I can’t tell you how freaking grateful I am to see Yuuya putting aside his anger and focused on communication. I was so relieved that he did not ignore Sora’s shady behavior and immediately began firing questions to him (even after he teamed up with him for the duel) after Sora bitched at him to go away. But what takes the cake tonight was the fact Yuuya recognized the fact that Yuuto actually didn’t want to fight, nor had any intention of doing harm. And to put a cherry on top: Yuuto tells gives Yuuya the option to either strike him down to simply call off the duel, and naturally Yuuya says, “There’s no way I could!”, and from there the two are able to have a proper conversation and allow Yuuya to be OFFICIALLY caught up with the plot, just on time for Yugo, from the Synchro Dimension to join the fray!
We learned today that the conflict of the story involves what I would call “Dimensional Invasions”. Yuuto and Shun are from the XYZ Dimension and Sora is from the Fusion Dimension. The antagonist is Academia who resides the Fusion Realm. They are an organization of Duel Soldiers, trained to invade and conquer realms. Yuuto shares us the story of how before Academia invaded their homeland, they were all living peaceful lives, and dueling was an activity that everyone could enjoy for the fun of it. When Academia attacked, they burned down their cities, imprisoned the citizens into cards, and crushed anyone who tried to defy them. To make matters worse, Academia’s ambition is to take over all of the realms, and their next target is the Yuuya’s world, otherwise known as the Standard Dimension, the very foundation of all that exists, and the one leading the invasion is no other than Akaba Leo, Reiji’s father.
This brings me to a theory I have been considering: Could it be that Reiji wasn’t initially from this world either?
I can’t help but wonder how his father wounded up in the Fusion Dimension, or whether or not he was born there. So far, Reiji has been having limited screen time, making it difficult to figure out his character. As of right now, we are only given hints based on his attitude towards this mission, his emotional response when Academia and the Fusion Dimension are brought up, along with how he always tells Espurr-Kid to watch closely. It would be interesting to find out whether or not he and Espurr-Kid had at some point fled the dimension together… But then again it would all come back to question, how was LDC/LDS was formed and prospered in the first place.
If you were wondering what Sora was doing while all of this was happening, well… The little shit was teleported back to Academia.
Why so suddenly? Well, there is a mechanism installed in his duel-disk to forcefully drag anyone back whenever they reveal too much information to their enemy, which in this case Sora did while having his ridiculous hissy fit. But as result we were able to learn something crucial: the doctors/scientists actually investigate their soldiers’ memories to gain information on their enemies. I am willing to bet that probably explains Sora’s psycho side of him. I mean seriously, that’s some dodgy stuff going on there. Another thing that is worth to mention: Sora was furious when he heard that Yuzu has been in contact with Yuuto and was the one who shared the majority of the information to Yuuya, who is now questioning him with that information. So depending on whether or not Sora comes back with his memories intact, I get the feeling that Yuzu could potentially become a target.
The whole resonating scene was brief, but didn’t reveal too much. In fact, it only raised even more questions. Yuuya and Yuuto both felt really hot and their Dragons reacted to each other. The scene of the dragons fighting against one another actually had given my the chills. It was unique situation of one dragon being unable to attack while the other negates the opposition’s attack or won’t attempt to deliver any hits. Although it was short, I must say, it was beautiful.
NOW YUGO! AHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh my goodness, I can tell you right now that I was extremely amused with his entrance. He crashed into a street lamp, and has such an adorable entry. He’s looking around and then he sees Yuuto and was like:
We will have to wait until next week to find out whether or not he is a charming dork, or another little shit. I will be looking forward to seeing who is stronger, and whether or not Yuuto is making the guy run for his money.
With Yuuya, Yuuto and Yugo now all together, it makes me excited for what there is to come. Imaging the three of them working together at some point is both fun and exciting (I mean, that last scene was just freaking hilarious). So I am quite excited to learning more about Yugo’s personality since he at first appears to be that laid back mellow kind of guy, but is stuck on a mission as he is supposedly (or so indicated in the preview) Academia’s pawn of fusion. I will also be crossing my fingers that Yuuya and Yuuto will start to work together- mind you, not necessarily fighting just yet because Yuuya is totally against that, but get along like brothers… if they are able to co-exist with each other… it appears it’s only an issue when they are dueling against one another (as it was also hinted in the preview that perhaps all three of them will be affected next week while Yuuto and Yugo duel against each other).
