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This review will contain some spoilers under "Characters" and "Ending" as I describe how well or poorly some characters were written and how the wrap-up of the story was handled.
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It’s finally over. This nightmare of a season is finally over.

I watched Bakugan ever since it first started airing. I really enjoyed New Vestroia (season 2) and Gundalian Invaders (season 3), so I was excited for Mechtanium Surge. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment. I watched the first 7 episodes regularly before I got too annoyed with it. I watched some episodes after episode 7, but not regularly, so I didn’t have much context of what was ... happening. Eventually, I decided to drop it completely. Due to my New Year's promise for this year, I decided to pick this anime up again, determined to finish it. Now that's I've finally watched all episodes, I can describe what season 4 of Bakugan got right and what went wrong.


Story (5/10)

The season is split up into two arcs. I’m calling Arc 1 “Dan makes everything worse”, and it was extremely frustrating to sit through. It mainly takes place in Bakugan Interspace, a virtual dimension designed by Marucho where people participate in bakugan battles. The protagonist of the story - Dan - along with his best friends Shun and Marucho are currently the best brawlers in Interspace. There are also two other important groups in Interspace - Team Anubias and Team Sellon. It’s pretty obvious that Anubias and Sellon are up to something from the first episodes. It doesn’t take long for the audience to find out that the two of them are working for the bad guy of Arc 1 called Mag Mel, who obviously must be stopped. I think this "plot twist" could've been written better. It would've been better if we - the auidience - found out about Anubias and Sellon's true motives at the same time the brawlers did. Unfortunately, it was revealed so early that it's not even a plot twist. It can't even be considered a spoiler. Arc 1 ends around episode 26 where the audience is introduced to the new villains - a couple of Mechtogans (They might be normal bakugans. I don’t really care) who seek revenge against Drago because Drago’s ancestor had banished them to the Doom Dimension, which is basically a graveyard for bakugans. Again, not a spoiler. They quickly teamed up with the main villain of Arc 2 named Wiseman, whose goal was to destroy the world. You know, the usual. I’d like to title Arc 2 as “Transformers: Bakugan edition” because they look like transformers now.

Story was pretty boring overall and unnecessary dragged out. Not to mention it’s extremely predictable. The only two times MS actually made me frown in surprise were the reveals of Mag Mel’s true identity and Wiseman’s true identity. But that’s it. Honestly, I think giving this category a 5/10 is me being generous. They have no excuse to be this lazy with the script. Animation is pretty bad as well. The human (or human-like) characters are fine, but the Mechtogans look terrible and the battle scenes are truly a "hit or miss". Sometimes they're acceptable, sometimes they look horrendous.

Also, there are so many plotholes in the story. For example, Shun and Marucho have new bakugan partners in Arc 1 (which they always do in each season because they’re not Dan). By the time Arc 2 starts, they suddenly have new partners again. They don’t explain what happened to the previous ones or how they met their new partners. Just…why?

Let’s keep it to facts; this entire season was nothing but a big cash grab. If you’ve watched the previous three seasons, you can instantly tell that no love went into this. The amount of new bakugans show this as well. New evolutions, fusions, triple fusions, BakuNanos (basically add-on weapons for bakugans), Mechtogans and Mechtogan Titans. Hell, Arc 1 even includes bakugan on motorcycles. They just want to sell toys. And they have no shame in doing it.



Characters (3/10) (Spoilers)

Boy, do I have a lot to say about this category.

