This is not an exaggeration.
From the very moment the episode began, I knew right away this episode was going to be intense. I was incredibly anxious and was literally shivering because of the chills I was getting was the episode progressed. I promise you, it is no exaggeration to tell you that I was screaming “OH SHIT!” the entire time Yuuya was possessed. I screeched when Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon was summoned, and cried when Yuuya snapped out of it to find the duel is already over and the mood is not what he expected it to be. A plot bomb just detonated, and all we can do now cope with the drastic turn of events.
I am saddened for Yuuya to have ended up winning this way, and he is terribly upset about it. This episode was no different than rubbing salt on a wound after we have learned how important and meaningful Yuuya’s entertainment duels are to the plot. It is due to having had acknowledging that the culprit of smashing my heart into smithereens.
And if that hasn’t broken my heart enough already, it was put back together again only to have it ripped out of my chest and crushed into nothingness. A trigger was pulled and Yuuya suddenly found himself to be possessed by Yuuto. However, while Yuuto was the one who possessed him, I truly believe it was not the Yuuto we all know and love. As we have seen in Episode 37, both Yuuto and Yugo were suddenly thrown into berserk possessed state, and I find the circumstances remarkably similar in it’s own way.
First of all, lets take in consideration the vocabulary choice Possessed!Yuuya used. He called the (Pendulum) Monsters Servants, something neither Yuuya or Yuuto does. Both care about their monsters and how they identify their monsters reflect their individual wishes. That is why I believe it was Possessed!Yuuto who had taken over.
I also am also taking into consideration what I have mentioned back in Episode 37, of how perhaps rather than their dark counter parts, it’s the Dragons in their hand that are possessing them. It would be an interesting theory to keep in mind, especially when I am also taking into consideration this darkness was awakened due to Isao violent interferences (I mean come on, the guy was physically beating the crap out Yuuya over the Action Cards), and in a way could have been serving as a defense mechanism, especially when Yuuto in particular as we known has been through war. (Actually now that I think of it, it would be interesting if it it were actually Yuuto who actually had good intentions in mind (aka protecting Yuuya), only to backfire.) Also, like Yugo and Yuuto, Yuuya has no memory of what had happened while he was possessed.
But do I really think it was the Dragons for this particular case? No. I actually have a harder time envisioning the dragons to be in possession, instead I am leaning more towards the individual Darker Counter Parts. You could say I am in denial, but I WILL CONTINUE TO BELIEVE IN YUUTO UNTIL ACTUAL EVIDENCE IS GIVEN TO US. [Cue to Gross Sobbing]
So would have it unfolded differently had Yuuya not added Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon to his deck? Perhaps. In fact, because this has happened, I am willing to bet Yuuya is going to leave it at home and keep it locked up somewhere.
Another thing that struck me is, why did Isao tell Yuuya, “But your own darkness will be upon you soon”? Is that just how they are trained at that crazy school? To assault other duelist in battles and cast them into the abyss of darkness and despair? To make them lose hope or to go lose their smile and solely focus on winning, no matter how they do it? It is an eerie foreboding in general because this is exactly what Mieru had warned Yuuya back during their duel (Episode 22). She had warned him of experiencing a grave failure and will be engulfed in darkness, and he needs to stop what he is doing otherwise his life will be in danger. Now when we look back at her warning, it feels like it lines up with this episode pretty darn well.
Grave Failure ✓ – Failed to stay true to his word of defeating Isao with his entertainment style. Instead countered aggressively.
Engulfed in Darkness ✓- Yuuya Possessed by possibly Possessed!Yuuto
(I CAN’T BRING MYSELF TO SAY YUUTO ALONE! IT BREAKS MY HEART TOO MUCH.)
Life in Danger? ✓- In case you haven’t noticed, it already is.
Aside from the gloom and doom, we have yet again witnessed how Yuuya was depending the outcome of the duel on Action Cards. He even said so himself when he was running for the last one, admitting that if he didn’t get it, he was certain he would lose right then and there. While Isao had also used the action cards for gains, I am fairly certain he could have defeated Yuuya in a duel where they are not Action Cards. So I am hoping that Yuuya will learn that his heavy dependence on Action Cards is in fact one of his key weakness sooner than later. But with his current state, it is probably the furthest from his mind.
