Wow Reiji, I knew you were a bit of an ass to begin with, congratulations of being the jerk of the week!
JFC. He was such a douche to Yuuya and I hated how he kept on twisting Yuuya’s kind words of how Yuzu had helped him get this far and evolve this much, ARG! I just want to smack that smug look off his face. At this point with Reiji doing all the summonings as per usual, while it can apply as not holding back, I also felt it was he was purposely gloating about his powers. This was not the same Reiji during their first duel. Back then it was a secret, now that he had revealed everything, he is going to embrace it all, the good and the bad.
Reiji doesn’t give a crap if you don’t want to be part of the Lancers, he is going to make sure you are still a part of it. “YOU ARE WORTHY AS A LANCERS!” he says with a (corrupted looking) wide smile on his face. Then while Yuuya was crying about the possibility Yuzu was carded, he told him, “Instead of mourning, let’s fight.”
Like dude, can you not?
Basically in his head, he thinks after all the shit that happened with the Obelisk Force, he thinks everyone is automatically on board, ready to embrace their roles as part of his knights. But that isn’t the case, other than Shun, Sawatari and Hikage, everyone else is still in daze, reeling in everything that had happened.
Yuuya does not want to be one of his Lancer puppets, he does not want fight a war, he wants nothing to do with it, yet Reiji keeps on pointing out: if he wants to save Yuzu, he might just have to. Since no one has seen Yuzu since, Yuuya thinks she has been carded and is devastated. Regardless of whether or not Reiji is aware of her true fate, even if he did, I have no doubt in my mind that he wouldn’t tell Yuuya because he knows Yuzu is the card to push his buttons. He would utilize Yuuya’s despair for as long as he can, including at the expense of Yuugo despite seeing he is in fact now a Fusion Pawn. It puts Yuuya in a very complicated situation. On one hand he wants to save Yuzu on the other he doesn’t want to fight in this war. And it really ticks him off hearing he cannot evolve and win solely with emotions. Reiji criticized him for that, and Yuuya is having none of it.
Much to my relief, Shun and Selena finally had their long awaited talk. Shun tells her that everything Yuzu had told her, was indeed true. Selena was absolutely horrified and it becomes crystal clear to her that she has been lied to, or at least never told of the truth behind the brutality of the invasions. As the OP & ED themes gesture, now that she knows the truth, Selena is going to switch sides and fight in Yuzu’s steed.
Which brings me to Yuzu. As much as I love her, I am actually excited for this switch-a-roo. The opportunities Yuzu had created for Selena is priceless. Selena not only learns to the ugly truth, but now she has the opportunity to make friends, to live a more or less free life, experience things she wasn’t able to after being locked up at Academia for however long.
But what gets to me is that I am seriously wondering now if Selena is in fact Ruri. Okay okay, we heard this a million times: Yuzu looks like Ruri, Selena looks like Yuzu, now looks like Ruri – we get it, they all share identical faces. But what is making me reconsider the possibility is precisely because Shun said mentioned she looks awfully a lot like Ruri (to top things off we don’t know how long she has been missing- aside from 3 years ago pattern we have been seeing). I can the possibility Ruri/Selena’s memories had been wiped out and trained to be a part of their forces. It would also strengthen the reason why the Professor had no intentions of letting her onto the front-lines, as well as to the fact she was the only one who had no idea how the truth behind the brutality of the war. On top of that, since Selena will be part of the Lancers I expect to being seeing things from her perspective, including her memories and comparisons to her experience at Academia. That being said, I won’t hold my breath for it. But that single line is something I would look back and point, “FORESHADOWING!!!!” if it happened.
AND BACK TO YUZU! So we didn’t get to see her this episode either, but I am really excited to find out where she and Yuugo teleported to. Not going to lie, I am seriously hoping they went to the Synchro Realm just because it would be awesome. (Come on, make it happen! Traveling across realms to become stronger journey!) Also Jack Atlas is back, (you are fooling nobody with the shadow over him in the OP) among one other, which I am sure many are more or less aware of by now due to lack of spoiler tags existence in social media. I am excited for her journey with Yuugo, where I am expecting to see her learn how to Synchro Summon (BRING IT ON! ALL MY BABIES LEARNING SYNCHRO SUMMON!) but seeing that Yuugo and Yuuya will be fighting it out later on in the series (which was bound to happen), but the question will be what triggered it. On Yuuya’s side I can see one main reason: knowing Yuugo is the one at fault for Yuuto’s casualty. However I do wonder how long it will take before Reiji spills the beans that Yuugo is not their enemy. Frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if it were Yuzu to beat him to the punch. Actually knowing Yuzu, I wouldn’t be surprised if she smacked someone with that fan of hers that she somehow magically summons.
It is unfortunate that it looks like Dennis won’t be caught any time soon as he is participating as part of the group throughout the OP & ED. Hearing that Reiji had been watching them on surveillance the entire time put him on the edge. Here’s to hoping if Reiji isn’t the one to catch him, Selena will be as I am sure he is going to be keeping tabs on her closely, and will s surely be keeping Professor up to date. In the mean time, Dennis still thinks Yuzu has been captured, which is honestly, in her best interests.
