The Problem with Yugioh Girls Vol 1?

[@The4thSnake]

Seems like Yu-Gi-Oh doesn't have female characters, it just has good female designs.

[@BurningAzure]

Aki from 5ds, Rio from Zexal, Serena from Arc V, and Aoi from Vrains

[@alesterphoenix]

Guess you could say....it's Wasted Potential?!?

[@enzojose4001]

@@BurningAzure Akiza was an great female character in the first season, but thw writters mads her useless after the dark signataries arc.

[@BurningAzure]

@@enzojose4001 And Aoi is probably my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh character, but she has so little agency that even she is aware of how little her presence contributed to the actual story.

[@rigel0207]

I know not many watch this season, but sevens Romin been having a good win-lost record, and a great character development so far

[@SkineSky]

There's a big trend of all the female characters in yugioh being somewhat useful in the first 2 seasons, and then getting completely side lined and put on cheer leader duty for the rest of the series.

[@LunaP1]

Or be made as damsels in destress without it being an empty victory.

[@miteihiro3283]

I blame power creep. Lol

[@danielramsey6141]

I blame creators/writers not coming up with more to do with them!

[@mrespada6260]

my main girl Aki from 5ds is a victim of this

[@diamondminer5459]

I understand, though, that sometimes characters do exist for entirely utilitarian reasons.

[@djjin5768]

I could have sworn, I read somewhere, that the reason why Joey has romantic moments with Mai, is because of the fact that Joey, apparently, has ALWAYS been into older women, so MILFs are not out of the question. I mean, ya Brooklyn boi, straight up based and cultured, but still...

[@LunaP1]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@firepuppies4086]

Then again I think Joey had to grow up a bit too fast...

[@monkey_blu]

A really cultured guy indeed.

[@chaoscontroller316]

@@firepuppies4086 Didn't his mom abandon him after a divorce? Wasn't she the reason Serenity was separated from him? Call me crazy, but I think I see a pattern forming.

[@KhaosFrosty]

@@chaoscontroller316 Mommy issues, of course.

[@PlanetZoidstar]

Say what you will about Anzu/Tea, she has a spotless win/loss ratio.

[@ragnaricstudios5888]

“What about when she fueled Joey in episode 2… and won” “She’s never played duel monsters!!”

[@sherwood750]

“What about that time she dueled Mai valentine… and won? SHE’S NEVER PLAYED DUEL MONSTERS!!

[@adamntcaponewholikesbigcoo1749]

@@sherwood750 “What about that time she duelled a Penguin… and actually won ( even though it was filler dark times]

[@lhamolhama4594]

Now that you said that, bro I don't think Tea ever lost a game

[@adamntcaponewholikesbigcoo1749]

@@lhamolhama4594 according to yugipedia she has the best record of all of the first series protags

[@Troll_vs.]

You know finding out the original Yu-Gi-Oh was supposed to feature way more games makes yami being called king of games plural make more sense

[@underpressure1954]

Yu-Gi-Oh! have two meaning : "King of Games" and "Gamer King". The second is definetely the more appropriate one

[@rob19ny]

@@underpressure1954 Its Game King. Not Gamer. Also, Yugioh has 1 meaning: Yugi (Game) Ou (King). King of Games is the 4kids term. If it were King of Games, it'd be Yugi no Ou.

[@aozorahaou2643]

Isn't there a justification on why Mai went evil in season 4, the trauma and PTSD of what Marik did to her in battle city affected her to the point she was at the lowest points of her life despite winning until she ultimately joined a cult

[@YuzuMelodious]

Yeah, there was. I think what most fans disliked about was how she didn't turn to friends for help when she needed it or something.

[@HenshinFanatic]

Or how we never actually got to see her downward spiral that led her to become desperate enough to accept the power of orichalcos. I mean we got to see the play by play that led Ryo Marufuji to become the Hell Kaiser. We got nothing like that for Mai Kujaku just seeing Valon offer her a place in the cult he was part of and letting her know it came with a dueling power up.

[@whiteraven562]

@@YuzuMelodious Exactly. She yells at Yugi and co for never contacting her after battle city, but there's no indication she reached out to them either.

[@aozorahaou2643]

And not like 4Kids' constant edits to make YGO more kid friendly did the arc any favors as I heard most hatred for the Doma/Orichalcos/Waking the Dragons Arc has to do with the dub as editing out backstories like Mai's as it leads to showing her working at a gambling ring makes Mai's change seem out of nowhere to fans

[@aozorahaou2643]

@@HenshinFanatic I guess we can say Ryo/Zane's downward spiral was an apology for how Mai was handled, but I can appreciate Orichalcos for what it was a filler in an attempt to wrap up story arcs for characters who didn't get them in the original manga

[@darkstorm2579]

I totally understand Kaiser Trigger's issue with Kaiba and Ishizu's duel. I prefer the sub version as well since I hate how one-note dub Kaiba is. He absolutely refuses to accept magic as real despite constantly seeing it in action. The sub version seems more willing to tolerate magic existing, not to mention that scene where he sacrifices Obelisk to summon Blue Eyes is fantastic. The dialogue he uses, calling Blue Eyes his pride, his soul, his loyal servant, perfectly shows his bond with it. As much as I like Kaiba's dub voice, I much more prefer the sub's portrayal of him as I feel he has better dialogue in the sub and better character. The sub version is still a jerk, but he doesn't seem quite as severe as the dub version.

[@paperluigi6132]

All the more reason why an uncut dub is necessary. There was one, but it was canceled after a few episodes for reasons I personally don’t remember.

[@darkstorm2579]

@@paperluigi6132 Sadly I doubt that will ever happen since Yugioh is reduced to a kid's show in the West. Still I'd like to see a dub of Yugioh that has none of the 4Kids censorship and stupid changes (one of those stupid changes being that Yugi and Atem fusing when they duel when it's actually just them switching places; seriously what the heck was 4Kids smoking when they made that change because it makes no sense).

[@Treasure_hunter_21]

@@darkstorm2579 weed most likely.

[@jtherealmccoy5309]

This is why everyone loves the abridged version of this show

[@darkstorm2579]

@@jtherealmccoy5309 Eh, personally not a fan of abridged (the concept). Mostly because satire humor is hit or miss with me, with it mostly missing.

[@misterzygarde6431]

I mean design wise, a lot of them are beautiful looking ladies. So they have that as a positive

[@mattc2306]

Yeah. Téa especially. I like her outfits in the Pegasus Island arc, the Waking The Dragons arc (the one where she's in a white jacket and red shirt), and the one from the Finale arc.

[@ragnaricstudios5888]

But when you think about it, there are other anime out there that are waifu material and have great personality

[@mattc2306]

@@ragnaricstudios5888 True. Which is why first anime crushes don't last for long.

[@ragnaricstudios5888]

@@mattc2306 and how ones when you’re an adult are eternal

[@mattc2306]

@@ragnaricstudios5888 Yep.

[@jtherealmccoy5309]

This why everyone loves the abridged version of this show, it points out the problems and either fixes them or hilariously doubles down on them

[@pn2294]

Nah, it’s just inaccurate

[@sirswellow7210]

@@pn2294 what abrriged series is

[@mitchfletcher2386]

@@pn2294 Your point being...?

