Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V kicks off its fourth season with a half an episode of recap. Now, before you groan about recaps, this one was actually done in a very clever way. This recap contained various narratives each from different characters and their POVs and it is thanks to that we learned about several major revelations. But following the revelation recap, the second half of the episode was merely a prologue of the doom to come. This is now a four-way war (Academia VS Lancers VS Synchro Realm VS Jean-Rogers) that will be taking place in the Synchro Realm. And unfortunately for the Synchro Realm, it was the board who brought it upon them. They knew about Academia even before Reiji arrived, they deliberately decided to test both Jean-Rogers and Reiji to decide who would be more favorable to form an alliance with- including Academia. The council knew Jean-Rogers was from another world, and raised him to the top as the man running the Public Security as a reward for introducing them to Solid-Vision with mass technology. But then they made two mistakes: first, they thought they knew of his motives (affiliated to Academia) and decided to try and “tame him” in order to “use him”.

YGO ARC V Ep 76 Img 0000However Jean-Rogers had ambitious plans of his own. While yes, he has previously worked with Academia, he left them in order to take over the Synchro Realm and make it into his own kingdom. He despises Professor Leo, he is not affiliated with Dennis- instead he saw him as a threat of ruining his plans if he manages to get back to the Fusion Realm to report in to Professor Leo about Selena’s and Yuzu’s whereabouts. The last thing he needs is Academia invading the Synchro Realm just as he kicks off the Kings’ Gambit plot. In fact, since Academia is such a upset to his plans, Jean-Rogers made an offer to Reiji to form an alliance with him (which would involve taking over the Synchro Realm to form his Kingdom). Naturally, Reiji declines- and once offline-Jean-Rogers explodes because nothing is going his way.

It was Sora who saved Dennis’ ass, telling him he will now be taking over the mission of retrieving both Selena and Yuzu. With that they come to an agreement and Sora sends Dennis safely back to Academia where he successfully informs Professor Leo about both Selena’s and Yuzu’s whereabouts. Sure enough Jean-Roger’s fears has now become a reality. Professor Leo has once again dispatched his Obelisk Force, this time to the Synchro Realm, along with Barrette (who we learned would prefer to avoid working with Yuuri). On that note, this is when we are told Yuuri has not returned yet. The last time we all saw him was when Yuugo sent him off from the Standard World by showing up at the nick of time. My guess is either he is still in the Standard Realm or he was sent off into the XYZ Realm since we have not seen any hints of him being within the Synchro Realm just yet.

YGO ARC V Ep 76 Img 0007My fear of Jean-Rogers using mind-control with Sergey came true, and bloody hell- every single one of his officers are now under his control thanks to this little shitty device he has on all of them. I don’t know what the heck the board is going to do, but the stupid old man in the middle doesn’t seem to be fazed by any of this. I still don’t trust him, I don’t trust anyone who smiles in these kinds of situations. And I have a hard time imagining them having a back-up plan of how to deal with Jean-Rogers if they lost control of him because CLEARLY revoking his authority didn’t do shit since he has all his people under his control.

I had a dreadful feeling Yuzu was going to go up against Serey at some point, but who knows- miracle she can pull off a miracle against this monster! The Beauty of Destruction is an ominous title, but perhaps they can deliver a twist! STAY STRONG YUZU! YOU CAN DO THIS GIRL! And even if she does lose, I pray Reiji will have Tsukikage sweep her off her feet and send her to shelter of a sort. I would hope he knows better not to risk having her be sent elsewhere because she is a special pawn to Academia.

Both the OP & ED theme were very different but in a refreshing way. The OP song is definitely going to take a while to grow on me, but it’s only because of the hype music we have been listening to throughout the second and third opening songs. The ED Theme on the other-hand stood out to me more than the song itself. It is understandable of course because when was the last time we have ever seen ALL of the characters smiling softly? I mean, that includes Yuuri not looking like a psychopath he is and Shun freed from all that rage and hatred. It was a nice thing to see, but at the same time it’s sad because we know this arc is going to be anything but sunshine and rainbows. The smiles won’t last because soon this city won’t look any different than Heartland- I am sure of it. While Friendship Cup is still on, it won’t be long before it ends.  In the mean time, Reiji better start adjusting his plans, because those who are presently underground and have no idea what is about to unfold on the surface need to prepare for is to come.

Eva

Blogging Anime since Summer 2009, & Founder of AngryAnimeBitches Anime Blog ...I may or may not be addicted to writing

This Post Has 16 Comments

  1. revolutionhippo

    I’m willing to bet Yuuri’s going to play a pretty large role in this arc, both with how he’s foreshadowed by the characters AND based on how important he’s shown in the OP and ED themes. I’m not sure how big his role is, but there’s no way he’s just gonna be silent for much longer.
    With the whole war going on in Synchro, I’m curious how Crow and Shinji will play into it, with their hopes of uprising and all. I have a feeling Shinji especially isn’t just going to sit silently when we’ve seen how aggressive he can be. For that matter, Yuugo seems like he’ll be playing a part in it, too.
    I’m also really surprised how important Barret is starting to become, serving as the equivalent to Sergey for Academia. With both he and Sora in Synchro now, it’ll be interesting to see what sorts of duels spawn out of it- and maybe we’ll even get a chance to find out what happened to Ruri and Rin.
    I don’t know why, but I found it hilarious that they can’t use the stadium anymore because Shun wrecked it so badly.

