo with Dystopiaguy's effect along with D-Soul Burst and I liked how he mentioned the whole talking through dueling bit during the match, but Supreme King Gate Zero's effect kept protecting Zarc.

I liked how Sora's approach was all about getting to remember their history together. It made sense given that he knew Yuya longer than Ed has and it was a nice way of using dueling as a form of communication as well. He was able to bring out Mad Chimera and destroy Zarc's monster in the hope of getting Yuya to remember their first duel. It was a pretty clever idea. Just like their first duel, he couldn't take control of a Pendulum monster because they go to the Extra Deck instead of the Graveyard. Even the brief flashback to that part of the duel felt nostalgic to me. Sora was really putting his whole heart out there with pulling out Yuya's pendulum necklace, urging him to remember their first duel and even calling him teacher. I didn't think that Sora could make me feel sad like that, but he was able to pull it off even before he started crying. Yuya was one of his first friends, so not being able to reach out to him would hit him pretty hard.

There was a nice bit of teamwork with Sora and Ed when they used their Trap cards. It looked like a good strategy with getting rid of all the Special Summoned monsters on that turn and deal Zarc damage at the same time. It obviously wasn't going to work out exactly, but it gave them hope that they'd be able to reach out to Yuya's heart. They even developed a nice bit of friendship with Sora asking Ed to just call him by his first name near the end, which I think is a pretty significant decision in Japanese culture. They haven't known each other for too long after abandoning Academia, but their interactions have been good and do convey a nice little friendship blooming between them. Their strategy might have worked, or at least would have allowed them to last longer, if Zarc had a different hand. Zarc's Astrograph Magician was incredibly broken though. Not only could it revive the other monsters, but it allowed Zarc to summon Supreme Dragon King Zarc as well. It was the monster that appeared when Zarc took over Yuya and he used it to merge with his dragons in the original world too, but it still felt extremely overpowered. Seeing the Yuya counterparts disappear as the dragons were banished was pretty sad, especially for Yuya.

Supreme King Dragon Zarc had a cool summoning sequence and it looked intense by just moving its wings. At least Kaito and Shun got to see what was going on. I thought that it was strange how they jumped into the duel right before Sora and Ed were defeated. In retrospect, I can see why that happened just so they didn't have Zarc start from square one and given the overpowered effects from his monsters, having fewer life points than normal doesn't really matters. But when watching this episode for the first time, it felt really strange and I thought that they could have waited a bit longer to potentially avoid being put into such a disadvantage. Even thought it was obvious, I felt sad seeing Sora and Ed lose after they tried so hard to reach out to Yuya and put a dent in Zarc's life points, especially when they looked like they were in quite a bit of pain. At least they weren't carded at the end. I was kind of afraid that Zarc would be able to do that for some reason, but knocking them out is the better option. At least they can still be there as they see the others duel Zarc. Kaito and Shun taking up the task after learning what happened was nice. Even Shun got Yuya's Pendulum. I liked how Shun said that this form doesn't suit Yuya, but I still like the connection between the two of them.

The preview looked pretty good. Shun and Kaito reaching out to Yuya and Yuto sounds nice. Even though the outcome won't be any different, the match should be interesting regardless.
 
I thought that Shun and Kaito vs. Zarc was pretty good. I liked how both Shun and Kaito wanted to carry over Sora and Ed's wishes to bring Yuya back. Shun started off strong, but Zarc performing an Xyz summon during his turn was quite a surprising twist. Dark Rebellion looked more intense with the green lines around its body. Shun's flashback to when Yuto punched him was a weird choice, but at the same time, it kind of worked for this situation. Shun went out of control when they first arrived in Standard and Yuto took him down with one punch. Shun sees Yuto going out of control in the form of Zarc and wants to take him down in one hit. Shun is a rather aggressive person, so going with an aggressive approach towards the situation does fit in that regard. Plus, they didn't have too much interactions before Yuto merged with Yuya and they only briefly dealt with how Shun could see Yuto somehow. Obviously, it wasn't going to work, but Zarc did have an interesting combo with Dark Rebellion and his own effect. Zarc being all of the different forms of summoning made it even more overpowered.

At least Gongenzaka and Sawatari showed up sooner than I thought they would. I wonder where they could have been all this time. It's possible that the dimensions merging together made it more difficult for them to catch up. Reiji and Reira were walking around for awhile due to the dimensions merging together. Plus, there were spirits of people from the other dimensions, so that could have complicated matters for them as well. It just felt weird to see them back when so much has happened since Yuya ran off on his own. Shun was pretty lucky to avoid damage from that attack though.