[@xsoultillerx]

i used to like it when i was in high school but some of the jokes got really stale. that said it has it's moments.

[@catroserade0851]

@@sirswellow7210 Yugioh the Abridged Series

[@LoganProductions54]

Regarding Mai she wasn't "evil" per say, she was suffering from PTSD from being sent to The Shadow Realm/Hell and the Cult offered her help in overcoming it. I don't remember if she realized they were evil until it was too late though

[@BurningAzure]

Reminds me of a certain other character who's name has only one different letter from Mai (Raiden Mei from Honkai Impact 3rd).

[@SwagokuLion]

Kaiba and dartz would lose to bakura

[@SwagokuLion]

Mai is an underrated duelist

[@royal1015]

@@SwagokuLion agree , she deserves more than she got .

[@DianaGohan]

That was something obviously shown better in the Sub then in the dub as yeah the idea of being messed with by Yami Marik was clarified a lot more and honestly even if she did grow to care about Joey and the others more as friends, I could buy still not wanting to share that pain and anguish and yeah that leading to her getting manipulated by Valon and Dartz. The problem is there wasn't really any good resolution with that; Joeys too worn out to duel after his one with Valon so Mai challenging him right after drains him and she wins which breaks the control but then she just tries going after Dartz and just gets taken out off screen by Raphael and though her spirit appears in the final battle doesn't do anything and she just gets an ending riding away from everyone not even talking or apologizing to Joey again or explaining more what happened and... yeah just feels like they had an idea but terribly executed it. Even in the sub.

[@Fang1st]

My personal biggest problem with the female characters in the show is that they seem to be forced to; for the most part, have entirely, solely female monsters in their deck. There are exceptions of course and they have a dragon here and there, but as a kid I just found it boring. I'm not against a female character having female monsters, but when it's 99% of them it just gets dull. I want to see them have different archetypes that can just really make them epic duelist rather than just "make their deck based on women, that's how girls see themselves dueling." Might be because I just like the more monster-styled cards like dragons, machines, sea serpents and such, but I just see so little variety compared to the male characters decks.

[@LunaP1]

Exactly.

[@Zetact_]

Well Rebecca used the Shadow Ghoul strategy and then later used a deck that seemed to be based around the Gem Dragon series. And Anzu and Ishizu just had a collection of random monsters that vaguely match their personalities. I think the problem there is in part when they run strategies that don't lend themselves well to real life card game support which makes them easier to forget. Like it's skipping ahead to other series but there are a lot of really interesting and fun decks that the women get even with an all-female lineup. Cyber Angel, Lunalight, Fortune Lady, Altergeist, Trickstar, etc. and that's not even getting into the female archetypes that don't get used in the anime. Hell you could probably argue that Yugioh's card game is becoming increasingly waifu focused with how many decks are based on cute girls now. Really the anime team didn't really know how to make decks for a lot of the series' history. That's how you get in GX, Rei (after being allegedly promoted to supporting character) using some weird confusing Egg deck for her like one on-screen duel instead of the popular and competitive Lightsworn like the games chose.

[@FireFury190]

@@Zetact_ Don’t forget Asana from Sevens who uses a Wyrm construction themed deck. Or Romin’s rock and roll themed deck.

[@soukenmarufwt5224]

@@Zetact_ Blair/Rei uses Lightsworn in Tag Force 3. Much more powerful deck and very strong for the time. (Considering GX standards she is the best with Lightsworn) Its a shame Konami never promoted Lightsworn with Blair. Such a misopportunity

[@CarDaMax1770]

This is another reason why Aki from 5D's is one of, if not the best female duelist in the franchise. Her plant centric deck had a massive range in aesthetics, going from the expected girly monsters like "Black Rose Witch" and "Rose Fairy", to cute little fluffballs like "Spore", to then do a 180 turn with freaky mutants like "Gigaplant" and "Rose Tentacles" from when she leaned more into her sadistic Witch persona. And then of course, her signature Black Rose Dragon, one of the most iconic synchros ever created.

[@9872efr]

Well, considering that Takahashi had to choose between focusing on the card game and have some characacters get less exposure, and having his manga cancelled, thus having no characters get any exposure, it's rather understandable why he picked the former.

[@monkey_blu]

He surely is drying his tears with stacks of 100$ bills.

[@chaoscontroller316]

When he could have ended the manga entirely out of his control. Weirdly, these stories were sacrificed to give Yu-Gi-Oh its longevity.

[@bigbangpegasusmaster]

To be fair he does end up somehow being able to pull back on the card game aspect for Millenium World

[@sarthakarora3212]

@@bigbangpegasusmaster because he did not care and at that point. He just wanted to write what he wanted and end it.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

It's not really a binary problem. He could have absolutely focused on the card game and still fond a way to give all of it's main character prominent roles.

[@acemaison2834]

I can not wait still he gets 5Ds and Arc V because it’s gonna be hilarious

[@joegreen3802]

From what I heard there were some real life reasons for what happened to Akiza

[@acemaison2834]

@@joegreen3802 fascinating 🧐

[@MilenAnessar]

@@joegreen3802 One of the problem : Crow Hogan and Blackwing deck popularity.

[@joegreen3802]

@@MilenAnessar that was one thing yes, but I feel like people love to only blame Crow for it alone, and that’s not right

[@MilenAnessar]

@@joegreen3802 Yep, that's why I said "One of" as it's not the only reason. Speaking of irl issue, if I remembered it right Carly also got hit with Cult stuffs (or should I say 5D's as a whole)

[@The13thElysium]

Personally I always felt Ishizu was underrated, I mean, she was the one who convinced Kaiba to host the tournament, luring out Marik and the Rare hunters and ultimately leading to their down fall and Marik's recovery. She also shook Kaiba with her Exchange of Spirit card which is always fun to watch!

[@RoronoaZoro-ur6hr]

Ishizu is and will always be the best female Duelist, but I wouldn’t say that she’s the best female character like Miho is.

[@akabaneaki]

I absolutely love her and man do I wish I could see more of her

[@Seeker118]

I hate Ishizu playing against her is difficult

[@Zeronigel332]

Don’t forget she convince Kaiba to watch Yugi duel against marik ultimately leading him to destroy his own past and to move on in his own way.

[@AttackOnFullMetal]

Also she would've won against Kaiba if he didn't have some weird magic vision thing

[@ProjectTony]

Fun fact: Takahashi progressively drew Mai and Ishizu with bigger and bigger boobs as the manga progressed.

[@razkable]

Mai

[@chaoscontroller316]

The Serenity bit depresses me because she felt like untapped potential. As a sister to a main character who understood the hype around his favorite game, she could have become a sleeper hit and made Duel Monsters a professional hobby or something. Little me was disappointed she never became much after Battle City, especially since she was my first anime crush growing up.

[@lampad4549]

You wanted more screen time for her cause you had a crush? And what fanfic is this that you came up with when was any of this set up for her?

