Yuuya finally remembers his Valentine.
Well there is some good news and bad news. The bad news: Yuzu is still MIA. Flashbacks don’t count as a “re-appearence”, in fact her absence only makes me sadder. The good news, this episode was probably the most solid one I have watched in what feels like an eternity, and I actually managed to get a few laughs out of it. The highlights for me were Sawatari and Gongenzaka. As always, Sawatari’s commentary was hilarious, and really helped break the ice with the bitter tensions I have been having with this show. And that remark was actually “Hah! It’s just one monster riding another”, so I found it more funny than it was probably meant to be. His mistakes were also fun, with how his buff to ‘help’ Tsukikage actually backfired on them big time. The way he apologized made me consider for a second that he may had done it on purpose, (wouldn’t put it past him though, hahaha). But I think it is fair to say the true star of the episode was actually Gongenzaka. He was quick on his feet, being first to notice something amiss with Yuuya, and then when Shuuzou made everyone (including himself) remember Yuzu, the first thing that crossed his mind was to end the duel ASAP for Yuuya’s sake. And boy, Gongenzaka went HAM today because he basically just 2 V 1 (Tsuikage and Sawatari). However I am not 100% certain whether or not Gongenzaka decided this course of action because he thinks Zarc is still within Yuuya (which would be the appropriate reaction as he has witnessed firsthand on many occasions on what triggers Yuuya’s beserk state) or he thinks Yuuya is going to have such a meltdown, that the other two will defeat him before he gets the chance to 1 V 1 him.
Reiji’s and Yuushou’s decision to challenge Yuuya in attempt to jog his memories were definitely questionable, especially when they could have so simply did what Shuuzou did, outright tell him the magic words, “Yuzu is gone!”. Anything that correlates with Yuzu will open the floodgates of all the memories that has been tucked away. But by the end of the episode they explained to us why Reiji and Yuushou were acting the way they were. It was to prepare him to fight against Zarc’s soul, and make Reira smile since that is where Zarc currently resides. Nevertheless, I still find the reasoning for it to be just as stupid. They could have easily just made him remember simply by snapping their fingers and say, “YUZU!” and then tell him that they need to make sure Yuuya is ready to go up against the Supreme King Zarc. This probably would have been the better way anyways just because I got an icky feeling that the next episode will basically be Yuuya having a meltdown of everything he has done as Zarc and then by the end of the episode, understand that he must face him once more, but on his own two feet…. Err… well sorta. It’s probably going to be one of those “Internal Souls” battle since uh, Reira is a baby and last time I checked, even in the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe, babies don’t duel. Unless they plan to change that, god help us if they were to do stuff an outrageous thing.
Though this episode was a lot more bearable to watch, there was one glaring problem that continued to irk me. The moment everyone remembered Yuzu, WE DIDN’T GET ANY ANSWERS ABOUT WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO HER. All we know is that Reira willingly expelled Ray’s soul from his body. That’s it. We got absolutely nothing of what had happened to her afterwards. It’s alllll~ about Reira! How he was reborn into a baby, lost his smile and all that crap.
UM HELLO?
GUYS?
WHAT ABOUT YUZU?!
Is Yuzu good as dead? For god sake! Professor Leo basically killed her and her counterparts, by eliminating their bodies in attempt to revive Ray. But his grand plan failed because the only thing that it did was put her soul back together again. Knowing that, I’m dreading that Yuzu could actually be dead, dead – all for the dumbest reasons ever. Anyhow, we need answers, and fast.
The next episode is entitled, “Soul of the Supreme King”, so I am not holding my breath for any information whatsoever, but it would be nice if they could at least indulge us to the current situation Yuzu is facing right now.
Random Note of the Week: Baby Reira reminds me of Rugrats
I’m also confused why Reiji and Yusho didn’t just explain everything to everyone like Shuzo did and instead going all through the trouble of reenacting the Battle Royale. Maybe their reason will be explained further in the next episode. Based on the preview, it’s clear that from now on, Yuya’s goal is to save Reira from Zarc’s soul and find Yuzu who is somewhere else (I refuse to think that she is dead. She’s definitely alive! She has to! Together with her counterparts of course).
