Okay, I hate to say it, but I found this episode to be incredibly cringe-worthy. I am sure there are those who disagree, but this episode was just a sloppy mess of sunshine and rainbows. And to be fair, it was cringe-worthy in two particular ways. The first was the animation quality. It is always bound to occur somewhere along the lines, but this was straight out inconsistent. It was very difficult to ignore because the bad frames stood out like a sore thumb, and it’s actually memorable of how messy it was. For instance: there was scene where Yuuya was waving his hand around, and it looked like it was a balloon!
The second (and the most annoying part), was the endless “Enjoy” mantra.
Look, I get the point. I get the importance of it, but that isn’t enough to make me like it. I consider it to be on or close to the same level as you may have seen me rant about in my Utapri Revolutions posts, about how they repeat the same fucking word a hundred fucking times. Perhaps it is Utapri Revolutions to blame for my lack of patience, who knows- but regardless I am well aware it irritated the hell out of others, in particular our dedicated subbing teams.
But in honestly, I should have known better about the purpose revolving around this duel.
The expectations of what I was hoping to see in this mini-Prison Arc, were significantly influenced by what I loved about 5Ds. What I should have expected instead of a chaotic riot of all hell breaking loose, was Yuuya’s role of turning the prison into a some entertainment facility where he brings back the smiles to all the prisoners who had lost hope and forgotten the joy of dueling. And guess what? That is exactly what is happening (as it should be). This duel with Yuuya VS Chojiro had actually served as the trigger to this event. Chojiro was just like Yuuya in the past, he believed and preached the joy of dueling, and encouraged those to develop bonds with others through it. He was the hope for the commons, he taught them how to duel, he taught them how to have fun and laugh and smile. His slogan was, “Enjoy!”, similar to Yuuya’s and his father’s mission of spreading smiles and reminding people the fun days of dueling. He was the man with a big heart for his community, so much he went up to challenge the TOPS only to have his spirit crushed. Thanks to Yuuya, he was able to remember the fun of dueling and get his smile back and receive the endless love from the prisoners who grew up while treating him as a role model.
Now based on what we are seeing in the preview: The Entertainment Duel Tournament is something Chojiro and/or Yuuya are probably going to come up with. They are probably going to team up to re-establish the hope in the facility, change the ways the prisoners behave, as well end the bribing culture with the guards. The entertainment duel may also serve an ulterior purpose besides causing a riot in a festive way. This may be another way for them to recruit strong duelists to join their force, or simply build a relationship so that when the time comes to requesting assistance for their aid, they may agree to join them.
Next week! Entertainment Duel Tournament will be taking place, but we will also be seeing our babies, Yuzu and Yuugo again! Gosh it feels like it’s been to long, I miss them dearly! Also: Selena is being treated generously, in a prison with a television fridge and comfortable bed- just what is Jean expecting out of Selena? Does he know about her being apart of Academia and intends to interrogate to find out more, is he working alongside them (extremely unlikely), or does he possess knowledge regarding Selena’s importance and why Academia is trying to collect all her counterparts? We will have to wait and find out next week!
To be honest I really enjoyed this episode, in my opinion I thought it was pretty well handled.
One of the things that always made me apreheensive about Yuya is how they would handle the first time he succed in bring a smile to someone through a duel and it didn’t feel shallow to me at all, despite being Yuya’s duel he wasn’t in the spotlight, the one in the spotlight was Choujiro and he was the one that brought everyone’s smiles, not Yuya.
It’s like you said, Him and Yuya are similar in a way, but Chojiro chose to cheat when he thought he was cornered but Yuya didn’t lose heart when he managed to pull the saving draw in the most unlikely scenario after his “last chance” when he drew Discover Hippo, Yuya reminded him of his past self and made him “believe in miracles” again, that’s why he pulled the fantastic draws that he couldn’t do before.
And the dueling writting was good too, Yuya put Odd-Eyes on the Pendulum Scale for the first time since episode 2, and Stargaze/Chronomancy Magician on the field for the first time(even if he turned into cost fodder in the end, lol, poor guy) and used Odd-Eyes’s Pendulum effect for too!
That’s at least how I perceived it.
I’m glad next week we will have a bit of Yugo and Yuzu, even if it’s only for 1 minute, their dynamic never fails to bring a smile to my face and I missed them, or maybe I missed characters getting along for once because the lancers aren’t very Nakama yet XD
I agree, it was pretty well handled especially after I understood the point of the duel (thank goodness it had a purpose though!). It was in fact a nice shift of pace of having someone else bring out the joy of dueling besides Yuuya. On top of that it’s always nice to know (for the character) there are others who feel the same way as they do. Too bad I had little to no patience for “ENJOY!” lmao. But after dealing with three weeks straight of constant repetition of words from Utapri, I think it’s understandable!
Agree, I miss the characters getting along. Only Gongenzaka and Yuuya and Yuugo and Yuzu are really on the same page ahaha!
well trust me. I won’t go into any details, but next week is going to be more serious based on the Crow’s lines
O v O I hope you are right! Fufufufu…
This was a lot like an episode of GX, not well written, but at least the duel was entertaining. Also like GX the animation quality for this episode was kinda poor, but much like comics I’m glad when they decide to have the art quality go down it’s for a an issue (or in this case episode) that’s not very important, so it’s not really a problem.
Yeah the script probably could have been better, but at least they were able to deliver the purpose of the duel, which was important to recognize!
It is a relief when you know the episode isn’t super significant or vital to the plot when the animation quality drops. And you can’t have bad animation being the distraction when serious plot stuff is going down! XD
This episode was awesome! The moment both duelists and their audience was able to enjoy the duel no matter what the outcome, it became awesome.
I do however, agree that the art quality was less than ideal, but it wasn’t particularly distracting.