[@peterdaviesracing]

Same, I wished she been given more screen time and become a recurring character. I think she didn't even appear in the newer movies at all?

[@jerbear8884]

My god I can't wait til we get to the Yuzu and Aoi portions of this series because there's A LOT that went south with both of them. Asuka and Aki don't get it as bad but they are flanderized halfway. Anzu and Kotori get off the easiest of the main girls since they weren't set up to be more than the moral support. And I've heard good things about Romin so whenever I find the energy to watch 7s it'll probably be worthwhile.

[@YuzuMelodious]

I kinda disagree regarding Kotori. Yeah, it's true that she wasn't written to be anything more than the childhood friend archetype but to me, the frustration with how back in the day, one of the common criticisms regarding Zexal was how they used certain elements from Duel Monsters. Battle City, the Ghost partner. It was only until much later that pretty much most folks seem to think of Zexal as sorta its own thing. And yet out of all the elements from Duel Monsters, Kotori seemed to be just merely a stand in for Anzu and nothing else. But yeah, Yuzu & Aoi's treatment was pretty damn bad. Especially the former IMO.

[@soukenmarufwt5224]

@@YuzuMelodious you realize the director of Vrains was the same on as 5Ds. That alone was a Red Flag Aoi was not gonna be treated well considering the track record of 5Ds post dark signers

[@YuzuMelodious]

@@soukenmarufwt5224 I thought it was Arc V that had the same director as 5Ds. But yeah you're right regarding Aoi.

[@jerbear8884]

@@soukenmarufwt5224 Aki still had her golden moments on the later parts of 5Ds. And to Aoi's credit they really do put her through the wringer not necessarily just by bad characterization but just in terms of the matchups she was in just rarely ever being in her favor. She's humiliated in a lot of her losses and Aoi never really gets proper closure to a lot of her storylines. Still tho I think at the end of the day Yuzu gets the worst treatment hands down. At a certain point she just never duels again, she never stands up for herself, and she's becomes a damsel in distress talking about why smiles are so important.

[@YuzuMelodious]

@@jerbear8884 I also found it annoying is that certain moments in the story in Season 3 it feels like the writers were going to let her duel again in the Fusion Dimension. She still had Sora's yellow duel disk and there were 2 moments where I saw Yuzu was about to duel but they always send a character to take the spotlight.

[@Alex-hk9py]

To be fair season 4 was non canon despite having some cool duels like Raphael and the character development for Rex and Weevil hating the idea of being has-beens only to forget all of it in the next season.

[@danielramsey6141]

It’s canon to the Anime! The only other time I wish Something wasn’t Canon was the Kaiba Grand Prix!

[@GreenDinoRanger]

@@danielramsey6141 you're a Grand Prix! Joking aside, I agree with you. Was a pretty lame arc

[@sarthakarora3212]

@@danielramsey6141 it's not.. it never mentioned ever EVER outside of when they want to print cards KEKW

[@Sleepy0173]

Agree... and Tea's dialogue of friendship is emphazised in the dub exclusively but what doesn't the dub make worse? Even Yami was made worse since they tended to add these "OH NO, WHAT AM I GONNA DO NOW?" crappy inner thoughts he simply didn't have originally. It's like they were scared to let the character have a silent moment or even showcase pockerface for the sake of a game. Rebecca is only like 2 years younger than Yugi so it's not as horrible as it would seem at first glance, but one thing to note is the dub has this very creepy tendency to make lolis even younger in the dub (both Rebecca here and Blair in GX went from 12-ish to 8-ish) and doesn't that make things worse? I can't understand.....

[@PlanetZoidstar]

I think they age Rebecca down since when she debuts she's VERY childish and it would have seemed weird to have a 12 year old girl carrying around a teddy bear and pretending he can talk. They didn't plan on her coming back after some offscreen maturing.

[@somono5116]

Iirc the issue was that the translators and ppl involved misinterpreted what Rebecca/Blair meant when they said they were in the 8th grade, they took it to mean that they were 8 years old instead.

[@KhaosFrosty]

Rebecca also had a weird growth rate. She's apparently 12 throughout the series, but Waking the Dragons Rebecca seems much more matured than from post-Duelist Kingdom. You would have thought that several years had went by.

[@PlanetZoidstar]

@@KhaosFrosty The exact same thing happened to Rei/Blair in GX. I think it was just a stylistic choice to make them appear more mature despite it not making sense they would physically grow that much in a very short span of time.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

I would say the dub makes bland characters in the original have more personality. It's ridiculous that sub purist push the idea that yugioh wasn't always flawed show with several bad creative decisions; acting like any fault of the show is do to englsih translation. Even when videos like these exist pointing out the problems in every yugioh incarnation.

[@stevemclovin1566]

Concerning Joey and Mai, the anime and especially the 4kids dub added moments with these two with the 4kids dub being oddly competent with showing how they grow to mean a lot to each other, to the extent you forget Mai age at times because they don't really mention her age that much. With things like Joey having a dream with Mai telling him about settling down with her and Mai saying after battle city "the best thing about the tournament is that I got to meet you." It gets really easy to see why people liked these two together despite the age gap, I even think the age gap is another appeal to their relationship. hell even the main animator and creator did artwork with just the two of them. I still like the idea of these two getting together years down the road.

[@DanielPereira-ey9nt]

i fell there wold be more controversy around this if the genders were reversed

[@Diamondr11Blue]

Ew no he's 16!!

[@Diamondr11Blue]

@@DanielPereira-ey9nt ofc it woukd

[@solidskullz5736]

I never really felt like there was a problem with them, but then again I was pretty young when I watched yugioh. Maybe I should rewatch it

[@fuckingking6796]

Yes you should

[@dragon_ninja_2186]

Well Kamen just pointed out why.

[@xsoultillerx]

in the context of the original series it's more that they're either cheerleaders like tea or jobbers like mai. i don't think that there really is a problem either but i can see why other people would.

[@thecharmcityplayerbrandona8827]

Let's be honest female characters in Yu-Gi-Oh always get treated like crap this has been going on really for a long-ass time.

[@wrightcore3367]

So we’re told that Mai Valentine is a great duelist but loses all of her on-screen duels. …She went through the Worf Effect.

[@razkable]

She beat joey

[@jacobmaitland3613]

Bro she literally beat merrick it’s just the plot straight up said no fun fact that’s the first time I ever went that’s bullshit in a show when she couldn’t use winged dragon of Ra cause plot

[@wakkaseta8351]

*"I don't think a win by using a card from someone else's deck who wasn't even in the duel should count"* Meanwhile MCs creating cards out of thin air.

[@Treasure_hunter_21]

Yeah... They did May dirty. Making her evil after making her damsel in distress as way of self discovery kinda make sense. But still its so out of character. I alway liked harpy archetype despite its rulling issue with how monster naming goes there. Her deck held a few pretty broken cards some of which are still banned in tcg. She couldve been such a strong icon if they show at least some of her duels...

[@lampad4549]

Its not out of character, the other comments above explain it.

[@Treasure_hunter_21]

@@lampad4549 its called lazy writting.

