I know a lot of people will bring up Jesse/Johan not being included which is fair - I left him out because he wasn't present for more than 50% of the show. I felt that should be the minimum requirement to be considered as the series "Best Friend" character. Sure, he was 100% much better than Sho, but I felt he wasn't eligible because he debuted so late into the series
Gong was such a good friend remember he decided to betray his duel style in order to protect Yuya, he only used magic cards in order to either save or wake up Yuya when needed it
The only con for Gongenzaka is near Arc-V's end where he's amongst the characters just there for the ride. Did he play his support role as intended, absolutely.
In fairness, a lot of Arc V characters sort of get hit with that issue as the show goes on. Yuzu and Gong are obviously standout examples, but hardly the only ones. It's kind of just an issue with the show as a whole where it wasn't able to balance out it's big cast at a certain point.
Joey is my favourite, he struggled and clawed his way without any magic or reincarnation going on to contend with and get on the level of Atem, Yugi, Marik and Kaiba. He was loyal within reason even willing to go against Yugi for his sister knowing the stakes. He was the underdog we cheered on.
I really wish he hadn't lost to Zigfried in that anime filler arc. His last duel should have been a win in my opinion. Though to be fair I also think he should have beaten marik and then handed Yugi the winged dragon of ra so the pair dueled their heart out one more time with no god cards in sight.
Jonouchi was never close to being on the level of Yami Yugi, Yugi, Malik, and Kaiba. He lost to the Ghoul before Battle City started. The Ghouls were the enemies of the arc. After beating Yami Yugi's hand me downs, he faced Rishido, Malik's right hand man, in the Final 8 and got owned by him. Only because of story conflict that Rishido was forced to lose. A final 4 of Yami Yugi, Kaiba, Malik (the final boss of the arc), and Rishido (fake Malik) could not happen. Malik and Rishido would have had to face each other in the Final 4. That defeated the purpose of him posing as Malik. Takahashi showed the reader that Rishido beat Jonouchi before making him lose by knockout. The Ghouls were enemies Yami Yugi could defeat. The fact Jonouchi lost to the Ghouls meant that he wasn't on Yami Yugi and Kaiba's level. He even lost to Yugi when he was controlled by Malik (Malik only put a few LP dmg cards in his deck so it was still Jonouchi's deck). Yugi suicided in order to open Jonouchi box. His development ended when the Final 8 started. He never wins for the rest of the source material. He even lost to Yami Bakura in the final arc. Jonouchi never faced Yami Yugi at Duelist Kingdom in the source material. After beating Keith, Jonouchi stated that was his last duel and Duelist Kingdom ended for him. Facing Yami Yugi would only hurt them because Pegasus would see more of their cards and moves. Jonouchi let Yami Yugi face Pegasus because he had the better chance of winning.
@@rob19ny I think you're missing something important - he lost to ghoul grunts AT THE BEGINNING of the arc and close to the end of it was able to compete with their tops. Yes, Rishid had a win against him if not for Ra, but they both acknowledged eachother's abilities and pride as a duelists. Yes, saying he's on the same level as Yugi, Seto and Marik consistently wouldn't be quite true and he himself admits that in the manga, but he still can challenge them a have a chance of winning, something that's already above most of the duelists in the show. That fact that he's in the finals at all tells us how much he has grown up since Duelist Kingdom.
Joey was one the best duelist in the OG Yugioh. He time after time again fought people with literall magic and cheaters but either came close to winning or beat them.
@@rob19ny Feels like you're leaving out a lot of things there. Joey lost to a Ghoul because he had fake cards in his deck, and it was Exodia Stall. Something that still wins duels 20 years later. Joey knew he couldn't beat Pegasus, but Kaiba also got STOMPED by Pegasus. And Yami was getting stomped by Pegasus until Yugi started helping out. If you count Joey losing to Odion, then you must also count Joey beating Marik. And lastly, the Possessed Joey vs Yugi duel doesn't count as a loss because both weren't trying to win the duel. Yugi was playing bad moves to free Joey's heart, and Joey was disobeying Marik every other turn.
Marik's priorities in his duels was torturing his opponents and relied too much in Ra, and it nearly costed him. He would have lost against both Mai and Joey. If Ra didn't require to chant that Egyptian bullshit (or the Egyptian Gods choosing who are worthy in using their powers), Mai would have won. If it wasn't for the Shadow Duel's rules, Joey wouldn't have been so beaten up to declare the final attack to win.
Mai only came close to winning because she performed better in the anime. In the manga, Marik stomped her to the point her only chance of winning was to steal and use Ra. Also, Marik didn’t abuse Ra until his match with Yami. Before then, Ra was treated the same way as anyone else’s ace card. Heck, in two of his four duels, Ra was stolen from him.
It surprises me that the duel was even close because Marik is a guy with probably the worst dueling skills in yugioh like why do you control Joey and than use Raigeki against Gazelle in Defence but then summon Aligotorswort that bests Gazelle in Defence
@@FinnDMG Marik and Yami Marik are not the same person and they don't duel the same at all. Yami Marik, especially in the manga, is a much stronger duelist than normal Marik.
@@shaktosh524 nah, marik intentionally wanted her Mia to take Ra, he set it up to make her lose hope the moment she discovered she couldn't use it If marik really wanted to, he could've prevented her from getting ra entirely
I know Tetsuo/Bronk was Yuma's best friend but I always kinda saw Shark in that position as the friend/rival. He may have started out as an antagonist but they got pretty close afterwards, and that's why the whole Nasch thing was so impactful
Also worth noting the direct references to Joey. Bullying Yuma and stealing the Emperor's Key references the manga with the Millennium Puzzle. Then there's Rio, who like Serenity debuts with bandages over her eyes.
true. Shark had many "joey" moments that he gave his life to yuma. And bronk he was never supportive to yuma on his challengs, and he was a punching bag. He lost even for caracthers that appered in only one episode.
Gongenzaka was an great BF character. One of my favourite stand out moments was him using an action card to save Yuya during the battle beast which essentially crippled his play style. People may not like the BB duel but that scene was one of the highlights and great moment for him.
Completely agree. That BB duel was absolutely shambolic but Gongenzaka getting that Action Card & turn off his entire deck gave it the shock factor for just a moment, especially when you realise BB was immediately carding everyone who lost and it's not like Gongenzaka didn't know that - he fully did and resigned himself to that outcome by turning off his entire deck, just to save his best friend. What a chad.
Joey is not only the top best friend character, but he’s in my opinion the character that has received the best development period across the entire franchise.
For me personally Joey hands down the best dude had so much development both as a character and as a duelist. He also had awesome duels too. Plus he was funny too.
Funny I think the reason why Bronk is so forgettable is that they kind of often push Shark as Yuma's best friend considering how similar he is to Joey (you know in terms of bullying the main protagonist originally and the protagonist helps them out from bigger bullies later). In general when it comes to Zexal, if you aren't Yuma, Shark, Kite, and Astral, you ain't getting too much development lol
Gong's placement I completely agree with because to be honest with you Gong was probably one of the best characters in Arc V. And I think Joey's character was a good character model to go by
People always roast sho but he did have a lot of development over the series. He went from the wimp to an actually strong duelist and gained a lot of confidence as time went on and he faced his brother. He was also the only one who actually moved up in color ranks as his dueling skills improved.
Idk about that. Sho/Syrus always came off as annoying to me because of how much he projected and relied on Judai/Jaden. And we see how much pressure this puts on Judai in season 3 and 4 to never lose a duel. Granted, Sho isn't the only one to do this, but for being Judai's best friend and to not understand his struggles is a pretty bad look, I don't think that one duel at the end makes up for a weak character arc overall. Compare Sho to Manjome /Chazz and Manjome is actually a better friend when you consider that he never actually asks him to do anything for him (yes it's partly because he's stubborn), but when Judai couldn't see his cards after his duel with Edo/Aster Phoenix, Manjome was the only person to actually try and talk to Judai. He did it in his own Manjome way but it was still heart warming.
@@rich355 Chazz, Jim, O'Brien and Jesse were way better friends than Syrus change my mind. These guys actually went to hell and back and their trust in Jaden never wavered.
Joey is my absolute favorite. He is such a good example of a person being able to change for the better for not only himself but the people around him. He was a jerk but became one of the most kind hearted and trust worthy friends someone could have…plus dat creep face tho lol
I'd swap Gong and Luke's places as Luke has had way too many selfish moments that overshadowed his genuinely good friend bits. Gong never overstayed his welcome and never put his ego above his comrades like Luke did.
Not really, in the tournament he acknowledged that Romin and Gakuto were the reason they went to the finals and thank them. Luke was willing to go with Yuga at the end and risked everything, Luke never duel after Yuga left.
@@lAlwaysHopel That's also ignoring his betrayal to join Goha Yuo because he told him that he was the strongest duelist and got everyone into a deeper mess. But no one gave him any flack for it like he did for Roman because Luke can do no wrong for the writers apparently.
I do agree with you like how he Basculy ditched his Friends after they eat at that restaurant and he need to use the bathroom without saying what he was doing making them think he ran out and leaving them with the bill
Joey is definitely the best best friend in all of Yu-Gi-Oh, plus he had some of the best punch lines as well! I know people love to rip on the 4KIDS version, but the punch lines both Joey, and Kiba for that matter were A tier! That scene in Pyramid Of Light were Joey starts dueling all these people trying to get to Yugi, and he tells the first challenger,, "Alright, ladies first", will forever be one of my favorite parts if that movie!
I believe it's kind of unfair to rank only Crow from 5D's since Yusei was best friends with all of Team Satisfaction rather than just Crow. But even then, Jack acted more as a Rival-Best-Friend while Kiryu acted more like that one friend you have that only knows you and perhaps 2 more people in a party. And to the rest of team 5D's, Yusei was like a father figure to Rua and Ruka, and Aki's crush that she ended up getting over. So maybe Bruno and Kiryu were also eligible???? Although Bruno felt more like the kid who showed you how good he is at your favorite game and ends up teaching you to surpass him.
I agree with all this, but I don't think Aki got over her crush for Yusei. Just want to focus on other things at the moment which is quite normal. But back on topic, I did think Crow was a weird choice because I felt Jack was more of a friend than Crow who, while having the same interest and common ground as Yusei, wasn't really much of a friend compare to Jack.
