Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Zexal (Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal)

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Alternative Titles

English: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

Synonyms: Yugioh, Yuu Gi Ou! Zexal, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zeal, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

Japanese: 遊☆戯☆王ZEXAL

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 73

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 11, 2011 to Sep 24, 2012

Premiered: Spring 2011

Broadcast: Unknown

Producers: TV Tokyo, Marvelous, Nihon Ad Systems, Digital Works

Licensors: Konami, 4Kids Entertainment

Studios: Gallop

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Game, Fantasy, Shounen

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 6.35¹ (scored by 25,259 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #6630²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2184

Members: 51,879

Favorites: 268

6.35

Ranked #6630Popularity #2184Members 51,879

Spring 2011TVGallop

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Episodes: /73

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Synopsis

In the bustling and futuristic city of Heartland, a young boy named Yuuma Tsukumo has a dream that everyone his age wants to achieve—earning the title of the greatest duelist! Sadly, due to his lackluster dueling skills, this dream is far from achievable. But when the school bully, Ryouga "Shark" Kamishiro, splits the key given to him by his father into two pieces, he inadvertently sets Yuuma on a collision course with his dream.

Retaining one half of the key, Yuuma begins a duel with Shark, but soon realizes that his inexperienced skills are no match for him. In a sudden turn of events, Yuuma's key repairs itself, and the "Door of Destiny'' appears before him. Using the key to open it, Yuuma is greeted by an alien by the name of Astral—a being only he can see.

The bewildered Yuuma soon learns that his memories have been divided into 100 "Number Cards," all of which he must retrieve. However, he is also not the only one looking for them. Bombarded by these revelations, Yuuma, alongside Astral, must defend the world from the upcoming threats that loom over Heartland City—regardless of any divine intervention that may occur.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Zexal, the fourth anime installment of the Yu☆Gi☆Oh! franchise, introduced the concept of XYZ Monsters to the series. It was the first Yu☆Gi☆Oh! anime to have every episode dubbed in English since Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Duel Monsters.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Zexal
Other:	Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Duel Monsters, Yu☆Gi☆Oh!: Duel Monsters GX, Yu☆Gi☆Oh! 5D's, Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Arc-V, Yu☆Gi☆Oh! VRAINS, Yu☆Gi☆Oh!: Sevens
Sequel:	Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Zexal Second
Side story:	Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Zexal Special

Kokuryu, Sachi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kuwahara, Satoshi

Director

Matsuoka, Hiroki

Sound Director

Kamio, Ryuu

Script

Takeuchi, Toshimitsu

Script

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Opening Theme

#1: "Masterpiece (マスターピース)" by mihimaru GT (eps 1-25)
#2: "BRAVING!" by KANAN (eps 26-49)
#3: "Tamashii Drive (魂ドライブ)" by Color Bottle (カラーボトル) (eps 50-73)

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Ending Theme

#1: "Boku Quest (僕クエスト)" by Golden Bomber (eps 1- 25)
#2: "Setsubou no Freesia (切望のフリージア; Freesia of Longing)" by DaizyStripper (eps 26-49)
#3: "Wild Child (ワイルド・チャイルド)" by moumoon (eps 50-73)

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Reviews

Jun 14, 2012

73 of 73 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

CaptainKishimoto (All reviews)

71 people found this review helpful

I've always been a big fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series. Each iteration managed to improve upon it's predecessors, while still keeping things "fresh". Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's pushed the envelope with its outrageous concept (Riding Duels) and it succeeded. Coupled with strong characters and a great storyline, 5D's is easily my favourite of the series. It taught me to not judge a book by its cover, so I kept an open mind towards Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. While Zexal does manage to have many good things going for it, it completely disregards what has continually improved in each series: characters.

{Story} - [7/10]
The story of Zexal is reminiscent of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in that the main character (in this case Yuma) must help restore the memories of his partner (Astral). It worked well for DM, and they improved on it by adding a twist that involved dueling other people who have cards known as "Numbers". Of course, there are other people trying to get the "Numbers" for some reason, and that adds to the depth of the story. The problem lies with how the story is told. Zexal's demographic is clearly geared much more to younger children than the other series, and it hurts the story a little bit. It becomes hard to take the plot seriously at times, but this does die down a bit as it progresses.