[@AeroWraith901]

I reeaaaallly can't wait to see ya talk about the later girls. Yuzu along with the other bracelet girls were a huge disappointment for me, same goes for Aoi who had some good stuff going for her but just never reached places she should've

[@lampad4549]

What does that even mean she never reaches the place she should have?

[@randomduelist5]

yuzu is a great example of building someone up only to kick them of a cliff, same with rin and ruri wasted potential, I feel that serena got the best out of it but even she fell in the damsel in distress/plot device thing at the end

[@YuzuMelodious]

Touché.

[@__-be1gk]

Your editor literally doesn't have a soul if he can say he doesn't enjoy the egyptian god theme

[@wakkaseta8351]

He says it's overused when "God's Anger", the Japanese EGC theme is even more overused.

[@pandapower3076]

Honestly as a woman I don't care one way or the other if there ever is a female protagonist. Yeah they're are female shonen protagonists but asking for one is strange to me. I never see people asking for male protagonist in shojo. I do think that every character should be well written though. Shonen has a problem making decent female supporting characters and Shojo dosen't do a very good job with the male ones. Haveing your show geared towards a certain gender dosen't give you an excuse to slack on writing the opposite sex.

[@cynicalducky1041]

Exactly this. Like put effort into creating male and female characters that people actually care about, give them motives that makes sense, story arcs that show their development instead of *cough* telling us that they changed *cough* I'm looking at the writers that wrote Mai. I mean most Isekai shows can write better female and male characters, just look at rising of the shield hero (granted some characters are written pretty weakly like the bow/sword/spear heroes), Re: zero or Konosuba (If a comedy focused show can write better characters than a story focused one, the writers definitely fucked up somewhere.)

[@ragingyuzu1891]

@Panda_Power I'm 100% completely agreed, Japan definitely has a huge problem with this.

[@pandapower3076]

@@ragingyuzu1891 America isn't that good at it either.

[@ragingyuzu1891]

@@pandapower3076 I know, the latest installment of popular franchises are the proof of that XD.

[@pandapower3076]

@@ragingyuzu1891 absolutely

[@dolphinpower1107]

Ah yes Yu-Gi-Oh girls every series it feels like it will finally be different, finally have competent Yu-Gi-Oh girls who will finally do something, then bam sidelined.

[@unironicallyironic6626]

mai's treatment really was a shame. in duelist kingdom she helps yugi recover his confidence after the kaiba incident, giving him the mental resolve to beat pegasus. she then essentially defeats the main bad guy of battle city (let's face it she should have won) and then she's gone. she doesn't even get to say goodbye to the pharaoh. freaking duke devlin is at the final duel but not mai, this is especially sad because (in the anime) the last thing mai says to pharaoh is "hey I'm gonna get better at dueling and then were gonna duel!" and pharaoh is like: "I look forward to it" and that's it, she's gone. so long my beautiful princess.

[@franciscoriveros8586]

One of the things that upset me the most is that Mai defeated the F*ing Maximilian Pegasus, but it happened OFF SCREEN. It's like they made it in purpose.

[@bocodamondo]

here's a fun game, binge watch all of yugioh, and take a shot everyime the female lead says the protagonist name to herself, like anzu saying "yugi..." or kotoi saying "yuma..."

[@akabaneaki]

Please don't, you would get immense alcohol poisoning 😂

[@tmb11212]

Hey MangaKamen. I'm surprised that you didn't talk about Miho from Season 0. I know that she did appear only in one chapter, but she did appear in most of Season 0 alongside the main cast. And oh boy, it's almost like there are two different Mihos.

[@shinkaiatsuya950]

Well which Miho is better

[@xsoultillerx]

miho really was probably someone who should've stayed a background character. for all the talk about the girls in DM (mai, tea, ishizu, rebecca, serenity, etc.) none of them were as useless or took up space as much as miho did. like they could've had arnold (a side character from the comics) WHO ACTUALLY WAS YUGI'S FRIEND instead and it would've contributed more to the show than miho did.

[@maxmercurythemm827]

The only thing Miho did was either be useless or harmful to the show and characters, all by "virtue" of being a dumb bimbo. I like to think the only reason she was even put in the main gang in season 0 was for the anime crew to feel good/smart about having 2 "main girls" instead of only 1, and to contrast Anzu's slightly tomboyish bend with a girly girl.

[@Aleph3575]

@@xsoultillerx I think Miho was supposed to be Tristan's romantic interest, since the two go together almost perfectly and in Season 0, you can see moments when they care for each other. Not to mention they spend time together without the others. Tristan is reduced to a named mook on the cheerleading squad. But not only is Miho completely written out of Duel Monsters, she's outright replaced by Serenity, whose arc with Tristan practically screams he was trying to groom/take advantage of her because she's a naive idiot. Seriously, the "implied" romantic interest between Tristan and Serenity is really kinda creepy.

[@xsoultillerx]

@@Aleph3575 the problem with that is miho is a one shot character in the comics. her only appearance was when yugi & joey planted that love letter puzzle in the her desk for tristan while the pharaoh made their teacher's face fall off.

[@strugglesnuggledslime7040]

As far as Tea is concerned,yeah always seemed like the author simply didnt know what to do with her. She was rather clearly introduced as a love interest for Yugi(if I remember correctly he outright thirsts for her in a bathing suit during her introduction...though has been well over a decade since I read those chapters)but that entire angle just seemed to be abandoned after the shift to cards(probably due to its newly perceived audience).

[@razkable]

I mean he still digs her and she digs atem and in the newer movie she's dating yugi who grew into looking like atem...so there's that

[@Mars_over_seer]

Mai is a Faux-Action girl. I really don’t like these types of characters mainly for their purpose. They’re the worf effect for female characters, setting up a bad guy and having her be a damsel in distress. Happens with ALOT of Shounen mangas/animes.

[@JMObyx]

What about a Faux-Action Girl who KNOWS she's a Faux-Action Girl because she's a distraction to take heat off of the real hero?

[@thomasraines1396]

So they do a few impressive things but after that are constantly portrayed as jobbers?

[@Mars_over_seer]

@@thomasraines1396 Yes, theyre so common throughout anime that it’s basically a requirement at this point.

[@thomasraines1396]

@@Mars_over_seer damn that’s sad.

[@diamondminer5459]

Shounen anime has a bad reputation with female characters that’s kind of undeserved.

[@TreWilder]

I can't tell what's worst for a character. To not have an arc at all, and fade into pointless background noise with scattered moments of good, until someone needs to be kidnapped... Or to have a competent and well thought out arc that shows what the character wants and needs; Only to be dropped off without being fulfilled before the series ends. Téa is still the queen though.

[@kglistless]

Hot take: Mai never cheated in the earlier seasons. If you can spray each card with a separate perfume, there's no way in Hell they won't amalgamate and mess up the other scents.

[@MetaWarlord135]

You're not wrong, it wouldn't work, but does that mean it's not cheating? It's still a deliberate attempt to mark cards, which is a form of cheating in any card game.

[@meathir4921]

Any attempt at marking cards is definitely cheating.