@@retrogamer6403 that's true tho, the problem wasn't Crow being the best friend, it was Yusei not being as friendly as he was with Bruno with his "best friends"
The best analogy I have to describe Crow is this. If Yusei and Bruno are the Jotaro and Kakyoin of 5Ds, Crow is Polnareff. He’s takes care of his family,he battles to the best of his abilities with the resources and intellect he has makings him formidable.
Joey is honestly one of my favorite characters not only in the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise but in anime. I was thrilled to see where he landed on this list. Joey is the kind of friend anyone would be blessed to have. He can be goofy and easygoing but when it comes to fighting for his friends and family he goes all out. If anyone knows how to endure and keep doing their best, it's Joey. In terms of dueling he's outclassed by many, but in terms of heart...he's probably the strongest in the franchise. Great video. Loved seeing all the results. Best wishes and God bless you!
Great video!!!! Glad you liked my suggestion. We have similar takes, though I'm ranking them more on their relationship to the protag. Here's my list: 8. Bronk: I mean come on, besides dueling Number 96, he did nothing important and wasn't always the most supportive best friend. Heck Shark was a better best friend to Yuma and Shark was a rival 7. Syrus: He's an interesting take on the best friend and he developed very well, I just wish he was there for Jaden more and had more development in the show 6. Crow: I like him more than I used to and he could always tell when something was wrong with Yusei. But he did feel forced at times and could have used more development. 5. Gongenzaka: I wish he did more! He's super underrated as a best friend. Protected Yuya from bullying, interesting duel style, and SACRIFICED his dueling style to save Yuya during their duel with the battle beast. 4. Soulburner: I like Soulburner a lot. Great character development, amazing partnership with Flame, and he was always there to extend a helping hand to Yusaku and the cast. I just wish his relationship with Playmaker was explored more. It did kind of feel like he just came in and was like "hey I'm your bestie now" and Yusaku was like "aight bet". But he's still a great character! 3. Kusanagi: Okay maybe a little high, but I saw Kusanagi more as Yusaku's best friend than Soulburner. Did he duel a lot? No. Was he involved in the main plot? No. But he was always supporting Yusaku and later Takeru through his hacking and without him, the plot wouldn't have been able to progress for Playmaker. Not to mention how their friendship is amazing. They're like family to each. Yusaku was like a little brother to Kusanagi (as Yusaku often slept in the hotdog truck lol) and their duel is one of the most emotional duels in Vrains. Love Kusanagi! 2. Luke: I feel like Luke is the first Joey style best friend we've had in a long time. Almost always standing up for his friends and being there for them. He and Yuga's friendship is so wholesome, and I love it. Luke also had some amazing duels in the series. Just wish he lost a bit sooner, but I can take it. 1. Joey: Need I say more XD in all seriousness, he was always by Yugi's side cheering him on and helping him out while also having his own interesting plotlines. He was goofy and fun, yet serious and confident, and no one can best friend the way Joey can.
@@jovanisanchez3590 I completely agree! Shark even calls Yuma and Astral his best friends at the end of Zexal. He'd probably rank between Soulburner and Kusanagi for me on my list :)
I feel the problem is that the dorm never felt like a big achievement since Judai has been beating Blue student fodders since early episodesnd the focus were more on end of the world villains unrelated to the school. All of his progress were also offscreened. All you got from his character were mostly “Oh, he went to blue dorm. Oh, he loses and gets kidnapped again, so what’s the point of moving to blue dorm? He’s still a weaksauce.”
I feel like Shark deserved to be in this list instead of Bronk, he saved Yuma’s life multiple times and was always there to help him. He might not be the obvious best friend from the beginning, but they really become closer during the run of the show. That’s why it was so heartbreaking to see him fight against Yuma in the last season. Shark got in the hospital TWICE because he was trying to save Yuma and you know he wouldn’t do this for everyone. That little alien boy really deserves more credit for his actions 😅
Joey not only is the best friend character he is also the best character in DM imo. Yes Yugi and Kaiba are great but Joey will always be the number 1 to me nyeh!
I had a feeling Joey was going to be number 1, he was an awesome character and friend in the series. Gongenzeka was another character that truly embodied the role of a best friend character. Awesome Video~!!!
I agree with Joey. He was there through it all from the first episode to the last and was a great asset to Yugi. He became an awesome Duelist and really showed his stuff in many duels. He also had real tangible motivations that we in the real world can relate to.
I can see your point but to me Crow is still my favorite best friend character. I love his voice and design, and I love his personality and his bond with Yusei and Jack, as well as with the other orphan kids. Him being a really good duelist was for me a plus for a best friend character personally. Joey would be a close second.
Joey is arguably one of the best “BF” characters in the Yugioh franchise alongside Soulburner second and Crow rounding out the big three for me personally but all can be interchangeable because most of them are great!!! 🥲😉
YES! Duel Links lore video coming! I SO love what Konami is doing with Duel Links lore; it's like history repeating itself but with some slight changes. Like, they gave us Jaden Yubel interacting with the Supreme King! That's so cool man! I would love to see that with Shark and Nasch, Ai and Season 3 Ai, etc
#1 is obviously Jōnouchi and its not debatable. The topic is best friend. The Japanese word for Friendship is Yūjō. Takahashi intentional named Jōnouchi with "Jō" to connect him with Yūgi to represent their friendship. The first letters of their names spell Yūjō . No spinoff character can top Jōnouchi as a best friend because he was created to be THE best friend. Also, there's literally a card with them as the artwork called "Yūjō Yū-Jō".
8- Bronk 7- Sho 6- Crow 5- Soulburner 4- Gongenzaka 3- Johan 2- Luke 1- Jonouchi I didn't like Soulburner that much, sorry. Never could get over how he steamrolled over everyone haha But that last duel was amazing, yeah. I guess Shark could be considered too?
Right?! He literally risked his life time and time again for everyone in Duel Academy, all in a single season. Even only the first few episodes after his introduction, he literally saves Syrus’ life that was literally hanging by a thread. He literally leaped off of the cliff to save him.
Gongenzaka is very much underrated as a friend, I'd even rank him second only behind Joey. I agree with the rest of the list. I guess we're now due for a list for best rival and girl lead if you haven't done them yet
The Best Friend characters in my opinion from DM to Vrains. DM: Joey Wheeler GX: Syrus Truesdale 5Ds: Crow Hogan ZeXal: Reginald "Shark" Kastle Arc-V: Gong Strong Vrains: Soulburner
I called Joey as your top spot and even Soulburner being in 2nd place. I didn't see Gongenzaka being 4th though. Although I don't generally view DM as my favorite in regards to much of anything anymore, Joey is absolutely the best friend of best friends. In some ways, the original still did it best. And, yes, Jesse/Johan is a better friend than Sho. Regardless of Sho's personality, he can't properly compete with the "best friend" spot when both Judai/Jaden and Johan/Jesse can see duel spirits. You don't realize what you're missing until you find someone you truly click with. At the beginning, of Season 3, I felt like Judai had a moment like this when he met Johan. For 5D's, I think Jack makes more sense. Bruno comes to mind as Yusei's best friend too until spoilers enter the plot. Bruno and Yusei seemed to have a similar friendship dynamic as Judai and Johan. However, in Bruno's case, he loses that with Yusei for reasons I won't go into. Crow felt like an odd pick, but I can't rationalize why Jack is better. If Luke can be both the rival and best friend character, so can Jack though. Same with Shark, because I feel like he's a better best friend for Yuma than Bronk and more people likely identify Kaito/Kite as the overall rival. To me, V/Quinton Mizael/Mizar are better rivals for Kaito. Shark had a rivalry going with IV/Quattro but that didn't stop his rivalry with Yuma. You can have more than one rival anyway. Just ask Judai who had like...how many?
A really good list! Joey is definitely one of the original Yu-Gi-Oh!'s standout characters. Heck, sometimes it seemed like the story was struggling to think of ways for him to not foreshadow Yugi given how effective Joey's duel with Yami Marik is and how the post-Battle City duel between him and Yugi where he gets his Red-Eyes back occurs offscreen. He's just a really solid grounded character. I will argue for perhaps more credit for Sho, though given the stiff competition of the list, I'm not sure I can argue for much higher placement. But I've been rewatching GX lately and have been surprised by just how much I've been enjoying Sho in Season 2. His dynamic with Kenzan is fun, him finally winning a big duel on his own terms to get promoted to Ra Yellow is compelling, him searching for Judai until he collapses from exhaustion when he disappears is probably the strongest showing of him trying support his best friend in turn he gets, and him slowly working himself to confront Ryo when he sees Hell Kaiser in action is legitimately tense. The duel where the two of them finally go at it might be one of my picks for most underrated in the franchise for how tense it is, literally going down to the very last card.
Hey now give Syrus(Sho) a little more credit, he started becoming a better Duelist as the series went on, not just at the end, his progression was natural, moving up the dorm ranks, becoming a Ra Yellow, having Duel against and later a tag team Duel with Hassleberry(Kenza) both to prove himself as Jaden(Judai)'s best friend and to protect him in the later tag team match, taking on his brother Zane(Ryo) to try and get through to him, all of that stuff happened in season 2. Now he did get shafted in Season 3, but to be fair, a lot of GX characters did as Jesse(Johan), Jim, and Axel(O'Brain) stole a lot of the spotlight that season from the main cast besides Jaden.
Sho dueled Kenzan to prove he is Judai’s Aniki, almost akin to a big bro figure and somewhat more affectionate. Sho knew Judai for a year, I think he earned the right to call Judai his Aniki.
Fun idea! I would put Tristan at the bottom since he is the most annoying and pointless character ever. Like he always kept saying how Joey is a bad duelist, but he hardly ever dueled and lost when he did.
I saw Jessie more as the best friend to Jaden than mokuba I mean heart I mean I forget his name. Syras I guess. Jessie has a full story coming in and is clearly the joey of the story especially going evil once like crow was planned to be and shark did go as he's joey to a T and soul burner being vrains joey but probably one of the better ones too. Honestly all the joey archetypes are amazing
Also can you make a list like this for Female leads and Main Antagonists next since you did a video like this for Protagonists, Rival characters and Friend characters?
