Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V

[Just Crouton]

It'd be nice to see the franchise take a step back and return to a normal world where the game is a hobby and any magic/bad guys are in on the argument because they have a thing against the main guy, or at least not be a "destroy the world" kind of deal.

 

 

It'd be great if the next series focused on characters competing in smaller tournaments arcs building up to a main tournament arc while overcoming personal drama. Kind of like Duelist Kingdom, but on a much larger scale.

 

Duelist Kingdom was great because it focused on characters saving loved ones.

 

Battle City was the first "save the world" arc they did, but the real climax of the arc was Yugi vs. Kaiba, a duel where the world wasn't at stake (and for a long list of reasons of which I will argue to my grave is the greatest protag vs. rival duel in the entire franchise.) But, then we get Yugi vs. Marik, where the world was at stake, but was underwhelming by comparison because Marik is just the villain of the arc.

 

If Duelist Kingdom showed anything, it's that "the world is in danger" isn't much of, nor does it ever need to be, a stake in card anime. If Pegasus won, Yugi loses his grandfather, his Puzzle, and his soul, and Kaiba loses his brother, KaibaCorp, and his soul. Who cares if billions of unnamed, faceless people may or may not also suffer because Pegasus won a card game?

[~British Soul~]

It'd be great if the next series focused on characters competing in smaller tournaments arcs building up to a main tournament arc while overcoming personal drama. Kind of like Duelist Kingdom, but on a much larger scale.

Vanguard has done that, have smaller tournament arcs and a larger tournament arc. (in that case Regionals and Nationals), with characters also dealing with personal drama inbetween.

[~Faytl~]

[spoiler=Episode thoughts]

One of my favorite episodes in a while, honestly.

 

Yuri was great this episode and it was actually compelling watching Yuya try to resist Zarc's influence while Yuri just drank it in. Losing Yuto over to it was also cool to see as well, them losing Dark Rebellion really ratcheted up the tension of the fight. This is turning out to be a great damn duel. 

 

 

 

As for the new series, I would be totally down for a female protagonist. No idea what they'll introduce to the game to shake it up, though. Extra Deck is getting stretched a bit thin.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

I wouldn't mind seeing a female lead this time, but chances are that they'll go with another male (which doesn't bother me). But yeah, the main female characters tend to be support-roles or fall into that later. 

 

Whoever the next generation protagonist is, hopefully they are tolerable. 

 

[spoiler=Analyzing the ones from all generations]

DM: Tea/Anzu didn't do much outside friendship speeches; Mai only existed to promote Harpies and some other things (got screentime in filler, but yeah)

 

GX: Alexis/Anzu started off okay-ish, turned dark for a while, then became affiliated with Jaden on good terms for rest of series [as far as I remember]

 

5Ds: Aki had her anger issues, but toned down and eventually helped to defeat Dark Signers. Had one role in substituting for Crow during the prelims of WRGP, but then got shafted afterwards. (Yusei and Aki are probably the only two in the entire franchise who got close to an actual kiss; well, they're college-aged by then, so...)

 

Ruka/Luna didn't duel much (well, she's 11-13 and had a condition; what do you expect from her?); highlight moments are probably her defeating Demak (Dark Signer arc) and Aporia; though all of them were in team matches (and latter was more/less due to Rua being reincarnated as a Signer and doing things). Support character for the rest of the series. 

 

ZEXAL: What the hell did Kotori do again? Oh right, nothing of importance except being possessed by Barian's Force and forcing Girag to defend himself. Anna should've replaced her, since she actually battled a Barian (she lost, but at least she did something) and Deck is actually legitimate. 

 

ARC-V: Yuzu started off fine, but then became a support character after being trashed by Sergey (well, she was knocked off the overpass after Sergey blocked her from getting an Action Card, so yeah). Anything after episode 83, she stopped being useful [i think this is the episode, but yeah, she's done nothing relevant since 2015].

 

Serena did more than her in the long run though, and had better character development (even if it did get cut short near the start of the Fusion arc).

