Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V

[Hidden Mew]

I thought that last week's episode was pretty good. Yuzu's reunion with Yusho was surprisingly sweet. Seeing someone familiar in Fusion would make her happy, but I didn't factor in how Yusho disappearing affected her as well. He was best friends with her father, so seeing Yusho as an uncle would make sense. He was also much more sad in his expressions than I thought he would be, but he's always been full of smiles and happiness whenever he showed up in flashbacks before.

Yuya still having so much faith in his father made sense. He idolizes Yusho so much, so he wouldn't think that his father ran away from the fighting. I did like how they clarified about whether or not Yuto had met Yusho before since I've seen many complaints about how Yuto and Shun didn't respond to Yuya's name in the past. I am a bit conflicted over how Yuto really learned those words about dueling with smiles. It was probably made to be about Ruri so that there could be some kind of connection between the two of them, which they really need and can only do that through flashbacks. At the same time, I think it kind of makes the words feel a bit more hollow when it didn't seem like something Yuto really believed in himself, but rather gained it through Ruri who gained it from Sayaka who was taught by Yusho. Part of the problem could be that they showed that scene of Yuto's last words to Yuya so many times. I'm pretty sure that's where the egao meme started too, so that really could overshadow his characterization, especially with the lack of appearances up until this arc. Given what happens in the episode, Yuto's beliefs about dueling with smiles being a bit more hollow kind of works, but it does leave me feeling a bit conflicted in regards to how much focus they've put on that scene.

It was nice to hear Ruri's voice though. She almost sounded a bit like Yuzu, which was fitting, and Yuto being that touched by her words implies a strong connection. That photo in his locker was also nice since it showed how happy and close the three of them were before the invasion. It doesn't provide much into Ruri's personality as I would have liked, but it is something. The school they were walking around was clearly the same one used in Zexal, which was kind of depressing and I still don't like Zexal all that much. I still like the idea that the duel with Jack reached Yuto, but the dragons trying to reach out to each other causing Yuto to be more talkative makes sense too. It ties in more with the overall storyline and it still adds another reason as to why the Synchro arc was important, so that's always good. I want them to keep referring to the Synchro arc just to make it perfectly clear that it was an important arc and yes, I'm still bitter about how so much discussion on that arc turned out.

Ed's introduction was quite different than I expected. It sounded like he actually wanted to help Yuya out before he learned who his father was, which was strange for someone as the Commander-in-Chief of Academia. It was probably to show that Ed isn't a terrible person despite being with Academia and his hatred towards Yusho, but it was a bit odd to include that right off the bat. The lead up to the duel was also a bit odd. Yuya saying that he was looking for his father was true in the sense that he was trying to find some clues about him, but that wasn't what he was really doing in the Xyz dimension. Although, it might not have been good to explain the whole situation to a stranger, but it did seem like a strange way to have Ed learn that Yuya is Yusho's son and to duel him.

The duel itself was pretty good though. I like that it kept going back and forth. It showed both Yuya and Ed as strong duelists and it helped to make the duel more engaging than if it was just one-sided. Yuya's new monsters were pretty good too. His hippos were adorable, even though they were taken out quickly. Based on Ed's reaction, I guess that Yusho plays Entermates as well, which makes sense. Yuya wants to be like his father, so of course he'd use the same kind of monsters that his father does. I was expecting Ed to showcase more of his old cards like Asuka did in the previous episode, but his new cards were pretty neat. They had good effects that worked with his character, as well as the emphasis on overpowering one's opponent that is present throughout Academia soldiers. Ed's voice also sounded a bit better than I initially thought after the preview. He still sounds older, but not as much as I thought. Maybe it helps that I watched more of GX season two to help refresh my memory on his character. It was pretty cool to see Ed to a summoning chant too. Hearing the GX characters do a summoning chant has been pretty cool given that wasn't really something the characters did until 5D's.

Yuto's anger was understandable given everything he has been through and being back in Heartland would flare up his anger too. While he still believes in the ideal of dueling with smiles, thinking that they can only do that after Academia is defeated is a reasonable response. Yuya would want to reach towards that ideal even during the war and he's keeping that up by also trying to communicate through his dueling, which is great too. It's still idealistic, but it fits with his character really well. Yuto taking over Yuya's body was both harsh and surprising. Again, Yuto's anger was understandable and justified, but forcing control of Yuya's body wasn't. It wasn't even to help Yuya as that could have been more understandable. He was clearly just trying to lash out at Ed because of his anger towards Academia. It was like a more painful version of the synchronization that Yuya and Yugo had or perhaps another effect of having Yuto as an overlay in Yuya's soul. He even gained Yuto's eyes. Yuya didn't seem aware of what happened after it wore off and was in immediate pain.

Ed had a lot more support Spell and Trap cards for his monsters than I thought he would, but that was fitting, especially when I'm sure that they'd want to give more support cards for Destiny Heroes. Yuya's new Pendulum monsters did help to keep the duel going back and forth and if it wasn't for that Trap card that prevented Ed's Fusion monster from being destroyed, Yuya might have been able to win. I liked how Yuya was able to use Smile World to trigger his own Trap. It was a unique way to use the card and it further showed that Yuya isn't using it to imitate his father anymore.

Yuto's anger continued to reach its boiling point and it still made sense. Yuto has always been full of anger towards Academia. He was more gentle compared to Shun and he didn't want to fight if he could get information instead, but the anger has always been there. He's just buried deep inside. Yuto's memories of Heartland's destruction did trigger Yuya's Berserk Mode a couple of times too. While Shun was more vocal with his anger, he has been able to deal more with it. Granted, I don't think his development has been handled as well as it could have been, but he still has been able to deal with his anger. Yuto hasn't had that chance. He has been stuck inside of Yuya, unable to really talk that much until recently and that anger has just been dwelling inside of him. Being back in Heartland made it worse for him since he learned about the destruction that happened after he and Shun left. Not only does he have a lot of anger to deal with, but now Yuto has layers of guilt and regret on top of it. He had regrets about going to Standard since he thought that he'd be able to save his friends and Kaito's family if he was here. I still don't like that he's willing to hurt Yuya in order to lash out his anger, but being that full of rage does make sense. It also gives Yuto some much needed conflict to make him more interesting. I wanted this arc to flesh him out and it looks like they are doing that, which is great. Plus, this conflict is definitely going to have impact on Yuya and probably Shun as well. Shun just started to accept Yuya, or at least vocalize it, but if he hears Yuto's voice or see Yuto's eyes in Yuya, that's going to put that trust to the test.

Dark Requiem was really awesome. I liked that they hinted at its creation by Yuya getting Yuto's spare cards. While I wouldn't have been against the pendulum necklace magically creating it, I think that going this route made more sense. They already had Yugo's Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon seemingly being a card he already had, so doing the same with Dark Rebellion make sense. Plus, they probably want to keep the whole magically creating monsters for Yuya since that seems key to his role as the Standard dimensional counterpart. Getting the card ahead of time also prevents people from thinking something magical would be involved like with Crystal Wing. More importantly, Dark Requiem had a lot of symbolism going for it. Everything from its name, design, summoning chant and ability tied in so nicely with Yuto's conflict. Dark Requiem is focused entirely on honoring the fallen warriors and even its ability allows for it to bring back Dark Rebellion, which ties into Yuto's desire to revive his fallen allies.

The match really came down to the wire and Ed grabbing an Action Card he couldn't use was an interesting development too. Yuya has been in similar kind of positions with Action Cards, but he usually uses them in the next turn if they can't help him at the moment. I was not expecting a draw, but that worked out. I don't think that Yuya being captured as bait for Yusho would have quite worked for this point of the arc. It also pretty much guarantees a rematch between Yuya and Ed somewhere down the line. Yuya being buried underneath a lot of rocks looked sad and painful, but it probably was good that the other Academia soldiers didn't see him. That might have made the situation more difficult for Yuya. They really had a dramatic reveal for Ed's face and name, even though they didn't even bother to hide Asuka's name before she said it. Ed had half of the Smile World, so he and Yusho had some kind of falling out most likely. Since Yusho has been in the Fusion dimension since right around the time they first attacked the Xyz dimension, I guess that means that Yusho didn't have any means of traveling to other dimensions after whatever happened between him and Ed.

The preview looked pretty good. I liked that Shun was trying to reach out to Kaito. I'm sure that their friendship and similar losses help with that, but it showed a more compassionate side to Shun that we haven't seen a lot of. A duel between Shun and Kaito sound pretty cool, so that should be interesting to see.

 

[Hoopa01]

I've been catching up on the Arc V manga and I have to say I'm enjoying it a lot.

Why can't we get Performapals Uni and Corn on this show.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I've been catching up on the Arc V manga and I have to say I'm enjoying it a lot.

Why can't we get Performapals Uni and Corn on this show.

Because we don't need monsters that exist primarily to show off cleavage on the show. I don't understand the obsession fans have with those monsters beyond that detail, but I've also never quite seen the massive appeal for Dark Magician Girl either. I'll take Yuya's cute circus animal Performapals over fanservice-y monsters like Uni and Corn any day of the week too.