Isao is terrible. Like wow, I was so mad watching him physically beating Yuuya while snatching the action cards. It was brutal to watch, and it makes me sick to my stomach how his school’s moto is basically: Anti-Smile/Anti-Joy. They are so bloody violent and cruel and like what the fuck man?! The entire time I was shouting, “DUDE! JUST STOP IT ALREADY! THIS IS A DUEL, NOT AN MMA MATCH!!!!” No seriously, that is what it looked like. The physical blows were not needed!!!
It was no surprise that Shun ended up finding out that Yuuya has Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon in his hands this way. I don’t know how Reiji is going to get out of this one aside from locking him up somewhere, but I sincerely hope he finally tells Shun that Yuuto has gone missing. Regardless of what he does, I am almost certain he will lock him up somewhere just to keep him under control/wraps. And if they fail to take Shun’s duel disk away, I’m sure the guy will just smash his way out. When he’s furious, there’s no stopping him, I’m sure. Nevertheless, if he does get out, Yuuya is going to be in for an unpleasant reunion.
On the more… I suppose you could say brighter note, Possessed!Yuuya hair is freaking ridiculous. Amongst the mind-blown moments, I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw it. It was a brief moment of hilarity, but it quickly went back to making Yuuto quite an intimidating opponent. They graciously skipped Gongenzaka’s duel that looks like it may have been very puzzling to watch and best of all…There will be two duels to look forward to next week, both Yuzu VS Naname Mikio Duel Girls Club and Reiji VS Parallel World Yuzu #1 (I will identify her as that until we are confirmed whether or not this is Fusion!Yuzu or Ruri). Wow, just a blink of an eye, Round 2 is almost over! Does that mean we may or may not see Shun’s duel in Round 2? We will have to wait and see! But for now, all what matters is Yuzu’s duel, and gosh I hope she wins!
MAHAHWHWHAH , after I watched the raws I was dying to see your reaction to this episode 8D
First of all, sorry for not appearing on last episode, the last episode was good too, I just didn’t know what to say about it but yeah…
Anyways, wow, this episode. I was expecting Yuya to be possessed by Dark Rebellion, but it still went far beyond my expectations, when I was watching on Livestream everyone Shat Bricks, and things like HAOU YUYA was going wild.
The duel by itself wasn’t stellar, but the execution of the possession scene was chilling to the core, the dark atmosphere, the thunder, the eerie silence and monotone voice of Yuya that sounded eerie similar to Yuto, the dissonant backtrack music, the stunned silence of the audience as well as Yuya’s confusion… Holy Sh*t, Arc V never stopped being amazing after Eita’s episodes, which comes to a point of not if Arc V will top itself next time, but how. This show has been an amazing ride so far.
I also don’t think Yuto possessed him, I think Yuto fused to his soul and made him more likely to be influenced by Dark Rebellion too.
I can’t wait for next episode too! Yuzu will duel another Fairy duelist who has a normal boss monster of 2750 attk, which is interesting as most of Yuzu’s monster have low attack points and only Schuberta is strong enough to fight against it without cards effects and her new ace, Bloom Diva, can’t do a thing to her because that monster isn’t a Special Summoned Monster, so watching her overcome this new challenge will be cool too.
Fuzu(Fusion!Yuzu) will also appear next episode, looking badass and taking all names, I can’t wait for that~
It isn’t funny how every episode focused on Yuzu and her variants means that the episode will be automatically good? When was the last time you watched a shounen anime with a big male cast have an episode focused on a female character be that good? Arc V is going outside of his own niche and is an awesome anime even if compared to others!
Ah, now that we got so many awesome episodes tell me:
In what order you would list your most favorite/epic episodes of Arc V?
Also, LOL, remember on your first review of episode 1 you put the possibility of watching/blogging this was moderate XD?And look at where we are now, episode 39! Mwahah, tell me, when you started watching this did you ever expect that things would turn so good?