 

Rin/Ruri didn't get much, so not counting them here. 

 

 

 

Analyzing this generation, I don't mind Yuya going on about his egao, but what I don't really care for about him is when he uses it at the wrong times. Could also be how I feel about watching duels; actually want to see battles, not watch it turn into a literal circus (which he did a couple times; see Battle Beast). 

 

Whoever the next protagonist is, hopefully they're tolerable. They can be on about smiles, but yeah, just don't go overboard like Yuya tended to do a lot throughout the series. 

 

-----

As for the new summon mechanic, they should probably leave it with the stuff they already got. Game is already getting complicated as-is (some people don't really like how it's turning out); I don't really mind the new mechanics, but it just means adjusting playstyles to see how new stuff works (power creep too, but this isn't TCG section). That, and for CC purposes in analyzing design, but let's leave it at this. 

 

Can only wonder what kind of thing they're going to do this time. (There have been some interesting ideas in the Experimental area, but whether/not they resemble any future summon mechanics remains to be seen for now)

[Fusion X. Denver]

I still think it'd be cool to make a DM sequel with all the updated mechanics. I was hoping Dark Side of Dimensions would set that up (still haven't seen the movie), but I suppose I wouldn't mind a 6th gen either. It'd be cool if it were a girl, but I have a feeling they're deadset on their young boy demographic.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

As far as I recall, most of the main protagonists in anime/manga are usually male (although I haven't watched all of them, so there may very well be some that do have a female as the main star). Probably might be a male one again, but until info comes around, we can only guess. Probably will be high-school aged again; outside Yusei being college-age (maybe I relate to him more b/c he's more mature and 5Ds as a whole anyway), everyone else is high school age (grade 9-10). Would be cool to get an older protagonist, but they probably won't since they want it to be marketable to a wide audience (not just for our age bracket).

 

Personally would prefer getting a new series cast as opposed to a sequel of DM; basically because there's only so much of Yugi Muto and Kaiba that we want to see (even if they do promote the meta; least in Kaiba's case with BEs). Still haven't seen the movie either, but dk if I want to. I don't hate the original series, but they're milking it too much at this point. 

[Sleepy]

[spoiler=Rants about Yugioh]

I can't back it up with hard numbers but I think DM is by far their biggest success in terms of gaining new fans for the franchise. I remember there were fake cards with awkward fonts and holos, products being sold in 25 cent machines, at the flea market, at big and small stores, and cereal, toys, coloring books, this was everywhere. I remember seeing Pegasus's deck for 25 dollars instead of 10 at some places.

 

GX: One can tell Kazuki Takahashi didn't want to make another Ash Ketchup out of Yugi, and Capsule Monsters was the last they were able to squeeze out of him, so Jaden wasn't thought up as gen 2 of more to come. No, it was the replacement to be for however long they wanted. The ones in charge would have probably preferred to keep Yugi for as long as possible. As the only other gen at the time, it was hard not to compare and see it didn't have the same tone. It also had a school on duels. Here's where the audience of the franchise started shrinking IMO: The moment the card game started making the world more absurd.

 

Even though GX eventually developed what is to some the darkest arch out of any Yugioh series, it already had started out as a school life comedy premise. Many of those who wanted something darker had already most likely jumped off the ship. It also got a little more problematic in its product. It was archetype hell, where pack pulls were pretty much 100% ongoing long archetypes, many of which were filler even for said archetypes as the cherry on top. Plus, the game had already followed its linear growth enough to be predictable. 2k max vanilla Level 4s, enough destruction for what was needed, etc. Even if it kept growing as it was doing, it was a stale growth.

 

So 5Ds came around the corner having taken notes of many of GX's short comings. New cards were more generic, there was a new mechanic that made Levels matter instead of just reinforcing the stats a monster could have, and included a Dragon that countered all destruction that had grown into the game up to that point without outright rendering it pointless.

