The Problems with Yugioh 5Ds Girls

[@Mangakamen]

Be sure to like, subscribe and share the video around, especially sharing the video around since it helps out the channel by spreading the content about. Thanks for your support guys. Here's the Aki Video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2a6qJx8iKiAg80

[@kingj9664]

was sherry an japan only character because I do not remember her unless she was truly that forgettable

[@kingj9664]

@TheMelodiusRose That's actually what I mean was this character only shown in Japan because she may have been a lesbian. But if she was Shown in both versions then yes you was really forgettable because I really forgettable because I do not remember her I remember every character in that show even the 2 weird henchman but heard not so much

[@ironindustries9258]

one thing I would like to correct is the comment that zexal is actually more kid friendly than 5ds but it's in reality a lot darker at least the original Japanese version is Vector is shown killing his own parents and kaito dies fighting in space are two prime examples of this

[@HenshinFanatic]

@@ironindustries9258 to add to that, MangaKamen said the series name incorrectly, the "X" is silent, renderjng the pronounciantion "Zay-al". To be fair though the 4Kids dub (after they got rebranded to 4K Media as a subsidiary of Konami) also got this wrong.

[@PhenomsServant4]

@@kingj9664 She was in the dub but like GX, 4kids didnt dub several episodes of 5DS (including the duel where Jack gets Scar Nova Dragon, the duel between 5Ds and Taiyou and the entire final arc) and Sherry had a more prominent role in those episodes including her only other duel in the final arc where faces Aki and Crow.

[@legendarycryptid2629]

Honestly, Crow becoming a main wouldn't have been so bad if Aki hadn't been sidelined. Keep crow a supporting main who still has something to provide while making sure Aki's arc reaches beginning, middle, and end, and that can fix things.

[@setsers1]

Exactly. I read the chat and thought wtf?

[@depressionisoursavior5070]

For me it makes sense to sideline aki sense her powers would of trivialized the mekk lord, because of the fact that they can manipulate duel spirits.

[@depressionisoursavior5070]

@TheMelodiusRose if you mean by taking care of the grunt sure she can do that, but being involved with the mekk lords before the final duel with zero is a no in my books since she would trivialize the antagonists and make the whole arc end in like what? 20 maybe 30 episodes or maybe even less depending on how she's used in those fights/duels.

[@depressionisoursavior5070]

@TheMelodiusRose do... do...you .. not understand how a strong character can lead to the story suffering because of their strength? Like you I would of loooooved to see her do more in the series, but if it's at the cost of the story development? Then no, don't do it. That's why I said she would do well with the grunt fights and the ending duel with Leo, because and least there she wouldn't of disrupted the flow of the story and have arcs, character storylines and the villains be ruined by her inherent powers. I love her story, her growth, her powers, and her personality, but there's only so much you can do with her that won't hurt the story. I'm sorry. :(

[@depressionisoursavior5070]

@TheMelodiusRose the reason why the story wouldn't BENIFIT from her powers is simply because she would SOLVE the mekk knight problem before it even reaches her final duel with zero. This in turn finishing the arc before it even started. Since, she has complete control over her powers post s1, that means she can learn to use them more effectively, thus resulting in her possibly learning to use her powers on other duel spirits simular to how Supreme king did to subject them to become his personal army since her power a very similar to his own. And, also since the Norse tournament arc takes place before the mekk knight one, she can learn to use them there. And, no, the writers couldn't do THOUANDS of other things because writing around her powers would of been an difficult thing to do because, again,since the main villains use *Dual Spirts* to restrict the main teams synchro monsters, she again learn to fight them directly, and thus resulting in them and the arc's main villains being taken care of in a short amount of time.

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

I agree, that Aki should have, at least, taken some of non-important duels from Yusei and so on. Stuff like the academy professor. You could easily make a sideplot about her reforming the Arcadia movement into one to help & support Psychic Duelists, the way Aki herslef was helped. Ones in which offer guidence to those who awaken psychic powers & their families, on how to handle the situation. Maybe even bring back some old members who still follow Divine's/Sayer's way of doing things, as opponents for her. Hell bring back Divine and let Aki get revenge by curb-stomping him.

[@sirkillalot9892]

I always wanted an Arcadia Movement arc in Season 2. Like Aki and Yusei finding out that Divine broke out of prison and summoned his most loyal followers to wreak havoc on New Domino. Fighting a few goons and Divine gets to be the final boss in which Aki gets full closure by being the one to beat him. Misty and Carly could have made a cameo as well.

[@runningoncylinders3829]

Have Arcadia split like Team Plasma 2 with Sayer taking Ghetsis' role and Aki having N's. You could get at least 3 episodes off of that concept.

[@sirkillalot9892]

@@runningoncylinders3829 or maybe that arc replaces Crashtown, because that plot and Kiryu is not relevant in the grandscheme.

[@runningoncylinders3829]

@@sirkillalot9892 Crash Town is a good mini story, and I'd speed up preliminary tourney rounds to get a shot at having an Aki mini series and Crash Town in the same season. Could have even been happening simultaneously like how the awful Battle Beast stuff went in Arc-V, but don't overlap, do them one then the other to not run into the pacing or immersion issues of BB mini arc.

[@zleeven]

@@sirkillalot9892 i would change one thing about this and that would be making misty, aki and carly the mains in that arc. Remember all 3 of the where hurt by divine either physical or emotionally. seeing them take out divine and the Arcadia movement would have been satisfying.

[@Blizz3112]

Man, Divine (Sayer) was probably one of the MOST evil antagonists in Yu-Gi-Oh... besides the cult brainwashing he did, he literally tortured a kid to dead, and murdered Carly without any remorse... probably even worse (but not by much) then Marik's dad...

[@runningoncylinders3829]

I saw some of him in Matt Engarde with how using people was all they saw in them. Sends more chills than most actual Dark Signers, surprised he didn't come back as one.

[@johnyarbrough7467]

I'm pretty sure the the most evil character in Yu-Gi-Oh is Vector.He killed his own parents, killed and absorbed three of the seven Barian emperor's, and tried to kill and absorb Don Thousand,ect.

[@runningoncylinders3829]

@@johnyarbrough7467 It got to the point he'd told Yuma the world needed fewer people like him before putting himself in danger. I'm curious if he had any final second thoughts in the sub.

[@johnyarbrough7467]

@@runningoncylinders3829 true. Though I wonder if Yuma got through to Vector, or if Vector hated the thought of spending a eternity with Yuma,or finally if the writers had to hold him back?

[@reikolupus136]

Imagine this: A world where Aki during the second half of the series had a character arc where she had to reconnect with her powers, what brought her and others so much pain, to use them for good. But now that she doesn't have a heart full of hate and pain, they come become even stronger thanks to the friendship and love. And during the final fights, when they are basically fighting in the skies, she makes her bike fly through her own powers. Want to make the ship with Yusei even stronger? Have to final fight Yusei be pushed so hard that he falls from his bike, but Aki catches him and he finishes making the last move from the back of Aki's bike. How would that work when the bikes are also the duel disk? I have no idea, but they could probably think of something XD.

[@danielramsey6141]

Thank you for bringing that up! Just this! Cause it means so much growth for Aki!

[@amadhatter3280]

It'll also be a nice parallel the start of second 2 when Aki/Akiza was on the back of Yusei's bike & this time she gets to save him when he needs her.

[@Vidurange]

They could have also either added her to Sherry's team or have a ground duel tournament as well

[@saiyanscaris6530]

also the ending to carlys duel was just so sad. in a sense she knew jack was going for a double knock out but did a move that she knew that only would take her out even when being controlled and it was just so sad. carly vs jack was a duel that will always be remembered as one of the best duels in 5ds history

[@christopherb501]

Considering what happened with her character long-term, it's even more tragic as, in a real way, she _did_ stay dead there. What came back was...less, at least.

[@ddmacc]

@@christopherb501 It realy shows that Yugioh 5ds was supposed to end after the Dark Signers arc

[@slewdry8233]

I loved how jack in his duel against carly was like "I rather die with you, then kill you" only to ignore her afterwards

[@sirkillalot9892]

That's the thing. Carly might have lost her memories about the confession and knowing these feelings are mutual. But Jack remembers everything, even becoming passionate about his feelings in the Goodwin duel. So every scene in S2 where Jack just doesn't care hurts.

[@shuragear525]

It was inevitable. Her VA was heavily rumored to be part of a cult, after the arrest of some members she decided to silently leave media. Japan takes this very serious, even as rumors, so Carly was already being heavily sidelined to become as forgotten as possible. Why they didn't just... change the VA and move on like that, but that's that

[@Diamondr11Blue]

He doesn't owe anyone love. Life is unfair

[@pokeymaster9415]

Zexal is actually really great But their female cast was..... Tori: here to simp for Yuma Cathy: here to simp for Yuma Anna: here to simp for Yuma Rio: here for Bronk to simp

[@lynxfresh5214]

Wasn't Dextra a simp for Kite/Kaito too? Yeesh Zexal may have the most consistent story/lore of any YGO series but the female cast weren't exactly the highlight of it.

[@naquingreen1603]

@PokUHmoo At least Anna and Rio were competent Duelists and good characters when they aren't used as love interests.

[@naquingreen1603]

@PokUHmoo I feel like ZEXAL would be a lot better if Anna and Rio were the main female characters alongside Yuma, Shark, and Kite.

[@naquingreen1603]

@@lynxfresh5214 At least Anna, Rio, and Dextra were competent duelists when they weren't simping. Honestly Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal would have been a whole lot better if Anna, Rio, and Dextra were main characters alongside Yuma, Shark, and Kite. Maybe even have them form their own team like 5D's and call it Team ZEXAL or Team ASTRAL.

[@christopherb501]

@@naquingreen1603 Between the design flourishes that scream "Takahashi" on their own, the fact that the early design sketches clearly show her base design as a Takahashi original over Kotori, and the fact she had a freaking "A" name like the three before her (and Aoi after)...yeah, can't be convinced that she should NOT have been.

