Please put an end to this misery.
After having a rotten day, this episode did not favors of lifting up the mood (nor did I expect it to). I will flat out say this episode was unbearable for me to watch, and dear god I am not looking forward to the next few episodes. We have about 5 – 6 weeks left of ARC-V before we can finally move onto the next series (YGO Vrain), and it seriously can’t come soon enough. I don’t give two shits about Reira, (NOBODY @(*#!@)#ing CARES REIRA LOST HIS SMILE) especially not after the most recent developments. Yuzu is still being treated as an afterthought, only mentioned by Yuushou (ABOUT BLOODY TIME SOMEONE MENTIONED HER) but Reiji then neglected to provide us anything about her state. He just says it will all depend on Yuuya’s success to make Reira smile again. (I cannot tell you have fed up I am of hearing that – just stop, STOP!) I am not looking forward to next week’s episode and with having so little to say this week, I will let you know if I will release Episode 144- 145 as a double post. At this point I got nothing positive to say about this show, it has become agonizing for me to watch and I would much rather just do two together and give a quick rant blurb of how I felt about it because as you can see, I have given up on this show and I am running out of words to express my disappointment. This episode was filled with several recycled frames, stupid lines, inconsistency (like why the **** is Gongenzaka all the sudden abandoning his steadfast dueling style? What happened to not using action cards?) even dumber development the god damn Dimensional Corridors.
DO WE REALLY HAVE TO TRAVEL THROUGH THE DIMENSIONS ALL OVER AGAIN?
NO!
NO WE DON’T.
I am not looking forward to seeing Dennis’ character either because I can’t stand that guy, and ugh, what about Yuuto? Yuugo? Yuuri? Will we ever see them again? I wonder about that. Also why the hell is Dennis in the XYZ Realm and Shun in the Fusion Realm? I give up.
Either way, the director and writers clearly have no intentions of ending this series on a high note, let alone even attempt to redeem it. They are the ones responsible turning this once beautiful show, with so much potential – a lost cause.
So yeah, I’ll let you guys know if I decide to do a double-post for 144 & 145.
Current Mood:
See you in a week or two.
Actual Quotes:
“Yoko: You still haven’t fulfilled any of your promises!
There are still seeds of conflicts lying around.
There’s a baby who lost his smile.
“And Yuzu-chan hasn’t returned home!”
Yuya: “SHUT UP, MOM!”
Even if it’s wrong to tell your “not real” mom to Shut up, for once I’ll applaud Yuya saying that to her after lines like those. I side with that for numerous amounts of reasons especially in hindsight it’s partially Yoko’s fault that the word EGAO became too out of control.
Actual Quote:
Reiji: “The four Magic Cards that my father created,
En Flowers, En Birds, En Winds, and En Moon,
Destroyed the Supreme Dragon King and split it back into the four dragons.
However, those cards can also return the dragons’ wielder, as well as the person who activated them, into pure beings.
“In other words, those cards have the power to turn them into infants.”
I honestly cannot believe someone was actually paid to write that in as an explanation and raises way too many questions making things much worse in my opinion.
I get feeling they only included Serena in that bit was because that’s the one only things that resemble the poor excuse of a team. XD
The odds of Yuya facing her are very non-existent(at least in my opinion) especially since Yuya didn’t really beat Tsukikage nor Sawatari alone but Gongenzaka did as well as by that logic he had to face Reira but we all know that isn’t going to happen.
Lastly for those who would like to play the comparison game with this and the past spinoffs and the Original here it is:
DM had the final fight between two friends to restore one to his own time
GX had the final fight against the ultimate darkness and regain the true meaning of dueling for the protagonist
5D’s had the final fight against the future that musn’t come to pass as well as knowing what each member of how heroes will be doing in their own individual futures.
Zexal had the final fight between a former friend as well as the actual climax between two friends to return him to his own world (even though he comes back).
Then you have Arc-V’s premise which consist in getting a “F” baby to smile in order for things to be fixed.
I honestly would love for it to end because it has truly started the most dumbest premise of all for a final arc.
Off-topic, more info came regarding the new protagonist and he’s seems pretty interesting. Can’t wait to give that a chance.