I liked how Kaito was focused on what Yuya did in Heartland and how it was their turn to speak through dueling, but I don't think it was as effective as it was with Ed. Yuya was a much more significant factor in Ed's development than he was for Kaito. Their rematch was all about using dueling as a form of communication and that has really stuck with Ed. That didn't have the same kind of impact on Kaito by comparison. We saw Ed's development, while Kaito's just kind of happened. I like Arc-V Kaito a lot more than I thought I would given that I didn't care much for him during Zexal. I think it's because they aren't trying so hard to make him look cool. They still clearly are, but not as much as they did in Zexal, which felt like they were trying way too hard and made him way too overpowered to the point where it was annoying and he became much less interesting. I think with Arc-V Kaito, they hit a right amount of cool factor without making it feel overbearing or annoying. But development wise, I think seeing Shun being in danger had more of an affect on Kaito than watching Yuya duel against Academia soldiers. I still like seeing Kaito trying to reach out to both Yuya and Yuto like that, but I think it would have been more effective if his development was handled more along the lines of how Ed's development was.

Kaito did have a good strategy in mind with taking away Dark Rebellion in order to attack Zarck, but Zarc's own effect prevented him from doing that. It put them in a really tight spot. They couldn't attack without Dark Rebellion's effect turning their attack points to zero and Zarc's effect prevented them from using their own effects against any of his monsters. It was an overpowered yet effective combo.

Even with the dimensions merging together, I was not expecting Allen and Sayaka to be pulled into the Fusion dimension. Shun looked pretty shocked to see them there all of a sudden. Shun performing an Xyz change while falling was pretty awesome. I really liked how Shun and Kaito were working together throughout the duel. They were both able to activate Limit Over Force and power up their monsters even further because of how they were using Rank Up Spell cards throughout the duel. It showed how connected they were and how strong their teamwork was when they could plan this strategy out without talking to each other. It helped to make the duel more entertaining and it helped to showcase a bit more of their friendship too.

With that combo and Kaito's Trap, they might have been able to win if Dark Rebellion didn't have another effect. Zarc's effects are so broken, but at least it's easier to accept it given that he's basically a demon. I was hoping that Allen and Sayaka would do more than further show the dimensional split and cheer Shun and Kaito on, but there wasn't much they could do other than step in to help the duel. Neither of them are particularly strong or have a particularly strong connection to Yuya to make them duel against Zarc emotionally effective. Shun and Kaito going for Action Cards at the same time was pretty cool, but of course Zarc would have another broken effect. To be fair, I'm not sure if they could have lasted much longer even if they could have made the Action Cards work. They tried their best and they did really well, so it was still sad to see them lose.

I loved Jack's wonderfully dramatic entrance. That was so cool and fitting for him. Shun and Kaito were extremely lucky that Gongenzaka caught them. Falling from that height to the ground could have seriously injured them, if not killed them. It was sweet how Shun gave Gongenzaka Yuya's pendulum necklace. Jack seemed to have figure out pretty much the basics of the situation without even getting the others to explain it to him. I loved how Jack was determined to find any trace of Yuya's heart though. I love Yuya's friendships with many of the characters in the series, but his connections to Gongenzaka and Jack are particularly sweet. He's known Gongenzaka for years and Jack had the biggest impact on Yuya development wise. I still remember how he put his father and Jack on the same level entertainment wise, which is a pretty huge deal given how much Yuya idolizes Yusho. Out of the remaining characters, they have some of the strongest connections to Yuya, so seeing them duel should be quite emotional and intense.

The preview looks pretty good. Seeing how Jack and Gongenzaka work together as they reach out to Yuya should be interesting.
 
Still waiting on dem dub episodes to continue D: We're up to 99 but this was three months ago... anyone know how I could find out when 100 is supposed to air... if it ever actually will
 
Muur said:
Still waiting on dem dub episodes to continue D: We're up to 99 but this was three months ago... anyone know how I could find out when 100 is supposed to air... if it ever actually will
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I haven't heard anything about any other countries airing the rest of the series yet. I'm sure it will happen at some point. We're fortunately past the days of incomplete dubs for this franchise, if only because 4K Media actually has more financial stability than 4Kids did during its last few years, so we'll get the rest of the series dubbed at some point. At least Canada and Australia have actually gotten somewhere. Meanwhile, Nicktoons has only aired over thirty episodes despite having the series for a year. At this rate, it would be a miracle if the U.S. airings get to season two by the end of this year.