Let’s start with Dan Kuso - the hero to the story. Grab a drink because this will take a while. This season actually made me despise Dan. In the beginning of MS, it becomes evident that Drago couldn't control his new powers while Dan had begun to see strange visions and dreams. Eventually, he and Drago decided to leave to train in New Vestroia. You know, leaving everyone behind and without telling them what’s going on. This was both dumb and irresponsible of him considering that he’s the leader of the Bakugan Brawlers, yet didn’t even give someone else the title of (temporary) leader until he came back, leaving the group in a mess. When he later returned to Bakugan Interspace (as a deus ex machina), he immediately engaged in battle despite Marucho screaming at him not to do it. The reason why was because Bakugan Interspace was very unstable. The battle was dangerous to Dan and Drago, as well as everyone else in the Bakugan Interspace. Of course, Dan couldn’t possibly have known that specific part. However, if your best friend - who’s also the creator of the virtual dimension - is panicking and yelling at you to stop, you should at least ask him why. I understand Dan was eager to show off how much how much he had learned, but he’s so blinded by his emotions that he couldn't see what was going on around him. Marucho had to physically grab Dan’s arm to prevent him from continuing the battle. What’s extremely frustrating was that Dan acted so nonchalantly when he returned, acting like everything was fine and nothing ever happened. He didn’t even apologize for abandoning his team when he’s supposed to be the leader of it. And when he found out that Marucho had become the new leader (obviously, the team needed a new leader since Dan wasn’t around), Dan had the nerve to get angry. No, you abandoned your team. You have literally no right to complain about someone else stepping up to fix the problems you caused. Moreover, Mag Mel had the ability to see what Dan could see through Dan's visions that he kept having, so when the brawlers found out that Mag Mel was heading towards the capital of planet Gundalia (from season 3) to destroy it, Marucho told Dan to stay behind since Drago couldn't control his powers and because Mag Mel could see what Dan saw. Yet, for some reason, Dan got angry, exclaimed that he was the leader and the creator of the brawlers, and that Marucho therefore couldn't remove him from the team. Let’s get one fact straight: just because you’re the group’s creator, doesn’t mean you’re fit to lead it. To make things worse, Dan even grabbed Marucho by his collar as a threat. Excuse me? He even called Marucho a pest after he left. His disrespect towards Marucho is insane. And this is supposed to be our hero? This self-centered, arrogant, disrespectful, irresponsible jerk is the hero??? He and Marucho ended up apologizing to each other. First of all, Dan only apologized for not realizing that the others were just caring about him the entire time, not because of his rudeness towards Marucho or because he abandoned his team. I don’t know why, but the others accepted this apology and started calling him their leader again. Why? The guy is clearly unfit to be a leader. He can’t even reflect on- and take responsibility for his own actions. Secondly, Marucho had nothing to apologize for. It wasn't his fault that Dan acted like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Dan got a bit better in Arc 2, but it's still not good. He’s still far too OP, just like previous seasons. Really? You couldn’t let Gunz beat him even once? I usually try to remain as objective as possible in my reviews by finding both positive and negative features, but it's difficult to avoid ranting when a character - especially the character we're supposed to be rooting for - is this terribly written.

You know what would’ve saved Dan’s character? If he had actually stepped back and given Marucho his support as the new leader of the Bakugan Brawlers, showing that he’s had some self-reflection and matured as a person. Marucho got such an unfair treatment in Arc 1, both by Dan and by the newcomers Rafe (Haos brawler from Neathia) and Paige (Subterra brawler from Gundalia). He’s clearly the most reasonable person there, yet nobody listened to him. And he went through more character development in one single episode than Dan did in the entire season. Shun was fine as always, but he didn't really stand out as much as other characters, which is disappointing considering his status as a main character in both arcs. I will give him credit for one thing though; it was pretty badass of Shun to have a combat fight against a bakugan. Twice.

Furthermore, the newcomers - Rafe and Paige - only appeared in Arc 1, which makes me once again wonder why they even bothered creating these two in the first place instead of bringing back other characters. They could've brought back Ace and Baron for nostalgia's sake, but nope. They even could've pulled a real plot twist by bringing the entire Vexos back, but nope. I was overjoyed to see Spectra and Gus in Arc 1 though. But as much as I like Spectra, he was nothing more than a deus ex machina who showed up briefly to save the day when the creators had written themselves into a corner. Mira was an important character during Arc 2, which I’m glad to see despite nobody explaining why she's suddenly living on Earth now. Anyway, she works as a professor and helped the brawlers by creating new battle gears from Vestal's technology. Julie appeared as a news reporter and Runo also returned. I’m glad to see both of them with more significant roles compared to New Vestroia where they caused more damage than actually helping the brawlers. Speaking of the girls, I must say I’m quite disappointed with their roles. Arc 1 was…acceptable. We had Paige and Sellon with her two teammates Chris and Soon, who are all girl brawlers.