[@jtherealmccoy5309]

Kaiba: I'm gonna sacrifice my Obelisk Ishizu: But Why?? Kaiba: BECAUSE A ROBOT FROM THE FUTURE TOLD ME TO *Ishizu giving "are you serious" glare*

[@paulleow8017]

*That Giant Rock lied to me!*

[@Auditor1337]

Sevens has unironically the best female duelists, but only like 10 people watch it in the west.

[@mikai4738]

Western ygo fans don't give it a chance just because we get actual kids playing duel monsters this time. That and the new art style. Which is a shame because Sevens manages to do some things better including letting girls get some good wins and not just stand around to look nice.

[@themarshian5124]

@@mikai4738 concepts bias

[@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu]

@@mikai4738 I gave the show a chance until the end of the third arc and nothing attracted my attention until that point, there were duels that make me feel cringe and you have the most Gary Stu main character of the franchise being a 11 year kid, and other things I didn't like

[@mikai4738]

​@@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu Wait what? Yuga is a Gary Stu? Please tell me how. A Gary Stu is for me a guy who is (near) perfect. Yuga isn't perfect, in fact he has a couple of fears and he has the most on-screen losses of all ygo protagonists.

[@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu]

@@mikai4738 I didn't get to the fears part, I left in Asana's Arc ending. And about the loses, from what I read those loses didn't matter too much to him. Losing doesn't make you less Gary Stu when you basically are a 11 year old kid who can invent machines, hack machines, always have the answers to the problems, etc. From the 3 arcs I watched Yuga was always like one step above everyone. Yuga is a Gary stu, maybe he lost more than Yusei or Yusaku but those defeats were meaningless. You can have a character with a lot of flaws but if those flaws don't have repercusions to him and everything goes well for him despite the flaws, then the flaws aren't actually a problem

[@Personarose]

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t really care nor think there is a need to have a main female protagonist in Yu-Gi-Oh especially if the writers aren’t interested in having one. Also regarding the female characters I think they are just on the harsher end of things as anyone who has seen/read any part of Yugioh generally knows if you don’t have main protagonist or antagonist status you will most likely shafted sooner or later… looking at you GX.

[@YuzuMelodious]

At first I was gonna argue about it doesn’t change what happened to certain female characters but you actually raise a good point. Arc V was filled with quite a roster of characters. And yet they all became almost every important character/villains' punching bags. The biggest examples being Gongenzaka & Shingo. It was always Yuya or some other Dimension related character that got to be the savior or whatever.

[@mikai4738]

@@YuzuMelodious I'm still pissed about how the writers let Shingo (who never won a duel alone despite being a competent duelist) look like he defeated Zarc just to turn out that he didn't actually. I could've lived with him being the comic relief who can't win a solo duel if he had eventually beat the villain but the way the writers handled it, it just made Shingo look even more of a joke.

[@sarthakarora3212]

@@mikai4738 cry about it

[@mikai4738]

@@sarthakarora3212 Wow thanks for that very important reply./s

[@fightingmedialounge519]

The issue here is that when you don't have a female protagonist, and supporting characters(which describes most of the females) are mistreated, it's start to give off unfortunate implications.

[@alicepbg2042]

Aki was great in yugioh 5ds... until about halfway, and they forgot she existed. it really took until sevens to get a good female cast that doesn't get left behind after a while (at least so far)

[@white0thunderwhite0thunder71]

As silly as this sounds, I actually had a lot of hope for Serenity being more than a simple motivation character in the series when I was younger. I mean in her moments, though small and insignificant, she seemed to have an impact. Take for example after the Yugi and Bakura fight where Bakura nearly got killed: everyone and their mother were demanding from Seto to land the airship so they could take Bakura to the hospital, but Seto adamantly refused to do so. Then Serenity bowed and begged Seto to help which got an actual reaction from Seto; where everyone else was just background noise to the pompous rich kid it was this nobody character who didn't even have a point in the plot anymore that got an actual response. This to me showed not only that Seto had an interest in a person from the opposite sex (I know, SHOCKING!), but that Serenity might have something more to her than being the fourth female character in the series. Then the dub used her voice actor as the woman who held the spirit of the Blue Eyes White Dragon, to whom Seto was apparently in love with, and this made me think that there was ACTUALLY something between Serenity and Seto... as in just as Seto was the reincarnation of the ancient Egypt Seto, Serenity was the reincarnation of the girl of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. I think this would've been an interesting subplot point development, as well as a cementation of the bitter rivalry between Joey and Kaiba since now Serenity would hold a love and connection to two characters that absolutely HATED each other. But as it turns out she, and her perceived connection to Seto, were nothing more than imagined background noise and I find it a very sad thing... Oh well.

[@peterdaviesracing]

I wished her to become a recurring character at least. Sadly, it wasn't to be.

[@erugurara8235]

I bleive making a girl the main character or not is never the point, the point is to have memorable and rich character to enjoy seing, Luffy, Goku, Gon, Kinnikuman and Takeshi are love and remenber in combination of they charm, what they hold for the story and the relations of the characters and is very comoon for the secondary character; Ussop, Vegeta, Kilua, Robin mask and Gonzo. To be more love becasue of they ambitions and personalitys. There´s is nothing in a separes men from women, is just how well the character is likeable to the audience.

[@Romeo_of_Romelution]

And that's why we love Joey as a character

[@erugurara8235]

​@@Romeo_of_Romelution because of his charms or his ambitions to you i ask, i dont get the chance to see a joey enjoyer, i am a Kaiba enjoyer on my part.

[@Romeo_of_Romelution]

@@erugurara8235 well to me Joey isn't the best duelist. But when he's on screen it's the most thrilling excitement for me because he was the only character I believe has a good risk of loosing His cards are mediocre and very luck based in the early game. However his arsenal starts to get better over the season like the many cards that improves his Red eyes Black Dragon that comes later on

[@theduxabides9274]

Definitely looking forward to Vol. 2 and onwards; funny how the writing for the female characters is pretty mixed, but their cards (at least of those that are duelists) are actually pretty solid in some cases. Lunalights, Lyriluscs, Trickstars, Altergeists, even Cyber Angels have had or are continuing to have moments in the meta game sun. If only the characters themselves would get the same love from the writers as their archetypes receive from the company...

[@raina1848]

I don't think the Bakura episode is a very good example of Tea being a damsel in distress. All they were really doing was trying to protect her from being sent to the graveyard same as everyone else. It was Tristan and Joey who ended up needing to be saved from it, and Tea was the one who saved Joey from it with her Magician of Faith ability, so you could say she was a good hero in that.

[@inplane9970]

The fact that I was more excited to watch Tea duel than all the other characters makes me realize how much missed writing potential she has.

[@anomalyinc3239]

I'll never forgive what they did to mai in season 4

[@razkable]

Her backstory felt like we were missing some key details...like was she sexually abused or not...that would explain a lot

[@70Lu07]

Me in the start of Arc-V: ohwow i can't wait to see Yuzu as a really important character doing lots of stuff and having an entire character arc Me by the end of the anime: Pain. . . pain is everywhere

[@BlazingRaptor]

The way they butchered yuzu was impressive. How do you ruin 1/4th of a girl that saved the world?

