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As much respect I give to Little Kuriboh, I kinda do think the whole "CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLE" meme kinda hurt this series since now no one really takes it seriously
I think it’s worth mentioning that yusei has 2 aces. One being his ideal self (stardust dragon) and his true self (junk warrior) stardust dragon is a martyr with this legendary destiny that must carry all burdens, while junk warrior a catalyst for change. A pile of scraps that is only as strong as the allies around it.
yugioh gx too . we dont know the aces card jaiden later on the story . aces card something you remember like dark magician , blue eyes and stardust dragon all version of it so OP Combo
Another interesting bit of writing in this show is why Yusei is so self-sacrificing. At the beginning of the anime, it's not necessarily because he's just that guy and cares about friendship that much, it's because his father invented the technology that caused the Zero Reverse that split New Domino City. He feels personally responsible for the societal problems around him and is trying to atone for those sins.
Yusei is one of my favourite protagonists in any anime I’ve ever watched honestly. It’s insane to say but he’s so well written and interesting. The rest of the show has its issues as the series goes on but early on it’s genuinely well written
@@philithegamer8265 eh I disagree. Like in some parts of the story sure but his internal responsibility to help people and how that affects him mentally when he’s unable to protect them is not the normal Gary stu fair. As well I think him guilting himself into helping people due to him feeling responsible for why the satellite peoples live are like this is quite interesting
@matthewsmith2237 The biggest issue with Yusei was that the writers refused to let him lose even during duels that were inconsequential. Don't mind his immense skill because it makes sense when you consider his background, but Yusei practically has never lost a duel, not even the trivial ones. Would've made his victories far more meaningful had Yusei lost to Jack during *maybe* his 1st but certainly his 3rd and maybe last matchup against him (Onscreen duels because offscreen Jack must've been that OP, lost to Akiza during their 2nd duel in a mostly one sided fashion, with her beating Yusei fair and square at full strength, when she was recovering from that comma that was dealt to her by Misty (Could've made for great character arcs for both of them. Akiza being able to control her psychic abilities without hurting anyone along with establishing herself to be on equal ground with Yusei and Jack, in addition Yusei finally learning to stop being such a huge sore loser and taking a loss well, even some good tension between Yusei and Aki. He also could've easily lost against that team Unicorn guy during their 1 vs. 1 duel to set up their later matchup and even lose against Sherry, too... That's what's good about the 5Ds Manga is that the writer wasn't scared to let Yusei lose firsthand to set him up overcoming his opponents for round 2... Yusei does remind me alot of Yu from Persona 4. Possibly the same character archetype and personality...
which also shows in his cards, or atleast in Stardust Dragon’s effect, which allowed it to tribute itself to protect another card from being destroyed, at the cost of it getting destroyed in the process it still comes back by the End Phase, but I love how his Ace/Boss Ace reflects Yusei’s personality in its effect
@@TheGamefreak612 yeah, they could have swapped their signer dragons and I don’t think a casual fan would really notice and would even think that’s how it was supposed to be originally lol
@@kuyaboben5300 yeah but as the video says Stardust matches Yusei's character so it makes sense in the end. seriously 5D's really was amazing. as much of a meme the motorcycle dueling was I actually enjoyed it, made the duels more dynamic than just standing on opposite ends
If we only count from the beginning to the end of the dark signer arc, yeah I agree, it's so good. To me it's way better than anything else we've got to see.
5ds was a childs peak yugioh. Real goofy style but nothing short of complete emotion. YOU FELT EVERY CHARACTER. No one fell short of being a main character. Still my favorite yugioh
Actually my nitpick was towards Rua & Ruka. I knew before their introduction, the twins are supporting cast but didn't think they would remain support throughout 5D's.
@@alanchamberlain9902He actually did lose duels and he caught Ls in life too. He literally goes from rags to riches. Just bc you don't lose doesn't mean someone is a gary sue either.
Fun Fact: 5Ds was originally only slated for 2 seasons originally. The Dark Signers arc WAS the intended end of the show. But part way through, TVTokyo ordered 2 more seasons be made. That's why before the WRGP Arc starts the show kinda just wonders around with no story for a while, they WERE just filling time slots and trying to figure out what else to add to pad out the newly ordered seasons.
Indeed. Jack and Carly relationship got reset because of VA of Carly got into trouble with the police because of cult activities. The production team tried to shine away from that ship during the later stories. (edit: it appears to a rumor)
@@derzweite1205 I believe that whole cult thing may have also been why the show kinda takes on a more technology feeling in the second half rather than magic. I'm not certain though so take that with a grain of salt.
@@derzweite1205 That's actually false! By the time the arc had started Carly's VA was still voicing her. There was apparently other reasons for the VA leaving.
@@teapartypenguin1353 Well, at that time he couldn't drive home, because his D-Wheel was stored in the public security warehouse and he was watched by Godwin spies, so only age stopped him from ordering something else xD
5ds was peak yu gi oh. They cut back on last min cards and actually showed strategy. Villains had great decks not to mention snycro summoning one of the coolest way of summoning
nowhere near the peak of Yu-Gi-Oh! bud. Need to watch the japanese dub of ZEXAL if you think that. Also you must've watched Yu-Gi-Oh! 5C's because the amount of times Yusei pulls out a random ass trap we have never seen before in our life to save himself is ridiculous
@@fxzzy__you replied to every comment talking about zexal. Get a life. None cares about zexal and yuma, the worst protagonist in yu gi oh. 5ds is the best
@@snicko22 Uh, a bunch of people care about ZEXAL? So I don't know what crack you're smoking... Get a life? LMAO, I'm talking about a series I like, like how you're talking about 5D's, so you need to get a life too. Yuma is the best protagonist in Yu-Gi-Oh!, he actually went through immense character growth, and had really cool dynamics with the rest of the cast. 5D's is probably the 2nd best, its second half is extremely flawed, and the character writing is pretty shit too
@@WDinATX even if someone is talking about the Japanese version, a lot of people will still call him Kalin because they watched the dub (like the person right above me lol)
It's always been really funny to me that "card games on motorcycles" of all things is somehow a bridge too far. Yu-Gi-Oh style hair? Ok. Cheap mass-produced cardboard having magical powers? Ok. Structuring all of society around a children's card game? Ok. Card games on motorcycles? Whoa whoa whoa, stop having fun, that makes no sense! 😭 Personally, I applaud the creative team for having the wisdom and courage to say "Screw it, none of this makes any sense anyway, we're going to have card games on motorcycles and you can't stop us."
Hologram projectors? Ok. A VHS tape that is enchanted to not only force you into a card game held in a world of darkness, but beat you at that card game and steal your grandfather's soul? Ok. Ancient magical artifact containing the soul of a long dead pharaoh that possesses the body of a teenage boy? Ok. Ancient magical artifact that lets you read minds? Ok. Ancient magical artifact that lets you predict the future? Ok. Defying your predetermined future through sheer willpower? Ok. Literally manipulating the cards in your deck with your willpower so you can play without ever looking at them and always get the card you need? Ok. A parallel world of monster spirits? Ok. All these pieces of cardboard secretly having those spirits connected to them and their life is tied to that card? Ok. Literal gods being able to be called forth and controlled with cardboard? Ok. Those gods striking down anybody who attempts to use a piece of cardboard other than their original one? Ok. A space elevator? Ok. etc. but god forbid we have card games on motorcycles
No one has the right to complain about the "card games on motocycle" when stuff like ZEXAL FORM, SHINING DRAW, DIMENTIONAL WAR WITH CARDS or "the universe was Born by a card" exist.
5D's dub had some of the best lines. "Is that Joey Wheeler?" "No, that's his cousin, Jesse Wheeler." Or when Yusei had gone missing and Crow casually mentioned he got a phone call from someone who very matter-of-factly told him they had Yusei and he didn't think to bring it up earlier, Akiza's response was hilarious. "I'm gonna cobble you, Crow!" Jack: "I believe you mean 'clobber'. To cobble is to make shoes." Akiza: "Whatever! Then I'm going to cobble some shoes and use them to kick Crow's butt!"
🤣 To which Jack replies: “I don't know why this Yusei thing has you so worked up, Akiza; if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were in love with Yui-” Akiza: “Stop right there, Jack!” *Call ends*
5Ds really finished strong. I still cry at Bruno's death, or more accurately, Yusei's response to it, and the duel vs Z-One is still one of my favorites.
yeah I really don't get the hate for the second half of the show other than season 3 being full of filler which could have been used more effectively. But season 4 and 5 are filled with great character moments and feature easily the best duels of the show.
@@dies3156While I don’t hate the second half and enjoyed it. I’m not going to lie that I was disappointed in the end. Sorry but I disagree with you about most things especially the final arc which I thought was mediocre at best IMO. All spectacle with little to no substance. I thought the ending was okay but not that great.
Something that I still laugh about when thinking of the series is that at first, Yusei had his crew from the satellite. Then, he proceeded to completely ditch them and get the signers as his new squad lol.
@@LoboCrepuscularZeldaSame. Admittedly, the old man's biggest advantage was his knowledge about history and the Crimson Dragon....which wouldn't be useful in the second arc....but I am still a little sad that he and the old gang were kinda forgotten.
The best part of 5Ds starts around when Aporia shows up, episode 134. It is insane not to have brought that part up, since it is the wrapup to like 15 years of storytelling across the original 3 yugioh ANIMES. Z-ONE and Aporia themselves being the two best characters in 5Ds. Episode 134-154 is 5Ds at its absolute best. Of course, that still leaves like 80 episodes where nothing really happens except that fun Crashtown mini arc. But most of those episodes are indeed the anime spinning its wheels because the key members of the writing team were working on the Bonds Beyond Time movie. Also, insane to me how you mention how the cards represent the characters but didn't mention Junk Warrior. It's explicitly pointed out a couple times in the anime that Junk Warrior is Yusei with how it gets its strength from the weak monsters around it. It and Stardust Dragon show the different aspects of Yusei's character: his friends give him strength and he's willing to sacrifice himself to protect them. Then, in the finale, it's Junk Warrior, not Stardust Dragon, that defeats Red Dragon Archfiend and allows his friends to leave Neo Domino City to go live their lives. He is done sacrificing himself.
Agreed with everything, much like GX, 5Ds had a pretty bad middle part but finished really strong. No idea why this video didn't discuss the ending, I'm starting to doubt this dude actually finished the anime. The ending season is insane, yugioh had never tackled anything as serious as the actual apocalypse and the last few remaining humans on Earth.
I really don't see the hate for season 4 tho. Sure, its another tournament which is perhaps a bit lazy but it features great duels, further extenuates the bond between the characters and highlights how far team 5D's has come with the contrast between Team Taiyo and Ragnarok which they duel back to back and then finishes off with the arrival of Aporia. I think people underestimate the second half because they see the preliminaries which happened in season 3 and just group the whole tournament with that fillery season which was made during the production of Bonds Beyond Time
Yeah…I disagree with most of what you said. Aporia himself and Z-One are...mediocre villains. Plus I don’t find them that interesting or compelling to be honest. They have a cool (if trite) backstory and potential as characters. But they aren't utilized well at all. They are just the force that will drop a city onto Yusei's city and that's it. Even Yliaster's 3 members were especially bad. Their evil scheme was literally "sit around and do absolutely nothing until the plot moves forward". They also dueled a couple of times, I guess, but nothing ever came out of it. (Also their "ultimate form" looked stupid and why did anyone thought that was a good idea.)
@@fxzzy__ don't place Japan on such a pedestal..I've listened to anime in latino Spanish, brasil, castellano, Portuguese, and their voices are great too 👍saying this as someone who studied Japanese lol 😆
For those unaware, 5ds actually has the most amount of undubbed episodes in the whole Yugioh anime franchise. Not GX as most would assume. Gx had 23 episodes undubbed. Whereas 5ds had a total of 31 episodes undubbed. (Not to mention how it is the most censored of all the anime’s.) Mostly due to something something copyright lawsuit involving 4kids. There is a lot more of details and information that you will have to look further into yourself. Because boy is it extensive.
thank God true peak (ZEXAL) got a full dub. It's also quite a shame how this community is one of the only anime communities with a larger percentage of it being dub cockroaches. Like when I see 'Kalin' and not 'Kiryu' I cringe so hard. YGO was dubbed by a company known as fucking 4KIDS, unless you're
@@fxzzy__ Okay this is gonna be a long one, but you need to hear this. “like have some common sense” ….You might need to tell yourself that more often. The amount of unlawful handling done by 4Kids is astronomical. Let’s start with the phrase that most associate with 4Kids, “they don’t just translate anime into English. They make them American.” Already that sounds problematic and unfortunately there are way many too examples of this. But I’ll leave my ‘favorite’ example. Jelly filled donuts from Pokémon and the American Anthem sang by Japanese anime characters. And real quick if you make mention of how 4Kids were “just doing their job” or “well it’s just for kids right?” Then you really don’t know anything about why 4kids is so terrible. Now for the unnecessary censorship. With the usual victims of the removal of anything sexual, religious and violent. These I don’t have much of an issue with as for the time period, they could be much for children without access to internet can handle. (Keep in mind, I’m referring to a time when streaming service were nonexistent.) But why remove text in general? I don’t just mean replace Japanese text with English. They straight remove any type of text in a show, even ones already in English. And while I can understand wanting to removing guns and knives for wider viewership. The way they handle it comes off as stupid. Like the finger guns in Yugioh and whole sword being replaced with light saber like weapons….. Or completely shaved down to its handle like in Naruto. It’s a world of ninja and weaponry. So why? Regardless of what most believe, kids are not that stupid. They would noticed. I sure did. But I believe the biggest issue with such unnecessary censorship, is how they can completely change the characters and the show altogether. An example from Yugioh would be Kaiba and his denial over Magic in the dub. In the original, it’s in line with how he doesn’t care and is more focus on the present and thus his future to an unhealthy degree. Also any mention of abuse he went through with his adoptive father was completely scrubbed out. And for the biggest crime they have committed and are still doing to this day under different names. When they finally lost all distribution rights from companies that were done with their BS. Went bankrupt and started the whole process again under 4 K licensing. They would go on a rampage on TH-cam that used any footage involving Yugioh. Putting up many copyright claims that temporarily to completely shutting down multiple channels. There was a fan project to dubbed season 4 of GX, something no major dubbing company has any intention of doing. And 4Kids have long since lost the property at this point so they should be able to dub it as a passion project in peace right? Wrong, they got sued by 4K and somehow it went in their favor, and the project was shutdown. Even though they don’t own the property anymore! You don’t own this shit anymore 4Kids, leave it alone! 4Kids is so bad at there job they actively hurt people. And so unlawfully. But yeah, let’s be glad that such a company, with an already notorious history of mishandling media, got to fully dub Zexal. …During the lawsuit period like little weasels. That’s right, the reason why 5ds was cut so short was because of the lawsuit and 4kids decided to push out Zexal to get around it. And the worst part is, this wasn’t the first time something like this happened. GX was also a victim under similar circumstance, hence no season 4. Furthermore, because of how the situation was handled. Fans missed out on the potential to get a dubbed Yugioh show done by Funmation (back when that meant something). And had Yuma, the worst dubbed voice they could have given to a main protagonist in a Yugioh show, instead be voice by motherfing Johnny Young Bosch. But no, none of that happened. We are left with two Yugioh series not fully dubbed, another Yugioh series that was awfully dubbed. Aaaaannnnddddd then 4Kids went bankrupt. So after all of that, they lost everything but they feel like still do and we are still paying the price. So those complaining about the unnecessary changes done by 4Kids are completely justified in doing so.
Also Yusei Stardust Dragon matches the D-Wheel that Jack stole from him. Yusei’s new D-Wheel matches Red Dragon Archfiend. Jack’s robes are Stardust colors whereas Yusei’s are RDA
I completely agree that the second half is bad, I can't even get through it. But the arc cradle arc to bring the series to a finish is fantastic as well and should not be skipped. Leo's duel with aporia is my favorite yugioh duel of all time that happens during arc cradle and brings Leo as a character more in line with the others. Poor Carly though, she didn't deserve to be treated that way by the story.
@@ThePoetryNinja This claim that she was written out due to cult status has no source and is misinformation in the community. The timeline of the cult getting caught and her being written out dont match up, the latter happening before the former.
Synchro Summoning is easily my favourite summoning mechanic in the game, Yusei is by FAR my favourite protagonist and 5D's plot/themes (in specific, I REALLY like how Yusei/Jack's progress is portrayed through Stardust Dragon/RDA's evolution and/or their card effects). You're so right about the symbolism, it's a make-or-break part of the series and BOY did it make it! Maybe I'm wrong, but I personally haven't felt the same level of depth from any other arc. Even the Dark Signers all fell into place within the Signer's past and the both of them change one-another in the past and throughout the series- for better of worse- like pieces of a puzzle that just kind of click into place. I kinda agree that the Duel Runners going on auto-pilot ruins half the fun of the duel, but to be honest, if they focused on EVERY duel being manual, i don't think I'd enjoy the severity and danger of the few manual duels as much. I disliked the Z-ONE arc and beyond, because as you said, some of the development is just completely ignored/forgotten. It doesn't run with (most of) the same themes either, but we DID get Accel Synchro Summoning and Bruno/Antimony from those arcs, so I can't complain at all. I think 5D's definitely could (and should) have ended right then and there after the Dark Signers arc because the arc was just THAT conclusive, but I still think at the very least that the origin for Z-ONE and whatnot was a neat concept. We also got some neat Synchro Summoning mechanics/characters/iconic moments from it in the end, so zero complaints here. Yusei also started off playing a deck literally picked from thrown-away cards, which vibed with how /I/ started, literally picking random cards from my friend's massive pile of cards that he said he'd never play in the playground. I will never forget how important 5D's is to me, even if nobody else in my childhood really shares that feeling. Thank you for the video. It was well-put together, nostalgia fuel for SURE, and a joy from start to finish
Let's Not Forget how Yusei plays "Junk" archetype and has a Lot of Strategic and Defensive Cards until he get's it all in Place, every card in his Hand the Opponents Hand and Fieldand both Graveyards Mattered sometimes This Man took "Recycling" to Heart
The very last arc has back to back banger duels tho. Rua/ Leo earning his signer mark is probably my favorite from that arc. Although it's sad that Carly and jack's relationship regressed to the start. Their duel is the most memorable for me.