Guess how many girl brawlers are in Arc 2.

I’ll tell you how many.

Zero. Nobody. Not a single female brawler. A Haos bakugan even showed up from New Vestroia, was very eager to fight and begged Runo to be his partner. She declined. Why the hell not? Runo (and Mira, since she had a Subterra bakugan) could’ve joined the battle team, which would’ve been great nostalgia for returning watchers. I get why Mira wasn't able to fight, but there’s no reason why Runo couldn't. Since when did she become so passive anyway? Again, I’m disappointed with the lack of female brawlers, especially in Arc 2.

The last character I’d like to give a shout-out to is Gunz, a new character of Arc 2. By far the most interesting character in the entire arc with an established backstory, a nice build-up and a breath of fresh air in regards to his personality. A disappointing conclusion of his character since I strongly believe he should’ve defeated Dan at least once (Specifically their last battle), but of course he didn’t since Dan has the “Gary-Stu armor”.

Frankly, Anubias and Spectra carried Arc 1 while Gunz and Mira carried Arc 2. If it hadn’t been for Dan and how terribly he was written, this category would’ve received a 5/10. Thanks for being a pain, Dan.



Music and voice acting (5/10)

I watched it in English dub because I didn’t want to suffer more than I already was.

The English opening and ending has the exact same music as the previous seasons. The only difference is that the opening has scenes from MS and there are new bakugans dancing in the end. But I must admit one thing; I've always loved the dancing bakugan in the ending. They're so adorable.

Most of the humans have acceptable casting with good line deliveries. Special mention goes to Scott McCord as Daniel "Dan" Kuso, Graeme Cornies as Gunz Lazar and Rob Tinkler as Wiseman. A lot of the bakugans, however, were pretty emotionless or simply had voices that didn’t fit them. Still, I think Andrew Jackson did a decent job as Helios and Crispin Freeman as Amazon was fun to listen to.
Overall, I'd say it was average, so I'm giving this category a 5/10.



Ending (3/10) (Spoilers)

Anticlimactic and predictable. There’s one thing in the final fight that had me roll my eyes that I just have to mention. The original Dragonoid (Drago’s ancestor) started speaking during the final battle. During this, he actually started explaining to the Mechtogans(?) that they wanted revenge against him for locking them up in the Doom Dimension and tried to get revenge on Drago. You don't say. The creators have clearly never heard of the “Show, don’t tell” rule. We already knew what had happened since the Mechtogans(?) had talked about this before. We already knew why they were angry and wanted to destroy Drago because, again, the Mechtogans(?) had already mentioned it before. You don’t have to spell it out for the audience (again). Yes, the anime may be targeted towards young boys, but they most certainly aren’t morons. Everyone's aware of what’s going on, so this was completely pointless and does nothing but dragging out the final fight by 3 minutes.

The very final scene in the anime truly is a sight to see, which you almost need to see for yourself to believe. It's a good summary of how Dan is a character now. In case you're curious about what happened, you'll have to watch it yourself because I'm not spoiling that part. The anime is easy to find, and can be watched on Youtube.

Furthermore, the ending didn't clear up the missing plot points either, so I'll give the ending a 3/10 because it wasn't handled well.

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Total: 16/40. Disappointing.

Honestly, I’m still unsure whether I’m glad I decided to finish this anime or not. I guess I lean more towards being pleased. Maybe? Probably? Whatever, it doesn’t really matter. The season had some good things about it. But for every good thing, they are countered with 3 bad things. The result is the season being a massive disappointment, so I'm going to have to give this a 2/5 stars and a 4/10 rating. It's a bit below average.

Personally, I don't recommend watching this season. All three previous seasons are better than this, I can assure you that. But if you decide to watch MS for whatever reason, I wish you the best of luck getting through Arc 1.

Note: This review has also been posted on my anime-planet account.