Love the list Bronk was great in the manga Syrus was great in the manga too and even tried in the anime but was more amazing in Tag Force excluding the Ra and Slifer story Crow is amazing and will to me Gong was a grounded character and incredibly mesmerising Luke was okay but in the end he grew up Theodore aka Soulburner is my one of my favs despite not being a fan of Link Summonings Joey rules!!!! No question and his heroism is amazing
YES! THE BEST FREIND TROPE! MY FAVORITE IN YUGIOH! I know I'm 3 days late but YES! Now here's my own list of the Best Friend. The only series I'll share is Duel Monster to Vrains as I have yet to watch Seven and I don't think there is a best friend in Go Rush, heck you can say Seven doesn't have a best friend character either. Same character applies from what you shared btw (And I was about to not put Soulburner here) Also note I don't have as much as information as you do so i'm doing differently in a way. 7) Brock -Like you saiid Brock is a boring character with not much development compare to characters Like Yuma and Kotari. There is nothing I can think of to say he is better than my previous lower contender. 6) Gongenseka -Before watching this video, i always had him at number 7. However, after watching this video, I can see why you would put him this high. I might even put him higher than my next one actually. 5) Silas -While not the best what made me put him high is how far of a duelist he is, from a crying baby forever, to tearing up friend who manage to reach to be in Obelisk Blue. I don't much about his character other than how far he has come so yeah I put him here. 4) Kusanagi I can understand why many of us like Soulburner, but i can't forget one of Yusaku's first friend in awhile. Yes he hardly does anything in the show but I like him for being there for when he needed. And honestly, his time as trying to be a big brother is heartwarming. 3) SoulBurner Tho Kusanagi was Yusaku first friend, Soulburner development was great. He was a bad kid after his parents die but later find his Fire again (See what i did there), when he met Flame and Playmaker. His final duel with Revolver was amazing as he finally can live his life without pain, even helping Revolver move on form his past. 2) Crow I like crow for just being awesome. His time in the Dark Signer was great. And that's sadly is how much far i go with some of these characters. Again I don't have alot of information as you do, especially since I don't watch all of the episodes yet (Tho I do plan on watching the entire series of 5Ds). heck I thought you put Crow Higher but I guess I was wrong. With that said tho, there is one character I do look at alot... And you know who it is. 1) JOEY... Who else There was no way I can't leave Joey out of Number 1. He's the OG Best Friend. He's the reason Why I love the Best friend Trope in yugioh. When we first saw him, he suck at dueling relaying on monsters a lot. However as the show goes on he generally got better, and every lost makes him want to improve more (THo it is sad to known that his final duel he lost) But what makes Joey my favorite Best friend in Yugioh is his DETERMINATION. Think about it, he wants to win, and when he lost he never gave up, and continue to improve. But some of the most defining moments with him was the times he has to fight a battle that is a lot personal. Heck, some of these Duels became personal -His fight with Yugi: When he was forced to fight Yugi, he know he can't lose because he wanted to make sure his sister gets her eye surgery. Despite losing he still gave it his all. -His Second Fight with Yugi: When Yugi lost to save Joey, Joey then told red-eyes to hit him right back thanks to yugi's trap card just so Yugi can get his key. However, instead of getting his key, he imminently jumps to Yugi side to reach for HIS KEY, saving Yugi in the process. -Mai fight with Marik: He threw himself in Ra attack just too save Mai -And speaking Marik: Marik diid everything he can to break Joey, but Joey withstand each and every attack he throws. TO the point where he even Scared Marik when Marik was about to lose... He manage, to scared, one of the main antagonist in Yugioh, that is awesome. -His fight with Valon: Joey was so determine to bring may back that the only thing that was in his way was Valon. It turn into an awesome brawl where Joey admire how Valon fought. -His fight with Mai: He decided to give up when he realized his body can't handle another hit, just so he can save Mai. Mai didn't attack, yet despite it, Joey was happy she didn't lost her soul There's probaly still more awesome things Joey has done, but those things are enough to share why Joey is such an amazing friend. His own determination is the reason why I love him, making him my favorite Duel Monster Character, maybe even the entire franchise. Thank you for making this list, I was hype when I saw this list and I'm glad Joey is number 1.
Woah seriously they really did bronk dirty but hey he has over 20 victories over him, the problem was that the writers decided to make Yuma's bonds with kite and shark
Joey/Jonouchi is one of the best characters in DM; he's a badass normal who put up a great fight against Dark Marik. As for Crow, I heard he was the most controversial character in 5D's, due to the fact the 5D's director had a lot of favoritism for him
You were right, I wasn't expecting Crow to be so low in the list jeje. Yes Joey was the best!! For us Latin american was so special because the great performance by our beloved Carlos Íñigo who soul rest in peace.
I don't get it why Roa is Yuga's Rival ? Because I think Luke is his main rival since Luke is own dragon type monster as his Ace (yeah I know Declan & Zwijo doesn't use dragon but most of the rival use dragon as their ace monster) and he and Yuga got their own version of Dragon Master Knight Maybe because They are on the same team ? I don't think so since Jack & Yusei is on the same team but they still become rival Isn't Luke the best friend character like Joey & Crow ? I think that role goes to Gavin
Bronk's duel against Number 96 always faschinates me, it is a somewhat important duel (I think) and the only time somebody (not possesed by a number) summoned Utopia without Yuma beside.
"Yugioh Gx had a lot of really interesting and compelling characters but the best friend character really wasn't one of them" Meanwhile in the GX dub: Syrus (sarcastically): Nobody ever listens to me, I'm just the wimpy sidekick, I could never have an idea that could move the plot along!
I have so much to say, but it's funny the debates are over who's the best friend more than who's the better one (Syrus/Jesse, Shark/Bronk, Gongenzaka/Shun, Soulburner/Kusanagi, whether Luke is the best friend or rival). As for the list: 8. I actually don't hate Bronk or the Numbers Club, they served their purpose as the first people Yuma could connect with before the bigger challenges with Kite on (hell they fought giant robots hand to hand), but the issue with them is that they should've been acquiring more Numbers offscreen to help Yuma, and with the Yu boy/best friend/rival/girl/Tristan role, Zexal needed someone to be the Tristan, the normal one that could keep up with the others. They started good when Bronk dueled Black Mist, but it never had him do much more. It's why I consider Shark the best friend to Yuma. Yuma was the only person who connected to Shark on a deep level, get him off the streets, Shark became so trusting that he risked fighting Kaito to do so, and continuously had Yuma's back even when they were enemies. Bronk was more of the Tristan role in that role, the cool friend. Hell Shark is similar to Joey: a punk who befriends the main character, sick sister, manipulated against the villains but fights back, he's solid. 7. Sho/Syrus isn't that bad, the issue with him is that he almost never mattered or tied into the plot like half of the main cast in GX. Season 1: kidnapped by the Shadow Riders, Season 2: really only duels Zane, Season 3: background. Him rising up from Slifer to Ra to Obelisk was great but he needed more to do in the plot. He needed a rematch duel with Zane in season 3 or 4 to boost his character. I joke Jesse is the temporarily season 3 replacement for Syrus because Jesse, Jim, Axel, and Adrien end up essentially taking the roles over from Syrus, Hasselberry, Chazz, Bastion, and Alexis if they were prominent enough. Funny thing is that if 6. My only issue with Kusanagi is same with my issue with VRAINS, there was missed opportunities for him to have duels or interactions with a lot of characters face to face: Akira, Kusanagi, Blood Shephard, the other Lost Incident victims imo. 5. Crow is like surprisingly hated and controversial. I like him as the normal guy out of the Singers with less drama, though his character needed some more change or development. To be fair, I blame the writers for not giving Aki to do more than I blame the character, especially with all the false rumors. 4. Gongenzaka was freaking awesome, easily the most underrated best friend. I wish he got a good win against a major threat in the show. The funny thing is that a lot of people also had the Shun/Joey comparisons too, but then I realized Shun is Yuto's best friend. As for Sawatari, he's more of a friendly rival to Yuya than anything else. 3. The fun part about Luke is that he desperately wants to be the main character, but Yuga is the only person who he respects and wants to be from the start. He wins, but he sucks thanks to all the insecurities (that's why the pigeon duel worked for me) Yuga has him through, and it says a lot he knew Yuga's deck inside out: he cared about him that much. 2. I like Soulburner, just wish there was more of an ideological conflict given how him and Yusaku viewed revenge. And I blame the lack of character balance on the writers than him. Great season three finale. 1. Joey's still the best. If we were to count Shark, I think they're tied. My ranking would be from best to worst: Shark/Joey, Luke, Soulburner, Gongenzaka, Kusanagi, Syrus, Crow Ranking Tristans would be hard, so ranking the girls from best to worst would be next, hopefully by when Go Rush ends. As for Yuhi, he might end up being Syrus done right: the younger brother and best friend who is underrated and wants to prove himself. He's gotten the wins and losses he needed, and by season 2, could be in the higher half it they keep it up.
How about spirit partners-Example Yugi and Atem, Jaden and Winged Kuriboh, Yusei and Crimson Dragon? There's Yuma and Astral, Yuya and Yuto, Yusaku and Ai.
I would for xexal rank also Shark. While Bronk was definitly in Sense of School friend the Best Friend. In a dueling perspective while Kaito was the Rival with beeing the first hurdle both Yuma and Astral had and the 3000 Atk Boss Monster, Shark played the best friend, but not traditionally.
I would argue that if you swapped Crow and Luke we would call this list good. When introduced, Crow had one of the best introductions, featuring an OTK duel against three sector security guards
Idea for the next video (or to keep in mind): Top 3 Best Supporting/Secondary Characters of each Yu-Gi-Oh series OR Top 10 Best Yu-Gi-Oh Supporting/Secondary Characters (His Opinion)
How I would rank the characters given here. (Using the Dub names since that what I watched, and leaving out Luke since I haven't watched sevens yet. 7. Colter (Cool Character sure, but for this type of role I'd like someone that dueled a little more.) 6. Bronk (Genuinely liked him better than Yuma himself and that his duel against Rio was built up rather well.) 5. Soulburner (Pretty much how the video described Crow is how I felt about Soulburner, he came in later and didn't really get that invested in a lot of his duels.) 4. Syrus (Yeah, he was a bit of a whiny character but I think this connection to Zane is what sold the character for me, it was interesting to see the best friends and one of the main rivals be brothers.) 3. Crow (Honestly, don't have any real issues with Crow, yeah he might of felt little shoe horned in at points but I felt his personality in the dynamics they has real worked. Jack and Yusei were always really serious and even broody at times, where Crow was kinda there to snap them back to their senses to get stuff done. I just felt like of the main cast Crow was kinda the down to earth element the group needed. Ironic with his dream of a flying duel runner. 2. Gong (Hard to disagree with anything said about Gong in the video, great chatter, good moral center, knew what to change and what not to when it came to his style.) 1. Joey (Yeah, no surprise Joey was almost a second protagonist at least in the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs, especially in Battle City when they would cut back and forth between Yugi and Joey as the focus of the episodes.)