    1. Eva

      Yuuri definitely creeping about somewhere, waiting to pounce on his prey. He is probably nocturnal too. I can’t see him roaming in the middle of the day.
      Shinji might turn this into, “Look at how the Council has failed us!” sort of thing to gather his own forces to protect the city. Yuugo on the otherhand will probably be on Team Yuzu until the two of them are fully integrated with the Lancers.
      BWAHAHA INDEED! But it also makes it more dangerous since the Obelisk Force will be roaming about, just like they did in back in the Standard World X___X

  2. elhienn

    Hiiii! It has been a long while hasn’t it? 😀
    I liked the OP and ED, I died of laughter with Ninja Yuzu fanning Yugo and Serena punching Sawatari in her sleep lololol XD, and I did find the OP catchy 🙂
    This is the most hilarious thing about Arc V, if you make an unsuspecting person that never watched it see the OP/ED they will think it’s a cute slice of life while an Arc V fan would be screaming “THIS MEAN WE WILL HAVE AN APOCALYPSE THIS ARC! EVERYONE IS SCREWED!” haha~ And there’s also Yuya’s very inapropriated catch phrase “The fun has just begun!” In all the traumatix epiaodes XD
    Ahem, back to the episode: JFC, Sergey’s smile creeped me out! I’m scared for Yuzu now and I hope to God that Jean don’t put his hands on our queen otherwise there might be a chance of *shudder* him installing the same brainwashing devices on her.
    I swear, the braided eyebrows gas the uktimate poker face I ever saw, nothing fazes him! I find it creepier than most stuff in this show and that’s saying something!
    Hahaha! Silly Jean, are you not aware that villains shouldn’t tell the audience your plans or you will set yourself to fail?

    1. Eva

      <3 And all four girls together! *SOBS*
      You're absolutely right about that, and after all the shit that has hit the fans- all I only interpret the "The fun has just begun" line being said by the writers themselves as oppose to the characters. Writers always enjoy putting their characters through hell.
      Sergey freaked me out too, I was like, "DON'T YOU DARE HURT MY QUEEN." Here's to hoping Yuzu will be able to cope with it and get out relatively unscathed. ; ___ ; But if she wins, it will be all the more rewarding because she will be fighting tooth and nail.
      Jean jinxed himself so bad. XD

  3. 75chaosflare

    I completely love how Arc-V handled it’s first recap episode in comparison with the previous series ones. It’s like the writer were like: “You know, we’ve never down a recap episode but we should try doing it in a way without pissing off fans”. Like they always in none non-duel episodes they display the plot in an exciting way were in the first half of the recap it not only narrates to Yuya viewpoint of the plot but to the councilmen and Jeans view as well.
    For my thoughts in the council, I honestly can’t say much but on how they legitimately screwed themselves. It never came to a surprise to them when they happen to see a member of Security use a Fusion but now when they reveal they knew full well about Jean yet did absolutely nothing and gave him a position that can easily backfire on them, how does it end up? With Jean literally implanting all of security mind-control chips into their brains and making an army of his own to conquer all of Synchro to use against Leo. Overall, I know this may be mean but to the Lancers they ended up being nothing more than useless now.
    It also for now amazes me that Reiji have not put 2-2 together that maybe his father is after people who are beside Serena that are worth protecting(Yuzu) but last time he saw Yuzu in parallel he pretty much ignored her being chased by Yuri and only used her disappearance as Darkness on his duel against Yuya, even Jean figures that Yuzu and Serena are beneficial
    As for the Fusion Dimension, apparently Leo couldn’t care less about how many times his solders fail as long as they remember not to crucially harm any of the bracelet girls something that surprisingly Yuri sees as a big “no no”. Jean wanting to make sure he gets to Dennis by preventing any knowledge of him making an army of his own could have also screw up his plans especially when sending Yuri(who’s considered Leo’s right-hand man and probably to most fear one in Academia).
    I can see that a lot of stuff is definitely going to happen which as much as I want Yuzu to win I doubt they would have a guy that beat a fodder character to lose already but at least make it almost close.
    Lastly, is it just me or is that White Taki(The old man that smiles a lot) really starting to annoy me now, even the other members see how much this is a big deal but nope more smiles.