Yeah I laughed when Yuuya told his mom to shut up. It was the sole highlight of the episode for me because it was unexpected yet hilarious. Too bad it was so short-lived. I think I would have liked seeing Yuuya just call everyone on BS, full rebellion time.
Looking forward to VRAIN, I have been on the look out every day for new information. I was delighted to finally get more details. The only thing I am wary about though is who will be the director and who will be leading the writing team… >_>
Yes, saying that he’s turned into a baby because of that is indeed completely illogical when it’s EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO ZARC AND RAY’S FRAGMENTS.
Yuri, Yuto, and Yugo are probably all still within Yuya. Not sure about Ray/the girls (they’d better be alive, goddammit).
As for me, looking forward to these episodes, because they’re matches that haven’t happened and/or need to happen.
Then, but that logic you’re saying that Zarc and Ray should have been babies rather than separated into fragments or Reira should have been separated into fragments rather than just a baby unable to smile. What I’m just saying is that the explanations especially now of all times are borderline ridiculous and gives too much of an expression of not even trying in my opinion. At least in Zexal with Tron, his explanation of how he got that recent form fitted and was never played for as asburd as this is.
As for the duels, I just think they are random as well as predictable(to which I add especially with Dennis’ part being way too late and it’s more of an excuse of stretching it out for as long as it is plus they shouldn’t have done that stuff they did with him earlier which was pointless) at best, it’s basically easy way of saying: “Which would you like best as your final duel the Zarc jobfest or EGAO jobfest(in Dennis’ case he has no choice but to pick that option)?” In the end nobody wins.
Infant sure is the purest human being, but I never thought that what Ray meant by En Cards have power to turn all energies into pure existence is infant.
Ahhh…the previous YGO series have memorable reasonable last Duels… But Arc-V…
Reiji said that there are still remnants of Arc-V and Yuzu and the girls are most likely in there, and since Leo was the one who created Arc-V in the first place he may know something about the girls or at least Arc-V itself. Considering Shun’s character, Shun will confront Leo to beat the crap out of him for the misery he brought and find his sister.
I heard there will be YGO TV Special once Arc-V ends. Still don’t know what this TV Special about though.
I’m taking everything with a grain of salt at this point. His explanation simply doesn’t cut it for me and I can’t imagine the amount of stupid ideas that are running around for their “revival”. My current guess, Leo will figure out a way (let’s say, BC of Shun) to reverse Ray’s revival shit thing he did. *SIGH* Hurts my head to even imagine what’s going through the production teams’ minds right now.
TV-Special? Hm, then that means we might have 4 – 5 episodes left (unless they decide to make an hour finale, (please don’t))
ARC-V will most likely end at 147 depending on if their finale gets an 1 hour special or not.
If there’s an anime that needs a total reboot from characters to its story, then ARC-V is definitely one of them, though I know it’ll never happen. I wish I can be the director, story writer, or anything that can change this last arc!
This episode is a disappointment, but at least new ARC-V manga chapter will come out today or tomorrow (still the RAW version though) to sooth us 😀
I’m all for a reboot – BUT WITH A DIFFERENT TEAM IN CHARGED. Never again I will trust this group of Director and Writers! D:<
Katsumi Ono previously worked on ARC-V and Symphogear series. There was one time where he admitted he’s not good with long running series but honestly compared to 5D’s this was his absolute worst when going through it. Kamishiro(the head writer of this series) was known to dislike dueling, pretty much explaining why the majority of them here are lackluster.
Looking back at it, they really never explain why people had amnesia and Reiji, as well as the others did. Making that whole subplot and the MC tournament spectacle worthless instead of just flat out telling Yuya what’s going on.
Screw this 3-episode “Maiami Championship Battle Royale”. Not only it’s just a pale shadow compared to the one that took place in the Standard arc (episode 40s-episode 50), by extension it is also as irrelevant as the infamous BATTLE BITCH mini arc, all for the sake of letting Yuya winning a tournament he was SUPPOSED to win but suspended just to face a large-scale invasion of Academia that NEVER happened.
Giving up on the series to have descent ending is the best way to save yourself from further disappointment after all…(TT_TT)
They should have spend the last few episodes on Yuya, Yuzu, and their counterparts instead of having everyone’s memories’ erased that Reiji need to do this stupid reenactment Maiami Championship and Lancers battle. Although, I admit, I want to watch the Duel between Yuya vs Shun. I’m curious, especially with Shun’s new Rank 12 Raid Raptors monster. And if Yuya Duel Shun, then maybe Yuto will appear or something.