Lua, Luca, and Jack's duel against Aporia is one of my favorites across all the series, it really nails both the horror at the start and the triumph at the end.
It's still the best in many ways. Basically fully gave us the modern style that every show until vrains used as animation Cast actually grew up and either gave up on playing Yu-Gi-Oh to follow their dreams and show us people actually growing up. From yugi to yusako they all failed at this as they just ended nothing really resolved. Yusei and co all managed to age and expand past dueling for some. Ending is probably the only one rhat made me cry due to how mature it actually is to tell your fans that friends eventually need to grow up and leave one another. Yugi is only one guy so his is less impactful as he's already gone. That was more of letting someone pass. The storyline are fantastic with the curupt world on top of cults and all the back end powers. Heck even using a thousands of year battle to their advantage made illisaster even better overall Also one of the best tournament arc in 3 v 3 duels
@@riroufudo you know they'll reset them again eventually so I'm not counting that much Plus it doesn't work for the story as the movie is canon to the manga not anime which is why kaiba acts the way he does rather than accept Yugi which he doesn't in the manga. So no that doesn't count either. Plus they bring back Yugi all the time with gx showing the difference timelines of things and how yami somehow keeps coming back which only makes Yugi a joke when he should be grown up but the pharaoh keeps bailing him out.
While the Grand Prix arc might not have been as good as the Dark Signers arc, the stuff with Bruno, Sherry, Z-One and the Ark Cradle Arc was fantastic. Also I enjoyed Yusei's second character arc even if it was less prominent of learning that you can't always sacrifice yourself for others and that's ok, represented in both his duel with Bruno and how Quasar is the only card in the Stardust Dragon evolution line to not sacrifice itself to use it's effect.
@@soukenmarufwt5224 that sucks. She's SO badass, actually does hand to hand combat with the guys. Should've been the main girl since she was actually a turbo duelist. Just like Anna kaboom is better than tori
The grand prix arc had Team Taiyou, who you end up rooting for against the main characters. They also had cheaters, and Yusei also literally provokes Unicorns into a misplay. A lot of interesting plots in it
Jack best rival. Gets to be protagonist at times even. Card concept expanded the yugioh game so much to allow the future systems to be made. Fusion was quite simple to gx. Ending is super impactful it gets me everytime.
I really hate how they let Aki's story arc and character growth potential die off so horribly into mostly being a cheerleader/benchwarmer after the Dark Signer Arc. I mean Sayer had an ENTIRE Organization that he was secretly building an army out of, but deceived the public to believe it was just a safe haven for Psychic Duelists. A condition multiple people was born with that they had no control over and came to him for guidance on. Seeking acceptance and knowledge to control their powers in his haven. Only to be trained and indoctrinated to serve his cause to get revenge on civilization for how they treated them. With Aki/Akiza being his walking nuke/ace in the hole to over power difficult duelists who might face them, if not a Anti Sector Security plan by having her nuke a whole bunch of them with Black Rose Dragon. You mean to tell me, this guy who planned and manipulated society itself into a seat of power to have a giant tower to himself and his people, which he secretly trains an army for his plans of revenge for....Doesn't have an heir or two to carry on his vision IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO HIM?! This guy could legit choke on a cashew and if he dies his entire organization just falls apart without him? That's bad writing! Aki having to deal with his successor trying to take her back into their fold and being the lead Signer trying to stop their plans to use Psychic Duelists as an army to get revenge on city for how they was treated could have been an AMAZING character arc for Aki as she is forced to confront not only how people still fear psychic duelists and why they feel wronged by society, but deciding WHO SHE WANTS TO BE in the future. Not just a weapon for the Arcadia movement, not just a girl running away from her powers, but to be someone who can help others as Yusei saved her. We might even been able to see Aki have a Majestic Version of Black Rose Dragon! So much potential...why did they treat Aki so badly? Her dueling abilities and psychic powers opened up so much story potential for her AND for the world building of 5Ds...
His organization was basically a cult and themselves was trying to shift directions after the jp VA for Carly was caught being involved in a cult and it would have been bad if they kept the original storyline unfortunately and those 2 girls paid the price although Aki could have still been handled better
tbh I actually don't mind the writers making Aki realize that she wants to help people beyond just dueling and her actually being able to leave her power behind and help without it could have been a good ending if her whole story wasn't so centered around Yusei and his help. I think if they were going to go in a direction where she wasn't gonna be a major part in dueling (which I do agree would have also been better than what we ended up with) they should have let her figure that out more independently and not made her start duel riding just to get closer to Yusei etc. and then have her figure out she wants to be a doctor in like one episode (even though the duel where he lets her use stardust was pretty cool)
Fun fact: The director of 5Ds, Katsumi Ono, went on to later direct Symphogear which is THE most hype anime ever. He even let Hibiki use Junk Warrior's Scrap Fist frame for frame.
Well seasons 2-5 (G-XV). Which makes sense as while season 1 is probably the most solid season story-wise the later seasons gave it its hype reputation and are definitely the more exciting seasons.
Someone pointed out that Stardust Dragon's appearance subtly reflects Yusei too. It's wings look tattered and worn, but the rest of it's body looks looks more formidable and pristine. You could take this two ways, the first being, Yusei is a Satellite, but he was supposed to be of the Tops, he's someone who should've been a rich, coddled genius from birth, but hardship and poverty kept him grounded. The other is, despite Yusei seeming like he'd just be the smart guy, we see that his life has made him formidable in fights like his time with Satisfaction and that one time he knocked out two security guards. Even the negate ability and Stardust Dragon's stats reflect this. A powerful defensive ability like that, which at the time, and even now (with Starlight Road) on a 2500 body, rather than a trap/spell shows that Yusei can can both defend and fight despite his less macho look compared to Jack and Red Dragon Archfiend. Like his whole bond aspect seems more akin to Yugi who had the least imposing stature and appearance for the longest time
To add to Yusei's character and relation to Stardust's effect: the accident that separated Satelite from the City was caused by an experiment led by Yusei's father. In Yusei's eyes, this makes him responsable for the bad life conditions of his friends
Incredible series, went under the radar because it was thematically waaay off the target audience for YuGiOh, would probably have may more success today now that us OG YuGiOh fans are in our 20s+
The Earthbound Arc is one of the most dark and unique times in YuGiOh ...Dark Signer Kalin Kessler and Ccapac Apu are still my favorite duo from 5Ds to this day
@@fxzzy__ it might be for you...I won't judge...though to be fair with you,ZEXAL just spat and shat on yugioh alltogether... Still you can like Zexal and I'll like 5Ds...ok?
@@lightyami5934 ZEXAL did not spit on yugioh altogether. It's one of the most loved YGO shows in Japan. Its character writing is much better than 5D's. Its plot is much better than 5D's. It's better than 5D's on pretty much every metric possible. Btw if you're referring to the dub of ZEXAL, you have no right to speak
It's important to remember that the second half of 5D's and the Bonds Beyond Time movie were being made at the same time, leaving what could be seen as a skeleton crew to work on the former. Was the movie worth doing this for? Hell no. Are most of the best duels still in the second half regardless? Hell yeah.
i agree, tho i will admit, i miss the hype of seeing yusei, yugi and judai on the big screen together. That was our endgame back then, as unnessary as it was. I still remember the months of build up and the excitment... still have the song from the movie on my phone lol
The movie sucked, TBH. Paradox is almost as pointless of a villain as Anubis from the Pyramid of Light. And the plot didn't have anything to do with their characterization. It would've worked just as well with any random three Yu-Gi-Oh protagonists, which is how we know it's quality.
@@maltheopia You say almost because he was part of Illiaster, that's the only reason people would even think to call him a good villain because he's tangentially related to the series they his movie sucked the life out of. Thy did some great stuff with him in the Duel Links lore though
Yugioh 5Ds is the only series I rewatched several times and got emotional each time I watched it. The storytelling and music is so beautiful, this honestly feels like it should’ve been the finale of the franchise with how much dedication they put into this masterpiece.
The best, in every way I dont know what your problem is with the motocycles. Just get used to it and dont worry about it. The second half is great because the characters are so amazing. Its fun seeing them hang out.
Absolutely love 5ds! Definitely one of the most matured of the series. Especially the uncut sub version, totally agree that this was way ahead of its time
@@Allelujah19 I have no idea what my pfp has to do with the conversation but alr. honestly ignore most of my comments under this video. idk what was going through my head. 5D's is cool, it's my 2nd fav.
I love the fact that you mentioned the effects of the monsters represent the characters. Red dragon archfiend destroys everything, even its allies,stardust dragon defends cards from destruction and black rose dragon destroys everything, even herself.
Powertool dragon augments himself with any card from your deck showing leos immaturity as a rich kid wanting more ignoring most everything else but when he grows up and life streams true form is revealed he instead heals himself and those around him by setting their life points to 4000 and stopping any further damage while their on the feild even discarding the childish desires he had banishing the equip cards from his graveyard so he is able to stand strong to continue to protect those he cares about
Junk Warrior!! Takahashi came up with Synchro Summons as a way to "make the weak, low level monsters feel important" and they nailed the theming on the first try.
I think 5d's uses card symbolism really well but in the original manga it's really good too. I disagree that it wasn't used very well there. Pegasus using toon monsters is, as stated by Kazuki Takahashi in the bunkoban author's notes, emblematic of his refusal to face reality and how he is stuck in the past. Blue-eyes is, obviously, Kaiba's soul and pride. The Blue-eyes itself is a better character than most characters in other series tbh just for how well its symbolism is used to emphasize Kaiba's arc.
The manga has tons of great symbolism. Some others include Relinquished as Pegasus' ace, which contrasts against his toon cards. Like Pegasus himself, it's a horrifying monster hiding behind a cheery facade. There's also Yugi and his Lvl monsters. Lkke Yugi, they are initially weak and need protecting, but given the right conditions to grow, they become absolute powerhouses.
@@yourdogspet I always liked the idea that despite Black Magician being weaker than Blue-Eyes in seemingly every way, it always wins with some kind of spellcaster-specific spell/trap cards. Shows the difference in their mentalities.
2nd half of 5ds has some amazing parts. Like the 3v1 duel when Lua finally becomes a signer. The western arc... The issue is that it also has the rest of the second half of 5ds around those parts...
I mean the duel was cool however Rua getting his signer mark in the end was too little too late. I’m sorry but I feel they could have done more after the arc cradle arc especially filling in the gasp that were left out. Now I did enjoy the second half but I was disappointed near the end. Rua becomes a signer in the last minute?! That’s terrible writing and planning. While the arc cradle has nice visual it was all spectacle with no substance with a lackluster finale villain. I’m sorry but I feel everyone loves to sugarcoat the final arc when in my opinion it was mid. I do love 5Ds however I do not consider it a masterpiece.
The first half of 5D's up until the end of the Dark Signers arc feels like the writers already had a solid timeline planned of how how the story would go, which is why it's so good. Meanwhile The second half just feels like they are just making shit up as they go on. Also the way they completely disregarded and "reset" the Jack and Carly developments from the first half is the biggest bullshit ever and I will never stop being mad at that.
They literally were and except for a few duels here and there, the second half isn’t that great. Not to mention the only good from the second half or more basically covers some of the bad from the Dark Signers (aka half if not more of the series isn’t very good still).
yeah because 5D's was originally only meant to be up to the dark signers arc only, so they made up shit afterwards, hence the really bad episodes and pacing after the DS arc. It's really sad how inconsistent 5D's is
@@minicle426 fr. it gets hyped because stupid people fall under the allusion that it's super dark, when in reality all it has is an older cast growing up in some garbage land. Whilst it might be dark per se, that alone doesn't make the series amazing, which a lot of people believe
About the Divine part. He was there to give Aki a connection to Misty. Since they wanted to make the Signers have some chemistry with each of them. Kiryu is Yusei's past ghost, Carly was Jack's loved one, Demak kept Ruka's Ancient Fairy Dragon so they needed the last one to have some relations to Aki. Divine returned in that Arc just to die later in an arguably more gruesome death so I don't think that was the OP syndrome, even before that he got a scar from the previous incident and was utterly insane so it's not like nothing happened. One of the ways that would be more clever to use him is to make him a Dark Signer and fight Aki as her biggest enemy but I think at that point the studio realized it was too late, Misty was already established and her goal was to destroy everything from the Arcadia so it would be illogical to have her second biggest enemy at the time turned ally. Also it was herself who indirectly sent Carly to kill him so it would not make sense to have her revive him a few seconds later. Also Divine was that one irredeemable villain they wanted permanently buried so they wouldn't let him be revived alongside those Dark Signers after the war.
Still think the series would have benefited from an arc on just the Arcadia movement and taking that down, considering how much of the cast was tied to it in Dark Signers. Understand 5Ds suffered a lot from behind the scenes meddling though (some confirmed, some speculative).
@@teapartypenguin1353yea wasn’t there supposed to be a whole Arcadia movement arc where Akiza got the spotlight? Heard it got scrapped because of anti cult movements/laws. Same with Carly being written off/out and her progress with Jack ignored after the dark singer ark because it was discovered her JPN VA belonged to a bdsm cult or something.
Honestly Divine is the biggest fraud in the franchise.The show mentions him as a big deal but he comes off as glorified jobber .He can only fight against weak opponents (Rua and Carly) but he gets folded easily by people with real power (Dark Signer Carly).He’s portrayed as special as he can make cards do real damage but in 5Ds everyone major has stand powers be it the main villains or the Signers so he’s not. Intelligence wise I really question how he got so far before the Dark Signers showed up as he thought going to retrieve his prized sword I mean student in the middle of a war of good and evil was a good idea. Even Yusei questioned his intelligence in that moment. The best thing Divine did was foreshadow the Attack on Titans anime.
@@Zetaforce-uv8el Just like a real cult leader. He only has power from manipulating emotionally unstable teenagers with psychic powers. If the Arcadia movement arc ever happened, I'd have liked to see him get either a supernatural upgrade or get taken out early and reveal an even bigger fish.
DM and 5ds will remain the crown jewels. Idc which you prefer, either pick shows ypu have great taste for what yugioh has to offer. Also just finished the vid and the first half is indeed a gem but the crash town arc I think offers a lot to be appreciated at the very least. Sure the whole apoira/zone thing felt kind of like one uping but I think it offered a lot of spectacle and still offered a relatively satisfying end to yusei's fathers legacy which was a fundamental part of the story, ener D, and hence the whole reason for the show and the dark signer arc. I think there was enough to justify it all in all.
Crashtown was awful and OOC. The gun duel disks looked incredibly OOC not only for a card game anime that has them solve problems with card games, but they also treated and acted like they were real guns. Yusei twirling around a gun looks really OOC for a card game anime protagonist and a guy who only uses violence as a last resort when there are no other options (probably stresses to the twins, Tenpei/Dexter, and their friends violence shouldn’t be used except as a last resort). I feel like he deep down Yusei was incredibly uncomfortable with them, but played along. Kiryu also almost makes Yusei saving him in the Dark Signers completely pointless as he basically wants to die again even after they reconcile their friendship, misunderstanding, etc. He clearly has mental health issues and, while I know the show can’t get into all that stuff, it’s basically resolved with him taking care of the kids/Nico and West. Honestly, once those kids find out about Kiryu’s past, even if they are older, they probably wouldn’t want to come near him. He’s one problem away from diving into darkness of the Dark Signers and post Dark Signers yet again and hoping Yusei will come save him yet again, save him from himself, and save him from all his problems/mental health issues. I honestly can see if that happened (or something else happening whether by Kiryu or by choice), Yusei, his friends, and everyone else never seeing or speaking to Kiryu ever again (especially after the show).
I'm rather partial to 5D's, and I do think there were some fantastic things about it. The worldbuilding is honestly deeper than it needs to be, the symbolism of the Signer Dragons is surprisingly poetic, card-games-on-motorcycles is crazy cool despite its goofiness, etc. Even so, I have trouble overlooking its flaws. Pretty much the entire roster - especially Aki/Akiza - ended up relegated to the background so Yusei could save the day, and Yusei having little need to develop as a character (besides learning to enter Clear Mind) felt narratively bland (even though Yusei himself was cool). I think VRAINS is probably my favorite, despite all its problems. Its comments on technology and simulations were pretty compelling, it has its share of theming, and I loved how its (admittedly rushed) ending landed with some emotional weight. Beyond that, its duels were rock-solid, Yusaku had some meaningful character development, and several of the ways it subverted the typical YGO formula were kind of refreshing.
I’m surprised you like VRAINS the most, but it makes sense as Yusei and Yusaku are similar in some ways (age, serious nature, tragic backgrounds, etc.). Plus they are the only two undefeated lead protagonists in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! as well (as ties, flashbacks, and no results don’t count with Yusaku having ties and Yusei’s duel with Kiryu being officially a no result).
