Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V

[Litten]

I loved the updated Opening tbh. The new episode was mostly dialogue, but I loved the end where Yugo was about to duel that guy, as well as the animation. My only compliant is that it seems like this version of Neo Domino City might simply be an alternate version of the one from 5D's.

 

[Amante do Mikuri]

Hey bitches, I'm not dead! I back to comments! <3

Yuya's mom is soooo fuck yeah! I'm just in love with Yugo! <3 I like bad boy, and he's sooo hot! <3 I'm just fascinating with new plot in anime! Arc-V is the best! This riding duels are dangeours!

 

[Hidden Mew]

I thought that this episode was really good. The updated opening was fantastic. The Riding Duel bit taking over where they had the Action Duel explanation was a nice surprise. It also reminded me of how one of the 5D's opening started up with focusing on the D-Wheel. This is what I was hoping for back when the opening theme first appeared. We get to see new characters, parts of the Synchro dimension and Jack and Crow featured in them. That was way better than shots of random monsters being summoned.

I liked seeing Yuzu and Yugo interacting with each other. They needed to fill in what blanks they could for each other after what happened to them. It was pretty funny how Yugo figured out that Yuzu wasn't Rin because she got his name wrong. I was not expecting to actually see Rin's design. That was another nice surprise since she had a really nice looking design. It was also nice to see exactly why Yuto and Yugo were fighting before. Yuri setting it up in a way does make sense and I was glad that they had most of his head covered. I understand that they don't tend to acknowledge the different hair styles between the counterparts, but Yugo only seeing Yuri's face after he kidnapped Rin made the whole misunderstanding with Yuto so much more understandable. It also helped that they were both upset over losing someone they cared about and weren't in the mood to calmly explain stuff to each other. Not to mention Yugo's name does give the unfortunate implication to Yuto that he would be with the enemy given that Academia destroyed his home and started this war in the first place.

The way Yugo tried to deny that Rin was his girlfriend was adorable. He clearly has feelings for her, but just can't admit them yet. Yugo's determination to just rush into Academia to save Rin was understandable, but not really a smart plan. Even if Yuzu could make her bracelet work whenever she wanted it to, they would still be two people against a whole army. Granted, I don't know if Yugo is aware of that fact, but charging head-first into enemy territory isn't a good idea either. Yuzu crying was also understandable since she is stuck in another dimension, away from Yuya, her father and her friends and with no way of knowing when she could get back home. Yugo apologizing afterwards was nice. It was sweet to get a bit of backstory for Yugo and Rin's relationship. That helps to flesh Yugo out a bit and show why he would be so determined to get her back.

It was great to finally get some information on the Synchro dimension. The whole situation with the Tops and Commons made me think of if Neo Domino City was built on top of Satellite instead of the two being separated by a bridge. I'm not sure if this situation is worse than how it was back in 5D's or not since the Tops control so much despite making up one percent of the population. Even the lady who first noticed Yugo's D-Wheel was acting like Commons were so scary and threatening. Seeing more of the City definitely reminded me of some of the early shots of 5D's where they were first establishing Neo Domino City. Seeing posters of Jack was so awesome and his whole being someone from the Commons who rose to become Duel King is similar to what happened in 5D's. I do wonder if that's actually the case or if he's being used as a puppet to give Commons false hope. He does look more sad and lonely than I expected in the opening theme, so maybe that could be one of the reasons why. Yugo actually wanting to duel Jack was cool, mainly because I've heard a lot of theories about how that was Yugo's goal before this episode.

This episode does make it pretty clear that this is an alternate universe version of 5D's rather than set in the future of 5D's though. While some of the details like the whole social conflict with Tops vs. Commons and the details about Jack's backstory are similar enough to 5D's for older fans to catch the references, it's also brand new for the kids who might not have seen any of 5D's. Personally, I'm fine with this being an alternate universe. While they could have made the Synchro dimension set somewhere after 5D's, I think that would have made things more complicated in the long run, especially with how there's a Fusion dimension despite how GX and 5D's are set in the same universe. This way, they don't have to mess up the established timeline. It can also provide an explanation as to why only Jack and Crow are featured here. For all we know, the other 5D's main characters may not exist in this universe or have had such a different history than they did in 5D's that they're completely different people. It may also allow for them to do more things than they could if they went with a future version of 5D's. I doubt that Security would be any threat and there certainly wouldn't be a social conflict to deal with since they tossed that concept aside completely after the Dark Signer arc. The only problem I could have with this being an alternate universe would be that it would be more tricky to throw in a JackxCarly reference. It was already a long-shot before, but like I said before, Carly and other established 5D's characters may not exist in this universe, but I'm still going to hope for that, even if it's just a small blink and you miss it reference.