VRAINS will be replacing Twinstar Exorcist time slot, so it will most likely start at April 5. Which means, ARC-V will most likely end at March 26. But if we include TV special, then VRAINS may also start at April 12 or 19.
Oh I have long given up. There’s no hope for this show anymore. The director and writing staff clearly don’t give two shits about this series anymore. They aren’t even trying. It just gets worse, and worse and worse. At this point they are just on a routine of running over the same dead body over and over again.
I’m not even holding my breath to get the chance to see Yuuto, Yuugo or Yuuri. At this point, they are probably going to be nonexistent.
I’m starting to think that they make the last ED (Dashing/Racing Pendulum) as replacement for the boys (except Yuya) and the girls’ lack of appearances in the series. It’s like they’re saying, “Since we don’t have time to focus on them, we present you this ED to show how their interaction with each other will be if we have time to show them together.” >:(
Now that I’ve let it all out, time to sooth my frustration with reading Arc-V manga chapter 19 (I overslept when it was uploaded yesterday).
Maybe I should also start writing Arc-V fan fiction, writing the scenarios of the last story arc that I wanted it to be…
This episode was honestly the epitome of what I DESPISE about the series. Arc V is really the ONLY anime (out of all the animes I’ve seen in my life so far) that actually succeeded in making my brain explode multiple times. Not even the low-points of Precure seasons (the much-condemned Happiness Charge and the shit show that was Mahou Tsukai Precure which concluded not too long ago) are as bad as Arc V’s worsening sorry state. Yusho being Yusho (an irresponsible father), all this public tournament just to give our Egao Messiah Tomato a mission to RETURN TODDLER REIRA’S FUCKING EGAO, and the countless “SHIIIIIVVEEEERRRUU-” from that FUCKING SHIVERS KID in these 3 episodes actually makes re-consider to drop this show in the few final episodes.
On top of that, this duel was seriously boring as hell. What infuriates me the most is that they even let THE MAN BETRAY HIS STEADFAST DUELING of NOT using Spells & Traps by giving us a LV12 Superheavy Samurai Synchro (which is more or less a RANK 10 TRAIN) that banishes Spells & Traps for a petty 200x Burn and destroys a monster by discarding TWO cards. The supposedly “strongest” Superheavy Samurai is too shit.
Plus, it’s 100% official:
YUYA IS THE WORST YUGIOH PROTAGONIST EVER.
While the ZEXAL bullshit from Yuma & Astral remains the most broken gimmick in Yugioh history, the BILLIONTH-TRILLIONTH time of Yuya abusing those Actions Cards just to showcase his ever-solid protagonist plot armor and SPREAD THE EDICTS OF EGAO is just sufficient enough to push Yuma down the list. Characters wise, Yuma was only slightly more hated because “KATTOBINGU” was a guaranteed salt-fest than Egao, but when it comes to dueling even Yuma fared much better than the Tomato who would’ve lost far more duels had it not for his personal bail-out Action Cards. Like seriously, Yuya actually has a lot of boss monsters that can finish a game on their own in his Extra Deck, and he also owns a bunch of powerful Spells & Traps that can blow up or shut down his opponents fairly easily (see Wings of The Supreme King & Wings of Misdirection). But despite those advantages he still needs to rely on those fucking Action Cards and his constant Egao speeches to win. I swear if this loser Egao Messiah Tomato fails to lose even ONE of the remaining duels in this show…
Not to mention they focused TOO MUCH about him so the other more interesting 3 Yutagonists got shafted horribly. Just look at Yuto, he had a very strong deck and a cool personality, but he was killed off WAY TOO EARLY in this show; Yugo might as well be considered independent of the plot considering almost NOBODY in the main group (except Yuzu, Sawatari, Serena and Yuri) really met him at all and his actions did little to drive the overall plot (apart from “Finding MUH RIN”); Yuri was hyped up as this almighty duelist that everyone fears and yet did absolutely nothing until he started his “killing streak” by defeating Asuka and ended up with him losing to and absorbed by Yuya because he was too stupid (or the writers forced him to be dumb) to use Starve Venom & Dark Rebellion’s effects properly. And the man who nurtured him into a psychotic killer is none other than that idiot Akaba Leo himself.