The new OP & ED Themes started this week and it’s unfortnate to say I’m not a big fan of either one of them. It’s okay, but it’s not the greatest. The OP sequences implies great things to come as well as the characters being spared from the hell fury of Academia for a little while longer. The ED sequence was more of a fun ending theme, something I won’t read too much into (such as Yuuya and everyone else on the Riding Duel Track- which I would LOVE to see!). Overall I think I expected a little bit better, but I’m sure it will grow on me.
This season looks like it is going to be super fun and full of Synchros! IAnd here’s to hoping we will be seeing our cast learn how Riding Duels, heehee. I mean what better way to invade Academia than flying in from where-ever on D-Wheels?! It would be freaking epic. I am also super curious to see if our forces will be traveling to the Synchro Realm,
On the otherhand, Ninja-kun has been upgraded to a secondary cast member XD
NEXT WEEK: YUUYA IS STILL REALLY, REALLY MAD. Can I hope for Yuuya/Yuuto combination next week? Yuuto was 1000% done with Reiji’s shit today when he brought up Heartland City action field (Shun was so done with it too). Stop rubbing salt into their wounds Reiji! Also I just want to see if Shun will notice Yuuto’s habits if he takes the wheel.
With the amount of times Yuzu’s name was mentioned by Yuya in this (and next) episode, he better gives her a big hug when they reunite.
And I’m with you, Reiji may had good motive, but he’s also a douchebag. Here’s hoping either Yuya or the KING will bring him down a peg or two.
; _____ ; Yuuya needs all the hugs he can get.
I really wonder if Reiji is doing this on purpose in order to drag out Yuto. He saw Yuya go berserk so many times, knows Yuto’s face and how Yuya now has his dragon, knows Heartland triggers both Shun and Yuto, knows Shun is Yuto’s comrade and pressuring him might bring out NAKAMA–etcetc.
But then again yeah, we all want to see Reiji get punched.
Well said. XD
While I agree the new opening theme felt weak, I do actually like the new ending.
And Yuya has both Rune-eyes and Beast-eyes at the same time was awesome.
ODD-EYES DRAGON DUPLICATION FTW! 8D
Am I seriously the only person here who felt that the song wasn’t weak? I mean, exactly what is weak about it?
I don’t think weak is the right word to describe it, it’s just a matter of preference. By all means it’s not bad, it just not my instant! favorite like the second OP song was.
Holygosh…Duel Monsters has really changed the last time I cared to check in. Love your coverage of ARC-V, which is shaping up to be better than I thought. As a veteran YGO fan, this is good news indeed!
Thank you <3 And indeed, YGO evolved quite a bit! XD
Here’s some speculation. Reiji sends the Lancers off to the Fusion dimension but they mistakenly end up in the Synchro. Yugo (probably knows Jack and whatever) tells them about the Fusion people. Yuya and Co. reach Neo Domino City and Jack assumes they’re the Fusion people, attacks them (since there really is no reason for Yuzu to tell them about their physical appearances). Stuff happens. Later on Yuya sees Yugo and recognizes him as the person who defeated Yuto and “kidnapped” Yuzu. She’s probably not around which leads to Yugo and Yuya duking it out as shown in the opening. All-in-all, I would potentially call this arc, the arc of misunderstandings (because these characters sure like to take their sweet time telling each other stuff lol).
Plus why do I think that Reiji is going to sit in his chair and send his brother to fight instead? He’ll probably make the Ninja guy his bodyguard, which explains all the scenes they have together in the op and ed.
Also, I’m guessing the reused scenes of the summons for Cat Dancer/Rebellion/Clear Wing, will be replaced later on by newer monsters (or potentially newer characters like Rin).
You summed up what I have been speculating as well. I can definitely see Jack going, “ENEMIES! I WILL CRUSH YOU!” because he’s a bit of a hot-head, and I’m sure that hasn’t changed. LMAO.
And yes, strangely enough I too can see Reiji just sitting back in his chair while everyone else does the hard work- and hopefully we’re both wrong about that because that would only make him an even bigger douche.
Hmmm that’s a good point about the OP, I’ll be keeping my eye out for any changes. We know for sure there will be as soon as Jack debuts.
OH GOD, you summed everything up well about Friggin Reiji.
Still calling Reiji to pull out some DDD Dragon though.
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/D/D/D_Dragon_Overlord_Pendragon
THAT.
Doesn’t work. Serena met Reiji when they were way younger, and they came to Standard specifically to find her after noticing a LDS pin. I doubt they’re the same. That said, I do expect Ruri to actually be the evil one amongst the Yuzus, just like Yuri is one for the Yuyas. Serenas problem was that she was kept sheltered and ignorant because the Professor needed her, and had been since she was young.
Also the point I made about Reira last episode still stands. Since he’ll be one of the Lancers not showing his duel against Tatsuya was wrong.