[@YuzuMelodious]

Same reaction I had with both her and Serena post Season 1 in a nutshell.

[@Gwen1661]

Being a female yugioh fan is suffering. All the cool characters or cool decks belong to the guys.

[@Diamondr11Blue]

It's shonen

[@orangeslash1667]

@@Diamondr11Blue One example of a shōnen show with pretty good female characters, is Zatch Bell. There's is one character named Sherry Belmont, who's not only hardcore, but her backstory rivals that of even Akiza and thats saying a lot.

[@demon2441]

When it comes to the lack of female or weak female character presence in shounen, it comes to a misconception that the target audience of guys won't read/watch a series with prominent female characters outside them being a romantic interest. This has been proven wrong obviously, but Yugioh and many other series were created with this mindset. I don't think any series should be mandated to have a character with specific traits and there are plenty of shoujo or other series where it's primarily a female cast. The issue I have with Yugioh is that they tease their female characters to have a greater role and then they get pushed to the side. If there are other volumes, I trust you will explore this in depth.

[@diamondminer5459]

Shounen isn’t as bad with female characters as some people think, and chances are if a show has bad female characters it has bad male characters as well.

[@dadadadeadgirl5602]

Tbh didn't male otakus like Madoka Magica? Sailor Moon? And Blood Plus? Hopefully it isn't just because their cute.

[@dadadadeadgirl5602]

@@diamondminer5459 I can agree it's not bad but it ain't perfect. BNHA had decent and cute female characters.... but I wouldn't say their prominent as the male characters. I would say FMA and Demon Slayer had decent female characters (afterall the mangakas are female so it would be weird if they wrote them badly). Fairytail is a decent example as well (they even sexualized both female and male characters) as well as Soul eater. Tbh I heard shonen has gotten better with writing females than before which is good news.

[@demon2441]

@@diamondminer5459 By and large Shounen has a great many female characters which are great, but end up botching them in some manner. Plenty have great moments and development, but many are left wanting in how their personal arcs end. The same applies to plenty of male characters, but more often than not they stick the landing.

[@stevencontreras84]

@@dadadadeadgirl5602 MHA females will get even better thankfully

[@commonviewer2488]

Oh wait until Arc-V, that failed its girl characters both in the anime, and in the manga in bizarrely stupid ways

[@YuzuMelodious]

It'll make for yet another video dedicated to showing how much Arc V fell so badly. But can't blame him though. Arc V was the epitome of wasted potential.

[@homunculus7]

I cannot wait for him to get to Aki from 5ds. My girl got screwed over dirty by crows overpowered cards doing well in real life

[@YarnLalms711]

I love this as an idea for a series, I also think a character analysis of why Joey’s one of the best main characters would be sick too

[@daniel193012]

Sevens girls: aright I head out

[@SuperPlacido1]

Yo man. What's up?

[@jordanjoestar-turniptruck]

I remember reading the manga and there was a fully verbal baby with (for some reason) the libido of a middle-aged Hollywood producer, who was constantly elbow-deep in Tea's uniform for a full chapter. I have so many questions for Takegami.

[@saylorstackhouse]

I never disliked Tea, I understood her for what she was (subplot love interest to the main protagonist; cheerleader). My main problem was the placement of Mai Valentine & how she didn't get what little plot protection the main Yu-girl gets. People point to her duel record losses but I feel like boys don't get that it's that way by design. Quite often the Yu-girls are portrayed as great duelists, the best at what they do, only for the boys to step in and show they are *better. Its like people can't see (or don't want to see) the sole purpose of Mai was to show off the boys. (No way they were gonna let her win against Yugi, Joey, and main villian Marik) It really plays into why the Yugioh community has such a girl problem, both in anime and the TCG. Art imitates life and vice versa, even unknowingly.

[@Magna_Dragon]

Aki got less screen time because of Japan's issues at the time. She also requested it cause she was pregnant Asuka got shafted later on when Judai, Kaiser and Edo hogged all the good duels Blair barely dueled and not that much relevant to the overall plot. She is more used for the lighthearted events. I think she has more screentime in Tag Force 1-3 Yuzu and the bracelet girls aren't destined to get wins. And there are so many characters there so... Aoi Zaizen really got the studio treatment At least Romin has better highlights than the other girls.

[@brunosanto3488]

For a main female character, yes. Romin has had high points. Although, my favorite female characters from that series are Asana and Mimi (the latter has been through a lot and participated in the story so far)

[@YuzuMelodious]

To be a little fair with the Bracelet Girls, Yuzu and Serena did receive wins. It's only because of the (bullshit) plot apparently needs them to be kidnapped, the writers for some reason decide to take the lazy route and not give them dues that would benefit them by giving them the neccessary focus on any of their internal struggle or out right not give them any duels at all. With Season 3 outright ending their characters in just a matter of episodes as they exist only as plot devices to get killed off. But yes, you raised some good points.

[@brunosanto3488]

@@YuzuMelodious I mean, Yuzu suffered a loss in Season 2 and has stopped dueling since that loss. WTF! It is very rare that an important duelist stops having duels in more than 30 Episodes (I am not saying that it is impossible, but it is still rare that it can be justified for plot reasons) However, justifying Yuzu's lack of duels for plot reasons is wrong.

[@arsd.711]

@@YuzuMelodious I have to correct you a bit on there since Aki's voice actress wasn't pregnant at the time 5D's is produced and most of the rumors are false, it's just another case of the writers not knowing what to do with her

[@ajflink]

Can we agree that the age of anime characters visually makes no sense? The only series where it made sense was Code Geass.

[@christopherb501]

"Serenity looks like she's sixteen, *I* look like I'm ten..."

[@HenshinFanatic]

I want you to rip the way 5D's wasted their main female characters to shreds.

[@FireFury190]

I blame that on the fact they pretty much had to scrap a lot of the occult stuff out of the 2nd half of 5D’s due to various controversies. Meaning whatever they had planned for Aki before hand, like more stuff involving Arcadia got cut and they couldn’t figure out what to replace it with.

[@BlazingRaptor]

And she’s still the best one out of the studio gallop series

[@IAmTrash1995]

I’m so happy that someone is finally taking about this because it’s a huge issue I have with the anime that I grew up with

[@WarmLillie]

Hmm… I wonder if could be the best and even better yugioh girl. Even though pokegirl actually.

[@pokuhmoo9415]

The question is what is your deck? Or wait WHAT IS EVEN YOUR POKEMON TEAM?!

[@neon13602]

Mai valentine the character who a lot of people love but have terrible writing at least it not as bad as naruto female characters

[@alexandreturcotte6411]

Indeed

[@revi6482]

Narutos female characters are just on another level of bad. Sakura is just the worst part of all female characters put into one person.

[@neon13602]

@@revi6482 exactly I mean it looked like they will finally doing something with her when the sasori fight happened but nope she became exactly how she was in the beginning

[@razkable]

@@neon13602 thank you people don't see the problem with that..they think she didn't need to change as if the show didn't set that up as an issue for her to fix aka how she treats people mainly naruto ...they think power healing and fighting equals development...smdh....she isn't the worst character ever but she's not good...she has her moments but she never wavers on sasuke and that's weird cause he's evil

[@KeeKage37]

Yes! Someone else who thinks Yugioh needs a female protagonists. I mean they’ll need to do it eventually. They’ll eventually run out of male names that start with Y.

