Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Arc-V

The action duels are utterly ridiculuos, maybe the worst idea in the series. Deciding duels by randomly running around for cards is a disgrace for the whole series. Furthermore, this shows how bad the duels itself are written, because this "randomness" (which somehow almost alwys favoured Yuya) was a deciding factor in a lot of duels.

These are some serious issues, but there were a lot of redeeming points: the characters were not bad, Reiji was a great Seto Kaiba duplicate, maybe the best since the original, I also liked the Professor, and the 4 Yuyas and Yuzus as well. Getting back some of the old ... characters of the series was also nice.

Story is something yyou could expect from a children's card game anime, no more no less.

So in the end still better than Zexal, and at least on par with GX and 5ds (excluding the Dimension World and Dark Signers arcs which were great).

Warning: This review is 100% biased, and since I'm not a Yu-Gi-Oh player you may find my opinion completely irrelevant.

You all want to know what I think of this anime? 3 words: HUGE. FUCKING. MESS.

Holy crap, this anime had more inconsistencies than I could've ever imagined, and that' saying a lot since I tend to love clusterfucks.

Storyline:

I’m not even sure where to begin on this one because there are a lot of things that have gone wrong with the storyline. The main issue I have with this series is that it lies too much. The first couple of episodes lead up to ... nothing the current episodes have evolved into. Looking back at it you’ll start to realize you’ve fallen into madness.

In the beginning, the series has been set up with Yuya (the protagonist) who tries to follow his father’s footsteps and be an “entertainer Duelist”. He gets a lot of shit thrown at him because of his father’s disappearance, but we’ll talk about that later. Anyways, Yuya decides to duel against one of his dad’s haters or whatever. Yuya wins thanks to his magical pendant that turns his cards into “pendulum” cards; he gains recognition and fans including Tatsuya who sees Yuya as his role model. Storyline continues, then shit happens.
The whole premise of the show seemed to revolve around Yuya finding his father while keeping his father’s legacy uphold with his own duelling. And, to also gain more students for Yuzu’s dad’s duelling school. Yuya’s got this magical pendant that turns his cards into “Pendulum” cards which is somehow NEVER explained as the series progressed. Seriously, at some point Yuya and Reiji go head to head with Pendulum summoning to see who’s superior or whatnot. Even that never got explained as to how Reiji managed to do this or how the origin of pendulum summoning began. Also, with how Tatsuya stood out in the beginning despite the other two kids who were there. It felt like he was basically axed from the show. For someone who admired Yuya a lot, we never saw Tatsuya’s gameplays. What about developing his character? It was tragic actually.

Then for some reason the writers of the show quickly decided that Yuya’s storyline was too asinine, so they decided to give Yuzu a magical bracelet as well. It basically acts like a metal boyfriend detector. Yuzu then meets Yuya 2.0, gets emo and then cries about how she doesn’t understand why this is happening to her (it’s alright Yuzu, I don’t even know what happened to the script after this). Fast forward later, Yuzu gets kidnapped, and Yuya and the gang try to save her.

Basically the whole plot in the beginning gets thrown out all thanks to Yuzu’s bracelet. Forget, about Yuya’s magical pendant and him looking for his father, it’s all about Yuzu now.

It doesn’t just stop there, they decided to add counterparts of Yuya and Yuzu so there’s like 8 main characters now? Oh yeah, GX decided to be one of the main antagonists this time.

Nothing in this series makes sense anymore. Instead of Yuya trying to figure out the origins of Pendulum summoning, and finding his dad, he suddenly has to go fight a interdimensional war in order for Reiji’s dad to stop kidnapping little girls. All the characters they decided to introduce got pushed aside with characters we’ve already seen (aka Asuka from GX, Crow from 5D’s).

Art:

I’ve got no qualms with the art; it’s bright and colourful, and sometimes messy which suits the overall quality of the series.

Sound:

I have to admit that ARC-V has one of the few anime openings I managed to bother listening to because they’re so darn catchy. And, typically I usually skip openings and ED’s just to save time. So, congratulations to that achievement ARC-V.