    1. Eva

      And this is how you make recap episodes interesting 😀 ARC-V has a very bright and innovative writing team.
      I would hope Reiji would figure it out if he hasn’t already. I mean, he heard the entire broadcast about Shun’s sister disappearing. Surely after seeing how Selena and Yuzu are almost identical, he should clue in already or at least start thinking about it.
      The old man is shady as hell, and yeah that stupid smile on his face is annoying me too-but it’s how chilled out he is makes me VERY suspicious of whether or not he himself already sold the Synchro Realm out to Academia… I wouldn’t put it past him…

      1. 75chaosflare

        He might be having a secret side deal with Yuri XD. Speaking of which in the OP it was hinting that maybe his counterpart dragon’s possessing him or fused with him and might have an even greatly role as a villain as we lead on since he was stated to only working for Leo because he finds it fun.
        Also I believe this is still considered the 2nd season to Arc-V while it’s the 4rth arc if that makes sense.

        1. Eva

          *SNAPS FINGERS* THAT IS IT. THAT’S TOTALLY IT.
          The sub team called it to be the “4th season” usually they call seasons by the arcs. Otherwise generally speaking, yes it’s only the 2nd season running XD

  4. Alzuren

    This has been bugging me for a while but… What is Yuuri’s relationship with Selena?
    I mean, all the “Yuya”s and “Yuzu”s have some kind of special relationship with each other but what type of relationship would Selena and Yuuri have? They can’t be the only pair who don’t have one. (that would suck) I can’t imagine what type of relationship they could have? Maybe Yuuri wasn’t a psycho his whole life. What if he was good then something happened that turned him into the person he is today? I’m dying to find out. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

    1. Eva

      We don’t know as of yet what their relationship is and how Selena was brought into Academia in the first place. Right now in the Fusion World, like everyone other one- we have only seen the island of Academia and no other regions and Selena was making an effort to get off the island but for different motives. She may have initially been approached by a different method, encouraging her to join their ranks to fight. In the beginning she believed strongly in Professor Leo’s words, so I would guess she is probably the only one who did not have a hostile encounter unless she considers him a rival. at this point, I don’t think they have any particular relationship.

  5. Becs

    I thought the opening was meh as well but i found it kind of funny how the lyrics were sort of directions for Yuya. ‘you’re the protagonist aren’t you?’ it’s like they were in the anime telling their own characters what we want to tell them… I loved the images they used and cut scenes especially with the 4 Yuzu girls (so loved that)! The ending i liked better with everyone just sleeping peacefully with a soft smile lying down on soft grass (don’t understand why more people don’t do it). One bit that made me laugh was when Sawatari blushed at Selena sleeping and she unconsciously punched his face in when she rolled over XD (i hope they don’t make a Chazz crush happen here where the guy only outwardly expresses his crush later in the series)
    Yeah i at first thought it was going to be the typical recap episode but they did it so cleverly. Interwieving Yuya and quite a few others point of view and explaining the reasons behind their decisions whilst giving revelations of things we’ve suspected or had no idea of. It would’ve been so easy just to have Yuya explain it all but to allow us to get into the minds of the enemies is pretty damn clever. Because to find stuff out like that normally, the hero would have to confront the villain and they stupidly explain their plan. They didn’t do this at all!!
    I can’t remember 5ds recap episode but the yugioh ones are usually where the protagonists visits locations and remembers duels they had with people (I’m looking at you Yuma, that three sun episode was wasted!) or they stay in one place and reminsisce.
    With the council’s indecisiveness and basically fucking around with people around them, i can sort of understand their reasoning in wanting to see which team to go for. Doesn’t mean they’re not arrogant arses… That head old man with the braided eyesbrows just pisses me off with how smiley he is all the time. He either has something planned or the wind changed and his face stayed that way…
    With the way Jean exploded, you know he is going to and is losing control… When the villain breaks their cool like that everyone knows that they’ve been cracked and all you need to do is rip it even further from there to win.
    I am scared with how it will go down with Yuzu… The queen shouldn’t lose! Past Yugioh history suggests that she will lose simply because she cannot be as good in dueling as the protagonist. However, this series is finally treating the female characters as duelists, rather than cheerleaders on the side who have a duel once in a while and are barely strong (Aki was an awesome duelist but she just didn’t get enough screentime i felt…). So maybe she’ll win at least to maybe prove a point that the girl doesn’t always lose in the second round (although, i want her to win primarily cos she is awesome)!

    1. elior1

      as much as i want yuzu to win i have a bad feeling she will lose. i mean did you see this kind of monster dualist? i don’t think she have a chance. beside i don’t mind if she will lose in here since she won many times already

  6. Chris Marshall

    Well now I can bring this up since they showed it in the opening….but why Yuzu?!! Why does your new fusion monster have to have a freakishly large head?!

    1. exof954

      Going by the themes of Yuzu and Selena’s decks, I’m pretty sure the larger monster was Selena’s.

      1. Chris Marshall

        It’s actually Yuzu’s, they already revealed it in a magazine (not talking about Panther Lady). The picture they gave us of her’s was….pretty ugly.

  7. partner555

    I’d say that the heroes are really in trouble, but really, I suspect the writers will up the ante somehow. I can only wonder how.

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