I haven't read the newest chapter, but I like the Arc-V manga too. I wouldn't take it over the show, but it's also way too early to draw comparisons between the two in my opinion. It's comparing ten chapters to a series with over a hundred episodes at this point. It's not really a fair comparison. It might be easier after a couple of more volumes worth of chapters come out, but I also try to look at it as more Arc-V to enjoy than anything else. I will say that Yuzu in the manga is absolutely awful though. Even without comparing her to her anime counterpart, she just comes off as too pushy and unlikeable for me. The artwork is great and the story they're setting up is quite interesting. It's an interesting and fun read, but it feels like something I'd recommend for fans of the show who'd like to see an alternate take on the characters rather than something I could recommend to just anyone right now.

Anyway, I thought that last week's episode was pretty good. They started off rather quickly with Shun vs. Kaito. It could have been a way to show how much Kaito was consumed with rage if just the slightest thing set him off, but it came off as more of a jarring way to start off the episode. Gongenzaka and Sawatari just suddenly showed up too, but they did need all of the characters there to watch the duel.

The duel itself was pretty nice. I kind of liked Kaito's reaction to Shun's opening move. While it was the best play he could make with his hand and it did tie into his strategy later on in the match, calling it a misplay was fitting too. Rise Falcon being used on the first turn when Kaito didn't have any special summoned monsters on his side of the field was a waste of its special ability. Not summoning it would have made Shun much more vulnerable, but it might have helped him out more in the long run too. I liked that we did get a couple of new monsters from Kaito. It wasn't too much, but at least it was more than Cipher Wing again and getting Cipher Dragon out again made sense too. Kaito will most definitely get some more duels later, so they don't need to showcase a ton of new monsters here either.

Kaito's reaction to Shun using an Action Card was interesting. He considered him a coward for just using something from outsiders, which tied into how he disregarded them during this first two duels in the series. Even though he could have found one to help when Shun attacked him directly, he took the attack since he wanted to rely on his own power. Shun using a power from those Kaito doesn't trust would make him distrust Shun as well. I did like how Shun claimed that Kaito still kept the spirit of the Rebellion through his strategy to revive his Cipher Dragon and bring out a second one. That statement, along with how Kaito's face was darkened when Shun said that, further implies that his anger is at least partly an act. He is consumed with anger, but his desire to separate from the surviving Resistance members seems to be a response to his grief. He mentioned that losing allies resulted in immense grief and considered them a hindrance as a result. That could have been a result of losing his entire family, as well as not wanting to get others caught in the crossfire now that Academia is looking for him.

I liked that Shun tried to be more compassionate and understanding towards Kaito since he did react similarly when Ruri was kidnapped. It wasn't exactly the same thing as what happened to Kaito's family since Ruri is still alive, but the pain is still similar. It was also just nice to see Shun being more compassionate in general. Kaito's reaction did seem to ignore that. It made sense in a way given that he was so consumed with anger at that point, but it also gave the impression that he thought no one could understand what he lost, despite how everyone in Heartland lost everything practically. Kaito was doing some significant damage towards Shun and he was nearly pushed off a cliff at one point. I did like how Shun grabbing Action Cards was used to emphasize his trust in his new allies. While I do think his development could have been handled much more effectively, it was still nice to see his progression illustrated through those flashbacks and how much of a team player he has become. Even with the shaky writing behind it, I like the message they were getting across and less angry Shun has always been a blessing too.

I was surprised that Yuya revealed that Yuto was inside of him. I didn't think that they'd do that this early on, but I guess that they really didn't have much of a choice after Yuya said something he really couldn't have known about Shun and Kaito otherwise. It does present the possibility of Yuto being able to interact with other characters through Yuya, as well as provide some more conflict with Yuto taking over Yuya's body as well. I thought that Shun would be a bit more surprised than I thought he would be with that development, but he did see Yuto before they left for Synchro, so that would be why he thought that Yuto was still close by. It still gives me hope that they'll explain how and why Shun can see Yuto, especially when it seemed like he could again during that brief glance. Yuto and Shun smiling at each other was a nice moment though.

I figured that Kaito would win. It's far too early for Kaito to lose and have his anger issues resolved. Plus, I don't think Shun did the best job in trying to reach out to Kaito. He was clearly trying to make Kaito change, but he was mainly talking about how the Lancers are his friends, which wouldn't be enough to make Kaito change his tune. Granted, Kaito didn't respond to a more compassionate approach either, but I think Shun could have had a more effectively way of proving why they were still allies or that the Lancers should be trusted besides just Shun trusting them. Shun did get a lot closer than I thought he would and Kaito's last combo was pretty good too. I like how they've presented Kaito as a strong duelist, but they haven't gone overboard with it like they did in Zexal. I'm also pretty sure that Kaito has said "Are you ready to repent?" more times in Arc-V than he did in Zexal at this point. Kaito actually being willing to card Shun was pretty darn cold. I can understand not trusting him after all of this, but carding him would have been way too harsh. He wasn't with Academia or anything like that. It's possible that he wouldn't have done it even without Sayaka stepping in, but it was still pretty cold hearted for Kaito to do that.

Sayaka actually seeing Ruri being kidnapped was an interesting twist. She seemed lonely before meeting Ruri if the flashback was any indication, so feeling guilty over not having the strength to help her when she could have would hurt even more. It seemed to shock Yuya, Gongenzaka and Sawatari more than Shun for some reason, but maybe he already knew about Sayaka seeing Ruri's kidnapping before. It does make her stand out more and could possibly lead to some development too. The idea of Shun being the one to defeat Kaito instead of Yuya does sound interesting. I'd be perfectly fine with Yuya beating Kaito instead, but since he's guaranteed to face off against Ed again due to his connection to Yusho, Shun defeating Kaito instead could work too. Shun does have more of a personal connection to Kaito, it could provide some more development for him and it could be a little reference to Zexal in a sense given that Kaito never lost to Yuma. Depending on the execution, I'd be fine with either outcomes really.

The preview looked and sounded pretty interesting. It looked like we'll get more information on Academia's plans, possibly on why Asuka joined the You Show Duel School and more information on the Arc Area Project.

 

[Garren]

We've had countless brother/brother pairs and brother/sister pairs, but I'm pretty sure (excluding monsters) the Tyler sisters coming up are the only sister/sister pair outside of some filler characters back in Season 0.

 

[JS3284]

Episode 106
Reiji presumably told Yusho about the Arc Project since he was with him and figured out a couple of things.
Yusho's leg was revealed to be injured, by Edo/Aster.
Yuri dueled five people. About those five people, I noticed they used Chumley's Kangaroo/Koala cards, Syrus's Roid cards and Chazz's Ojama and VWXYZ Dragon cards. I kind of wonder if Chumley has a sister, Syrus has a brother and Chazz has three brothers. I'm certainly overthinking this.
I kind of like Yuri's expressions towards Ojama King (he dislikes it and when he attacks Ojama King, he looks disgusted about it).
Yuri defeated them, carded them and Asuka/Alexis and Yuzu came to the scene.
Yugo is revealed to be in the Fusion Dimension. When he also arrived to the scene, Yuri disappeared due to Yuzu's bracelet. Yugo saw Yuzu, overjoyed that she's still alive. I'm suprised Yuzu still has her fan. I thought when she was captured by Security, they would have confiscated it. Maybe she went to a shop and buyed another fan.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Yuri dueled five people. About those five people, I noticed they used Chumley's Kangaroo/Koala cards, Syrus's Roid cards and Chazz's Ojama and VWXYZ Dragon cards. I kind of wonder if Chumley has a sister, Syrus has a brother and Chazz has three brothers. I'm certainly overthinking this.

Technically, Sho already has a brother in Hell Kaiser Ryo, but those five aren't related to Sho, Hayato or Manjoume. They were just there for fodder for Yuri as well as providing some GX nostalgia. That was painfully obvious.

I'm suprised Yuzu still has her fan. I thought when she was captured by Security, they would have confiscated it. Maybe she went to a shop and buyed another fan.

Or it's just a gag and we shouldn't try to think that much about it. You might as well wonder how she was able to carry a fan this whole time when none of her outfits would make it easy for her to carry it around. It's like wondering how Team Rocket could pull rockets or weapons out of nowhere.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was pretty good. It was good to get some more details on what happened three years ago. The device on Reiji's arm breaking once he arrived in Standard again was a nice touch. I always wondered how he got it off. I was not expecting him to become president when he was that young, but it could have been another nod to Kaiba becoming president of his company that young too. Reiji asking Yusho for help was nice and it reminded me of how Reiji said he admired Yusho before. The fact that Yusho and Leo had created Solid Vision and Action Duels together was a surprising twist. That really makes me wonder why Yuya and Reiji didn't know each other before the series if their fathers knew each other. They might not have been friends, but at least some kind of business partners. Reiji was also planning out the Lancers a lot sooner than I thought.