A part of me still hopes that the Xyz dimension is where Zexal took place instead of an alternate universe version of Zexal though. 5D's was part of the established timeline, so putting it in its own dimension would have been kind of difficult with that in mind, but Zexal doesn't have that problem. They never mentioned if Zexal was in that same universe and its connection to the established timeline was vague at best. Plus, they still call the main city Heartland instead of giving the area a new name like they did with the Synchro dimension having the City and Tops instead of Neo Domino City and Satellite. It is possible that happened due to how kids might be more familiar with Heartland than Neo Domino City, but I'm kind of hoping that's the same place where Zexal happened just there could be some confirmation on where Zexal took place. It might not be too likely if they just want every dimension to be an alternate universe of their respective series, but it's a possibility.

Anyway, ending the episode with the start of a Riding Duel was so awesome. Just hearing the Riding Duel! Acceleration! line at the end was so fantastic. There was so much 5D's nostalgia and nods in this episode and it was just so good. Seeing a Riding Duel again in the next episode should be a lot of fun.

 

[Litten]

I liked the new episode, especially seeing the new Goyo cards and old 5D's cards used by the Security dude. The Synchro spam was just great all around, and lol @ Yuya's group getting cornered so soon.

 

[Master Cyrus]

This was a great duel on both sides.

If only we had a proper speed world with speed spells and speed counters to make it an authentic 5ds experience. That would have been perfect.

Also I'm disappointed yugo's attacks no longer do real damage like they did in standard. A small part of me wished he was a psychic duelist.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I thought that last week's episode was pretty good. It was fun to see another Riding Duel. Yuzu's reactions to being on the back of a D-Wheel were understandable. For someone who never heard of or experienced Riding Duels before, it would seem too dangerous to duel while driving around. Plus, motorcycles in general go really fast and being on the back of one would be scary in itself. Personally, I don't mind the lack of Speed Spells and Speed Counters. While I liked how that was used for a good portion of 5D's, except for Speed World 2, to separate Riding Duels from regular duels, I think that it would have been too limiting for Arc-V. I'm sure that they'll want to combine Action and Riding Duels eventually, which wouldn't be possible if Riding Duels only allowed Speed Spells to be used. Using Pendulum monsters in a Riding Duel wouldn't have worked either since monsters in the Pendulum Zones are treated as Spell Cards. Besides, this is kind of how duels are played out in the 5D's manga, aside from the whole sense aspect, so it still has elements of 5D's in there without the Speed Spells and Counters.

I knew that the duel would be reported on, but I wasn't expecting it to be treated as a form of entertainment. It does further emphasize how corrupt the society is in the Synchro dimension. Not only do the people in the Tops look down on Commons, but they take pleasure in seeing them struggle against Security. The duel itself was pretty good. The Duel Chaser's monsters were quite nostalgic, especially his Tuner monsters, and it was neat to see some Synchro monsters. I suspect that there will be Synchro spamming throughout their time in the Synchro dimension. Yugo commenting about the Friendship Cup was interesting too. It was just a small moment, but it shows how different dueling is for the different dimensions. We already saw that the Fusion and Xyz dimension see dueling as a means to attack and defend themselves respectively in this war. While the Synchro dimension isn't involved in that conflict yet, they still treat dueling in a different way too. Yuzu and other duelists in the Standard dimension treat dueling more as a sport or form of entertainment. It's clearly important to them, but it doesn't decide life or death choices. Yugo and other duelists in the Synchro dimension use dueling as a means to get a better life. Being able to climb up the ranks doesn't just make you a pro duelist. It can take you from living in the slums to being rich, or at least having a better living environment. While Yuzu was already aware of the dimensional war, she didn't see much of it herself, but she might have some interesting reactions to seeing how dueling is treated in this universe.

