Reviews

Working out when you're fat and out of shape sucks. You realize how weak you actually are and you can't even put weights on the bloody bench press bar. But after a while, things change. You start to feel better: you feel energized more often, your body feels less toxic, you can actually do physical labor without collapsing within the first five minutes. It's a wonderful feeling, and it's what the Zexal experience is. The first part is pretty mediocre, with some of the better episodes keeping it from being truely bad, while the second part is pretty damn good. We're not here to talk about the good of Zexal though; it's time to delve into the reason why I find it hard to recommend to people.

First and formost, the story. It's basically, "YUMA HELP ME FIND THE NUMBERS TO GET MY MEMORY BACK KTNXBAI" Even when it gets to the point when Yuma and crew try to stop Tron's machinations, it's all very shallow. It's still all about collecting numbers, with a pinch of stopping the astral world's destruction on the side. Even the true antagonist sucks, as it just feels like a last minute desperation attempt to try to get some semblance of story in existence. Everything just feels empty and nothing gets explained.

The art design is pretty damn good, as expected of the Yugioh franchise. Heartland looks vibrant and futuristic with the duel disks looking at home. Seriously, I could rip a wall off a building and call it a duel disk and it would work. The D-Gazers actually are nifty and allow for holograms of cards to work anywhere with real environmental interaction. Once again, all of the characters have their own memorable look and are easily identifiable. If I posted a picture of Kaito, you would instantly know who it was, provided you watched this.

The sound design is also great, as the music really conveys the mood of a scene. From the casual tunes when watching the characters interact, to the heated soundtrack of an intense duel, Zexal nails it. Why are you reading this segment still? LISTEN TO THE SOUNDTRACK.

Here is the odd part, the characters. There are a decent amount of characters in Zexal, but they don't have any magic to them. None of them are very fleshed out nor enjoyable except for a small few. This doesn't include Yuma and his merry gang, as they're all annoying at this point in time. III, IV, and Kaito are the only characters worth anything in part one. Without talking about why, just remember that duels they are in are the more enjoyable and worthwhile ones to watch.

The whole thing is an arduous process to get through, as it's too flawed for its own good. Just watch the important plot episodes and start watching Zexal 2 because part 1 just isn't good. Luckily there's an image that's a decent guide on how to watch it. Zexal is like panning. At the start you find nothing, but eventually you'll find the gold nugget, so remember to eat your vegetables kids because Zexal 2 is one wild ride, being one of the best seasons of yugioh.