Oh, and never ever forget the severe lack of Yuzu because Arc V hates its female protagonist. I was hoping there would be something like this:
YUYA: “Yuzu… Yuzu… YUZU!!!”
YUZU: “…Yuya…”
YUYA: “Yuzu?”
YUZU: “Yuya… you have forgotten me”
YUYA: “No! How could I?”
YUZU: “You have forgotten who you are, and so forgotten me. Look inside yourself Yuya. You are MORE then what you have become. You must take your place in the circle of great protagonists from good anime.”
YUYA: “How can I go back!? I’m not who I used to be…”
YUZU: “Remember who you are. You are my boyfriend, and the one true Yugioh protagonist. Remember who you are…”
YUYA: “NO! Please! Don’t leave me!”
YUZU: “Remember…”
YUYA: “Yuzu!”
YUZU: “Remember…”
YUYA: “Don’t leave me…”
YUZU: “…remember…”
EVERYONE: “…WHAT WAS THAT!?”
What is really frustrating is that I know in my heart Yuuya is not meant to be the worst protagonist ever. They didn’t pace the series properly to divide it up equally among his counterparts (who were JUST as important). Worst of all, it was all in vain because in the end, the writers butchered Yuuya’s character so bad, that all of his character development he had undergone was thrown out the window. And it’s not just Yuuya, but applies to everyone else who was on the chopping block. I honestly believe they aren’t even trying anymore, and as result they are now hitting a new level of the lowest of the lows every single week.
A part of me is happy that Yuzu has not been a participant in this mayhem shitshow, I dread how they would have slaughtered her character further than they already have.
It’s honestly fair to say that alone Yuya’s the weakest protagonist when it come to development and adapting to duels. Even though most of us all harp on Yuma for constantly losing in the beginning(which I honestly didn’t mind since he was known for being a newbie at the game and only hate it when it’s used for comedic effect rather actual character moments like with Shark and Kaito). Problem is Yuya was known for starting out as rookie but the majority of his duels and even know has him using an Action Card at the last minute to save him from losing, someone else sacrificing themselves to save him and Zarc creating plot-device dragon and magician cards that gets in the wins in the final turn. After 51, he barely ever adapts unlike Yuma where we’ve seen him progress in multiple occasions on his own even though when he merges with Astral he creates cards out of nowhere but still he doesn’t do that as much as Yuya’s plot devices.
Okay look Arc V writers, I like many of the characters in this show so I’m glad to have Yuya duel them, to give them proper closure. The problem is we only have like 5 to 8 episodes left, depending on if there’s a hour special or not(we need one, we need more time to give a proper conclusion), so we really don’t have time to be doing this shit. Right now these last 3 episodes have just been a disappointment, now I came looking forward to the next 2 episodes because were getting things the fans always wanted, but the premise for these things is ridiculous. So to stop the ultimate evil that is Zarc, the plan is to make a kid smile.
(Sarcastic): Yeah, no that’s brilliant, the other series got nothing on you, the orginal series with that long hard fought battle against Zorc coming to end by combinding the 3 God cards into the ultimate forces of light, who needs that. Gx with a final battle against darkness itself, who took over the world and trapped everyone in a never ending nightmare, where in order to win Jaden(Judai) not only had to combine Neos with Yubel, but also fuse all the neo spaices together for the 1st time, lame. 5DS where Yusei had to face Z-one and stop him from destroying the future on a crumbling temple in the sky, while using the ace monsters of all the other main characters to win, pathetic. Zexal with the dimensional all coming together the only way to stop Don 1000 was to have two rival/friends/enemies team up and even have the ghost of Kite(Kaito) come so all 4 of them could work together to power up Utopia to a ridiculous amount to deplete Don 1000’s just as ridiculous high amount of life points, boring. No Arc V your ending to defeat the final villain is the why to go, who needs those other epic endings from the other 4 series.