[@Fortuneman24]

It always sucks having to remember the lost potential of 5D’s, but I’m glad for videos like this, since I can still look back fondly at it. It’s still my fav show and synchros are my fav mechanic. I’m a little surprised there wasn’t any mention of Shin Yoshida (although that might just be my circle). He was the head writer from the DS saga onward, and had some involvement in previous YGO seasons. Main reason I bring him up is that he had some very…questionable habits and predictable writing tendencies that really show up in the latter half of 5D’s. Dude loves the number 3, s’why we get three man teams and three henchmen in his seasons. He’s also been on record saying he wouldn’t write women in his plot if he could help it, which will be very apparent once you get to Zexal, which he was the head writer as well, from start to finish. Looking back at his most prominent involvement before this, we have the Orichalchos arc, where we have a big bad and his three henchmen along with a female side character (Mai) getting turned to the bad side. Also counts as another three-peat since Rex and Weevil were also turned. GX has some smatterings of it in its final season, specifically with Alexis’ decision to enter a non-dueling related career. It’s also worth noting that he was in charge of the story for Vrains as well, which should come as no surprise given that series’…treatment of its female cast (what little there is of it). There’s a lot I could into, but I’ll leave that for when you do get around to Zexal. For that, I wish you all the luck in the world!

[@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu]

Well from what I understand he wasn't involved in the Arc V anime cause he was doing the Arc V manga (and ending the Zexal one) but the anime still didn't have good treatment for female characters

[@christopherb501]

Three legendary dragons, Shunoros fragments into three, oversaw Speed Duels which truncated the board to three zones, Eve's entire first turn...

[@Fortuneman24]

@@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu You’re right, he wasn’t involved in Arc-V’s anime. That series fell short for different reasons, time crunches and the like. We all had hope at the beginning, but… well, you see how that ended.

[@tristanalain9239]

So.. this basically confirms what I said in my own comment. Someone on the team was a fucking sexist. At least Sevens treated its female characters well from what I have heard. Romin and Mimi apparently were handled very well I have heard

[@christopherb501]

@@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu That's probably the most bizarre part of the tragedy that is Arc-V's mishandling. The most infamously sexist part of the Gallop era had nothing to do with that show...yet it it was the most detestably terrible, INCLUDING on the sexism. Yoshida might have actually been a _moderating_ influence on that facet, had he worked on the show. Let THAT sink in...

[@exaltedfinalist9488]

24:42 I honestly like this idea better because it would have been way easier to show the professer being beaten that doesn’t require tons of ass pulls. Aki summons black rose dragon and uses it’s effect to nuke the field. She could then have used a card like monster reborn to return black rose and attack directly. The professer backed in a Corner could then attempt to place a face down to defend for another turn and back row. Next turn, aki can use a card like mst or other backrow removal, activate black rose effect to banish a plant to flip up the monster,reduce its atk to 0, and attack for game

[@marley7868]

gx's theme will always be top tier

[@masterphipf]

But the point of that duel was to show that yugioh and life isnt about being big and strong, just helping each other. thats why yusei was the better fit

[@lisaruhm6681]

The thing is, Aki defeating him like that would not change his opinion. In his mind, low level monsters are trash and completely useless, this is why they had Yusei nearly only use those low level monsters.

[@edman813]

Carly was goated, I was in my first year of college when I truly began to see the greatness of her Season 1 character. We don't talk about her later, but yeah no one until now really gives her the love she deserves for truly having one of the most deepest developments ever from a side character in Yugioh.

[@Diamondr11Blue]

No one deserves a relationship

[@littlekuribohimposte]

Carly vs JAck is still one of my favourite duels in 5Ds. Just the emotion there,and especially the end. We tried to crash so they'd end to duel in a draw but Carly forced his to activate Majestic Red Dragon's effect, forcing him to win and go on without her.

[@swordkingx4874]

So here's my rewrites for 5D's/ First off let's bench Crow until the final round but have this happen after he get's his dragon. Second let's have Aki's duel against the Duel academy teacher have her summon a new version of Black Rose dragon one that only destorys cards on the opponents field and protects the ones on her field to show how she's no longer a danger to others besides her enemies. Third let's have her duel against Sherry have the two best girls go at it and it ends in a tie. And lets have some duels of Sherry's team in the tournanment to show just how strong she is

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

Also let's straight up replace one of jack's or qrow's filler episodes with an arcadia movement episode for aki. And then replace another with an episode that gives luna something to do

[@lisaruhm6681]

@@jaernihiltheus7817 or change some of the first 30 episodes between the dark signer arc and crash town into an arc for aki.

[@swordkingx4874]

That's a great idea

[@swordkingx4874]

Another good rewrite

[@naquingreen1603]

@@Megalopros One change to your 4) have Sherry fake her own death as a way to motivate Yusei into beating Ragnarok and then when everything is back to normal reveal her being alive to everyone.

[@idkwut2callmyself561]

I feel like would have been interesting was having Aki be a mentor for Ruka. Ruka can see duel spirits and Aki has psychic powers, so it would have been possible to see them learn their own individual powers along side each other since the writers made it very clear that neither of the 2 knows how to fully utilize it

[@someguycalledgoober155]

Honestly, as someone who hasn't seen any Yugioh at all. Aki seems like a cool character who needs hugs.

[@13KuriMaster]

And at the start of the series.... she definitely needed them.

[@Lside1340]

Holy shit did she need them actually a lot of people needed them the entire series

[@Tibainium]

Aki has gotten it way better compared to Téa and Alexis as the female protagonist, who haven't even gotten nearly as much development and remained the same character for the entire show. She should at least have gotten to duel Divine and take down the Arcadia Movement to round up her character. Also you haven't mentioned it in either video but what are your feelings about Yusei X Aki? Should they have ended up together or is it true that Yusei has the hots for his D Wheeler?

[@RandoGrunt]

@TheMelodiusRose It also helps that both sets of VA's (English and Japanese) for the two characters ship the living hell out of them.

[@RandoGrunt]

@TheMelodiusRose I can't find it where on social media, but you can see how the actor's behave towards each other in like, live action duels. Take the 2014 live action duel between Yusei and Akiza's VA's; they downright flirting with each other. Granted, being in character for it of course.

[@keondramcintyre3444]

That's the 2nd time I've heard about VAs shipping the characters they voice. The 1st time was both English and Japanese VAs outright loving the dynamic of Krillin and 18.😶

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

A large chunk of the Yugioh fanbase will tell you that 5Ds is their favourite (or 2nd favourite behind DM) and that they want more mature versions of Yugioh. Despite this, 5Ds did really bad in terms of viewership. I'm also willing to bet that Zexel & Arc V being more child-focused was a result of 5Ds poor sales. You have a clear conflict between what fans *say* they want and what actually tends to sell. I can't imagine we'll ever get another "adult-oriented" Yugioh show because VRAINS was pretty lackluster and there were lots of production problems with Studio Gallop. The ship has long sailed. The thing is Yugioh Sevens was pretty good, by my standard, despite having the youngest cast of characters. There is nothing in that show which I would call out-right juvenile. You could easily rewrite the entire story with late teen-aged characters and it would still function the same. Go Rush has also been so far so good, as well.

[@MetaSkipper]

From what I understand, 5Ds is seen as one of the worse of the YGO series in Japan, while Zexal is one of the best. Western audiences tend to reverse that, with 5Ds being very highly rated and Zexal being one of the worst. Zexal's popularity in Japan seems to come from its cast of wacky and over-the-top characters... which is the other side of the coin to how Western audiences pan the series for its annoying and grating cast. I just find the cultural differences of opinion in the series really interesting.

[@sirkillalot9892]

@@MetaSkipper Zexal was the black sheep of the franchise, but people in the Western fandom look it more warmly nowadays. At least with how high stakes Season 2 got (or the tournament arc for some).

[@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu]

@@MetaSkipper I can't talk for all Japan, but I remember years ago seeing the Kanto región of Japan TV audience registered for Zexal was basically the same as the one for 5D'S but a little lower. As I said, it was only one region, but apparently in terms of audience Zexal could be not that over than 5D's

[@LoboCrepuscularZelda]

Nah, if anything the change of tone for the Anime was more to align with Konami's business perspective, as it always have been.

[@kinryuten]

@@sirkillalot9892 I don't like Yuma Tsukumo, but I love the villains of Zexal.

[@DatAsuna]

I don't love the new art style and younger tone of Sevens/the new studio, however they definitely are a huge improvement in terms of female representation from the old team. Now girls gets to be main characters for multiple seasons, beat duelists that aren't chump of the week oneshots, and actually get a decent amount of wins against recurring main characters too. The problems 5Ds had is the same problem as GX, vrains and arc v: they just lost interest in the characters after the first season, and then go out of their way to bench or damsel them.

[@KeeKage37]

Hell they could have had members of the Arcadia movement go after Aki after it collapsed blaming her for abandoning them. Its hard to believe that Divine and Aki were the only psychic duelist there. And it’s even the plot line for a Yugioh DS game.

[@PhenomsServant4]

Thats what I thought too. I even heard rumors that Aki was supposed to have her own Crash Town like mini arc where she goes after the remnants of the Arcadia movement of course the reason it was said to be scrapped was because of the cult Carly’s VA was tied too, so take that theory with a grain of salt.

[@sirkillalot9892]

It's literally in the 2010's game title. Like even Rex acknowledged that the Arcadia Movement to be a possible long term threat. I get that their leader gone meant the extremists had less of a foundation, but to be swept under the rug so easily just felt a bit off. I assume that Aki saving the world would have boosted their reputation significantly.

[@KeeKage37]

@@sirkillalot9892 Assuming Aki actually associated herself with the movement and didn’t denounce them.