I liked the way Yugo won the duel. Both Jean and the Duel Chaser underestimated him and that allowed for him to get the victory. It was also pretty cool to see Yugo use Clear Wing Synchro Dragon again. While trying to still arrest Yugo even after the duel made more sense than how people would be able to go if they defeated someone from Security, it also showed how unfair the system is for Commons. They aren't given a break and people from the Tops still want to have control over them. It makes me wonder if the Friendship Cup really is a way for people to rise out of Commons or if that's just a lie people from the Tops made to give Commons false hope and so that they can enjoy watching them struggle against the system that they've created in their favor. That sounds really plausible and Jack being more of a King figure to continue that false hope sounds like a possibility too. Yugo being able to escape Security was pretty cool.

Yuya being with Serena, Reira and Sawatari was an interesting development. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Reiji planned for everyone to be split up and didn't tell anyone because he's Reiji. He isn't particularly good with giving out useful information ahead of time when it would be needed. I also kind of like the idea of Reiji's technology just messing up causing the Lancers to split up since something wouldn't go like he planned for a change, but planning it out ahead of time sounds more likely. While Yugo with his helmet on doesn't strike me as looking exactly like Yuya, at least the helmets resolve the hair issue in this case of mistaken identity. Sawatari throwing a fit over people treating him differently and throwing his name like it meant anything to anyone from this dimension was annoying. To be fair, they were in the position where they had to duel. I understand why Yuya wasn't instantly going for that like Serena and Sawatari were since he wouldn't want to cause more trouble when they hadn't done anything, but they couldn't just walk away at that point either.

It looks like Serena and Sawatari will be focused on the Security guards while Yuya focuses on helping Reira. I am curious as to how Serena and Sawatari work together given how they interacted at first. Sawatari didn't trust her and instantly accused Serena of being a spy, so maybe that will affect their teamwork and interactions. I still honestly don't like Sawatari. He can be entertaining with how much of a ham he can be, but he's also annoying. He basically comes off as Manjoume 2.0 without anything really interesting about him or significant developments. He's annoying to me, but I'm more indifferent towards him than anything else at the moment. I wouldn't mind if they did something to make Sawatari more appealing/interesting, especially when I get the impression that he's a Lancer primarily due to his popularity and he cares more about being on center stage than helping to end this dimensional war. In a similar issue, I really hope that they do something with Reira. He is basically Haruto if he was a duelist at this point. He had a more promising start than Haruto did for me since his duel with Ayu set up their contrasting personalities really well and it did make me more eager to see where the Junior tournament went. Unfortunately, it was mostly done off screen afterwards and Reira has just been there. He doesn't seem particularly close to Reiji, despite how he did seem to like being compared to him after winning the tournament, and he has barely had any lines. I think his reaction to the Security guards was the most emotion we've seen from him yet. He really needs to be fleshed out more. Exploring more of his relationship with Reiji and his past in general while they're separated would be good.

 

[Master Cyrus]

I'm sure Crow and Yugo can cheat the system and make it, but the vast majority of people won't have decks a fraction as strong as blackwings or a legendary one of a kind super dragon like clear wing in their decks.

 

[Litten]

Yuya's deck has always bugged me, but I cringed more than usual when I saw him duel in the new episode. Poor Sawatari losing off-screen, and Reira was useless as expected. Glad that Crow and his gang saved the day though.

 

[Master Cyrus]

This episode was a disappointment other than crow.

Sawatari lost in 3 seconds.

Serena used nothing new.

Yuya's obsession with egao was just annoying and didn't help reira in the least. If you wanted to entertain people go rebellion on security's asses.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Yuya's obsession with egao was just annoying and didn't help reira in the least. If you wanted to entertain people go rebellion on security's asses.

That would have gone against everything Yuya learned from his duel against his mother though. The entire point of that match was for Yuya to realize that he can retain his entertainment dueling style while dealing with his enemies. Using Odd-Eyes Rebellion right off the bat like that when they weren't in immediate danger would have made it seem like the lesson didn't have any impact on Yuya. After that duel, it would have been strange if he wasn't trying to make people smile through his duels, especially when he didn't want to be seen as a criminal or a threat by dueling them in the first place. Even though he most likely will go into his berserk mode at some point, I think going Odd-Eyes Rebellion right off the bat wouldn't have fit with what they're doing with Yuya's character at all and it wouldn't have been a good way to start off his journey in the Synchro dimension either.