@@thatman666 Yeah, that's fair - VRAINS seemed to be going for an atmosphere pretty similar to the one 5D's had. I enjoyed it, but I can see how it would feel derivative, too.
@@Golfkid100 Yeah...VRAINS might be a bit of a weird pick when it had so many recap episodes, a decent amount of unresolved plot points, and its share of questionable worldbuilding. A lot of my enjoyment from it probably did come from its similarities to 5D's - I didn't really enjoy how Arc-V approached its more serious themes. Arc-V had some hard-hitting topics (like prejudice in the Synchro Dimension and trauma in the Xyz Dimension), and I was kind of dissatisfied about how the series settled on smiles being the solution to everything.
@@Golfkid100 nope yusei lost to jack in a flashback and to kalin. He left with physical injuries and nightmares. That's not a win. Yusaku lost plenty during his training
While the start of the second half of 5ds is pretty boring and filled with filler. I actually really really enjoyed the grand prix tournament. Some of the best duels and character moments are from there. Relay duels, while they can be a drag if executed poorly, give a lot of tension as every duelist has to think about what will happen to their team if they lose, so a lot of future planning has to be done. And i absolutely love how a team that is a bunch of nobodies from satellite with cards gotten from scraping junk (a very cool reflection of yusei's gang in satellite) end up using a stall strategy, which irl are also some of the cheapest anti meta strategies in the game. I also like the nordic guys who show that the signers arent the only people with special marks. It meant that these people could have a whole show of their own, even if their duel with team 5ds ends in the most cheesy way possible. Not to mention some of the filler arcs are actually pretty good. Like boomtown and the crimson devil arc, which the latter is nice for expanding upon the dark signer lore a little bit. Then the final arc is really amazing, whose only major flaw is the writers going back on a twist for the final villain. But the serious goes into serious naruto filler mode between the 2 seasons, with only a few plot relevant episodes. So i think the second half of 5ds is definitely worth watching, just skip the 1-of filler episodes.
i think that the second half started up with lack of direction as they intended to end it after the dark signers arc so tthey were just kind of stalling for time to come up with a plot but imo they got a pretty decent plot going once they got it
@@andrewplayz443 Also, allegedly, Carly's Japanese VA turned out to belong to a prominent cult in Japan, and people speculate that the production staff somehow found out before everyone else and changed the story to move away from the cult stuff to save face.
@@SomeRandomJackAss I don’t think there is any proof of this. The timelines don’t match up with the production of 5D’s. The most believable cause of the dip in 5D’s in the middle episodes is definitely production issues
Crow also is symbolized by his cards, more like the arquetype, “black wing” is symbolic of a minority, related to a black bird whose often left aside because of prejudice (like crows) but are not alone, they have each other, much like crow and the orphans. Also goes with his saying “flocks of the same feather fly together”
The reason why 5ds is so good it's because it's a good story FIRST! a commercial for a card games second. If you think about it, 5ds is a story about a guy who wants revenge against the one who betrayed him and a better life for his friends in a world full of social discrimination where he and the ones like him are discriminated just because they are born in the wrong side of the city that just happens to have card games in it.
As someone who grew up with this show, it defined so much of my life. Even if it wasn't my main franchise and it was the dubbed 4kids version, the story and the world shone through with how good it was and definitely left its impression on me
5ds, early zexal and early arch 5 are the best eras because of how their stories setup. besides that they also are the peak of the card game because 5ds normal play of summoning 2 monsters in 1 turn to synchro summon was much faster than the dm/gx normal summon then pass turn. Each series made the game faster than before but not to insane degree like the current game of "im going to spend 5+ minutes going through my whole deck ending on a board with 3+ omni negates because I hate fun".
What happens when you combine Yugioh,Akira,JoJos,G Gundam,Code Geass and Gintama? You get the best entry in the franchise.I will say that first half is perfect as it’s just a nonstop thriller from episode 1 to 64 culminating in 3 brothers reunited vs their hero for the fate of the world,honestly it’s premier writing. While the second half gets written off weak I don’t find that the case as rather than nonstop plot it goes the Gintama route of character writing,slowly showing us the bond of the crew through mundane life making us care about them being a crew culminating in the Z-One arc where they aren’t there to save town,they are there to save their found family. Honestly Yugioh 5Ds is phenomenal,sure it has weak points but for its shortcomings it more than makes up for them though the writing and overarching themes and its a thrill to watch every time.
Most YGO stories start off pretty strong, I like how Arc-V started because there was a mystery behind everything, and then we got a hot mess. Zexal, the designs were pretty wacky even for YGO, but to be honest, the story was consistent throughout most of the run time, unlike in 5Ds cause it did seemed like Zexals story was fleshed out from beginning to end. The 2nd half of the series was pretty bad, but the ending was pretty good! For 5Ds I did find it weird they wanted to end it with a tournament arc, but I believe that was just a framing device because YGO
IMO Zexal does not get good enough till they bring in the Crest Family for the WDC, and the best Arc is with the Barians, giving that show the standout lategame experience among the others. The characters and culmination of things in seamlessly tasteful seeming fanservice allows Arc-V to be my favorite early show, but the third season and even parts of the second are my biggest “what happened?” In all of Yugioh.
@runningoncylinders3829 I tried to get into Zexal and it just doesn't do it for me. Those first halve of the season really killed my interest of the show. I heard it gets better later on. But it's one of those too little, too late scenarios and even if it did get better, it doesn't mean I'll love it because most of the characters and the concept of the show are really bad IMO. I do liked the XYZ summoning thing. But that's all it has going for.
@@jaretco6423 I’d definitely prefer a show to start good rather than end good. It’s why Arc-V is still my favorite even though it ends bad, and while Zexal does get going you have to clear at least 30 episodes to get there. That’s more than JJBA in which people had a hard time finding the Parts 2 and 3 or however late they got into it or heard it became good.
@@runningoncylinders3829 I can somewhat understand and agreed. Although the later halve of Arc-V was very disappointing and not what I expected. Could've been better. But what made Arc-V stand out to me than Zexal are the characters. They are so much better than the one's from Zexal. Even if some were undercook or didn't get nearly as much as they could've, I enjoyed the characters in Arc-V more than the ones from Zexal.
@@jaretco6423 That’s the nail on the head. I love the Lancers and the counterparts, love how they somehow made the cast look busy and with cool decks and attitudes. If you truly don’t seek any kind of revisit with Zexal that show is firmly anchored to Yuma, Astral, Shark, and Kite. They’re the only ones who get enough attention to be memorable. Vector is their fake-on the heroes villain, and he’s decently entertaining. Arc-V even has more fun with that archetype with Sora and Dennis. I had a pretty unique series viewing order from when I took a break from the media.
No matter how much I like 5Ds, I will NEVER forgive the producers for not making Aki and Yusei official in the final episode. They pushed it hard throughout the series, only to leave it open ended. *WHY BLUEBALL ME LIKE THIS!* 😭
I think it was really clever of them to do it the way they did though. If Yusei and Aki kissed on screen in that garage scene and confessed their love for each other to pair up, it would've made it harder for them to move on to their own goals in life which would split them apart. Very mature to leave it open and let them go their seperate ways. (Although an OVA episode that shows them back together with Aki as a Doctor in Neo Domino along with Yusei as a researcher would be so cool!)
I agree with your thoughts about the second tournament arc. There were some bright spots, though. Team 5Ds vs. Team Taiyo, despite there being stakes, was essentially a reminder to Team 5Ds that not every opponent was their enemy. I also loved how throughout the series, Rua wanted to be a signer, essentially because he thought it was cool. Only to be given the powers of the Crimson Dragon because he wanted to save his sister's life. Lastly, I enjoyed the final match between Yusei and Jack. It was a match that had no stakes, it was all for glory, and they both needed to go all out against the other, because they knew how powerful the other had become.
5ds got me back into Yugioh at the time. I was a freshman in high when it came out. I left Yugioh behind back in 2006. When I first saw the white cards I got curious. Seeing the anime from the theme to story i was hooked
I don't know if I'd say I agree with saying the other previous series didn't put additional meaning behind the cards they played and their abilities. For example in GX with Aster/Edo, his frustration with and lack of patience in the powers that be to find justice for his father results in him abandoning the Elemental Heroes in favour of the Destiny Heroes. The elemental heroes being based on classic comic book superheroes in favour of the Destiny heroes which are based on anti-heroes i.e. Spawn, Devilman etc. Or with Zane/Ryo and his Cyber Dragons/Cyberdarks. With the first season, Zane approached dueling with the philosophy of showing respect to his opponents and going full strength, an apsect reflected in his ace Cyber Dragon whose eff is that when your opponent has a monster out (showing their intent for the duel) it can be special summoned from the hand while you control nothing (matching his opponents energy and showing respect by bringing out his own ace). This then gets distorted as he becomes Hell Kaiser, partaking in self destructive acts such as the electro duels. This in turn is reflected with the Cyberdark and Chimeratech cards which are build around self harm in the form of using the corpses of his monsters, a reflection of his soul, as tools, be it equipping them to the Cyberdarks as a power supply or banishing as material for his Chimeratechs.
The bike-slide should've queued us all in on the fact that this was originally supposed to be Akira: Duel Monsters, and is until the end of the signer stuff.
The whole motorcycle thing was a hard aspect to move past but once I did, 5D’s was incredible. I loved the tale of two cities inspiration, the dystopian backdrop, I even loved the motorcycles just as their mode of transport while not so much for the dueling. It’s unfortunate that behind the scenes the production was a mess which led to the two halves of the series being so divergent but even then it was a great watch and far better than GX and every Yugioh series since. I also think if it weren’t for the nostalgia factor of the original DM series, I might like it better than even that although my preference for a Yugioh story is generally a realistic contemporary setting like DM and not crazy sci-fi
While i get that the mood is a bit different and light hearted after the dark singer arc, if you actually want the FULL story, you should watch the sub in it entirity. There are a lot of light hearted moments than before, but when it gets into WHY zero reverse happened, why Rex & Rudger Godwin did what they did, if you don't finish it a lot of what was revealed during the dark signer arc won't make sense. Illiaster was there from the beginning and it sets up not only the character's growth in their found family, but over coming the world together, and then later on-- apart to reach their own goals. Lets not forget the Bonds Beyond Time movie IS CANNON, and with paradox, aporia, Z-ONE, & another (spoiler), it brings the story (not perfectly i'll admit) but together with themes that ring like Duel Monsters. Taking Destiny (or future) into your own hands, sacrifce & when its neccisary, acknowledging errors & how to move forward to fix them and that its about people coming together to survive-- which is a recurring theme in 5DS. The symbolism in synchro summing is one of my favorites for this reason. A type of summoning that demonstaites bonds. A great example that i love of this is Shooting Quastar Dragon, in the anime specifcally, Yusei uses all the signer dragons to summon this dragon, as a symbol of them working together to change the future that Z-one warns of. Seeing the mistakes that even illiaster make to 'save the world' & how far they would go but they forgot to have Hope-- in humanity and their comrades. It also explains the energy crisis that lead to the creation of the D-wheels and turboduels to begin with, and Yusei needs to do fix the energy crisis but save the future of humanity. I'm not saying every episode is the same energy as the first two arcs, but thats because its trying to build & wrap it up without info dumping on ya. There is another youtuber that goes into the science of 5ds and how IT HAS ACCURATE SCIENCE being used in a kids show. I guess what I want to say is... 5ds is a wild ride that is worth going through bumpy roads to get a very philosophical & well written piece of art.
@@Diamondr11Blue glad you make a generalization for everyone then. That's like people not being interested in scifiction cause its not 'realistic'. Some might be like i was when it was pointed out. I thought EVERYTHING was made up in the show and to found out that there is actual atomic & nuclear physics that actual carries throughout this and other series-- thats not only interesting but surprising for that level of detail to go over many kids heads! I'd rather share that tidbit for those who might be interested than assume.
@@Diamondr11Blue ...ok, big whoop? whoo who? you expect it from another anime, great? So what's wrong with learning that some scifi from another anime is based on actual science and these scerios are not only founded in our world, but aren't 'deux machina' ideas for the heck of it. You make is seem like someone can't enjoy features in a show just because its not 'expected' thats kind of boring if you ask me. I enjoyed Full metal BH, before i even learned about how the philosophy and alchemy principles were real in our world- it added to my enjoyment. that's it. Kinda like people liking horror games based on true stories after the fact
@@Diamondr11Blue tbf perpetual motion machines (the Momentum reactors) are even more fantastical than time travel. It's fun science, on the level of Star Wars, not "actual science".
After ep 65, the writers changed. This led to a lot of set up characters being sidelined, like Aki and Carly. The cult theme got put aside because of a scandal in real life, so the Arcadia movement got written out, and we lost out on an Aki arc. Yliaster (the old syndicate of the first arc) got rewritten into future people. I believe they had deadline constraints to write a new arc so they did a tournament arc, but then they skipped half the duels. The very final arc tried to fix the hole they dug themselves in. Arc cradel was very good, but man 5ds was so much lost potential after great setup.
Still a little insane that MANY revisions were made last minute to make one of the most FIRE series. I’d really love to see what they would’ve originally gone for.
Nope, the change on writing staff happened at the end of the second cour of 5D's (Episode 26), as Atsuhiro Tomioka was on the way of for Pokémon Best Wishes Everything from Episode 27 onwards, comes from the pen of Shin Yoshida, a regular name from the series' staff As for the cult themes, despite still not having concrete evidence to this day, it was rather complaints from the Parents-Teacher Association on the themes tackled by that of the "first half" of the series given the time slot it aired it (6PM, which is close to Japan's Prime Time, therefore preferably have more "family oriented" contents in there). The Roma-Sophie Incident had no bearings on Carly's character nor the drastic writing changes for its second half
@@LoboCrepuscularZelda Also, Yoshida has said he defaults to guy heavy writing. Hence the rest of 5Ds, ZEXAL’s anime and manga, Arc V’s manga, and VRAINS are all heavy on guys, bromance, and are very very heavy sausage fests. Literally the only thing really non-sausage/bromance heavy is Yusei and Aki/Akiza’s implied kiss in the last episode and her saying she will meet Yusei again. Otherwise, it feels very heavy on guy x guy action.
@@Golfkid100 which is such a shame honestly because I always liked Aki and Carly's impact on the early show and wished they had gotten used way more. I always felt like their characterisation suddenly backslid and I guess it makes sense that a guy who doesn't know how to write women took charge...
The thing about the Riding Duels, is that we see them hit 100+ mph pretty consistently. Especially in the later half of the show. However, there are 2 major differences between seasons 1 and 2 Riding Duels and Seasons 3 and 4 Riding Duels. Seasons 1 and 2 have autopilot because the courses are improvised. You need to focus on both the course and the duel. Now there are some exceptions like with the Stadium Duels in season 1. But almost every other duel the course is improvised. There's a lot you need to worry about in an improvised course that Auto pilot is basically necessary. However, when we go to season 3 and 4, those Riding Duels have to be done on a course (Except the final duel against Z-one). Meaning they can disable auto pilot as they follow the course. Now they still have to pay attention to the course as it's possible for the course to breakdown, however, due to it being closed off to others, there's less things that could be distractions. They also still hit 100+ mph. So they're still going insanely quick. I just wish we could see them from a top down view more though. So we could see just how fast they're going.
Yu-gi-oh is a bit of a bitter sweet memory as the series was one of the things my brother and I bonded over. I watched it first and then I showed it too him during the "Duel in Darkness" four parter and he was hooked. We watched the GX era together for the most part, but that is also about when my brother's jerkass tendencies started to over ride his good sense and he never really recovered (if he was ever the brother I thought he was to begin with). So when 5ds started up I actually ignored it out of spite for a few months. I then caught one episode and watched it out of boredom and just instantly related to Yusei and I started watching the rest of the series as much as I could. It is still my favorite series and Tag Force 3 is my favorite Yu-gi-Oh game period. While I don't think at this point I can ever have the relationship I once had with my brother, I have managed to mature enough to look back fondly on the times we did enjoy Yu-gi-oh together rather than regret
I'm interested to hear your take on zexal now... I find the tone change after dark signers very jarring. Especially with the sidelining of some characters. But, i find the new head writer's style to work decently when he gets to make his own cast amd themes.
Same for me. Though you can tell it’s a different writer. Yoshida has said he defaults to guy heavy writing. Hence the rest of 5Ds that he wrote, ZEXAL’s anime and manga, Arc V’s manga, and VRAINS are all heavy on guys, bromance, and are very very heavy sausage fests. Literally the only thing really non-sausage/bromance heavy is Yusei and Aki/Akiza’s implied kiss in the last episode and her saying she will meet Yusei again. Otherwise, it feels very heavy on guy x guy action.