[@GrapeCheckerBoard]

The sad part about Luna is that there is stuff to work with, to the point where it feels like the writers actively neglected her. Luna could visit the Duel Spirit World since her earliest memories (and would go there to play with low-level fairies), but she abandoned that world when Ancient Fairy Dragon-Luna’s ace-called on Luna (a young child at the time) to protect it from upcoming threats. In the Fortune Cup and DS Arcs Luna resolves to protect the Duel Spirit World for the sake of her fairy friends and for Ancient Fairy Dragon. Along with that, Ancient Fairy Dragon is a prisoner of Dark Signer Devack, who challenges Luna to a duel. The story’s natural progression would have had Luna duel Devack while Leo got his rematch with Bommer. Instead, Crow dueled Bommer and Leo got shoved into Luna’s Dark Signer duel. And then the Duel Spirit World never got brought up again despite being fertile ground for further stories.

[@BlazeNextGen]

The only reason Ruka was less dueling was that she would get tired after each duel which is why her brother DID most of the duels. It was also connected to the spirit world which we did see in the first season of 5D´s where she was forced to duel with a psychic duelist hired by Godwin that draws her out just to confirm that she was in fact a Signer and not her brother. After the duel was over she was clearly tired because during the entire duel she was in the spirit world (and somehow still managed to duel against the psychic duelist). I mean yes I do agree with the things you said but then again she was mainly side lined so she barely got any character development other than being a big support for her brother Rua who did like 95% of her supposed duels. She could easily have switched with her brother becoming near end of the series a signer because she dueled far less than Rua did. I think if it weren´t for Crow Hogan I think Rua could gained his Signer Dragon mark WAY earlier than intended. Because oddly enough one of those 5Ds DS (I think it was the first 5Ds game even) games the Dragon Heart Mark was bascially spoiled FAIRLY EARLY before the revelation of it near the end of the series. In Conclusion Crow fucked up everything by becoming a big phat protagonist that became way to important because he had NO dragon to the legend of the Dragon VS The Eathbound Immortals. It was NOT Crows dragon that was there but the Dragon that was later revealed to be Power Tool Dragon but mechanized and only with the special synchro summoning to become Livestream Dragon.

[@christopherb501]

Then establish disability and show her as strong/significant outside of dueling.

[@BlazeNextGen]

@@christopherb501 I'm sorry but I don't think that is a disability when you have powers that exhaust you through and through. If you can't control something that is powerful as a dragon mark then it's not a disability but rather the lack of experience. Aki was also unable to control her dragon signers powers as well and would get exhausted by long duels that strain said power. She couldn't control it entirely thus endangering many people but her story is entirely different and we don't know if Ruka was always an exhausted duelist. Sure Jack, Yusei and Crow do not have this kind of power and therefore don't feel exhausted after long duels. So it's rather unknown if its the crimson dragon chooses females specifically to use psychocineses or if the Satisfaction Trio never awakened theirs with emotions.

[@RodimusMinor1987]

The Team Unicorn duel was ridiculous having Andre beat both Jack and Aki so that Yusei could Sweep all 3, Aki should have won against Andre but he had the most OP trap oh I end your turn I revive my Monster and I banish your Black Rose Dragon that destroyed my monster all for no cost Jack getting a Harem was so dumb He loved Carly but then he forgot that, I found the waitress annoying Another forgotten Plot was Sly wanting to steal Stardust Dragon, that could have been a good episode, Sly steals it somehow he goes on about Yusei not being worthy of the card and Rua says and you think that you are you stole it, then Yusei duels Sly and wins back stardust whilst teaching him that any card can be strong you don't need other peoples cards to win

[@christopherb501]

Better yet: give _Ruca_ something to do and have HER be the one to get it back.

[@RodimusMinor1987]

@@christopherb501 That would have been perfect,

[@darksoul1004]

The Problem with 5Ds is that they had too many "Main Characters," and only wanted to Focus on those who could Drive Motorcycles! They made Crow to be the third Motorcycle Rider, and then thought hey Maybe Aki should also ride a Motorcycle, but after they did so, they decided "Nah, Girls don't belong on Motorcycles, hurr durr!" I literally wouldn't be surprised if that is how this ended up happening!

[@3ds_fellgod-myhopewillneve617]

It's a real shame. Aki, Carly, and even Misty to a certain extent are probably some of the best-written female characters in all of Yu-Gi-Oh in the first half of 5Ds, and Sherry in particular has so much potential. IMO no other females in the Gallop Yugioh series comes close. If the production of 5Ds wasn't a hot mess, this might have been the one series that had (a decent majority of) the girls in the series actually come out the other end pretty well off. And the saddest part is that 5Ds even with how much the second half screwed over everyone, is still the peak when it comes to the female characters in Yu-Gi-Oh. Zexal, Arc-V, and VRAINS most definitely don't come close, even with the likes of Rio, Yuzu, and Aoi. Honestly, for as much problems Sevens and Go Rush might have, I'm at least thankful the female characters there are actually treated with respect, or at the very least, more than most of the girls from the previous series.

[@christopherb501]

Yuzu and Serena came close. But again, at _first._

[@bookmew1081]

Yuzu even had the name scheme going for her & was the obvious choice to defeat Zarc, yet then the show randomly decided to kill all 4 Bracelet Girls & then make the Mokuba of the series into Rei Akaba out of nowhere in Season 3. Yuzu was the perfect chance to make an awesome female protagonist & then was completely wasted from awful writing.

[@esdeathsenpai5128]

Finally, someone who acknowledges that Carly is one of the most important characters (3rd, to be precise), and properly appreciates the joint character arcs of Carly and Jack. The second half was so disrespectful to both of these characters that it's hard to enjoy it as much on a second viewing She's best Yugioh girl for a reason

[@amadhatter3280]

It was such a shame to see how they did Aki/Akiza dirty in the 2nd half. I know the tournament was turbo duels but wouldn't be more interesting if Aki was the 3rd not Crow? Even in her 1 duel she had better character devolpment then Crow (for me), she felt she let the team down until she saw her father cheering for her like an idoit that cheered her up. Imagine other arcs for Aki: * A Crash Town style arc focused on Aki facing her past victims of her rampages (e.g. her former classmates). * Confronting Sherry LeBlanc alone about how destruction isn't the answer it'll only cause you more pain & talking to her about her past experiences. * Talking to Kiryu about how they were both manipulated by others & learning to move past that. etc.... Aki had so much more to give to the story then Crow who always felt like a weird addition to the group (I mean Crow gets a signer mark, but Rua/Leo who always fought the Dark Signers didn't get a mark?). If there was ever a universe where we can have any part of Yugioh changed it'll always be drop Crow & have Aki replace him for season 2.

[@christopherb501]

To quote MangaKamen: FUCK Crow.

[@ReddGier]

Sherry LeBlanc is wasted potential, but her Noble Knights deck is what led to the creation of the Infernoble Knights deck that I built in Master Duel, which helped me to learn Synchro-Climbing. With the release of Isolde, I would have loved to see her come back in some way or have a museum curator use the Infernoble archetype (considering how the equip spells are weapons displayed in museum cases). Welp, there went my hopes. Still, Infernobles is fun. Gonna build a Swordsoul-Tenyi deck.

[@Skeithwannabe]

The most annoying thing about Crow is the fact is despite him basically being forced into a MC seat they didn't give his dragon an upgrade. Because if you're going to make him important don't stop halfway. Luna and Leo should have just been rolled into a single character it would lose a dragon though. IDK make Sherry a Signer to replace Luna (and Crow)

[@randomduelist5]

yeah in terms of character development the second season was not the best, aki becoming a bench warmer carly after being revived having her memory wiped after declaring her love for jack (which he returned in the sub) and Luca.... that, oh well its still a good show and one of my favorites, I,m going to say this about zexal I understand why some fans don,t like kotori but I don,t think she deserves the hate she gets (or used to get) for being "a worse tea", I would have liked if she dueled more, sadly her only duel was under barian mind control along with cathy

[@Amgarrak]

I honestly find it hard to root for yugioh female characters. Mostly because it feels like an exercise in futility for hoping for something better for them. As I remember liking Aki when the episodes were just coming out, yes I feel old, and then seeing her get sidelined later just felt like it diminished the character. And its just a recurring thing with later female characters in general. I am not surprised there is still a strong sentiment of wanting a strong female protagonist for yugioh even though its unlikely.

[@sirkillalot9892]

There is clamouring for a female lead protagonist because then it could mean a character who has a lot of wins and development...or you could be Yuga where it was debated if you are the main at all. Also Yugioh is mainly tailored to the a shonen demographic so even if annoying, a female protagonist would be seen as risky. So a female tertiary character seems like a reasonable demand or just the goal until... Yugioh Sevens and Go Rush gave more focus on female characters even if in a more episodic series. I'd say Romin is the best girl in Yugioh besides Aki due to many wins and a goal that feels complete.

[@Personarose]

Man the Crow disdain has me thinking he hurt someone’s family members. Seriously though despite the issues of the female cast and by extension the 2nd half of 5ds it is still my favorite Yugioh series (ignoring Duel Monsters & Season 0) and houses the best female cast (I heard that Sevens may have the best one but I have almost no desire to check it out) I wish Ruka & Sherry were better handled as well as Yusei and Jack getting into the proper romances but Yugioh generally has a problem with doing so in any concrete way.

[@Zetact_]

A tl;dr on Sevens' cast and generally why people like the female cast so much, basically a lot of it boils down to how they actually are treated like real people who have their own interests and personality quirks. The same is true of the cast as a whole (this is a series that manages to give solid characterization to Gakuto's retainers, Luke's grandpa, Romin's bandmates and Nail's massage chair) so it just kinda applies to the girls by default. Also that they aren't just jobber duelists and all have a solid track record (except Atachi, although the narrative doesn't treat Atachi like any sort of master duelist).

