Ranting about Yugioh Girls For over 1 Hour (DM + GX + 5Ds)

[@Mister100Percent]

“Wasted Potential” is a fucking understatement. Alexis Rhodes is still somehow the only major character whose deck was centered around Ritual summoning and she got as dirty as well… ritual summoning. Well at least her cards are meta… #1 in my heart dammit.

[@archmagemc3561]

Nah, her cards aren't meta, because she has no Herald. Herald is what makes that deck meta xD.

[@Mister100Percent]

@@archmagemc3561 Oi I said her cards are meta. Not that her entire deck is meta. Cyber Girls are… oof. I have a soft spot for Cyber Tutu, but everything else I don’t use and I wish they would stop pushing those cards as her mains when Cyber Angels exist. Now those cards are great, especially when they broke Duel Links that one time. Gotta have Cyber Angel Benten and/or Natasha to make things go crazy imo. Other Cyber Angels are great imo.

[@archmagemc3561]

@@Mister100Percent Lets be honest, its something that wasn't even mentioned in his video; ALL of the female duelists have no iconic decks or decks of any decent meta relevance. ESPECIALLY when compared to their male counterparts. Mai is the only exception, but she never is seen with any of the new cards theyve made for harpies or their entirely new playstyle, and Mai stops using harpies after season 1 so.... yeah....

[@Mister100Percent]

@@archmagemc3561 Lmao let’s be honest, how many anime character decks are actually meta relevant? Not all of them stand the test of time well and some have been getting support for years and still aren’t even close to meta, looking at you Neospacians. Nonetheless Alexis’s Cyber Angels have been meta relevant. Iirc they were the first tier 0 deck in Duel Links and dominated hard. Even in the TCG/OCG her Cyber Angels are still meta relevant due to their synergy with Drytrons. Benten got limited to 1 like a year ago because of Drytron shenanigans. As for the other important women duelists. Mai’s Harpie Ladies are very iconic. Same for Akiza’s Black Rose Dragon. Tea technically has a Dark Magician Girl which is very fucking iconic. Most major anime characters will have an iconic deck that people get attached to regardless of Meta Relevance. Look at Blue Eyes White Dragon which can brick enough to build a house.

[@mezasepkmn]

@@archmagemc3561 If we’re to be honest- most anime decks aren’t meta, or have never been. DM has been rogue at best, (unless I missed something), Red Eyes & Blue Eyes were meta in like 2014/2015 and that’s been it since. HEROES & Cyber Dragons & Cyber Angels have had some meta relevancy, but never the pure/whole deck. With 5ds, Black Rose, Ancient Fairy, & Stardust Dragon have been relevant but not the decks they come from. No Zexal Era decks have ever seen any Meta Relevancy, and for Arc-V, DDD, Performapal/Odd Eyes, Perfomage seen Meta Play but to my recollection besides PK, Lyrilusc and Lunalight during the Vrains era none of those Archetypes from the anime have seen meta relevancy too, (Fluffals being rogue for a bit.) Vrains is the first series where EVERY main characters deck was meta relevant for a time

[@dspace4514]

I really want to see you talking about Zexal or Arc-V, one who didn't even seem to give female characters a chance and the others who just wasted their female characters... WHICH WERE IMPORTANT FOR THE PLOT BTW!

[@saiyanscaris6530]

arc-v even wasted a chance for yuya to face rin and yuzu when they were brainwashed

[@ricniks4619]

Arc V you only have Ruri & Serena where they get bodied when Yuya goes ape shit with that overkill *THERE IS NO NEXT TURN* moment.

[@brunosanto3488]

@@ricniks4619 Friendly reminder that Ruri and Rin were hardly characters at all: they were walking plot devices (where the highlight is Rin beating Yugo, but it's a brainwashed duel)

[@brunosanto3488]

Any. It will be so much fun to see his reaction to VRAINS, especially Aoi (who was an Aki 2.0 in some ways)

[@ricniks4619]

@@brunosanto3488 Well when you have 4 girls who are all the Yuboys love interests it can be hard to develope them all good. Especially when you have characters from a ton of different dimensions showing up & dimensions to explore which is interesting to see.

[@filipvadas7602]

I think the best way to describe the way this franchise treats female characters is that that they're like really expensive fireworks ,that end up being duds. In the sense that the *setup* was really good, but everything afterwards just fizzles out I mean, remember Mai in Duelist Kingdom? She was awesome! All you had to do to understand her was look at her staple card(s) , The Harpie Lady. A beautiful winged being with sharp claws that uses her looks to beguile men and hide the fact that she's a ruthless predator at her core And her arc of going from a merciless manipulator and cheater for the sake of fortune and living comftorably to someone with a newfound respect for Joey and Yugi, so much so she starts dueling genuenly. No tricks, no gimmicks. She is even instrumental at getting Yami and Yugi out of their rut ( the reason for said rut changing based on Sub and Dub) even tho she could have just used it to her advantage, but she wanted a fair Duel against a worthy opponent she respected, not against an unfocused mess. All of this is genuenly masterclass writting, but AFTERWARDS it genuenly felt like Takahashi had NO CLUE what to do with Mai. Delegating her to a damsel in distress towards the end of Battle City and basically being nowhere to be found in the final arc ( not talking about the filler since that's *technically* not canon, but even then she didn't get much. Tho at least they gave her a bit of a sendoff rather then just having her disappear for no reason) And that's just one example. Akiza also had a great arc and semi-redemption, but then basically became irrelevant after the Dark Signer Arc with Crow taking her place among the main cast The Zexal girls were entertaining at least all throughout, but their main roles half the time seemed to be as love interests We don't talk about the Arc-V girls. They got shafted so bad man. The only character that was somewhat consistent and got a little better as the series went on was Alexis. She was kinda bland at first, but as time went on they started making her more proactive and by the end she was more of an organic member of the cast Its just a shame it took the writers half the show to actually do something with her.