I KNOW RIGHT?! THANK GOD IT WAS NOT AFTER MIDNIGHT WHEN THE EPISODE CAME OUT. I WAS SCREAMING – in fact I am kind of surprised no one came barging into my room to tell me to be quiet. LOL.
it’s funny because while I was scrolling on Tumblr on Sunday suddenly there’s a post that pops up with fanart of Dark!Yuuto pulling strings of Yuuya, which I have a hazy memory of because I remember going, “OH SHIT” when I saw the spoiler. By at the time I was like, “….Try to forget about it. You didn’t really see the picture.” Thankfully I did so the shock factor was still just as intense as I had hoped it to be. We also knew something was going to happen due to the preview last week, so I’m sitting at the edge of my eat just waiting for the bomb to drop. You know shit is going to hit the fan when they start off the episode with an important scene between Yuuya and Yuuto instead of a full blown recap like they usually do. And thanks to that allowed the intensity of the episode to start right off the bat.
Yuuya looked like a full blown demon when they did that afar shot of him in the bamboo woods. I bet Isao’s heart just stopped, which was admittedly GLORIOUS after seeing him hurt Yuuya and other so much, but it is short lived because we know this is the sort of thing Yuuya never want to do.
I am excited for Yuzu’s duel and I pray to god that she WINS because damnit she deserves it. /aka bias Yuzu fan. And yes, it’s always good. Mwahahaha.
Fuzu! What a great name to identify Fusion!Yuzu until she is given a name. I wish I had thought of that! XDDD In what order you would list your most favorite/epic episodes of Arc V?
//In what order you would list your most favorite/epic episodes of Arc V?//
Oh shoot that is REALLY HARD.
#1 Episode 39 (WHEN SHIT HIT THE FAN)
#2 Episode 34 (SORA SHUTDOWN!)
#3 Episode 24 (SHUN BEING A BOSS)
#4 Episode 29 (BECAUSE YUZU IS QUEEN)
#5:Episode 37 (BECAUSE WHY RIP OUR HEARTS OUT?!?! YUUUUTOOOOOOOOOO ; _____ ; also Berserk Dragons! :D)
Those are the most memorable episodes for me.
//Also, LOL, remember on your first review of episode 1 you put the possibility of watching/blogging this was moderate XD?And look at where we are now, episode 39! Mwahah, tell me, when you started watching this did you ever expect that things would turn so good?//
I typically do that for series that I know are going to be 30+ episodes long because I understand unlike the average one season or two cours titles, longer series like YGO and Precure sometimes take longer to show us what the plot is going to be. For those types of shows I usually give them 10 episodes to see whether or not it manages to hook me in and whether or not it’s something I can continue having interest to blog a year or more.
Did I expect ARC-V to turn out this good, no I didn’t hold out too high expectations, which is always better to do since you can’t end up disappointed. However I have recently checked the staff and I was thrilled to see the Director who is in charge of this project also Directed YGO 5DS (along with the storyboard), the series that made me fall in love with YGO in the first place. So while I am not drastically increasing my expectations, all I know is that this series is in good hands because the plot was absolutely fantastic in 5Ds.
what a great episode this was. and more heavy plot with yuzu counterpart next episode i cant wait for more of the academia plot
I AM PSYCHED! BRING IT ON!!!
SNAAAAAAAP!! Man,i’m so excited i can hardly collect my thoughts!!This ep was almost as awesome as Shun vs Sora for me.I wasnt even able to sit on my chair,so I connected my PC with Tv-Set and was watching it while walking,which helped me to collect my thoughts and start to write about…well,lets start with Yuya.
Agree with you,this was the worst possible way for Yuya to win his match.Though I cant really blame him cause Isao was beating him up both physically and mentally,and you must answer a beating up with beating up.And beating Isao with an OTK while glaring with red shining eyes seemed to be the best and only method for Possesed!Yuya/Yuto.
And about Yuto…Maybe Dark Rebellion took control over Yuya while looking like Yuto so Yuya will trust him more?Because this whole servant stuff just doesnt like nor Yuya nor Yuto.And one more thing: Yuto/Dark Rebellion was easily able to do a Pendulum Summon,while it took Yuya like 300 attempts to do it for second time.Either Yuto/Dark Rebellion was able to do it because he was in Yuya’s body and knew everything that Yuya knew,or Yuto was able to do a Pendulum Summon a long time ago,but abandoned it,and Dark Rebellion knew the mechanics too as he is with Yuto…Man,mind screw at its finest…
Im sure I’ve started to hate Kachidoki more than Sora(and I hate Sora A LOOOT).Its already easy to understand that he is just one more third-rate evil guy who will later join the MC and co.And his idiotic attempt to use Level-based effect on Xyz monsters completely ruined his ‘cool’ appearance.