Gratz on getting so many comments in less than a day! I definitely felt similarly about how they didn't use the street racing aspect of it to its full potential. Especially given how seriously dangerous some of the stunts Yusei pulls in his first few duels with Ushio were. Speaking of which, I'm still never sure if he's literally THE Ushio in his 40s and it's not that far in the future, or if he's like... that Ushio's grandson or something. I guess it doesn't really matter. Like a lot of others here I feel like the way it ends is still pretty good even though most of the middle is definitely a lull. Or a rut. I especially like that everyone moves to continue their life, and that Yusei becomes a (cartoon-)physicist. Keep on solving the interdimensional problems with that perpetual motion machine, my dude. Speaking of which, I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Momentum reactor" sounds so much cooler than "ener-D". As a couple others have also mentioned, the Japanese version of this show had some of the best music out of any Yugioh show. Almost all the openers for DM and GX were good too, but on top of that 5D's has a bunch of great incidental tracks too. They were some of my most-played tracks on Audiosurf back in the day! I do like the many different duel disk designs, there weren't quite as many as in GX but there were still a ton. And you could usually tell their design lineage, whether they were evolutions of the Battle City disk or the Academy disk or something else. It also introduced the auto-shuffle feature which was long overdue. The graveyard zone always worked like that - spitting out the exact card they need - so why did it take that long for the deck to act similarly! Especially as a couple of stories showed the Battle City disk could detect when you tried to play a card which wasn't drawn from your deck, so it scanned the deck and knew the order the cards were drawn in. Anyway. That's a little thing but it really helps the pacing of the fights I think. Aki got totally shafted and I hated that she, Carly, and Sherry (Shelly?) got such a short-shrift. Lastly, I kind of still have a soft spot for that episode which is purely centred on how everyone loves their favourite spicy instant ramen. Relatable gamer stuff lol.
The 2nd half of the show, while meh compared to rhe Dark Signers Arc, has some of the most memorable duels. The match vs Team Taiyou was the first time I've seen a show present a bulk common as a godlike threat, and Jack vs. Dragan getting the literal runback was an important moment for Jack's character.
I don't understand how so many people can accept grown men playing a children's card game to resolve conflicts but doing it on motorcycles crosses the line...
Weirdly enough, the duel runners and synchro summoning was what pulled me back into yu-gi-oh after a long time away from it. I'm a gearhead at heart, so the mechanics translated easily into learning the game again, then I fell off after Exceed, pendulum, and link summons. Yu gi oh was also how I made friends in middle school, otherwise I might never have had friends. I don't have any good analysis or opinion to offer, but even just playing still gives me the warm fuzzies.
Regarding the second part: It serves as a parallel to the real world, the issues of nuclear energy and the concept of generational responsibility quite well. The introduction of Meklords makes the characters question their own unique duel mechanic to the point that it profoundly changes the future. Notice how Synchro summoning is completely absent in the following season, Yugioh ZEAL, for the reason that at the end of 5Ds, Yusei seemed to revolutionise energy production once again by creating nuclear fusion (XYZ summoning) rather than nuclear fission (Synchro summoning).The themes of hope, immortality and revenge are also explored nicely, and there is one particular duel in the tournament which is a cool commentary on Yugioh as a game. My only criticism goes to the underutilised potential of Team Ragnarok who could have much more involvement in the series considering how they (also) had divine cards which similar to the Signers and Dark Signers had reality altering powers. We saw their backstory briefly but it felt like an afterthought to justify their involvement and power as the penultimate opponents rather than a nicely set up side-story. They should have appeared much earlier and have more screentime so that they could have become rival characters throughout the season.
The reason the second half of 5Ds fell off was bcuz of drama behind the scenes with Carly’s voice actor. They had a lot of storylines to work with going into the second arc and they had to abandon it all. We would’ve seen the actual Illiaster and the Arcadia movement. Illiaster wasn’t suppose to be robots. Illiaster was essentially supposed to be a illuminati type organization who caused zero reverse. But due to the drama they turned them into robots
The decision with Carly's VA likely had very little if anything to do with the change in direction for Season 2, as that only happened with 24 episodes left, just before the duel with Team New World. The much more likely explanation is because the main director had changed during the fortune cup, adapted things in their own way with the notes for the end of the Dark Signer season, and then season 2 was their own direction. Did they edit Illiaster to be a bit less cult like to avoid controversy? That is certainly a possibility. But the allegations on Carly's VA were not brought forward until the series was nearly done.
While I can accept and agree with your summary of the flaws of the 2nd half of the show - I still think overall this is my favourite Yugioh anime as well as one of my fav stories of all time. So many good characters and for me I am a big fan of the arc cradle story, albeit with a bit too much fluff before it pops off. Carly should have gotten her pairing with Jack. But IMO the story gets wrapped up so beautifuly - you see a few flash forwards to how things will be in the future with Rua and Ruka, Crow and Jack - and you also have their very important realization that they can't just be tied down by their bond to be together forever, but must also move on to live their own life. The ending theme of the last arc perfectly encapsulates that feeling - and especially all the high 5's as everyone goes their own way towards the future is something just so absolutely well done, for me personally. 10/10
What made 5ds so great is that it took itself seriously. Any story that isn't primarily comical should do that. The writers didn't care if card games were being played on motorcicles or not. They cared if they were going to make a good, dramatic story with that element.
I love 5ds, its my favorite yugioh by far. But I can't overlook some of the issues with it as a whole. I think you really highlighted a bunch of them, but I'd like to elaborate a bit further on a few. Them basically making Aki a side character after the dark signers arc is honestly the most disappointing thing about the second half. I like Crow, but at the end of the day he wasn't really apart of the main team, and I think them pushing him in makes the whole team dynamic as a whole kinda fall apart. Also I know you didn't address anything much after dark signers, but I will say the very last arc is very enjoyable for what they were given to work with. Specifically Bruno and Sherry's storylines as well as accel synchros. Like I actually cried during the last fight with bruno. At the end of the day I think if 5ds hadn't switched its direction half way through it would be no question the best yugioh in terms of story telling. Its like you said, it could have just ended with the dark signers arc. In that way 5ds has the opposite problem that vrains had, too much time to fill. Where as with vrains we never really get to expand on most of the setup because of the abrupt rap up at the end with S3. All in all I loved this video and wish people would give 5ds a chance, because even though it looks really goofy on the outside I think it honestly is more than just a show about card games.
Lol crow was apart of the main crew consisting of yusei jack and himself. Are you forgetting they grew up together with kalin? Forget the signers, the Enforcers are the real deal
I actually don't mind the second season of 5D's. I like that they switched to a focus on technology instead of the same old magic again, and the lighter tone, with people having healed and getting along felt like a nice break from the far more serious first season. I REALLY like the Arc Cradle storyline at the end of the series, another storyline that was never dubbed. In it, it is revealed that the main antagonists of the second season, the Three Emperors of Iliaster, had in fact been trying to prevent an apocalyptic future where Humanity is nearly wiped out. As it turns out, in the future, Humans had overused the power of the Moment Energy, which caused it to react the dark, greedy, and corrupt desires, and created an army of Machine Emperor's to kill Humans, which destroyed the world and left only 4 survivors. The 4 survivors, Z-one, Aporia, Antinomy, and Paradox had been manipulating time and attempting to destroy the things that would lead to their ruined future. These included the original Moment reactor, Pegasus and the game of Duel Monsters itself, and eventually Neo Domino City. Not only did it make the Yugioh 10th Anniversary Movie and Paradox's goal canon, It recontextualizes the actions of the antagonists and their motives. I think this was the first time in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise where the major antagonists were truly acting with the greater good in mind. Yes they were prepared and willing to sacrifice things, including people, but at the end of the day they were trying to save the world before it was too late. This also put Yusei and the Signers in a difficult position: If they stopped Iliaster, they would thus allow the allow the apocalyptic future to happen and damn Humanity.
Although I think you did a great job analyzing the first half of 5Ds, I wish you were able to explain more regarding the second half other than just “it’s bad.” They introduce pivotal characters like Bruno and Sherry who play a big role in the series and how it’d eventually conclude. Not only that, but there was also no mention of the final arc of the series which is considered one of the best conclusions out of any yugioh. Overall, I enjoyed the video, but think a little more analysis of the rest of the show would’ve made it all the better. However, with that being said, keep up the good work on your videos!
Bro, you wrong! Second half of 5ds is great. I think you also failed to touch on the card game in the show. It is the height of yugioh card game watching experience. Fun strategies and real life card ruling details. Chefs kiss
Yugioh 5ds is one of the few anime that excellently showcased the power of friendship and it makes sense. There's a logic behind it and it gives a tremendous impact to everyone involved. Thats why yusei summoning Shooting quasar dragon will always be one of the most epic summoning in yugioh.
Yugioh 5ds was dope and so dark as well there were many sad scenes of characters dying even future ones like zone bro and bruno. Wish there was a sequel.
While I love 5ds, I have to agree to some extent with you about the second half nosedive. The only good part of season 3 is Crash Town, a filler arc, season 4 has 1 good duel (Team Taiyo) and 2 decent ones (Team Ragnarok and Team New World), and the final season is actually pretty good imo, aside from the Sherry duel. Plus, as you showed, they completely massacred Jack's character after episode 65, with the only duels where I would argue against that being his two duels against Robo-Jack and his duel where he got Red Nova Dragon.
As much as I think the show starts to falter after the Dark Signers arc, the finale CANNOT be topped by other Yu-Gi-Oh shows. Just the final few episodes where we see them 2 years after the final battle, in which ZONE allows for Yusei to live so that he can shape a better future, are beautiful. It does something these toy related anime basically never do and that is give us a glimpse into their future. And it ends on such a beautiful sweet note as well, the shot of Yusei standing over the saved city with Masaki Endoh's "Yakusoku no melody" playing is pure cinema. Ushio also is there alongside him and their talk about people having these shared bonds while also going on their own way was really profound. I loved the sections of their lives we see in the future and everyone promising to go onwards to the next stage in their life after having saved the world. It just gives you this feeling of having gone on a great adventure while also not being downtrodden about it being over because life is not waiting on anything.
5Ds is the Yugioh of the greatest depth which makes it unforgettably strong for the brand. The only spin-off I would say gets better in the later half is Zexal which saved its key antags for then. But even as the later 5Ds goes through the motions, it could never be as derailed to me as Arc-V. Arc-V being my favorite spin-off carried by its beginning I can’t truly call the best for how far it falls in the end.
Thank you! ARC V and 5Ds have great starts and both fall off a cliff around the same time (around 50-60 episodes give or take with both). The only series who either got better as it went along or at least felt the most consistent was ZEXAL.
You didn't even touch my favirite characters: the twin who had powers she didn't want and the twin who wanted power he didn't have. A big reason I kept on watching this show to the end was to see their development. And it was a boring half development.
23:23 that comment about the D Wheels looking silly is INSANE to me lol. This is absolutely nostalgia talking, but as a kid with no understanding of how those things are supposed to work irl, they looked so damn cool. Even now, I still think they look pretty nice. The point you made right after about how little the "driving while dueling" bit was used was so true. The Dark Signer duels were some of the most intense and fun to watch and seeing the characters have to balance skillful dueling and driving simultaneously was a big part of that edit: also wholeheartedly agree with you on post-Dark Signers. It felt like such a natural conclusive ending, and iirc, the dub (which is what I saw) even had an epilogue of sorts which I'm not sure if it's in the sub. Almost everything was wrapped up so nicely and then we get a random new enemy that had little to no connection/importance to the main characters besides the most milquetoast "destroy/save the city"
5Ds had two major writing transition period. The first two cour (Fortune Cup) was written under Atsuhiro Tomioka as the headwriter, who left the show to work on Pokemon (notably the Pokemon anime during that era is considered one of its best, with a 5DS-esque much more mature take on the premise). This was 5Ds at its best, a gritty revenge story that also stay true to its shounen theme at its root. Dark Signer had enough writing momentum and setup from Fortune Cup that you're not going to notice the bumps on the road too much (i.e. the retcon on Saiga's backstory), but the Jesus Fudo effect was already starting to be noticeable. The filler period following Dark Signer was due to the production of Bond Beyond Time, and WRGP finally mark the transition of 5Ds from its gritty cyberpunk dystopian setting to straight out Sci-Fi.
As much respect I give to Little Kuriboh, I kinda do think the whole "CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLE" meme kinda hurt this series since now no one really takes it seriously
Oddly enough it was because of that meme that I gave the series a chance.
I prefer zexal. Cards games in SPACE
To be fair to Little Kuriboh, it's not like 5Ds was respected back when it was first airing.
Based it's the beste Anime!! Just weird friends from Yuma lmao@@Diamondr11Blue
@@tpsplatinum3562 plus, LittleKuriboh regrets the meme since he thinks it is the best series, too.
I think it’s worth mentioning that yusei has 2 aces. One being his ideal self (stardust dragon) and his true self (junk warrior) stardust dragon is a martyr with this legendary destiny that must carry all burdens, while junk warrior a catalyst for change. A pile of scraps that is only as strong as the allies around it.
Cool analogy
yugioh gx too . we dont know the aces card jaiden later on the story . aces card something you remember like dark magician , blue eyes and stardust dragon all version of it so OP Combo
That's actually a really cool interpretation
he actually combines them both at one point
Makes it very neat when Junk Warrior wins him the final duel in the show, a rematch against Jack.
Another interesting bit of writing in this show is why Yusei is so self-sacrificing. At the beginning of the anime, it's not necessarily because he's just that guy and cares about friendship that much, it's because his father invented the technology that caused the Zero Reverse that split New Domino City. He feels personally responsible for the societal problems around him and is trying to atone for those sins.
Yusei is one of my favourite protagonists in any anime I’ve ever watched honestly. It’s insane to say but he’s so well written and interesting. The rest of the show has its issues as the series goes on but early on it’s genuinely well written
@@matthewsmith2237 5Ds Gary Stu'd Yusei too much though...
@@philithegamer8265 eh I disagree. Like in some parts of the story sure but his internal responsibility to help people and how that affects him mentally when he’s unable to protect them is not the normal Gary stu fair. As well I think him guilting himself into helping people due to him feeling responsible for why the satellite peoples live are like this is quite interesting
@matthewsmith2237 The biggest issue with Yusei was that the writers refused to let him lose even during duels that were inconsequential. Don't mind his immense skill because it makes sense when you consider his background, but Yusei practically has never lost a duel, not even the trivial ones. Would've made his victories far more meaningful had Yusei lost to Jack during *maybe* his 1st but certainly his 3rd and maybe last matchup against him (Onscreen duels because offscreen Jack must've been that OP, lost to Akiza during their 2nd duel in a mostly one sided fashion, with her beating Yusei fair and square at full strength, when she was recovering from that comma that was dealt to her by Misty (Could've made for great character arcs for both of them. Akiza being able to control her psychic abilities without hurting anyone along with establishing herself to be on equal ground with Yusei and Jack, in addition Yusei finally learning to stop being such a huge sore loser and taking a loss well, even some good tension between Yusei and Aki. He also could've easily lost against that team Unicorn guy during their 1 vs. 1 duel to set up their later matchup and even lose against Sherry, too...
That's what's good about the 5Ds Manga is that the writer wasn't scared to let Yusei lose firsthand to set him up overcoming his opponents for round 2...
Yusei does remind me alot of Yu from Persona 4. Possibly the same character archetype and personality...
which also shows in his cards, or atleast in Stardust Dragon’s effect, which allowed it to tribute itself to protect another card from being destroyed, at the cost of it getting destroyed in the process
it still comes back by the End Phase, but I love how his Ace/Boss Ace reflects Yusei’s personality in its effect
I absolutely loved how Jack and Yusei’s color schemes are opposite of their dragons like it shows they’re two sides of the same coin
Dude you just blew my mind. I legitimately never noticed that 😮
well... Jack toook the duel runner Yusei built and stardust dragon so...
@@TheGamefreak612 yeah, they could have swapped their signer dragons and I don’t think a casual fan would really notice and would even think that’s how it was supposed to be originally lol
@@kuyaboben5300 yeah but as the video says Stardust matches Yusei's character so it makes sense in the end. seriously 5D's really was amazing. as much of a meme the motorcycle dueling was I actually enjoyed it, made the duels more dynamic than just standing on opposite ends
I didn’t think about that 😮
5ds is in my opinion probably the peak of Yu-Gi-Oh it's so well done.
Duelist kingdom was the peak
@@perfectman3077dueslist kingdom sucks. Egyptian memory world (or whatever you call the arc) is better
If we only count from the beginning to the end of the dark signer arc, yeah I agree, it's so good. To me it's way better than anything else we've got to see.
@@perfectman3077you mean when nothing made sense?
Zexal*
5ds was a childs peak yugioh. Real goofy style but nothing short of complete emotion. YOU FELT EVERY CHARACTER. No one fell short of being a main character. Still my favorite yugioh
Actually my nitpick was towards Rua & Ruka. I knew before their introduction, the twins are supporting cast but didn't think they would remain support throughout 5D's.
Yusei was a Gary Stu never lost, boring show
@@alanchamberlain9902He actually did lose duels and he caught Ls in life too. He literally goes from rags to riches. Just bc you don't lose doesn't mean someone is a gary sue either.
@@alanchamberlain9902 Lol he lose few times
@@serenity3157 Nope, they creator made Team Unicoen throw the duel, vs Kiryu his bike broke etc plot
Fun Fact: 5Ds was originally only slated for 2 seasons originally. The Dark Signers arc WAS the intended end of the show. But part way through, TVTokyo ordered 2 more seasons be made. That's why before the WRGP Arc starts the show kinda just wonders around with no story for a while, they WERE just filling time slots and trying to figure out what else to add to pad out the newly ordered seasons.
Indeed. Jack and Carly relationship got reset because of VA of Carly got into trouble with the police because of cult activities. The production team tried to shine away from that ship during the later stories. (edit: it appears to a rumor)
@@derzweite1205 I believe that whole cult thing may have also been why the show kinda takes on a more technology feeling in the second half rather than magic. I'm not certain though so take that with a grain of salt.
@@derzweite1205 That's actually false! By the time the arc had started Carly's VA was still voicing her. There was apparently other reasons for the VA leaving.
Source?