[@christopherb501]

*relegating

[@Eric6761]

I heard a KZbinr saying that: "Akiza arc just ended soo there is nothing more to address" and my minds just blew because thats not how a arc goes

[@Magevast9]

@@Eric6761yep. The whole point of a character arc is to have that character change and then after the arc SHOW that said character changed. Unfortunately the writers of yugioh didn’t get the memo.

[@Eric6761]

@@Magevast9 imagine If character arcs were like this, in the end of Avatar The last airbender it Zuko Just sits on the background and do nothing

[@Godzilla-tu2cd]

RIP Takahashi 🙏. Your legacy will be missed

[@sharkjumpingwalrus6744]

Ironically, they didn't have to sideline the non duelists. Tristan being good with technology meant that he could easily play a role in disarming the death traps that Yugi Moto often found himself in when dueling, giving him something to do in the background. Tea Gardner could have learned the more supernatural side of things, allowing her to mitigate the damage of shadow games, and letting her actually be a mystic instead of mitigating it to one episode. I think the biggest issue here is the mindset behind centering a series around specific characters. The problem is that "When everyone is super, no one is." or in the minds of many writers, if everyone can contribute, no one is ever gonna be the hero. It's a childish mindset that was supposed to reflect how petty Syndrome had become by boiling down a super hero to having super powers, and that said powers only have value when no one else has them, but sadly reflects how many writers are willing to trash their characters to put one on a pedestal. In doing so, they both destroy the character they put on the pedestal by striping them of the flaws that made them relatable in favor of a milk toast protagonist that can overcome any challenge because that is somehow cool, and the dynamics that character had by sidelining all but a select few. And those select few are typically chained to support roles, making them just as bland as the protagonist they support.

[@bthsr7113]

Agreed. And making them have distinct strengths really lets you get into the characterization more.

[@oxcare5]

This just honestly makes me appreaciate Yugioh Sevens even more as while yes, it does have Luke and Yuuga at the focus, Sevens is really close to being an ensemble with the cast. (And Yuuga is the only protagonist to not break rules of the game) Edit: Also, Romin, the female lead wins against the protagonist fair and square. There isn't anything about the protagonist messing up or giving up to be kind or anything like that. Romin just beats Yuga's ass in a duel.

[@alexblake5369]

To be fair to the original Yugioh series it's important to remember that originally the story wasn't about the card game. Yami was the "King of Games" and every arc in the manga was about a different game he would have to master or a situation he would have to overcome. Yugi's friends actually had a purpose during that story as each character had a particular type of game they were good at. Yugi's specialty was card or niche games that involved tactical thinking (but as the main character he was good at any game); Joey was the physical game expert, so like basketball or martial arts etc.; Tristan was good at management style or shooting games; and Tea was good at musical or rhythm-based games. However when the manga shifted to making Duel Monsters as it's main plot game; everyone except for Joey kind of got left behind since these characters were never designed to be good or play a card game like Duel Monsters. Them even having a deck is actually out of character and a sign that Duel Monsters was evolving from just a card game in the world to a literal staple of how that world functions where every human from birth makes a Duel Monsters deck. Even Joey wasn't originally supposed to be good at Duel Monsters; with him playing it early in the manga supposed to act as the game's introduction in the story. However they make an arc out of him getting better so it works to an extent but they drop the dynamic that Joey was supposed to be the muscle to Yugi's brains. Like whenever physical games would be played in the early manga, Yugi would have to resort to some kind of trick or tactic relying on his opponents overconfidence whereas Joey would just straight up be a better physical athlete than his opponent (and ironically would have to overcome his opponent playing some kind of trick on him). Duel Monsters can't really show this complimenting skill set since by its nature Duel Monsters is a tactical game, so Joey is just kind of forever stuck as Yugi's underdog understudy rather than an equal partner who brings his own unique vital skills to the table. He also just has a ton of wasted potential since we never really dive into the fact he comes from a broken home with an abusive father. Hell early Yugi (that the TV show skips) had an entire arc where Joey has to face his old friends and past as a bad guy.

[@NicoTreecko]

So many things could've been changed to make female characters more prominent/memorable. Pretty much only gonna focus on the duelists. 1. Mai Valentine: Could have been at least made more connected in the Orichalcos arc, like give her an Atlantis connection/lineage, connect her to the dragons regaining their knight form. Just something other than evil biker girl. 2. Alexis: Is actually a Cyber style duelist, like Zane. Could've done more with a mentor and student connection with Zane; on top of more searching for her brother. Yes, doesn't give too much agency to her on her own, and season 2 would've tied her into the Hell Kaiser change. But we get a little more deciding for herself in season 3, then in season 4 have her decide she wants to be more active, taking a mentor like role for herself. Very much a slow burn, but the simple ice queen who slowly opens up to others would work. 3. Aki: Again all the way through the Dark Signer arc, excellent. I think she could've used more of a redemption for her. Like if she did duel instead of the Yusei against the professor, it could have been a good jumping off point. Give us a duel against Sherry, where she tries to understand the bond Sherry and Yusei have with ride duels (maybe even a riding one where Yusei is with her on the D-Wheel for even more shipping fuel) and Sheery wins (a boost for her character) then Aki decides she wants to get her liscene. Then give a small arc like crashtown for Aki that involves looking for some of the kids Divine took for his psychic round up that weren't found after the Dark Signer arc. Make a remnant of Arcadia still be a thing, have Carly be the one who found the lead and wants to expose it, cameo of Misty (even if it's a flashback), and have Aki worry that Divine is back and following her. Build up to a either a Divine or a devote follower (maybe that Divine can speak through telepathically), which Aki has to face and confront her past as the Black Witch which some of these kids even feared/was hurt by. Then Aki wins, saves the kids with her psychic powers or heals them, and Arcadia is finally put to rest with Carly exposing everything. 4. Luna: JUST GIVE HER A UNIQUE ARCHETYPE!!! Seriously, absolute bare minimum wasn't even give to this poor girl. She's supposed to be like prodigy level and her deck has the least synergy of the main protagonists. Plot-wise, not much to work with after the Dark Signers but maybe have her become the Ishizu of 5Ds and her connection to Duel Spirits would lead to anything plot convenient or exposition dump. Like Meklords terrify Duel Spirits as they don't recognize them or have no soul or something alluding to Meklords are from the future. 5. Sherry: It's Mai all over again. Just connect her to something. Like a future version of herself is actually the one who founded Yiliaster or something. Give her a couple more duels before she disappears, like the Aki one mentioned above. Maybe another where she and her butler want to recruit Yusei to their team but they have to duel Jack and Crow in a tag duel with tournament rules. Crow beats the butler, but Sherry dominates with the setup left behind for her and wipes the floor with Crow. Jack comes in and it's a close back and forth until using one of Crow's cards, Jack narrowly takes the win (but also shows his lack of power to foreshadow that upcoming Red Nova). So much potential that the anime just didn't want to use. I mean even Tania could've gotten a tag duel with Bastian in season 3 of GX just so there was something else and add to the world building of the Dark World threat