[@christopherb501]

I'll reiterate MangaKamen: FUCK CROW

[@Sh1ranu1]

This guy has the dumbest hate boner for crow

[@Diamondr11Blue]

@@christopherb501 cope

[@filipvadas7602]

Its actually kinda funny that GX and 5D's positions have basically been reversed in terms of their popularity GX is , while still well liked, is basically treated like a giant meme and a mixed bag. Some hating it and others liking it while acknowledging its flaws Meanwhile 5D is generally looked back on pretty favorably. Even the second half, which is generally considered weaker then the first, has some of the best duels and moments in the whole franchise

[@saiyanscaris6530]

honestly 5ds was were yugioh had the biggest shine. zexal was....eh. and then once we got to arc v....oh boy. the problems get worse and worse

[@saiyanscaris6530]

like having all this hype of this ultimate baddy be revived at the end of the series in a single duel that everyone keeps jumping in losing half of there life points every time making them fodder to said villain. have a guy prepare said 4 cards that would take him down be destroyed just so one character that defeated said villain long ago be the one to take him out again. have him be sealed up in a babys body and the only way to get rid of said villain is to have the baby smile

[@saiyanscaris6530]

or how about vrains where it had so much potential but had to cut alot of stuff out. it also being the series where it started to have less and less episodes and having an unbeatable protagonist who never lost and having everyone have a single duel in the final season. oh and also having everyone besides 3 male characters be fodder and usually sidelined. oh and having the main protagonist have a single duel in season 3 which at the time was confirmed to be at the end of the series so we know he wasnt gonna lose.

[@saiyanscaris6530]

oh and dont get me started on sevens which had no stakes. a protagonist that was literally the exact opposite of the previous season where he lost more than anyone else and was the shortest series to date

[@darkmaster539]

Even at the time 5ds was loved by the people who hated gx. The "serious" tone was held up as return to form after the lighter gx by people who never watched gx past a few episodes. You can still see that attitude online, but generally gx holds up well because people who enjoyed it got older. Gx was my childhood yugioh series. 5ds basically changed the game so much I stopped playing. The show was fine, but the nostalgia of a bunch of "older" players is why it was a favourite at the time. I would say gx seasons 3 and 4 along with 1 of 5ds was the strongest time for the anime for a large section of fans. 5ds got worse as it went on, and gx got better for a lot of the fanbase so they are remembered for that.

[@natalygarcia9700]

Yay I'm so excited even if this video is negative. I love 5D and I love this channel. Keep going man.

[@Mangakamen]

hope you enjoy it

[@PhenomsServant4]

Aki’s fall from the spotlight still pisses me off. Yes the Buy Blackwings theory is debunked but you have to believe in an alternate reality where Rua became the fifth signer instead of Crow (And I do believe at least that was originally planned as Life Stream Dragon was foreshadowed a couple times prior to the Dark Signer duels while we never see Black Winged Dragon for another 30 episodes after Crow became a signer and had such a hamfisted debut) that Aki wouldve been the third member to compete in the WRGP and wouldve at least done more. Plus more of Aki in her riding outfit which is always a plus.

[@supsup335]

On the topic of life stream dragon. Konami, can we funally get the erata that makes the thing playable in the tcg and master duel?

[@sirkillalot9892]

@@supsup335 Konami generally doesn't do Erratas to buff cards. The better idea is to make a retrain.

[@lynxfresh5214]

@@sirkillalot9892 Funny enough they made a retrain of Black winged Dragon and it STILL has zero synergy with the Blackwings archetype.

[@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu]

@@lynxfresh5214 why does it have too? I don't think Stardust has sinergy with its archtypes, Red Archifiend too. Ancient Fairy doesn't belong to anyone in specific so doesn't ceeate much sinergy. Why is it that BW dragón has to have sinergy?

[@sirkillalot9892]

@@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu There is a Stardust Synchron. Cards like Synchro Chase and Stardust Trail basically try to bring all of Yusei's cards together. The Resonators basically a Synchro engine for Double Tuning and level 8 Synchro (especially dark and dragon)

[@ryanaing5302]

Well yeah, the girls in Zexal have been mishandled a lot (with Rio being somewhat an exception with her being a competent duelist, despite being a damsel near the end, and maybe Anna being the most entertainingly eccentric out of all of them) and most of the characters being childish to some or otherwise sidelined, I’d argue that Zexal has a decent and somewhat solid storyline through and through that got me invested compared to other series before and after. In Yugioh, you either try to have a mature and dark story and end up screwing over the cast (5Ds, Arc-V’s second half, and Vrains) or go for a more lighthearted approach and slowly build up the mature plot into something decent but in turn alienating most viewers (Zexal and maybe Sevens). It’s really almost a lose-lose scenario for all of us. I hope you get to talk about Vrains, since it’s a whole can of worms to unpack.

[@SuperHellKnight666]

Anna was definitely one of the most entertaining characters. Wish she actually had more screen time. But instead we got cat girl and shitty cat puns. Have I said how much I hate Cathy?

[@christopherb501]

@@SuperHellKnight666 At least Cathy had SOME kind of unique quirk. Kotori was by far the blandest possible main-cast girl of the Gallop era, and they didn't even TRY to give her any flavor. Plus: at least Anna got to _exist._ She didn't appear or get a mention in the Zexal manga, and further, Rio didn't exist, Droite didn't exist, Kotori and Cathy were even _slighter_ presences than before, and the new girls, while potentially interesting...unsurprisingly dueled just once and all lost.

[@masterphipf]

​@@christopherb501 Ye the manga indead treat the secondary cast better than the anime

[@runningoncylinders3829]

Vrains didn't just bench Aoi but actively went out of its way to bully her (faceplant scene). Trickstars would've been a far better Hydradrive counter, and in theory Marincess should have been a better Salamangreat counter. But they put specific character shifts at the exact moments to screw up her game. The girls who got to be cool for one season like Aki or Yuzu took longer to run into that issue.

[@SuperHellKnight666]

@@runningoncylinders3829 I stopped watching after Zexal, so I don't know anything about Arc - V and Vrains. All I know, is that Reiji/Declan is the only likable character in Arc - V.

[@DonniedrakoE]

While I personally think 5ds is one of the best in the anime I do agree heavily with your criticisms. It’s a damn shame that outside of what I heard from sevens this series had some of best female characters

[@masterphipf]

ye i confirme it Seven has the better Side character of all the series and how it treat all the cast. But in other hand the story isnt something huge or deep, and i would say it was for the better

[@shinkirou7095]

SEVENS girls stay winning!

[@raina1848]

This was my favorite of your Yugioh girls videos so far. I agree with just about everything here. There was so much potential just to get wasted because they either didn't know what else to do with the girls or because they were juggling too much. I mean, Yusei is my favorite Yugioh protagonist, but did we need him to take over THAT many duels in the series? No. And while I don't hate Crow himself, I do think they favored him and Jack too much over other legacy characters in Arc-V. Aster and Alexis were especially treated like garbage. And if you do end up doing a "Everything Wrong With" series for the male characters of Yugioh, I would love to see it.

[@bunnychu15]

I couldn't agree more, honestly. Aki shouldn't have been sidelined, Ruka didn't get any development, Carly got sidelined for stupid reasons, Mikage did too, Stephanie was a nobody (as was Angela, Carly's rival reporter), Misty wasn't in the second half at all, and Sherry was wasted potential.

[@amberknight7301]

I never understood why Aki didn't get more than one Synchro monster. She got a good amount of duels and only ever used Black Rose Dragon, it never made sense to me since there should have been plenty of plant-based Synchro monsters they could have added to her deck.

[@Mangakamen]

She had one more. And that's it.

[@sonic5993]

@@Mangakamen to be fair, so did Jack with his Crimson Blader. Yusei and Crow were thr only ones with variety in Synchro Monsters.

[@bookmew1081]

I was more disappointed that we never saw enhanced forms for Black Rose Dragon despite how early it 1st appeared in the anime. At least Powertool Dragon had Lifestream Dragon, Ancient Fairy Dragon would similarly get no additional forms.

[@sonic5993]

@@bookmew1081 Shame Ruddy Rose Dragon came out long after the show was over. To their credit, its the first Signer Dragon evolution that isn't Stardust or Red Dragon. They could have just did it for Black-Winged Dragon, but they gave it to Black Rose instead.

[@bookmew1081]

@@sonic5993 I wasn't aware of Ruddy Rose Dragon, although it was strange that more wasn't done with Majestic Dragons or Assault Modes. That was an easy way to sell more cards just giving those shared forms for the Signer Dragons to each of them rather than just Stardust Dragon & Red Dragon Archfiend. Also I know the Signer Dragons got Manga counterparts as well, although that's not really the same thing as getting enhanced versions of them.

[@mectainea5575]

The whole thing with Ruka/Luna where she doesn't even have a proper deck archetype really tells me that she was more of an afterthought to promote ancient fairy dragon itself rather than her being a fully realised character. In terms of the actual card game, since field spells were changed so both players could have a field spell and since Yugioh nowadays occasionally delves in suport for anime archetypes, Konami could easily retrain all of the spirit world cards that Ruka/Luna is associated with into an spell focused archetype that specialises in gaining benefits from controlling the field spell zone on both players sides.

[@Mangakamen]

They actually did that in the 5D's manga.

[@mectainea5575]

@@Mangakamen huh just looked that up after and that’s actually good to know so thanks for the info. Still would be nice to see in the actual card game.

[@Mangakamen]

Some of the forest cards got made... But they aren't the same kind.

[@TheBUCfifty]

I said it before and I'll say it again, the games "Yugioh Tag Force 4, 5, and 6" Give these girls FAR more love than the anime! Really! They put their personal stories in their story events.

[@1for3Gaming]

Honestly, Zexal and Vrains are the ones I'm looking forward to the most as those series seem to be discussed the least.