@@justsomeguywhohideshismust1613he probably thinks Metal gear revenge is a real news source
Yusei has one of the most impactful lines in the English dub. ..."I'll have some milk"
Homelander wants to know his location
@@mariowarion
The Boys new season coming PogU
He says that in the sub too, remember, he's under drinking age and has to drive home.
@@teapartypenguin1353 Well, at that time he couldn't drive home, because his D-Wheel was stored in the public security warehouse and he was watched by Godwin spies, so only age stopped him from ordering something else xD
tbh, I interpreted this as some kind of street code for "I want information on this".
5ds was peak yu gi oh. They cut back on last min cards and actually showed strategy. Villains had great decks not to mention snycro summoning one of the coolest way of summoning
nowhere near the peak of Yu-Gi-Oh! bud. Need to watch the japanese dub of ZEXAL if you think that.
Also you must've watched Yu-Gi-Oh! 5C's because the amount of times Yusei pulls out a random ass trap we have never seen before in our life to save himself is ridiculous
@@fxzzy__you replied to every comment talking about zexal. Get a life. None cares about zexal and yuma, the worst protagonist in yu gi oh. 5ds is the best
@@snicko22 Uh, a bunch of people care about ZEXAL? So I don't know what crack you're smoking...
Get a life? LMAO, I'm talking about a series I like, like how you're talking about 5D's, so you need to get a life too.
Yuma is the best protagonist in Yu-Gi-Oh!, he actually went through immense character growth, and had really cool dynamics with the rest of the cast.
5D's is probably the 2nd best, its second half is extremely flawed, and the character writing is pretty shit too
@@fxzzy__ there was plot armor but there was real strategy wasn’t just throw down monsters until. Zexal was a joke Yuma lost so much with astral.
@@andresmith1652 The fact you said 'Yuma lost so much without Astral' already tells me you haven't seen ZEXAL.
Fuck off.
14:35 kiryu wasn't released from prison, he died in there and was brought back to life by the god of death
Poor kalin 😓
finally someone calling him Kiryu and not Kalin
@@fxzzy__To be fair, this video was covering the Japanese version so it makes sense to use the Japanese names.
@@WDinATX even if someone is talking about the Japanese version, a lot of people will still call him Kalin because they watched the dub (like the person right above me lol)
@@fxzzy__I just preferred the dub that's all.
It's always been really funny to me that "card games on motorcycles" of all things is somehow a bridge too far.
Yu-Gi-Oh style hair? Ok.
Cheap mass-produced cardboard having magical powers? Ok.
Structuring all of society around a children's card game? Ok.
Card games on motorcycles? Whoa whoa whoa, stop having fun, that makes no sense! 😭
Personally, I applaud the creative team for having the wisdom and courage to say "Screw it, none of this makes any sense anyway, we're going to have card games on motorcycles and you can't stop us."
You get it man
Hologram projectors? Ok.
A VHS tape that is enchanted to not only force you into a card game held in a world of darkness, but beat you at that card game and steal your grandfather's soul? Ok.
Ancient magical artifact containing the soul of a long dead pharaoh that possesses the body of a teenage boy? Ok.
Ancient magical artifact that lets you read minds? Ok.
Ancient magical artifact that lets you predict the future? Ok.
Defying your predetermined future through sheer willpower? Ok.
Literally manipulating the cards in your deck with your willpower so you can play without ever looking at them and always get the card you need? Ok.
A parallel world of monster spirits? Ok.
All these pieces of cardboard secretly having those spirits connected to them and their life is tied to that card? Ok.
Literal gods being able to be called forth and controlled with cardboard? Ok.
Those gods striking down anybody who attempts to use a piece of cardboard other than their original one? Ok.
A space elevator? Ok.
etc.
but god forbid we have card games on motorcycles
Also:
Riding hippos, make a circus and exploring the world during a duel? Ok
this 100%
No one has the right to complain about the "card games on motocycle" when stuff like ZEXAL FORM, SHINING DRAW, DIMENTIONAL WAR WITH CARDS or "the universe was Born by a card" exist.
5D's dub had some of the best lines.
"Is that Joey Wheeler?"
"No, that's his cousin, Jesse Wheeler."
Or when Yusei had gone missing and Crow casually mentioned he got a phone call from someone who very matter-of-factly told him they had Yusei and he didn't think to bring it up earlier, Akiza's response was hilarious.
"I'm gonna cobble you, Crow!"
Jack: "I believe you mean 'clobber'. To cobble is to make shoes."
Akiza: "Whatever! Then I'm going to cobble some shoes and use them to kick Crow's butt!"
🤣 To which Jack replies: “I don't know why this Yusei thing has you so worked up, Akiza; if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were in love with Yui-”
Akiza: “Stop right there, Jack!” *Call ends*
Easily one of the best episodes of the second half of the show.
@Boss_Isaac jack didn't give a F***😂
Luna: we have to stop Gudwin but how?
Akiza: by winning!
Yusei: *I' L H A V E S O M E M I L K !*
@@Boss_IsaacI love Akiza
5Ds really finished strong. I still cry at Bruno's death, or more accurately, Yusei's response to it, and the duel vs Z-One is still one of my favorites.
the Z-One duel was genuinely boring
@@fxzzy__ what do you mean you don't enjoy big fucking dragon that got pull out of the mc ass ?
yeah I really don't get the hate for the second half of the show other than season 3 being full of filler which could have been used more effectively. But season 4 and 5 are filled with great character moments and feature easily the best duels of the show.
I was kind of upset that yusei didn't try to destroy z-one's continuous trap, though.
@@dies3156While I don’t hate the second half and enjoyed it. I’m not going to lie that I was disappointed in the end. Sorry but I disagree with you about most things especially the final arc which I thought was mediocre at best IMO. All spectacle with little to no substance. I thought the ending was okay but not that great.
As a kid, I always thought Yugioh on motorcycles was cool. As an adult, I think it's the coolest idea Yugioh ever had.
Something that I still laugh about when thinking of the series is that at first, Yusei had his crew from the satellite. Then, he proceeded to completely ditch them and get the signers as his new squad lol.
Granted, it would've done the same after they tried to kill me, but Old Man Yanagi and Himuro deserved better lol
I just realized Turbo Booster never got a retrain. A shame because I liked that monster.
@@LoboCrepuscularZeldaSame. Admittedly, the old man's biggest advantage was his knowledge about history and the Crimson Dragon....which wouldn't be useful in the second arc....but I am still a little sad that he and the old gang were kinda forgotten.
@@thatman666 we forgetting jack almost frowned rally
@@LoboCrepuscularZelda rally too
The best part of 5Ds starts around when Aporia shows up, episode 134. It is insane not to have brought that part up, since it is the wrapup to like 15 years of storytelling across the original 3 yugioh ANIMES. Z-ONE and Aporia themselves being the two best characters in 5Ds. Episode 134-154 is 5Ds at its absolute best.
Of course, that still leaves like 80 episodes where nothing really happens except that fun Crashtown mini arc. But most of those episodes are indeed the anime spinning its wheels because the key members of the writing team were working on the Bonds Beyond Time movie.
Also, insane to me how you mention how the cards represent the characters but didn't mention Junk Warrior. It's explicitly pointed out a couple times in the anime that Junk Warrior is Yusei with how it gets its strength from the weak monsters around it. It and Stardust Dragon show the different aspects of Yusei's character: his friends give him strength and he's willing to sacrifice himself to protect them. Then, in the finale, it's Junk Warrior, not Stardust Dragon, that defeats Red Dragon Archfiend and allows his friends to leave Neo Domino City to go live their lives. He is done sacrificing himself.
Agreed with everything, much like GX, 5Ds had a pretty bad middle part but finished really strong. No idea why this video didn't discuss the ending, I'm starting to doubt this dude actually finished the anime. The ending season is insane, yugioh had never tackled anything as serious as the actual apocalypse and the last few remaining humans on Earth.
Couldn't agree more. Was really disappointed by the coverage of the second half. @@resee9856
I really don't see the hate for season 4 tho. Sure, its another tournament which is perhaps a bit lazy but it features great duels, further extenuates the bond between the characters and highlights how far team 5D's has come with the contrast between Team Taiyo and Ragnarok which they duel back to back and then finishes off with the arrival of Aporia. I think people underestimate the second half because they see the preliminaries which happened in season 3 and just group the whole tournament with that fillery season which was made during the production of Bonds Beyond Time
@@resee9856 fr, the ending for 5ds is SO fucking peak its insane.
Yeah…I disagree with most of what you said. Aporia himself and Z-One are...mediocre villains. Plus I don’t find them that interesting or compelling to be honest. They have a cool (if trite) backstory and potential as characters. But they aren't utilized well at all. They are just the force that will drop a city onto Yusei's city and that's it. Even Yliaster's 3 members were especially bad. Their evil scheme was literally "sit around and do absolutely nothing until the plot moves forward". They also dueled a couple of times, I guess, but nothing ever came out of it. (Also their "ultimate form" looked stupid and why did anyone thought that was a good idea.)
Can we just admire how good yusei's japanese voice actor is
What's crazier is that the guy has done no other roles than Yusei. Not that I can find, anyway
@@touhouenjoyer yeah.
I wonder why
@@fxzzy__ sounds pretty basic. Greg abbey does a good job tho
@@fxzzy__ don't place Japan on such a pedestal..I've listened to anime in latino Spanish, brasil, castellano, Portuguese, and their voices are great too 👍saying this as someone who studied Japanese lol 😆
@@fxzzy__says a person commenting abt someone tht doesnt even know u exist on youtube. anything could have happened why think the worst? weird energy
For those unaware, 5ds actually has the most amount of undubbed episodes in the whole Yugioh anime franchise. Not GX as most would assume.
Gx had 23 episodes undubbed. Whereas 5ds had a total of 31 episodes undubbed. (Not to mention how it is the most censored of all the anime’s.)
Mostly due to something something copyright lawsuit involving 4kids. There is a lot more of details and information that you will have to look further into yourself. Because boy is it extensive.
Yeah that shit is nuts 😅
thank God true peak (ZEXAL) got a full dub. It's also quite a shame how this community is one of the only anime communities with a larger percentage of it being dub cockroaches. Like when I see 'Kalin' and not 'Kiryu' I cringe so hard.
YGO was dubbed by a company known as fucking 4KIDS, unless you're
@@fxzzy__ ikr 😅
@@fxzzy__ Okay this is gonna be a long one, but you need to hear this. “like have some common sense” ….You might need to tell yourself that more often. The amount of unlawful handling done by 4Kids is astronomical. Let’s start with the phrase that most associate with 4Kids, “they don’t just translate anime into English. They make them American.” Already that sounds problematic and unfortunately there are way many too examples of this. But I’ll leave my ‘favorite’ example. Jelly filled donuts from Pokémon and the American Anthem sang by Japanese anime characters. And real quick if you make mention of how 4Kids were “just doing their job” or “well it’s just for kids right?” Then you really don’t know anything about why 4kids is so terrible.
Now for the unnecessary censorship. With the usual victims of the removal of anything sexual, religious and violent. These I don’t have much of an issue with as for the time period, they could be much for children without access to internet can handle. (Keep in mind, I’m referring to a time when streaming service were nonexistent.) But why remove text in general? I don’t just mean replace Japanese text with English. They straight remove any type of text in a show, even ones already in English. And while I can understand wanting to removing guns and knives for wider viewership. The way they handle it comes off as stupid. Like the finger guns in Yugioh and whole sword being replaced with light saber like weapons….. Or completely shaved down to its handle like in Naruto. It’s a world of ninja and weaponry. So why? Regardless of what most believe, kids are not that stupid. They would noticed. I sure did. But I believe the biggest issue with such unnecessary censorship, is how they can completely change the characters and the show altogether. An example from Yugioh would be Kaiba and his denial over Magic in the dub. In the original, it’s in line with how he doesn’t care and is more focus on the present and thus his future to an unhealthy degree. Also any mention of abuse he went through with his adoptive father was completely scrubbed out.
And for the biggest crime they have committed and are still doing to this day under different names. When they finally lost all distribution rights from companies that were done with their BS. Went bankrupt and started the whole process again under 4 K licensing. They would go on a rampage on TH-cam that used any footage involving Yugioh. Putting up many copyright claims that temporarily to completely shutting down multiple channels. There was a fan project to dubbed season 4 of GX, something no major dubbing company has any intention of doing. And 4Kids have long since lost the property at this point so they should be able to dub it as a passion project in peace right? Wrong, they got sued by 4K and somehow it went in their favor, and the project was shutdown. Even though they don’t own the property anymore! You don’t own this shit anymore 4Kids, leave it alone!
4Kids is so bad at there job they actively hurt people. And so unlawfully. But yeah, let’s be glad that such a company, with an already notorious history of mishandling media, got to fully dub Zexal. …During the lawsuit period like little weasels. That’s right, the reason why 5ds was cut so short was because of the lawsuit and 4kids decided to push out Zexal to get around it. And the worst part is, this wasn’t the first time something like this happened. GX was also a victim under similar circumstance, hence no season 4. Furthermore, because of how the situation was handled. Fans missed out on the potential to get a dubbed Yugioh show done by Funmation (back when that meant something). And had Yuma, the worst dubbed voice they could have given to a main protagonist in a Yugioh show, instead be voice by motherfing Johnny Young Bosch. But no, none of that happened. We are left with two Yugioh series not fully dubbed, another Yugioh series that was awfully dubbed. Aaaaannnnddddd then 4Kids went bankrupt. So after all of that, they lost everything but they feel like still do and we are still paying the price.
So those complaining about the unnecessary changes done by 4Kids are completely justified in doing so.
@@fxzzy__ bro chill 🤣 kalin is my baby 🌸 🍡
Also Yusei Stardust Dragon matches the D-Wheel that Jack stole from him. Yusei’s new D-Wheel matches Red Dragon Archfiend. Jack’s robes are Stardust colors whereas Yusei’s are RDA
Bro, Yusei's stardust dragon literally looks like Jack, and red dragon Archfiend looks like Yusei
I love 5D's and watched a couple of arcs over and over and this never occurred to me, damn. you're right. this show is even better than I thought.
I completely agree that the second half is bad, I can't even get through it. But the arc cradle arc to bring the series to a finish is fantastic as well and should not be skipped. Leo's duel with aporia is my favorite yugioh duel of all time that happens during arc cradle and brings Leo as a character more in line with the others. Poor Carly though, she didn't deserve to be treated that way by the story.
Ragnarok, bruno and sherry's mystery made it worth watching imo
Didn't help that her Japanese voice actress was in a cult and thus her character was written out or with little dialog.
@@ThePoetryNinjachloe 😢
@@ThePoetryNinja This claim that she was written out due to cult status has no source and is misinformation in the community. The timeline of the cult getting caught and her being written out dont match up, the latter happening before the former.
Id say that the 2nd part is worse, than the Dark Signer Arc, but it still ranks well among Yu-Gi-Oh arcs.
Synchro Summoning is easily my favourite summoning mechanic in the game, Yusei is by FAR my favourite protagonist and 5D's plot/themes (in specific, I REALLY like how Yusei/Jack's progress is portrayed through Stardust Dragon/RDA's evolution and/or their card effects).
You're so right about the symbolism, it's a make-or-break part of the series and BOY did it make it! Maybe I'm wrong, but I personally haven't felt the same level of depth from any other arc. Even the Dark Signers all fell into place within the Signer's past and the both of them change one-another in the past and throughout the series- for better of worse- like pieces of a puzzle that just kind of click into place.
I kinda agree that the Duel Runners going on auto-pilot ruins half the fun of the duel, but to be honest, if they focused on EVERY duel being manual, i don't think I'd enjoy the severity and danger of the few manual duels as much.
I disliked the Z-ONE arc and beyond, because as you said, some of the development is just completely ignored/forgotten. It doesn't run with (most of) the same themes either, but we DID get Accel Synchro Summoning and Bruno/Antimony from those arcs, so I can't complain at all. I think 5D's definitely could (and should) have ended right then and there after the Dark Signers arc because the arc was just THAT conclusive, but I still think at the very least that the origin for Z-ONE and whatnot was a neat concept. We also got some neat Synchro Summoning mechanics/characters/iconic moments from it in the end, so zero complaints here.
Yusei also started off playing a deck literally picked from thrown-away cards, which vibed with how /I/ started, literally picking random cards from my friend's massive pile of cards that he said he'd never play in the playground. I will never forget how important 5D's is to me, even if nobody else in my childhood really shares that feeling.
Thank you for the video. It was well-put together, nostalgia fuel for SURE, and a joy from start to finish
Yeah, Shooting Star Dragon was the best debut of an Ace Monster's Super Form.
Let's Not Forget how Yusei plays "Junk" archetype and has a Lot of Strategic and Defensive Cards until he get's it all in Place, every card in his Hand the Opponents Hand and Fieldand both Graveyards Mattered sometimes This Man took "Recycling" to Heart
Jaiden clears
The very last arc has back to back banger duels tho. Rua/ Leo earning his signer mark is probably my favorite from that arc. Although it's sad that Carly and jack's relationship regressed to the start. Their duel is the most memorable for me.
Lua, Luca, and Jack's duel against Aporia is one of my favorites across all the series, it really nails both the horror at the start and the triumph at the end.
Oh now that you mentioned it.. I remember about that flashlight that made me overjoyed.
It's still the best in many ways.
Basically fully gave us the modern style that every show until vrains used as animation
Cast actually grew up and either gave up on playing Yu-Gi-Oh to follow their dreams and show us people actually growing up. From yugi to yusako they all failed at this as they just ended nothing really resolved. Yusei and co all managed to age and expand past dueling for some.