The most painful bit of this is knowing how low Sho will be. Like, I love him as a character, but I know he has no business being higher than Joey, Crow, Gongenzaka, Soulburner, Kusanagi or Luke even if I personally prefer him to a couple of them. Imma be pissed if he's dead last though because Bronk spent the whole of Zexal tattooing his name on that spot 😤
Yeah I definitely considered including him but he wasn't even present for 50% of the show. Felt he debuted too late, and Sho was supposed to be the best friend character from the start
8) Agreed on Tetsu. He might as well not exist. 7) Takeru is still an active detriment to his show despite his excellent conclusion. 6) Gongenzaka is cool, fun, and charming and I really wish I could put him higher, but unfortunately, he's one of the dozens of victims of Arc-V's awful cast management. 5) Crow is a minor detriment to 5D's compared to Takeru's major detriment. It's really telling that Arc-V managed to do him more solidly. 4) Kusanagi really stands out as a non-Duelist that manages to still matter. 3) Shou is another victim of GX's awful cast management, but he still got a complete arc with a solid beginning, middle, and end. 2) Luke is by far the best-handled member of SEVENS's main quartet. You put it amazingly well in saying he's practically the protagonist. 1) Jonouchi is the least compelling of DM's main trio and it says a lot that even then he still ranks above SEVENS's most compelling. DM's greatest strength really is its solidly defined main trio.
Joey Wheeler my GOAT!! And as an avid GX lover... yeah, Sho is either where he is or dead last. That final duel was good, but I can't get over his position as a Yugi-bro. He was an AWFUL friend to Jaden/Judai, from beginning to end. Did nothing but mooch off of him, hide behind him, push that weird brother dynamic on him, and when Judai needed support the most; when Haou showed up; he judged him for it and made a big stance out of bailing on him. Him being weak and whiny is annoying, but everything else about how he treats the MC just puts him on my shit list.
25 Awesome Boss Summons. Where a character brings out their strongest card. For example, Yubel summoning Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. Jesse summoning Rainbow Dragon. Joey summoning Gilford the Lightning. Kaiba summoning Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Selena summoning Lunalight Leo Dancer. Nash summoning Barian's Hope. Stuff like that.
My top 4 is kinda hard to rank since I pretty much like these characters equally but anyways here I go 1 Luke (this is controversial I know) 2 soulburner 3 crow 4 Joey 5 gongezaka 6 kolter 7 Syrus 8 Brong
I'd probably put Crow lower and Kusanagi higher but this list is pretty similar to mine. The Top 3 is the same except mine would be 3.Soulburner 2.Luke 1.Jonouchi. Those 3 embody what I want from a best friend character in these shows. A competent duelist who while close to the MC and shares development with them can still stand alone without the MC and be a really strong character.
Very lengthy paragraphs on the Best Friends. Enjoy the read. 8- Yeah Bronk wasn't what he cracked up to be as a best friend character in Zexal. Sure Bronk has his moments like how he help saved Yuma from Number 69 and helped stop the Seven Barian Emporers for a brief while but that's all. His character felt wasted. I can see why fans including myself saw Shark as the true best friend character, not only for his development in the story but how naturally his friendship grew with Yuma. 7- Just like bronk Sho/Syrus didn't start off as a great character. Seasons 2 and 3 really flip-flopped his character for no reason and he was annoying. However, I did enjoy his journey of wanting to prove that he can be a strong duelist that he moved up in the ranks to be in Obliesk Blue and he carried his brother's legacy to be a cyberdeck user at the end of the show. So at least the writers did something with him. 6-Kusanagi/Kowlter didn't feel like a best friend character to me at first but he was a great character and served his purpose in the story. The only issues I have with him are the constant hot dog jokes in the dub (they were fine for a while but then the jokes kinda felt awkward to me. Good meme material though.) and he felt more like a main supporting character. Nevertheless, great character in general. 5- Crow is a mixed bag for me. On one hand, he's a cool character, but at the same time, I kinda didn't care for him. It's strange because I use to like crow. He has a great journey with the rest of the 5D main cast, however, that's kinda the problem for me at least. He felt like a character who already went through his arc or more or less completed his journey and the writers did what they could to add more stuff to his character which is jarring as heck. I don't know, Crow is a strange but cool character. 4- Gongezuka truly is the best friend. I'm shocked he's at number 4 and not 3 on the list. The last two seasons of Arc-V really downplayed him badly, but at the same time, they did a good job showing how much he is willing to help those in need especially Yuya, who has been his childhood friend for years protecting him from bullies after Yusho left. He even broke his code of using spell cards in his Heavy Strong Style to protect Yuya. Gong the Strong truly is the strongest friend. Fyi, his theme song is fire. 3- I have yet to finish Sevens but I can agree with Luke being flip-flopped all over the place with his character. Especially now 6 episodes into season 2 Luke feels more like a main character than yuga, which isn't bad but at the same time it seems there is a weird focus on him that makes me wonder if the writers wanted him as the protagonist. However despite all that, Luke is a fun character to watch and cares for his friends deeply. His crazy antics and positive attitude are the highlight of Sevens. 2-Soulburner has his flaws but he is such a great character that it's hard to dislike him. He went through hell and back to discover the truth of the Lost Incident and he had to face his demons just to do so. And by the end of it all, he was able to make peace with his past moving on. His friendship with Playmaker could've been shown more but it's fine. By the end of the day, he deserves it. He truly is a great friend. 1- What is there to say? Joey is the definition and the example of a best friend character. His dueling skills were not great but he improved significantly throughout the series. He was a hot-headed individual with a heart of gold who will sacrifice anything to save his friends when they are in need. This man literally would jump in a burning building and go in the deepest ocean to save those he cares about, even when mind control he still wouldn't try to hurt them. Had it not been for the Millenium Puzzle Joey wouldn't be here to become Yugi friend. Their friendship is that strong that I believe that with or without the puzzle joey somehow would be friends with Yugi. Overall, Joey Wheeler is the iconic best friend.
I'm not surprised that Bronk is at the bottom of the list, he didn't really do anything outside of beating Number 96 (and also he didn't really duel that much which is something I didn't like)
Bronk shouldn’t even be on this, listen realistically Shark is the best friend character. Joey Wheeler’s Red Eyes set the mark for what the best friend ace monster stats are and Shark fits even Kusanagi don’t fit the best friend status it’s only Soulburner his ace monster fit the stats that Joey Wheeler set. That’s like saying Tristan the best friend character in DM cause he dueled once and he always cheered Yugi on😅
How I Rank the friend 1.Jounochi 2.Soulbuner 3.Gongekeza 4.Crow 5.Luke 6.Sho 7.Kusnagi 8.Brock(the worst I felt Shark was more of the best friend role than him)
He definitely is since he and Yudias are close and just have this big best buddies energy. And there is no alternative because Zwijo is surely not a best friend character and Yuamu doesn't have enough moments with Yudias that make me think "yeah, best friends". A good friend? Definitely, but not really best friend.
I know a lot of people will bring up Jesse/Johan not being included which is fair - I left him out because he wasn't present for more than 50% of the show. I felt that should be the minimum requirement to be considered as the series "Best Friend" character. Sure, he was 100% much better than Sho, but I felt he wasn't eligible because he debuted so late into the series
He was the real best friend character much like Soulburner was even though they both had late debuts in their shows
@@luissantiago3928 i agree
It annoys me how he was left out for like 16 episodes since Yubel took his soul.
@@xFaisal_HK thats true to
Jesse isn't Judai's best friend, he is his boyfriend
Gong was such a good friend remember he decided to betray his duel style in order to protect Yuya, he only used magic cards in order to either save or wake up Yuya when needed it
Yep! I think he's prob the most underrated of the lot
The only con for Gongenzaka is near Arc-V's end where he's amongst the characters just there for the ride. Did he play his support role as intended, absolutely.
In fairness, a lot of Arc V characters sort of get hit with that issue as the show goes on. Yuzu and Gong are obviously standout examples, but hardly the only ones. It's kind of just an issue with the show as a whole where it wasn't able to balance out it's big cast at a certain point.
Joey is my favourite, he struggled and clawed his way without any magic or reincarnation going on to contend with and get on the level of Atem, Yugi, Marik and Kaiba.
He was loyal within reason even willing to go against Yugi for his sister knowing the stakes.
He was the underdog we cheered on.
I really wish he hadn't lost to Zigfried in that anime filler arc. His last duel should have been a win in my opinion. Though to be fair I also think he should have beaten marik and then handed Yugi the winged dragon of ra so the pair dueled their heart out one more time with no god cards in sight.
Jonouchi was never close to being on the level of Yami Yugi, Yugi, Malik, and Kaiba. He lost to the Ghoul before Battle City started. The Ghouls were the enemies of the arc. After beating Yami Yugi's hand me downs, he faced Rishido, Malik's right hand man, in the Final 8 and got owned by him. Only because of story conflict that Rishido was forced to lose. A final 4 of Yami Yugi, Kaiba, Malik (the final boss of the arc), and Rishido (fake Malik) could not happen. Malik and Rishido would have had to face each other in the Final 4. That defeated the purpose of him posing as Malik. Takahashi showed the reader that Rishido beat Jonouchi before making him lose by knockout. The Ghouls were enemies Yami Yugi could defeat. The fact Jonouchi lost to the Ghouls meant that he wasn't on Yami Yugi and Kaiba's level. He even lost to Yugi when he was controlled by Malik (Malik only put a few LP dmg cards in his deck so it was still Jonouchi's deck). Yugi suicided in order to open Jonouchi box. His development ended when the Final 8 started. He never wins for the rest of the source material. He even lost to Yami Bakura in the final arc.
Jonouchi never faced Yami Yugi at Duelist Kingdom in the source material. After beating Keith, Jonouchi stated that was his last duel and Duelist Kingdom ended for him. Facing Yami Yugi would only hurt them because Pegasus would see more of their cards and moves. Jonouchi let Yami Yugi face Pegasus because he had the better chance of winning.