[@alicepbg2042]

4 - you know... I never really cared that her deck was a mess. because they were all her friends. so her deck is all the monster spirits from the cards that she wants to be around. and that's fine. it's very close to yusei's "every card has it's value" motto, and they should have made more of a point in the show to put this connection forward. all she needed was a duel where the enemy is like "your cards have no synergy and they suck" and she goes "these cards are my friends, and I'll never abandom them" and then procced to destroy the guy in the duel. just a 1v1 to show she doesn't care about sinergy or optimizing her deck, she just plays with the cards she likes (and wins)

[@bulbasaur15]

# 001 In short, the creator (may he R.I.P) or whoever wrote the story of these series clearly came from Akira Toriyama's school of writing female characters. Even Miho from Season 0 was essentially the "Launch" of Yugioh.

[@christopherb501]

​@@bulbasaur15 Not gonna blame Takahashi for it. I'm going to blame the uncreative HACKS that couldn't stop being derivative of derivative of derivative of his work.

[@Eric6761]

Naturia would fit her perfectly

[@chaandbunny]

Late but Aki Carly and Misty having a whole mini Arcadia Movement arc would have been SO ICONIC >>>>>

[@four-en-tee]

All i'm gonna say is "You could give Akiza her own spin-off, and she'd be able to carry the show just as well as Yusei did." That, and we'd get Red Rose support up the ass. No one would have a problem with this, Konami already gives Utopia way too much love to begin with and no one complains about that.

[@BallsBob]

They are too tier meta in duel links at least

[@mezasepkmn]

It took Utopia like- 6 years to get an actual wave of support. They have so much support to it last year and 2020 cus those were it’s anniversary years

[@davidtowers1863]

I fucking complain about that. The generic xyz toolbox is the worst

[@GrapeCheckerBoard]

Hmm. I agree. As someone who only watched part of season one, the writers speed-ran her character development-making Akiza gain control of her powers, reconcile with her parents, turn on Sayer, and find emotional balance in the span of two episodes. Then the entire Arcadia Movement plot got dropped, denying Akiza material that would have given her an opportunity for a lot of character development. If Yoshida and Ono had developed Akiza’s character at a reasonable pace and kept the Arcadia Movement, then Akiza probably would have been a compelling character throughout the show’s run.

[@Diamondr11Blue]

Nope utopia is great. Black rose already has support

[@Sorran87]

I thought Mai's development in the Orichalcos arc was a great twist for her character. Really drove home how she was traumatized from her battle with Marik. The only thing they're missing is giving her some legitimate wins on screen so she can be seen as a proper threat against Joey

[@bthsr7113]

Here's a thought, Aki's powers can manifest the attacks.... what if she could also manifest buffs and heals? Don't have her put the offense cards away, she can still fight back, but let her try to explore constructive use with her powers.

[@lyraphoenix6883]

I remember that in one of the Tag Force games Yubel says something along the lines of “don’t be fooled by my appearance, I’m actually a dude”, and I remember laughing because I would have expected them to say boy, man, male, etc because they’re an ancient-human-turned-dragon-spirit-thing but they full on used the word DUDE like any other bro

[@christopherb501]

I feel a similar disconnect with the dub names of the OG Destiny HEROes.

[@sagethevvitch]

And it's also funny because Yubel is explicitly not just "a dude" lol

[@Rabbitlord108]

And then they redesigned Yubel to have breasts.

[@milkybean1500]

As someone who watched Arc V of yugioh, the female character rant there could be its own 1 hour video

[@christopherb501]

Screw that; the rant involved there - JUST for women - could take up the entire series's runtime, and you'd STILL miss out on salient points.

[@Chazzvc]

I wish Ishizu had a duel against a rare hunter just to add filler to battle city and flesh out the characters more. I mean she does obtain 6 locator cards, So she did collect 5 other cards from somewhere.

[@yoursonisold8743]

Due to having the power of millenium item cheating on her side her duels would be very boring to watch though. Her duel with Kaiba was only interesting because that is the first and only time we saw her gimmick and also saw it getting subverted in a really cool and plot relevant way. Beating rare hunters with this method would just be a one-sided curbstomp that you already know the outcome off. Unless it is used as a way to introduce how much of a threat she is and purposely makes it a curbstomp to then subvert it with Kaiba, but that just feels like bloating.

[@l.n.3372]

​@@yoursonisold8743 Yeah they clearly wanted to save her "gimmick" to be a surprise vs Kaiba. That's why her being the 8th duelist was meant to also be a shock, too, because she'd never dueled on screen before.

[@SSJ_EWGF]

Akiza shouldve ruled the court, but instead was sent to the bench for an entire (2nd) season🤦‍♂️

[@brunosanto3488]

Luna had it worse...she didn't do anything relevant at the beginning of 5Ds and she didn't do anything as 5Ds progressed.

