Okay, I would leave Yugioh for a while, but I thought about tackling something head-on. I was a little afraid to talk about this last time, but given my new electric courage, I might as well say something controversial: Yugioh Zexal is my fave series, and it's one of the best in the franchise. If you think this is a foolish statement, then prepare yourself because today I'll be explaining how this series compares to others, stands on its own 2 feet, and how the stigma is for people who want to get into Zexal.
Note
So I'm just going not to claim the dub in this review since I will admit that it removes and takes away a lot of meaningful scenes. I can't save the dub, so I won't even try and praise the sub.
Story
In a far-off and stable future, young protagonist Yuma Tsukumo is aspiring to be a Duel Champion in the energetic Heartland City. The only problem is that his skills make early Joey Wheeler look like the King of Games. Despite this, Yuma keeps trucking along with the only thing his dear father left to him, the promise always to have a Kattobingu spirit, and a mysterious key he left for safekeeping.
Like any Yugioh series, Yuma eventually has to duel a kid named Shark after stealing one of his nameless friends' decks. Throughout the duel, he's getting creamed like Krispy until the true power of his Key awakens. It brings him to a mysterious door that tells him that he will obtain a great power at the cost of what he values most.
Deciding to take the offer, Yuma plunges his key into the door to unlock a doorway to the mysterious dimension known as Astral World. A mysterious alien named Astral traveled through it from this gateway, helping Yuma win the duel through his advice. It gets revealed that upon his arrival to Earth, Astral's memories got split into 100 powerful Number Cards that held the secrets to an immeasurable power ripe for the taking.
Furthermore, it's revealed that even one of these number cards can possess and corrupt the wielder to do terrible things. Finally, it's revealed that forces of the chaotic Barain World also seek the Number Cards to survive their long-standing conflict with the Astral World. So with enemies coming from the literal stars themselves ready to threaten everything Yuma holds dear and most of Astral's power getting hidden away, the two must work together to survive. Lucky for them, when two distant souls become one, the power of Zexal is revealed, a power that might be what they need to survive.
Cast
With that bucket of plot out of the way, he might as well tackle Zexal's biggest controversy out of the way: Yuma Tsukumo himself. For those of you who haven't seen my Ranking of the Yugioh Protags, I'll be brief on my feelings on him. Overall I always thought that Yugioh Zexal was a bit of a soft reboot of the franchise, with Yuma being the poster boy of that message.
With Yugioh being more complicated and competitive, I find it refreshing to have an mc that is not good at your title game. Yugi was a gaming nerd, Jaden was a savant, and Yusei was a genius, Yuma was an average 13-year-old kid who wants to be good at a popular game. This fact makes it so that his relationship with Astral is far more necessary and made him the first mc at the time to have concrete development from start to finish.
Despite all that, I will admit that Yuma has negative qualities; he can be impatient, stubborn, and easily annoyed. However, these qualities are both overshadowed and even rectified by Yuma's best qualities. And that shows in his ace monster Number39: Hope. Because Yuma is Hope. I hope to be better, have a second chance, and aim for the top when things get bad.
This philosophy works as we see him win and develop on his own when he needs to. Through this hope, Yumas was able to turn his biggest enemies into friends. Many times in Zexal, Yuma was viewed as a failure, but that never stopped him from dusting himself off and trying his best to reach for the sky.
Outside of Yuma, though, I think the cast is a mix between 5D's and Gx for me. What I mean is that like Gx, it has a big cast, but unlike it, you never feel as though every single character is this massive part of the story (also kind of help that Yuma's friends are largely students, not duelists).
But like 5D's, the characters we do focus on getting phenomenal development. Astral starts as an emotionless blank slate, but the more time he spends with Yuma, the more new memories he makes, which leads to my next point. Zexal is not a ripoff of the original series! Calling Yuma and Astral a knockoff Yugi/Atem is the literal opposite of their actual development! Yugi and Atem are a great pair, but the original DM didn't have the same back and forth development.
Yugi needed more duels to shine, and Atem needed more moments of levity to his character; they worked because they are two sides of the same coin. Yuma and Astral work because they are two guys that couldn't be any more different coming together to realize that they are the sum of their parts.
Besides Astral, though, Zexal does have other interesting characters. Despite being his first opponent, Shark is one of the most complex rivals in the series. He can be a bit of a dick for those who don't know him, but behind his tough exterior lies the heart of a loyal and trusting friend. Hell, half the time, he almost feels like the main character as more and more secrets from his past unfurl him to his destiny.
Kite is also another stand out rival while others may see him as a Kaiba knockoff, I see someone far more different. I see a man who cares more about the people he loves more than himself, and it didn't matter how much he pushed himself or how hard he fooled himself into doing what terrible things in the series because at the end of the day Kite is a man who carries more nobility than anyone gives him credit for.