Story (8/10)

Our protagonist has now started studying at the university. We get to follow him and several other characters with their respective problems. I’d say the main focus is identity - who you are as a person and what you want to be.
We get to see characters like Makoto trying to find his own path in life and Sousuke, who is concerned about a surgery that may or may not be the end of his career as a swimmer. Rei, Nagisa and Gou are studying their final year at Iwatobi. We get to see them with new recruits for the swim team.
These are only some ... of the sub-plots in this season.
“If these are the sub-plots, then what’s the main plot?” you ask?
To be frank, they should’ve just named it “Free! Two Lovers’ Promise” because about 65% of this season focuses on Haru and Ikuya’s *Cough*romance*Cough* friendship.

Although I’m overjoyed to see so much of Ikuya and seeing him (and Haru) develop as a character, it doesn’t give much time for the other characters and events. In the end, episode 11 and 12 feel a bit rushed, which is why I’m giving the story 8/10. The way the guys are trying to find their own identities and lifetime goals is not only inspiring but also touching.


Characters (7/10)

I’m very proud of Haru this season. Everyone who has watched the previous seasons or at least Starting Days are well aware of Haru only swimming free and nothing else.
In episode 7 and 8, we get to see Haru practice for- and participate in the individual medley just to keep his promise to Ikuya. The fact that he stopped swimming only free for a moment shows how far Haru is willing to go for the people he cares about.
Makoto and Rei share a similar dilemma. Neither of them knows what they want to do with their lives. With some help from Nao, Makoto realizes what he wants to do in the future.
Rei on the other hands never got this realization. He does think about his future, but never mentions his options.
As for Nagisa, we don’t get to hear much from him at all, which is a bit disappointing. His ‘major’ development was in the first season and his character has been a bit flat since then. Yes, he has become a better swimmer and has a charming personality, but he hasn’t changed much, has he? Does he still want to become an astronaut or an adventurer?
Rin is doing fine. He’s still aiming to become the number one swimmer in the world.
Sousuke has an interesting scenario. His doctor suggests a surgery if he wants to continue swimming. The problem is that this surgery may or may not end his career. The problem is that we don’t get to see much about this.
Natsuya also gets some development. In the beginning of this season, he swims and participates in races just to get money. He uses the money to travel to another country in the world, races, wins money and then the cycle just repeats. As the story goes on, he eventually stops swimming just for the money and starts taking swimming seriously again.
Even Nitori - the only character who I couldn’t stand in the first two seasons - was okay in Dive to the Future. He didn’t do anything outstanding, but he didn’t annoy me either.
I’m also happy to see how much Ikuya has grown since childhood. Especially his swimming.

Now for the newer characters. First we have Ikuya’s “best friend” - Hiyori (Seems a bit one-sided from Hiyori’s part). He and Nitori are the only two characters in Free! that I dislike. Like I said earlier, Nitori was much more bearable in this season. Hiyori wasn’t. In my opinion, Hiyori is a selfish, illogical, rude and manipulative control freak. He’s far too judgmental towards Haru and the others despite never meeting them, he makes decisions for Ikuya without Ikuya’s consent and goes out of his way to prevent Haru from talking to Ikuya. “Maybe he just doesn’t want Ikuya to get hurt again” Nope. After his race against Makoto, Hiyori clearly states that the reason why he won’t let Haru and the others approach Ikuya is because they’re too weak, not because he wants to protect Ikuya from getting hurt again. He also seems to be rather delusional as he considers himself as the little mermaid who saves the prince (Ikuya) from “sinking” (depression). Where did he get that idea from? According to Ikuya, he has been feeling like this for years. Hell, Hiyori (unintentionally) made Ikuya’s depression even worse. He also never apologizes to neither Haru nor Ikuya for his behavior. Hiyori's entire purpose in this season is to be a pain in the ass. That’s literally it.

Then we have Haru’s new “challengers” - the world record holder in freestyle Albert Wåhlander and the mysterious swimming prodigy Kaede Kinjou. The anime makes such a big deal about them (Especially Albert), but we never get to find out much about these two except that Albert has a coach named Ralph (Or is it Ralf?) and is a world record holder from Sweden. But Kaede? Nothing. Then only time we see him in action is in the very last episode where he participates in a race.
This category gets only 7/10. Hiyori single-handedly removed one point, one point off from the lack of development for Rei, Nagisa and Gou and lastly, one point off for showing close to nothing about Albert and Kaede.