@@rob19ny I think you're missing something important - he lost to ghoul grunts AT THE BEGINNING of the arc and close to the end of it was able to compete with their tops. Yes, Rishid had a win against him if not for Ra, but they both acknowledged eachother's abilities and pride as a duelists. Yes, saying he's on the same level as Yugi, Seto and Marik consistently wouldn't be quite true and he himself admits that in the manga, but he still can challenge them a have a chance of winning, something that's already above most of the duelists in the show. That fact that he's in the finals at all tells us how much he has grown up since Duelist Kingdom.
Joey was one the best duelist in the OG Yugioh. He time after time again fought people with literall magic and cheaters but either came close to winning or beat them.
@@rob19ny Feels like you're leaving out a lot of things there. Joey lost to a Ghoul because he had fake cards in his deck, and it was Exodia Stall. Something that still wins duels 20 years later.
Joey knew he couldn't beat Pegasus, but Kaiba also got STOMPED by Pegasus. And Yami was getting stomped by Pegasus until Yugi started helping out.
If you count Joey losing to Odion, then you must also count Joey beating Marik.
And lastly, the Possessed Joey vs Yugi duel doesn't count as a loss because both weren't trying to win the duel. Yugi was playing bad moves to free Joey's heart, and Joey was disobeying Marik every other turn.
Joey almost beating Marik because Marik underestimated Joey was amazing
Marik's priorities in his duels was torturing his opponents and relied too much in Ra, and it nearly costed him. He would have lost against both Mai and Joey.
If Ra didn't require to chant that Egyptian bullshit (or the Egyptian Gods choosing who are worthy in using their powers), Mai would have won.
If it wasn't for the Shadow Duel's rules, Joey wouldn't have been so beaten up to declare the final attack to win.
Mai only came close to winning because she performed better in the anime. In the manga, Marik stomped her to the point her only chance of winning was to steal and use Ra.
Also, Marik didn’t abuse Ra until his match with Yami. Before then, Ra was treated the same way as anyone else’s ace card. Heck, in two of his four duels, Ra was stolen from him.
It surprises me that the duel was even close because Marik is a guy with probably the worst dueling skills in yugioh like why do you control Joey and than use Raigeki against Gazelle in Defence but then summon Aligotorswort that bests Gazelle in Defence
@@FinnDMG Marik and Yami Marik are not the same person and they don't duel the same at all. Yami Marik, especially in the manga, is a much stronger duelist than normal Marik.
@@shaktosh524 nah, marik intentionally wanted her Mia to take Ra, he set it up to make her lose hope the moment she discovered she couldn't use it
If marik really wanted to, he could've prevented her from getting ra entirely
Man Joey nearly drowned trying to save Yugi's Exodia pieces.
Reminds me of Kazuki Takahashi
Yeah, he was a great friend
Joey caught a cold getting Yugi's deck back
Jonouchi fireeee
And when the anchor pulled both of them after that duel right before the battle city finals starts
Joey Wheeler is so well writen, that he could be the main character on his own anime.
I know Tetsuo/Bronk was Yuma's best friend but I always kinda saw Shark in that position as the friend/rival. He may have started out as an antagonist but they got pretty close afterwards, and that's why the whole Nasch thing was so impactful
Yuma even says in their final duel against Nasch near the end "I mean, even now the guy is my best friend!"
I view Shark similar to Gaim/Baron relationship: Hardly friends but Reliable allies especially against a common evil.
Also worth noting the direct references to Joey. Bullying Yuma and stealing the Emperor's Key references the manga with the Millennium Puzzle. Then there's Rio, who like Serenity debuts with bandages over her eyes.
Same thought Shark was the friend
true. Shark had many "joey" moments that he gave his life to yuma. And bronk he was never supportive to yuma on his challengs, and he was a punching bag. He lost even for caracthers that appered in only one episode.
Gongenzaka was an great BF character. One of my favourite stand out moments was him using an action card to save Yuya during the battle beast which essentially crippled his play style. People may not like the BB duel but that scene was one of the highlights and great moment for him.
Completely agree. That BB duel was absolutely shambolic but Gongenzaka getting that Action Card & turn off his entire deck gave it the shock factor for just a moment, especially when you realise BB was immediately carding everyone who lost and it's not like Gongenzaka didn't know that - he fully did and resigned himself to that outcome by turning off his entire deck, just to save his best friend. What a chad.
@@dancostello4872 beautifully said! 🙏
Joey is not only the top best friend character, but he’s in my opinion the character that has received the best development period across the entire franchise.
For me personally Joey hands down the best dude had so much development both as a character and as a duelist. He also had awesome duels too. Plus he was funny too.
It's great to see some Gongenzeka appreciation! He's such a likeable guy and his deck gimmick is unique and super fun to watch.
Funny I think the reason why Bronk is so forgettable is that they kind of often push Shark as Yuma's best friend considering how similar he is to Joey (you know in terms of bullying the main protagonist originally and the protagonist helps them out from bigger bullies later). In general when it comes to Zexal, if you aren't Yuma, Shark, Kite, and Astral, you ain't getting too much development lol
Arclight family and Barians sittin there reeeeal mad rn
Bronk is more Tristan than Joey imo
Gong's placement I completely agree with because to be honest with you Gong was probably one of the best characters in Arc V. And I think Joey's character was a good character model to go by
People always roast sho but he did have a lot of development over the series. He went from the wimp to an actually strong duelist and gained a lot of confidence as time went on and he faced his brother. He was also the only one who actually moved up in color ranks as his dueling skills improved.
Idk about that. Sho/Syrus always came off as annoying to me because of how much he projected and relied on Judai/Jaden. And we see how much pressure this puts on Judai in season 3 and 4 to never lose a duel. Granted, Sho isn't the only one to do this, but for being Judai's best friend and to not understand his struggles is a pretty bad look, I don't think that one duel at the end makes up for a weak character arc overall. Compare Sho to Manjome /Chazz and Manjome is actually a better friend when you consider that he never actually asks him to do anything for him (yes it's partly because he's stubborn), but when Judai couldn't see his cards after his duel with Edo/Aster Phoenix, Manjome was the only person to actually try and talk to Judai. He did it in his own Manjome way but it was still heart warming.
@@rich355 Chazz, Jim, O'Brien and Jesse were way better friends than Syrus change my mind. These guys actually went to hell and back and their trust in Jaden never wavered.
@@gamechanger8908 Oh yeah I'm not going change your mind either, Sho wasn't a very good friend.
Joey is one of my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh characters.
Same here
Joey is my absolute favorite. He is such a good example of a person being able to change for the better for not only himself but the people around him. He was a jerk but became one of the most kind hearted and trust worthy friends someone could have…plus dat creep face tho lol
I'd swap Gong and Luke's places as Luke has had way too many selfish moments that overshadowed his genuinely good friend bits. Gong never overstayed his welcome and never put his ego above his comrades like Luke did.
Not really, in the tournament he acknowledged that Romin and Gakuto were the reason they went to the finals and thank them. Luke was willing to go with Yuga at the end and risked everything, Luke never duel after Yuga left.
@@lAlwaysHopel That's also ignoring his betrayal to join Goha Yuo because he told him that he was the strongest duelist and got everyone into a deeper mess. But no one gave him any flack for it like he did for Roman because Luke can do no wrong for the writers apparently.
I do agree with you like how he Basculy ditched his Friends after they eat at that restaurant and he need to use the bathroom without saying what he was doing making them think he ran out and leaving them with the bill
Joey is definitely the best best friend in all of Yu-Gi-Oh, plus he had some of the best punch lines as well! I know people love to rip on the 4KIDS version, but the punch lines both Joey, and Kiba for that matter were A tier! That scene in Pyramid Of Light were Joey starts dueling all these people trying to get to Yugi, and he tells the first challenger,, "Alright, ladies first", will forever be one of my favorite parts if that movie!
I believe it's kind of unfair to rank only Crow from 5D's since Yusei was best friends with all of Team Satisfaction rather than just Crow. But even then, Jack acted more as a Rival-Best-Friend while Kiryu acted more like that one friend you have that only knows you and perhaps 2 more people in a party. And to the rest of team 5D's, Yusei was like a father figure to Rua and Ruka, and Aki's crush that she ended up getting over. So maybe Bruno and Kiryu were also eligible???? Although Bruno felt more like the kid who showed you how good he is at your favorite game and ends up teaching you to surpass him.
I agree with all this, but I don't think Aki got over her crush for Yusei. Just want to focus on other things at the moment which is quite normal. But back on topic, I did think Crow was a weird choice because I felt Jack was more of a friend than Crow who, while having the same interest and common ground as Yusei, wasn't really much of a friend compare to Jack.
@@retrogamer6403 that's true tho, the problem wasn't Crow being the best friend, it was Yusei not being as friendly as he was with Bruno with his "best friends"
The best analogy I have to describe Crow is this. If Yusei and Bruno are the Jotaro and Kakyoin of 5Ds, Crow is Polnareff. He’s takes care of his family,he battles to the best of his abilities with the resources and intellect he has makings him formidable.
I will never forget Luke dueling by himself and saying
Bee bee bee bee boop
I will never forget it as well especially since it is now my ringtone. :)
Joey is honestly one of my favorite characters not only in the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise but in anime. I was thrilled to see where he landed on this list. Joey is the kind of friend anyone would be blessed to have. He can be goofy and easygoing but when it comes to fighting for his friends and family he goes all out. If anyone knows how to endure and keep doing their best, it's Joey. In terms of dueling he's outclassed by many, but in terms of heart...he's probably the strongest in the franchise. Great video. Loved seeing all the results. Best wishes and God bless you!
Great video!!!! Glad you liked my suggestion. We have similar takes, though I'm ranking them more on their relationship to the protag. Here's my list:
8. Bronk: I mean come on, besides dueling Number 96, he did nothing important and wasn't always the most supportive best friend. Heck Shark was a better best friend to Yuma and Shark was a rival
7. Syrus: He's an interesting take on the best friend and he developed very well, I just wish he was there for Jaden more and had more development in the show
6. Crow: I like him more than I used to and he could always tell when something was wrong with Yusei. But he did feel forced at times and could have used more development.
5. Gongenzaka: I wish he did more! He's super underrated as a best friend. Protected Yuya from bullying, interesting duel style, and SACRIFICED his dueling style to save Yuya during their duel with the battle beast.
4. Soulburner: I like Soulburner a lot. Great character development, amazing partnership with Flame, and he was always there to extend a helping hand to Yusaku and the cast. I just wish his relationship with Playmaker was explored more. It did kind of feel like he just came in and was like "hey I'm your bestie now" and Yusaku was like "aight bet". But he's still a great character!