Characters:

I will applaud the ARC-V writers for finally trying to incorporate more characters other than their protagonist, Yuya. The downside to this? They had to minimize too much of his relevance in the series to balance him out with Yuzu. If they decided to cop out the characters, they should’ve just made Yuzu the main character from the start. At least it would’ve been consistent.
I like Yuzu, I like Yuya. Unfortunately, the series didn’t know what they were doing with these characters. Add the other counterparts into the mix, and you get every fanfiction ever made. It felt like AU’s were being pulled out from an invisible hat and crammed into an overflowing prose. Both Yuzu and Yuya had a beautiful relationship which would’ve developed even better if the writers didn’t decide to too many concepts in one.

Reiji has daddy issues. That is all.

Tatsuya got ignored. I want justice for this.

Conclusion

The issues that I had with this series weren’t the fact that they decided to give more screen time to a female character. The issues I had with it were that the writers decided to to take on more concepts than they could execute. The dimension travelling, missing parents, magical jewellery, counterparts + throwing in characters from previous generations, and you start to feel a bit overwhelmed.
Arguably saying, this could be said about all the other generations such GX, 5D’s, and Zexal. And, you’re probably right. But, for so many people claiming that the writing has improved and that ARC-V is the best that’s happened so far isn’t impressive in the least.

I really wanted to love this anime, I love the characters, I liked the soundtrack and animation. The only thing I didn’t like was how the storytelling was being handled. I didn’t feel like ARC-V was being its own show. The whole dimension travelling/counterparts was the water that broke the camel’s back for me. I don’t have issues with crossovers, but if they were going to do that they should’ve just went the same route as “Bonds Beyond Time”. Not dedicate an entire anime series for it. It just felt like a last minute cop out in hopes of making decreasing sales skyrocket again.
If ARC-V did manage to increase its sales revenue then that’s great, they got what they wanted. However, I’m thoroughly disappointed that it had to come to this. I was hoping to become immersed to the game itself and buy a Yu-Gi-Oh deck of my own just like I did with Vanguard. And, for the most part ARC-V did tempt me in the beginning of the anime to do so, but my feelings have diminished since then.

Am I being too harsh with this series? The answer is yes, it’s not like the previous Yu-Gi-OH animes didn’t have its own set of flaws that are similar to ARC-V. The only difference is that ARC-V was the only series I managed to become so invested in that it nearly convinced me to buy a trial deck of my own. So, I’m harsh within reason that it didn’t live up to the expectations I had for it or as others hyped it up to be. This is the first Yu-Gi-Oh series I’ve ever dropped. The series hasn’t ended yet, so if they managed to fix these plot holes I may change my mind.

Story - 6

I really want to like this anime more than I do. It's probably dumb to have any kind of expectations for a show created to sell merchandise to children beyond painfully mediocre, but what the show had managed to capture in the first few dozens of episodes got my hopes up.

What seems like the typical shounen fare of a main character wanting to be the best (in Sakaki Yuya's case, the best duelist and entertainer like his father) is interrupted by events seemingly incompatible with his dreams. The show manages to capture the feeling that there's something sinister and mysterious lurking in ... the background, and that Yuya and company are caught up in something much, much larger than themselves that could very easily squash them. That kind of vibe is more than I expected from a show like this.

However, as soon as the show passes the episode 50 mark into its second major arc, what seems like the characters finally taking the first leap to engage that looming threat turns out to be a meandering experience. A lot of the events feel like padding or unnecessarily drawn out. Even though the main cast formally organized as a team, they hardly spend much time actually being shown working as one (and much of that teamwork is towards the very end) compared to the time spent on them being isolated from each other or dealing with other secondary characters. It's underwhelming.

Another criticism I would have is that some instances that cause drama only seem to happen because of a failure to rationally communicate, creating situations that feel somewhat contrived. I wouldn't call this that big of a problem though, since there are also occasions where the characters act rationally to try to solve a problem.

A few times, how events play out feels unsatisfying compared to their build up, or are executed in a frankly kind of boring way that turns out to be a tease. It kind of feels like previous series were better able to achieve satisfaction or catharsis with their larger events. This problem is more prevalent in the 2nd half of the show.

Enjoyment - 7

Speaking very broadly, the show's story still maintains some interest and mystery. Even as the overall quality seems to dip, there are still some good moments and duels.