I haven't watched the season two dub yet. I figured I wait until a good friend of mine watches it before watching it myself. I am still happy that they got the original dub voice actors for Jack and Crow, especially when I really liked Crow's first dub voice. I do have my fair share of issues with the dub, but I hope that you're enjoying it and the series in general. I love Arc-V immensely, it's my favorite series in the franchise and the Synchro arc is my favorite part of this series.

Anyway, I thought that Jack and Gongenzaka's match against Zarc was really great. I liked how Gongenzaka started off the episode narration with Jack joining in at the end. It wasn't Jack interrupting Gongenzaka, but rather saying how both of them would free Yuya from Zarc. Jack started off strong in the duel with calling out Red Demon's Scarlight Dragon right away. It was nice to see more of Tokumatsu and Crow's kids, even though the fact that they could see the duel through Synchro further showed how much damage had already been done. Even the characters in Standard could see the duel.

I've never been a big fan of Sawatari. He's easily one of my least favorite characters in the show, but the fact that he was talking to Crow's card throughout the episode made him way more endearing than he has been to me for ages. It really showed how much of an emotional impact Crow's sacrifice had on Sawatari. It made him seem much less self-centered than he normally does, which was especially nice given how that's one of the main reasons I dislike him in the first place. He wanted to watch the duel together with Crow and asked Crow to protect Jack and Crow during the duel. That made him way more appealing than just being the comedy relief, although they were still doing that in this episode too. Despite everything going on, they still had Crow's kids not remember Sawatari's name. Still, that was the most tolerable Sawatari has been for me for ages, so that was nice.

I really liked how Jack was calling out to Yuya. Shouting out that he will drag Yuya's soul out himself was fitting with his personality. He was always more firm and loud when expressing his feelings, but it showed how much he cared about Yuya and that made me really happy. Plus, it was a nice little callback to the BB duel. Yuya was able to pull out BB from his hiding place and have him return to who he originally was, which seemed to impress Jack. He already knew that Yuya's dueling could touch people's hearts, but seeing Yuya being able to do that with his enemies seemed to click with Jack. Zarc was unfortunately able to Synchro summon during Jack's turn just like he did in the previous match. Clear Wing looked more intimidating with those green lines around it. It was nice that Sawatari remembered his duel with Yugo though. They weren't really friends, but their duel was really entertaining and it is basically the only connection Yugo has with any of the remaining characters right now.

At least Jack was able to protect Scarlight from Clear Wing's effect and power it up at the same time. Too bad that Clear Wing had another effect that prevented Scarlight from destroying it right then and there. I loved that even though Zarc was preventing Jack from landing any of his attacks, his determination wasn't weakened at all. He loudly proclaimed that he will keep moving no matter how much Zarc fought back until he reached Yuya. Their friendship and the impact they've had on each other makes me so happy.

It was pretty cool to see Gongenzaka duel again. His monsters were always pretty neat. He had a pretty good with Synchro summoning and then bringing out more Heavy Samurai monsters from his hand. It also worked as a way to reach Yuya's heard. As much as I love Yuya and Jack's friendship, I also love his friendship with Gongenzaka and Gongenzaka clearly has strongest connection to Yuya among all of the characters there. They're childhood friends, they've always worked together with perfecting their own methods of dueling and they have been through so much together. Seeing Yuya with Yuzu and Gongenzaka again was so sweet. Gongenzaka knew that those days were still precious to Yuya and was trying to reach out to him by using those memories. I liked how Gongenzaka was not only calling out to Yuya through his voice, but also showing his Steadfast dueling by protecting Jack's Scarlight. It fit with Gongenzaka's steadfast dueling style quite nicely. He is more of a defensive player and while Arc V Jack can do more than just attack everything, having more defensive certainly helps. It showed how their dueling styles fit nicely for a tag duel, how they were working together and that Gongenzaka was willing to do anything to help pave a road for Jack to save Yuya.

And while Zarc was laughing at them, it did seem like Gongenzaka's words had an impact on him. He reacted to entertainment and steadfast before, but he actually responded by talking about his entertainment. Granted, it was obviously different from what Yuya would do, but it did give everyone the biggest sign that Yuya was still in there. I think every duel had some effect on Zarc. He was stiff and emotionless in his first duel, but these two matches have shown Zarc becoming more emotional and full of more facial expressions. Zarc talking about responding with his own entertainment was definitely different from how he reacted before and gave the others more hope that Yuya was still inside of him somewhere.