[@bookmew1081]

Vrains had the worst distribution of any Yugioh Series that wasn't Season Zero, from what I remember the English Dub was exclusive to Hulu in Canada. The card game also got really confusing from the Vrains changes.

[@gwendolyngem]

I absolutely loved Akiza...and i loved the whole series in general..altho her character development could've been better😅

[@Mangakamen]

yup

[@legendarycryptid2629]

By the time ZeXal rolls around, he can at least go into why Kotori is so overhated as a neutral female in the series...

[@SuperHellKnight666]

To me Kotori/Tori is just discount Tea/Anzu. And as we all know, she's not exactly a good character.

[@christopherb501]

@@SuperHellKnight666 At least _she_ can actually _win_ a card game unaided...

[@SuperHellKnight666]

@@christopherb501 Winning against Mai when she surrendered to give her the win doesn't count. Neither does the rule-breaking duel against the penguin, where she literally yeeted Yugi's Dark Magician from his deck. That was some deus ex machina bullshit.

[@bigfish5544]

It's not that Kotori is a bad character, it's that she is not a character. She does not have a personality other than being a girl and loving Yuma, she cries all the time and doesn't do one single thing to be even considered slightly relevant. Anzu had personally, goals, and she did get involved sometimes. Kotori... She's just not a character

[@christopherb501]

@@SuperHellKnight666 I was referring to her beating Jounouchi in the wee hours of the show. I know the meme about her "100% winrate" is based on minor plot contrivances, but her earliest wins do still count.

[@stuckerfan2563]

I love how everytime crow is in the screen he says fuck you crow. It's just very funny

[@TheTrainDude48]

I have enjoyed your look into the females of Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds and wish you the best of luck with the Zexal look. But yeah, it's so crazy to see what could have been, if they did more to focus on the cast, than just have Yusei do everything in the second half.

[@Mangakamen]

Fingers crossed

[@christopherb501]

"But yeah, it's so crazy to see what could have been, if they did more to focus on the cast, than just have Yusei do everything in the second half." DM season 4, GX season 4, the ENTIRETY of Vrains...Yoshida just can't handle a protag older than 15 _not_ being a card game messiah..

[@darkjammin79]

How much was given to Crow and Yusei had to be everywhere(6 out of 7 signer fights he's there!) is significant fuel for my hatred in my love/hate of 5Ds. While there is much I feel the show missed out on(don't all Yugiohs?) the beginning got my investment more than any other series I've watched of this franchise. Leaving some highlights that I'll remember and smile about. Then again also applies to bitter ones that lower my mood a little. #FuckYouCrow

[@mathewricafrente5984]

I can't wait for you to talk about the ARC-V girls and how they were all screwed in the writing department by the end, especially Yuzu who pretty much became a McGuffin by the end of the show. Because who needs character development for female Yugioh characters when they can either be irrelevant or mind controlled?

[@ssjgotenks2009]

and what about arc v manga theyscrewed that upby makeing yuzu yuya mom like wtf and cuting the vol down to 7 when gx 5dsd and zexal all had 10 vols

[@bookmew1081]

Yuzu had Yu in her name & had so much potential that was wasted when she & the other bracelet girls were randomly killed off. Then the Mokuba of the series ended up replacing her randomly to defeat Zarc.

[@NBlaze53]

Aki's case is a lot more simple. If ANN is to be believed, Series composer Atsuhiro Tomioka (eps 1-26) was replaced by Shin Yoshida (eps 27-154). To put it plainly because Tomioka set up the whole Dark Signers arc, they couldn't abandon it and so when they completed it. We got Yoshida's arc. Tomioka has no other Yu-Gi-Oh credits to his name which explains why the first arc of 5Ds is so unique. Yoshida however did GX S4 and the entirety of ZEXAL and VRAINS. Which along with Arc-V's second half stand as the biggest mismanagement of female characters in the series. (Kotori, Blue Angel) I also personally blame 5Ds getting a movie during its run causing the staff to be spread thin along with Arc-V as a big reason their second halves fall flat in terms of writing but that's just a theory.

[@Diabl0Mask]

The most ridiculous thing about Aki's story is that all she needed to do was stop playing Duel Monsters and all her problems would've been solved. Also another way they could've used her was by bringing her back in Arc-V instead of f**king Crow.

[@christopherb501]

Another of Arc-V(a)'s many sins: a chance to do right by past characters and plot points, even if they couldn't bring them back verbatim. They did not do so for ANY series.

[@TheGloryXros]

Forreal tho, Aki should've stayed as the 3rd of the Main Trio.....I don't mind Crow's inclusion, but GEEZ, they could've kept him as a "6th Ranger" role, and he didn't even need a Signer Mark for this! Also, him being one who cares for kids would make sense with how he's stuck behind with Leo & Luna.

[@meko98743]

Hot take: the show should have moved to a school setting. Hear me out: One of the best things about 5Ds is the setting. The dystopian setting of Satellite and Neo Domino City is the best setting Yu Gi Oh has ever had. But in the second half, everything wraps up too easily. Neo Domino City and Satellite wouldn't integrate that cleanly. There would obviously be a lot of discrimination because that kind of thing doesn't disappear overnight. Also it would be good to explore how the deprivation of Satellite has left a lot of its children especially without a good education. What better setting to do that than a school? Imagine a school tournament arc where some Satellite kids upset their Neo Domino City peers. Imagine exploring bullying. Imagine showing the unique technical proficiency of kids who've had to learn to scavenge to survive. And imagine a mid-series villain who is trying to obstruct and undo all the progress made in making Neo Domino City more fair and equal, rather than the nothing villains of filler episodes that we got, or the somewhat nonsensical sci fi villains that followed. Hot take number 2: you know the time skip in the final episode? Do that before the WRGP arc. Instead of Yusei, Jack and Aki, make the heroes an older Ruka and Rua. Add Sherry as Rua's love interest and make her the third teammate. Then the reveal that Z-ONE is Yusei (sorta) would be a great dilemma for Rua. Hot take 3: the biggest missed opportunity in Yu Gi Oh is the Orichalcos arc.

[@Mangakamen]

I agree with part 3

[@meko98743]

@@Mangakamen "how Yu Gi Oh's Orichalcos arc could have been great" could be a future video. And for that idea, I'll take PayPal, cashapp or Venmo /jk

[@teamoverthetop4865]

Mhm, I'm happy you pointed out the many easily debunked fan theories the fandom makes up with little research and fact-checking. The fandom for this show has even been noted by TVtropes itself in it's trivia section for 5ds for this fact, which comes with a link to a person literally explaining and debunking every fan theory. Most of which they could do by just looking up dates. It's very interesting. I recomend reading it if anyone is interested.

[@TsubasaOfTheSword]

Yeaaaaah I gotta agree. The sexualization of the Zexal characters is just…gross. Really creepy. 🤮 Don’t give me the excuse of “cultural differences”. Those are children who aren’t even in high school yet. I’m praying for MangaKamen. I’d hate to have to make a video covering it too. 🙃

[@Mangakamen]

God, don't remind me.

[@christopherb501]

Could be even worse. Could be those even _creepier_ asswipes that take the same tack with Pokemon or Sevens characters.

[@bigfish5544]

Well hey, at least Droite's 18 and Merag is technically thousand years old

[@Amgarrak]

The horror that was Ryouga x Rio. Pretty much ruined the characters for me.

[@madeinmeme9688]

Yeah, anthis whole thing was all Shin Yoshida's fault! That man should never had his hands on Yu-gi-oh! He ruined it!

[@amirgarcia547]

Honestly, what makes the way Yugioh 5Ds handled its girl hurt more is that they honestly had so much potential. Mostly with Aki, who I personally believe to be the best written Yugioh character in terms of her backstory and themes, but Misty and Carly were quite investing in their own right, especially when they were revealed to be Dark Signers. It’s just a shame that they basically lose almost all their relevance after the Dark Signers arc, and it carries onto the issues of the series’s lack of direction in the second half and instead primarily choosing to focus on the three male leads (Yusei, Jack and Crow.) Then again, this’s a problem that’d plague Yugioh as a whole, where it feels like the creators don’t know how to consistently write female characters. But as I said, it just hurts the most in 5Ds due to the potential they showed from the beginning.

[@christopherb501]

5D's(a) hurts hard due to them having the best and most diverse potential out of any of the Gallop era...so it really says something when ARC-V(a) still hurts even worse for just *_HOW_* hard they dropped the ball...hard enough for an extinction-level crater...

[@amirgarcia547]

@@christopherb501 For real, I’ve never seen a Yugioh series crash and burn harder than Arc V lol. It’s like Zexal and Arc V are the same as GX and 5Ds but had their flaws exacerbated, since Zexal started out weak but eventually got better like GX, and Arc V started strong but gradually became weaker like 5Ds. But while GX is still enjoyable even from the start for me, I found it hard to slog through the beginning portion of Zexal just due to how dumb and kiddy-like it was in an effort to course correct from 5Ds. And Arc V…well, like we already established, it crashed and burned harder than a meteor.

[@christopherb501]

@@amirgarcia547 Screw Yugioh; I've never seen a TV series PERIOD crater harder than Arc-V. Lost, The 100, How I Met Your Mother, St. Elsewhere, even fracking _Game of Thrones_ didn't crash as hard. Yes, I am going there; I'd genuinely rather watch GoT's final arc than Arc-V's, it pisses me off THAT. DAMN. MUCH.

[@infinitedreamer9359]

@@amirgarcia547 Yeah. How ARC V handed it's female characters was pretty bad. And it's gonna be fun watching Kamen tear into ARC V.

[@bookmew1081]

Arc V's problem was its 3rd Season & choosing to kill off "Yu"zu & the other bracelet girls then give their role set up for them to the Mokuba of the series at the last minute just to screw over the 2nd Lead Protagonist. Zarc & Bracelet Girls were set up while they were still in the Standard Dimension so Yuya becoming Zarc was unavoidable. Yuzu waking up Yuya from inside Zarc during a duel & then having Yuya duel Zarc inside his soul while Yuzu using the complete bracelet girl deck against a weaker Zarc for 4 Episodes would have been a much better ending.