3. Kusanagi: Okay maybe a little high, but I saw Kusanagi more as Yusaku's best friend than Soulburner. Did he duel a lot? No. Was he involved in the main plot? No. But he was always supporting Yusaku and later Takeru through his hacking and without him, the plot wouldn't have been able to progress for Playmaker. Not to mention how their friendship is amazing. They're like family to each. Yusaku was like a little brother to Kusanagi (as Yusaku often slept in the hotdog truck lol) and their duel is one of the most emotional duels in Vrains. Love Kusanagi!
2. Luke: I feel like Luke is the first Joey style best friend we've had in a long time. Almost always standing up for his friends and being there for them. He and Yuga's friendship is so wholesome, and I love it. Luke also had some amazing duels in the series. Just wish he lost a bit sooner, but I can take it.
1. Joey: Need I say more XD in all seriousness, he was always by Yugi's side cheering him on and helping him out while also having his own interesting plotlines. He was goofy and fun, yet serious and confident, and no one can best friend the way Joey can.
I kind of agree. About Shark, I just want to point out that he is both Yuma's rival and best friend.
@@jovanisanchez3590 I completely agree! Shark even calls Yuma and Astral his best friends at the end of Zexal. He'd probably rank between Soulburner and Kusanagi for me on my list :)
shark clears the entirety of zexal and would destroy this list, komoney does not consider him a friend character for that reason.
what about astral ? do you think he could count as a best friend ?
Even though Sho/Syrus is low he's the only character we see actually advance through the dorms
I feel the problem is that the dorm never felt like a big achievement since Judai has been beating Blue student fodders since early episodesnd the focus were more on end of the world villains unrelated to the school.
All of his progress were also offscreened. All you got from his character were mostly “Oh, he went to blue dorm. Oh, he loses and gets kidnapped again, so what’s the point of moving to blue dorm? He’s still a weaksauce.”
Joey is definitely the best one by far which I agree I’ve always liked him more the other best friend characters from the spin-offs
Man, I missed this ranking videos! Haven't finished watching it but come on
Yu-Jo.
It's gotta be Jonouchi #1 right?
Been way too long since I made one
Thanks for doing my idea and seriously when vrains was announced first episode that Naoki was supposed to be the best friend
I feel like Shark deserved to be in this list instead of Bronk, he saved Yuma’s life multiple times and was always there to help him. He might not be the obvious best friend from the beginning, but they really become closer during the run of the show. That’s why it was so heartbreaking to see him fight against Yuma in the last season. Shark got in the hospital TWICE because he was trying to save Yuma and you know he wouldn’t do this for everyone. That little alien boy really deserves more credit for his actions 😅
Problem with Shark is part 2. In part 2 he is the antagonist for most of the time, otherwise he would have fit better.
Half of Season 2 was nothing but Syrus and Hasselberry arguing about who's Jaden's best friend
Yugioh charcters win rate
(Just the 3 main charcters like yuma kite and shark )
Awsome video bro :)
Thanks Yuki!
@@YugiohEverything :)
Joey not only is the best friend character he is also the best character in DM imo.
Yes Yugi and Kaiba are great but Joey will always be the number 1 to me nyeh!
I had a feeling Joey was going to be number 1, he was an awesome character and friend in the series. Gongenzeka was another character that truly embodied the role of a best friend character. Awesome Video~!!!
I agree with Joey. He was there through it all from the first episode to the last and was a great asset to Yugi. He became an awesome Duelist and really showed his stuff in many duels. He also had real tangible motivations that we in the real world can relate to.
I can see your point but to me Crow is still my favorite best friend character. I love his voice and design, and I love his personality and his bond with Yusei and Jack, as well as with the other orphan kids. Him being a really good duelist was for me a plus for a best friend character personally.
Joey would be a close second.
Joey is arguably one of the best “BF” characters in the Yugioh franchise alongside Soulburner second and Crow rounding out the big three for me personally but all can be interchangeable because most of them are great!!! 🥲😉
YES! Duel Links lore video coming! I SO love what Konami is doing with Duel Links lore; it's like history repeating itself but with some slight changes. Like, they gave us Jaden Yubel interacting with the Supreme King! That's so cool man! I would love to see that with Shark and Nasch, Ai and Season 3 Ai, etc
#1 is obviously Jōnouchi and its not debatable. The topic is best friend. The Japanese word for Friendship is Yūjō. Takahashi intentional named Jōnouchi with "Jō" to connect him with Yūgi to represent their friendship. The first letters of their names spell Yūjō . No spinoff character can top Jōnouchi as a best friend because he was created to be THE best friend. Also, there's literally a card with them as the artwork called "Yūjō Yū-Jō".
There are plenty of good friends
8- Bronk
7- Sho
6- Crow
5- Soulburner
4- Gongenzaka
3- Johan
2- Luke
1- Jonouchi
I didn't like Soulburner that much, sorry. Never could get over how he steamrolled over everyone haha
But that last duel was amazing, yeah.
I guess Shark could be considered too?
Bruh, I'm surprised that Jesse Anderson from "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" didn't make it on the list!
He wasn't around enough to qualify. He showed up in around 35% of the show.
Right?! He literally risked his life time and time again for everyone in Duel Academy, all in a single season.
Even only the first few episodes after his introduction, he literally saves Syrus’ life that was literally hanging by a thread. He literally leaped off of the cliff to save him.
Jonouchi is the GOAT
Still to this day
@@YugiohEverything Joey should've beaten Marik! But thanks to Plot Armor, he didn't!
And thanks to plot armor Joey made the Top 4 because Odion wiped him.
i had been waiting a long time for a new rank list :D
Gongenzaka is very much underrated as a friend, I'd even rank him second only behind Joey. I agree with the rest of the list.
I guess we're now due for a list for best rival and girl lead if you haven't done them yet
The Best Friend characters in my opinion from DM to Vrains.
DM: Joey Wheeler
GX: Syrus Truesdale
5Ds: Crow Hogan
ZeXal: Reginald "Shark" Kastle
Arc-V: Gong Strong
Vrains: Soulburner
I agree with most of those picks expect I switch Syrus with Jesse
I called Joey as your top spot and even Soulburner being in 2nd place. I didn't see Gongenzaka being 4th though. Although I don't generally view DM as my favorite in regards to much of anything anymore, Joey is absolutely the best friend of best friends. In some ways, the original still did it best.
And, yes, Jesse/Johan is a better friend than Sho. Regardless of Sho's personality, he can't properly compete with the "best friend" spot when both Judai/Jaden and Johan/Jesse can see duel spirits. You don't realize what you're missing until you find someone you truly click with. At the beginning, of Season 3, I felt like Judai had a moment like this when he met Johan.
For 5D's, I think Jack makes more sense. Bruno comes to mind as Yusei's best friend too until spoilers enter the plot. Bruno and Yusei seemed to have a similar friendship dynamic as Judai and Johan. However, in Bruno's case, he loses that with Yusei for reasons I won't go into. Crow felt like an odd pick, but I can't rationalize why Jack is better. If Luke can be both the rival and best friend character, so can Jack though.
Same with Shark, because I feel like he's a better best friend for Yuma than Bronk and more people likely identify Kaito/Kite as the overall rival. To me, V/Quinton Mizael/Mizar are better rivals for Kaito. Shark had a rivalry going with IV/Quattro but that didn't stop his rivalry with Yuma. You can have more than one rival anyway. Just ask Judai who had like...how many?
A really good list! Joey is definitely one of the original Yu-Gi-Oh!'s standout characters. Heck, sometimes it seemed like the story was struggling to think of ways for him to not foreshadow Yugi given how effective Joey's duel with Yami Marik is and how the post-Battle City duel between him and Yugi where he gets his Red-Eyes back occurs offscreen. He's just a really solid grounded character.
I will argue for perhaps more credit for Sho, though given the stiff competition of the list, I'm not sure I can argue for much higher placement. But I've been rewatching GX lately and have been surprised by just how much I've been enjoying Sho in Season 2. His dynamic with Kenzan is fun, him finally winning a big duel on his own terms to get promoted to Ra Yellow is compelling, him searching for Judai until he collapses from exhaustion when he disappears is probably the strongest showing of him trying support his best friend in turn he gets, and him slowly working himself to confront Ryo when he sees Hell Kaiser in action is legitimately tense. The duel where the two of them finally go at it might be one of my picks for most underrated in the franchise for how tense it is, literally going down to the very last card.
Hey now give Syrus(Sho) a little more credit, he started becoming a better Duelist as the series went on, not just at the end, his progression was natural, moving up the dorm ranks, becoming a Ra Yellow, having Duel against and later a tag team Duel with Hassleberry(Kenza) both to prove himself as Jaden(Judai)'s best friend and to protect him in the later tag team match, taking on his brother Zane(Ryo) to try and get through to him, all of that stuff happened in season 2. Now he did get shafted in Season 3, but to be fair, a lot of GX characters did as Jesse(Johan), Jim, and Axel(O'Brain) stole a lot of the spotlight that season from the main cast besides Jaden.
Sho dueled Kenzan to prove he is Judai’s Aniki, almost akin to a big bro figure and somewhat more affectionate.
Sho knew Judai for a year, I think he earned the right to call Judai his Aniki.
Next you should do a list of the secondary friends list.
Tristan, chumley/hassleberry, sora/shingo, and so on.
Fun idea! I would put Tristan at the bottom since he is the most annoying and pointless character ever. Like he always kept saying how Joey is a bad duelist, but he hardly ever dueled and lost when he did.
@Robert Toader fair point, but counter point, his voice gave him super strength.
I saw Jessie more as the best friend to Jaden than mokuba I mean heart I mean I forget his name. Syras I guess. Jessie has a full story coming in and is clearly the joey of the story especially going evil once like crow was planned to be and shark did go as he's joey to a T and soul burner being vrains joey but probably one of the better ones too. Honestly all the joey archetypes are amazing
Also can you make a list like this for Female leads and Main Antagonists next since you did a video like this for Protagonists, Rival characters and Friend characters?
I've always loved Jesse Anderson from Yugioh GX
Love the list
Bronk was great in the manga
Syrus was great in the manga too and even tried in the anime but was more amazing in Tag Force excluding the Ra and Slifer story
Crow is amazing and will to me
Gong was a grounded character and incredibly mesmerising
Luke was okay but in the end he grew up
Theodore aka Soulburner is my one of my favs despite not being a fan of Link Summonings
Joey rules!!!! No question and his heroism is amazing
Syrus was great in the manga? He felt really bland there.