Clear Wing's effect combined with that Spell card made it even more broken, but Gongenzaka was able to reduce the damage and protect Jack's Scarlight at the same time. Gongenzaka doesn't get much attention, but he clearly is a strong duelist and a good friend to Yuya. The dimensional fusing process was so strong that the entire City from the Synchro dimension was teleported there. Jack riding up the road before it was even fused in the dimension was so cool. It showed how determined he was to keep moving forward so that they could have a chance to save Yuya. It was so awesome to see Jack bring out Red Demon's Dragon Tyrant too. Jack wanted to show Yuya his dueling and remember their duel that helped to bring the City together. Thinking back to that duel still makes me incredibly happy too. Seeing Jack use his ace and upgraded ace at the same time was so cool.

There was a nice bit of teamwork between Jack and Gongenzaka near the end as well. Gongenzaka used his monsters to protect Jack's dragons and it worked nicely with how Jack had already protected himself from effect damage. Clear Wing's combo attack did result in Gongenzaka losing the duel, but he was willing to do whatever he could to help Jack reach Yuya and he gave everything for that goal. It was cool how Jack was able to destroy Clear Wing, but it obviously wasn't going to defeat Zarc. Not to mention he still had effects that gave him more life points too. It was kind of sad to see Crow's kids wondering where he and Yuya were during this pinch. They wouldn't know what happened to either one of them, but it was still pretty sad. Gongenzaka giving his Duel Disk and Yuya's pendulum necklace was pretty nice. He picked up on Zarc's reaction towards entertainment and that gave him more hope.

Zarc talking about rewarding Jack with despair was such a typical Yu-Gi-Oh! villain thing to say. I knew that Jack would lose and he'd be thrown off his D-Wheel. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to throw in that 5D's reference in the series. But this was way more intense than I thought it would. Not only did that attack go right through the stadium, but Jack's D-Wheel nearly hit him. If that D-Wheel hit Jack moving at that speed, it could have seriously injured him, if not kill him. I was heartbroken over losing Crow. I could not handle losing Jack too, so that was a bit of a relief after the panic wore off. I was happy to see that Crow had survived and that Jack was leaving the rest to the others. I suspect that Crow's revival was due to the dimensions merging together. Sawatari going on with his strong title was annoying, but not as much as it has been since throwing in some comedy relief in the middle of this tension was a bit more appropriate. Plus, it helped that he didn't annoy me throughout the episode either. At least Crow's kids will get to see him duel again.

Leo apparently trying to separate the dimensions again was surprising. Since the four cards revived instead of Ray, he could be using them to find her again.

The preview looked pretty good. Crow teaming up with Sawatari does sound like a potentially good match up.
 
Hidden Mew said:
I haven't watched the season two dub yet. I figured I wait until a good friend of mine watches it before watching it myself. I am still happy that they got the original dub voice actors for Jack and Crow, especially when I really liked Crow's first dub voice. I do have my fair share of issues with the dub, but I hope that you're enjoying it and the series in general. I love Arc-V immensely, it's my favorite series in the franchise and the Synchro arc is my favorite part of this series.
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The show is alright, better than Zexal but not as good as the original or 5Ds. Maybe around the same as GX.

I do quite like Celina (Serena) and and Aura (Mieru) though.

As for the "we don't get incomplete dubs any more", I feel like this one might tbh, the dub is still far behind, so they could just give up at pretty soon an move onto that new one.
 
Muur said:
The show is alright, better than Zexal but not as good as the original or 5Ds. Maybe around the same as GX.

I do quite like Celina (Serena) and and Aura (Mieru) though.

As for the "we don't get incomplete dubs any more", I feel like this one might tbh, the dub is still far behind, so they could just give up at pretty soon an move onto that new one.
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I can kind of see where you're coming from in regards to the quality. Although I do think that not all of the strengths of the show are reflected in the dub. For example, Yuya comes off way more cocky and confident than he is in the original version, especially in the first couple of arcs. I'm not sure how I'd rank it among the other dubs in the series myself, especially when watching the original versions has changed my opinions on the dubs in general. I still have nostalgic fondness for the DM dub, but I don't know if I'd be into the dubs for the other series, especially when most of them are incomplete. I think I'd take it over the dub version of 5D's at least. I'm glad that you're enjoying it though. Serena is pretty awesome and she's one of my favorite characters in the series too.

