From the beginning, GX had its ups and downs, but I was surprised by how much potential I saw right off the bat. The one that caught me most off-guard was Jaden himself. I was prepared to just… tolerate him all the way through, but you know what? Jaden Yuki is not the god-awful character I often see him made out to be. It’s all about context. Early on, GX’s story is mostly about the school itself. Along the same lines of shows like Baka and Test or Assassination Classroom, Duel Academy values grades above all else, and those who get placed in the lowest-scoring dorm (like Jaden) are treated like dirt. Jaden, who’s unflappably cheerful and couldn’t care less about his grades or schoolwork, is completely unfazed by this and inadvertently manages to empower many of his other classmates as he continues to succeed despite his position in their little Duel Academy society.
Unfortunately, this also leads us into one of this show’s flaws… GX had a problem with focus as a whole. The longer this series went on, the less meaning the different dorms held. So, though we see characters making disparaging comments about being a Slifer Red almost all the way to the end, it stops feeling relevant pretty early on. But it did succeed in giving me an appreciation of Jaden. He wouldn’t become a truly interesting character until year three, and he may not be the best protagonist ever created, but he was designed to be the perfect hero for these particular circumstances. And his carefree attitude started to feel like a breath of fresh air amongst his group of more serious friends.
Most of Jaden’s friends were all hindered by the same thing: they were set up to be likable characters that the series itself never spent enough time on. Honestly, I could go on and on about the potential almost every single one of them had. I loved the direction they took with Chazz. He was introduced as the new edgy, rival character, but the showrunners acknowledged very early on that no one was going to replace Seto Kaiba. (In the same way that Yugi and Jaden have very little in common past their main character charisma. I never got the impression that GX was trying to replace the original; perhaps the strongest thing it had going for it was that it was committed to being its own thing.) Chazz falls from grace very early into things and when he finds himself again, he returns as this goofy, over-the-top, complete joke of a character… but people embrace him for it, and I loved that. Even though he’s mostly pushed out of the spotlight later by some of the other characters.
I had high hopes for Alexis. She was shaping up to be a strong female character, something not exactly in abundance in my childhood shows. I liked that it was her skill that set her apart from their classmates—rather than something shallow like her beauty. She does develop a one-sided crush on Jaden, but it never completely takes over her character like you see so often in shows that are aimed more towards boys. And the mystery with her brother gave her and interesting purpose and kind of drives the plot in the beginning. Unfortunately, more than any other character, Alexis really fades into the background as the series goes on. (I really liked the role she played with the tag-team duel near the end, but it felt overwritten, almost, as Jaden learns pretty much exactly the same lesson—again—from his duel with Yugi.)
Of all the characters in the original little troupe, Syrus is the only one I never really warmed up to, and I think it’s because he’s the only one who doesn’t really have that lack-of-screen-time excuse. Syrus’s early development did catch my attention—his insecurities and relationship with his brother gave him just as much potential as everyone else. But it takes so long for Syrus to grow… And there’s really no excuse for it, because he gets several episodes devoted specifically to overcoming those insecurities… but there’s no follow-through. The next episode, he goes back to being exactly the same person he was before, excessive self-doubt perfectly intact. By the time he finally starts standing on his own mid-season three, it just felt too little, too late. Endearing me to him at that point just wasn’t in the cards.
In case it’s not already apparent, it was the characters that really drew me in to GX. The first two seasons’ plots were kind of hit or miss for me. I think season one did some interesting things—especially the twist they threw in with Banner—but kind of dropped the ball with the whole missing kids plot, which was the most interesting thing about it. Season two’s story… just wasn’t for me. It felt kind of filler-y. (Though, if there’s one thing, story wise, that I really liked about season two, it was the way Jaden’s deck had to evolve to combat what he was up against. Oddly enough, that’s something I haven’t seen too often in this franchise.) But if it did have one thing going for it, it was the season that brought in one of my favorite characters.