Okay I’ll be honest, I do like the make’m smile approach, you know showing mercy, convincing the enemy there wrong and turning them to the good side, heck Dragon Ball Z did that well, with how many former villains like Vegeta became good and heavy hitters for the heroes. But not every villain deserves to become good, some deserve to be destroyed like Zarc, but instead we have this ridiculous plot to make Riley(Reira) smile to turn Zarc good, which is just destroying this once good show. I said before and I’ll say it again this final arc so far from episode 141 to the last episode is shaping up to be my lest favorite arc from Arc V.
The “Make’m Smile Approach” is what I had always expected, but JFC – the execution couldn’t be further off the mark. This can absolutely work, several series as you mentioned succeeded, but this show is beyond saving. It’s a lost cause at this point because the director and writers clearly don’t give two shits about it anymore.
Y’see this was a real disappointing episode because it was essentially just Action Card City for 90% of it and the other 10% was Reiji blabbing on about the world’s most confusing plotline that was clearly just instituted as a way to make Yuya duel all the Lancers since he never actually had a formal duel with Shun, Dennis, or Selena.
Gongenzaka throwing away his Steadfast dueling to make a message to Yuya could’ve been a really interesting bit of character development for both of them if it was explored, but it WASN’T. It was just briefly mentioned while they went along having their duel that illogically managed to change scenery to every quadrant of wonder quartet.
Meanwhile… Dennis is in Xyz and Shun is apparently in Fusion. Do I have high hopes for either of them to have character development in the aftermath of the Zarc incident? No, no I don’t.
IKR, SERIOUSLY. AFTER ALL THIS TIME, GONGENZAKA DECIDES TO THROW AWAY HIS STEADFAST DUELING. That shit made me livid. Consistency? What consistency? WHO NEEDS CONSISTENCY AHAHAHAHA
FML.
Yeah, I’m not too thrilled with Dennis returning either… I can think of a few other lancers who would’ve been a more sensible choice. No not even a few, ONE just ONE! Fucking Reiji could’ve duelled him if he was so insistent on him beating a lancer member and it would’ve added to their rivalry and continued the YGO tradition of the pasts with having a rival duel at or near the end.
I knew it wasn’t going to be Kurosaki he duels, and i was REALLY hoping they’d throw a surprise twist at us like Ray is revived at long fucking last and he has to duel her in order to save Yuzu and that! That would’ve been amazing!!! But they pull this shit on us!
Speaking of Reiji btw. Wow! I have never seen someone finally give an explantion so long it literally explained NOTHING! That is impressive by any standard! I never knew you could spout so much about bullshit and sound smart (I mean Trump does it, but he can’t make it sound smart like Reiji)
The only positive I have about this episode was that it was nice that the duel between the two seemed kind of friendly towards the end so that was fun to watch. Yoko is always fun except when she kind of kept putting more pressure on Yuya unnecessarily (that shut up moment was kind of shocking and funny).
The positive i can find for next episode from the preview is that the animation actually looks like it’s going to be pretty good. Like better than average. I hope this means they’re going to surprise us with something better than mundane… I doubt it, but there’s nothing wrong with hoping.
In the end, ARC-V is a plain mess that had great potential regarding story and especially character-wise if they had been handled much better than they recently were. Honestly, out of all the YGO spinoffs, ARC-V has been the one that irritated me the most.
>GX was crazy but that didn’t stop me from getting invested in it to the end.
>5D’s was amazing even though it’s second half was troubling(however due to all the behind-the-scene things that lead to it I’ll give it a pass) and it was still a lot to enjoy.
>Zexal even when I was annoyed at Yuma’s stupidity during the beginning and Kotori being there when honestly she’s wasn’t really needed, I honestly liked his progression and the other characters as well as the stories behind them.
>ARC-V from being a series I was enjoyed with and couldn’t wait to see where it goes went incredibly downhill due to the large amounts of laziness, favoritism for past spinoffs instead of working on the original characters that need the further development, constant nostalgia pandering, and character shafting left-right. It’s even worst when animators even risks their own jobs just to question what the hell the show is doing and are also confused as hell.
I’ll just say it now of how I rank it from different arcs:
Standard(1-51 or 53) – 9.0-9.5/10. I give it this because despite the rushness in the ending of the Battle Royale and Yoko’s catalyst to EGAO, I honestly loved all the characters, risks, interaction and Yuya and Yuzu’s different developments/potential(before it later crashed/burned).