I can understand the concern for an incomplete dub, but I think we'll be okay. The dub has always been pretty far behind the Japanese version. They were a year behind with Zexal and still managed to finish it with Hulu premieres. I'm pretty sure that the Arc-V dub didn't start airing in other countries until nearly two years into its run in Japan. They're already up to the Xyz arc and there's really isn't a point where they could just stop to make their own ending. I certainly wouldn't want them to go the GX dub ending route. I don't even like the GX dub anymore and even I think that was a terrible way to end off the series if they really couldn't go into season four. At least they tried to give 5D's some sense of closure, despite how obvious was that there was still more to the story.

As for the new series, they'll want to dub it of course, but I don't think that they'll need to drop Arc-V in order to do that. The main reason we didn't get a complete dub for GX or 5D's was because of 4Kids' having so many financial problems. They couldn't handle dubbing two series at the same time. 4K Media doesn't have that problem and it's why we got the rest of Zexal despite how Arc-V was already near the end of its first year in Japan by the time the dub of the finale aired. I'm not sure how they'll exactly handle things for the new series in regards to the dub or official subs if they plan on doing a simulcast, but I'm pretty confident that we'll get the rest of Arc V dubbed. It is still a valid concern and given the history of the previous spin-off series, it's still not impossible unfortunately, but I'd say it's pretty unlikely right now.

EDIT: Actually, I just thought of how they could potentially make their own ending based on some of the recent evens in the series. I won't explain it because of the spoilers, but it would be depressing along the lines of how the GX dub ending was depressing, so hopefully they won't go in that direction.
 
I thought that Crow and Sawatari vs. Zarc was pretty good. I was expecting Crow to be more shocked over what was going on, but Sawatari explaining the situation to him off-screen made sense given what they had to do with this episode and it made the opening bit of the episode a bit more fun too. I thought that it was interesting that Ray through Reira was able to convey some concern for Reiji. She didn't want Reiji to hold a grudge against Leo since even if Leo sacrificed himself, Reiji wouldn't be able to smile. I don't mind the idea of Reiji letting go of his anger towards his father. That fits pretty nicely with the general tone and message of the series. Plus, he wouldn't be able to move forward carrying all of that anger inside of him. I was fine with that concept, but I don't like the possibility of Leo being redeemed. Forgiveness and being redeemed are two completely different thing here. They can have Reiji forgiving his father while also still recognizing that Leo is basically Zarc 2.0 at the same time. The idea of a redemption also doesn't work because of how Leo really hasn't shown any regrets towards his actions at all. His actions were all about trying to save his daughter and that can make him sympathetic to the audience to a certain extent, but he was still willing to sacrifice countless people in order to revive Ray, abandoned his family seemingly the moment he had enough of his memories of Ray back, has shown no regret for what he has done beyond creating Real Solid Vision in the original world and the show through Reiji has called him out for his selfish behavior multiple times. They would have to provide some really good and compelling reasons as to why Leo should be redeemed after all he has done.

The duel itself was pretty nice. I liked how Crow just jumped in and tried to focus on entertainment to bring Yuya back. He even brought up the ridiculous food vs. smiles argument they had. Granted, food is more of a necessity, but smiling is important too for at least emotional health. I really liked that Crow brought up how Yuya helped to restore peace in the City. It showed how grateful he was and how much the duel impacted him as well. Given that he was trying to show off his own entertainment and he said that Yuya showed him the power of entertainment, it made me wonder if Crow wanted to become an Entertainment Duelist like Yuya and Jack in the Synchro dimension. He would be pretty good at it at least.

It was really nice to see Crow duel again and he had a really good strategy too. Even though Gongenzaka and Jack had such a hard time against Clear Wing, Crow was able to bring out Raikiri from the Graveyard with a Spell card, used another Spell card to bring out Chidori and banished Black Feather Illusion from the Graveyard in order to negate Zarc's Pendulum effects and finally deal him some damage. It was strange to see Crow take down Clear Wing when it was such a challenge for Jack and Gongenzaka to do that, but Crow had a good amount of cards in his hand to make the strategy work. Otherwise, they would have been in a tight spot. Plus, it was pretty awesome to see Crow landing the first hit on Zarc's life points like that. Too bad that Zarc forced Crow to attack him again, but at least Crow was able to bring back Raikiri from the Graveyard again.