[@Megatron_95]

Motorcycle riding while dueling with Yu-Gi-Oh cards? Sounds goofy but also a bit interesting

[@michelecastellotti9172]

To me it always sounded a bit dumb, it adds nothing but spectacle, but hey, its an anime, logic comes 2nd or even 3rd

[@V-Jes]

@@michelecastellotti9172 it actually does add something to the card game in the anime as both players are forced to use a speedworld field spell what cannot be removed and it adds a speed counter mechanic to it.

[@christopherb501]

Just wait until you get to Sevens's last duels...

[@CobaltClaw]

Yeah, I know what you're going to have to go through with Zexal... Especially since it's female characters we're talking about.... Best of luck to ya, dont go insane

[@Mangakamen]

Too late, I'm already insane.

[@necromancermareful481]

so it finally come the video that will talk about best girl of yugioh and they did wrong by her with what I call the Aki Tenjoin syndrome, the Aki Tenjoin syndrome is when writers create a good female character and then backtrack for some reason

[@naquingreen1603]

@Necromancer They did the exact same thing with Yuzu and the bracelet girls. Making them great female characters and then backtracking and wasting them in the show's third half

[@lynxfresh5214]

@@naquingreen1603 Yup they essentially became Ray/Rei ex machina and little else lol!

[@naquingreen1603]

@@lynxfresh5214 They were also given the worst ending you can give to a Yu-Gi-Oh girl by fusing them all together into yuzu without their consent which essentially killed them.

[@christopherb501]

@@naquingreen1603 Arc-V(a) was peak Yugioh in all the worst ways: like what we do with women? setting them up with awesome characterization and plot significance, only to reduce them to Pokemon named after the main character that have to be saved all the time, and are inevitably brainwashed at some point? Here it is again, in _quadruplicate!!!_

[@naquingreen1603]

@@christopherb501 And then FORCE fuse them together (which will erase/kill them) to save the life of the main female character even if she REFUSED and wanted to find another to save them without fusing together. Yuya BETRAYS the promised he made with the dragons to NOT ENSLAVE them for the entertainment of others BY LITERALLY ENSLAVING THEM FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF OTHERS by showing them off at the dual carnival (Yuya also gets ruined),

[@Zetact_]

Look on the bright side, every series you get closer to Sevens, which has not just "a good female cast for a Yugioh series" or "a good female cast for a Shonen series" but simply has a great female cast. Crow's decision to become a Signer was something that was decided after the fact, he didn't necessarily replace Aki but he DID replace the twins. This is proven because of how in the flashbacks showing the Signer Dragons, Black-Winged Dragon was completely absent and instead there was Life Stream Dragon, which was what a lot of the first season stuff was building up to. Well, of course there also is that Ono was so obsessed with Crow that he put THREE CROWS into Arc-V. The cult thing doesn't need to be necessarily related to airing dates of episodes, behind the scenes stuff can be just as relevant. And cults at least seemed to be pretty prominent in the zeitgeist of the late aughts and early 2010s in Japan. It could be just discretionary reading the overall waters of the culture and deciding to stay away from those sorts of subjects because Roma Sophie or not it WAS a huge retcon to the world building. Plus it's entirely possible that the Roma Sophie connection that Carly's VA had was known to or at least suspected by the staff of the show and they hoped they could just speed through to the finish line without anything controversial happening but chose to diminish her as a result. Not everything is exactly a matter of exact dates. Ruka's deck theme is "vaguely related to fairies and forests." Well, it's literally just one of the old instances where they were like, "Let's just throw together a bunch of pack filler of girly cards and throw it into her duel disk."

[@mattwo7]

23:09 Endoh did the opening theme for that part of the show, "Road to Tomorrow (Going My Way)" too, it's pretty damn hype.

[@CatsRul85]

One thing to note is although the real life cult stuff wasn't publicly brought to light until later in the series run- we don't know what was going on behind the scenes beforehand during that time which may very well have affected things. From what I heard the Black Wings took off and were/are really popular and I guess we can't have an antagonist with a popular deck soo- I think it could have worked of they just. .made him the surprise 6 signer(start as an antagonist but later join them type deal) and stuck with what they clearly had been foreshadowing as Rua being the 5th -which then may have also helped give Rua and Ruka time to shine together and on their own.

[@arsd.711]

Man I cannot wait for the time you get to Vrains, because i loved Aoi and Ema and even got Trickstars and Altergeist as my main decks for a long time. Then, the show basically bullied them and didn't give them a chance even though Aoi's new deck, Marincess had potential to be Salamangreat counter.

[@christopherb501]

"Bullied" is right. Yuzu got it the worst of any character, but you can _maybe_ attribute some that to callous incompetence. Aoi, they HATED.

[@bluelanternguardianangel8038]

It's sad to see a season that had a lot of great potential and characters only to be mishandled and dropped like a fumbling football. Akiza is best girl and Carly is a solid runner up yet they got sidelined so hard it almost seems unfair Maybe hopefully they can reboot the series and give it a proper storyline to go off of. It's a long shot but if Digimon adventures can have a soft reboot, why not 5ds? Also LeBlanc giving aki that wink was something I never knew I needed until now, I'm Definitely watching the sub lol

[@bookmew1081]

Arc V threw away Yuzu much harder, at least Akiza wasn't randomly killed off. She was supposed to be a Yu protagonist & she got replaced by the Arc V Equivalent of Mokuba after killing her & the other bracelet girls.

[@saiyanscaris6530]

also zexal. oh boy this will be a treat. though it did give us dark mist who was so evil and insane that he wanted to destroy all worlds and become a literal god. and vector who is basicly second to marik for one of the best and trollest villains ever

[@Devilsblight86]

5D's is my 2nd favorite Yu-Gi-Oh series. But MAN, they dropped the ball in the second season.

[@dspace4514]

I had a cool idea for this. Instead of Akiza joining 5ds and becoming basically eye candy, i would have liked her to join with Sherry, since Sherry still needed a team member. And while they were at it, they would recruit either Misty or Carly or both because if 5ds can have more than three members, so can they. And they would be the ones to duel Team 5DS instead of Team Ragnarok.

[@lisaruhm6681]

or duel them before the duel vs team Taiyo, because imo the duels vs team Taiyo and team Ragnarok are needed, as they show their progression, team Taiyo is their past and team Ragnarok represents whet they could be in the future.

[@naquingreen1603]

@DSpace Your idea sounds much better than what we ended up with and I would really like to hear more of your ideas for Akiza, Sherry, Misty, and Carly.

[@Zetact_]

You really could have rolled all of Team Ragnarok into Harald (or Dragan, mostly since I felt that Dragan had the most interesting backstory and thus the highest potential in his characterization) and just have him be a third team member. Nordic has NEVER been three separate decks, and really all Team Ragnarok ended up being was like the Scandinavian bootleg Team 5D's. I get that them being essentially "Yusei Jack and Crow except with Norse gods" was kind of the idea but the same concept could have been consolidated into a single character.

[@naquingreen1603]

@@Zetact_ Your idea sounds way more interesting than what actually ended up happening in season 2 of 5D's.

[@naquingreen1603]

@@lisaruhm6681 Honestly I believe that team Ragnarok could have been all rolled into one character being Harold or Dragan. Because let's face facts here team Ragnarok we're just a rip-off of Team 5D's but with Norse gods which wasn't really all that interesting imao.

[@Yugigreg]

Yugioh 5Ds arc 1 was CRAZY GOOD! Arc 2 was okaayyy but totally dropped the ball. Also you have to watch it in Japanese

[@KeeKage37]

I’d also argue that if there was anyone else who got it just as bad if not worse from 5Ds second season writing. It’s Carli. Girl got a great character arch, and was a major character for Jack, even being turned into a dark signer and back. And she’s reduced to a joke character and part of a set just to give Jack a harem for no reason!

[@christopherb501]

It's a good thing the head writer wouldn't resort to _that_ tack ever again. It's a reeeaally good thing he never wrote stupid harem jokes around a central character that ultimately go nowhere and waste women's potential in droves yet again, right?? RIGHT???

[@loiiysailor1177]

I wish they didn't put a harem joke out of nowhere it hurts both Jack and Carlys characters also wish thses other two ladies go away like bruh what you y'all want fricking gold diggers! , not mention I ship Jack and Carly when I was a kid because thier realtionship is wholesome it show's Jack cares about someone else other then himself Jack x Carly forever !

[@saberaihara9217]

Sherry was indeed wasted and I absolutely LOVE her. She's just so cool and badass and doesn't give off the vibe as being one of those "hot mature" characters. I really wished she got a much more important role. As an extra side note, Zexal was great. There were minimal production issues, it was WAY more successful in Japan and the story was much more comprehensible. I do find it sad that the Western audience doesn't appreciate it nearly as much because, aside from the fact yes it was geared towards a younger audience, it did have some very deep moments and strong messages (and themes).

[@AstaryuuGaming]

Zexal, the one series I did watch before finding this channel, is next, and I dunno whether to be scared or excited.