Also, despite the fact Yuuya claims Yugo and Yuuto looks similar to him, I actually find that Yugo is the only one that doesn’t even look remotely alike.. Or is that just me????
PS: Yuuto not giving a single fuck about Sora is the best thing ever.
Yuto just pulling out Emergency Provisions was amusing as all hell. This is going to be one awkward Riding duel with Yugo doing laps around Yuto, because can’t D-Wheels actually pop out their duel disk in case they need a standing duel? Can’t say how much I appreciate that you’re reviewing this series here as you’re probably only one of two bloggers I know actually currently reviewing this show.
Yugo: WROOM WROOM!
Yuuto: *Runs around with shredded coat flailing*
Yuuya: …………. I don’t even…
Yup this is going to be hilarious to watch! XD (And may prove to be difficult to take any critical plot revelations seriously)
Also I don’t know about you, but there’s a part of me that is hoping Yugo will turn out to be a bit clumsy adorable dork. XD
And thank you! It’s a pleasure to write about every week!
I love Yuuto’s reactions to Sora’s anger, it’s amazing. he can’t even muster up a response to Sora’s shrieking because that’s how much he doesn’t care lmao
I also liked Yuuya’s insistence on trying to figure out what was going on.. though I wonder why Shun and Yuuto are so convinced that Ruri was kidnapped instead of turned into a card like everyone else apparently was in the zexal universe. What made them think she would be treated differently? (besides plot relevance?)
//So depending on whether or not Sora comes back with his memories intact, I get the feeling that Yuzu could potentially become a target.//
Where is Yuzu during all of this anyway? They took the trouble of specifying where Gongenzaka and Yuuya would run off to search for Sora, but all we know of Yuzu’s location is that she’s going “this way”… what will happen to her? Or do they have something in mind for Gongenzaka to find?
I’m looking forward to seeing the duel next week. Seeing the dragons interact and battle before Yuuto actually activated his trap was really interesting. It’d be great to see something more like that next week. Though I wonder why was Dark Rebellion even able to parry off Odd Eyes’s attack before that. The duels usually give off a sense of having a ‘time limit’ on how long they have to activate an action card or trap or something.. would that have happened in another duel against someone else? …. I’m having more and more questions as I type, I’m sorry.
Yugo’s hilarious though. Crashes into the camera pole, and then goes all “Ah! You’re that guy I’m looking for! Perfect! Duel me!” Yuuto just looks so done, like “what did I do to deserve this. again.”
I don’t think time limit would matter when the spirits of the cards are resonating with each other, ahahaha!
Put the trio together and it would be the perfect harmony. XD Yuuya the charming entertainer, Yuuto the cool under fire aka “I am 1000% done with these people”, and Yugo, the (hopefully) lovable dork.
And Yuzu, she is running SOMEWHERE in the city. The city is a big place after all. It’d be funny to see her run into the park and everyone just freezes or something. XD
And the audience is going “why does Sakaki Yuuya keep multiplying. it doesn’t make sense”, but the duels are entertaining so it’s okay haha
Yuugo’s eyes have a lot more white space than Yuuya’s or Yuuto’s. They’re also thinner and have a different iris pattern even if they all have the same general shape…. wonder if there’s some other reason for that. I keep snickering at his name though, what with Yugo’s name being homonymous with the japanese word for ‘fusion’ and being the ‘pawn of fusion’ and all.
She’s SOMEWHERE!! But that would be amazing, especially if she caught them while Yugo’s in the middle of jumping his motorcycle off the stage or something – he wouldn’t know of Yuzu’s bracelet yet, wouldn’t he? And then he’d have to quickly reorient himself before he crashes into whatever alleyway he got warped to– hopefully not into Yuuto though, omg
//She’s SOMEWHERE!! But that would be amazing, especially if she caught them while Yugo’s in the middle of jumping his motorcycle off the stage or something – he wouldn’t know of Yuzu’s bracelet yet, wouldn’t he? And then he’d have to quickly reorient himself before he crashes into whatever alleyway he got warped to– hopefully not into Yuuto though, omg//
OMFG AHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!! THIS HAS BECOME A THING! IT’S TOO GOOD TO PASS!