Another thing, in the preview, Yuya said that if he can “make Reira smile”, Zarc’s soul may disappear. This confused me as well. I also thought of internal souls battle that you mentioned, but this also came into my mind: maybe that Yuya will try to remind how fun Dueling is without hurting anyone to Zarc through Reira (since he is inside the baby’s body)? In other words, maybe they meant by making Reira smile, then Zarc who is inside him will also feel the same way so once he felt it then he can find peace and pass on or something?
A bit question is answered, but more questions also appeared, urging me to speculate more! All this waiting and speculation feels like killing me yet fun to do. XD
By the by Eva, have you read the Arc-V manga? You said that you’ll give it a try, right?
Yes I did! It took me a while to find it though ahahah! Totally different, I like it a lot. The first chapter was actually quite funny ahahaha! XD Cool to see Yuuto starting out in the spotlight. Also Yuzu and her KACHING$$$ mindset along with her craftiness is HILARIOUS.
But Yuuya in this manga, Hot damn LMFAO.
Because then we wouldn’t have Tsukiage’s, Sawatari’s and Gon’s last duel be against Yuya rather than the disaster that was the Zarc Jobfest(excluding Tsukiage’s because you know what arc).
Plus having Yuya win another tournament.
I know, right!? The characters, especially Yuya, Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri are just awesome and loveable! XD
Hopefully the manga can cheer you up after various disappointments you experienced with the anime Arc-V (It work on me).
Oh it definitely did, right off the bat in fact! I was expecting a bit more chapters out though, so I was disappointed to have caught up so quickly, ahahahah!
The raw usually uploaded in this website on 22nd every month:
http://www.weibo.com/imaichiryuji?refer_flag=1005055014_&is_hot=1
While the English scan usually uploaded in this tumblr on 25th every month:
http://galaxyeyedphoton.tumblr.com
I know after Arc-V ends, you’re planning to be on hiatus or trying the new YGO series, but now that you’ve read Arc-V manga and like it, did it come into your mind to try writing reviews about the manga series?
I found the chapters on the YGO Reddit page, made it convenient to access all the chapters at once ahahaha!
I have written a few
(err, two maybe)manga reviews, but I find it a lot more difficult to do than writing about anime for some reason. It’s also one of the reasons why I am so behind in my videogames *stares at Norn9* (…) and light novels reviews *stares at Spice & Wolf, Danmachi and others* That being said I do try to do it, but I usually end up getting distracted among other things and they don’t get done since they aren’t my top priority.I see… That’s too bad. I’m sure I would enjoy your Arc-V manga review and I would love to read it. But okay then since it’s your choice 🙂
Anyway, glad to know that the manga cheered you up. Yuto and Yugo doesn’t change much, but Yuya and Yuri’s changes in the manga are what cheering me up the most! The cheerful layback yet smarter and cooler Yuya (and an excellent hacker to booth!) soothed me every time he duels. And the sadistic cynical yet protective Yuri is fun to read! I couldn’t help but smile when reading chapter 9 when Yuri thinks of himself as a handsome guy and Yuzu might interested in him (he is quite a narcissist there!) XD
Ahem, sorry if I got carried away when this was supposed to be anime comments. Looking forward to read your next episode review 😀
Technically it’s still on topic because it’s about ARC-V, so don’t worry about it! 😀
I knew the manga would make you feel better! It’s really good isn’t it? I too am disappointed there aren’t more chapters out, however I am SO buying the manga book when it releases in my country!
With the chapters being released slowly. I’d say it’s a good thing. After all, you can’t rush perfection. The anime team has already tried and it got them into this fucked up mess.
Viz Media SJ has licensed it, the first volume will be out in April.