{Art} - [8/10]
Zexal has great art. The characters—though slightly silly—are unique and do actually look good. As always, the monsters are the highlight of Yu-Gi-Oh! animation. The new thing they did with 3D-ish monsters in 5D's returns in Zexal, but vastly improved. In 5D's I thought it looked silly and clunky—not fitting in with the art-style. I think they realized this and made many improvements. Now it actually looks like the two belong together.

{Sound} - [9/10]
I always thought that it was very surprising for the Yu-Gi-Oh! series to have a great sound score. The music fits the mood well, and it's all very catchy.

{Characters} - [4/10]
Here is where Zexal goes wrong. Usually the main character of the YGO series is a good (or at least an experienced) duelist—Yuma is not. It's an interesting route to take, but it does kind of hurt the story a bit. However, the real problem is the group of characters Yuma normally hangs out with. They're what I would call "passengers"; they're just there for the sake of being there, and they do not add anything whatsoever. In some cases it's okay to have a few, but there are FIVE of them. That's simply overkill, especially when they don't even duel once in awhile. With Yuma being the only one amongst them to duel regularly, it makes the duels boring and predictable like an episode of Power Rangers. The story would've been much smoother if it was just Yuma, Kotori, and maybe another duelist to fill the void (not Tokonosuke, he's THE worst character I've ever seen in any anime). The supporting cast is easily the worst of all the YGO series. It's like they took everything bad about DM's supporting cast, and enhanced those traits (as well as adding another character). It's a huge disappointment considering that 5D's nailed it. I would assume part of the reason it's like this is again because of the younger audience. Luckily, there are some good characters who happen to be Yuma's rivals and/or enemies (ex. Shark). Without them, this would probably be completely unwatchable.

{Conclusion}
I'm a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan, and that's the main reason why I still continue to watch Zexal. There are definitely some enjoyable things to see, but the question is whether or not you're willing to watch through the agonizing parts to get there. If the characters and childish tone doesn't bother you, then you may end up liking Zexal. Final score - 6/10

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Nov 12, 2014

73 of 73 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

zauru (All reviews)

18 people found this review helpful

to be completely fair, if you aren't willing to watch through the first season of zexal to get to zexal II, then this yugioh series isn't really for you. zexal tends to have a slow 'childish' start/feel to it, but trust me, this improves a whole lot.

as for zexal by itself, i would say its a decent series (trying to be unbiased here). however, there are evident problems such as yuma's companions aside from kotori, shark, astral, ect not having much development - making them unlikable or forgettable. as for yuma himself, i believe he undergoes a lot of development, starting off as read more

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Mar 24, 2015

73 of 73 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

We_EGAO_now (All reviews)

15 people found this review helpful

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.

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Oct 7, 2012

73 of 73 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

chaosflame5 (All reviews)

13 people found this review helpful

This review will be based on the original Japanese version, not the edited English version.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, the 4th series of the whole Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, was a massive disappointment compared to the previous three series. Unlike the previous three, where they were all connected chronologically. But Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal has no connection to any of the previous three series at all. So basically, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal is a series on its own. It does not serve as a sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s. This series should never have existed, but unfortunately, it did came to existence. This series is a lot more childish compare to any of the previous three series, which made this series far less enjoyable than the previous three series. Some people thought that Zexal is a sequel, as some monsters from Duel Monsters and Duel Monsters GX were seen in episodes 15. But there is still not enough proof that this is a sequel. Fusion, Ritual, and Syncho monsters (and Tuners) were never used in this series. There were no reference to Neo Domino City either. Instead, we get a childish-looking city called Heartland. The only special type of cards they use are called Xyz.