Designs and animation (10/10)

As expected from Free!, it has beautiful animation. And somehow, the anime managed to make the guys even better looking.
Am I the only one who thought Nagisa looked a bit more…mature this season? He used to look younger and rather child-like compared to the other guys. Now he’s starting to look like a man. They grow up so fast…
I didn’t see any (major) flaws with the animation and the character designs look good. Even the clothes the characters wear for the ending look good. The hat Nagisa is wearing gets a bonus point.
Therefore, I’m giving this category a solid 10/10.


Voice acting and music (10/10)

The ‘older’ voice actors were good, as always while the ‘new’ actors also did pretty well. Kudos to the voice actors of Ikuya, Albert and Hiyori.
Despite despising Hiyori, I think Ryouhei did a good job with portraying the character and making him sound like a real piece of shit. Especially the first five episodes.

After hearing Rin’s broken english despite living in Australia for years, I’m surprised Albert spoke perfect english. No stereotypical Nordic accent, no awkwardness. And if he has always lived in Sweden, I’ll be even more surprised.

The opening theme Heading to Over and ending theme Gold Evolution were both catchy and suited the anime. Though, I wish they could’ve “tossed the rock a bit further” with the opening theme as it resembles the opening themes of the previous seasons - Rage On and Dried Up Youthful Fame - a bit too much. Still, I must admit that I never skipped the opening or the ending of Dive to the Future. Actually, I listen to their full versions often.

Once again, I’m giving out a full score. 10/10 for the voice actors’ performances and the kick-ass music.


Ending (7/10)

As I’ve already stated, this season focuses a lot on the bond between Haru and Ikuya for the first 8 episodes. After episode 8, they’re rarely seen together, let alone talk to each other.
Why would the staff put so much time and effort into their relationship and then just be like “Their drama is over now, so let’s completely move on and make them interact as little as possible because Ikuya is completely irrelevant now”. Of course, I didn’t want Ikuya to get all of Haru’s interactions, as characters like Makoto and Rin are also important. However, I think it was rather disappointing and lame how they almost completely ignored Ikuya for the remaining episodes when they made a such big deal about him (and Haru) earlier. Most of his appearances in episodes 9-12 are just cameos with the only exception being his race in the individual medley. He doesn’t say much. He’s just standing there to show that he still exists.

I’m also a bit disappointed that the only three characters succeeded with their races. The others failed and the final race was left on a cliffhanger.

To be frank, if it hadn’t been for the character development of Haru, the Kirishima brothers and Makoto, I would’ve given this category a lower score. Most of the other characters’ developments stand still during the season. The only (other) characters who came close to a good development but tripped right before the finish line were Hiyori and Sousuke.

Either a new movie or season was confirmed at the end of episode 12. Hopefully, the newer characters (Hiyori, Iwatobi rookie-trio, Albert and Kaede) will get their proper developments.

Episode 11 and 12 felt a bit rushed. It was almost as if the staff was trying to test themselves regarding how many things they can make happen in just one episode. Because of this, it made episode 12 lack charm. Yes, there were meaningful moments. However, those moments were a bit less effective than intended, which is the result of what happens when you try to make too many things happen in a 20-minute episode.
For that, Dive to the Future gets only a 7 for its ending.


Summary (42/50 - Great)

Although a few things about this season left me a bit disappointed, it was overall a good season and I’m glad I watched it.
I don’t know whether their next project is a fourth season or a movie. Regardless, the bar has been set pretty high since I’m expecting the next movie/season to provide with everything Dive to the Future lacked:

- Goals in life for Rei, Nagisa and Gou
- A continuation of Hiyori’s character development
- Character developments for Albert and Kaede
- Haru interacting with his parents
- And most importantly - More of Steve the Cat

And that’s my review of the third season of Free!.
I’ll be looking forward to the next project.
Just two years left…

Yawn...