The continuation of Yuya vs The Three Jobbers.
• Hey Himika, no matter how hard you try to win the “sympathy” of the audience, it’s TOO FUCKING LATE.
• I’ve lost count on HOW MANY duels will Yuya lose should the bloody Action Cards never existed. It’s TOO DAMN PREDICTABLE that he always abused them as his personal bail-outs to ensure that he won’t fucking lose.
• SUPER ULTRA HYPER STRONG NEO NEW DUELIST SAWATARI SHINGO & THE MAN GONGENZAKA THE ULTIMATE COCKBLOCKERS! Why can’t they just let the fucking Tomato lose?!
• Tag Duel instead of Battle Royale! Doubt it’ll last long…
• TO HELL WITH THE SHIVERS!!!! Another major reason why Arc V will be forever condemned is that the writers just refused to let the damn fat kid die. >:(
• “THE FUN HAS JUST BEGUN!!!” No disrespect to THE MAN, but it felt a bit wrong considering it should be Yuya and Sawatari shouting that together.
• Stargazer & Timegazer for Odd-Eyes… Yawns…
• Happy memories when Jack shitted on and squashed the damn Tomato. 😀
• So why ONLY Yuya is allowed to abuse the Action Cards?!!
• Being headbutted by a hippo surely isn’t a nice feeling, right Sawatari?
• No matter how Yuya conducts his turn, he’ll still survive because of Action Card bullshit & the ever-solid protagonist plot armour, even though THAT TURN WAS SHIT.
• Step down Yuya, the true entertainer of this show is none other than SUPER ULTRA HYPER STRONG NEO NEW DUELIST SAWATARI SHINGO himself!
• “LADIES AND GENTL-” OH SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!! >:(
• Seriously, everytime Yuya (or Yusho) did that chant it only pissed me off. BOTH of them are terrible entertainers.
• Oh joy, the rematch against Edo that eventually led to the most absurd U-turn in Yugioh history thus cutting short the Xyz arc… 😛
• FUCK EGAO WORLD, good job Edo for ripping it apart, too bad Yusho still had a spare one for Yuya to brainwash people into accepting his Egao drivel.
• Y’know Sawatari, you probably should’ve used THAT Abyss Script you used against Zarc…
• I’m so sick of people worrying about Yuya might lose because HE FUCKING WON’T, especially in this situation.
• Yuya is really the weakest of the 4 Yutagonists. Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri will fuck you up by themselves. Yuya can spam monsters and combos for days and still needs Action Card Bullshit and protagonist plot armour to win.
• Shuzo is having chibi-Yuzu flashbacks.
• … What? That’s a pretty lame Abyss Actor support. I’d rather it having a Double-Up Chance effect.
• Lancers, the WORST group of so-called “soldiers” who achieved absolutely nothing.
• “BUT YOU’LL STILL TAKE DAMAGE”… >_>
• IT’S THE MAN GONGENZAKA’S TURN!
• “ON NO YUZU ISN’T HERE!” Thanks for the reminder Shuzo, but seriously HOW CAN EVERYONE FORGET ABOUT HER SO EASILY?!!
• Uh oh… Yuya is going to mope about it AGAIN…
• Why is everyone so keen on returning Reira’s Egao?! I no longer give a shit about that PTSD kid-turned-baby.
• SHUT YOUR BITCH ASS UP, HIMIKA!!! Geez, her hilariously desperate attempt to show us her “kinder” self is just a mirror of the writers’ desperate attempt to win back the hearts of the now-antagonized IRL audience. NOT GONNA WORK, the wound is too deep.
• THE MAN GONGENZAKA ISN’T GOING TO ACCEPT HIS ROLE AS A JOBBER ANY LONGER!
• I missed Yuzu vs Enjoy… And the damn wormhole that cockblocked THAT opportunity for Yuya & Yuzu to kiss… ;_;
• CAN THEY ACTUALLY MAKE THIS PENDULUM-PENDANT BE RELEVANT FOR ONCE?!!