I thought that I'd be upset at Reiji for not saying this to anyone, but I honestly got more upset at Yusho. Wanting to go confront Leo himself because they had a history together made sense. But why did he have to leave all of a sudden? It made sense as to why he didn't tell the general public. That would have created mass panic and chaos, but did he have to keep his family in the dark about it? And did he have to leave right before his match to make it seem like he was a coward to everyone? It still would have broken Yuya's heart to lose his father, but at least he'd be aware of why he was leaving instead of suddenly losing him and it might have reduced the emotional trauma he went through as a result too. Reiji should have mentioned something earlier, but at least there are justifications for staying quite. He might have thought that Leo had died or that he sided with his father instead given that he never came back. There aren't too many justifications for Yusho not explaining the situation to his family.

The fact that he just forced his way to a dimensional teleporting device did explain why he couldn't just go back home or head to Academia though. Ed hurting Yusho to the point where he still needs treatment and can barely walk was kind of surprising. That's going to create more tension between Yuya and Ed once Yuya finds out. Although, given that Ed is still searching for Yusho in Xyz, he probably doesn't realize that Yusho was accidentally sent to another dimension and they'll probably use the accident angle to make him look less of a villain.

Asuka's backstory was pretty interesting. Seeing more of Academia soldiers being so happy about carding people was pretty unsettling. They really did treat it more like a game than destroying innocent lives. Even Asuka wasn't really bothered by the idea of carding people. She wasn't thrilled about it, but she just took kind of a the ends justify the means approach since she thought that Academia still had a peaceful goal. She still believed in it and was considering trying to change her friend's mind right up until they were cornered. Asuka had a really horrified expression once she saw that her friend was right and that she was carded. Fortunately Yusho showed up to save her, but the timeline is a bit confusing. He's been in Fusion for a year, which means that the Xyz invasion only happened a year prior to the start of the series and that Yusho was in Xyz for two years before the invasion began. I always thought that the invasion started three years ago. I guess it would explain why Yuto and Shun never looked a lot younger in flashbacks, but it seems a bit confusing, especially when it didn't seem like Yusho had been in Xyz that long before the invasion started. Although, the invasion timeline being kind of confusing is oddly fitting for this franchise.

I liked how Yuzu was touched by Asuka's story. Asuka's dream would really appeal to Yuzu and their friendship is starting off quite nicely. I still hope that Asuka can become Yuzu's mentor figure and Yuzu can get some good character development too.

Yuri's duel against the five fodder duelists was actually pretty good. Yuri's expressions throughout the entire episode were hilarious. He's just such a ham and you can tell that his voice actor is having fun with basically playing the opposite of Yuya. Yuri even laughed at the idea of everyone gaining smiles from dueling, which is something Yuya would never do. This episode was full of GX nostalgia. The opening showed many monsters used during GX and even some of the Academia students had similar designs to GX characters. The two students laughing during the flashback in particular looked like Judai and Kaiser to me. Most people thought that he looked like Misawa and I can see that more with the facial shape, but the hair instantly made me think of Judai. The fodder duelists used cards that Sho, Hayato and Manjoume had used in the past too. Manjoume had a lot of cards and decks during GX. I almost thought that they'd throw in an Armed Dragon Fusion monster, but they probably didn't want to give a new card to nameless fodder characters.

On one hand, I love the GX references. I loved the 5D's references during the previous arc and I wanted to see more references to GX and Zexal too. I might even like GX more than 5D's now, even though I keep going back and forth on where I'd put GX on my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! series list now, so it wasn't just favoritism before. Plus, I wanted a reference to Sho so darn much. He's not only my favorite GX characters, but one of my favorite characters in the franchise. So I was happy to see Arc-V reference his character. The Hayato reference was also a nice surprise since I thought that he was one of the least popular GX characters. On the other hand, all of the GX references to characters that I like, including my favorite GX character, were used as food for Starve Venom and it also made it more likely/obvious that Sho wouldn't appear in Arc-V. That just kind of made me sad. Say what you will about the 5D's references, but at least they didn't make me sad like that. I can see why they chose those cards for GX references. There weren't a whole lot of characters that actually used Fusion monsters in GX and their hands were tied for a few of them too. I'm sure that they couldn't use any hero monsters due to both Ed appearing and Judai being tied to Elemental Heroes. While I loved the GX nostalgia, a part of me would have preferred for them to be used for something other than fodder duelists used to hype Yuri up some more.

To be fair, the choices for what decks to used also made sense in regards to how the characters would feel about Academia. I definitely couldn't see Sho or Hayato being on Academia's side. I don't think Manjoume would either, even with being more of a jerk at the start of the series. Hell Kaiser Ryo I could see being on Academia's side though. And while I keep calling them fodder duelists, they had better strategies than I thought they would. They brought out some really strong monsters, Ojama King prevented Yuri from using three of his monster zones and they used monster effects to banish his two remaining monsters. If they had Trap cards to protect themselves, they might have lasted longer, but all things considered, it wasn't too bad. I especially loved how Yuri was so disgusted by the Ojama monsters and kept giving that guy a hard time during the rest of the duel. It was pretty funny. I also liked how the guy using the Roid deck responded to Yuri saying how they still have the nerve to play Fusion cards even after abandoning Academia. It was a good response and showed that they were firmly against Academia.

It was pretty cool to see more of Yuri's deck and Starve Venom's new CGI summoning sequence was really creepy. It worked so well with the summoning chant too. Starve Venom's effect was so ridiculously broken though. It was so broken that I even laughed a bit. It does make sense with how they've established Yuri as such a threat and it's going to make it difficult against any of the Yuya counterparts facing against it, but it was so incredibly broken. The way it basically ate the monsters was pretty creepy too. Yuzu and Asuka running into Yuri right afterwards was kind of creepy too. Just his expressions and the way he was slowly walking up to Yuzu was just so unsettling. I liked how Asuka was standing in front of Yuzu to protect her from Yuri though.

It was lucky that Yugo came when he did. It seemed like the bracelet took too long to activate, but I guess that was for dramatic purposes. I really liked that Yugo and Yuzu got to meet again. I wanted Yuya and Yuzu to reunite for the longest time in the previous arc, but at least Yuya knew that Yuzu was alive. Yugo thought that she was dead this whole time and it clearly broke his heart too. I figured that there would be some comedy relief element to their reunion, but I don't think that Yugo really deserved Yuzu's fan gag. If he thought that she was Rin, that would be different, but he was just running up with tears in his eyes. To be fair, Yuzu didn't know that Yugo thought that she was dead and hearing something like that after everything she's been through would be kind of unsettling, but I would have liked a nice little hug between them since their friendship is sweet. At least they're back together and will be hopefully able to help each other out along with Asuka. The twins do look pretty intimidating and serious.

We have the regular ending theme footage now and I actually kind of like it. It is a lot different from what I expected and the sudden random closeups for Yuya, Yuzu and Gongenzaka are a bit odd, but I like it. It has a nice simplistic touch to it, focusing back on the friendship between Yuya, Yuzu and Gongenzaka was a nice surprise and it gives a nostalgic vibe for the Standard days, especially when they were running towards a beach. It works nicely with the tone of the song, which also has kind of a nostalgia vibe going for it, and I think it ties in nicely with Yuya's feelings. He does miss the days of being in Standard with his friends before the dimensional war changed everything and the lyrics fit with his emotional conflicts. I'm not sure where I'd rank the ending theme among the other ones in the series, but I like it.

The preview looked pretty good. The twins look like intimidating duelists and they have some neat cards too. We'll get to see Sayaka duel a bit so that could be interesting too.

 

[JS3284]

Technically, Sho already has a brother in Hell Kaiser Ryo, but those five aren't related to Sho, Hayato or Manjoume. They were just there for fodder for Yuri as well as providing some GX nostalgia. That was painfully obvious.

Honestly, I didn't really mean they were. It was just a joke. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Honestly, I didn't really mean they were. It was just a joke. Sorry for the confusion.

Oh, I couldn't tell that you were joking. I've never been good at either in person or online. Sorry about that.

 

[JS3284]

Oh, I couldn't tell that you were joking. I've never been good at either in person or online. Sorry about that.

It's ok.

Time for Episode 107.
Sayaka runs to look for Kaito/Kite again.
Allen, now knowing that Yuya related to Yusho, who he still thinks is a coward, pretty much starts to shun him. While I do understand the reasons why Allen views Yusho is a coward, I also think it's mean of him to treat Yuya less favorable because of this. It might be just me being bothered by this since I completely disapprove how when the someone is disliked, the dislike spreads to the people related to that person, even if they did nothing wrong (even more so if the reason why the person was disliked isn't even true to begin with). Then again, I have seen this treatment been taken more extremely in other anime, so this didn't bother me as much.
Allen finds Sayaka when the Tyler sisters spotted her.
Allen is using Train cards. Kind of sounds like something Anna uses back in ZEXAL.
Sayaka is using Kotori/Tori's cards.
The Tyler Sisters use Amazoness cards. Although Tania from GX used Amazoness cards, but I kind of think of them as Mai Valentine's cards a bit more from Battle City.
They beat Sayaka and Allen. Noboru and Sawatari manages to get there in time before they get carded and duels them. I can assume based on the intro, the duel wouldn't last very long since Yuya and Shun/Shay takes over.
Also, Edo/Aster regrets drawing against Yuya and looks at his broken half of Smile World. I still want to know what he has between Yusho.