@@pn2294 You would be surprised he tried to duel tougher opponents than him
man crow is underrated
i see him as the best duelist and with the most kind hearted
YES! THE BEST FREIND TROPE! MY FAVORITE IN YUGIOH! I know I'm 3 days late but YES!
Now here's my own list of the Best Friend. The only series I'll share is Duel Monster to Vrains as I have yet to watch Seven and I don't think there is a best friend in Go Rush, heck you can say Seven doesn't have a best friend character either. Same character applies from what you shared btw (And I was about to not put Soulburner here)
Also note I don't have as much as information as you do so i'm doing differently in a way.
7) Brock
-Like you saiid Brock is a boring character with not much development compare to characters Like Yuma and Kotari. There is nothing I can think of to say he is better than my previous lower contender.
6) Gongenseka
-Before watching this video, i always had him at number 7. However, after watching this video, I can see why you would put him this high. I might even put him higher than my next one actually.
5) Silas
-While not the best what made me put him high is how far of a duelist he is, from a crying baby forever, to tearing up friend who manage to reach to be in Obelisk Blue.
I don't much about his character other than how far he has come so yeah I put him here.
4) Kusanagi
I can understand why many of us like Soulburner, but i can't forget one of Yusaku's first friend in awhile. Yes he hardly does anything in the show but I like him for being there for when he needed. And honestly, his time as trying to be a big brother is heartwarming.
3) SoulBurner
Tho Kusanagi was Yusaku first friend, Soulburner development was great. He was a bad kid after his parents die but later find his Fire again (See what i did there), when he met Flame and Playmaker. His final duel with Revolver was amazing as he finally can live his life without pain, even helping Revolver move on form his past.
2) Crow
I like crow for just being awesome. His time in the Dark Signer was great.
And that's sadly is how much far i go with some of these characters. Again I don't have alot of information as you do, especially since I don't watch all of the episodes yet (Tho I do plan on watching the entire series of 5Ds). heck I thought you put Crow Higher but I guess I was wrong.
With that said tho, there is one character I do look at alot... And you know who it is.
1) JOEY... Who else
There was no way I can't leave Joey out of Number 1. He's the OG Best Friend. He's the reason Why I love the Best friend Trope in yugioh.
When we first saw him, he suck at dueling relaying on monsters a lot. However as the show goes on he generally got better, and every lost makes him want to improve more (THo it is sad to known that his final duel he lost)
But what makes Joey my favorite Best friend in Yugioh is his DETERMINATION.
Think about it, he wants to win, and when he lost he never gave up, and continue to improve. But some of the most defining moments with him was the times he has to fight a battle that is a lot personal. Heck, some of these Duels became personal
-His fight with Yugi: When he was forced to fight Yugi, he know he can't lose because he wanted to make sure his sister gets her eye surgery. Despite losing he still gave it his all.
-His Second Fight with Yugi: When Yugi lost to save Joey, Joey then told red-eyes to hit him right back thanks to yugi's trap card just so Yugi can get his key. However, instead of getting his key, he imminently jumps to Yugi side to reach for HIS KEY, saving Yugi in the process.
-Mai fight with Marik: He threw himself in Ra attack just too save Mai
-And speaking Marik: Marik diid everything he can to break Joey, but Joey withstand each and every attack he throws. TO the point where he even Scared Marik when Marik was about to lose... He manage, to scared, one of the main antagonist in Yugioh, that is awesome.
-His fight with Valon: Joey was so determine to bring may back that the only thing that was in his way was Valon. It turn into an awesome brawl where Joey admire how Valon fought.
-His fight with Mai: He decided to give up when he realized his body can't handle another hit, just so he can save Mai. Mai didn't attack, yet despite it, Joey was happy she didn't lost her soul
There's probaly still more awesome things Joey has done, but those things are enough to share why Joey is such an amazing friend. His own determination is the reason why I love him, making him my favorite Duel Monster Character, maybe even the entire franchise.
Thank you for making this list, I was hype when I saw this list and I'm glad Joey is number 1.
Woah seriously they really did bronk dirty but hey he has over 20 victories over him, the problem was that the writers decided to make Yuma's bonds with kite and shark
Almost all of those were off screen as well lol
I feel like Bronk is more like a Tristan than a Joey
Joey/Jonouchi is one of the best characters in DM; he's a badass normal who put up a great fight against Dark Marik.
As for Crow, I heard he was the most controversial character in 5D's, due to the fact the 5D's director had a lot of favoritism for him
Great ranking Dylan
My favorite best friend characters are: Joey, Soulburner, Luke, Kusanagi, and Gong
Thanks Anthony!
I legit thought Crow was gonna be last.
You were right, I wasn't expecting Crow to be so low in the list jeje.
Yes Joey was the best!! For us Latin american was so special because the great performance by our beloved Carlos Íñigo who soul rest in peace.
Great video! I agree with you 100% about Joey and crow. For some reason gong always annoyed though
Hi Yugioh Everything I love this and I hope you have a good day and you are awesome
I don't get it why Roa is Yuga's Rival ? Because I think Luke is his main rival since Luke is own dragon type monster as his Ace (yeah I know Declan & Zwijo doesn't use dragon but most of the rival use dragon as their ace monster) and he and Yuga got their own version of Dragon Master Knight
Maybe because They are on the same team ? I don't think so since Jack & Yusei is on the same team but they still become rival
Isn't Luke the best friend character like Joey & Crow ? I think that role goes to Gavin
I was gonna riot if Joey wasn't #1 lmao. Great video, friend!
The answer is Joey. I don’t even need to watch the rest of the video. But I still will
Man I understand why Jesse wasn’t on the list but he definitely should’ve been on the list imo
I want friends like Joey and Crow on my team. They are freakin awesome, and don’t mind getting their hands dirty for their friends. 👍🏿
Suggestion: 25 AWESOME References to Past Cards/Moments, like the Baseball deck or the "legendary" Traps in Vrains.
Bronk's duel against Number 96 always faschinates me, it is a somewhat important duel (I think) and the only time somebody (not possesed by a number) summoned Utopia without Yuma beside.
"Yugioh Gx had a lot of really interesting and compelling characters but the best friend character really wasn't one of them"
Meanwhile in the GX dub:
Syrus (sarcastically): Nobody ever listens to me, I'm just the wimpy sidekick, I could never have an idea that could move the plot along!
I have so much to say, but it's funny the debates are over who's the best friend more than who's the better one (Syrus/Jesse, Shark/Bronk, Gongenzaka/Shun, Soulburner/Kusanagi, whether Luke is the best friend or rival). As for the list:
8. I actually don't hate Bronk or the Numbers Club, they served their purpose as the first people Yuma could connect with before the bigger challenges with Kite on (hell they fought giant robots hand to hand), but the issue with them is that they should've been acquiring more Numbers offscreen to help Yuma, and with the Yu boy/best friend/rival/girl/Tristan role, Zexal needed someone to be the Tristan, the normal one that could keep up with the others. They started good when Bronk dueled Black Mist, but it never had him do much more.
It's why I consider Shark the best friend to Yuma. Yuma was the only person who connected to Shark on a deep level, get him off the streets, Shark became so trusting that he risked fighting Kaito to do so, and continuously had Yuma's back even when they were enemies. Bronk was more of the Tristan role in that role, the cool friend. Hell Shark is similar to Joey: a punk who befriends the main character, sick sister, manipulated against the villains but fights back, he's solid.
7. Sho/Syrus isn't that bad, the issue with him is that he almost never mattered or tied into the plot like half of the main cast in GX. Season 1: kidnapped by the Shadow Riders, Season 2: really only duels Zane, Season 3: background. Him rising up from Slifer to Ra to Obelisk was great but he needed more to do in the plot. He needed a rematch duel with Zane in season 3 or 4 to boost his character.
I joke Jesse is the temporarily season 3 replacement for Syrus because Jesse, Jim, Axel, and Adrien end up essentially taking the roles over from Syrus, Hasselberry, Chazz, Bastion, and Alexis if they were prominent enough. Funny thing is that if
6. My only issue with Kusanagi is same with my issue with VRAINS, there was missed opportunities for him to have duels or interactions with a lot of characters face to face: Akira, Kusanagi, Blood Shephard, the other Lost Incident victims imo.
5. Crow is like surprisingly hated and controversial. I like him as the normal guy out of the Singers with less drama, though his character needed some more change or development. To be fair, I blame the writers for not giving Aki to do more than I blame the character, especially with all the false rumors.
4. Gongenzaka was freaking awesome, easily the most underrated best friend. I wish he got a good win against a major threat in the show.
The funny thing is that a lot of people also had the Shun/Joey comparisons too, but then I realized Shun is Yuto's best friend. As for Sawatari, he's more of a friendly rival to Yuya than anything else.
3. The fun part about Luke is that he desperately wants to be the main character, but Yuga is the only person who he respects and wants to be from the start. He wins, but he sucks thanks to all the insecurities (that's why the pigeon duel worked for me) Yuga has him through, and it says a lot he knew Yuga's deck inside out: he cared about him that much.
2. I like Soulburner, just wish there was more of an ideological conflict given how him and Yusaku viewed revenge. And I blame the lack of character balance on the writers than him. Great season three finale.
1. Joey's still the best. If we were to count Shark, I think they're tied.
My ranking would be from best to worst: Shark/Joey, Luke, Soulburner, Gongenzaka, Kusanagi, Syrus, Crow
Ranking Tristans would be hard, so ranking the girls from best to worst would be next, hopefully by when Go Rush ends.
As for Yuhi, he might end up being Syrus done right: the younger brother and best friend who is underrated and wants to prove himself. He's gotten the wins and losses he needed, and by season 2, could be in the higher half it they keep it up.
Yuhi isn't the younger brother tho, he's the older Ohdo twin.
How about spirit partners-Example Yugi and Atem, Jaden and Winged Kuriboh, Yusei and Crimson Dragon? There's Yuma and Astral, Yuya and Yuto, Yusaku and Ai.
I’m surprised with gongenzuka. I liked him before the fusion invasion but after that I mostly found him useless and lacking
Currently 5 episodes into Duel Monsters, and I already love Joey
Joey is probably my all time fave Yu-gi-oh! character
I understand not including Johan/Jesse
He was practically Judai's love interest LOL😂
I honestly think soulburner was just a better executed version of crow. He had way more depth and is probably my favorite character from vrains.