• Since THE MAN GONGENZAKA refused to remain a jobber any longer, it means the SUPER ULTRA HYPER STRONG NEO NEW DUELIST SAWATARI SHINGO and NINJA BRO TSUKIKAGE must retain their “greatest jobber” titles. GG Sawatari & Tsukikage… ;_;
• Not surprising that neither Sawatari nor Tsukikage resorted to used Action Cards to save their asses.
• Obligatory reminder that Yuzu’s final attempt to make Yuya remain confined in his Egao self didn’t worked out because he became the Egao Anti-Christ afterwards.
• Aaannnndddd Yuya lost his hope FOR THE MILLIONTH-TRILLIONTH TIME… SURELY no one saw that coming…
NEXT EPISODE
Please, just end this “Battle Royale” already. It’s just a pale shadow compared to the one that took place in season one.
Bit of a spoiler, [spoiler]but from the descriptions of the next episodes after 143, we’re going to learn what happened to Heartland and then the Bracelet Girls when Yuya goes to the Fusion Dimension.[/spoiler]
It’s basically 99% exposition and 1% actually showing something needed.
From the unnecessary guilt-tripping from Yuya who didn’t do anything at that time, to the absurd subplot that is banging head against a wall-tier ridiculous. Gon is indeed pretty much the only thing to like about this episode and it’s pretty sad when we knew he, Sawatari and Tsukikage had potnetial a long time ago but was never met in the name of poor treatment as well as little to no motivation.
Thanks to this, it pretty much confirm of Reiji being Yuya’s friend feel far too much of a stretch(mainly with how little the two ever interacted that was/wasn’t plot related). If anything they are more like respectable adversaries, acquaintances, allies or basically rivals(if you can still call it that here but then again Sawatari, Jack, Kaito and zero felt more of being Yuya’s rivals compared to him). Hell, I was more convinced with their relationship in the manga that only needed 2-4 chapters to explain what was going on than all the things that happened in the anime between them(and that was written by Yoshida).
Lastly, it goes without saying how much of a better father Shuzo is compared to Yushou and especially the idiot known as Leo.
Yuya feeling guilty when he was taken over Zarc…I guess this can be said as another indirect allusion to Judai who felt guilty after he was freed from becoming Supreme King? Then most likely in the next episode or more, not only saving Yuzu and Reira, Yuya will also try to come into terms of his actions when taken over by Zarc.
Have to agree with you regarding Yuya’s relationship with Reiji in the manga. It’s more understandable and to be honest I prefer their manga version than the anime version.
The thing with Judai(Jaden) made sense because of Judai’s own recklessness that got most of his friends killed off before being persuaded by Hao and as Hao he not only killed random people he even killed two of his other friends Jim and O’Brien. Here in ARC-V, it’s incredibly unnecessary because Yuya did not do anything horrible on his own. Z-arc created Yuya and the other counterparts and not vice versa. That also is another reason why the cheap Marik moment did not work because even if he created a darker version of himself since childhood, he still did a bunch of evil acts on his own free will and in the end wanted to atone for it via his surrender against Yami Yugi.
Right, Yuya doesn’t really have any reason to feel guilty since Zarc was the one who did the destroying, while Yuya was mentally trapped and considering how strong Zarc’s influence is, I’m not blaming Yuya why it took him a while to finally gain control of his body.
The problem is you barely ever see him going through that struggle except in 140 where it was convenient for Ray/Yuzu to show up. In turn making everyone that was there. Again that ended up being something ARC-V poorly ripped up because in GX we still saw Judai’s struggle inside of his mind during both of Hao’s duels instead of the last minute with Yuya and Zarc.
Yeah. If Yuya’s struggle is shown throughout the two versus one Duels, it would’ve been better, even if it’s just a little bit.
