Back to melonbottled's Profile melonbottled's Profile

i loved this yugioh spin-off so much to the point where i decided to rewatch it in the same month, i already loved 5d's (the more well-praised spin-off) so so so much so this is saying a lot. i genuinely did not think i'd enjoy zexal this much but the story is (mostly) very well thought out and every action each character took made sense and they fit like a glove.

at first, i didnt like how they reused duel monster's concept, with astral being a dueling spirit and all, but slowly progressing, zexal actually became 10x better than the og duel monsters. the constantly recurring ... theme of losing what's most important to you made my skin crawl, and yuma slowly maturing but continuing to stay optimistic is something that i love so much. the first few episodes (regarding zexal i) had me cringing at some parts, but it stayed interesting and i refused to take a break before seeing the next. the appearance of kaito made things extremely exciting, episode 13 (yuma vs. kaito) had one of my favorite duels in the series ever because of how every part was executed. the barians in zexal ii did not feel out of the blue and were a very pleasant surprise. honestly i might rewatch zexal a second time just to notice even MORE things i didnt notice before.

i LOVED the characters. during my rewatch ive been nicer to kotori although it fills me with rage seeing her treated so badly, being in the background as some cheerleader that gets taken hostage all the time (including yuma's other useless friends), also that one shower scene (she is literally 13 years old). shark has easily become one of my favorite characters of all time, he appeared as some hilarious edgy punk that i laughed at everytime he appeared, but the further you get into the series, the more you understand his actions and start to empathize with him. i loved the arclights. kaito is the best yugioh rival ever. the barians were all great, alito being my favorite, but they definitely deserved more screentime because i personally didnt care to remember them that much, and rio shouldnt have to be placed in danger all the time for the sake of sharks development. yuma is a great main character, the bonds that he's made with astral and shark turned my eyes into raisins. astral being the most important thing to yuma because he was often made fun of by others and that his dad was gone makes me so insanely sad. i did not like don thousand that much (nor did i find his duel against yuma interesting, he was a basic power-hungry villain) and vector was only tolerable because he was a freaky sadist, and those guys are always fun to watch in yugioh.

the soundtrack and sound effects are absolutely amazing, scenes never felt awkward or out of place, and the openings/endings were also amazing. i never skipped the openings unless i was dying to know what happened next, 'unbreakable heart' is my favorite opening with 'go way go way' being my favorite ending.

the art is just stunning, as expected, and zexal actually has the best art and style in all of yugioh in my opinion. the extra gradient added adds so much flavor. at certain episodes (generally the less exciting ones) the art plummets a bit due to lesser animators handling the keyframes, but its not too bad or anything important. the designs are absolutely amazing and i would not even dare call them "bad" because a /drawn cartoon/ should use all they have to their advantage to make everything look captivating and eye-catching. at certain times i just want to chew on yumas and sharks hair.

if you've skipped zexal, you are missing out on the best goddamn yugioh spin-off out there. rewatch it even if already have seen it. pay close attention to everything every character says. PLEASE!