Plot and story:
So, the "story" follows Urara, Hanabi and Inaho, who become the three legendary Naria girls - Spring, Summer and Autumn - to stop the evil Ice Queen from sending her monsters to Earth.
The story is rushed. Everything happens so quickly and the episodes are repetetive. All episodes go something like this;
1. The girls talk about something random
2. Monster appears
3. The girls do some improvisation sketches
4. They transform
5. They call out random names of their attacks and defeat the monster
... It's the same thing over and over again. The only thing that changes are the jokes.
There are no fighting scenes either. Just pictures.
Oh, and let's not forget about all the commercials for Final Fantasy, music singles and new anime.

Characters:
I've got two word for this; Flat and uncreative
It's basiaclly the same character with three different appearances. And all three just happen to have the same amount of character development - none.
Much like regular magical girl anime, they have a "mascot" for the team - Animaru - who gave them access to their powers.
We barely ever see him after the first episode except when the girls need to transform. It's not until episode 5 when we actually get to see him. Then he disappears again.
And don't even get me started on the "bad guys".

This is one of the few anime I've watched that I didn't care about any of the characters.
Hmm? How little I cared, you ask? The characters are so uninteresting that when the protagonist's grandma was about to die, I yawned. And when she actually died, I almost laughed.
It's impossible to take the characters (or anything else in this anime for that matter) seriously. That's how bad it is.

Animation / Art:
Horrific. The "anime" has 3D animation on a low budget. Most of the scenes they use are frozen pictures. You can only hear the sound effects and voices.
The only times they actually move are when they talk and during their transformation scenes. And the animation isn't even good.
The 3D animation is basically just like the MMD (Miku Miku Dance). Actually, the Youtubers who make MMD videos can do better than this anime.
As for the character designs, I can't even tell the difference between their transformation outfits and their regular school uniforms. Where they even trying?

Music and voice acting:
The opening and ending's fast pace matches the story's pace, as well as the characters' "personalities". The music itself is decent. Nothing special.
The voice acting is actually good. The characters' conversations sound quite realistic at times. Like they're having a normal conversation in real life. Sometimes. But just like they have some realistic conversations, they sometime overdo it.

Ending:
The part of the anime you wish would happen sooner. The more you watch of the anime, the more you long for its ending.
The ending itself was predictable, unoriginal and boring. Nothing I haven't seen hundreds of times already.

Overall:
I can see that it's supposed to be a parody of magical girls anime. And I can see what they're making fun of.
However, Cute High Earth Defense Club Love is also a parody, but that anime actually does it right. I'd rather recommend people to watch that anime than Naria Girls.
But if you have some time to kill and are curious about how bad the Naria Girls anime is; good luck.

After reading the manga for the third time, I've decided to write a review on it.

Plot and story:
The Yu-Gi-Oh GX manga has one long story, unlike the anime where there's a new 'story' for each season.
The story follows Jaden on his journey to become like his idols - Yugi and Koyo.
The antagonist is the father of one of the characters and is being possessed by the shadows. He uses the power of the shadows to take control of strong duelists and use them as puppets for his plan of gaining ultimate power.
One minor problem the story has is that they don't show when Jaden starts ... at the academy and meets the other characters.
I mean, I know how Jaden met them since I've watched the anime. But what about the people who haven't watched it?
However, they made a good choice in introducing the characters as the story progresses rather than introducing everyone at once.

Characters:
In the anime, Jaden is somewhat of an OP character who almost never loses and we don't get to see much of his past. Here, they show more about Jaden's past. Like where he got the Elemental Heroes from and why dueling is so important to him. Jaden also (Spoiler), with one of them being a (Spoiler). This story made it much easier to relate to him.
The manga version of Chazz, Jaden's rival, is much better than his character in the anime. He's not a lovestruck goof, he's actually more powerful than Jaden and he has a good development. He also has a better reason of wanting to become a pro duelist than in the anime.
Even Syrus has a better character in the manga. Unlike in the anime where Syrus constantly is in need of help and doubts himself, Syrus has a strong will to surpass his older brother and is confident.
Alexis is not a damsel in distress anymore. She can take care of herself just fine. However, they didn't show anything of Alexis' past, what her goal is or her bond with Atticus.
Bastion is more powerful than in the anime and they make a better job with showing Bastion's analyzing skills.
Jesse was kind of disappointing, which bothers me since he's my favorite character in Yu-Gi-Oh GX. We don't get to see anything of his past, we have no idea what his goal is, he doesn't have the Crystal Beasts anymore and he doesn't have a strong bond with Jaden. But he remains as his adorkable self.
Adrian is a sweetheart compared to how he is in the anime. In this story, Adrian's goal is to become a pro duelist like Aster so he can get money for his little brother's surgery. Isn't that better than sacrificing someone for power?
As for the new characters; Koyo, Midori, Mac and David - The only person who wasn't really developed was David. The others were developed and relevant to the story.
But why wasn't Hassleberry there? And why did Zane duel only once?