[@christopherb501]

Do the names "Judai" or "Shouma" ring a bell? They'll just resort to surnames, then. ...guess we'll see what happens with Go Rush, I guess...

[@orangeslash1667]

@@christopherb501 There's an anime called Wixoss that has card battles similar to You-Gi-Oh, but so far it's not as serious.

[@ryanaing5302]

I would like to see more of this, Kamen. And yeah, the Yugioh girls got the shortest end of the stick when it comes to writing. However in Sevens, I think Romin is rather competent and interesting from what I’ve seen. I don’t know if you’re watching Sevens, but I think it’s worth it as it doesn’t really takes itself seriously compared to the previous series and embraces its absurdity.

[@brunosanto3488]

It's funny, but the GX dubbing wasn't taken too seriously in the first few seasons either and several gems came out of that dubbing (just look at the whole Chazz theme) Either way, of the Sevens girls, though Romin is the one with the best streak of the main girls. I consider Asana and Mimi better female characters than Romin (I would put Tiger here too because of how unique she feels)

[@BurningAzure]

You do realize 5ds and Vrains also had serious tones right?

[@ryanaing5302]

@@BurningAzure Well yeah, I know that, but those took themselves a bit TOO seriously to the point characters are often treated poorly and the plot suffers a lot, trying to tell a “mature” story. Might I also add in Arc-V’s stupidity, as well? I think Sevens’ comedic and absurd nature is what kept its characters and plot in check most of the time as it doesn’t takes its plot seriously and actually makes its characters interesting and fun to watch with almost no need to make it “dark” or “mature.”

[@mikai4738]

You have Romin but also Asana who defeated Yuga, Tiger and Neil, three duelists who are known to be strong. (and if she manages to beat Roa in ep 75 then she has even more impressive wins than Romin)

[@orangeslash1667]

​@@ryanaing5302 There's an anime called Wixoss that has card battles similar to You-Gi-Oh, but so far it's not as serious.

[@hieubuiminh4739]

Can't wait until he gets to Sevens, the only show where the female leads beats the protag fair and square

[@DanielPereira-ey9nt]

y'all should go watch Sevens, it has the best female cast in both quality and quantity

[@filipvadas7602]

To this day, I am still of the mind that Yugi, Joey and Mai should have been the core trio, with Kaiba joining over time the way he does in the original and Bakura being the same as he is as a whole (just with more wins for God's sake)

[@saylorstackhouse]

Absolutely, 100%

[@KeeKage37]

Yes! 🙌

[@wakkaseta8351]

Bakura had way more screentime in the manga outside of being possession fodder.

[@razkable]

Mai would of been better than Honda...he sucks or Duke

[@victorleppas3067]

My worst deception with female characters in yugioh : Alexis from GX, cool characters design, good game knowledge, cool deck BUT not so many duels and wins, not so many importance in the scénario or developpement... What a characters underused.

[@FarelForever]

It's an interesting topic that I thought of myself. I probably kind of stopped thinking about it, because it seemed like feminists themselves hate the idea of an interesting character, but it is indeed shameful how some female characters have turned out in YuGiOh. To just be fair: Most characters in YuGiOh get the short end of the stick, it's just a shame that when you're a female , you are guaranteed to end up that way

[@LunaP1]

It’s the writers and show runners’ fault for not keeping them consistent and being more developed characters in their own right.

[@razkable]

I don't mind females in smaller romantic love interest roles with main characters who are looking for that....in other non shounen shows they get more screen time and annoy me cause if you write an annoying female especially lead or villian I don't want a lot of her on screen or else you turn her into fanservice comedy relief or preachy like she is perfect and we have to listen to her cause plot armor or super evil where she acts like a man or tries too hard to be a man in being cool strong whatever and fails miserably at it ruining any attraction outside of design a person watching or reading would have with her making her worse than having a smaller role where she's more forgotten but more liked...

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

I think its more so necessity of having the MC fight off against the big villain, at the end of the season, over any kind of misogyny. The writing of Yugioh or at least the main throughline plots are kind of meh-bad. When push comes to shove and something needs to be thrown overboard to female characters don't have any importance so they can be sacrificed to serve the plot.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

The issue with that sentiment is that it's paradoxical. The female characters don't get treated well because they aren't that important, but the reason they aren't important is because their not treated well. If the writers created better characters, then they wouldn't feel so unimportant.

[@amirgarcia547]

Haven’t warched the vid yet ‘cause I’m saving it for later, but I think the main problem with Yugioh girls is that a majority of the time, they’re simply either used just for eye candy or to help prop up the male characters instead. Even characters who have somewhat of an interesting arc like Asuka or Akiza just get heavily sidelined later on in the series. Of course, I do still like them along with Mai, but there’s no denying that Yugioh’s handling of female characters hasn’t really been the best. Which’s honestly a problem I have with shounen anime in general, and not just Yuguoh, which’s why I’ve gotta hand it to Fullmetal Alchemist for giving great gals like Winry, Hawkeye and Olivier a chance to shine even alongside the male characters. Then again, it being written by a woman might contribute to that.

[@travonarmstrong6093]

I think it's more of Hiromu Arakawa being a good writer rather than her being a woman. There are plenty of female authors that write female characters just as badly as male authors. I mean, the mangaka of Demon Slayer is a woman and Nezuko is as far from a good character as you can get.

[@Zero_de_Nova]

Yugioh Seven...i just say that!

[@underpressure1954]

@@Zero_de_Nova seven has good female characters because it's aimed at primary schoolers while every other series is aimed at teenage boys. If YGO was more popular among girls it would've def had more important female characters.

[@amirgarcia547]

@@travonarmstrong6093 True, Arakawa is a great writer, but I do still think being a female does at least somewhat contribute to her making strong female characters. Nezuko is more of a plot device than an actual character in all honesty, but I do enjoy the other female Demon Slayer characters, especially Shinobu and Mitsuri.

[@Zero_de_Nova]

@@underpressure1954 What about Mimi a single working loving mother?

[@merlinfisher4303]

Fun fact for the joey/mai situation, the Japanese national age of consent is 13 though most prefectures have there's between 16 and 18. It's actually quite possible for them to be in a legal relationship.

[@razkable]

14

[@johnsnow04]

Cant wait GX and Alexis part lol. She had so much potential but was squandered later. Almost as much as Bastion, nobody gets squandered as much as his character in that show.

[@mikai4738]

That is sadly true with Bastion.

[@alexandreturcotte6411]

I guess The interdimensional lamps will be covered in volume 2 (or 5... He goes by series or not?)

[@YuzuMelodious]

Likely 5 if he's really committed. Of course, he can do it in the fourth volume if he's really not enthusiastic about Zexal or simply didn't care about Kotori, Rio, Anna, Cat and Droite in anyway.