While Reira was still scared during the duel, I think it would have been worst if Yuya had gone Odd-Eyes Rebellion on Security, especially if that triggered his berserk mode. Yuya wanting to try to comfort Reira and get him to safety fits perfectly fine with his character. Besides that, one reason why they went to the Synchro dimension was so that the Lancers could get more allies. That might already be difficult to do given the corrupt social structure within this dimension, but if Yuya had been that aggressive against these Security guards right when they just got there, that would have made it even harder, if not impossible, for the Lancers to gain new allies. They would be seen more as a threat and that also would have made things more difficult for Yuzu and Yugo as they're trying to evade Security too. At the very least, that would have limited what allies they could get since Security wouldn't be in favor of helping them out most likely.

I'm going to wait for the script to come out to comment on the episode more in detail since I usually do that here, but I will say that I enjoyed the episode. I thought that it was pretty good, but I can understand why people would find it disappointing. I had a completely different idea of what was going to happen due to the preview information. Misleading previews certainly aren't new, but they can still be disappointing. I still remember fake previews for 5D's that were better than what we actually got for that series. I will say that Sawatari losing that quickly was hilarious and I enjoyed Yuya's entertainment dueling style. I can kind of see why people would find it annoying if they don't like it or just prefer Yuya in his berserk mode, but I like happy Yuya too. Happy Yuya is always good in my book. It was fun, refreshing to see him so upbeat for a whole duel after everything he's gone through and Security's reactions made his dueling style more hilarious at times.

 

[HumanDawn]

Subs for Arc-V episode 56 are already out! It's a shame about Shingo, I think people were really mislead by the opening that showed him having his Pendulum monsters out in the field, which was in the same area. He's only any good when he's either trying to be heroic like when he saved Tsukikage or entertaining like when he was against Yuya. Honestly that One-turn kill felt really cheap too, and I would have liked to see how it was even possible. Still if we're to believe the Opening where he's in a D-Wheel suit he might actually be contributive instead of wasting space and even helping the police, although Action Cards shouldn't be difficult to learn after seeing one be used anyway.

Serena not using any new cards was kind of lame, since I think her monsters have really cool designs, but at the same time I don't mind. Yuya already showed of some interesting new cards that have really helpful effects that make the Entermate archtype much stronger and usable. I feel really sorry for Reira, but I think he'll get used to the danger.

 

[Master Cyrus]

I probably should have said more entertaining for the viewers now that I think about it lol.

Every episode where rebellion showed up was awesome, even when he got cheated out of a well deserved win vs sora due to the time limit.

Also since you start with 5 cards it could be possible that sawatari got ftkd. Or worse he went first and still lost, resulting in a ZTK for the security.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I probably should have said more entertaining for the viewers now that I think about it lol.

Every episode where rebellion showed up was awesome, even when he got cheated out of a well deserved win vs sora due to the time limit.

While I agree that Odd-Eyes Rebellion is awesome and the episode where it has been used have been good to great, it still wouldn't have made any sense for Yuya to use that in the context of this episode or his character at this point. If the situation involved something more life-threatening than being taken in by Security, then I could have seen Yuya bringing out his heavy hitters, but he didn't want to be seen as an enemy, he didn't want Reira to be more terrified, which he would have been at seeing Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon, and he wanted to embrace the lesson his mother was trying to teach him during their last duel. If Yuya did bring out Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon in this duel, it could have easily been a step backwards for his character or that he didn't learn anything from his mother's match.

Anyway, I thought that this was a pretty good episode. I had such a different idea of how the episode would play out. Like I mentioned before, I thought that Sawatari and Serena would team up together to duel Security and their teamwork would reflect their personalities, as well as possibly some tension from how Sawatari first considered Serena a spy. A part of me is a bit disappointed that they didn't go that route since that could have provided some interesting interactions between the two and flesh both of them out. At the same time, Sawatari losing so quickly was hilarious. I thought that he might still end up losing even if he did team up with Serena, but I wasn't expecting it off screen and right when the episode started. That was funny and satisfying to see at the same time.