[@Druguzu]

akiza being replaced by crow as the joey of the group was such a lame thing man, especially cuz crow wasn't even supposed to be that relevant :/

[@four-en-tee]

@@Druguzu Akiza should get her own spin-off, she could carry her own story

[@Druguzu]

@@four-en-tee honestly agree, Joey and Akiza are 2 characters I'd love to see have their own stories. Would also love it if their archetypes had more support since i play those hahaha

[@Alzilla09]

@@four-en-teeI agree, heck give the other characters their own spin-offs as well. Aside MC’s. Wish they did a Yugioh Chronicles anime where it focuses on the other main characters.

[@calumbishop7082]

Its is genuinely sad that it took until Sevens for the female characters to be given the same depth and attention that the male characters got.

[@four-en-tee]

I thought Akiza was good though. Granted, that's just one character.

[@christopherb501]

@@four-en-tee In execution, she had a good _period._ That's the best any Gallop-era woman got; a span of time in which they were awesome or at least full of tantalizing potential, aaannnddd it bottoms out fast at some point.

[@ForestX77]

What? Bruh even male characters get shafted. Yugioh has a serious main protagonists problem where no matter what the only person who saves that day is main protagonists. Case and point the infamous Joey V Marik duel.

[@christopherb501]

@@ForestX77 It will never stop amazing me how much humans can keep their blinders on. YES, supporting characters _in general_ get the shaft. Doesn't change the fact that _nonmale characters SPECIFICALLY_ consistently and always had it worse. I'll quit arguing right now if you can name ONE male character of similar hype/alleged significance/skill as Yuzu or Aoi that got shafted as hard.

[@akiradkcn]

@@ForestX77 yes

[@DURIEL1]

*Aside from getting shafted and side lined to hell and back,one of my BIGGEST disappointments for me that NOT 1 effing ship happened and my favorites are Judai X Asuka, Yugi X Anzu and Yusei X Akiza.* Whelp that's why we fanfiction, art and doujins for that.

[@alicepbg2042]

yusei and aki, kinda, probably kiss in the end of 5ds. this is the most canon relationship in the anime from the 3 couples you mentioned

[@evolutiondl1492]

Yu gi oh story is about card games it is not about romance. When I 1st watched Duel Monsters I thought Atem&Tea, Rebecca&Yugi and Joey&Mai would end up together but after watching all seasons of Yugioh, VRAINS being the last one I have concluded the show is not about romance and relationships. So in the end you just have to accept what the show is about. By the way can someone explain how people saw Judai and Asuka together? Those 2 barely had any relationship and they rarely talked to each other. They had no connection at all. The most realistic one was Yusei and Aki. The others are just people inklings and personal fantasies.

[@alicepbg2042]

@@evolutiondl1492 people are just afraid to not go for the straight ship. judai and johan is clearly the superior couple. also, from a drawing kazuki takahashi made of them, mai and joey do end up together. so there's that.

[@DURIEL1]

@@evolutiondl1492 "Its it is not about romance" *So was Bleach and Naruto and those had there ships,* so my opinion is still valid.

[@evolutiondl1492]

@@alicepbg2042 As much as people fantasise about couples in Yugioh, the truth is not 1 couple has ever officially been established. Which is why I said people have to accept that the show is purely a card game story. As for Takahashi picture with Joey and Mai I havent seen it. In the movie Dark Side Dimension which takes place after the last episode we see that everyone is back to their regular routine. No couples or relationships there.

[@kanekikingstorm2113]

Man am I eager to hear your thoughts on arc V, cause the way the girls got shafted was criminal, especially Yuzu

[@brunosanto3488]

The Arc-V video will be fun because we'll see Alexis fall…again.

[@alicepbg2042]

at least we got Serena. she was cool

[@kanekikingstorm2113]

I also feel like Z-ARC is something of a tragic character in Arc-V

[@christopherb501]

@@kanekikingstorm2113 Not as presented. With that writing, just an asshole. It would NOT have taken much to provide _just_ enough detail, _just_ enough reframing, to do just that, but that would have taken the slightest iota of effort, so nope.

[@infinitedreamer9359]

Yeah,ARC-V IMO was the worst when it came to female character treatment. What makes it worse here that most of the girls are supposed to be plot/lore importa t,but they STILL get shafted. At least Tea and the others from the original anime were never meant to more than side characters,but ARC-V gave false hope that the girls could be relevant.

[@rosytsalevterova3051]

Dude Akiza ,Carly and Alexis were done so dirty i can't even! Just watch the first 3 seasons of GX and Season 1 of 5DS its fine, it's the ones that are dubbed in English anyway!

[@DrOzk]

I'll never forgive them for trashing the relationship between jack and Carly. The disgust that I felt cuz of that made me drop the series ngl. (tho, I did finish the series years later)

[@viruschris3160]

What happened? I unfortunately never finished 5Ds but it’s among my favorite Yugioh series.

[@DrOzk]

@@viruschris3160 they had a duel where the culmination was that they both had feelings for each other. Carly dies at the end but is brought back to life at the end of the arc. You’d think that they became a couple afterwards but noooo, Jack was like “fuck women” and Carly became a background groupie.

[@viruschris3160]

@@DrOzk I see. A shame. Carly is a really pretty girl and thought they would be a good match. Thought we see more of them hanging out together. Sometimes I wonder what happens in the board meetings to decide such things. Guess I’ll leave it to fanfics then.