I almost dropped the whole series of Zexal. But what kept me watching was due to the storyline. The storyline seemed decent so far, but still not the best compare to the previous three series. The plot mainly involves dimensions, revenge, and…in the case of Yuma (the main protagonist), searches for his father and collect 99 ‘‘Number(s) Cards’’ for Astral, an alien messenger from the Astral World. The first few episodes were quite boring. They were like fillers to me. Nothing really happened, just duels after duels and get some Number Cards. The pace is almost like the beginning of Duel Monsters GX, which was also quite slow. The plot seemed to be moving a bit just after about episode 20, which got interesting, and got me at least hooked a bit, and it became more interesting in the World Duel Carnival arc. If the plot isn’t good, I would’ve scored a 4 or 5 for this anime and would’ve stopped watching. The plot is the only reason why I’m looking forward to the second part of this series, ‘’Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Second’’, nothing else.

Zexal has a lot of annoying parts if anybody have noticed. Unlike the previous three series, where the plot and other things were almost unique to each other. But in Zexal, there were a lot of things that resembles the previous three series:
- The Emperor's Key that Yuma wears on his neck is a similar idea to the Millennium Puzzle that Yugi wears.
- Astral is a being who is connected to that Key, just like the Pharaoh (Atem), who had a connection with the Puzzle.
- Kaito after transforming into his duelling form looked really similar to Jack Atlas from 5D’s.
- Xyz monsters followed mostly the same summoning conditions as Sycho monsters from 5D’s.
- The World Duel Carnival where there are some implications behind the tournament reminds me of the Fortune Cup and the WRGP (World Riding Grand Prix) in 5D’s, since these tournaments all had some dark intentions behind the scenes.
- Both Astral and the Pharaoh were searching for their lost memories.
- The Xyz cards have the same background colour as the Dark Syncho cards in 5D's.
- And most obvious one, Yuma’s height is like Yugi’s; His hair style is like Yusei’s; His attitude is almost like Judai’s.
There maybe more than the ones I listed. But all these were quite annoying. It shows the laziness of the producers, who should at least try to make this another unique Yu-Gi-Oh! series. But they failed.

The animation was good. I liked the CG effects for some of the Xyz monsters. But I hated the art style for the characters and some other monster cards! It deviates completely from the art styles of the previous three series. For me, Duel Monsters and 5D’s have the best art styles. Duel Monsters GX is also good. But Zexal failed to have a decent art style. All the buildings were too colourful, and too much different colours on them. Also, some characters such as Tokunosuke and Tetsuo, don’t even look like a normal human. Not to mention Yuma’s hair looked ridiculous with the pinky colour in the middle!

The opening and ending themes in Zexal were really good. Particularly the 2nd opening and ending songs. Though I hated the 3rd opening song for some reason. The OSTs in each episode were good, but not all of them though. Some OSTs for duels were really good, as they capture the tension during the duels.

The mightiest annoyance in Zexal are the characters. I loved Yugi, Judai, and Yusei very much from the previous three series. As all of them had a great character development. Judai was a bit annoying sometimes, but in later episodes, he bacame a decent character. I was expecting Yuma to be a decent character too, but he turned out to be the worst protagonist ever! He is amateur at duelling at the start of the show, so it’s almost like everything starts on a new page. The re-explanation of how to play the card game was just annoying, Yuma’s childish behaviour was intolerable, especially during duels that were meant to be really serious. But he is not as annoying as Tokunosuke and Takashi. Both of them were really annoying and should be kicked out from the whole series! Cathy (or Cat-chan) is also quite annoying. But at least Kaito and Ryoga were very interesting characters. Both were really serious during tense situations and never acted childish at all. Kotori was a good character as well. Most of the main villains were ok, particularly Tron, as the theme of revenge comes from him.

I enjoyed this series, but not very much. The duels were ok, but somehow not as exciting to watch as the other series. Yuma vs. III is the only duel I liked so far. And the duel against one of the main villains (Dr. Faker). The plot is the only thing that made this series at least worth watching. For those who hate childish characters like in this series, then Zexal would not be the anime for you. But if you are a big fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! and have no bother of annoying characters, then you might like this series.

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