Design and art:
Most of them look the same as in the anime. One of the exceptions is Alexis, who looks...meh.
Other than that, they did a good job with drawing the monster cards. Both the cards who appeared in the anime as well as the new cards from the manga.

Ending:
I love how Jaden isn't the only hero in this story.
In the anime, it's only Jaden who saves the day with an exception being when he became the Supreme King in season 3 and Zane had to take him down. Even then, it was Jaden who had to duel against the antagonist.
While in this manga, Jaden takes on the antagonist together with Chazz.
Although I would've prefered it being Jaden and Jesse dueling against the enemy like they did in season 4, it was still good. Great teamwork between Jaden and Chazz.

Overall:
The main characters are much better here than they are in the anime. More relatable, better development, stronger and more interesting in general.
They did a great job with using some elements from the anime (Such as the Shadow Games, as well as the abandoned dorm) and writing it in their own way.
And the best part is; There is no Yubel.
To be honest, I would rather have this manga as the canon story rather than the anime.

I'm giving this manga an 8. Although it's better than the anime in several different ways (in my opinion), there are some cons that lowers the score to 8.
I recommend this manga to people who are fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh series or people who simply are curious about Yu-Gi-Oh.
Plus, the manga is only 64 chapters (9 volumes), so it doesn't take that long to finish it.

Why is there no anime adaptation of this manga?

Plot and story:
The story follows the two best friends, Kaichi and Akira, where one of them can see spiritual things like ghosts and fairies.
The manga is very short, but is able to show us how the two characters became friends, how close they are now, (Spoiler) and (Spoiler). That's quite impressive for such a short manga.
Another thing I like about this manga is that they switch protagonist. The first chapter follows Kaichi while in the chapter after it, we get to follow Akira. This lets us, the readers, see the story from both characters' point of view.

Characters:
Kaichi ... is a bit of an idiot who can't think before acting, is quite blunt and loves to tease Akira while Akira is somewhere between a kuudere and a tsundere. He's quite distant, only opens up to friends and doesn't smile often. While being around Kaichi, Akira kinda acts like a tsundere sometimes. But not too much.
I really liked how they added flashbacks of them becoming friends where we also get to see the first time Akira showed Kaichi the spiritual creatures he can see.
I'm not a big fan of Tachikawa though. That man really needs to pull himself together.

Design and art:
Pretty decent. It's not the best artstyle I've seen, but it's not the worst either. The characters' appearances go well with their personalities and is overall fine to look at.

Ending:
I'm not going to spoil what happens in the end, but I can at least say how I felt when I finished reading it.
I was relieved to see that Japan actually CAN create a cute shounen-ai manga between two best friends rather than the typical giant age difference they mostly have or the overdone Manly Man x Girly Guy trope.
At the same time, I was also sad about the manga being so short. I want to see more of this pairing. They're adorable together.

Overall:
How can something so disturbing as Boku no Pico get its own anime while this adorable romance between two classmates didn't?
Despite being so short, the manga has enough material in it for at least three OVAs or a movie.
And they would easily be able to add new things to make it longer. Akira can see spirits, for God's sake. Why not use that?

I'm giving this manga a 7. I enjoyed reading it and I reread it every now and then because of how cute it is.
Just don't expect too much from it. After all, the manga is short and the story isn't that deep. But overall, it was pretty good for such a short manga.

I was really looking forward to this OVA...

Plot and story:
This OVA is based on the manga event from halloween 2013 where the countries attend a halloween party and try to win the costume competition.
Although the scenes shown in the OVA are accurate (more or less) to how they were in the canon manga, the anime director removed plenty of scenes, characters, dialogues and even the "red string" of the event just for the sake of fanservice.