[@l.n.3372]

While I'd agree that Yugioh DM failed at making female duelists equivalent to males, it did succeed at making the female characters likable and interesting. Sometimes to the point where we are left wanting more, because there was good potential unexplored. I'll forever standby the claim that Mai was an amazingly written character in Duelist Kingdom. It's a shame how all of her major duels/wins during season 1 and 2 are off screen. But she was a good character. Then unfortunately, she sadly got shafted to make Yami Marik more of an evil villain, and so Joey and Yugi can play the savior. And then, she arguably got shafted again during Orichalcos when her character dealt with PTSD only to join the evil gang. She's a great character with great potential but was kinda shafted to give Joey more importance in season 2-4. Ishizu is an excellent character who advances the plot. She's also very likable and sympathetic in her goals. But of course, she's not meant to be an amazing duelist; she relies too heavily on her item to win duels. But she learns to accept that fate isn't set in stone, and she loves her family. I think she's a great character albeit supporting character. Tea is a mixed bag because while I think she's a good character, I can always understand why some people find her annoying. But I did love how she got a duel opportunity to shine during Virtual World. Serenity is fine for what she does. Perfectly acceptable for a background character. And I liked how she saved Joey when he was drowning by jumping into the water with the key. I also liked when she stood up to Kaiba once xD Even in the ancient Egyptian arc, I enjoyed Mana and Kisara. But since they are one arc only, this is more about fun characters we wanted to see more of, but didn't get enough time with them. Rebecca was fine too. I liked how she matured a lot from season 1 when she returned during season 4. Obviously, Yu-Gi-Oh is more about the male characters. And the hero, best friend, and rival always have a male character focus. Plus, all of the major villains are male too. But it would have been awesome to have a female major arc villain for once! Maybe Noah and Dartz should have been female villains LMAO.

[@guyver6622]

It would be nice if we had more female main protagonist. in Yu-GI-OH and Pokemon, or shone in general.

[@tulip811]

Like Kagome from Inuyasha

[@Tibainium]

Sad thing is that the 3 shows afterwards treat the girls even worse. At least Sevens got it mostly right

[@brunosanto3488]

I would say that Zexal is saved since, at least, the series has a female moral support character in Kotori (although she ends up being useless and annoying at times) and a funny female character that you never get tired of seeing in Anna. With Arc-V and VRAINS, things are kind of horrible. Yuzu started well and fell into the classic traps of the Female Lead (she stopped having duels in more than 60 Episodes). Serena had a strong start and fell into the same (only she's not a Female Lead). Rin and Ruri were not characters per se: they were mental slaves. With VRAINS, we have the whole thing with Aoi and the poor treatment she received in regards to her development (along with Go). I would put Emma, but she exists more than anything (besides being sexy and having a competitive deck that barely wins duels)

[@christopherb501]

@@brunosanto3488 Emma's VA went on to play a supporting character in Sevens; technically supporting of supporting. She duels thrice, and does not win, tho she does draw with her twin brother. The contrast in how Sevens treats Ranze compared to how Vrains treats Emma is STAGGERING.

[@Eric6761]

@@brunosanto3488 Yuzu got the videl treatment

[@ForestX77]

Even male characters get shafted in Yugioh. The anime has a really bad case of “main protagonists”. Like why is the only person out of all of these supposed elite duelist the main protagonists is the only one who can actually do anything.

[@flareongirl3606]

Idk why but the eff you Crow, followed by the laughter/crow cawing (is that a word?) always makes me laugh or at least gets a chuckle out of me. Maybe my humor is just broken

[@bebememu6502]

I hope you make a video ranting about how Crow was a bland character that was not planned and added nothing to the 2 whole shows he appeared in.

[@brunosanto3488]

Crow: Yu-Gi-Oh's unwanted cancer (at least for 5Ds and Arc-V)

[@b1acksteve]

He did add 3 billion Blackwing cards to the trading card game

[@christopherb501]

@@b1acksteve ...is that supposed to be a plus or minus, because I can't tell...

[@akumaten]

Makes appreciate Kirishima Romin. Romin had an impressive arc from start to finish. Yuuamu is starting pretty strong.

[@alicepbg2042]

People like to joke on sevens and go rush, because they don't play normal yugioh. but the characters are really well written in those.

[@hunterfay9817]

I really like the Yugioh content this channel creates along with other properties covered, but had to say I loved the Slayers being shown, even if only for a little bit

[@SkyReaperOne]

"I can't tell if Yubel is a guy or a girl." And that's EXACTLY what the writer was going for when he made Yubel. And before some random guy comes in and "Well actually"s me about this, the sub's the original material, the dub's a lie. Case in point, guns. Also, in the flash back to when Yubel was human, the gender was never revealed. All inference to how the child looked more like a guy or a girl is nothing but speculation by the fandom when THE WRITER SPECIFIED IT WAS LEFT VAGUE ON PURPOSE. Thank you for your time, have a nice day.

[@christopherb501]

All I know is: not cis, and that's awesome.

[@four-en-tee]

I'm pretty sure that Yubel is intersex (in the more traditional sense)

[@SkyReaperOne]

@@four-en-tee No idea what that means! My personal impression is that Yubel plain doesn't care at all! I mean... Its gender isn't Judai. :p

[@christopherb501]

@@four-en-tee Most likely. ...doesn't clear up actual gender identity, but yeah; I agree.

[@AzureRoxe]

Except no since they actively made Yubel quite feminine early on before changing her body to be more neutral. So it's pretty obvious they were originally thinking of making Yubel, AT LEAST, mostly female.

[@GOLDHAJIKVONGOLA]

i will nenver forgive the writers for what they did to blue angel, she could have won the duel with soulburner. if she just summoned trickstar bellamadonna and burn him for game. but instead they made her summon the trickstar fusion

[@MrMovieMaker116]

Love all the digs at Takahashi's wealth when he can't use it anymore. Also please continue this series.

[@Penguinstein]

My man out here using music from dokkan battle. What an absolute king

[@powerplay9422]

Can we just say "RIP Takahashi"?

[@dnd1016]

Note: one of the Characters from Season 0 was already written out of the anime

[@josephbedwell3164]

Fun fact: Crow was injured so Aki could learn how to ride a motorcycle.