Told you!Told you!*bricked*
Ok, jokes aside, I think Yuya is very perceptive, I was sure of that after episode 8, when he noticed that Yuzu was off, I don’t think the other YGO protags were THAT aware of their friends’s emotional state. A lot of people may think Yuya is a flat character, but he’s everything but that.
Another thing that’s interesting about Yuya is that for a emotional character he isn’t thick-headed hero, sure, he may be a bit resistent at first, but his reaction is plausible, and instead of dragging more and more episodes to learn something very simple, Yuya learns it rather quickly, but in a believable way.
His conflict about people using Pendulum summon for example, it’s normal to be conflicted of being stripped of something that made you very special so quickly as who don’t want to be special? It must hit Yuya harder because most of his time he was shunned, so no wonder, but still, after his duel with Shuzo in episode 14 he got his shit together, and I also applaud the advice Shuzo gave, it wasn’t something cheesy, stupid or bordeline out of context like a lot of animes are doing nowadays, and also, not self-destructive like “smile when you feel like crying”, so yeah.
The same thing could be said about episodes 35-36. If you had a normal life of course it would be unbelievable the notion of other worlds and dueling used for war, and I liked that he didn’t insta- believed that as well, but he was still willing to listen to the other part despite his bias, and the fact that Yuya is a reasonable guy gives more credibility to him when he eventually unite everyone(I wonder what’s wrong with people in Maiami, why the fuck would you bully a child for have a missing dad and specialy Yuya, the guy everyone would want to have as a friend/bro in real life).
One more thing: Yuya stopping the duel to talk, that NEVER happened in YGO, usually people talked while they dueled and this is an ad for the cardgame, so yeah, Yuya makes the sensible choice, and these 2 episodes showed once again how emphatic and perceptive Yuya is, in few actions he could tell Yuto’s nature spot on, and he remembered the talk he had with Yuzu and Gongenzaka about this whole issue, so horay~~! More points to him! Yuya is my favorite character of all time, until now he’s the perfect balance of everything. Not too angst, not too moronic cheerful, not trusting people blind like an idiot, and not miraculous recovering emotionally, the only thing left now is to balance his deck properly and then he gets to be the perfect example of a well written character.
…Ok, now let’s go back to the episode:
I got the chills when I saw GX invade Zexal(yeah, I will be calling them that XD), it actually felt very threatning, and Academia analyzing Sora’s memories makes me friggin Hyped because of the chance of they hunting Yuya AND Yuzu. Yuya for Pendulum Summon and Yuzu for being someone Sora taught their “ways”, bigger chances of Yuzu getting more duels and winning, I want by the end of the series her surpassing Aki’s dueling on-screen count(and winning) and it’s a perfect way to showcase her use of Schuberta.
Akabas’ brothers origins also made some raise eyebrows, I saw a theory that Reiji might hate his father a lot because Academia was trying to make Reira into a child soldier like Sora, but he got emotionaly wrecked as a result, and even doing dubious acts it’s clear that Reiji must feel very angry/guilty of the suffering his father is causing, the rival this time is so likeable and deep this time(and the fucking Dub will ruin it, Reiji and Gongenzaka hating each others guts? Where these headless chikens got that notion when they didn’t even interact or react on screen to each other? I swear, if the dub take the dept of this brilliant anime they can burn in card games hell)
The last part of the episode was hilarious as hell, there was a big white light and then Reiji’s camera was turn off(for more meta hilarity, the day this episode aired on Japan the keyhole wasn’t working, so everyone watching it on livestream had a mute episode, there’s was even a joke on that).
You think: HOLY SHIT THE MAGIC SHENANIGANS CUT THE BROADCAST!