In dub related news, Christopher C Adams (who voiced Crow before Tom Wayland took over) will be playing as Crow again. I kind of enjoyed Crow's dub voice back when he was doing the voice so it's nice he will be back. I also heard Ted Lewis will voice Jack. I'm still not a fan of Jack's psuedo Australian/British accent but if at least the VAs get to repraise their characters. Also, from what I've heard from the Italian version (based off the English dub) that the City will be called Neo Domino City. I remember the 5D's dub did make references to past series that wasn't in the original, such as giving a background character a voice similar to Joey, made him his cousin, and is called Jessie Wheeler. There is also a security guard (from the episode where I believe Tom Wayland took over as Crow) says that he has a date with Seto Kaiba. Looks like Season 2 of the ARC-V dub will follow this trend.

 

[Hidden Mew]

In dub related news, Christopher C Adams (who voiced Crow before Tom Wayland took over) will be playing as Crow again. I kind of enjoyed Crow's dub voice back when he was doing the voice so it's nice he will be back. I also heard Ted Lewis will voice Jack. I'm still not a fan of Jack's psuedo Australian/British accent but if at least the VAs get to repraise their characters. Also, from what I've heard from the Italian version (based off the English dub) that the City will be called Neo Domino City. I remember the 5D's dub did make references to past series that wasn't in the original, such as giving a background character a voice similar to Joey, made him his cousin, and is called Jessie Wheeler. There is also a security guard (from the episode where I believe Tom Wayland took over as Crow) says that he has a date with Seto Kaiba. Looks like Season 2 of the ARC-V dub will follow this trend.

I've heard about that as well. I preferred Crow's original dub voice. It sounded like dub Johan minus the southern accent, but I liked it more than his second voice, although that did get better when he stopped trying to sound like Crow's first voice actor. It took me awhile to like Jack's dub voice and it still isn't a great voice for him, but grew on me after awhile and it's still nice that they could get the original voice actors to reprise their roles. I'm not a fan of the City being called Neo Domino City though. It's probably to keep it consistent since Academia is called Duel Academy in the dub and City was too generic to be kept for the dub as well, but I'm a bit nervous that they'll try to make it the same place as 5D's somehow. Throwing in more references to older characters or implying that Yusei exists in that universe also sounds way too likely. At least with Duel Academy, we know that there are more than just the main one in GX, even though most people would probably think of GX when they hear Duel Academy, but another city named Neo Domino City just seems too strange to me. There is Heartland, but at least that was in the original version and another Heartland existing is easier to believe than another city named Neo Domino City.

Anyway, I thought that last week's episode was pretty good. Sayaka going after Kaito due to being inspired by Shun's determination made sense. She still felt guilty over not helping Ruri, so she wouldn't want to just leave Kaito, even though he could defend himself pretty easily from most duelist. Allen's treatment towards Yuya was pretty mean though. I can kind of understand his anger. He still thinks that Yusho abandoned them and wouldn't want to openly accept Yuya right off the bat as a result. At the same time, they really don't have a lot of options for allies. Their home is destroyed, Academia is still carding what few survivors there are left and most of the Resistance has been wiped out. They need all the help that they can get, so treating Yuya like that was both mean and stupid. I liked Shun taking charge of the situation and going off with Yuya. I still want to see them interacting so much.

Even though Grace and Gloria had such a cold and tough intimidating vibe, I liked that Sayaka didn't back down or leave Allen to face them by himself. She wanted to find her own courage and didn't want to run away again. The duel itself was pretty neat. Grace and Gloria have received a lot of attention from fans and they are pretty cool. They haven't amazed me yet, but they are pretty cold, tough duelists and being some of the few female villains in the franchise gives them a nice touch. Allen and Sayaka's decks were references for Anna and Kotori from Zexal respectively. I normally enjoy the references, but references to some of the my least favorite Zexal characters, with Anna possibly being the character from Zexal I disliked the most, didn't really make me too happy. It is nice for people who did enjoy those characters though. Although, I did like Allen's Train deck a bit more than I thought. Most of his monsters didn't have a bland design like Anna's cards did and there were a few cards that I actually liked too. Sayaka also had a pretty nice combination with Fairy Cheer Girl.

Even though Allen got upset when Sayaka didn't use Fairy Cheer Girl's effect to draw a card, I actually kind of liked that she made a mistake. It showed that she was still nervous in a serious duel, even though she wanted to be brave. Characters like Yuto, Shun and Kaito have become emotionally harden as a result of this war, but not everyone could respond like that. Sayaka seemed like a shy and nervous person even before the war, so going through this trauma wouldn't turn her into a tough as nails kind of duelist. It actually made me like Sayaka a bit more. Being nervous in a serious match like that adds a refreshing and realistic touch to her character.

The Tyler sisters were in complete control right from the start. Their decks were pretty much perfect for a tag duel since their monsters' effects prevented them from being destroyed and lowered other monsters' attack points, which made it much harder for Allen and Sayaka to land any damage. They worked well with each other right off the start, while it took awhile for Allen and Sayaka to do that due to their different emotional states. Allen was willing to charge head first and Sayaka was too nervous at points, so that lead to them overlooking details. I liked that Sayaka reminded Allen to use her monster's effect and I actually did like the Shining Draw reference. Sayaka making that mistake also helped them out in the long run since she was able to use that Trap Card to protect them from the effect damage. It took them awhile, but they did have some nice team work near the end. I also liked how Allen, after being a bit too harsh towards Sayaka, inspired her to keep moving forward during their fight. It helped to flesh their friendship out a bit and that did make it look a bit nicer to me.

It was still obvious that they were going to lose though. They obviously wouldn't beat the Tyler sisters in their first duel, but they did cause more damage to them than I thought they would. They were just way too strong, especially as a tag team. I figured that they wouldn't be carded though. It's way too early to start carding anyone and they're both fairly new characters to boot. Sawatari and Gongenzaka showing up wasn't too surprising either. I was worried that they'd show them losing their duel right at the end of the episode, but that didn't happen. I'm hoping that we can see at least the last turn so that the match isn't completely off-screen. Ed's anger towards Yuya and Yusho was surprisingly intense though.

The preview looked pretty good. Yuya and Shun having a tag duel sounded pretty cool and it can hopefully lead to some good interactions between the two of them. It's going to be a hard match not only because of the Tyler sisters being so strong, but also because of Yuto and Shun's anger. The Tyler sisters did wipe up a good chuck of the Resistance, so that's going to make it even more difficult for Yuya and Shun to work together. Not to mention I fully expect for Yuto to take over Yuya's body by force again and I really hope that the show calls him out on that.

 

[JS3284]

Episode 108
Gongenzaka and Sawatari's duel was never shown, other than the fact it was over very quickly.
Yuya tells Yuto that he wants to duel in his way and doesn't want to be possessed again.
Yuya tells Shun/Shay and Yuto not to be consumed by anger, only for them to ignore him. Luckily, he manages to convince them in the end.
Haven't heard Yuya say "Ladies and Gentlemen" for a while. It's nice to hear it again.
Edo/Aster is watching the duel. Of course, he doesn't sound happy when Yuya used Smile World.
Life Points increased to 10000+, now dropped to 0 in one swoop.
The Tyler Sisters enjoyed the duel and so did Sayaka and Allen. Still kind of suprised Allen is not the least bit bothered about that, especially since Yuya outright said that this was Yusho's dueling style. Then again, the people from the Standard Dimension views him as a coward (don't know if this was dropped though) but were not bothered with the duel style (don't know if it's right to compare Allen to this though since his is more serious than say, skipping a match) so I guess Edo/Aster is the only one who has something against it because it's from Yusho.
I kind of guess the Tyler Sisters kind of got some character development, which is a nice touch.

I don't normally talk about the non-English versions of the dub but for whatever reason, the dub decide to change the "Food vs Smiles" to "Who is the better entertainer". And some genius decided to dicken Yuya at the same time with "I bet I can entertain better than you". Ugh. This is from the Italian version by the way.

 

[Hidden Mew]

The Tyler Sisters enjoyed the duel and so did Sayaka and Allen. Still kind of suprised Allen is not the least bit bothered about that, especially since Yuya outright said that this was Yusho's dueling style. Then again, the people from the Standard Dimension views him as a coward (don't know if this was dropped though) but were not bothered with the duel style (don't know if it's right to compare Allen to this though since his is more serious than say, skipping a match) so I guess Edo/Aster is the only one who has something against it because it's from Yusho.
I kind of guess the Tyler Sisters kind of got some character development, which is a nice touch.

I think he wasn't bothered because they wanted to use the duel to also help Allen see Yuya as an ally. I don't believe that they dropped the whole people from Standard calling Yusho a coward. They were still entertained by his dueling style, but not so much with Yusho himself. That and Allen was probably just happy that Yuya and Shun were able to win.

I don't normally talk about the non-English versions of the dub but for whatever reason, the dub decide to change the "Food vs Smiles" to "Who is the better entertainer". And some genius decided to dicken Yuya at the same time with "I bet I can entertain better than you". Ugh. This is from the Italian version by the way.