[@KaijuKraid]

The biggest tragedy with Sherry was that even her return joining the bad guys in the English version was cut. So essentially, we have a character who ended up vanishing, then never appeared ever again. The biggest waste of potential though was Z-ONE, the main antagonist, himself. He had one of the best build ups, no matter how bad the WRGP actually was. Everyone pretty much figured out early on what the 'twist' of Z-ONE was. All the clues pointed to him being Yusei in the future. His 'upside down comma' looking form was clearly Yusei's D-Wheel. He had the criminal markings that Yusei had. And then for some reason they decided to back pedal on this. It turned out he wasn't Yusei at all! He was just... some random generic guy who essentially helped the two big bads and Bruno. All the build up, all the threat and all the hints felt like nothing. It just boiled down to "Hey he looks like Yusei. Nope, it's not Yusei." However, I will say that the Ark Cradle arc was REALLY good despite both the ruination of Sherry and the disappointment of Z-ONE. The duels were all good and it gave some good light to Bruno and Apoira. The absolute worst part without a doubt though is how much protagonist powers Yusei had over everything and everyone. Pretty much every duel went down to Yusei knowing everything, all the strategies and just being the best at everything. He became a massive Gary Stu in the second half of 5Ds, which is a shame since he was great in the first half. His fight against Team Unicorn literally had him about to lose. They even point out Yusei had lost. They didn't need to attack. Team Unicorn built an entire strategy around milling/decking out Yusei. Everyone in the show basically knew this. Then, for some reason, Jean decides to go against his own strategy and attack into something, only to lose to Yusei dropping something very situational on a already situational moment. The worst duel by far though was against Team Ragnarok. The first part with Jack versus the guy using Thor was great. But then it was Crow versus the guy who used Loki and Crow was set up to be some sort of 'Trickster Player' or whatever that meant. It was worthless and pointless. However when it came to Yusei versus the guy using Odin, once again like Team Unicorn, Yusei was on the verge of losing. To make Yusei win, the guy using Odin summoned two monsters onto Yusei's side of the board. They didn't even stay for a single turn, he just used them as materials to synchro summon. It screamed of lazy writing and a lazy out. Team Yliaster versus 5Ds was basically took what Team 5Ds did and then Team 5Ds did what Team 5Ds did. First, Yliaster lost two of it's team members on purpose so Jose was completely powered up. Then Team 5Ds basically resortted to just using Yusei to winning, with really no real interference with Jack or Crow. As for Crash Town. Eh. I know people like it. I didn't really care for it. It was interesting filler.

[@christopherb501]

Z-ONE not being Yusei might have even been fine if he had at least been SOMEONE we knew before. Him literally being "just some guy" is truly an insult. "As for Crash Town" - would have been much better if _every_ Signer managed to get their own equivalent.

[@KaijuKraid]

@@christopherb501 I truly think though that Z-ONE being Yusei was a really good twist. It felt rewarding that everyone managed to pick up all these clues, put two and two together and was very excited to see how Z-ONE and Yusei would actually interact. It however felt like people were just punished for figuring the clues out and wanted to 'do a reverse twist.' If Z-ONE hadn't been built up so damn well, I don't think people at the time would have cared. What if he was someone else we'd known though? It could have been interesting if it was Jack or Rua/Leo. However there is just something nice and delicious about the protagonist being the main antagonist which drew a lot of the interest. Infact, I'm pretty sure the main reason I stuck watching every release of the WRGP is because I truly wanted to see how the dots all connected. Although the Yliaster Trio were no where near as awesome as the Dark Signers or Godwin, they still had great ideas because of Z-ONE, the Meklords as well as how Paradox, Aporia and Bruno were all connected together. The problem I had with Crash Town is when it was. I was watching the episodes pretty much as they were released in Japan. Then we stop in the middle of an already kind of tired plot to a filler arc that, while actually kind of very interesting, was slowing down the pace even more. Mostly so they could sell more Infernity cards (To their credit: They were great cards and I certainly used them irl!) However, nothing happened with Crash Town. It didn't affect the story in any other way that I recall. A Kiryu redemption arc didn't really work so well to me when Carly, Misty, Rudgar and Rex didn't really get any. As mentioned in the video, Carly just became comic relief because Jack became comic relief. Rudgar and Rex died. No one cared about Demak and people cared more about Crow than Bomber. (Seriously, I remember talking about the Crow v Bomber episode to people and people just REALLY thought Crow was awesome and his cards are cool. Argh.) Actually, that episode is the first episode where Crow really became a problem for the rest of the show.

[@bookmew1081]

Z-ONE was essentially some guy from the distant future who attempted to make himself Yusei (just because of how much of a historical hero he was) this is the equivalent of someone trying to alter their genetics to become the 2nd Coming of some historical figure. If Jean D'ark had her DNA preserved you don't think some girl would try to use it to become her? The same for some man trying to use DNA to make himself the 2nd coming of any number of figures like Einstein, Da Vinci, King Arthur, or even Jesus. This was more a way to keep Yusei clean, while still having the final villain basically be a replica of Yusei who failed to stop the end of the world & believes Yusei too will fail.

[@Alzilla09]

The Arc Cradle arc for me was mediocre. I mean I did enjoyed it but it felt lackluster to me. The only Part I liked was Bruno’s part while the rest was meh! Full of macguffins that just comes out of nowhere and doesn’t feel subtle. Aporia himself and Z-One are... ok. I guess? They have a cool (if trite) backstory and potential as characters. But they aren't utilized well at all. They are just the force that will drop a city onto Yusei's city and that's it. And I do agree as much as I love Yusei I didn’t like how they wrote him as a messiah figure especially having him do everything! Plus the power of friendship was so in your face! The final duel was cool but it was all spectacle over substance. I love 5Ds don’t get me wrong but there are a lot of things I have a problem with it.

[@nilge90]

Remember how the Shadow creature in the 3-on-1 duel against Goodwin looked like Blackwing or the 5ft signer dragon in the info dump scene was Life Stream Dragon aka Leo's Power Tool Dragon without Cybernetics. It really felt like they changed things halfway through because of Crow. Gotta love some bisexual love triangle

[@skyslasher2297]

3:40 Its possible this is still true in that it was a maindate from Konami still since it was still a few months to a year before the finale more then enough time to change things. Its not like the show has never been forced to change because of the game before or since for example in Vrains Yusakes traditional 2500 atk ace monster Firewall Dragon was banned in the real game and because its maindated that the characters can't use cards on the ban list (hense why the meme machine pot of greed never was used after gx) he stoped using it.

[@dbzhardcore]

Man I love Sherry. Her design, backstory, and that voice is so glorious! Still a shame what they did to her and how they butchered her character... Atleast the Tag Force games wrote good storylines with her and I love the teasing and confession she has for the MC in the games she was in.

[@Mangakamen]

Too bad that wasted potential in the actual series.

[@Diamondr11Blue]

Finally someone else who likes her

[@holen6549]

Yup, alot of the female characters had alot of potential and it got thrown to the curb.Also, yes, 4kids shouldn't have cut team taiyou duel, because that was a freaking amazing set of episodes. I honestly would like you to do a video on the brilliance of team taiyou.

[@MetaWarlord135]

To truly demonstrate how little impact Luna has on the story on 5Ds, I'll point out that she's not even available as a character icon for decks in Legacy of the Duelist, something that nearly every relevant Yugioh character with onscreen duels gets. Hell, there's a random Obelisk Force grunt from Arc-V who's on the roster.

[@sirkillalot9892]

Her solo duel was against somebody who didn't have a recognisable deck either. Luna's own deck was barely defined. Every other duel she was in would be a tag duel, which are just ignored in these games.

[@lynxfresh5214]

Apparently Luna and Leo are more impactful as well as in general more relevant to the plot in the 5Ds manga.

[@naquingreen1603]

@@lynxfresh5214 The manga versions of Leo and Luna should have been in the anime. Leo should have been revealed to be the Fifth Signer Instead of Crow (who should have been a Dark Signer)

[@christopherb501]

@@sirkillalot9892 We're going to get her manga counterpart's Forest deck in print before they ever even try to develop a playstyle for Ruca(a).

[@naquingreen1603]

@@SergioLeonardoCornejo Luna deserved better.

[@WarmLillie]

I’m taking more notes on how to be a better girl. Akiza is fantastic character, she was just cursed with bad writing after her journey done. Luna is just sweet Carly is a very good character. I also love her fortune telling and character development. Misty made me tear-up, love her fury and how she did everything for love for her brother. Be like Sherry begin but not like the end. I’m a blonde with the occasional french flare bit. Take away: Have a full character, Have a special theme, fighting spirit and chemistry with other people but don’t be reduced, and keep alot of consistency. Also a full plan. Well call me the Lillie with few thorn. Extra: Theory are just theory You need see a body to make sure someone dead. Also you had one job Lizard!!! True fact a few years ago I sensed something from show trace and attracted to negative vibes. Explain why I’m here… Akiza is totally hot, wait that isn’t supposed to written down right now. Can’t wait for Zexal Era, Let’s feel the flow!!!

[@topcat59]

The only protagonist in All of Yu-Gi-Oh that has an actual harem and it’s Jack. Interesting.😹

[@Zetact_]

Yuma and Judai both reach at least 3.

[@silverraigirideviluke]

@@Zetact_ who is the third for judai? Yubel doesnt count.

[@bookmew1081]

Yugi had a filler harem during Early Season 5 (Grand Championship) as well.

[@orangeslash1667]

Fun Fact: Jacks English VA is king DeDeDe from the Kirby anime, so now Jack being turned into a joke character kinda makes sense.

[@tristanalain9239]

Honestly, Yuzu was treated bad, but imo, Aoi Zaizen still got the absolute worst treatment of any main female character. Not only did she constantly lose despite being in-universe a powerful duelist who had 2 amazing decks at her disposal, but her loses always came with some form of physical abuse and humiliation. Honestly Aoi's treatment convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone or several people on the anime team were just fucking sexist

[@matthewkuscienko4616]

And that's without even going into the fact that the female characters in Yugioh are almost never well written and usually unimportant. It really says a lot to me that Dark Magician Girl, a freaking monster card, was given more importance than most of the actual human female characters in the series, but that's besides the point. I honestly am starting to wonder at this point if the staff is afraid to put more stoplight on a female character in the series specifically because it's aimed at boys, which is stupid

[@ilostthreeaccountstoyoutub1434]

kek seethe feminist c*nts

[@christopherb501]

I'll always argue that Yuzu still had it worse, as I'm factoring in her counterparts' treatment as well as her non-utilization in the manga, but there's no denying that they despised Aoi from day 1. Unlike Yuzu, poor Miss Zaizen never at least had a "good" period.

