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10/10
To say that Arc V skyrocketed the game's sales after the failure of Zexal would be an understatement. While every yugioh series until now focused on its own mechanic (rituals for original, fusions for gx, synchros for 5ds and exceeds for zexal), Arc V adds its own mechanic, Pendulums, but pays equal attention to ALL the others as well. Quite honestly I never imagined a day would come when I could play a deck that rituals/synchros/fuses/xyzes and possibly pendulums at the same time and NOT have balance issues with it. If you had told me something like that back when Zexal came out I would have called you a fool, since most decks back then couldn't even pull of a combination of TWO of these at the same time, let alone all of them together. But now here we are, in a golden, grand age for the game that rewards skilled players with incredible show-offing, that has successfully made me cut down on my food expenses to "barely surviving" so I could afford more cards. Kudos Konami.
But enough about the actual game. The anime takes place at first in Miami City (yes, the ACTUAL Miami, there are even black people in it) and later goes all over the place (literally). Our protagonist, Sakaki Yuya, is the son of the famous missing enternetainer Sakaki Yusho, and tries to become a professional entertainer duelist himself. As an entertainer duelist, he sees it his job and personal philosophy to bring smiles to everyone through his dueling, including the audience and his opponents. He is by all means a pacifist, and therefore a tragic figure in a world where dimensions collide, misusing the duel monsters game that Yuya loves as a weapon. Oh yeah, spoilers.
SPOILERS
And really, that's where the great writing of Arc V truly shines. The same game that Yuya wants to use as a means to bring happiness, is instead continuously used to bring pain and misery and loss of human life, which continuously sends the "clownish" Yuya to depression (he has gone through a lot of those already and we're not nearly halfway through the anime). To bring an end to conflict, Yuya is constantly forced to take part in the conflict himself, LITERALLY becoming consumed by his inner demons as the mayhem continues to intensify.
Apart from Yuya there are plenty of other characters, including the alternate versions of himself and his potential girlfriend Suzu, one pair from each dimension, the rest of the Lancers the "good mastermind" Akaba Reiji has gathered (imagine Kaiba from season one with Urahara leadership and manipulation qualities, simply epic), and then there are the various individuals from the other dimensions, my favourite of which is Sora. In general the character roster in ARC V is pretty impressive, with fairly diverse characters whose loyalties aren't always where they're supposed to be, and who can all get consumed by their own personal conflicts, burdening their individual missions. All in all, great writing for EVERYONE. Yes, I mean EVERYONE. Not just the protagonist and his nymphomaniac girlfriend. EVERYONE.
Now there are some minor issues I have with Arc V, and I mean other than spending too much money on the game. First, wanting to place equal power and interest in the girls to attract female audience, the writers have Yuzu dash off at the start of the series, away from the rest of the cast, essentially playing in her own anime as she goofs off/flirts with Yuya's alter egos from various worlds. It can even be said that she has a reverse harem: The pacifist emo one, the angry driven vengeful one, the goofy cool funny one and even the freaking YANDERE one. Now, I have no problem with the female claiming her own harem, but there does need to be someone for the protagonist to save like a princess... And that someone ended up being Sora, a 10 year old BOY. In fact, in light of Yuzu never being near him, the depressed clown of a protagonist does have a habit of gathering around him and "protecting" waaaaaay underage boys, with Sora obviously being the favourite, which at times raises a few eyebrows.
But that's all water under the bridge. As usual, Yugioh has perfected the art of doing character development through the duels themselves and the cards played in them, and by God, have they succeeded in Arc V. Even ignoring Yuya (whose main deck basically consists of a circus and fun and games when he's trying to be a pacifist and rampaging dragons when he goes all berserk), the vast majority of the characters' decks reflect their personalities, with my favourite, again, being Sora. His deck consists of the cutesy Fluffals that are basically stuffed animals, which reflect the cute kid he was pretending to be at the start of the series. He then combines these cute stuffed animals with saws, scissors, chains etc etc through fusion, creating terrifying 5 Nights at Freddie's monstrosities that reflect the true, twisted-self he was hiding beneath the cute bravado. And again of course, that's just an example. The vast majority of the characters work like that, and it's doing the series WONDERS.
Last but certainly not least, Arc V is doing a FANTASTIC job technically, with very good art, well chosen camera angles, perfectly expressioned faces, and of course, epic sound. In fact the sound department is another of Arc V's highlights, with Yuya's beautifully painful screams, Reiji's wonderfully arrogant voice, Serena's cute tomboyish military-talk (among many, many others) being accompanied by a soundtrack that easily rivals 5ds', which will always get your blood bumping and ready for a duel.
All in all: A fantastic job. First time in a while you get the feeling Konami hired actual script writers instead of marketing advisers and it really shows. Excellent at everything, my only regret is that between arc V and Steam Sales, I will have to survive on campus food for a while (ew).
PROS:
-Everything.
Cons:
-...I guess the slightly yaoish feel when Yuya is near boys, if you're annoyed by that sort of thing.
-HOW?! HOW DID I SPEND SO MUCH MONEY...?!