I've heard about that and it's quite stupid. I can understand why they wouldn't have the whole food vs. smiles argument in tact, although that really doesn't bode well for all of the other social conflicts within the City, but why have it be an argument over who is the best entertainer? Since when did Crow ever care about being an entertainer in the 5D's dub? To be fair, Yuya didn't come off looking great in the original version either by saying that smiling is better than food to people just struggling to get their next meal, but at least I don't think you could make him sound like a complete jerk with that argument, especially when it was just kind of a light-hearted moment to ease the audience between the two groups being arrested.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was pretty good. I was hoping that we could see a bit of Gongenzaka and Sawatari vs. the Tyler sisters, but I could see why that didn't happen. I hadn't factored in the whole sharing a graveyard detail before. No wonder Gongenzaka went down so easily. Sharing a graveyard would basically make his deck useless in a tag duel. That should have been so obvious in retrospect. It is still kind of a shame and he and Sawatari have been just used to lose duels thus far and I don't even like Sawatari, but hopefully they'll get some time to shine.

The duel itself was pretty good. The Tyler sisters really came prepared with that strategy. They were already well prepared to face Pendulum summoning and that did give them a huge amount of life points. I liked how Yuya didn't want Shun to be consumed by his anger. His anger was completely understandable given that the Tyler sisters wiped out a good chuck of the Resistance and I don't think that Yuya was saying otherwise. He just didn't want Shun to be consumed by his anger since that could result in making some big mistakes. I think that's why Shun's attack ultimately backfired on them. The Tyler sisters were able to restore the life points they had lost and they were put in a more vulnerable position as a result.

I was surprised that Yuto didn't take over Yuya's body. Considering how angry he was when they faced Ed, I thought that it would come into play during this duel as well. It seemed like Yuto was about to before Yuya mentioned how they would be possessed by that mysterious being. It does make sense as to why that reason would click with Yuto given he wouldn't want to be possessed like that either, but iti did feel a bit too easy at the same time. Yuya not being in pain like I thought ht was going to be was good though. I had prepared myself for that possibility and it didn't happen, so I do like it in that regard as well. I'm sure that they'll still deal with Yuto taking over Yuya's body like that, but I was surprised that they didn't do it here.

Yuya's performance was really fun and a really pleasant surprised too. Like I mentioned, I was so sure that Yuya would be in pain during this duel, but he wasn't and genuinely happy. I'm always happy to see happy Yuya. He looked and sounded more relax during the performance, although that could have been from his voice actor. I liked that he asked for Shun's help during the performance since it was a nice bit of cooperation and showed Yuya being more relaxed around Shun. Shun even smiled a little during the end, so that was nice. The rocket Spell card seemed a bit random, but at least it fits with Yuya's deck. Seeing all of the lights and sparkles was fun. I especially liked how the monsters bowed at the end of the attack. That was hilariously adorable. I really love how Yuya's duels in this arc have shown how much of an impact his duel with Jack had on him. He was still using his father's dueling style, but he wasn't claiming it to be his own. He was doing his own unique take on it rather than just saying he inherited it completely from his father. He was still using the duel as a way to communicate his feelings to the Tyler sisters and it actually worked, at least in terms of making them smile. That has always been Yuya's goal and combining it with a war situation does make it look even more idealistic, but that fits with both the tone of the show and Yuya's character in general. Some people really didn't like it and most of the reactions made me wonder if they had been watching a different show or at least weren't paying attention to the current opening theme which is all about finding hope and happiness in the mist of despair, but it worked perfectly fine with me. I love that they have been showing more of Yuya's growth during this arc and it's one reason why I still really love the Synchro arc, despite how much undeserved hate it still gets.

The Tyler sisters losing already also bothered people and I think at least part of that is how the fanbase went nuts over them. I can't really blame them for that when their debut episode made them look cool and we rarely get female villains, so I can understand why they'd be instant hints. I just think that was part of the reason why seeing them lose already wasn't well received, but I thought it made sense. They weren't redeemed completely or willing to join the Resistance. They were bored throughout most of the match. They had already defeated four duelists in a row, they already wiped out a good chuck of the Resistance and their Trap card gave them a huge advantage in regards to life points. They thought that they had the match in the bag, which did make them more bored and cocky. They were toying with Allen and Sayaka before because they wanted to have some fun and doing otherwise would have made them win sooner. Yuya's dueling style would be something different for them and they seemed to enjoy it partly because they were so bored. If the preview is any indication, they're more curious about Yuya than openly embracing the dueling with smiles philosophy. It does lay the foundation for potentially leaving Academia, but it wasn't an instant change like a lot of fans thought it was.

While I did enjoy the episode, I thought that it might have been better as a two part match. It could have provided more buildup for the sisters' lost, which would have helped with the fans' reactions, there could have been more interactions between Yuya and Shun, which I still really want, and some more conflict with Yuya and Yuto. I think it generally works as a one episode duel and I can see why they didn't make it into a two-parter. Turning the tides that quickly in just one episode is more impressive than with two and they wanted everyone to be impressed with Yuya's dueling style too. It still would have helped out in a few areas with another episode, but one episode worked well enough. The Obelisk Force soldiers really came out of nowhere though.

The preview looked pretty interesting. Going from the Tyler sisters to the Obelisk Force is an odd choice, especially when they were defeated mostly off-screen during the Synchro arc, but there might be some interactions between Yuya and Shun during this match. We might also see Ed getting closer to Yuya's group since he did see where they were during the duel with the Tyler sisters, so that could be interesting.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I thought that last week's episode was pretty good. Allen accepting Yuya as his ally was nice. I especially liked the big friendship moment with everyone putting their hands together. It was so sweet and touching, especially since Shun was the one who initiated it in the first place. The Obelisk Force jumping in front of them like that was a bit odd from where the previous episode ended, but it did allow for them to have a nice friendship moment with the group. I also liked that the Tyler sisters were showing different reactions to the duel. Gloria was still upset about losing, but Grace was more relaxed about it because she had fun and she was curious about Yuya's dueling too. That does help to give them more unique personality traits instead of just being the Tyler sisters.

The duel itself was okay. Going back to the Obelisk Force seemed really strange given that they were defeated fairly easily in the previous arc. Plus, seeing them use the same monsters again made the duel a bit boring. It does work to give them their own decks to identify them as the Obelisk Force and it provides more GX references, but it does get a bit tedious. They did have better teamwork than usual though, so that helped a bit. I really liked the bits of interactions between Yuya and Shun. Shun smiling over Yuya sticking to his entertainment dueling style was a nice touch and he did have a strong first turn. I also really liked how Shun was concerned over Yuya when the Obelisk Force was attacking him and was relived when Yuya was safe. It just seemed sweet to see them finally having some nice moments. They had a nice bit of teamwork with Shun protecting Yuya from that effect damage as well. It wasn't as much interactions as I would have liked and to be fair, I've been wanting to see Yuya and Shun become friends for ages too, but it was still something to give their friendship more weight to it and that was appreciated.

I really liked Yuya's performance bit and I do like that he's still trying to use dueling as a means to communicate his feelings. Sure, he could have taken out one of the Obelisk Force soldiers that didn't have a turn yet, but that wouldn't fit with Yuya's way of dueling anyway. That would be more aggressive than he normally is and as Allen pointed out, targeting a duelist who hasn't had a turn yet is playing dirty. It's certainly unfair at lease. Yuya's desire to reach out to even soldiers through dueling is still idealistic, but it fits with his character and the tone of the series. It is also nice to see Yuya that determined to reach out to people. I just love that his duel with Jack had such a huge impact on his character.

Summoning Chaos Giant was pretty intense with how it was causing the building to fall apart and its effect would also be quite dangerous for someone like Yuya who uses Pendulum summoning. I couldn't blame Sayaka for running away. She's a sensitive person, she's lost who knows how many loved ones during this war and she's facing the monster that helped destroyed this dimension. Of course she'd run away in a panic. I liked how Shun was so worried about her. It really showed how much he has changed and how he values his allies more now. Plus, less angry Shun has been surprisingly more appealing to me than I thought he would. It was kind of strange how he just fainted like that, but he could have been hit by a lot of rocks and had enough strength to save Sayaka before fainting. It was kind of a dramatic title to go with this episode since Shun obviously isn't dead, but I can see why they'd want to make a big deal out of it when Shun is out cold and everyone is worried about him.

Kaito coming in to save the day was quite a surprise, especially when he actually used an Action Card. While it is kind of jarring after he nearly carded Shun before, I can see why he'd show up like this. I still think part of his anger is an act. He said that he cut ties from the Resistance survivors, but he still has the red scarf and Shun mentioned that his dueling still kept on the spirit of the Resistance. He's already lost a lot of people, including his own family, and he has a bounty on his head, so the idea that he wanted to keep people away from him because he cared about them deep inside still made sense and fits with Kaito's character too. I could totally buy that he jumped in because he didn't want to see Shun carded. We still need to see some process of that instead of just assuming what happened on screen, so hopefully that will happen. I also don't think that Kaito's issues are entirely resolved either. While he didn't card the Obelisk Force, he did linger on that decision for awhile before heading towards Shun, so it could have been just wanting to check on Shun was more important than his revenge for the moment. Ed showing up to confront Yuya was a pretty good cliffhanger to end on.