Finally, to round it all out, we have Tori, the main female of the series. While I will admit, she is one of the weaker characters in the franchise. She at least has consistently been one of Yuma's greatest cheerleaders and has always supported him through thick and thin. Plus, she has one up on both Akiza and Alexis for actually admitting her feelings to the main character (though it's not like I care about ships anyway just wanted to talk about what a chad Yuma is).
Aside from those main characters, most of Yuma's supporting cast is pretty standard Yugioh fare, except for the villains. Because good Egyptian Gods the villains in Zexal are so well written, it hurts. Every major villain, despite being a part of the grander narrative, they are so lovably unique.
They're all in the game for different reasons, and many of their backstories intermingle so that you honestly root for them half the time. Vetrix was a loving father driven to madness by betrayal and hardship to the point where his body and mind are permanently warped. Dr.Faker is a man who is willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to make sure his son can get a guaranteed future.
Vector is a fucking troll of a Barain that gets off on trickery decrepit and absolute torment, which makes him arguably one of the best of the list. When you're watching Zexal fully unfolds, the line between good and evil is so blurred you almost can't see it anymore, which says a lot about Zexal's strong ass writing.
Presentation
This is one of the other big controversies in Zexal. Many people say that Zexal is one of the worst series purely because of its animation and art style. I will admit that a couple of designs in Zexal aren't the best (looking at you, zexal 2 and 3 morphs!), but after a couple of episodes, I think you can get used to it. I also think it makes a little canonical sense why these designs exist.
If 5d's was supposed to be a grungy dystopian future, Zexal is a more neon-infested metropolis, so it makes sense why the hair and designs would be more "interesting" than other series. When a design works, it works, and I think it gives this series a lot more variation outside of the other series. I also think it does make sense for the duel gazers to be a thing since the AR system can make duels more immersive while also making it less of a spectacle to those uninterested.
While Zexal's art style is a little divisive, I think pound for pound, this is one of the better animated out the series, the 3d Xyz monsters fit in with Zexal more over-the-top duels give a sense of reverence to them. It also allows for some dynamic movements in duels and certain movements in general. Many of the background designs for the environments, especially Barian and Astral World, look sweet.
"But what about the soundtrack Donnie? How is it?"
"Well, random viewer, let's find it out."
*Listens to op 1-5 and gives the literal mother of all Yess!*
Yeap, Zexal got a solid ass soundtrack that really can excite you up for what's to come. I recommend op 1,2,5 and Ending 3 for those who want to get their mind blown.
Overview/Epilogue
This installment is kind of like a spring, it has a lot of very loosely related stuff in the beginning, but it starts to coil the plot points scrunch up in Zexal 1. When the spring finally flies in Zexal 2, though, that's where it all comes together. Zexal honestly has one of the best ending arcs in the entire franchise, and it makes all the waddling around we had at the beginning worth it.
There are a lot of duels and moments in Zexal 1 that make it slow, and more often than not, it can lead to some Yuma facepalms. This works, though, as the series has plots that weave and escalate. By the end of the series, all of those developments shone, and you're just left wondering.
"Wow, this is the kid who didn't even know what Pot of Greed was."
I will also admit that the series has a controversial ending because it leaves on a cliffhanger that would be interesting for a season 4 but never got the chance.
Reception/Epilogue
Even today, Zexal is the most divisive of the entire series. Some people love it a lot, some hate it, and some are mixed. Honestly, even if this doesn't do for you, listen to this at the very least. In case you haven't noticed, Yugioh is a series that has gone on for over 20 flipping years and over seven shows!
The very fact that these guys have been able to make these vastly different characters, settings, duels, and locations without constantly trying to live in each other's shadow is amazing. Zexal wasn't made to be better than 5D's or be a callback to the original; it was a unique story made to tell a story to bring something new to a new generation and advertise for a children's card game.
As long as people enjoy Yugioh, I ask you, should we not try to support that? I'm fine with you if you don't like Zexal, but please don't try and put every single series on this insurmountable pedestal when they all fucked up one time or another for various reasons. I see Zexal's flaws and have noted them here, and even now, I don't think I would rank it as the best one, just my favorite. Please don't write it off everything this series has done.
I shouldn't be called delusional or a snowflake for my love of this series, but I have before. Media, in general, is subjective as all hell, and people are complicated. The best we can do is to keep ourselves open-minded and be willing to understand each other. Because remaining closed off and having something only be yours is the definition of toxicity.
Overall I think Zexal was lighting in a bottle. In many ways, it was a series familiar to Yugioh but, at the same time, wasn't. If there was one running theme in this show, it was never to be afraid. Don't be afraid to take a chance and make a mistake, don't be afraid to aim for the top, don't be afraid to try and understand someone different from you, and don't be afraid to hope again. Because if you manage to preserve when times get rough, you'll be able to from your hopeful Future. This is Donniedrako15, and this has been my pledge to my favorite Yugioh series. I hope you enjoyed every second of it and come back again.