He shouldn’t even be on this list cuz he might as well be the protagonist in Vrains tbh
Can you do a best villian list? Also do like you did with amount of wins like series finale wave
I would for xexal rank also Shark. While Bronk was definitly in Sense of School friend the Best Friend. In a dueling perspective while Kaito was the Rival with beeing the first hurdle both Yuma and Astral had and the 3000 Atk Boss Monster, Shark played the best friend, but not traditionally.
tell komoney that, also abyss supra exists
If they switched soulburner and yusaku’s places as best friend character and protag, vrains would have been significantly better
I would argue that if you swapped Crow and Luke we would call this list good.
When introduced, Crow had one of the best introductions, featuring an OTK duel against three sector security guards
Crow at number 5 is insane. He could be a main character like Joey could be in their own series
Idea for the next video (or to keep in mind):
Top 3 Best Supporting/Secondary Characters of each Yu-Gi-Oh series
OR
Top 10 Best Yu-Gi-Oh Supporting/Secondary Characters (His Opinion)
Kind of wished Gongenzaka did something.
After the Standard arc, he is just...there.
I def think he had a lot of missed potential as well, but I mean second half of Arc-V was rough for a lot of the non legacy characters
@@YugiohEverything the first half of Arc-V didn’t really have anything either
I felt so bad for Sho because when judai fell in love with johan he was ignored beyond belief :(
How I would rank the characters given here. (Using the Dub names since that what I watched, and leaving out Luke since I haven't watched sevens yet.
7. Colter (Cool Character sure, but for this type of role I'd like someone that dueled a little more.)
6. Bronk (Genuinely liked him better than Yuma himself and that his duel against Rio was built up rather well.)
5. Soulburner (Pretty much how the video described Crow is how I felt about Soulburner, he came in later and didn't really get that invested in a lot of his duels.)
4. Syrus (Yeah, he was a bit of a whiny character but I think this connection to Zane is what sold the character for me, it was interesting to see the best friends and one of the main rivals be brothers.)
3. Crow (Honestly, don't have any real issues with Crow, yeah he might of felt little shoe horned in at points but I felt his personality in the dynamics they has real worked. Jack and Yusei were always really serious and even broody at times, where Crow was kinda there to snap them back to their senses to get stuff done. I just felt like of the main cast Crow was kinda the down to earth element the group needed. Ironic with his dream of a flying duel runner.
2. Gong (Hard to disagree with anything said about Gong in the video, great chatter, good moral center, knew what to change and what not to when it came to his style.)
1. Joey (Yeah, no surprise Joey was almost a second protagonist at least in the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs, especially in Battle City when they would cut back and forth between Yugi and Joey as the focus of the episodes.)
The most painful bit of this is knowing how low Sho will be. Like, I love him as a character, but I know he has no business being higher than Joey, Crow, Gongenzaka, Soulburner, Kusanagi or Luke even if I personally prefer him to a couple of them.
Imma be pissed if he's dead last though because Bronk spent the whole of Zexal tattooing his name on that spot 😤
How you not gonna have Jesse on here
Exactly Jesse was Jaden’s real best friend
Yeah I definitely considered including him but he wasn't even present for 50% of the show. Felt he debuted too late, and Sho was supposed to be the best friend character from the start
8) Agreed on Tetsu. He might as well not exist.
7) Takeru is still an active detriment to his show despite his excellent conclusion.
6) Gongenzaka is cool, fun, and charming and I really wish I could put him higher, but unfortunately, he's one of the dozens of victims of Arc-V's awful cast management.
5) Crow is a minor detriment to 5D's compared to Takeru's major detriment. It's really telling that Arc-V managed to do him more solidly.
4) Kusanagi really stands out as a non-Duelist that manages to still matter.
3) Shou is another victim of GX's awful cast management, but he still got a complete arc with a solid beginning, middle, and end.
2) Luke is by far the best-handled member of SEVENS's main quartet. You put it amazingly well in saying he's practically the protagonist.
1) Jonouchi is the least compelling of DM's main trio and it says a lot that even then he still ranks above SEVENS's most compelling. DM's greatest strength really is its solidly defined main trio.
Glad number 1 was Joey....hes really the only one who could have been.
Nah
Shark has to be the best friend for zexal especially in the mid-late series
Rival
Joey Wheeler my GOAT!!
And as an avid GX lover... yeah, Sho is either where he is or dead last. That final duel was good, but I can't get over his position as a Yugi-bro. He was an AWFUL friend to Jaden/Judai, from beginning to end. Did nothing but mooch off of him, hide behind him, push that weird brother dynamic on him, and when Judai needed support the most; when Haou showed up; he judged him for it and made a big stance out of bailing on him.
Him being weak and whiny is annoying, but everything else about how he treats the MC just puts him on my shit list.
25 Awesome Boss Summons. Where a character brings out their strongest card. For example, Yubel summoning Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. Jesse summoning Rainbow Dragon. Joey summoning Gilford the Lightning. Kaiba summoning Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Selena summoning Lunalight Leo Dancer. Nash summoning Barian's Hope. Stuff like that.
Joey is not only the best best friend character in Yu-Gi-Oh, but he’s also one of the best Best Friend characters and all of anime
the first duel where gong was dueling to beat yuya with all seriousness made him more than a side character. he was like a joey from then on
My top 4 is kinda hard to rank since I pretty much like these characters equally but anyways here I go
1 Luke (this is controversial I know)
2 soulburner
3 crow
4 Joey
5 gongezaka
6 kolter
7 Syrus
8 Brong
I actually have a similar list and yeah Luke is pretty cool!
Looks like we’re one of those guys who are really different from the majority xD
I'd probably put Crow lower and Kusanagi higher but this list is pretty similar to mine. The Top 3 is the same except mine would be 3.Soulburner 2.Luke 1.Jonouchi. Those 3 embody what I want from a best friend character in these shows. A competent duelist who while close to the MC and shares development with them can still stand alone without the MC and be a really strong character.
Very lengthy paragraphs on the Best Friends. Enjoy the read.
8- Yeah Bronk wasn't what he cracked up to be as a best friend character in Zexal. Sure Bronk has his moments like how he help saved Yuma from Number 69 and helped stop the Seven Barian Emporers for a brief while but that's all. His character felt wasted. I can see why fans including myself saw Shark as the true best friend character, not only for his development in the story but how naturally his friendship grew with Yuma.
7- Just like bronk Sho/Syrus didn't start off as a great character. Seasons 2 and 3 really flip-flopped his character for no reason and he was annoying. However, I did enjoy his journey of wanting to prove that he can be a strong duelist that he moved up in the ranks to be in Obliesk Blue and he carried his brother's legacy to be a cyberdeck user at the end of the show. So at least the writers did something with him.
6-Kusanagi/Kowlter didn't feel like a best friend character to me at first but he was a great character and served his purpose in the story. The only issues I have with him are the constant hot dog jokes in the dub (they were fine for a while but then the jokes kinda felt awkward to me. Good meme material though.) and he felt more like a main supporting character. Nevertheless, great character in general.
5- Crow is a mixed bag for me. On one hand, he's a cool character, but at the same time, I kinda didn't care for him. It's strange because I use to like crow. He has a great journey with the rest of the 5D main cast, however, that's kinda the problem for me at least. He felt like a character who already went through his arc or more or less completed his journey and the writers did what they could to add more stuff to his character which is jarring as heck. I don't know, Crow is a strange but cool character.
4- Gongezuka truly is the best friend. I'm shocked he's at number 4 and not 3 on the list. The last two seasons of Arc-V really downplayed him badly, but at the same time, they did a good job showing how much he is willing to help those in need especially Yuya, who has been his childhood friend for years protecting him from bullies after Yusho left. He even broke his code of using spell cards in his Heavy Strong Style to protect Yuya. Gong the Strong truly is the strongest friend. Fyi, his theme song is fire.
3- I have yet to finish Sevens but I can agree with Luke being flip-flopped all over the place with his character. Especially now 6 episodes into season 2 Luke feels more like a main character than yuga, which isn't bad but at the same time it seems there is a weird focus on him that makes me wonder if the writers wanted him as the protagonist. However despite all that, Luke is a fun character to watch and cares for his friends deeply. His crazy antics and positive attitude are the highlight of Sevens.
2-Soulburner has his flaws but he is such a great character that it's hard to dislike him. He went through hell and back to discover the truth of the Lost Incident and he had to face his demons just to do so. And by the end of it all, he was able to make peace with his past moving on. His friendship with Playmaker could've been shown more but it's fine. By the end of the day, he deserves it. He truly is a great friend.
1- What is there to say? Joey is the definition and the example of a best friend character. His dueling skills were not great but he improved significantly throughout the series. He was a hot-headed individual with a heart of gold who will sacrifice anything to save his friends when they are in need. This man literally would jump in a burning building and go in the deepest ocean to save those he cares about, even when mind control he still wouldn't try to hurt them. Had it not been for the Millenium Puzzle Joey wouldn't be here to become Yugi friend. Their friendship is that strong that I believe that with or without the puzzle joey somehow would be friends with Yugi. Overall, Joey Wheeler is the iconic best friend.
I'm not surprised that Bronk is at the bottom of the list, he didn't really do anything outside of beating Number 96 (and also he didn't really duel that much which is something I didn't like)
Bronk shouldn’t even be on this, listen realistically Shark is the best friend character. Joey Wheeler’s Red Eyes set the mark for what the best friend ace monster stats are and Shark fits even Kusanagi don’t fit the best friend status it’s only Soulburner his ace monster fit the stats that Joey Wheeler set. That’s like saying Tristan the best friend character in DM cause he dueled once and he always cheered Yugi on😅
How I Rank the friend
1.Jounochi
2.Soulbuner
3.Gongekeza
4.Crow
5.Luke
6.Sho
7.Kusnagi
8.Brock(the worst I felt Shark was more of the best friend role than him)
Hmm... where would you put the ohdo twins currently?
Yuhi is the Go Rush best friend, I think.
He definitely is since he and Yudias are close and just have this big best buddies energy. And there is no alternative because Zwijo is surely not a best friend character and Yuamu doesn't have enough moments with Yudias that make me think "yeah, best friends". A good friend? Definitely, but not really best friend.
12:19 Totally agree with the choice but that chin lol
2:54 I always loved him, despite what he does in the show. I have a feeling that I’m the only one who loved him, it’s the same thing with Crow 5:19.