I can understand why people would be upset if they like Sawatari, but I don't care about him at all. I said that I was indifferent towards him, but his last few appearances have knocked him back down to annoyance. He is pretty unlikable. He can be entertaining, but he's also an annoying jerk who has a huge ego. Despite being in a different dimension, he's still acting like his name and being the son of the next mayor has any weight, which is especially strange considering most people didn't seem to care about him being the son of the next mayor even in the Standard dimension. Not only that, but he kept acting like he lost on purpose so that Yuya can learn from him. He talks a big game, but hasn't really proven himself to be a strong duelist. I also said before that Sawatari is Manjoume 2.0, but I think that saying he's the poor man's Manjoume is a more accurate way to describe him. At this point in GX, Manjoume actually had character development. He had conflicts to deal with from his family, actually climbed up from the bottom up at North Academia to become a stronger duelist and was able to beat one of his brothers with a deck full of weak monsters. Granted, Manjoume wasn't handled perfectly as I always thought that the writers didn't know if they wanted to take him seriously or not, but there was still a bit more to his character than just being the comedy relief.

Sawatari hasn't really had any development. The most he might have had was having more respect for Yuya during their rematch, but that seemed to be thrown out the window when he still is acting all high and mighty over him. He doesn't realize that he isn't as good as he keeps making himself out to be and he hasn't really learned anything from his defeats. He's still the same stuck up kid he was at the beginning of the series. I'm pretty sure that the only reason he wanted to join the Lancers was so that he could be on center stage and get glory, which would be shallow and give him possibly the weakest reason to be a Lancer if that's the case. I don't even know if they're going to bother developing Sawatari's character at this point. They might be content with keeping him as a joke character, similar to how they're fine with Mieru being basically a Yuya fangirl and nothing more. That would be disappointing and also annoying given that he's part of the Lancers, so they might as well do something of substance with Sawatari, but I really don't know if they're going to do that at this point. Unless he actually realizes that he isn't as good as he claims to be, his name and father being the next mayor have absolutely no meaning to anyone and he actually works to get stronger, I don't think Sawatari is going to change.

While Sawatari's defeat was hilarious, it, along with Reira's behavior, highlighted a huge problem: Reiji is a terrible leader. That was already obvious with how he handled the Battle Royale and not providing helpful information when it was needed, but man, the decision to include these two as Lancers really makes him look like a horrible leader. His process of choosing Lancers was incredibly flawed. If Sawatari can't even defeat one Security guard, then how is he going to be any good against Academia soldiers? He was able to face them in the Battle Royale round, but that was a group effort and his contribution was having Pendulum cards that Gongenzaka could give to Shun, which didn't provide much confident that he could face them on his own. Even in his rematch against Yuya, which I think was his best duel to date, Sawatari didn't come off as Lancer material, so simply surviving the Battle Royale doesn't mean that he could be helpful as a Lancer. It would tie into my theory on how Sawatari's popularity is more of a reason as to why he became a Lancer more than any in-universe justification for it, especially when he was gone for a little over ten episodes before suddenly reappearing to be thrown into the plot.

Reira was also too terrified to do anything, which is more understandable considering that he's a little kid thrown right into a war. Simply winning the Junior tournament doesn't mean that he was emotionally prepared for a war. Tossing him into this conflict comes off as pretty insensitive, if not cold-hearted. His leadership skills are even worse if Reiji really did split up the Lancers into different groups on purpose without telling them. He probably assumed that they'd develop some teamwork while being put into actual danger and survive, but spending some time to let the groups work together to develop teamwork ahead of time would have made much more sense. It also would have been more helpful than banking on them trying to work things out on the battlefield. I really hope that someone calls Reiji out again for his methods and another punch would be nice too.

I still enjoyed Yuya's entertainment dueling style though. It was nice to see that his mother's lessons did have an impact on him and he was trying to follow through with it. It was also nice to see Yuya being so upbeat and happy throughout an entire duel after everything he's gone through recently. It was a nice way to provide some light-hearted moments to give the audience a breather after the last few serious introduction episodes to the Synchro dimension. It was also refreshing to see Yuya use his Discover Hippo again. It feels like it's been ages since he used it. Plus, the Security guards' reactions to seeing a kid ride around on a Hippo and seeing dancing hippos were hilarious. It was like they had no idea what was going on. Despite Sawatari getting upset over Yuya's entertainment dueling style, he was still clearly taking the match seriously. Yuya was still playing to win. He wanted to be entertaining, but he wouldn't have thrown the match on purpose. Plus, he was planning on having Serena and Reira escape, which showed how he was taking their safety into consideration.