I love Aster. After the turn Chazz’s character took, Aster was the rival we could take seriously. And I love the way he parallels Jaden. They both have hero-themed decks, and Aster clearly views himself as The Good Guy. So, because he starts out on the side of the villains, it was clear that he was going to get a redemption of some sort, but it happened a lot sooner than I was expecting. Aster starts distancing himself from the people he’s working with almost immediately when he starts to suspect their goals may not be so pure. And that’s something I really respect. He may be a (loveable) snarky little asshole, but he’s not too caught up in his own edginess. And there’s a sweet (if extremely brief) character development moment where he goes from constantly distancing himself from others to being willing to sacrifice himself for the people he now considers to be his friends. That one aspect is very blink-and-you-miss-it, but in general, Aster was one of the few characters who felt fully developed by the show’s end.
But season three was where GX really started to shine. It starts out by introducing us to four More characters, all of whom are interesting in their own ways. Most notably, of course, is Jesse, who quickly becomes Jaden’s new best friend as they bond over their shared ability to see duel monster spirits. (Another plot point that had kind of been building up to this moment.) You might be thinking, “Wow, that’s a lot of characters!” (And I didn’t even stop to talk about Bastion, Hassleberry, Atticus, or Zane.) There was a moment where I just had to stop the episode—paused on a scene where Jaden’s friends were all gathered together looking for him—and count how many people were on screen. (And there were, like, nine of them.) And it kind of blew me away. I’m not sure I can name another show with that many characters making up our hero’s team. (Maybe Digimon 02, during the few scenes where the older team was there to help out the new kids.)
And I kid you not, maybe two episodes later, the show suddenly gives us more of a backstory for Jaden. You want to talk about things that really blew me away… I was prepared for Jaden to be this carefree, happy-go-lucky kid from start to finish with that easygoing attitude being his greatest strength. (In a very Davis-like way, speaking of 02.) And then suddenly we’re given this story of how Jaden’s parents never had time for him and a… problem with one his card spirits made it so that he didn’t have any real friends either. And so you just know that all this—going on these crazy adventures with a huge group of friends—has got to be everything he’s ever wanted. Which was a really poignant realization… that then came back and hit me like a truck when it all started falling apart around him.
Season three was really good in general and got really dark. I know it’s hardly unique to Yu-Gi-Oh GX, but I love that storytelling twist where the hero has to accept his flaws or inner darkness as a part of himself, rather than overcome them completely. So that moved me too. Jaden grows more during the second half of season three than in all of the two and a half seasons leading up to it. I mean, I liked all the new characters introduced, Zane and Aster really shined in this season, it’s where Syrus finally comes into his own, I liked the story it told… The whole thing was just a great ride.
Season four… had its ups and downs. It was a chance to come down from all the horror of season three and wrap things up. I think the episodes devoted to getting the kids ready for graduation were really good. Throughout, I wasn’t generally as fond of the episodes that were just about their everyday school lives. (Original Duel Monsters had entire filler arcs, but I could get into those more easily than this style of individual, more inconsequential filler episodes.) But these episodes felt meaningful and focused more on individual characters, many of whom had been neglected for most of the series. The actual evil they faced felt a little… overdone, given that it really just boils down to the kids being afraid to go out into the real world and having to find that courage. I think what disappointed me most, though, was that it really doesn’t explore how Jaden’s changed since the big event at the end of season three and barely touches on his new connection with Yubel. I mean, it’s a change that’s really clear just looking at him, but I would have liked to see a little more self-reflection there. And I feel like the big lesson that final evil teaches them could have easily been worked into the character episodes. I did like the way GX wrapped up, though. Jaden’s new goal for himself also felt like a good representation of GX trying to stand on its own, apart from the original.
I feel like I need to take a step back and just breathe, trying to wrap this up in any coherent way. The thing is, my reaction to season three tends to make it seem, even to myself, like I enjoyed GX more than I actually did. And don’t get me wrong, it did get really good for a while there. And I was really invested in most of their (inadequately explored) characters. But then I have to remember that the first two seasons were really hard to get into most of the time. (We’re talking, like, 100-120 episodes before it was gripping enough for me to want to start binge-watching episodes whenever I had a spare moment.) And most of the things I loved about those characters were… well, inadequately explored. At the end of it all, I am really glad I didn’t just skip right to 5Ds like I was seriously considering. GX was very different from what I’d been expecting, but most of those surprises were pleasant. And I’m walking away from this experience with fond memories.