[@ddmacc]

@@YuzuMelodious Wait Toris japanese name is Kotori? Lmao they just removed the first two letters for the dub

[@youngbounty1394]

I agree. The Yugioh girls got the shorter end of the stick. To be fair, the girls in the later sequels do have better character development than the ones in the first Yugioh, but still suffers from the same issues.

[@igorlopes8463]

They need to pull of a Stone Ocean to make the main protagonist be a girl to have a chance at making a decent female character

[@ma3mc3mu-X]

The problem with most anime girls is that a majority of them always crush on the males and are always possessive.

[@The_Pyromaniac_MageWolf]

Talk about arc-v because I’m still pissed they shafted Zuzu since she was arguably the most fun female duelist in the series to watch, her or serena, both were super fun, and I will forever be pissed that they just disappear after midway season 2

[@duskyer]

Waiting for when we get to Akiza's wasted potential. She's my personal favorite.

[@nathanielclaw2841]

the problem with Yugioh girls is almost the same as the girls in naruto. Half of them were forgotten by the author, half of those that werent are useless and do nothing and the other half that werent only serve as love interest to the other caracters or be thirsty on main

[@christopherb501]

Check out Sage's Rain for a good video on this subject with the franchise that you brought up.

[@wolfgod6443]

At least Mai stuck around. Miss you Bandit Keith. But for real, Mai feels like she's around to fill in a finals slot. Something missed about Tea is that she rescued Mokuba whilst being a "damsel in distress" which is what makes Mokuba a true friend to the good guys and gets Seto to do things for Yugi he wouldn't typically do. So I wouldn't really call her a damsel in distress because she was being active in helping Mokuba. Her effect as magician of faith is also what wins the duel against Bakura, and they're protecting her as a flip effect monster. Not saying Tea is perfect, but there's no way in Hell she's worse off than Tristan.

[@Zero_de_Nova]

Yugioh Seven is perfect for this thema!

[@PC-mt2zo]

Fun fact about half of Shōnen jumps readers are female,(one piece even has a 56 percent female following).Kick ass fights and the power of friendship is universally appealing!This idea that action comics and manga are and always will and always have to be boys clubs is bullshit.

[@Dannysapphire]

In terms of female representation in the first series and moments of GX, it was horrible. Partly why I enjoy like 5Ds, Arc V and Vrains is that they made pretty cool and interesting female characters. Like I love Akizas plant deck, Aoi played 2 of my favorite decks Trickstar and Marincess, Emma with Altergeist. Those being my favorite 3. I'm just happy that eventually female characters got better written in the series.

[@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu]

Yeah, sad Emma's only win is against Naoki

[@HendogHD]

So nobody is going to mention Mai Didn’t appear in the dark side of dimensions movie ☹️💔💔

[@Unknown23430]

Yeah I think MangaKamen did mention something about how she just disappeared after her last appearance.

[@razkable]

@@Unknown23430 she probably spiraled and drank herself to death

[@Unknown23430]

@@razkable Ooh, that's a dark thought.

[@romanvaldespinojr.5213]

At least Mai Stans can some solace at the fact that Harpie's and Mai Valentine are Tier 1 in Duel Links. For how little that matters.

[@michaelharrison7232]

It seems like most of the female characters start off good, and then at a certain point in their series are dropped and forgotten about.

[@YuzuMelodious]

Of a sort. There's sorta just those that didn't start off as neither good or bad but the writing just doesn't expand further on them.

[@antoniobolden8992]

To me Anzu and Katori got off easy so nothing against them Asuka didn't get enough attention later on. Aki got sideline by Crow when he got here and they just made her a bench warmer Yuzu they ruined a good female led I mean seriously how and why and she's one of my favorite female girl characters in yugioh Aoi all I gotta say after Specter duel it just went downhill from there to me she never not once got a good victory in the show sorry absolutely a disappointment in how she was handled.

[@judgegemini8900]

I find that most female character in Yugioh to be very cool, but one-noted Lots of them have a very cool deck, theme and even gameplay in it, major focus on Harpie Lady and Cyber Angel for staying strong with their support in the actual card game But somehow they never got that many duel, the reason they win or lose being flimsy shit(Mai losing because "Ra is special card for *gamer word* only"), or just basically useless(90% of female in DM/OG Yugioh) The one with potential(Akiza, Yuzu and Aoi) gor cucked so hard in their own series, I just wonder why they even try to make them a really good character in the start at all if that's what they're planning to make these character be, useless chara that have very little plot relevance On topic of yugioh tho, ya considering on making Arc-V's shitshow of an ending on BOTH anime and manga? Seems like it could be a fun topic to just, well, rant about

[@YuzuMelodious]

MangaKamen did gave out his thoughts about Arc V at one point in 2017. Just casually saying it degraded. Though it's very likely he has more than a couple of thoughts considering him doing a few references to Yuzu's treatment in Arc V in this video.

[@judgegemini8900]

@@YuzuMelodious Arc-V probably have the worst nosedive of quality in Yugioh so far, pretty sad as well since I like to play Entermate and many of Arc-V decks being absolute banger to play Action Duel is the worst gimmick that we ever had in Yugioh tho

[@YuzuMelodious]

@@judgegemini8900 Oh it definitely does have the biggest nosedive out of all. Which is a shame though. Because I'm one of those folks that believe Arc V started with the highest of highs. I enjoyed so many of the characters. And was hyped to see how the story was going to play out. Then the show ended with the lowest of the lows.

[@razkable]

Cool is not a real definable character trait imo...that's why if a character is just cool no one cares..it takes more to relate to a character or make them popular...you have to work at it

[@johnnywantyoudead5113]

Basically all girls in this show Basically poor writing But try are great compared to rwby

[@a1joryj]

I can see why Mai turned and didn’t go to her friends tbh. You can see in one of the scenes where she wins a tournament, no one talks about her. They just talk about Kaiba Yugi and Joey-and she feels devalued by this because, to her, it invalidates her traumatic experiences in Battle City. In addition, she got help and encouragement from Joey and Yugi during her match with Marik, but she lost anyway. She felt determined to get stronger on her own-to make certain that the trauma never, ever happens again. And I can understand that.

[@nintendolife25]

This guy is going to have a field day once he reaches Zexal, Arc V, and Vrains.

[@maytalacedo2942]

The fan art thumbnail on mai looks awesome. And great video all on point and I agree with all of that. Can't wait 4 GX, 5Ds and many more.

[@chimmyinfernape9189]

Ronin from yugioh sevens is a main protagonist. She’s seen always with the gang, has multiple duels as well as her own structure deck. She has character development. Overall a great character

[@asterzerodog8971]

I kinda disagree with Mai. It was clear that she, and many other characters, were going to lose for the plot. But the way she lost was pure "anime bullshit" since she SUCCESSFULLY took a God card, but lost it over some stupid incantation. Like Joey, she should've won on paper, but the plot said no.

[@asadhus]

Alexis is so cool. I wish she got more shine. Her ritual deck is so good it washes Jadens “HeRo” deck so badly.

[@Lagbeard]

All of the girls suffer from being completely under-utilized by the writer(s). More often than not, they get more active when they're as a minor antagonist than as a hero.