It was sweet to see how Yuya was trying to reassure Reira. He acted similarly when trying to reassure Ayu, Tatsyua and Futoshi, so acting like a surrogate big brother figure for Reira felt natural. While Reira didn't smile, I would say that had more to do with how terrified he was. Plus, I think that the only times he smiled were when Reiji complimented his victory against Ayu and when Tatsyua compared him to Reiji. He was sticking close to Yuya and I still think he would have been even more scared if he saw Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon at that point.

It was a bit disappointing that Serena didn't use any new cards, but her match had less screentime compared to Yuya. It was still pretty decent. They did seem surprise about her Fusion monster, but not to the extent they were with the Pendulum monsters. Maybe that means that Fusion monsters do exist in this dimension, but they are extremely rare and are hardly ever seen. Sawatari explaining how Action Cards work was incredibly stupid. Granted, they would have figured out how those worked eventually, but they had just gotten to this dimension and he explained how one of their main weapons worked. At least he didn't explain how Pendulum summoning works, but that still made Sawatari look more like an idiot to me.

Yuya's new Pendulum monsters were adorable, especially the turtle. I also noticed that during his last draw, his hair started to go up like when he's possessed. Maybe he's starting to unconsciously use whatever power is inside of him for his duels. Yuya trying to get Serena and Reira to safety after they were surrounded by more guards made sense, but expecting Serena to run away from a fight wasn't particularly smart. Serena is too head strong to run away from a fight and she would rather fight against all of her enemies. Besides that, there wasn't much room to run away by that point. At least Yuya wasn't in a position where he was going to lose per say. It wasn't a guarantee, but it was leading more towards his favor in my opinion.

Crow's appearance was so awesome. Seeing him Synchro summon a new Blackwing was cool and it was neat to see that he had a group with him ready to save everyone. I figured that Crow was going to show up at the end of the episode, but it was still a good note to end the episode with. I'm so eager to see how he and Yuya interact with each other. I can understand why people might find this episode to be lackluster or disappointing, but I think that there was still enough here to make the episode enjoyable. I might be bias due to Yuya being my favorite character in the series and Sawatari being more of an annoying jerk than anything else for me, but I think it was still a pretty good episode.

 

[Norzan]

Well, Crow Hogan showed up at the end of last week episode. Now the wait for the next episode will be painful.

 

[Master Cyrus]

First people made comparisons to pokemon with serena then naruto with rin, and as fitting the pattern NGE and shinji.

And they aired the first ep of the dub.

Yuya and zuzu were okay. Thank god she doesn't sound like Kotori. Circus hitler had a nice voice but lost his stache. I wasn't a fan of gong but then again he is voiced by someone named Billy Bob.

 

[Litten]

I liked episode 57 for the most part. Yugo was funny, the Yeager easter egg was neat, and I liked Dennis vs. Gongenzaka even though it felt kinda pointless imho.

 

[Master Cyrus]

Calls episode Crow the black whirlwind.

Crow doesn't do shit other than reiterate that capitalism is evil.

Okay

 

[Hidden Mew]

I thought that last week's episode was pretty good. It was cool to see Crow interact with some of the current cast. Even though it's an alternate universe, he still takes care of kids, which I think is really sweet. I wonder if he'll have a backstory similar to what he had in 5D's, or at least the backstory he had during the Dark Signer arc before they threw in that retcon just so that he could get Blackwing Dragon. I always hated that retcon since the backstory Crow had at first was great and provided a much better reason as to why he started to take care of other orphan children.