Ending is probably the only one rhat made me cry due to how mature it actually is to tell your fans that friends eventually need to grow up and leave one another. Yugi is only one guy so his is less impactful as he's already gone. That was more of letting someone pass.
The storyline are fantastic with the curupt world on top of cults and all the back end powers. Heck even using a thousands of year battle to their advantage made illisaster even better overall
Also one of the best tournament arc in 3 v 3 duels
They kinda did the same for the original cast in dark side of dimensions
@@riroufudo you know they'll reset them again eventually so I'm not counting that much
Plus it doesn't work for the story as the movie is canon to the manga not anime which is why kaiba acts the way he does rather than accept Yugi which he doesn't in the manga.
So no that doesn't count either. Plus they bring back Yugi all the time with gx showing the difference timelines of things and how yami somehow keeps coming back which only makes Yugi a joke when he should be grown up but the pharaoh keeps bailing him out.
@@ivanbluecool fair enough
People liked vs. Team Unicorn duel? 🤔
@@thatman666 people like the taiyou duel too. They are the pokemon Karen of Yu-Gi-Oh 5ds(the elite four member)
While the Grand Prix arc might not have been as good as the Dark Signers arc, the stuff with Bruno, Sherry, Z-One and the Ark Cradle Arc was fantastic. Also I enjoyed Yusei's second character arc even if it was less prominent of learning that you can't always sacrifice yourself for others and that's ok, represented in both his duel with Bruno and how Quasar is the only card in the Stardust Dragon evolution line to not sacrifice itself to use it's effect.
Sherry and bruno are amazing
Sherry is one of my most hated characters in the entire ygo series
@@soukenmarufwt5224 that sucks. She's SO badass, actually does hand to hand combat with the guys. Should've been the main girl since she was actually a turbo duelist. Just like Anna kaboom is better than tori
The grand prix arc had Team Taiyou, who you end up rooting for against the main characters. They also had cheaters, and Yusei also literally provokes Unicorns into a misplay. A lot of interesting plots in it
@@soukenmarufwt5224 I'd argue Sherry could've been a protagonist of her own show, but atlas...
Jack best rival. Gets to be protagonist at times even.
Card concept expanded the yugioh game so much to allow the future systems to be made. Fusion was quite simple to gx.
Ending is super impactful it gets me everytime.
Nah zane, declan and kite are much better
@@Diamondr11BlueZane wasn’t even the rival, kite is just a discount Kaiba, but Declan was really good
@@TheOtherGuy128 hwo is kite a discount kaiba?
@@TheOtherGuy128 zane had a good dub, kite was nothing like kaiba he actually had a heart for other than his brother.
@@riroufudo absolutely not. Kite actually has a personality and isn't obessed with a dead man🤣
Of course it was! Besties were playing cardgames on motorcycles, very ahead of its time
I really hate how they let Aki's story arc and character growth potential die off so horribly into mostly being a cheerleader/benchwarmer after the Dark Signer Arc. I mean Sayer had an ENTIRE Organization that he was secretly building an army out of, but deceived the public to believe it was just a safe haven for Psychic Duelists.
A condition multiple people was born with that they had no control over and came to him for guidance on. Seeking acceptance and knowledge to control their powers in his haven. Only to be trained and indoctrinated to serve his cause to get revenge on civilization for how they treated them.
With Aki/Akiza being his walking nuke/ace in the hole to over power difficult duelists who might face them, if not a Anti Sector Security plan by having her nuke a whole bunch of them with Black Rose Dragon.
You mean to tell me, this guy who planned and manipulated society itself into a seat of power to have a giant tower to himself and his people, which he secretly trains an army for his plans of revenge for....Doesn't have an heir or two to carry on his vision IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO HIM?!
This guy could legit choke on a cashew and if he dies his entire organization just falls apart without him?
That's bad writing! Aki having to deal with his successor trying to take her back into their fold and being the lead Signer trying to stop their plans to use Psychic Duelists as an army to get revenge on city for how they was treated could have been an AMAZING character arc for Aki as she is forced to confront not only how people still fear psychic duelists and why they feel wronged by society, but deciding WHO SHE WANTS TO BE in the future.
Not just a weapon for the Arcadia movement, not just a girl running away from her powers, but to be someone who can help others as Yusei saved her. We might even been able to see Aki have a Majestic Version of Black Rose Dragon!
So much potential...why did they treat Aki so badly? Her dueling abilities and psychic powers opened up so much story potential for her AND for the world building of 5Ds...
His organization was basically a cult and themselves was trying to shift directions after the jp VA for Carly was caught being involved in a cult and it would have been bad if they kept the original storyline unfortunately and those 2 girls paid the price although Aki could have still been handled better
@@diamonshade7484 cults are heavily bad for Japan historically, that's why thry had to scrap it entirely
tbh I actually don't mind the writers making Aki realize that she wants to help people beyond just dueling and her actually being able to leave her power behind and help without it could have been a good ending if her whole story wasn't so centered around Yusei and his help. I think if they were going to go in a direction where she wasn't gonna be a major part in dueling (which I do agree would have also been better than what we ended up with) they should have let her figure that out more independently and not made her start duel riding just to get closer to Yusei etc. and then have her figure out she wants to be a doctor in like one episode (even though the duel where he lets her use stardust was pretty cool)
Fun fact: The director of 5Ds, Katsumi Ono, went on to later direct Symphogear which is THE most hype anime ever. He even let Hibiki use Junk Warrior's Scrap Fist frame for frame.
Google says it's made by Satelight 😂 nice
Symphogear? That series is peak as hell and it does not make sense why it's so good. Them petite waifus though.😏
Well seasons 2-5 (G-XV). Which makes sense as while season 1 is probably the most solid season story-wise the later seasons gave it its hype reputation and are definitely the more exciting seasons.
Someone pointed out that Stardust Dragon's appearance subtly reflects Yusei too. It's wings look tattered and worn, but the rest of it's body looks looks more formidable and pristine.
You could take this two ways, the first being, Yusei is a Satellite, but he was supposed to be of the Tops, he's someone who should've been a rich, coddled genius from birth, but hardship and poverty kept him grounded.
The other is, despite Yusei seeming like he'd just be the smart guy, we see that his life has made him formidable in fights like his time with Satisfaction and that one time he knocked out two security guards.
Even the negate ability and Stardust Dragon's stats reflect this. A powerful defensive ability like that, which at the time, and even now (with Starlight Road) on a 2500 body, rather than a trap/spell shows that Yusei can can both defend and fight despite his less macho look compared to Jack and Red Dragon Archfiend. Like his whole bond aspect seems more akin to Yugi who had the least imposing stature and appearance for the longest time
To add to Yusei's character and relation to Stardust's effect: the accident that separated Satelite from the City was caused by an experiment led by Yusei's father. In Yusei's eyes, this makes him responsable for the bad life conditions of his friends
Incredible series, went under the radar because it was thematically waaay off the target audience for YuGiOh, would probably have may more success today now that us OG YuGiOh fans are in our 20s+
Not really.
Even 30s+ cause yugioh is a very classic series since it started in 96
Most Yugioh fans rank 5Ds 2nd if not 1st.
5ds is the Pokemon Black/White of Yugioh.
Took a more mature direction, hated by the OG fans so they never did it again, but turned out to be amazing.
That’s not 5Ds at all though.
OG fans love 5D
The Earthbound Arc is one of the most dark and unique times in YuGiOh ...Dark Signer Kalin Kessler and Ccapac Apu are still my favorite duo from 5Ds to this day
HONESTLY...5DS IS JUST A TIMELESS MASTERPIECE!
imo ZEXAL is a masterpiece. 5D's is my 2nd fav though
@@fxzzy__ it might be for you...I won't judge...though to be fair with you,ZEXAL just spat and shat on yugioh alltogether...
Still you can like Zexal and I'll like 5Ds...ok?
Bit of an exaggeration.
@@lightyami5934 ZEXAL did not spit on yugioh altogether. It's one of the most loved YGO shows in Japan. Its character writing is much better than 5D's. Its plot is much better than 5D's. It's better than 5D's on pretty much every metric possible.
Btw if you're referring to the dub of ZEXAL, you have no right to speak
@@fxzzy__ And japan hates the csm anime lmao. 5DS is peak
It's important to remember that the second half of 5D's and the Bonds Beyond Time movie were being made at the same time, leaving what could be seen as a skeleton crew to work on the former. Was the movie worth doing this for? Hell no. Are most of the best duels still in the second half regardless? Hell yeah.
i agree, tho i will admit, i miss the hype of seeing yusei, yugi and judai on the big screen together. That was our endgame back then, as unnessary as it was. I still remember the months of build up and the excitment... still have the song from the movie on my phone lol
The movie sucked, TBH. Paradox is almost as pointless of a villain as Anubis from the Pyramid of Light. And the plot didn't have anything to do with their characterization. It would've worked just as well with any random three Yu-Gi-Oh protagonists, which is how we know it's quality.
@@maltheopia he was more interesting in a fanfic abt kingcrap (jack x yusie) no joke was an absolute threat character
@@maltheopiauh what?? Paradox was already shown IN 5ds before bbt. He wasn't a random guy
@@maltheopia You say almost because he was part of Illiaster, that's the only reason people would even think to call him a good villain because he's tangentially related to the series they his movie sucked the life out of. Thy did some great stuff with him in the Duel Links lore though
Yugioh 5Ds is the only series I rewatched several times and got emotional each time I watched it. The storytelling and music is so beautiful, this honestly feels like it should’ve been the finale of the franchise with how much dedication they put into this masterpiece.
It was initially planned to be the finale.
Masterpiece is a bit of an exaggeration.
@@minicle426 true it’s not perfect but it’s still one of the best works the Yugioh franchise has ever done.
The best, in every way
I dont know what your problem is with the motocycles. Just get used to it and dont worry about it.
The second half is great because the characters are so amazing. Its fun seeing them hang out.
Slice of life is a good to break from constant tension
Trying to handwave the shows flaws I see.
@@minicle426 what are those flaws ?
Absolutely love 5ds! Definitely one of the most matured of the series. Especially the uncut sub version, totally agree that this was way ahead of its time
one of the most matured because it's egdy and has an older cast yeah, so cringe, please grow up
@@fxzzy__ Says the one that has a picture of Yuma, the worst main protagonist in all of Yugioh?
@@Allelujah19 I have no idea what my pfp has to do with the conversation but alr.
honestly ignore most of my comments under this video. idk what was going through my head. 5D's is cool, it's my 2nd fav.
I love the fact that you mentioned the effects of the monsters represent the characters. Red dragon archfiend destroys everything, even its allies,stardust dragon defends cards from destruction and black rose dragon destroys everything, even herself.
Powertool dragon augments himself with any card from your deck showing leos immaturity as a rich kid wanting more ignoring most everything else but when he grows up and life streams true form is revealed he instead heals himself and those around him by setting their life points to 4000 and stopping any further damage while their on the feild even discarding the childish desires he had banishing the equip cards from his graveyard so he is able to stand strong to continue to protect those he cares about
And RDA sacrifices everyone that is too weak.
Junk Warrior!!
Takahashi came up with Synchro Summons as a way to "make the weak, low level monsters feel important" and they nailed the theming on the first try.
@@9clawtigerwhat about the other methods
I've heard Yusei in both English and Japanese, they definitely had the best VA on that character in both series, and that's my opinion
I think 5d's uses card symbolism really well but in the original manga it's really good too. I disagree that it wasn't used very well there. Pegasus using toon monsters is, as stated by Kazuki Takahashi in the bunkoban author's notes, emblematic of his refusal to face reality and how he is stuck in the past. Blue-eyes is, obviously, Kaiba's soul and pride. The Blue-eyes itself is a better character than most characters in other series tbh just for how well its symbolism is used to emphasize Kaiba's arc.
The manga has tons of great symbolism. Some others include Relinquished as Pegasus' ace, which contrasts against his toon cards. Like Pegasus himself, it's a horrifying monster hiding behind a cheery facade. There's also Yugi and his Lvl monsters. Lkke Yugi, they are initially weak and need protecting, but given the right conditions to grow, they become absolute powerhouses.
@@yourdogspet I always liked the idea that despite Black Magician being weaker than Blue-Eyes in seemingly every way, it always wins with some kind of spellcaster-specific spell/trap cards. Shows the difference in their mentalities.
2nd half of 5ds has some amazing parts.
Like the 3v1 duel when Lua finally becomes a signer.
The western arc...
The issue is that it also has the rest of the second half of 5ds around those parts...
definitely has cool duels, it's just that it was so fucking inconsistent that it completely changed my view of 5D's
i could not stop laughing in the western arc with the revolver duel disks lol and then someone pulls outs a shotgun and its a legit actual gun
Crash town is one of best arc is 5ds
I mean the duel was cool however Rua getting his signer mark in the end was too little too late. I’m sorry but I feel they could have done more after the arc cradle arc especially filling in the gasp that were left out. Now I did enjoy the second half but I was disappointed near the end. Rua becomes a signer in the last minute?! That’s terrible writing and planning. While the arc cradle has nice visual it was all spectacle with no substance with a lackluster finale villain. I’m sorry but I feel everyone loves to sugarcoat the final arc when in my opinion it was mid. I do love 5Ds however I do not consider it a masterpiece.
@@fxzzy__ I don’t blame you. And yes I do agree with you that it was inconsistent especially with the retcons that happened as the show went on.
The first half of 5D's up until the end of the Dark Signers arc feels like the writers already had a solid timeline planned of how how the story would go, which is why it's so good. Meanwhile The second half just feels like they are just making shit up as they go on.
Also the way they completely disregarded and "reset" the Jack and Carly developments from the first half is the biggest bullshit ever and I will never stop being mad at that.
They literally were and except for a few duels here and there, the second half isn’t that great. Not to mention the only good from the second half or more basically covers some of the bad from the Dark Signers (aka half if not more of the series isn’t very good still).
@@Golfkid100 Id say, that the WRGP arc isnt as good, as the Dark Signer Arc, but still pretty good and ranks high in yugioh arcs.
Jp Carly VA had a cult scandal which caused them to change direction of the story and that is why Carly was acting weird
@@Golfkid100 yep
yeah because 5D's was originally only meant to be up to the dark signers arc only, so they made up shit afterwards, hence the really bad episodes and pacing after the DS arc. It's really sad how inconsistent 5D's is
5DS IS STILL A MASTERPIECE!!
nowhere near a masterpiece lol, filled to the brim with inconsistencies and ass character writing
@@fxzzy__I blame the writer of the second half for it
@@fxzzy__I very much agree. People have hyped it up way too much.
@@minicle426 fr. it gets hyped because stupid people fall under the allusion that it's super dark, when in reality all it has is an older cast growing up in some garbage land. Whilst it might be dark per se, that alone doesn't make the series amazing, which a lot of people believe
@@vittoriomassaro8131 blame whoever you want, doesn't change anything though
About the Divine part. He was there to give Aki a connection to Misty. Since they wanted to make the Signers have some chemistry with each of them. Kiryu is Yusei's past ghost, Carly was Jack's loved one, Demak kept Ruka's Ancient Fairy Dragon so they needed the last one to have some relations to Aki. Divine returned in that Arc just to die later in an arguably more gruesome death so I don't think that was the OP syndrome, even before that he got a scar from the previous incident and was utterly insane so it's not like nothing happened. One of the ways that would be more clever to use him is to make him a Dark Signer and fight Aki as her biggest enemy but I think at that point the studio realized it was too late, Misty was already established and her goal was to destroy everything from the Arcadia so it would be illogical to have her second biggest enemy at the time turned ally. Also it was herself who indirectly sent Carly to kill him so it would not make sense to have her revive him a few seconds later. Also Divine was that one irredeemable villain they wanted permanently buried so they wouldn't let him be revived alongside those Dark Signers after the war.
Uh so we forgetting crow had a connection to goodwin? Childhood hero/ role model
Still think the series would have benefited from an arc on just the Arcadia movement and taking that down, considering how much of the cast was tied to it in Dark Signers. Understand 5Ds suffered a lot from behind the scenes meddling though (some confirmed, some speculative).
@@teapartypenguin1353yea wasn’t there supposed to be a whole Arcadia movement arc where Akiza got the spotlight? Heard it got scrapped because of anti cult movements/laws. Same with Carly being written off/out and her progress with Jack ignored after the dark singer ark because it was discovered her JPN VA belonged to a bdsm cult or something.
Honestly Divine is the biggest fraud in the franchise.The show mentions him as a big deal but he comes off as glorified jobber .He can only fight against weak opponents (Rua and Carly) but he gets folded easily by people with real power (Dark Signer Carly).He’s portrayed as special as he can make cards do real damage but in 5Ds everyone major has stand powers be it the main villains or the Signers so he’s not. Intelligence wise I really question how he got so far before the Dark Signers showed up as he thought going to retrieve his prized sword I mean student in the middle of a war of good and evil was a good idea. Even Yusei questioned his intelligence in that moment. The best thing Divine did was foreshadow the Attack on Titans anime.
@@Zetaforce-uv8el Just like a real cult leader. He only has power from manipulating emotionally unstable teenagers with psychic powers. If the Arcadia movement arc ever happened, I'd have liked to see him get either a supernatural upgrade or get taken out early and reveal an even bigger fish.
DM and 5ds will remain the crown jewels. Idc which you prefer, either pick shows ypu have great taste for what yugioh has to offer.