[@J99___]

I feel asuka was such a good character and it’s sad she got sidelined/rushed. Her overall narrative of liking judai, being a tough girl who takes no shit, and being nice on top of it was very cool to see. She was often the support for judai which was really cute and touching. She also had many great moments in the series in duels and character. It sucks that some of her main plots were rushed and therefore diminished in impact, but overall I think she had a good character and ending. The end with judai where she puts his happiness and joy over her own feelings for him still gets me emotional. She was just happy to see him happy again. I feel aki also got a good ending and if she was just used instead of crow it would have been way better. Like you said, her character wasn’t even betrayed or diminished, she was just sidelined horribly.

[@SinCity2100]

This is why I only play Yugioh games revolving about these characters instead, they made me understand these characters a lot better than I used to..

[@Diamondr11Blue]

Akiza already had her arc

[@Rawla2]

Mai is my favorite, I own every harpie lady card because of her and I absolutely hate how they made her lose in almost every duel we see her in only to move the story of the male duelist along. Her duels with yugi, Joey, and marak are all bs.

[@DramaticCrossroad]

3:23 Well, he sadly passed away in July this year, so i doubt it he needs money or is able to draw any more manga. T.T

[@lunartears6761]

I’m still angry that they setup the first season of 5D’s, and the early second season, just for Aki to be nerfed like that. All that filler, not even any mention or implied details about Arcadia after sayer/Devine. We only learn in an outside source related to the bonds beyond time movie that he was alive after the earthbound gods/ immortals and was put in prison. That would have been good to know. Since they got rid of her arc centered around the fall of Arcadia (and it’s would have been resolution), they could have at least done an episode or a scene with Aki visiting him in prison, and then Yusei talks to her about it later due to her mixed feelings. Something small, but better than what we got, which was NOTHING. On top of that, they set up some sort of implications about Yliaster being connected somehow to Arcadia, or at least interested in Psychic duelists. And then they turn out to cyborgs from the the future, and the whole thing was just…forgotten.

[@FengTheSlayer]

Wonder if there will be a video taking about the Yugioh girls in Yugioh Sevens, cause form what I’ve heard they were treated better despite the different direction the series took

[@christopherb501]

1.) Yes, they were. SO MUCH. 2.) I...really don't know what he'll do should this project continue thru Vrains. I know MK has...not walked away with a good impression of Sevens in his initial survey...do not know if he'll be willing to walk back into that one.

[@lunartears6761]

I guess for me being a believer in ‘Carly’s actress being in cult’ theory was easier to believe than ‘they didn’t know what to do with her’. Now I’m back to square one on why they screwed up Aki, besides Crow.😑🤷🏼‍♀️ Btw, I will now to refer to Crow as ‘F*ck-you Crow’.🤣

[@Stachelbeeerchen]

Rip to the Manga Author of Yugioh.

[@zeke7200]

True but I will say that the Sevens girls honestly had it better than the predecessor series I mean 3 of them beat the main protagonist which is a first cause yeah I ain't counting Rebecca and Yuzu cause of the bull Asana, Romin, and Haruka won by shear skill and most of them either lost to the 2nd and 1st strongest Duelists or another female duelist

[@Legoluke197]

I’m thinking the writers didn’t know what to do with Aki after blackwings got so popular in the actual ocg/tcg and they decided to rewrite crow into a tertiary protagonist. Remember he was supposed to be the last dark signer. I’m betting Aki was supposed to get her riding duel license and then become the 3rd main duelist for team 5Ds during the WRGP, with Lua convincing the team to be the standby duelist somehow (judging by the post timeskip epilogue for the series showing him building a name for himself on the track and crow recommending him as a replacement).

[@thedeadlyune]

I need to make a video about 5D's. Your one line about how awful the second half is is like, a massive topic XD And, I basically completely agree about Carly. Jack and Carly is just abandoned in the second season. Like, not only is the first arc fucking tarnished by you bringing back all the dead characters (I figured at LEAST the Dark Signers should STAY dead, because that just seemed the most intuitive result for a childrens card game show), but then you do NOTHING WITH THEMMMM. Where is the Jack and Carly? That shit made me laugh more than the comic relief bs ever could. Instead, in the second half, we get Yusei and Bruno, and they don't even turn out to be like in love or anything like it's so dumb. 9_9

[@waleedkhalid7486]

Even when I was a kid I found it wierd for characters like Tea and Tristan to be around. They almost always just sat in the background and sometimes they would only get 1 or 2 lines in an entire episode. Especially for the female characters, I was confused as to their purpose because they didn’t do anything really. As for Mai, I thought this entire time she was around Joey’s age (I thought she was a teenager). That…puts her relationship with Joey in a different light now and I’m not sure how I feel about it because it doesn’t make sense? Anyway, props to early 2000’s shows trying to be weird in all the best ways I guess.

[@christopherb501]

[s] Don't you mean Thomas and Angela? [/s]

[@tulip811]

Even Duke Devlin😂

[@jamalhartley5863]

Of course Aki was a badass. She had the same VA as Blaze The Cat hands down one of the best female Sonic characters.

[@maytalacedo20]

It's such a shame female characters have a lot of potential but got wasted since mc syndrome has to happen if though we knew main characters are a thing but need to make it work 4 the support cast or at least 2ndary leads and girls and make it work.

[@WarmLillie]

If Akiza a bench warmer and I’m Warm Lillie. If I play yugioh then I’ll be warming up? Lol

[@elevenscoobert6794]

.... How the fuck you survive being eaten by a God....? What kind of technique is even that lol.

[@macinnes800ad]

I love the Meklord arc tho. Uniroically Z-One has been my favourite character and when I saw him kill himself to save the city that he thought was beyond saving, "Aporia, Antinomy, Paradox, I will soon join you" got me crying the first time I saw it. Ik it's not everyone's cup of tea but still. And Meklords are my favourite archetype to this day even after they abandoned the Synchro stealing aspect of their design.