The preview looked pretty good. It's earlier than I expected for a Yuya vs. Ed rematch, but it makes sense too. Ed has just been starring angrily at Smile World for his last few appearances, he had to force a draw during his first duel with Yuya and he knows where Yuya is now. Why wouldn't he jump at the chance to duel him again? Plus, there's not a lot preventing them from getting a duel. It isn't like Yuya vs. Jack which was clearly going to be saved for near the end of the arc. Heartland is destroyed, so that does limit what they can do and the cast has been reduced for the time being. It also makes sense to flesh out Ed's character and his connection to Yusho through a duel. Learning about what happened to Yusho before should be quite interesting.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I thought that last week's episode was pretty good. I could have sworn that Ed knew Yuya's name before, but I must have mixed it up with Ed calling Yusho's name before. Ed using a Duel Chain to force Yuya into a duel was already shown in the preview, but the cage Field Spell was a surprise. That would prevent other people from interrupting their duel. Plus, it also limits Yuya's movements, so he has a much more difficult time getting Action Cards, so that was a smart move on Ed's part.

The duel itself had a pretty good start. I was hoping for Ed to use more new Destiny Heroes, but I can see why they'd kept to his other Fusion monster. It kind of fits with his more aggressive dueling style, as well as his emotional state in general. At least Yuya had some cool new monsters. I liked Daggerman, which seemed to be a monster version of Yusho due to the hair. I really liked Grace and Gloria's interactions during the duel. Gloria wanted to deal with the Lancers, while Grace wanted to watch the duel. Their moments were pretty funny and I just liked how Grace was really excited for Yuya's entertainment dueling style. I can relate to that. Plus, this does give them more distinct personality traits. Fans really liked them during their first couple of episodes where they were more brutal, but I honestly couldn't tell which was which. To be fair, that was mainly due to both of their names starting with G and how fans referred to them as a the Tyler sisters too, but this still makes them more unique. It could also potentially setup some conflict between the two down the road. They're both still with Academia. Even Grace said that Yuya's dueling wouldn't be entertaining without them, so that does give the impression that she's just interested in the entertainment dueling style rather than ditching Academia.

Kaito being able to crush all of those Academia soldiers seemed way too much. I should have expected that when Kaito was really overpowered in Zexal too, but I was hoping that Arc-V wouldn't make that choice, especially when it does make me wonder why Kaito hasn't been able to defeat Academia all by himself if he can defeat so many soldiers at once. Kaito calling Yuya by name and smiling at him, while nice, made me worry that they resolved his issues entirely off-screen. That would be disappointing, especially when they have handled the returning characters better than that, including Ed in this episode. I could rationalize why he saved them in the previous episode and why he continued to help out here, but the smile just seemed too early here as well. Hopefully they'll deal with that later to show that Kaito's issues aren't entirely resolved.

I really loved how Yuya kept wanting to communicate to Ed through their dueling and decided to use his own words by making a Fusion monster himself. It's such a nice touch that really shows how far Yuya has come and how much his duel with Jack impacted his character. He knows how he wants to duel and has more determination to stick with it without dealing with nearly as much self-doubt. Going with a Fusion monster made sense too. An Xyz monster would just make Yuya look more like another Resistance member to Ed, but a Fusion monster would be an attempt to reach out to him. Granted, it still made Ed angry anyway, but the decision made sense. Plus, Brave-Eyes looks so awesome. It was like a mech Odd-Eyes. It really came out nowhere though. Even the vision Yuya normally gets when creating a new monster was kind of weak since it was more like glimmer in his eyes. That could have been due to the monster's name, but it still felt kind of lackluster. Its effect being activated before it was on the field was also weird. Being destroyed so easily was also pretty disappointing. I can see why that happened in order to show that Ed was refusing to listen to Yuya, as well as to emphasize that he only considered Academia's Fusion as the real Fusion, but for a new Odd-Eyes Fusion, that was still a pretty disappointing.

I liked how Yuya was so determined to find out why Ed had that card. He was more serious and emotional than he had been during the duel, which showed how much he cared about his father. Ed's flashback was pretty interesting. The background made it seem like the invasion had been going on for awhile, so I don't know why people like Allen thought that Yusho disappeared right away. To be fair, it could have been just the animators wanting to keep the background for Heartland consistent with how it looks now. I was expecting a more dramatic reason for why Yusho was injured, especially when he still has problems walking and needs physical therapy about a year after the duel, but I guess that they wouldn't want one of the returning characters to really go out of their way to physically injure Yusho like that.

I really liked Ed's expressions when he was reaching out for Smile World. It showed how conflicted and confused he already was by the idea of Academia being wrong. Ed's mental breakdown was really kind of heartbreaking. Academia's lessons have been ingrained in him so deeply that the idea of having fun while dueling causes him so much panic and stress. We've already seen through Sora how difficult it is for someone from Academia to change sides. Even by the time he found Serena, Sora was struggling to call himself an ally. Ed is at least a couple of years older and has a higher position as the Commander-in-Chief of Academia, which would mean that Academia's lessons have had an even bigger impact on him. Seeing that he did indeed smile during his duel with Yusho added a lot more context for Ed's mental breakdown and anger too. He knew that he had fun during a duel that he ultimately lost, which goes against Academia's teachings completely, but because of how ingrained those teachings are in his mind, he can't really process those feelings. His enjoyment of the duel conflicting with what he knows from Academia would result in something like his mental breakdown because he doesn't know what to do. The fact that he had to deal with these conflicting feelings for about a year makes it even worse for his anger. He has no means to process or express his emotions to others and Yusho being gone means that he can't prove that Academia is the right way, which would make his anger boil even more. It's an interesting contrast to how Sora dealt with his conflicting emotions. He tried to help Yuya and Yuzu while remaining loyal to the Professor, which obviously wouldn't work, and because he had more support in Yuya and Yuzu, it helped Sora to eventually become an ally. Ed didn't have anything like that, so he would lash out in anger.

Yuto going on about how Yuya couldn't reach out to Ed was kind of annoying though. On one hand, his opinions on Academia soldiers are understandable given that he lost pretty much everything because of them, but on the other hand, Yuto was fine letting Yuya duel his way in the previous episode. Not to mention Shun trusted Yuya to duel his way, which should mean something to Yuto too. I liked how Yuya was happy that Ed kept the torn Smile World. I think that gave him a big indication of Ed's emotional state. Ed's determination to prove that Academia is right probably has more to do with reassuring himself than anything else. If he can beat Yuya, then he knows that Academia is the right way and his feelings wouldn't be so conflicted. Honestly, the context for Ed's emotional state made him a lot more interesting and sympathetic than I thought it would, so that was pretty cool.

The preview looked pretty good. Yuya pointing out that Ed's emotions are swaying sounded fitting and I really liked seeing Yuya swing around the area. He looked so happy doing that too, so it will hopefully be a fun continuation of the duel.

 

[Galar Adventurer]

For those looking forward to the 2017 US release of Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions,
Eric Stuart and Dan Green reenacted a scene live as Yugi and Kaiba as they're confirmed to return for the film:

 

[Hidden Mew]

Man, I've fallen way behind on my thoughts on the series. It's been a combinations of various issues both on and off line, but I want to catch up since I love Arc-V immensely, talking about the series makes me happy and I need more happiness in my life darn it. I've kept up with the series, but I just haven't been commenting on this thread like I used to, so I'm going to try to make a post for each episode at least once a day. I don't want to make multiple posts in just one day and knowing me, I'm still going to have a lot to say about each episode, so it's going to take awhile. I'll also keep my thoughts on the previews just to match with my other episode reviews here.

Anyway, the conclusion of Yuya vs. Ed was really great. Yuya moving around the field to find Action Cards was great. As much as I liked the Riding Action Duel mixture from the previous arc, I have missed seeing duelists move around the Action Field, especially when that was one of the main aspects of Action Duels that I liked right off the bat, so seeing something like that was pretty neat. Ed trying to stop Yuya with the chains was a bit unexpected, but it made sense given it would seriously limit Yuya's mobility and make it easier for Ed to defeat Yuya.

I really liked how Yuya was able to point out Ed's conflicting emotions and using his pendulum necklace to symbolize Ed swinging between his loyalty to Academia and his feelings from his duel with Yusho was a really nice touch. Even though Ed has been full of anger, he wanted to prove that Academia was right not so much as a sense of honor, but rather to prove to himself that Academia's teachings are correct. He's been dealing with these conflicting emotions for about a year and I imagine that he hasn't really expressed them to anyone else, so all of these emotions have been bottled up inside of him. It's no where Ed has been just constantly angry after he found out who Yuya was. Bottling up emotions is generally not a good idea, but Ed is also a high ranked soldier who has been basically brainwashed into thinking that duels are a form of combat and that Academia is in the right, so I think that creates even more emotional tension for him. That's why he was determined to find Yuya. If he can beat Yusho, or Yuya in this case who basically represents the dueling philosophy that opposes the Academia way, then it would prove to Ed that Academia was indeed right and he can keep going on his way and ignore the feelings he felt from dueling Yusho before. That's why I really like this version of Ed. The flashbacks and especially that one sign that he did enjoy a duel that he ultimately lost made him a lot more interesting than I expected.