Characters - 6

Some of the main cast so far are underutilized or fall short of their potential. The show has a large cast to juggle, so some falling to the wayside is probably expected. Many of them have genuinely well defined personalities that bounce off each other well when they interact. The problem is that there's not a lot of that interaction between the contrasting personalities of Yuya and co.

A few secondary characters can come off as annoying or irritating to some. However, there are also secondary characters that are entertaining but don't overstay their welcome and gracefully exit the show when their role is over. It can be a mixed bag when it comes to less important or one-off characters.

The rivalry between Reiji and Yuya also seems like lost potential. They're both similar in having unsorted issues dealing with their fathers and a desire to protect their home, but go about how they deal with their personal problems in starkly different ways (Reiji making sure to maintain his stoicism and a distance from others, while Yuya is more emotionally driven). I think this could have been given a little bit more attention than what it had gotten.

Yuya as a main character is okay. At times I do feel sympathetic to what he wants to achieve (ultimately getting the bad guys to stop using card games to hurt others), but other times I feel as if they're making him explicitly state his motivations a little too often, almost to the point of becoming a parody of itself. Subtlety is probably not the biggest priority in a show like this, but they manage to be more subdued with other characters in not directly stating multiple times what they're all about and what they live for. There's somewhat more depth to his character than what I've written here, but I can't judge him in full until the show finishes. In the 2nd year of the show his development as a character seems to waffle for the sake of it, but I chalk that up to the padding issues present throughout.

Sound - 8

Soundtrack is great, and a few tracks are pretty memorable. Don't have any complaints.

Art - 5

Overall, the character designs service the characters' personalities well. The monster designs are probably not something to rave about, but there are some nicely designed monsters here and there. However, where it suffers is in the animation. 2-3 episodes out of a dozen will look good (even great), but there will be some egregiously stilted or poorly drawn animation in others, to the point where it's a little distracting. I'm not rating the animation next to a gold standard, but it is slightly disheartening after the previous series managed much better consistency in the animation department. The animation problems probably have to do with Studio Gallop having to juggle the productions of a weekly show and the upcoming DM movie at the same time.

All of this is of course subject to change as the show starts to enter its last(?) year of its run. I don't imagine my opinion is the popular one, and I think it's great that a Yugioh series can still invest people in its story. I'm just not as enthusiastic about the show as I was, or hoped to have been.

Story (7): It's not that bad. Feel it can be daunting to understand if you didn't watch the four Yugioh series before it but it gets explained pretty well in my opinion.

Art (7): Visually appealing for the most part, colorful in many ways and the entertainment duel part of it makes it better.

Sound (7): Suspenseful soundtrack in some of the duels, easy to recognize themes for characters.

Character (6): The new characters are kinda whatever. They aren't unlikable but they aren't anything new personality wise.

Enjoyment (6): Sorry but the action cards really damaged this score for me personally.

Overall (6): It's alright, not terrible but nothing too ... special.


Main reasons I like this show:
- The abundance of extra deck summoning types. This is as close to real Yugioh as your going to get at the moment in deck diversity.
- The skill displayed was pretty good to be honest for the characters.

Main reasons I dislike the show:
- Action cards are new levels of plot armor lol. Maybe people like this but it gets very difficult to disregard it when they play a constant key to characters not losing.
- The ending. No spoilers but just the ending.

I finally finished Arc-V with an odd taste in my mouth, the last few episodes felt very pulled out of the ground with a dusting of an attempt to give a sense of finality to the show as a whole. It took me from April to September, with a break in-between because the series was a bit draining for me to watch. I rather enjoyed it when I started, but a friend gave me a warning about the end, how it wasn't very climactic, and they were right in the sense of the word.

Story -- 4/10

Going into the show, I'd say I gave the story ... about a 5-6 with Yuya being introduced, and the plot falling into place with a deep gloss over of the deeper side of the bigger plot that tried to be a plot. Then, everything went into fairly good pacing and I was feeling good about things. The duels were nice and spread, the new characters were nice to get introduced to, and then a few arcs later the story took a bit of a shift. The shift that happened is why I gave the story a 4.