The story promised to be more dark and mature, too. This was obviously not big enough to get the popular attention like DM did, because that kind of attention is mostly for gen 1s of any franchise to be honest... but it did polish the game pretty well and refreshed things up. It had a different kind of popularity since this is where the Guinness record for most attendees to an event of a card game happened. It got many people back into the game, although not as casual as before.

 

ZeXal.

IDK... It obviously didn't have DM's impact, and 5Ds was the first "new mechanic" so this was gonna get hype, but not THAT much. I think it partially exists because Synchros capped their potential, and from there on any further support would be too blatantly better and since decks could already toolbox into any Levels of Synchros including 3-materials and evolutions, something else needed to come in. Xyzs were pretty brilliant, advancing the game but slowing down the influx of "throw into the Graveyard", weakening Level-based effects a bit, and giving a reason for big-Level Main Deck monsters to be used more prevalent than before. It fixed things and is such a generic method that it's just natural.

but enough about indulging in the game itself. What happened here? IDK, the anime had so much potential but it felt dumbed down. If this was their answer to Vanguard's emerging success it wasn't incredibly effective. I don't know if kids really dug it to such success.. At this point it doesn't matter if it was successful or not though. 2nd anime with a new mechanic had now created the formula we know: 3 years worth of episodes and then introduce a new concept.
I mostly believe there was mismanagement here. 5Ds got shrunk down from the number of intended episodes so ZeXal was mostly put out in a rush. It has very different animation, and I think they concentrated extra hard on that aspect (especially Vector's and probably Kotori's fan service scenes).

 

I personally dislike how dumb the anime duels often were, and how much of a jump in power the game made IRL compared to anything in the past, but that's as far as I can tell: Personal views.

 

Arc V:

It is doing something they lacked since forever: Attention to Legacy. Though I think they are overdoing it at this point. They've been promoting DM since late 2015 with the movie and card support. Now the new Premium Pack has a bit of GX and 5Ds legacy support sprinkled in. They also brought back characters from older series as an excuse to give legacy support for them and to pull back fans from the past.

It's gotten a tad shameless IMO and as said in another post above, it gradually makes the world revolve more around the card game, which is being presented in a way that's gonna be harder to accept/assimilate for any outsider that might stumble into anything from the franchise.

 

I also think the game is currently pretty explosive and gives importance in the power to have your cards at least replace themselves, and be ready very early game to make your plays. This can still work, and power to those who love the speed and power rush, and not saying the game is skill-less either. I'm saying the characteristics sound very non-newbie-friendly. You have to be a casual that was hand-held into the right cards for your plays as you learned the game to really be successful, and I saw people approach kids running vanillas with their PePe builds. I know the game is geared towards balance within the metagame and nowhere else, but I feel there are a few aspects here that could see some improvements.

 

I'm not incredibly excited for the future of the game if it ups the bet even more in terms of power, speed, and consistency. Well it's not like they can rewind anything here so I'm curious to see what their new mechanics (if any) are and how they'll make their now traditional gen-finale fixes to issues before they start up fresh again.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

GX's anime is in retrospect still my personal fav. I ditched it back when it was the new thing because of many things. Now that it's all out there and I've been around the block, I just like looking at those characters doing random crap among themselves in a school setting. Plus comebacks that still look pretty bad after seeing them before, but that it makes them sort of amazing that they worked.

5Ds is my personal fav IRL game experience and my doze of epic moments. Some of their fillers like them playing Duel Terminal, are pretty amusing too.

 

^this has nothing to do with anything, just wanted to say it.

 

 

 

I doubt the main character would ever be a girl in Yugioh. Putting aside the "it's a shonen" argument, Yugioh has always been especially bad with girl characters. Focusing on the female leads exclusively:

 

-Tea/Anzu beat Joey in the classroom, but for some reason she never picked up the game. The motivation would have been understanding the pharaoh a little more and maybe being of use to him outside of just friendship speeches (which are a bit more of a 4Kids thing btw). I mean she already had duels before (canon duels, not the virtual world ones or vs Mai).