[@christopherb501]

@@matthewkuscienko4616 Certainly Gallop was misogynist AF. Thank Osiris for Studio Bridge; here's hoping they keep this train rolling long enough to counterbalance the previous studio's sins against women.

[@bookmew1081]

Yuzu had it worse because she was actually set up to be a 2nd Yu Protagonist then randomly got killed off & replaced by Riley Akaba (The Mokuba of that series) during the 3rd Season. I'm never going to get over just how cheated Yuzu was near the end when she should have defeated Zarc. I agree though that Aoi's treatment was where there was no denying that the Yugioh Devs were Misogynists, although she didn't have the false hope that Yuzu had for more than 100 Episodes.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

My speculation for aki is similar, but a bit more streamed line. The writers given a different direction to take the series, either by Konami or a new creative lead, and when it came to incorporating aki into that story no one cared enough to do so in a significant manner.

[@benpower3912]

I’m rewatching 5d and this video might be awesome

[@Volcanic_torchlight.]

Good video 5ds is my favorite series and i agree that the second half drops the ball.

[@alexanderjackson7948]

22:30 Katsumi Ono's writing (Symphogear, Arc-V) rarely focuses on a single character he really likes, spreading screentime and character development among the whole cast, unlike Takahashi (in the originial series Kaiba and Joey had the most relevance in a filler arc). I'm certain it was Ono, directing from episode 3 until the end of dark signer arc and returning for the duel with the zushin boys who actually made the series good in the first place.

[@riotkitty]

There’s a lot of 5Ds second half issues, Aki being one of them. The first episodes of the second season were literally random. Carly and Jack were reset and didn’t become a couple. It all stems from a lack of direction in the second season.

[@gundamkaizer6947]

I haven't seen any version of 5D's, but this and your Aki video are definitely getting me interested enough to check it out!!

[@icypika]

Honestly Luna got sooo screwed over in the show. She's the only main character in 5DS that doesn't have an archetype period. She was simply like you said used for Leo's development. I really wish they expanded on the Spirit World. It had a really interesting idea. She never gets a single win to herself in the entire show. She suffers from the same thing as Blair sadly. Blair got top score when she first was introduced nearing Bastion level. She never gets a good on screen duel and her main card isn't even printed. I wish Yugioh expanded so much more on their female leads. Great video as always Kamen keep up the great work!

[@totallynotdio1311]

Wow, my thoughts exactly. Basicly what we need to take away from this video is that the first 2 seasons are flawless and they writers f it up. Ironically what you suggested for diving during the second half of the show is exactly what i did in my rewrite. They had such a easy way to make aki good but they refused...

[@christopherb501]

*Appropriately

[@sirkillalot9892]

Well 5Ds in actuality had only 2 seasons (Beginning-Dark Signers and Dark Signers-ZONE's defeat). The English dub divided it into 4 seasons. Fortune Cup, Dark Signers, Pre-WRGP (the filler, Bruno's debut and CrashTown) and the tournament arc.

[@totallynotdio1311]

@@sirkillalot9892 we have a stinky dub watcher here so let me enlighten you: in the correct version, aka the sub, there were 5 seasons. first 2 seasons told the story of the dark signers, and the remaining 3 seasons are about the illiaster emperors.

[@sirkillalot9892]

@@totallynotdio1311 I thought it was the other way around. Japanese had just two seasons, while the dub considered each major arc as it own season.

[@totallynotdio1311]

@@sirkillalot9892 nah not really

[@heythatguyalex]

Every one of these vids convinces me that we need a Yugioh Stone Ocean

[@christopherb501]

NO argument here...

[@RedDragonForce2]

As much grief as you’re giving Luna/Ruka, Leo/Rua is written even worse!! Constantly losing duels, had his duel against a Dark Signer taken from him because he wasn’t a Signer (thanks again Crow for having that moment!!) and Luna was, and his only Solo Victory was a one-off filler episode about brother/sister duos. While I agree his personality stood out more, his personal growth was often shanked in favor of Signer Power. And when he did get his Signer Mark, it was after DYING!!! And in a Season that, for better or worse, never got a Dub!! And Leo’s role didn’t increase because thanks again CROW for becoming a Signer in his place!! End of Season 1, Leo was all set to become a Signer, which can be confirmed by the flashbacks itself having Life Stream Dragon and not Blackwing Dragon which was retconned during a non-dubbed arc where Jack and Yusei travel to a different country!!! So once again, Crow becoming a Signer screwed over three other Signers in different ways! Really asking for that original concept of Crow becoming a Dark Signer, even if that was scrapped for reasons no theory can fully explain.

[@cobraaaaaaaaaaaa]

ZeXal's next. Can't wait to see what you'll say about Kotori.

[@Mangakamen]

I will not be kind.

[@danielramsey6141]

@@Mangakamen Thank you. Cause I’m getting real tired of Cheerleader type characters!

[@voltingmaster5458]

6:48 I’ll NEVER FORGIVE YUZU’S CHARACTER ASSASSINATION!

[@bookmew1081]

She should have been the protagonist who defeated Zarc instead of getting killed off & replaced by Riley Akaba (Who was the Mokuba of that series) Yuzu had a great design, Yu in her name, was a skilled duelist & clearly had a destiny she was cheated out of. She learned how to ride (Turbo) duel, yet was literally assassinated in some machine a season later.

[@JoshSipes234]

Fun fact about Misty's va she also voices lady satski ( burtuerd I know ) in kill la kill and they look alot alike so my personal head canon is that kill la kill and yugioh are in same universe and 5ds is a sequel to kill la kill

[@orangeslash1667]

Fun Fact: Jacks English VA is king DeDeDe from the Kirby anime, so now Jack being turned into a joke character kinda makes sense.

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

To make aki's motorcycle license pay off, all they had to do is just let aki win. Looking forward to arc v - which has damn near every single issue 5ds has, as well as vrains which also has the exact same issues but even worse. (5ds mainly gets a pass from the fandom because nostalgia and cool character designs) Also looking forward to zexal which is imo objectively the best written yugioh show, even if every character design is goofy as hell (some in good ways, others in "wtf" ways).

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

@TheMelodiusRose 5ds s1&2 are fantastic, yeah. As were gx s3&4 and arc v s1. If we were talking about individual seasons or arcs then I'd definitely include 5ds as up there, but the 2nd half of 5ds really hurts it in the overall ranking imo.

[@bigfish5544]

I think 5D's season 3 to 5 had some of the best vilains and symbolics of any show, with extremely entertaining duels and characters. If we remove all the characters it tossed to the side and plot lines it forgot, I would definitely have considered it an improvement over season 1 and 2. Zexal stays the most consistent series in terms of writing, having a good and complete story with a satisfying resolution that never really loses itself

[@IAmTrash1995]

Zexal girls are mostly not very good. There are a few good ones but don’t show up often

[@sirkillalot9892]

Anna and Rio are fun characters, but they don't appear enough. Tori, the main girl is practically Tea again but worse because less duels/importance.

[@IAmTrash1995]

@@sirkillalot9892 tea is the only undefeated duelist who isn’t one off

[@kurumiwendy]

a bit of a side note since you brought it up but I'll never forgive the writers for having jack say "woman only get in the way!" at the end of 5ds because that literally contradicts his entire character arc?? he was not only raised by a woman but he literally saved aki at one point when the building was collapsing (small i know but you get my point), plus he clearly loved carly so much to the point he was willing to die together with her. he's a women respecter 100%, i refuse to believe other wise.

[@bigfish5544]

I think it actually was a nice touch into giving us insight he still cared about Carly. At the end of the show, he goes into pro dueling once again to maintain his status as king and if he does so, it's obvious he won't have time to be in a relationship. It's quite telling he literally only tells Carly to go home when the other two fangirls are here next to her, because it shows he chose to ignore his feelings for Carly intentionally and doesn't even see the other two. However, I'm still pissed at what they did with Carly. It was such a waist of character... I'm just glad they remember SHE got him out of his egotistical mindset of the show's beginning (they even recognize it in a recap episode)

[@kurumiwendy]

@@bigfish5544 very true! i only wish it didnt come off as such a sexist line lol.. there's also the games like tag tag force 5/duel links that show how much he still likes her too! with jack getting jealous of the player character and him saying lines like "does that make you my queen? no, stop trying to trick me!" when she said nothing of it lmao.. that was all him!! don't mind me, i just miss them a lot.

[@bigfish5544]

@@kurumiwendy I get your mindset to be honest. Tag force games are just amazing, if I'm not mistaken Sherry and Aki also get the screentime they deserve in it... They're just so much better

[@neoinfinity5204]

Even today my mind keeps telling me the Yusei/Aki Cinderella ending was bugged moment transferred to dub cause seriously even as a kid who didn’t understand character development that really PISSED ME OFF.

[@Evixyn]

I guess it is time to "High Five the Sky" and get ready to "Get Set to Get Deck" I never watched zexal but the yuya catch phrase are hilarious from the first four episodes I saw clips of on KZbin a decade ago.

[@lilsmurfy8349]

you made a lot of points dude especially with the whole they fuck shit up with their good female characters by doing one thing or another, In a way I think that zexal did one of their female characters the best with sharks sister that's just my opinion tho since I couldn't watch the rest of zexal from after season 2 or 3 I think it was with me only getting to see parts and only parts

[@moonlordgaming4537]

Is there going to be a force unleash review as over powered done right?(poth ps2 version and ps3) and basically doing a comparison of Star killer and Rey?(I feel like this is possibly done to death but hey, an idea for may lol)

[@christopherb501]

24:00 Look on the bright side...at least it isn't Arc-V...