Characters:
After I had watched this OVA, I was in rage with how the anime director had degraded the characters.
One of the characters they degraded was (ze awesome) Prussia, one of ... the most loved characters in the Hetalia fandom. His lines were reduced from 19 to 1. One.
Another character that was degraded was Canada. He was supposed to announce who the winner of the costume competition was. Of course they didn't care about this scene and decided to focus on Hong Kong talking to Iceland for the first (and only) time instead.
Switzerland and Liechtenstein's dialogues with both each other and the others were completely removed, which was probably where I'd had enough. Neither of them had appeared in the previous episodes, so when I heard they were making this event as an OVA, I was happy since I'd finally see them along with other forgotten characters (Greece, Turkey, Cuba etc.). Then I watched the OVA. The forgotten characters' scenes got one cameo each.
The anime director even removed Switzerland completely from a scene they used in the OVA that he was supposed to be in. The hell?

Design and art:
As usual, Hetalia has good art. They used the same style as they used in Beautiful World. Nothing new other than the halloween costumes the countries wore.
They did a fine job with the anime adaptation of the costumes Hidekaz made.

Ending:
Like I said, they removed the "red string" of the event. The costume competition was the most important thing in the event. Everyone wanted to win this competition and were looking forward to the announcement of the winner. And when it was time to announce the winner - It was shorted down to a cameo.

Overall:
The OVA was literally made for yaoi fangirls who squeal over pairings like UsUk, FrUk, GerIta, HongIce etc.
All characters outside the pairings either got their lines/scenes reduced or completely removed, which was nothing but insulting to the fans of those characters and to Hidekaz who made them.
Even the "red string" of the event was cut short and overshadowed because of fanservice.
The yaoi fangirls may be overjoyed for the moments their fanon pairings got, but I'm not. I don't mind fanservice as long as it doesn't ruin the story, which is what the anime director did with this OVA. They focused more on pairings rather than the actual plot.

I thought the anime director of Hetalia would keep it professional and not ruin the amazing anime for fanservice, regardless of how many fans a pairing has. Looks like I overestimated them.
Hopefully, they won't do it again.

"Romantic" my ass.

Plot and story:
This short anime is about Ranmaru who recently got married. He ends up drinking on their wedding day and, obviously, becomes drunk. The captain then takes advantage of Ranmaru's drunk state and leads him to a room on the ship where he rapes Ranmaru. Yes. Rape. Non-consensual sexual activities.
Even if it had been with consent, there is no love story or romance. Not even friendship. The captain clearly has no interest in Ranmaru's personality or life and only wants to bang him, which is far from being romantic in my opinion.

Characters:
The captain is a disgrace to Italians, even though ... he's just a fictional character. He's clearly not interested in forming any sort of relationship with Ranmaru. Considering how he has no sense of moral, personal space or respect, I'm sure this isn't the first time he has done this either.
As for Ranmaru, there isn't much to his character. While watching the anime, I couldn't relate to this character, his personality was flat and by the end, we don't know much about him other than about his marriage. Overall, he wasn't an interesting character.

Design and art:
The only plus for this forsaken anime. Ranmaru looks handsome, which is probably the only reason why Captain Rape wanted him.

Ending:
I think I've already made my opinion about this anime as clear as possible.
But at least the horrifying experience was short (Thank God for that).

Overall:
This is just another anime that proves Japan can't create a proper yaoi and/or shounen ai anime.
It completely skips the most important thing in a love story and jumps directly to the bed scene, as if that is what romance is all about.
Before I watched this anime, I was expecting drama, romance and angst. Three typical things in forbidden love stories, which is what the anime was supposed to be. Did the anime have any of these things? No.

As a hopeless romantic person, I want to see actual romance. Seeing two guys in a bed will never impress me. The love needs to be pure and the bond between the characters needs to be strong and well developed. This anime had neither of these things and failed to convince me that these two main characters love each other, which means the anime has failed to show and work with its main genre - romance.
Such a disappointment.
I recommend skipping this anime. Read a fanction or a doujinshi about your favorite pairing instead.