[@guyver6622]

Kazuki Takashashi Died Jul11, 2022. :( He created one of my favorite Anime characters Seto Kaiba. RIP

[@skyrimlover777]

It's kimda funny how in duel links at least, the decks these 3 girls commanded were meta defining. Well, maybe not akiza, but rose dragon turbo is pretty alright at the momemt.

[@christopherb501]

It's one of the great ironies that for all the sh** treatment women have gotten in this franchise, the characters have had many of the most distinctly potent cards ever. They aren't usually among the most game-ending/meta-defining, but they all have a much more solid feel in their heyday than many of their peers' equivalents.

[@dragowolfraven3806]

I agree that the girls in Yugioh could be written better.

[@CircuitReborn]

Btw,27:24 the giant wave in the future is actually possibly the reactor disaster that began 5Ds.

[@insertchannelnamehere7154]

Something I would like to point out is that there are 3 classic Yugioh manga. There is Yugioh, which was turned into season 0. Yugioh duelist which was a reboot of the series after Takahashi saw how popular the card game portions of the game were, and the millennium world. Yugioh Duelist and millennium world were combined into the series that was released in the west. They didn’t ignore stuff from season 0 because season 0 is incapable of being cannon with the main material other than the first arc. They even combined the death T arc and the first Kaiba arc into one arc with the fight being a near 1 to 1 recreation of the Yugi vs Kaiba fight.

[@ianL-S]

i feel like it would have been very interesting if aki's arc after the dark signers was what next and she tries to figure out what she really wants to do with herself afterwards

[@Iris_1217]

I'll never get over the shenanigans of Mai vs Marik. 1. If she had just kept Ra in hand, she could have won. 2. In a real tournament, Marik would have had to have a translation for the ancient Egyptian.

[@dontmindmeimjustchilling]

idk if you'll see, but when i was a kid I genuinely rlly liked yugioh and would watch yugioh gx like everyday after school, and there were def times where as a young girl the show made me feel uncomfortable, even though I didn't totally under stand why lol Its rlly cool to find ur channel and have words put to this niche childhood experience lol

[@babyranboo9329]

I love his hatred toward crow. Ever time I hear "FUCK YOU CROW!!!" I always for laughing

[@NiWORaven]

"That's right, I'll sacrifice God! " Ok kaiba lmao

[@Arrrrrrrrikived]

I HAVE WANTED THIS VIDEO FOR SO LONG

[@Arrrrrrrrikived]

YOU LITERALLY DESERVE THE WORLD

[@Arrrrrrrrikived]

THANK YOU

[@Eric6761]

Why Ruka doesnt have Naturia is beyond me

[@CarbonMalite]

They really said "we have the 5Ds together at last, let's completely abandon 2 of them so that we can not have a girl fight the big bad"

[@alexiecierra]

Hope you do Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, V-Rains, and Sevens

[@eljoel89]

3:00 The one time anyone has needed an explanation for what Pot of Greed actually does. Lmfao.

[@Chazzvc]

Mai could have beaten Marik if she had just attacked with her Harpie lady sisters. Instead she tributes for a god card, A card that in the previous match caused Joey and Odion to get zapped. Any logical person would have made their strategy to take the card from Mariks hand and simply never use it. Mai also could have beaten Yugi at duelist Kingdom had she just attacked and not fallen for a bluff. In fact Mai could have been the best duelist in the entire series. She even beat Joey during the rematch in the orichalcos arc. Off screen she wins tournaments all the time but takes them for granted since people weren't respecting her. She also beats pegasus with the orichalcos.

[@GreenDinoRanger]

It's my headcanon that the Obelisk Blue girls dorm was a newer addition to the dorm structure after Lebowski was left abandoned by his (most likely teenage student) parents. So they made a separate dorm for all the female students and enforced the "no boys allowed" rule.

[@Daniele_Verdolini]

That's an awesome video, it literally brings out every single thought I had for YEARS

[@shirosaki97]

I dunno why but Majima handing over a ball of Yubel just makes me laugh XD

[@dnd1016]

>hot anime girls that are legal almost any anime that came out in recent times, the biggest icon right now is Yor from SpyxFamily

[@Keith_Norman]

Taki hashi may he rest in peace

[@NecromancyForKids]

That other person in the video completely ruined it for me with those edgy references and memes.

[@zwei3179]

man i thought Vrains was the worst of it. Cause blue angel HAD A FUCKING DECK THAT EVEN DURING ITS PRIME META CAN WIN DUELS WITH NO EFFORT. Like god damn you give your main female lead a fucking burn deck that at full power can win duels like its nothing and you fuck that up. Like BRUH

[@JonoSSD]

If you think female characters from DM, GX and 5D's were bad, prepare yourself for the _reign of Shin Yoshida_

[@rob19ny]

Prepare? He literally covered Yoshida in the video. Yoshida was the head composer of the Doma arc (and the final arc, but thats manga content so it doesnt count yet Yoshida butchered that even though the manga was done) screwing up Takahashi's characters and their development worse than the anime staff did at the beginning of DM. Yoshida was the head composer of GX Season 4, but that's late in the series so it doesn't really matter. Head composer of 5D's episodes 27 to 154. That's basically the whole series. His reign started with 5D's. Everything before was a preview if he controlled a series.

[@rooharper4427]

Hello kamen! Hope youre having a good day my friend! Keep up the Amazing content also stay hydrated its summer time and super hot

[@Mangakamen]

Thank you, I will

[@Galaxy_Broker]

Yubel is what would be called a rebus (probably didn't spell that right) but basically it's the perfect alchemical fusion of both body and soul of a man and woman.

[@melissamurray8307]

To be fair, both Rebecca and Rei were older in the original then they were in the dub. It was the dub that made them jail bait.

[@malonee]

When you started describing ishizu, I was legit nodding like "yup... true.... mhm" She's the baddest in yugioh aside from red head girl from gx

[@Bengully]

We need the male character analysis as well!