But no, the camera was cut off because this loser crashes on the lamp post with said camera XD, lololol, Yugo sounds already hilarious to me, complaining about crashing and then doing a double take when he saw Yuto and not even noticing Yuya(his supposed look-alike) was even there, this guy is a dork, this episode cemented that.
I’m actually wondering if he will react to Yuzu at all when he sees her and if he will join her harem too*kicked*
Also, when they eventually turns like bros I can picture Yugo and Yuya getting along very well being the fun loving dorks they are and Yuto being like the “older and responsible” brother that makes sure they don’t do anything stupid.
Also, more important, Yugo continue the Yuya’s trend of being a eatable plant, first we have tomato(Yuya), then we have EDGEplant(Yuto and pun intended) then we have Banana(Yugo’s bangs) wonder what name we should give to the next Yuya’s clone XD HAHAHAH.
Ah! and another trivia, did you know that Yugo’s VA is the identical twin brother of Yuto’s VA? Apparently Arc V takes another level of meta again XD
KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE!!!!
I am also loving Yuuya. His flaws, passion and sensitivity, it makes him more charming and a character to appreciate. People can say what they want, but so far, Yuuya is a fairly well written character (though we will all be keeping an eye whether or not they will take advantage of the opportunity for character growth towards the reliance on Action Cards to win a game), and having the plot avoid him for 35 episodes paid off by showing us he is a sensible character. Just as you said, having a discussion about plot without being in a middle of a duel almost never happens in YGO.
I actually found it interesting that they chose to go with the GX’s school uniforms (with slightly revamped with coat-tails), so it does make me wonder if there is any sort of distinct connection with Duel Academia in GX and Academia in ARC-V- but since this revolves around different dimensions (well at this point we can probably all agree this is a form of parallel worlds), I won’t be expecting too much.
I have no doubt in my mind that Reiji father tried to make
Espurr-KidReira into a child solider, and he probably tried to do the same with Reiji. Since you brought up the point about Reira being emotionally wrecked, it makes me wonder whether or not their mother is involved with Leo’s ambitions. She has some scary looks on her face, ESPECIALLY when Reira found was participating in the first round of the tournament. On top of that, they have been focusing on closing all the rivaling dueling schools to push all the those who want to learn dueling to attend theirs- which now i think of… is a bit weird to hear LDC (Leo Dueling Corporation) especially if he is in fact leading the conquest at Academia which is trying to annihilate all of the other forms of dueling… >_> Now I am puzzled. SO MANY QUESTIONS SO MANY THEORIES!!!! IS IT NEXT SUNDAY YET?!NO WAIT A MINUTE! OMFG THIS IS S TOTALLY CRAZY THEORY, BUT WHAT A PLOT TWIST IT’D BE:
PLOT TWIST: AKABA REIJI IS NOT ACTUALLY THE REIJI FROM THIS WORLD. HE IS FROM THE FUSION WORLD WHERE HIS FATHER IS SET ON CONQUERING THE REALMS AND STEPPED INTO STANDARD WORLDS’ REIJI PLACE, IMPERSONATING AS THE REAL REIJI, WHICH WOULD EXPLAIN HOW HE HAS CONTROL OVER LDC/LDS.
OKAY THAT’S IT, I’M DONE, ENOUGH THEORIES FOR THIS WEEK! *RUNS AWAY*
Yugo’s reaction to Yuzu would be fun to see! I look forward to seeing that one in the future!
Oh wait minute, could this mean… Since Ruri is supposedly Yuzu’s XZY Dimension version, THERE COULD BE A YUZU IN THE SYNCHRO DIMENSION THAT CAN RIDE A D-WHEEL!?!?!?! OH THE POSSIBILITIES!!!!!!!!!
Now that you mentioned that because when they were watching Yuuya and Yuuto talk on the big screen, it was as if they were watching a drama! XD I look forward to how the guys who are doing the ARC-V abridged series are going to spin this. XD
//Ah! and another trivia, did you know that Yugo’s VA is the identical twin brother of Yuto’s VA? Apparently Arc V takes another level of meta again XD//
No I did not! That’s a fun fact, thanks for sharing :3