 

-Alexis/Azuka I don't think I ever considered to be super good. Non-Jaden Slifers were as incompetent as they come, and Ra students had as much screen as the Silver knights from Saint Seiya (the middle rank never gets much attention). So she was on the "good" end of the spectrum but nobody super impressive. She also wan't really helpful when it came to plot. The few images I recall of her in a more serious scenario are as a hostage.

 

-Aki was promising during the Fortune Cup arc. Starting up the Dark Signers arc she was mostly just "Sugoi Yusei!". Though her duel with Misty was a high point in the arc for sure. Then she lost her powers, got shafted for Crow in the main character trio of this series, the Arcadia movement arc she would have probably been an important part of for her development, was called off, and at the WRGP she reacted a lot different to the opposing monsters' attacks than she did at the beginning..... Honestly it looked like a regression.

 

-Kotori: Why would she hang out for years with people that are 100% duelists all the time? and not even know how the game works herself? Anzu had more of a pass on this one because DM did show Anzu's goals and the world of DM was less revolving around the game. Plus, Anzu knew at least the basics of the game (from her games with Joey). Kotori even asked Rio to teach her how to play (and that was as advanced as ZeXal 2 into the story). Kotori's family isn't even shown to be super close to Yuma's family so Kotori doesn't have any incentive to be part of the anime whatsoever. She's mostly a fan service character that wasn't put there without thinking too much about it.

 

-Yuzu is fine. She's motivated and capable. The problem here is that the universe is fixed in a way that forces her to be a hostage. The writers wanted her to be Yuya's interest/goal/incentive rather than to be his companion that'd also grown and improve along the way. The story is setup that way. Nothing against Yuzu, she's probably the best girl of this bunch but literally the universe conspires against her, although she might do something important considering the way Yuya is going right now (emphasis on "might"). I'm not really happy with this. I hope whatever new series improves on this....

[The Warden]

Honestly, I don't want a new mechanic to appear next gen. Konami still hasn't found a way to balance Pendulums, so next gen should be more about stabilizing their mechanics rather than creating a new one.

[~British Soul~]

Honestly, I don't want a new mechanic to appear next gen. Konami still hasn't found a way to balance Pendulums, so next gen should be more about stabilising their mechanics rather than creating a new one.

I agree, I don't think the next gen should intro a new mechanic either.

[Astro Dude]

I agree. The next series should focus on how to balance pendulums.

 

[spoiler my rant]

I like Tori onlt cause she's voiced by Eileen Stevens, the girl who was the voice of Iris in Pokemon Black and White. What I don't like about her is she is 12 and what Sleepy said. Does this series look like Jungle de Ikou? Can Tori magically transform into a giant, tan skinned, scantally clad, busty version of herself? OF COURSE NOT! SHE IS 12 YEARS OLD! and yet the artists and writers make her out to be a fanservice character. This just makes me sick.

 

Regarding the others, Tea had been friends with Yugi since they found her working at a burger restaurant, Alexis, sure she's an Obelisk Blue, but at least she's one of the goodones. Least we forget in a way she was held hostage during the Society of Light arc. I was happy when she was free from Sartorius' control. As for Akiza, a tragic backstory, a deck that makes a mediocre type rise out of the shadows, In my opinion, best Yugioh girl ever. If only she was voiced by Lisa Ortiz then she would be perfect.

 

As for a female protag, I think we're about to get it. Everyone sees Yuya as the hero, but we get a backstory to Leo Akaba's goals. It sounds more like Ray is the real hero of this story, so she might come out of nowhere and duel Zarc for the fate of the multi-verse.

 

And on top of that, why are the females most susceptible to mind control? Someone tell me.

 

 

 

Anyway, Here's hoping something good happens.

[~British Soul~]

[spoiler my rant]

As for Akiza, a tragic backstory, a deck that makes a mediocre type rise out of the shadows, In my opinion, best Yugioh girl ever. If only she was voiced by Lisa Ortiz then she would be perfect.