[@Keith_Norman]

I can't remember when one of the Yu-Gi-Oh girls actually did something useful is that just me? Cuz I can't remember one single important battle they had.

[@brunosanto3488]

If we talk about the Studio Gallop era, I think Aki and Yuzu have their merits. Aki started out as an antagonist who faced various characters, she had ruthless powers that allowed her to defend herself very well and was a driving force of the plot in the early 5Ds. Yuzu was literally the person who started investigating the whole dimensional counterpart thing, meeting Yuto and Yuri in the process, confirming her suspicions. We also had a moment where Yuzu started training with Sora to learn Fusion to deal with her rival, Masumi.

[@Keith_Norman]

@@brunosanto3488 thank you

[@christopherb501]

In the Gallop era: One or three friendship speeches were a significant emotional hinge for a protag...Asuka defeated a Seven Stars Assassin...women whose lives were ruined by Divine were the ones to take him out (albeit not the one most most care about...)...Ruca was the one to actually defeat the Dark Signer with the monkey...I _think_ Aoi did something with the Tower of Hanoi? beating Vaira _kinda_ mattered?...yeah...in the long run, on the 'good' side, notsomuch. Oh, Isis got the ball rolling for Battle City.

[@Keith_Norman]

@@christopherb501 so all the females a cardboard class cannon

[@archmagemc3561]

I'd like to point out a fact with Anime itself, some episodes are made in 2 weeks. One piece is a prime example of this. Yes its expensive, but this is what happens to some anime. That is only animation and post production mind you, not storyboarding or anything, but tbh an episode can be made in 3 weeks no problem in japan. So kneejerk reactions can happen in anime.

[@frankietafuro530]

I want to see Zexal and Arc-V girls talked about

[@violetpirate7763]

Some girl in the Yugioh universe: I have drawn all the exodia cards , put all the Destiny Board messages, and attached 10 card to Ghostrick Angel Of Mischief. There is no way I could lose. The opponent: you have activated my trap card : woman have no rights

[@quintivium3251]

I noticed the fossil fighters music in the background LOL

[@doxodd6834]

It’s kinda a good rep of the general owners of the god cards if you think about it. Each of them have qualities you’d see out of either Kaiba, Yugi, or even Marik. It’s likely intentional but still

[@shy5327]

Thanks for the video!

[@nikolasmokalis3425]

Seeing Casey at the beginning was a TRIP 🤣

[@MelonTartVA]

I would argue that Aoi from VRAINS got the worst treatment. But we'll get there

[@christopherb501]

Second worst. Yuzu still got it worse.

[@lordoz2578]

YGO is mostly about well, you know. Selling for the Fujo crowd. You see that with massive amounts of pretty boys

[@stevelucky7579]

Honestly I’m just waiting for The Sisters SPUNK YES.

[@nilge90]

You should have waited for the supercut until you did Zexal. It is mentioned several times in the videos and then it's not there

[@douglasdysart8931]

For some reason I’m still waiting for that great ace attorney video

[@TeaganBeazley-lb8ee]

I have two YGO female leads for my friend and my brother named Tonka Yukio and Seina Yukari, Tonka is basically Yuma in a wig and skirt but has more IQ on the dueling set and for Seina, she's basically a Magical girl who was isekai into one of the timeline of domino city. Not much of the idea of it, but you have one I would like to hear it.

[@chemicaricature]

Man, when Yuzu's image appeared... I still can't accept what they did to her.

[@dkbugmaster5056]

24:34 - 24:41 Don't mind me; just creating my own replay timestamp for this hilarious meme. If anyone can direct me to its source that would be appreciated.

[@DuskenWillow]

I enjoyed the Fossil fighters ost during Mai's section.

[@MelonTartVA]

I want to see what you have to say about the ZeXaL onward. Especially when you get to VRAINS

[@Rabbitlord108]

Thanks for pointing out how uncomfortable the idea of Joey being paired with Mai is. I mean it's not Manuela marrying Hanneman in their Fire Emblem: Three Houses double ending icky (For context I think it was stated that there was a 30 age gap for those two. Update a big reason why I think it's gross involves Astrid from the Tellius duology AKA Path of Radiance & Radiant Dawn. In POR she ran away from an arranged marriage to Duke Lekain. Who was 30 years her senior. What fueled it was her sisters being forced into loveless marriages) But it's still gross. Funny how Fire Emblem also has a history of brainwashing girls. And on another note. MAN I wish they had Marcel come back in season 4. Like he came to Duel Academy to both spend time with his dad Jean Louise Bonaparte (Yes. His English name is a reference to Napoleon) and give Blair a potential new love interest that's actually close to her age. Especially since they had become friends in season 3.

[@jaycalibre609]

Idk this Manjome guy but he could never beat The Chazz.. CHAZZ IT UP! CHAZZ IT UP! CHAZZ IT UP!

[@lorddarthkairos01]

I got a question why use the same color scheme from Dark Magician Girl for Rebecca? Did they studios though yes why not? Or just for the LOLZ sakes

[@sawysauce1256]

The all time greatest will always be the fact that the creator of Naruto literally bought a book titled “how to write female characters” because he was upset about how much fans hated how completely and utterly useless Sakura is.

[@brunosanto3488]

Is this really real? If it's real (a source or something), I'm more surprised that there are books that are literally made to learn how to write female characters and the fact that the creator has listened to the criticism (feedback) But I feel realistic, it shouldn't be as hard to write female characters as you write male characters (just replicate what you do on the male characters and put it on the female characters with some details changed, but keeping the general idea)

[@sawysauce1256]

@@brunosanto3488 I had heard about this from some kind of Naruto retrospective video, like loooong video full of facts on Naruto’s creation. I do remember the source within the video for this fact was from an interview the author did. If I ever find the video I’ll post the link

[@christopherb501]

@@brunosanto3488 If it is true, it clearly wasn't taken to heart.