And, finally, I was able to find the reason why MonoSubs translated the episode first as .Awakening of Reverse scale. and then as .Wrathfull Awakaning. Some people who didn’t know Japanese thought that it referred to Pendulum Scale(like everybody here and there), and some other /a/nons who knew kanji were confused as to why they had translated it as such. Reverse Scales: Gekirin (逆鱗), in Japanese and Chinese mythology, refers to one particular scale out of 81 scales covering the body of the dragon. This scale, unlike others, is inverted. It is said in Japanese legends that if one were to touch the dragon’s gekirin, it would result in the wrath of the dragon. So everything is just a huge confusion.
P.S. Main character becoming crazy only on 39-th episode?? Atem went crazy when he activated The Seal Of Orichalcos during the second half of the DM,idk about Judai and Supreme king cause havent watced GX yet,but I know that it happened either during the second half of the season 3 or in season 4,Yusei was crazy only in manga(which really disapointed me as a crazy guy fan),and Yuma turned into Dark Zexal during the second half of Zexal II(You really need to watch Zexal II,it is really something,nothing like the dumbassnes that was going on during the Zexal I).And now, only during the 39-th episode Glowing eyes of Doom and Possesed Soul?? Man,I totally LOVE this anime ):-)
This episode raised the bar that’s for sure. They delivered the intensity perfectly. Had they they failed to do that I am not sure whether or not we would be all screaming the way we are now.
I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not trying to get Yuuya to trust him more. Yuuya already understands that Yuuto has no intention of harming anyone, so instead this incident didn’t help that whatsoever, especially when Yuuya has no memory of it. On top of that, once his friends tells them what they have witnessed, he is going to be in a serious slump. Whether or not he will connect the dots of similarity regarding the time when Yugo and Yuuto were possessed, that will be up in the air. That being said, I am SO CURIOUS about whether or not it’s a dark!counter part or the Dragons (I won’t lie, I am hoping it’s Dragons because… well… DRAGONS ARE AWESOME!!! 8D /bias dragon fan), but I won’t hold my breath for it because I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment!
//And, finally, I was able to find the reason why MonoSubs translated the episode first as .Awakening of Reverse scale. and then as .Wrathfull Awakaning. Some people who didn’t know Japanese thought that it referred to Pendulum Scale(like everybody here and there), and some other /a/nons who knew kanji were confused as to why they had translated it as such. Reverse Scales: Gekirin (逆鱗), in Japanese and Chinese mythology, refers to one particular scale out of 81 scales covering the body of the dragon. This scale, unlike others, is inverted. It is said in Japanese legends that if one were to touch the dragon’s gekirin, it would result in the wrath of the dragon. //
That explains the confusion! Thanks for detailed explanation! ;Db
Oh I have heard about Zexal II, LMAO! The plot where the villain who has a past life with the characters carries on his grudge on the character he hates and because he hates that character he decides to kill off all that said character’s friends both in the past and again the in present. Yeah I heard it’s really messed up. LMAO. Just for that, I MAY try. Perhaps during the summer when I have nothing else to do.
Oh and one more thing I found while browsing the TVtropes. During the very first episode of Arc-V,when Yuya Pendulum Summoned for the first time,he again called his monsters SERVANTS!!!Hayyy,so this wasn’t Yuto who controlled him after all. But this adds more questions to everything,and we already have enough….
Did I just see Panther Warrior in the next episode preview? Wow… Anyways, I predict we’ll get Dark Yuya again when Yuuri comes rolling around when he goes and threatens Yuzu. Damn Isao was cute as a kid….damn his father/school for corrupting him! I was kind of hoping he would play Fire Fists instead of an anime only deck because 1) It fits his theme 2) That’s the deck his voice actor plays.
Another thing, Isao’s school really must be teaching them all the wrong things if their star student can’t tell the difference between levels and ranks.
That would explain why they resort to being physical bullies.