Synchro(54-99) – 7-7.5/10(out of generosity). I’d give it mainly because of the lack of interactions and major developments that were needed all being ignored. Only developments(Shun, Sora, Reira and Tsukikage) that did work were brief and good but not great. Serena’s development was easily dropped the moment she got nerve gassed leading to 92(a universally hated episode before BB happened). Regardless of all that I still loved the originally characters the most from it(mainly Chojiro(ENJOY)(so glad his cards got printed) and Jean)(A shame just him and the entire arc was considered an afterthought)).
XYZ(100-112) – 5.5/10(out of generosity). Only thing I liked was Allen/Sayaka vs Tyler Sisters reminiscing a Zexal vs GX duel(something the show should honestly done more of). Besides that the rushness, Edo being whiny and the start of EGAO Messiah dragged it completely down for me.
Fusion(113-125) – 1/10(out of all of my biased hatred of it). Dennis, Solo, Apollo/Diana, BB and Parasites all were pointless and to me are considered as worthless filler would have been much better with working on something else. Only thing I liked about it was Yugo vs Rin(even when it was too short and ended up being completely pointless in the end).
Final(126-final episode(147 or 148 or 149) – 0.1/10. Only one percent I liked about the whole arc was Kensho Ono and that’s it.
If people still love ARC-V more power too them. I just don’t care much especially with how predictable it is(Yuya vs Dennis(Dennis acts evil but secretly mopes about all the crap he caused but Yuya in the end makes EGAO leading into the next episode) Yuya vs Shun(Shun’s rightfully pissed at Leo but Yuya gets involved or the former’s inner edgelord goes at Yuya in a duel, Rank 12 jobs and Yuya causes him to EGAO or lectures saying don’t let rage consume you stuff leading into the next episode where he faces Reiji one last time 2-parter or 3-parter). If I’ll be wrong, I’ll be wrong; no problem.
Oh cool I ranked all the arcs to Arc V, that I posted in episode 142, just a little different I’m not saying your rankings are wrong, this is just my own personal ranking like your’s, we are both fans of Arc V and it’s nice to seem both what we agree and what we disagree on:
Pre Miami Championship arc: Episodes 1-25: 5 out 10.
Miami Championships arc: Episodes 26-49: 7 out of 10.
The Synchro arc: Episode 50-99: 6 out of 10.
The Xyz arc: Episode 100-112: 6 out of 10.
The Fusion arc: Episode 113-129: 7 out of 10.
The Zarc arc: Episode 130-140: 4.5 out of 10.
And you make a lot of good points about Arc V, it had a lot of great potential, but now that’s all been wasted away. I uses to love Arc V, but as of late my enjoyment for it has been starting to fade. Since episode 140 and how they messed up that ending against Zarc Arc V has fallen hard for me. It uses to be my 3rd favorite series right behind the Original and GX, and just ahead of 5d’s and Zexal, but now after episode 140 it’s in dead last and these last 3 episodes have done nothing to move it up.
So far this last arc from episode 141 to the last episode has been nothing but a disappointment ranking a 1 out of 10. Which has not help get Arc V out of last place on my list of the series. Now I’m actually looking forward to the Dennis and Shay(Shun) duels I read the spoilers and they look to be very interesting, if done right along with the remaining episode and the conclusion is decent, I’ll probably give this last arc a 3 or 4 out of 10. Which will help Arc V either get back to 3rd place on my list, or at least move up to 4th. However, my dream of Arc V tying with the Original series at 2nd place, or taking 2nd place all for itself, is well and truly dead at this point, Arc V killed it with these last few episodes.
Speaking about ranking, I just found out that Arc-V ranked 64 with 729 votes in Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2016. I’m not if this is right or not but I heard that getting into top 90 is considered pretty good enough and quite an achievement over there, but what do you guys think? This is the link if you’re curious:
http://wowjapan.asia/2016/12/tokyo-anime-award-festival-announces-top-100-anime-2016/
UPDATE: 02/28/2017 Due to working overtime, YGO ARC V Ep 144 entry will be delayed until tomorrow. I didn’t have time to watch it last night, and I’m far too tired to watch it tonight. I should be able to have it up by tomorrow night probably around 9PM NA – EST! Thank you for your patience!