Also just finished the vid and the first half is indeed a gem but the crash town arc I think offers a lot to be appreciated at the very least. Sure the whole apoira/zone thing felt kind of like one uping but I think it offered a lot of spectacle and still offered a relatively satisfying end to yusei's fathers legacy which was a fundamental part of the story, ener D, and hence the whole reason for the show and the dark signer arc. I think there was enough to justify it all in all.
Dm is overrated asf. I grew up with it and still prefer the other casts
Crashtown was awful and OOC. The gun duel disks looked incredibly OOC not only for a card game anime that has them solve problems with card games, but they also treated and acted like they were real guns. Yusei twirling around a gun looks really OOC for a card game anime protagonist and a guy who only uses violence as a last resort when there are no other options (probably stresses to the twins, Tenpei/Dexter, and their friends violence shouldn’t be used except as a last resort). I feel like he deep down Yusei was incredibly uncomfortable with them, but played along.
Kiryu also almost makes Yusei saving him in the Dark Signers completely pointless as he basically wants to die again even after they reconcile their friendship, misunderstanding, etc. He clearly has mental health issues and, while I know the show can’t get into all that stuff, it’s basically resolved with him taking care of the kids/Nico and West. Honestly, once those kids find out about Kiryu’s past, even if they are older, they probably wouldn’t want to come near him. He’s one problem away from diving into darkness of the Dark Signers and post Dark Signers yet again and hoping Yusei will come save him yet again, save him from himself, and save him from all his problems/mental health issues.
I honestly can see if that happened (or something else happening whether by Kiryu or by choice), Yusei, his friends, and everyone else never seeing or speaking to Kiryu ever again (especially after the show).
@@Diamondr11BlueIf anything, 5Ds is more overated.
@@minicle426 nah DM is far more overrated with all thr yugiboomers. I grew up with it and enjoyed the spinoffs more
I'm rather partial to 5D's, and I do think there were some fantastic things about it. The worldbuilding is honestly deeper than it needs to be, the symbolism of the Signer Dragons is surprisingly poetic, card-games-on-motorcycles is crazy cool despite its goofiness, etc.
Even so, I have trouble overlooking its flaws. Pretty much the entire roster - especially Aki/Akiza - ended up relegated to the background so Yusei could save the day, and Yusei having little need to develop as a character (besides learning to enter Clear Mind) felt narratively bland (even though Yusei himself was cool).
I think VRAINS is probably my favorite, despite all its problems. Its comments on technology and simulations were pretty compelling, it has its share of theming, and I loved how its (admittedly rushed) ending landed with some emotional weight. Beyond that, its duels were rock-solid, Yusaku had some meaningful character development, and several of the ways it subverted the typical YGO formula were kind of refreshing.
I’m surprised you like VRAINS the most, but it makes sense as Yusei and Yusaku are similar in some ways (age, serious nature, tragic backgrounds, etc.). Plus they are the only two undefeated lead protagonists in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! as well (as ties, flashbacks, and no results don’t count with Yusaku having ties and Yusei’s duel with Kiryu being officially a no result).
I'm quite the opposite as VRAINS felt it wanted to replicate the 5D's vibes.
@@thatman666 Yeah, that's fair - VRAINS seemed to be going for an atmosphere pretty similar to the one 5D's had.
I enjoyed it, but I can see how it would feel derivative, too.
@@Golfkid100 Yeah...VRAINS might be a bit of a weird pick when it had so many recap episodes, a decent amount of unresolved plot points, and its share of questionable worldbuilding.
A lot of my enjoyment from it probably did come from its similarities to 5D's - I didn't really enjoy how Arc-V approached its more serious themes. Arc-V had some hard-hitting topics (like prejudice in the Synchro Dimension and trauma in the Xyz Dimension), and I was kind of dissatisfied about how the series settled on smiles being the solution to everything.
@@Golfkid100 nope yusei lost to jack in a flashback and to kalin. He left with physical injuries and nightmares. That's not a win. Yusaku lost plenty during his training
While the start of the second half of 5ds is pretty boring and filled with filler. I actually really really enjoyed the grand prix tournament. Some of the best duels and character moments are from there. Relay duels, while they can be a drag if executed poorly, give a lot of tension as every duelist has to think about what will happen to their team if they lose, so a lot of future planning has to be done. And i absolutely love how a team that is a bunch of nobodies from satellite with cards gotten from scraping junk (a very cool reflection of yusei's gang in satellite) end up using a stall strategy, which irl are also some of the cheapest anti meta strategies in the game. I also like the nordic guys who show that the signers arent the only people with special marks. It meant that these people could have a whole show of their own, even if their duel with team 5ds ends in the most cheesy way possible. Not to mention some of the filler arcs are actually pretty good. Like boomtown and the crimson devil arc, which the latter is nice for expanding upon the dark signer lore a little bit. Then the final arc is really amazing, whose only major flaw is the writers going back on a twist for the final villain. But the serious goes into serious naruto filler mode between the 2 seasons, with only a few plot relevant episodes. So i think the second half of 5ds is definitely worth watching, just skip the 1-of filler episodes.
i think that the second half started up with lack of direction as they intended to end it after the dark signers arc so tthey were just kind of stalling for time to come up with a plot but imo they got a pretty decent plot going once they got it
Hilarious how I felt like the opposite, I did enjoy some of the filler episodes (especially Crash Town arc) but I absolutely HATED the WRGP arc.
Later half of 5ds was hindered by real life events that made the show change
What do you mean by that?
@@SuperPlacido1I’m assuming production issues, such as the lead writer not knowing what to do(shin yoshida), movie being made at the same time.
@@andrewplayz443 Also, allegedly, Carly's Japanese VA turned out to belong to a prominent cult in Japan, and people speculate that the production staff somehow found out before everyone else and changed the story to move away from the cult stuff to save face.
@@SomeRandomJackAss I don’t think there is any proof of this. The timelines don’t match up with the production of 5D’s. The most believable cause of the dip in 5D’s in the middle episodes is definitely production issues
there is one good thing about the WRGP arc: Believe in Nexus is the best intro of 5Ds
Crow also is symbolized by his cards, more like the arquetype, “black wing” is symbolic of a minority, related to a black bird whose often left aside because of prejudice (like crows) but are not alone, they have each other, much like crow and the orphans. Also goes with his saying “flocks of the same feather fly together”
Keep in mind his deck is meant to easily swarm the field and uses their bond to grow stronger
@@Diamondr11Blue and many cards requiring 2 or more Blackwings on the field
@@gabrielsalinas1019 you mean the higher ones or including traps/spells? His deck has good synchronization, that's why I main BW and onomats
@@Diamondr11Blue yeah, but i personaly prefer one that can’t be easily stoped (not necessarily interrupted) like PK
The reason why 5ds is so good it's because it's a good story FIRST! a commercial for a card games second.
If you think about it, 5ds is a story about a guy who wants revenge against the one who betrayed him and a better life for his friends in a world full of social discrimination where he and the ones like him are discriminated just because they are born in the wrong side of the city that just happens to have card games in it.
As someone who grew up with this show, it defined so much of my life. Even if it wasn't my main franchise and it was the dubbed 4kids version, the story and the world shone through with how good it was and definitely left its impression on me
5ds, early zexal and early arch 5 are the best eras because of how their stories setup. besides that they also are the peak of the card game because 5ds normal play of summoning 2 monsters in 1 turn to synchro summon was much faster than the dm/gx normal summon then pass turn. Each series made the game faster than before but not to insane degree like the current game of "im going to spend 5+ minutes going through my whole deck ending on a board with 3+ omni negates because I hate fun".
Yumi shouldn't have been so bad at the beginning, the literally learn how to duel in school😢
@@diamonshade7484 where did you see teaching? It just shows the dueling periods as just dueling other people
What happens when you combine Yugioh,Akira,JoJos,G Gundam,Code Geass and Gintama? You get the best entry in the franchise.I will say that first half is perfect as it’s just a nonstop thriller from episode 1 to 64 culminating in 3 brothers reunited vs their hero for the fate of the world,honestly it’s premier writing. While the second half gets written off weak I don’t find that the case as rather than nonstop plot it goes the Gintama route of character writing,slowly showing us the bond of the crew through mundane life making us care about them being a crew culminating in the Z-One arc where they aren’t there to save town,they are there to save their found family. Honestly Yugioh 5Ds is phenomenal,sure it has weak points but for its shortcomings it more than makes up for them though the writing and overarching themes and its a thrill to watch every time.
Most YGO stories start off pretty strong, I like how Arc-V started because there was a mystery behind everything, and then we got a hot mess.
Zexal, the designs were pretty wacky even for YGO, but to be honest, the story was consistent throughout most of the run time, unlike in 5Ds cause it did seemed like Zexals story was fleshed out from beginning to end.
The 2nd half of the series was pretty bad, but the ending was pretty good! For 5Ds I did find it weird they wanted to end it with a tournament arc, but I believe that was just a framing device because YGO
IMO Zexal does not get good enough till they bring in the Crest Family for the WDC, and the best Arc is with the Barians, giving that show the standout lategame experience among the others. The characters and culmination of things in seamlessly tasteful seeming fanservice allows Arc-V to be my favorite early show, but the third season and even parts of the second are my biggest “what happened?” In all of Yugioh.
@runningoncylinders3829 I tried to get into Zexal and it just doesn't do it for me. Those first halve of the season really killed my interest of the show. I heard it gets better later on. But it's one of those too little, too late scenarios and even if it did get better, it doesn't mean I'll love it because most of the characters and the concept of the show are really bad IMO. I do liked the XYZ summoning thing. But that's all it has going for.
@@jaretco6423 I’d definitely prefer a show to start good rather than end good.
It’s why Arc-V is still my favorite even though it ends bad, and while Zexal does get going you have to clear at least 30 episodes to get there. That’s more than JJBA in which people had a hard time finding the Parts 2 and 3 or however late they got into it or heard it became good.
@@runningoncylinders3829 I can somewhat understand and agreed. Although the later halve of Arc-V was very disappointing and not what I expected. Could've been better. But what made Arc-V stand out to me than Zexal are the characters. They are so much better than the one's from Zexal. Even if some were undercook or didn't get nearly as much as they could've, I enjoyed the characters in Arc-V more than the ones from Zexal.
@@jaretco6423 That’s the nail on the head. I love the Lancers and the counterparts, love how they somehow made the cast look busy and with cool decks and attitudes. If you truly don’t seek any kind of revisit with Zexal that show is firmly anchored to Yuma, Astral, Shark, and Kite. They’re the only ones who get enough attention to be memorable. Vector is their fake-on the heroes villain, and he’s decently entertaining. Arc-V even has more fun with that archetype with Sora and Dennis. I had a pretty unique series viewing order from when I took a break from the media.
No matter how much I like 5Ds, I will NEVER forgive the producers for not making Aki and Yusei official in the final episode. They pushed it hard throughout the series, only to leave it open ended. *WHY BLUEBALL ME LIKE THIS!* 😭
Because yugioh isn't romance. I'm glad thry never paired the main girls with guys. Boring
I think it was really clever of them to do it the way they did though. If Yusei and Aki kissed on screen in that garage scene and confessed their love for each other to pair up, it would've made it harder for them to move on to their own goals in life which would split them apart. Very mature to leave it open and let them go their seperate ways. (Although an OVA episode that shows them back together with Aki as a Doctor in Neo Domino along with Yusei as a researcher would be so cool!)
@@Diamondr11Blue Except there was plenty of it, and yes they did with zexal and arc v
14:40 - If you call “died of starvation in prison and brought back from the dead” released, then yes.
I agree with your thoughts about the second tournament arc. There were some bright spots, though. Team 5Ds vs. Team Taiyo, despite there being stakes, was essentially a reminder to Team 5Ds that not every opponent was their enemy.
I also loved how throughout the series, Rua wanted to be a signer, essentially because he thought it was cool. Only to be given the powers of the Crimson Dragon because he wanted to save his sister's life.
Lastly, I enjoyed the final match between Yusei and Jack. It was a match that had no stakes, it was all for glory, and they both needed to go all out against the other, because they knew how powerful the other had become.
5ds got me back into Yugioh at the time. I was a freshman in high when it came out. I left Yugioh behind back in 2006. When I first saw the white cards I got curious. Seeing the anime from the theme to story i was hooked
It was NOT ahead of it's time. It's just that 2000s were the best times in the history of media and arguably mankind.
I don't know if I'd say I agree with saying the other previous series didn't put additional meaning behind the cards they played and their abilities. For example in GX with Aster/Edo, his frustration with and lack of patience in the powers that be to find justice for his father results in him abandoning the Elemental Heroes in favour of the Destiny Heroes. The elemental heroes being based on classic comic book superheroes in favour of the Destiny heroes which are based on anti-heroes i.e. Spawn, Devilman etc. Or with Zane/Ryo and his Cyber Dragons/Cyberdarks. With the first season, Zane approached dueling with the philosophy of showing respect to his opponents and going full strength, an apsect reflected in his ace Cyber Dragon whose eff is that when your opponent has a monster out (showing their intent for the duel) it can be special summoned from the hand while you control nothing (matching his opponents energy and showing respect by bringing out his own ace). This then gets distorted as he becomes Hell Kaiser, partaking in self destructive acts such as the electro duels. This in turn is reflected with the Cyberdark and Chimeratech cards which are build around self harm in the form of using the corpses of his monsters, a reflection of his soul, as tools, be it equipping them to the Cyberdarks as a power supply or banishing as material for his Chimeratechs.
The bike-slide should've queued us all in on the fact that this was originally supposed to be Akira: Duel Monsters, and is until the end of the signer stuff.
The whole motorcycle thing was a hard aspect to move past but once I did, 5D’s was incredible. I loved the tale of two cities inspiration, the dystopian backdrop, I even loved the motorcycles just as their mode of transport while not so much for the dueling. It’s unfortunate that behind the scenes the production was a mess which led to the two halves of the series being so divergent but even then it was a great watch and far better than GX and every Yugioh series since. I also think if it weren’t for the nostalgia factor of the original DM series, I might like it better than even that although my preference for a Yugioh story is generally a realistic contemporary setting like DM and not crazy sci-fi
Holy shit I never realized that Exodia was supposed to symbolize Yugi and his friends.
While i get that the mood is a bit different and light hearted after the dark singer arc, if you actually want the FULL story, you should watch the sub in it entirity. There are a lot of light hearted moments than before, but when it gets into WHY zero reverse happened, why Rex & Rudger Godwin did what they did, if you don't finish it a lot of what was revealed during the dark signer arc won't make sense.
Illiaster was there from the beginning and it sets up not only the character's growth in their found family, but over coming the world together, and then later on-- apart to reach their own goals. Lets not forget the Bonds Beyond Time movie IS CANNON, and with paradox, aporia, Z-ONE, & another (spoiler), it brings the story (not perfectly i'll admit) but together with themes that ring like Duel Monsters. Taking Destiny (or future) into your own hands, sacrifce & when its neccisary, acknowledging errors & how to move forward to fix them and that its about people coming together to survive-- which is a recurring theme in 5DS.
The symbolism in synchro summing is one of my favorites for this reason. A type of summoning that demonstaites bonds. A great example that i love of this is Shooting Quastar Dragon, in the anime specifcally, Yusei uses all the signer dragons to summon this dragon, as a symbol of them working together to change the future that Z-one warns of.
Seeing the mistakes that even illiaster make to 'save the world' & how far they would go but they forgot to have Hope-- in humanity and their comrades.
It also explains the energy crisis that lead to the creation of the D-wheels and turboduels to begin with, and Yusei needs to do fix the energy crisis but save the future of humanity. I'm not saying every episode is the same energy as the first two arcs, but thats because its trying to build & wrap it up without info dumping on ya. There is another youtuber that goes into the science of 5ds and how IT HAS ACCURATE SCIENCE being used in a kids show.
I guess what I want to say is... 5ds is a wild ride that is worth going through bumpy roads to get a very philosophical & well written piece of art.
Dude nobody cares about actual science in a anime that has time travel
@@Diamondr11Blue glad you make a generalization for everyone then. That's like people not being interested in scifiction cause its not 'realistic'. Some might be like i was when it was pointed out. I thought EVERYTHING was made up in the show and to found out that there is actual atomic & nuclear physics that actual carries throughout this and other series-- thats not only interesting but surprising for that level of detail to go over many kids heads! I'd rather share that tidbit for those who might be interested than assume.
@@Toonkid4life1 if anything I would expect actual science from something like Dr Stone
@@Diamondr11Blue ...ok, big whoop? whoo who? you expect it from another anime, great? So what's wrong with learning that some scifi from another anime is based on actual science and these scerios are not only founded in our world, but aren't 'deux machina' ideas for the heck of it. You make is seem like someone can't enjoy features in a show just because its not 'expected' thats kind of boring if you ask me. I enjoyed Full metal BH, before i even learned about how the philosophy and alchemy principles were real in our world- it added to my enjoyment. that's it. Kinda like people liking horror games based on true stories after the fact
@@Diamondr11Blue tbf perpetual motion machines (the Momentum reactors) are even more fantastical than time travel. It's fun science, on the level of Star Wars, not "actual science".
for me the last duel between yusi and jack made everything worth it, the last duel was just peak.
In fact, the rivalry is most personal in this series considering that Jack and Yusai are foster brothers.
After ep 65, the writers changed. This led to a lot of set up characters being sidelined, like Aki and Carly.
The cult theme got put aside because of a scandal in real life, so the Arcadia movement got written out, and we lost out on an Aki arc. Yliaster (the old syndicate of the first arc) got rewritten into future people.