I was really surprised with Crow's reaction to Zarc's effect. All this time, I just took Zarc's overpowered effects as just being the result of being basically considered a demon deity. I never would have thought that it was because he just didn't want to lose. But I was so glad that was the case since that's a much better and way more interesting reasoning behind Zarc's power. He was so determined to keep on winning and actually is afraid of losing that he created overpowered/broken cards to make sure he'd never lose. That made him so much more interesting than just a demon. Crow's comments seemed to hit a nerve for Zarc since he got all defensive and claimed that he never loses, even though he did lose to Ray before. That was how the dimensions split apart after all. Crow had a good point that without losing, you don't know the true value of victory. The Commons had been losing for so long and that allowed them to appreciate their victories, as well as made the peace even more precious to them. I liked that Crow said Zarc had a stick in the mud attitude due to his overpowered effects. It showed a much different side to Zarc than I was expecting, so that was neat.

Sawatari jumping right in with Pendulum summoning made sense. I knew that Zarc was going to bring out Odd Eyes, but I was expecting it to look different or more intense than it actually was. I have to admit that Sawatari was more impressive here than I thought he would be. He was able to keep getting under Zarc's skin by claiming that he was scared of losing, he was able to get around Zarc's effect by placing his card on the field instead of adding it to his hand and it even seemed like Sawatari was able to land a hit on Zarc. But then Odd Eyes' effect protected him from that attack. Sawatari also made a good point about how Yuya wasn't so defensive. He would protect his monsters whenever he could, but he would also take risks in order to win. That's what he did in their second duel and it paid off for him big time. Yuya had more courage in facing his opponents than Zarc does. It almost seemed like Sawatari had another chance to take down Zarc, but then Zarc threw in another curve ball with all of the monsters in the Graveyard protecting him. It really did make the situation feel even more hopeless to the others if Zarc kept finding ways to protect himself.

I wasn't expecting Leo to jump in there or for Standard to fuse with the Fusion dimension. The You Show kids were already confused as to why Odd Eyes was helping this giant monster, but then they actually saw that it looked like Yuya. That made them even more confused. Although, it was sweet how Shuzo was still worried about Yuzu in the mist of this chaos. Zarc's vow was kind of interesting in that he still seemed to be focused on the cheers from the original world. The audience wanted more violent duels, so Zarc thought that going this far would appeal to them. Destroying everything until the world was destroyed somehow sounded like a good idea to Zarc. In his mind, it was a way to create the violent entertainment that the audience wanted so much.

I was actually kind of disappointed that Crow and Sawatari were defeated so quickly. It was obviously going to happen. Whenever a new character joins in the match, it pretty much means that the previous characters are just about to lose anyway. Not to mention they wouldn't have Crow and Sawatari be the ones to defeat Zarc and Zarc forced them to attack his monsters again, but I was hoping that it would last a bit longer. Unlike the other matches, there really wasn't much teamwork between the two of them. All of the previous matches involved at least a bit of teamwork between the two characters. Jack and Gongenzaka, as well as Shun and Kaito, in particularly had a really good amount of teamwork in their strategy, which helped to make the matches more engaging and allowed each duelist to shine through nicely. With this match, it felt more like Crow and Sawatari were having two one on one matches against Zarc going on at the same time if that makes any sense. Granted, their decks aren't too compatible with each other, especially compared to the other team ups in the past few episodes, and it made sense why they wanted Leo to fight Zarc within this episode too, but it was still a bit disappointing. I wanted to see them working together to build up more of their friendship and possibly give Sawatari some development. I liked how Sawatari grabbed hold of Crow when they were falling the first time. That was a nice moment that showed Sawatari didn't want to lose Crow again and their smiles towards each other were nice. I would have preferred for Sawatari to take damage for Crow to pay him back for saving his life before, but now that I think about it, that would have fit more for Gongenzaka's character than Sawatari. Still, it was a nice moment all things considered and Crow being carded did have at least some impact on Sawatari. Not quite as much as I would have hoped, but still enough to where it wasn't just because they needed to take Crow out of the equation for awhile or pull on the viewer's heartstrings.