Well while I thought the episode was okay, and defiantly better then last week’s episode, I still find myself struggling with all of this insanity, by the looks of the preview this battle royal will still be going on, they wasted three episodes on this, but they can’t be bothered to have any 3 episode long duels(with no intrusions) the only 3 episode duel was Jack vs Yuya. Arc V had more then enough one and two episode duels, but when it came to 3 episodes they came up short in comparison to other series(excluding the Original since duels there could last 4 to 6 episodes). I mean even though 3 episode duels were rare in GX, 5ds and Zexal we at least had about 3 to 5 of them, Arc V we only had one official one.
I only hope once this battle royal ends, we can finally go find Zuzu(Yuzu), the other bracelet girls, and the other Yu boys, and finally have a proper happy conclusion with the entire team of Lancers, their friends and allies all back together.
Sawatari was the only good part of this episode. And that’s just because he’s Sawatari. Gongenzaka was good enough but it was pretty much just a rehash of that episode from season 1 where he and Yuya duel for entry into the Maiami Championship. The duel was a bore and seeing it end so suddenly for Sawatari and Tsukikage was just plain disappointing. I actually went and rewatched episodes 31-32 again after this and the difference in soul is so obvious it hurts.
Meanwhile, in addition to two seconds of Yuzu flashbacks, we get a millisecond footage of Yuto and Ruri from flashbacks too. Begging the question, are all the Yu-counterparts alive? Or just Yuya? And what about Yuzu’s counterparts? I assume Yuto and Yugo and Yuri are all alive since Yuya is, and that Ruri and Selena and Rin are just gone like Yuzu. So they might have a chance to win me over if Yugo shows up again demanding answers about where Rin is and we get a heartfelt Yuya vs Yugo duel that ends with the bracelet girls returning.
Or something. Honestly I’m just desperate for Arc-V to put itself out of its misery at this point. This whole last arc is just confusing and pointless.
Yeah this last arc so far since episode 141 has been disappointing, if things don’t pick up episode 141 to the last episode may be my lowest rated arc in Arc V. As of now it goes:
Pre-Miami Championships arc: Episodes 1-25:
This just like the first few episodes of GX, 5ds and Zexal is just meant to introduces us to the show and give a few hints to a plot, so I didn’t expect to much, It did it’s job well enough. 5 out 10.
Miami Championships arc: Episodes 26-49:
The plot really got rolling a lot of great plot twists, character moments and duels, some missed opportunities, but still good. 7 out of 10.
The Synchro arc: Episode 50-99:
The arc had a lot of good things, like some nice duels and character growth, but it had just as many bad things like how long it dragged and some questionable moments, but it was still pretty good. 6 out of 10.
The Xyz arc: Episode 100-112:
It was short, but I expected that with how destroyed Heartland was, got a few nice duels, Kite(Kaito) and Aster(Edo)’s character development was believable and some character interation this arc were nice, but the ending with how just one speech from Aster(Edo) turns all the other students to the good side was ridiculous, a poor end to a decent arc. 6 out of 10.
The Fusion arc: Episode 113-129:
While the BB stuff was pure shit and it lasted to long, the rest of the arc had some nice character moments and decent duels like Yugo vs Rin, Shay(Shun) vs Lulu(Ruri), Yuya/Yuto vs Lulu(Ruri) and Celina(Serena), and Yuya and Declan(Reiji) vs Leo. Although there were some missed opportunities like Zuzu(Yuzu) didn’t duel while brainwashed, and the Doctor’s defeat was kind of anti-climatic. 7 out of 10.
The Zarc arc: Episode 130-140:
They messed up the Yugo vs Yuri duel that had been built up for so long, but Yuri’s duels against Yusho and Yuya were good, all the battles against Zarc were okay with some decent characterization and interactions, but they really messed up the ending with Ray and Riley(Reira) just coming in and ending it to quickly. 4.5 out of 10.
Now I can only hope this last arc episode 141 to the last episode can do better and at least score a 6 or 7, but so far I don’t have too much hope.