The flashbacks to Ed dueling Yusho were handled quite nicely. It established more of Ed's conflict and the two duels mirrored each other pretty well, particularly with how both Yuya and Yusho responded to the whole counterattack point. It was nice that the flashbacks showed how similar Yuya and Yusho are, even though I don't recall Yusho talking about how duels are a form of conversations in other flashbacks. I was expecting a more dramatic reason for Yusho's leg to get injured other than just being the result of an attack. I could see why they wouldn't want a returning character like Ed to intentionally hurt Yusho like that and attacks in Xyz have been shown to be pretty powerful, but considering that he still can't really walk that well a year after the duel, I was expecting something different for that explanation.

I really liked Yuya's Entermate Laughmaker. It kind of came out of nowhere, but it fits perfectly with his deck and he has needed a stronger Entermate monster for ages. I liked how it attacked with a giant smiley face. That is just fantastic. Ed was able to push Yuya into a corner after he destroyed it though. I liked how Yuya was so determined to keep dueling his way. It isn't a matter of pride so much as just wanting to duel his way. It's especially important with how Yuya has been struggling about being the best Entertainment Duelist and wanting to figure out what to do with his duel for a good chuck of the series, but now he knows what he wants to use dueling for and he doesn't waver on it despite his emotional issues and how people, most often Yuto, have told him that it wouldn't work multiple times in this arc. It also fits with Yuya's gentle and peaceful nature. He wants to make everyone happy and maintaining the belief that dueling is a form of conversation helps to give him more focus to that goal. It also works as a good contrast to the dimensional war, as well as tie in with the show's theme of finding happiness and hope within sadness and despair.

Yuya's performance bit was just wonderful. I just loved how natural his performances have sounded after his duel with Jack. He was so relaxed, happy and determined to reach out to Ed. Yuya using Smile World was so great and I loved seeing all of the monsters smile. I was kind of disappointed when that didn't happen in his rematch with Jack to be honest. It also showed some nice strategy on Yuya's part since he was able to use it to break through Ed's combination. Yuya swinging around on the Duel Chain was so wonderful and cool. I loved it, especially with how happy Yuya looked while doing so. Plus, it did force Ed to get rid of the Field Spell, which definitely helped Yuya out in the long run.

I liked that Yuya planned for Laughmaker to be destroyed in order to get Brave Eyes back. It showed just how good of a duelist Yuya really is and it also was nice that Brave Eyes wasn't going to just be used in the first half of the duel. I was disappointed with how quickly Brave Eyes was destroyed when it was first summoned. Plus, I loved that Yuya was still maintaining the whole dueling is a conversation theme and wanted to use a Fusion monster to talk to Ed. It did lead to Ed to use an Action Card in turn to communicate back, so that was effective. It really came down to the wire and I was worried when Yuya tripped, but he was able to fake Ed out and still grab an Action Card. I loved Brave Eyes' attack name and how it basically resulted in Smile World fireworks. That's the ridiculously awesome stuff in this franchise that I can get behind. And it did make Ed smile and accept his feelings from his duel with Yusho. Considering how Yuya's Entertainment Dueling can make me so happy, I find that pretty believable. The ending to this duel gave me so huge smiles. It didn't make me so happy that I was near tears like the end of Yuya's rematch with Jack, but it was a solid duel that showcased more of Yuya's growth and made me quite happy. I also liked the touch with the skies opening up, especially when we haven't seen blue skies in Xyz after the Academia invasion happened.

The preview looked pretty good. Ed standing up for Yuya seems nice and fitting given that he would have recognized that Academia isn't the way after dueling both Yusho and Yuya. We also see the Fusion You Show and even Dennis's return, so that should be interesting.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I thought that the conclusion to the Xyz arc was pretty good. It was nice to see Ed defending Yuya. It made sense given that his defeat finally allowed Ed to accept his emotions and recognize that both Yuya and Yusho were right this whole time. Plus, I do like seeing Yuya being friends with returning characters. Ed isn't one of my favorite GX characters, but he's cool and I honestly find him to be much more interesting in this series than most people give him credit for. While his development wasn't perfect, it seemed pretty fine and believable to me for what they were going for, especially when Yusho already basically set the foundation for Ed to eventually abandon Academia. A lot of fans tend to see Ed as a whiny child when it was much more like a clear emotional breakdown from a child solider and claiming the former does bother me a bit. I wasn't a huge fan of Ed's outfit, but it didn't seem that bad to me. That being said, he does look better with he outfit underneath his robe.

Grace siding with Yuya made sense too. She was basically being a Yuya cheerleader during the duel and oddly enough mirroring my own feelings on his Entertainment Dueling at points. Grace going along felt a bit odd, especially when I thought she'd stick with Academia and create some tension, but I could see why she might not want to abandon Grace and she did seem more confused than going into the whole thing happily like Grace and Ed, so that kind of worked. It got really confusing when Allen and Kaito showed up with other Resistance members though. I got the distinct impression that the Resistance had been nearly wiped out. They hadn't really shown any sign that there were any other members left besides Allen, Sayaka and Kaito, so that felt kind of forced and sudden.

I liked Ed's speech to the other Academia soldiers. While he wasn't the Commander-in-Chief anymore, he still had that rank, so the soldiers would still recognize his authority and listen to him. It would have been better if at least some of the students did head back to Academia instead of staying to help, but I could at least buy why they'd follow their former Commander-In-Chief. It probably was a bit more believable than if Yuya spoke out to them. At least having Noro leaving would have been good. He was trying to be the comedy relief, but he was annoying and I really don't know why he didn't run back to Academia with his tail between his legs. If only one person couldn't be reached, I would have been fine with it being Noro. I almost wonder if he wants to double cross the group later. Ed's reaction to Yuya talking about Yuto was kind of neat though.

I had problems with Academia just agreeing to help the Xyz dimension, but I had even more problems with everyone seemingly being okay with getting help from people who had helped destroy their home and card their loved ones. Sure, they had more medical equipment, which Shun needed, and the survivors needed help too, but there was seemingly no conflict among either group. Allen was the only one with a reasonable reaction, but everyone else was just okay with it. After dealing with this conflict for at least a year, one would think that getting help from former Academia members would still be a problem. Kaito's development still involved more telling than showing, which is rather unfortunate, but it was nice to see him more comfortable with the others and his reaction to Yuto was nice too. Forgiving Academia is a bit of a tough sell for me. I love the theme of finding happiness and hope within sadness and despair in this series. It fits so well with the one and the overall message they're conveying through the Lancers fighting in this war, but forgiving Academia after all they've done is a bit trickier. It fits with the tone of the series, as well as Yuya's refusal to counterattack, and it's a good message to provide for kids, but it doesn't click with me as much as Yuya's desire to make people smile through his duels does.

Ed and Kaito being in the same scene together was so cool. Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of Ed and Kaito bored me to tears at points during Zexal, but the idea of two characters from two separate series coming together is pretty awesome. Ed was also able to explain that carded people can be restored. Admittedly, that's pretty obvious, but confirmation is good and it does give people hope that their friends and families can be restored. It was too bad that Shun was out cold during that exchange and didn't come to Academia at first. Kaito made sense given his desire to restore his family and the Lancers still need all the help they can get, but it's still kind of a shame when Shun was just staring to be more of a team player and having some nice interactions with Yuya as well.

I liked that Yuya and Ed had a nice moment together talking about how Yuya will find Yusho. Part of it could just be how neat it is for Yuya to be interacting with other characters, but their friendship felt nice and genuine. It really did feel like they formed a connection during their duel, so that was neat. Sayaka not going was a bit disappointing since she became surprisingly likable to me, but she wouldn't really be helpful on the front lines right now and both she and Allen will probably be more helpful in explaining the situation to Shun when he wakes up. Allen giving Yuya the roller blade shoes was a bit odd, but I guess they needed to find some way to bring that from the opening into the show.

I wanted to see Yusho reacting to Yugo, as well as Yuzu having more time with Asuka and Yugo, before Dennis showed up. They were in the middle of a conversation with the entire Fusion You Show School being there, but some more interactions would have been nice. Dennis being Yusho's former student made sense. He was already familiar with Yusho before he met Yuya. I liked how Yusho wasn't impressed with how Dennis was too focused on being flashy. It was quite similar to how Jack responded to Yuya at first during their duel. The duel was okay. I didn't realize it until afterwards, but Dennis still has his Pendulum cards, which could mean that Academia has access to the Lancers' strongest weapons.

The duel was shorter than I expected, but I was okay with that. They obviously couldn't have Yusho lose to Dennis, but I didn't expect Yusho to create a distraction for everyone to escape. It made sense though. They were in an vulnerable position. Academia knew where the whole school body was, they could easily have called for backup during their duel and Yuzu was right there for them to kidnap as well. Plus, Dennis wouldn't even need to necessarily get Yusho's life points down to zero to win. He can barely walk, even after a year since that injury, so he obviously can't take any direct attacks without being more injured. Given all of that, it made sense for Yusho to get everyone out of there as quickly as possible. I just wish that we had more character interactions before we got to that point. Yuzu and Yugo have a nice little friendship and seeing more of that before Academia found them would have been nice.