It seemed like Leo wanted to take responsibility for his actions by defeating Zarc himself, but it also didn't seem like he really regretted his actions either. He still only blamed himself for causing Zarc to become a demon, rather than everything else he has done since he regained his memories. It was pretty hilarious how easily Zarc was able to defeat Leo though. Even though Leo claimed that he had the skills to defeat Zarc in Ray's place, he was taken down with a one hit attack and the cards needed to defeat Zarc were thrown in the Graveyard. Reiji called Leo Dad again while trying to help him, which was a nice way to show that his anger had calmed down a bit at least. I like how Reiji pointed out that it wasn't just one person who created Zarc. Zarc is basically the product of society. People wanted more violent duels and they created a monster through that desire. Granted, Zarc obviously shouldn't have gotten that far with his dueling in the first place, but his backstory did give that social commentary vibe to me and I kind of liked that the show, through Reiji yet again, emphasized that point. Reira finally finding Ray was a pretty intense cliffhanger.

The preview looked pretty good. It should be interesting to see how Reiji duels against Zarc and try to reach out to Yuya.
 
Hidden Mew said:
I can kind of see where you're coming from in regards to the quality. Although I do think that not all of the strengths of the show are reflected in the dub. For example, Yuya comes off way more cocky and confident than he is in the original version, especially in the first couple of arcs. I'm not sure how I'd rank it among the other dubs in the series myself, especially when watching the original versions has changed my opinions on the dubs in general. I still have nostalgic fondness for the DM dub, but I don't know if I'd be into the dubs for the other series, especially when most of them are incomplete. I think I'd take it over the dub version of 5D's at least. I'm glad that you're enjoying it though. Serena is pretty awesome and she's one of my favorite characters in the series too.

I can understand the concern for an incomplete dub, but I think we'll be okay. The dub has always been pretty far behind the Japanese version. They were a year behind with Zexal and still managed to finish it with Hulu premieres. I'm pretty sure that the Arc-V dub didn't start airing in other countries until nearly two years into its run in Japan. They're already up to the Xyz arc and there's really isn't a point where they could just stop to make their own ending. I certainly wouldn't want them to go the GX dub ending route. I don't even like the GX dub anymore and even I think that was a terrible way to end off the series if they really couldn't go into season four. At least they tried to give 5D's some sense of closure, despite how obvious was that there was still more to the story.

As for the new series, they'll want to dub it of course, but I don't think that they'll need to drop Arc-V in order to do that. The main reason we didn't get a complete dub for GX or 5D's was because of 4Kids' having so many financial problems. They couldn't handle dubbing two series at the same time. 4K Media doesn't have that problem and it's why we got the rest of Zexal despite how Arc-V was already near the end of its first year in Japan by the time the dub of the finale aired. I'm not sure how they'll exactly handle things for the new series in regards to the dub or official subs if they plan on doing a simulcast, but I'm pretty confident that we'll get the rest of Arc V dubbed. It is still a valid concern and given the history of the previous spin-off series, it's still not impossible unfortunately, but I'd say it's pretty unlikely right now.

EDIT: Actually, I just thought of how they could potentially make their own ending based on some of the recent evens in the series. I won't explain it because of the spoilers, but it would be depressing along the lines of how the GX dub ending was depressing, so hopefully they won't go in that direction.
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The end of 5DS was annoying tbh... I knew what was coming in terms of what was dubbed, so I had to keep switching between dubs and subs and in the subs I kept being thrown off by names. One thing I did like though was that the ending song for the Japanese version was badass. For GX, I never got passed the Society of Light. I stopped watching/playing YGO till Zexal started, so I was watching Zexal, then watched 5DS during the wait between season 1 and 2, I think.
 
Muur said:
The end of 5DS was annoying tbh... I knew what was coming in terms of what was dubbed, so I had to keep switching between dubs and subs and in the subs I kept being thrown off by names. One thing I did like though was that the ending song for the Japanese version was badass. For GX, I never got passed the Society of Light. I stopped watching/playing YGO till Zexal started, so I was watching Zexal, then watched 5DS during the wait between season 1 and 2, I think.
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Fortunately, compared to most of the other dubs, there aren't too many drastically different dub names for the main cast. Yusei, Jack and Crow kept their names and Aki isn't too different from Akiza. Rua and Ruka would probably be confusing at first from Leo and Luna, but not too much either. I forget the dub names for most of the supporting cast and villains, so that would be an issue. Not to mention having to watch the episodes that they skipped during the WRGP arc would make going back to the dub a bit more confusing. I think that the song you're referring to is Clear Mind, which is indeed awesome. I've been into Yu-Gi-Oh! since DM myself and much like Pokemon, I never stopped watching the various series. Although I only play the card game itself through video games. Those sadly rarely come out nowadays, but there is Duel Links to fix that Yu-Gi-Oh! card game fix that I didn't know I even had. If they could just include other characters from other series and include the other summoning methods eventually, I'd be pretty darn happy with that game. I still want my Arc V handheld game one of these days, Konami.
 