I could have done without Sawatari trying to make himself sound that great though. His arrogance really annoys me and it's especially bad considering he lost in a one turn kill in the previous episode. I'm hoping that Crow saw that part of the match so he knew that Sawatari was lying from the start. It also reaffirms my opinion that Sawatari hasn't learned a darn thing from his defeats. He claims that he's an undefeated duelist, despite how he's lost all of his one-on-one matches thus far. It kind of reminds me of Sora's arrogant attitude, which really bugged me even before he showed his true colors. As much as Sora's cocky attitude bugged me, at least he actually had the skills to back it up. Sawatari clearly doesn't. He isn't the worst duelist in the show, but he is easily the weakest of the Lancers and acting like he's so high and mighty right after having a pathetic defeat does not give me much hope for him to get any actual solid development. The most development he arguably had was being more respectful towards Yuya during their second duel, but I'm pretty sure that went out the window by now considering he introduced Yuya as his disciple. At this point, I either want them to actually develop Sawatari so there could be some reason why I'd want to root for him or just card him if he's going to continue being pretty much deadweight. At his current strength, there's no way he could defeat someone from Academia and my faith that the writers are going to do anything other than continue using him as a joke is pretty small right now.

At least Crow's reaction to hearing that they're from another dimension was kind of funny. It was nice that he offered to let them stay at his place until things cooled down and to go out looking for their friends so Security wouldn't be on their tail. I would have enjoyed a bit more screentime for Crow, but what we got was nice. It helped to establish Crow and have some short, but sweet interactions with the cast. It also helps that we'll get more of him in the upcoming episodes. I think it's also a good sign that he didn't take up that much screentime. As awesome as it is that they are bringing back older characters, I don't want them to overshadow the current cast. They've already had their time to shine, while the Arc-V cast hasn't as much given that the story is still going, so it might be a good sign that Crow didn't take up as much screentime as people thought he would in this episode.

I loved the 5D's references shown throughout the episode. They were nice little touches for long time fans. It also gives me hope that there is a Carly in this universe if they included the guy who gave her information about the Arcadia Movement for a Dark Magician Girl figure in this universe. I'm still hoping for some JackxCarly reference despite this being an alternate universe. I'm not sure how that would work exactly, especially when we still don't know how Jack's history is in this universe, but I'm still hoping for it.

I thought that it was sweet how Gongenzaka was asking if people had seen Yuya. It made sense given their friendship and the fact that he's the only Lancer who Gongenzaka has any solid connection with in the first place, but it just seemed like a nice image that his first thought was to find Yuya. Dennis' claim that putting on shows could get Yuya to find them seemed a bit sketchy. While it's possible that their performances would cause Yuya to find them, that does require Yuya to either be around a TV or near the area where people would be talking about their street performances. It requires more assumptions and less effort than being more proactive like Gongenzaka was trying to do. Gongenzaka's "Ladies and Gentleman" line was hilarious though.

Gongenzaka vs. Dennis was pretty fun. It was nice to see Gongenzaka get a full duel again and Dennis had some nice cards. Dennis also went for the villain role way too quickly. Granted, it could have been just to give the fans what they'd like, but it's hard to say if his performance was just Dennis being a good actor or showing a bit of his true colors through his performance. The way he introduced Pendulum and Xyz summoning to the general public was also interesting. With the way he described Pendulum summoning, it sounded more evil than it was and even after he explained how Pendulum monsters can be summoned again from the Extra Deck, the kids thought that it was cheating. They weren't as amazed as they were with his Xyz summon, despite how it was also another unknown form of summoning. Even though this was just a street performance, this is still how the general public are going to find out about Pendulum and Xyz monsters and they're used by someone claiming to be villain. That might cause people to see people who use those forms of summonings differently since first impressions do count for something. It was cool to see Gongenzaka win at the end though.

While I could understand why people would find the duel pointless, I wouldn't say that exactly. Their match did catch Gallager's attention and they are going to find Shun because of that. Melissa capturing Pendulum and Xyz monsters on her show might also be significant and the way Dennis performed his role as the villain could be foreshadowing to how his reveal will go later on. I doubt that they'll find out about Dennis being a spy anytime soon, but it might be a bit of foreshadowing on the writers' parts.

 

[Master Cyrus]

So are we getting no explanation for how Shun learned how to ride a motorcycle in less than a day and Dennis in about 5 minutes?

 

[Litten]

So the new episode basically involved tons of Xyz/RUM spam from Shun as usual and a few minor plot points like Serena and Sawatari walking out on Yuya to do other things. I liked Mukuro's cameo though.