Frankly, I didn't enjoy the Synchro Dimension Arc as much as I should have. Sure it was great to see a few Legacy character make an appearance in their Arc-V versions, but it was dragged on for too any episodes in my opinion. Though I know a good chunk of the plot focused around the invasion of that dimension, I felt they could have sped it up by not doing the long tournaments.

Then, the whole meat and potatoes of the show, The Academia Arc, the realization of what Yuya and Yuzu were. That part was rather enjoyable, and seeing all the bonds Yuya made with the characters, Legacy or otherwise, just made me smile. The story itself fell through at the final episodes. Seeing what happened for the awkward yet somehow viable reason was a bit over the top in a dislike-able manner for me. They could have just ended with the Zarc defeat and leave it, but they wanted to milk it by adding on episodes.

Art -- 6/10

As far as Yugioh shows go, they have pretty amazing art in terms of style and animations for the cards and effects used in duels. In first watching it, I had given it, in my mind, an 8 for the art. The one thing that brought it down to a 6 now, was that annoying use of CGI with Yuya and his monsters, namely Odd-Eyes Dragon. It was subtle I guess, but I caught it every time it happened and it made me stop watching for a few seconds to even a few minutes till I could recognize or try to wrap my head around WHY they had made that move ONLY for Yuya and not anyone else. (I don't know any time when any other duelist had CGI for an entrance or attack, correct me if I'm wrong.) It just felt really out of place with the usual animation of the show.

Everything besides that was great.

Sound -- 8/10

Okay I enjoy a good OST, and all the Yugioh series before have had great OSTs, Arc-V is no exception in the slightest. There were a few specific tracks I really enjoyed as I watched, two of them being centered around Gongenzaka, and his Steadfast Dueling. Every time I heard either his character theme or duel music, I was pumped. (and jus not because he's my favorite character which I'll get to later.) The other track that played and I was on the edge of my seat was a specific track for when there was tension around characters and a duel, though mostly focused on Kurosaki, another character I like. That track just had me bouncing toward the end and I love the atmosphere it brought to the scenes.

As far as OP/ED songs go, I'd have to say my favorite OPs were "Hanate/Unleash", "Kibou no Hikari/Light of Hope, and "Kirifuda/Trump Card" and ". "Hanate" just got me so pumped to watch and I was singing along when I got the lyrics down. "Kibou no Hikari" was just so moving for the arc it was used with and made me really feel for the characters and the struggles they were facing. And last but not least, "Kirifuda" was another one I enjoyed quite a bit and I got excited when I kept hearing the word Kirifuda spoken in the show. And as for ED it'd have to be Future Fighter. Hearing Yuya and Reiji's VAs singing together was so cool.

Characters -- 6/10

Now there were TONS of likable characters in Arc-V, some good, but also some bad.

Yuya and the other three Yu-boys were interesting, Yuzu and the other girls, not so much. Yuzu was so flat and all she ended up being was a huge plot device and constant damsel in distress, and her being so pertinent to the overall plot was not a reason to make her like that. Serena didn't get too much development, but she was made to be headstrong and able to bend things to her own path. I hated that Rin and Ruri got next to no development at all. I feel like they should have, since their respective saviors each got a chunk.

I didn't like Yuya at the beginning, he was way too childlike, though he's 14 his personality didn't remind me of the other protags. Yugo was so real and able to be understood in his showing, and the same went for Yuto in my opinion. Yugo did have a real one-track-mind, but he was focused on his goal which made for a great character always striving to do right and reach his goal. Yuto was a very fate driven character, as he and Kurosaki suffered at the hands of the enemy, seeing their dimension crumble. His bravery in the face of hardship made me like him so much more than Yuya. And Yuri, a real good show of a crazy character, but his sly viciousness was a likable trait as he worked for the enemy.

Another enemy I had a love/hate relationship with was Roger. He was such a good fit as a villain to try and control the dimension and thwart the Lancers. He had things going for him, though he gradually descended into madness as was seen later on in the Synchro Arc. In all the series I've seen, Roger takes the #2 cake for best villain, the #1 going to the Three Pure Nobles from 5Ds.