Hidden Mew said:
Fortunately, compared to most of the other dubs, there aren't too many drastically different dub names for the main cast. Yusei, Jack and Crow kept their names and Aki isn't too different from Akiza. Rua and Ruka would probably be confusing at first from Leo and Luna, but not too much either. I forget the dub names for most of the supporting cast and villains, so that would be an issue. Not to mention having to watch the episodes that they skipped during the WRGP arc would make going back to the dub a bit more confusing. I think that the song you're referring to is Clear Mind, which is indeed awesome. I've been into Yu-Gi-Oh! since DM myself and much like Pokemon, I never stopped watching the various series. Although I only play the card game itself through video games. Those sadly rarely come out nowadays, but there is Duel Links to fix that Yu-Gi-Oh! card game fix that I didn't know I even had. If they could just include other characters from other series and include the other summoning methods eventually, I'd be pretty darn happy with that game. I still want my Arc V handheld game one of these days, Konami.
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The name that threw me off the most was "Bomber" lol and funnily enough, in 5DS my fave duel was from the sub, as they skipped the duel against Team Taiyo for whatever reason which is a shame really. Seemed dumb to just yolo it and remove that series of episodes, I loved the three of them using terrible cards and doing really well. Leo and Luna names changing seemed unneeded but perhaps they thought they were too similar.

The thing with Arc V, they changed some names and then you just had Chojiro Tokumatsu, as though that ins't the most confusing name ever. Usually they change the names like that - which is fair enough imo, as those names are confusing but then you just have that name still there in the dub. Okay then, that sure doesn't sound awkward every time our heroes say it.

There is actually a handheld Arc V game... if you wanna get stuck with Japanese lol, as well as the fact it's on the orignal PSP... I don't know why they thought that was a good idea. ...in 2016. If they had done it on Vita we probably woudl've gotten it. Anyway Idk what conosles you have but there's Legacy of the Duelist on Xbox and PS4
 
Muur said:
The name that threw me off the most was "Bomber" lol and funnily enough, in 5DS my fave duel was from the sub, as they skipped the duel against Team Taiyo for whatever reason which is a shame really. Seemed dumb to just yolo it and remove that series of episodes, I loved the three of them using terrible cards and doing really well. Leo and Luna names changing seemed unneeded but perhaps they thought they were too similar.
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Oh yeah, Bomber's name would surprise most people. I loved the Team Taiyo duel too. It wasn't my favorite duel in the series, but it was a great duel, easily the best part of the WRGP arc. I can see why they cut out the episodes revolving Sherry and Yilaster since those wouldn't be resolved in the dub, but skipping the Jack vs. Crimson Devil duel and the Team Taiyo match was confusing, especially when they just had to hand wave how Jack suddenly got a new upgraded ace monster in another match.

Muur said:
The thing with Arc V, they changed some names and then you just had Chojiro Tokumatsu, as though that ins't the most confusing name ever. Usually they change the names like that - which is fair enough imo, as those names are confusing but then you just have that name still there in the dub. Okay then, that sure doesn't sound awkward every time our heroes say it.

There is actually a handheld Arc V game... if you wanna get stuck with Japanese lol, as well as the fact it's on the orignal PSP... I don't know why they thought that was a good idea. ...in 2016. If they had done it on Vita we probably woudl've gotten it. Anyway Idk what conosles you have but there's Legacy of the Duelist on Xbox and PS4
Click to expand...

I'm usually fine with dub names, or at least I don't have too much of an issue with them. But there have been some really bad/random ones that do sound unnatural. I've heard of the Tag Force Special that you're referring to for the PSP. I just wasn't sure if it was specifically an Arc-V game rather than an anniversary game with every series included. I'm not sure if the PSP is more popular in Japan than in other countries. I've thought of getting one before in order to play the Tag Force series, but I don't know if I'd want to get one system to play through just one series of games, especially when I normally stick with Nintendo systems. I've heard of Legacy of the Duelist, but unfortunately, I don't have the consoles for it either. They normally do have at least one handheld game for a Nintendo system and I've been hoping for them to put it on the 3DS or another Nintendo system, but that might be kind of tricky to do at this point.
 
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