I did like how Yuzu was willing to keep fighting back against Academia instead of letting Yugo protect her. It showed that she still has some of that spunky determination to fight back, even though I did like how Yugo wanted to protect her. Although, it was good she got off the bike when she did since she could have landed somewhere dangerous with Yugo and been in even more danger. I was worried at first that Yuri was showing up, especially when I keep expecting for Yuzu's bracelet to backfire on her, but it was actually Yuya. They got to see each other a lot earlier than expected, so that was surprisingly sweet.

The preview was pretty nice. I certainly wasn't expecting Isao to show back up at this point, so that was an interesting twist. It should be an interesting duel.

While this really did feel like two episodes merged together, I did enjoy the episode and the Xyz arc as a whole. Even now fans complain about how short it was and I can understand why, especially when people have wanted an Xyz arc for a long time. To be honest, I don't think that this arc would have worked for a long period of time. They were limited by what they could do due to a combination of the Xyz dimension being destroyed and a good chuck of the Lancers not being there. Compared to Standard and Synchro, there just wasn't a whole lot for them to do in Heartland for a longer period of time. Standard introduced the characters, fleshed them out and setup for the dimensional war. Synchro continued with developing the cast, trying to help the only other dimension not involved with the war at the time and had the Lancers working both separately and together. There was a lot more for them to do in those two dimensions simply due to how they weren't destroyed. A couple more episodes to provide a better buildup to the conclusion would have been good, especially when these two plots could have gotten their own episode instead of merged together, but I don't think it really needed more than that. Knowing what happens after this point, it really is for the best that they went to Fusion sooner than fans expected. We'll learn more about some of the big questions in Academia, not in the ruins of Heartland, and I think going there sooner rather than later is going to help the series out in the long run.

I still enjoyed the arc quite a bit as it was though. It worked really well with furthering Yuya's development from the Synchro arc, Shun had some nice moments and Ed went from being just angry to being a surprisingly interesting character through his duel with Yuya. It would have been nice if Gongenzaka and Sawatari had a chance to do anything significant and Yuto became less interesting after the first duel with Ed, although I'm pretty sure a large part of that has to do with his fanbase being annoying as heck, but for the most part, I liked what they did in the Xyz arc. A couple of more episodes would have been good, but anything more would have been pushing it.

 

[Master Cyrus]

The anime was so bad I dropped it.

Came back for Yuri and all he's doing is advertising the new starter deck.

Lmao@asuka. She's the most useless cameo of them all.

 

[Hidden Mew]

The anime was so bad I dropped it.

Came back for Yuri and all he's doing is advertising the new starter deck.

Lmao@asuka. She's the most useless cameo of them all.

I disagree immensely with both the show being bad and Asuka being useless. I can see why people would have problems with the way the arc has been structured, but I still think that Arc-V is great and really engaging. I have problems with the show too, but I think that I'm more annoyed with the fanbase at this point, especially when the atmosphere for discussing Arc-V has become so much worse over time for me.

Asuka losing does not make her useless. I am really disappointed that she was carded after only having two duels, but it was still important that she saved Yuzu. Sure, Yuzu was still captured by Serena later on, but it was more important that Yuzu was able to stay with Yuya for a bit and be captured by Serena so that they could establish the whole brainwashing plot point. Granted, I'm still upset with how they handled Yuzu being captured again anyway, but the point is that it was important that Yuzu was saved, learned what happened to Yusho and stayed with Asuka when she did. Plus, she did help Reiji, Reira and Yusho to escape to head towards the Professor and it did seem like we learned more about Yuri through his duel with Asuka, although I'll have to wait until the script comes out to be sure on that point. Asuka does seem to be handled the most poorly out of the returning characters, which is a shame given that she was a surprising announcement and she did shine in her moments, but saying that she was useless is not quite accurate in my opinion.

Anyway, I'll continue on with talking about the other episodes to build up to the most recent one. Even though that will take awhile, I want to talk about Arc-V since it makes me happy and I want more happiness in my life. I thought that Yuya vs. Isao was pretty good. The new intro with the Yuya counterparts and their dragons was pretty cool. I was happy that they didn't changed the footage for the opening theme. It works so well with the song itself and we already had shots of the Fusion dimension within the opening anyway, so I'm glad that it stayed. I loved the Light of Hope opening so much too, so seeing it stay the same for the rest of the arc made me happy.

It would have been nice if Yuzu had been able to talk to Yuya about his father before the duel started, but with Isao and the Academia soldiers being there, there wasn't much time for them to cover that. Kaito's exit to go after Dennis was surprisingly more dramatic than I expected from him. It was sweet that Yuzu wanted to reassure Yuya since he was obviously worried about her, but he had to deal with Isao. His return was a surprise, even though out of all of the Standard dimension characters, Isao joining with Academia makes the most sense.

The duel itself was okay. It still bothered me that Isao was punching Yuya to grab Action Cards, but at least it made a bit more sense outside of a tournament and especially with Isao being with Academia. I was hoping that we'd learn about what has been going on in the Standard dimension through Isao and I was disappointed when that didn't happen. Given how strict his school is, I could buy that Isao would develop a strong grudge against Yuya. He not only lost, but lost in front of his teacher and school. Even so, it also felt a bit extreme at the same time. I think it was a combination of how Isao hasn't been mentioned since the Miami Championship and it shouldn't have been that long since the tournament within the series itself. At most, I think it would be only a couple of weeks in universe between the Miami Championship and the current arc, but I think it helps a bit that he was stuck in this school from a young age, so his extreme anger towards Yuya could be the result of growing up in such a harsh environment. Even with what happened to Dennis later on in mind, I kind of hope that there was more to his trip to Standard than just getting Isao to join their side.

I liked that Yuya still regretted how he defeat Isao before. He may not remember it clearly, but he knew that he didn't want to win that way and he was clearly bothered by his victory for awhile. Seeing that Isao developed a grudge against Yuya over that victory would probably make him feel even worse about the situation. He wants to make everyone happy through his duels, even his enemies, so someone being that angry with him would affect him. I liked that Yuya was able to dodge Isao's punch with his roller skates, even though he was having a hard time getting his balance at first.

While I was glad that the other Academia soldiers weren't going after Yuzu, especially when Gongenzaka and Sawatari haven't been too helpful up to this point, it also seemed odd that they just stopped to watch the duel. I was hoping to at least see Yuzu dueling alongside the others. That was one of the things I liked about her brief tag duel with Sora. It wasn't just Sora to save the day. They worked together to drive Security away and I wanted to see something like that again. I guess that they didn't want to have too much going on in the episode, but it was still a bit disappointing.

I really liked how Yuya was able to show that he wasn't the same person as he was in their last duel. He brought out his so-called evil Xyz dragon, but he gave it levels to prevent Isao's strategy from working. The marks around Isao's body were a lot more intense than I thought they'd be for just losing his life points, but it did work with his extreme reaction to losing as well. There was a good back and forth feeling to the duel, especially with their struggles to get Action Cards from each other. Seeing Yuya using his roller skates a bit more was pretty neat.

Yuya's performance was terrific as always. Not only did he save himself and Isao from that forced draw, but the tower of monsters he created was so cute. I loved how happy and relaxed Yuya sounded during his performance. The strategy itself was pretty solid. Yuya has quite a few low level monsters in his deck, so that would give him an advantage against someone like Isao. The explosion was so cool and I loved Yuya's bow at the end.

I really liked how Yuya reached out to Isao and unlike their first duel, Isao took Yuya's hand. It was a nice way to mirror their first duel, as well as to show more of Yuya's growth. I think it also really helped that the crowd was cheering for them after the duel. Part of the reason why Isao developed a grudge against Yuya was because losing was treated as something horrible in his school. Losing is treated with anger and disappointment rather than reassurance. It wasn't just Yuya's performance, but also the crowd accepting and cheering for both of them even though Isao had lost. The crowd was stunned into silence when Yuya won before, which would have made Isao's defeat even worse, but here, the crowd was cheering for both of them because they enjoyed the duel. The difference in the atmosphere was pretty important. It was the combination of Yuya's Entertainment Dueling and the crowd's cheers for both of them that made Isao warm up to the idea of Entertainment Dueling. Plus, I think it was important to show that regular people in the Fusion dimension like other ways of dueling. I imagine that will help in making them recognize that the Academia way of dueling is not the right way.

The preview for the next episode looked interesting. Dennis vs. Kaito sounds like a good match. Asuka dueling him would have been better, but they were setting it up with Kaito's exit here and they probably wanted Dennis to face off against another Xyz user as well.

 

[Master Cyrus]

I was reading through the summaries and apparently they spent 4 episodes on that one gladiator beast guy? I mean I get that it was literally the only competitive archetype GX ever put out but that's just too much.

And all asuka did was beat up some nameless fodders and then getting rekt by yuri who isn't even using his real deck. Anyone could have came in and saved yuzu. I doubt you can so easily replicate say the scene where Jack OTKs Yuya with some random person.