Now onto my favorite character, Gongenzaka. He stood out to me the moment he was introduced. Possibly because I have a fondness for straightforward yet manly characters, and he really fit the bill. His dedication to being steadfast and unmoving for the most part, and being highly supportive of Yuya and others just made him my favorite all the more. Also, his footwear was a thing in itself. The guy wore sandals made from cinder blocks, how is that not badass?? And his eventual release from his Steadfast Dueling toward the end with his increased desire to see his best friend succeed and save the world was so moving.

Enjoyment -- 7/10

I really enjoyed the show as a whole, with the good and the bad, so I gave it a 7. The OST was lovely, the duels were enjoyable for a time till they got redundant and boring. The character development and things they all went through was so amazing to see, the good and the bad. I was constantly on the edge of my seat when watching several episodes in a day and having to stop at a cliffhanger!!

Overall -- 6/10

I have to give the overall score here of 6. It was a real roller coaster of a show, it took my heart and mind on separate trips, broke and repaired them, made me laugh, and made me cry. It wasn't the best, but not quite the worst Yugioh series as people make it out to be. Would I rewatch it? Maybe, just to see my man Gongenzaka. Would I buy the DVDs to collect, YES.

Yugioh Arc-V was an experience.

WARNING SPOILERS DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS SHOW IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO TALK ABOUT IT WITHOUT SPOILING ANYTHING I tried as good as I can to keep it spoiler free but there are a few things I can't not spoil so consider this your warning if you want to watch it


this show it's a tragedy it had the potential, the potential to prove EVERYONE who ever said "Yugioh.... they should have stopped making those after INSERT DM/GX/5DS HERE" wrong. Season 1 was set up to do just that it had EVERYTHING YOU COULD HAVE WANTED IN THESE SHOWS it had likable ... characters, (ESPECIALLY THE FEMALES A RARITY IN THIS FRANCHISE) it was dark and mature but it never felt so dark to the point where it was overbearing, stakes were clear, unlike most shows these days MC's were allowed to lose so it didn't feel like you knew how a fight was gonna end when it started, and it had a story an AMAZING CONCEPT. It's been 4 years since it ended and I still to this day ask myself "how did they fuck all of this up". season 2 was mostly filler with a cocktease that made us think "YES FINALLY SOMETHING INTERESTING" only for nothing to come off of it. season 3 came and got off to a good start and I was thinking "Ok maybe season 2 was just a production break because of DSOTD it'll be back in form now" oh how wrong was I. Everytime I think of dropping a show I tell myself "I sat through all 148 episodes of Arc-V I CAN DAMN WELL SIT THROUGH THIS" it took me dropping the show 5 TIMES IN IN THE SPAN OF 30 EPISODES IT GOT THAT BAD, complete with the most ridiculous case of Talk No Justu by the main character who went from annoying crybaby to generic good guy to god mode Gary Stu I've seen(a least until season 5 of Steven Universe's finale happened) tand then we get to the final arc and when you think this can't get worse it somehow did..... first of all, the show decides all those great characters we had in season 1 they don't matter anymore, those female characters it was praised for they're now living macguffins, and the guy who was set up to be the main villain's plan is the dumbest plan I have ever heard in any work of fiction, the MC just god mode gary stu's everything in all but one duel (Which was ironically the best duel in the show)and the ending was rushed where they decided "HEY ALL THOSE CHARACTERS YOU LIKED THEY CAN GO FUCK THEMSELVES THEY'RE DEAD OR THE CHARACTER THEY'RE DOING EVERYTHING FOR IS DEAD TOO" (and this is one of the better yugioh endings) I have to give it a 5 because of how godly season 1 is but this is the one show pretending everyone died after season 1 might bet the preferable outcome .

ALSO NOTE while I hate to sound like that web but don't watch the dub it's legit considered unwatchable, not only are there a few scenes/plot lines edited or altered to be more kid friendly bu
it's loaded with performances from people who either didn't know what they were talking about or were here just to get an easy paycheck and leave (One of the guys would go on to do Attack on Titan's dub and he's one of the only few people in the dub who actually with his performance sounded like he was actually trying and wanted to be in this), dated by 2015 pop culture references, a ton of outdated celebrity impressions and the ultimate tell tale sign of a bad dub A CRINGY RAP OP (And it's not even funny bad like the One Piece dub op)