 

 

[spoiler=Response]

@Bolded: In your opinion.

Other than that, yeah Aki was best YGO girl, no one can really deny that.

 

 

[Astro Dude]

[spoiler=Response]

@Bolded: In your opinion.

Other than that, yeah Aki was best YGO girl, no one can really deny that.

 

 

No one can come close to Akiza. I just hope that is Series 6 has a female protagonist, she will be just as good, in fact I have a name for her: Yuka Asami. Seriously Shonen show girls some love.

[~British Soul~]

No one can come close to Aki. I just hope that is Series 6 has a female protagonist, she will be just as good. Seriously Shonen show girls some love.

And if these isn't a main female protag, at least have her be funking competent like Aki.

[Astro Dude]

And if these isn't a main female protag, at least have her be funking competent like Aki.

Exactly. Let there be a good female character.

 

Wow, this Series 6 discussion is really heating up. At least it'll give us something to do before the next episode airs and we can discuss what happens in it.

 

Wait... Has there ever been Roller dueling? You know, duels on roller blades?

[~British Soul~]

Exactly. Let there be a good female character.

 

Wow, this Series 6 discussion is really heating up. At least it'll give us something to do before the next episode airs and we can discuss what happens in it.

I still need to watch the subs for the latest three episodes.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Exactly. Let there be a good female character.

 

Wow, this Series 6 discussion is really heating up. At least it'll give us something to do before the next episode airs and we can discuss what happens in it.

 

Wait... Has there ever been Roller dueling? You know, duels on roller blades?

 

Closest you're getting is Yuya wearing Allan's skates a couple months ago (I don't remember if he wore them this week). 

[-kyo-]

Closest you're getting is Yuya wearing Allan's skates a couple months ago (I don't remember if he wore them this week). 

he's still wearing them,he just haven't been using them lately

[Astro Dude]

Roller dueling could be the next big thing in dueling for series 6. Duels on rollerblades.

[Dokutah]

Roller dueling could be the next big thing in dueling for series 6. Duels on rollerblades.

 

NO INFERIOR...BOW TO HOVERBOARD MASTER RACE:

 

https://ygorganization.com/jump-festa-2017-latest-information-stage/

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

So they're basically revamping the D-Board concept from Season 3 of 5D's to some extent; seems legit. 

 

I do feel that a new thread on it should be made though, so we can keep this topic centered on ARC-V stuff and use the new one for predictions on whatever this ends up being called. 

[Dokutah]

So they're basically revamping the D-Board concept from Season 3 of 5D's to some extent; seems legit. 

 

I do feel that a new thread on it should be made though, so we can keep this topic centered on ARC-V stuff and use the new one for predictions on whatever this ends up being called. 

 

gimme few second

[Sleepy]

"on the premise of kids should try things out instead of giving up at the first try due to being overwhelmed by information."

 

^I laughed out loud on that line.

Isn't that a relatively common complaint about the game nowadays, from an outside perspective having 5 stellar advanced Summon mechanics to keep in mind and pretty much being more complex than ever before?

It gives me a vibe of Aichi's second uniform from Cardfight Vanguard. It doesn't sound too outlandish but it also doesn't sound like it'll push back from the "world revolves around Yugioh" premise. These are at the very least similar to Entertainment Duels or Riding Duels but in another way.

[Astro Dude]

Another male protag. There's always the 7th series.

 

Anyway, will Ray be revived yet?

[~British Soul~]

NO INFERIOR...BOW TO HOVERBOARD MASTER RACE:

 

https://ygorganization.com/jump-festa-2017-latest-information-stage/

That looks rather interesting tbph. Very similar to the Duel Boards from 5Ds.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

It looks more like a hoverboard instead of an actual skateboard, but hey, close enough, I guess. Will just have to see how it turns out.

 

As for Ray being revived, it's probably likely now that the Yu girls are absorbed into the system. Question remains, which of Yuya or Yuri is going to end up absorbing the other. We already know Zarc will revive regardless, given episode title.