I believe they had deadline constraints to write a new arc so they did a tournament arc, but then they skipped half the duels. The very final arc tried to fix the hole they dug themselves in. Arc cradel was very good, but man 5ds was so much lost potential after great setup.
Still a little insane that MANY revisions were made last minute to make one of the most FIRE series.
I’d really love to see what they would’ve originally gone for.
@@thekuriboh275 yeah I wish they could have done a new series nowadays with their original intentions, or like a movie like they did with DSOD
Nope, the change on writing staff happened at the end of the second cour of 5D's (Episode 26), as Atsuhiro Tomioka was on the way of for Pokémon Best Wishes
Everything from Episode 27 onwards, comes from the pen of Shin Yoshida, a regular name from the series' staff
As for the cult themes, despite still not having concrete evidence to this day, it was rather complaints from the Parents-Teacher Association on the themes tackled by that of the "first half" of the series given the time slot it aired it (6PM, which is close to Japan's Prime Time, therefore preferably have more "family oriented" contents in there). The Roma-Sophie Incident had no bearings on Carly's character nor the drastic writing changes for its second half
@@LoboCrepuscularZelda Also, Yoshida has said he defaults to guy heavy writing. Hence the rest of 5Ds, ZEXAL’s anime and manga, Arc V’s manga, and VRAINS are all heavy on guys, bromance, and are very very heavy sausage fests. Literally the only thing really non-sausage/bromance heavy is Yusei and Aki/Akiza’s implied kiss in the last episode and her saying she will meet Yusei again. Otherwise, it feels very heavy on guy x guy action.
@@Golfkid100 which is such a shame honestly because I always liked Aki and Carly's impact on the early show and wished they had gotten used way more. I always felt like their characterisation suddenly backslid and I guess it makes sense that a guy who doesn't know how to write women took charge...
12:41 AHHHHH! MY EYES ARE BURNING!
The thing about the Riding Duels, is that we see them hit 100+ mph pretty consistently. Especially in the later half of the show. However, there are 2 major differences between seasons 1 and 2 Riding Duels and Seasons 3 and 4 Riding Duels. Seasons 1 and 2 have autopilot because the courses are improvised. You need to focus on both the course and the duel. Now there are some exceptions like with the Stadium Duels in season 1. But almost every other duel the course is improvised. There's a lot you need to worry about in an improvised course that Auto pilot is basically necessary. However, when we go to season 3 and 4, those Riding Duels have to be done on a course (Except the final duel against Z-one). Meaning they can disable auto pilot as they follow the course. Now they still have to pay attention to the course as it's possible for the course to breakdown, however, due to it being closed off to others, there's less things that could be distractions. They also still hit 100+ mph. So they're still going insanely quick. I just wish we could see them from a top down view more though. So we could see just how fast they're going.
Yu-gi-oh is a bit of a bitter sweet memory as the series was one of the things my brother and I bonded over. I watched it first and then I showed it too him during the "Duel in Darkness" four parter and he was hooked. We watched the GX era together for the most part, but that is also about when my brother's jerkass tendencies started to over ride his good sense and he never really recovered (if he was ever the brother I thought he was to begin with). So when 5ds started up I actually ignored it out of spite for a few months. I then caught one episode and watched it out of boredom and just instantly related to Yusei and I started watching the rest of the series as much as I could. It is still my favorite series and Tag Force 3 is my favorite Yu-gi-Oh game period.
While I don't think at this point I can ever have the relationship I once had with my brother, I have managed to mature enough to look back fondly on the times we did enjoy Yu-gi-oh together rather than regret
Just fyi, black roses can symbolize hatred, despair, and death.
I'm interested to hear your take on zexal now... I find the tone change after dark signers very jarring. Especially with the sidelining of some characters. But, i find the new head writer's style to work decently when he gets to make his own cast amd themes.
Same for me. Though you can tell it’s a different writer.
Yoshida has said he defaults to guy heavy writing. Hence the rest of 5Ds that he wrote, ZEXAL’s anime and manga, Arc V’s manga, and VRAINS are all heavy on guys, bromance, and are very very heavy sausage fests. Literally the only thing really non-sausage/bromance heavy is Yusei and Aki/Akiza’s implied kiss in the last episode and her saying she will meet Yusei again. Otherwise, it feels very heavy on guy x guy action.
Gratz on getting so many comments in less than a day!
I definitely felt similarly about how they didn't use the street racing aspect of it to its full potential. Especially given how seriously dangerous some of the stunts Yusei pulls in his first few duels with Ushio were.
Speaking of which, I'm still never sure if he's literally THE Ushio in his 40s and it's not that far in the future, or if he's like... that Ushio's grandson or something. I guess it doesn't really matter.
Like a lot of others here I feel like the way it ends is still pretty good even though most of the middle is definitely a lull. Or a rut. I especially like that everyone moves to continue their life, and that Yusei becomes a (cartoon-)physicist. Keep on solving the interdimensional problems with that perpetual motion machine, my dude.
Speaking of which, I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Momentum reactor" sounds so much cooler than "ener-D".
As a couple others have also mentioned, the Japanese version of this show had some of the best music out of any Yugioh show. Almost all the openers for DM and GX were good too, but on top of that 5D's has a bunch of great incidental tracks too. They were some of my most-played tracks on Audiosurf back in the day!
I do like the many different duel disk designs, there weren't quite as many as in GX but there were still a ton. And you could usually tell their design lineage, whether they were evolutions of the Battle City disk or the Academy disk or something else.
It also introduced the auto-shuffle feature which was long overdue. The graveyard zone always worked like that - spitting out the exact card they need - so why did it take that long for the deck to act similarly! Especially as a couple of stories showed the Battle City disk could detect when you tried to play a card which wasn't drawn from your deck, so it scanned the deck and knew the order the cards were drawn in. Anyway. That's a little thing but it really helps the pacing of the fights I think.
Aki got totally shafted and I hated that she, Carly, and Sherry (Shelly?) got such a short-shrift.
Lastly, I kind of still have a soft spot for that episode which is purely centred on how everyone loves their favourite spicy instant ramen. Relatable gamer stuff lol.
The 2nd half of the show, while meh compared to rhe Dark Signers Arc, has some of the most memorable duels. The match vs Team Taiyou was the first time I've seen a show present a bulk common as a godlike threat, and Jack vs. Dragan getting the literal runback was an important moment for Jack's character.
I don't understand how so many people can accept grown men playing a children's card game to resolve conflicts but doing it on motorcycles crosses the line...
I get people not liking it, but personally I'll love how insane it is
They don't understand creativity or they don't think motorcycles are cool. I find it cool to be dueling while riding
I don't understand how people can think the show is a flawless masterpiece. 🤷♂️
Tbf. I always loved the motorcycle aspect and tried to recreate it during my bike rides as well when I was a kid
Weirdly enough, the duel runners and synchro summoning was what pulled me back into yu-gi-oh after a long time away from it. I'm a gearhead at heart, so the mechanics translated easily into learning the game again, then I fell off after Exceed, pendulum, and link summons. Yu gi oh was also how I made friends in middle school, otherwise I might never have had friends. I don't have any good analysis or opinion to offer, but even just playing still gives me the warm fuzzies.
Regarding the second part: It serves as a parallel to the real world, the issues of nuclear energy and the concept of generational responsibility quite well. The introduction of Meklords makes the characters question their own unique duel mechanic to the point that it profoundly changes the future. Notice how Synchro summoning is completely absent in the following season, Yugioh ZEAL, for the reason that at the end of 5Ds, Yusei seemed to revolutionise energy production once again by creating nuclear fusion (XYZ summoning) rather than nuclear fission (Synchro summoning).The themes of hope, immortality and revenge are also explored nicely, and there is one particular duel in the tournament which is a cool commentary on Yugioh as a game. My only criticism goes to the underutilised potential of Team Ragnarok who could have much more involvement in the series considering how they (also) had divine cards which similar to the Signers and Dark Signers had reality altering powers. We saw their backstory briefly but it felt like an afterthought to justify their involvement and power as the penultimate opponents rather than a nicely set up side-story. They should have appeared much earlier and have more screentime so that they could have become rival characters throughout the season.
Someone used Monster Reborn on Enigma!
Also...CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES!!!
The reason the second half of 5Ds fell off was bcuz of drama behind the scenes with Carly’s voice actor. They had a lot of storylines to work with going into the second arc and they had to abandon it all.
We would’ve seen the actual Illiaster and the Arcadia movement. Illiaster wasn’t suppose to be robots. Illiaster was essentially supposed to be a illuminati type organization who caused zero reverse. But due to the drama they turned them into robots
AFAIK, it was the lead writer change.
They take cults in Japan very seriously due to historical problems with them.
@@Diamondr11Bluethis information is newer than the show so it has nothing to do with it
The decision with Carly's VA likely had very little if anything to do with the change in direction for Season 2, as that only happened with 24 episodes left, just before the duel with Team New World.
The much more likely explanation is because the main director had changed during the fortune cup, adapted things in their own way with the notes for the end of the Dark Signer season, and then season 2 was their own direction. Did they edit Illiaster to be a bit less cult like to avoid controversy? That is certainly a possibility. But the allegations on Carly's VA were not brought forward until the series was nearly done.
While I can accept and agree with your summary of the flaws of the 2nd half of the show - I still think overall this is my favourite Yugioh anime as well as one of my fav stories of all time. So many good characters and for me I am a big fan of the arc cradle story, albeit with a bit too much fluff before it pops off. Carly should have gotten her pairing with Jack.
But IMO the story gets wrapped up so beautifuly - you see a few flash forwards to how things will be in the future with Rua and Ruka, Crow and Jack - and you also have their very important realization that they can't just be tied down by their bond to be together forever, but must also move on to live their own life. The ending theme of the last arc perfectly encapsulates that feeling - and especially all the high 5's as everyone goes their own way towards the future is something just so absolutely well done, for me personally. 10/10
What made 5ds so great is that it took itself seriously. Any story that isn't primarily comical should do that. The writers didn't care if card games were being played on motorcicles or not. They cared if they were going to make a good, dramatic story with that element.
I love 5ds, its my favorite yugioh by far. But I can't overlook some of the issues with it as a whole. I think you really highlighted a bunch of them, but I'd like to elaborate a bit further on a few. Them basically making Aki a side character after the dark signers arc is honestly the most disappointing thing about the second half. I like Crow, but at the end of the day he wasn't really apart of the main team, and I think them pushing him in makes the whole team dynamic as a whole kinda fall apart. Also I know you didn't address anything much after dark signers, but I will say the very last arc is very enjoyable for what they were given to work with. Specifically Bruno and Sherry's storylines as well as accel synchros. Like I actually cried during the last fight with bruno. At the end of the day I think if 5ds hadn't switched its direction half way through it would be no question the best yugioh in terms of story telling. Its like you said, it could have just ended with the dark signers arc. In that way 5ds has the opposite problem that vrains had, too much time to fill. Where as with vrains we never really get to expand on most of the setup because of the abrupt rap up at the end with S3. All in all I loved this video and wish people would give 5ds a chance, because even though it looks really goofy on the outside I think it honestly is more than just a show about card games.
Lol crow was apart of the main crew consisting of yusei jack and himself. Are you forgetting they grew up together with kalin? Forget the signers, the Enforcers are the real deal
I still like parts of the second half, but it is undeniable that Dark Signers was the peak of the show
I actually don't mind the second season of 5D's. I like that they switched to a focus on technology instead of the same old magic again, and the lighter tone, with people having healed and getting along felt like a nice break from the far more serious first season.
I REALLY like the Arc Cradle storyline at the end of the series, another storyline that was never dubbed. In it, it is revealed that the main antagonists of the second season, the Three Emperors of Iliaster, had in fact been trying to prevent an apocalyptic future where Humanity is nearly wiped out. As it turns out, in the future, Humans had overused the power of the Moment Energy, which caused it to react the dark, greedy, and corrupt desires, and created an army of Machine Emperor's to kill Humans, which destroyed the world and left only 4 survivors. The 4 survivors, Z-one, Aporia, Antinomy, and Paradox had been manipulating time and attempting to destroy the things that would lead to their ruined future. These included the original Moment reactor, Pegasus and the game of Duel Monsters itself, and eventually Neo Domino City.
Not only did it make the Yugioh 10th Anniversary Movie and Paradox's goal canon, It recontextualizes the actions of the antagonists and their motives. I think this was the first time in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise where the major antagonists were truly acting with the greater good in mind. Yes they were prepared and willing to sacrifice things, including people, but at the end of the day they were trying to save the world before it was too late. This also put Yusei and the Signers in a difficult position: If they stopped Iliaster, they would thus allow the allow the apocalyptic future to happen and damn Humanity.
Although I think you did a great job analyzing the first half of 5Ds, I wish you were able to explain more regarding the second half other than just “it’s bad.” They introduce pivotal characters like Bruno and Sherry who play a big role in the series and how it’d eventually conclude. Not only that, but there was also no mention of the final arc of the series which is considered one of the best conclusions out of any yugioh. Overall, I enjoyed the video, but think a little more analysis of the rest of the show would’ve made it all the better. However, with that being said, keep up the good work on your videos!
Bro, you wrong! Second half of 5ds is great. I think you also failed to touch on the card game in the show. It is the height of yugioh card game watching experience. Fun strategies and real life card ruling details. Chefs kiss
I love what little kuriboh did with this 😂
Yugioh 5ds is one of the few anime that excellently showcased the power of friendship and it makes sense. There's a logic behind it and it gives a tremendous impact to everyone involved. Thats why yusei summoning Shooting quasar dragon will always be one of the most epic summoning in yugioh.
Yugioh 5ds was dope and so dark as well there were many sad scenes of characters dying even future ones like zone bro and bruno.
Wish there was a sequel.
Don't you Dare say that Crashtown is terrible. It's one of the best storylines in 5Ds after the Dark Signers arc.
Fr! Kalin is the only one with memorable redemption for his actions unlike akiza zone etc
While I love 5ds, I have to agree to some extent with you about the second half nosedive.
The only good part of season 3 is Crash Town, a filler arc, season 4 has 1 good duel (Team Taiyo) and 2 decent ones (Team Ragnarok and Team New World), and the final season is actually pretty good imo, aside from the Sherry duel.
Plus, as you showed, they completely massacred Jack's character after episode 65, with the only duels where I would argue against that being his two duels against Robo-Jack and his duel where he got Red Nova Dragon.
The bikes were the best part, especially as there was a heavy emphasis on programming and as I was learning programming language back then, I loved it
As much as I think the show starts to falter after the Dark Signers arc, the finale CANNOT be topped by other Yu-Gi-Oh shows. Just the final few episodes where we see them 2 years after the final battle, in which ZONE allows for Yusei to live so that he can shape a better future, are beautiful.
It does something these toy related anime basically never do and that is give us a glimpse into their future. And it ends on such a beautiful sweet note as well, the shot of Yusei standing over the saved city with Masaki Endoh's "Yakusoku no melody" playing is pure cinema. Ushio also is there alongside him and their talk about people having these shared bonds while also going on their own way was really profound. I loved the sections of their lives we see in the future and everyone promising to go onwards to the next stage in their life after having saved the world. It just gives you this feeling of having gone on a great adventure while also not being downtrodden about it being over because life is not waiting on anything.
5Ds is the Yugioh of the greatest depth which makes it unforgettably strong for the brand.
The only spin-off I would say gets better in the later half is Zexal which saved its key antags for then.
But even as the later 5Ds goes through the motions, it could never be as derailed to me as Arc-V.
Arc-V being my favorite spin-off carried by its beginning I can’t truly call the best for how far it falls in the end.
Thank you! ARC V and 5Ds have great starts and both fall off a cliff around the same time (around 50-60 episodes give or take with both). The only series who either got better as it went along or at least felt the most consistent was ZEXAL.
You didn't even touch my favirite characters: the twin who had powers she didn't want and the twin who wanted power he didn't have.
A big reason I kept on watching this show to the end was to see their development. And it was a boring half development.
Yeah, how can you ruin such a rich and interesting concept?
With mediocre writing, that's how
Yusei hugged the spotlight with his Mary sue ish ness
23:23 that comment about the D Wheels looking silly is INSANE to me lol. This is absolutely nostalgia talking, but as a kid with no understanding of how those things are supposed to work irl, they looked so damn cool. Even now, I still think they look pretty nice. The point you made right after about how little the "driving while dueling" bit was used was so true. The Dark Signer duels were some of the most intense and fun to watch and seeing the characters have to balance skillful dueling and driving simultaneously was a big part of that
edit: also wholeheartedly agree with you on post-Dark Signers. It felt like such a natural conclusive ending, and iirc, the dub (which is what I saw) even had an epilogue of sorts which I'm not sure if it's in the sub. Almost everything was wrapped up so nicely and then we get a random new enemy that had little to no connection/importance to the main characters besides the most milquetoast "destroy/save the city"
5Ds had two major writing transition period. The first two cour (Fortune Cup) was written under Atsuhiro Tomioka as the headwriter, who left the show to work on Pokemon (notably the Pokemon anime during that era is considered one of its best, with a 5DS-esque much more mature take on the premise). This was 5Ds at its best, a gritty revenge story that also stay true to its shounen theme at its root. Dark Signer had enough writing momentum and setup from Fortune Cup that you're not going to notice the bumps on the road too much (i.e. the retcon on Saiga's backstory), but the Jesus Fudo effect was already starting to be noticeable. The filler period following Dark Signer was due to the production of Bond Beyond Time, and WRGP finally mark the transition of 5Ds from its gritty cyberpunk dystopian setting to straight out Sci-Fi.