Excuse me for a moment, I need to collect my nostalgic emotions. *SOBBING* IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL.

It is no exaggeration to say Yuzu is the core of the plot engine. With an entire episode revolving around her and Yuugo, we were able to basically get a sum up what we and the characters know about the conflict. Yuzu is such a bright girl, it doesn’t take her long to connect the dots and do what she can to clear up any misunderstandings she is aware of. Although Yuugo has been traveling dimensions in hope of finding his beloved friend Rin, he honestly didn’t have a clue about the far more serious conflict taking place until Yuzu had told him about it.

Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V Ep 54 Img 0009Yuugo is such a precious sweetheart. He can sometimes get too caught up with his excitement and speak his mind without thinking it through, but he knows it’s something he needs to work on as Rin had always scolded him for it. It was the cutest thing ever to see Yuugo just blush and giggle when Yuzu assumed he and Rin were lovers. He totally has a crush on Rin!
I was extremely pleased to be given the opportunity to see into Yuugo’s and Rin’s childhood. It’s something we haven’t been able to see from Yuuto and Ruri yet, but it’s definitely clear to me that Yuugo’s and Rin’s relationship is very similar to Yuzu and Yuuya. (Also it is just me, or does anyone else find it a bit suspicious of how they have been deliberately concealing Ruri’s character? We get to see Selena and Rin but Ruri who was brought up first remains a mystery. Hmmm… I will restrain myself from further speculations.)

Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V Ep 54 Img 0018Like Jack and Crow, Yuugo and Rin grew up in the slums, neither know of their birth-mothers so it appear they may be orphans. With the dog-eat-dog lifestyle in the Commons Slums, Rin and Yuugo trained hard to improve in their duels in order to enter the Friendship Cup to compete against their idol, Jack Atlas. But that plan was put on an indefinite hiatus after Yuuri had kidnapped Rin right before his eyes. The moment she was abducted, Clear Wing Dragon reacted and took Yuugo to Heartland City in the XZY Realm, where there he encounter Yuuto and both parties ensued into a misunderstanding of one and the other being responsible for their friends’ disappearance. Yuugo informed us has no control whatever of being bounced around to realms, it’s only when his dragon chooses to leads him through. Interestingly enough, each time he had traveled across the realms he had always landed by or near Yuuto or Yuuya. As result of this revelation, Yuzu has two theories: The first time, Clear Wing Dragon was directing Yuugo to where Yuuri was, so while he and Yuuto were undergoing a misunderstanding battle, Yuuri was probably near at the time. The second theory is that they are all drawn to their counterparts.

Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V Ep 54 Img 0021You have to hand it to Yuzu who managed to keep herself together like the strong girl she is under the chaotic and confusing events she has been enduring up till now. She only broke down when Yuugo had unintentionally added more weight to her shoulders when he thought her bracelet had the ability to travel across realms upon her will. Had she had the ability to do so, she would choose go home immediately. But the breakdown was brief, and before we know it she is back up on her feet again, adapting to the new flurry of troubles she is facing. I look forward to seeing how she will approach the Synchro’s Realm conflict, whether or not she will learn how to do a Riding Duel as well as Synchro Summoning (DO IT YUZU! DO IT!)

In the mean time, I can’t help but laugh because Reiji and his Lancers have no freaking clue that the City in the Synchro Realm they have teleported off to in hopes of building an alliance, is fucked up place. It just shows you how they have been having it easy, living a blissfully peaceful life back in the Standard World while Heartland City in the XYZ World is burning down in flames, and the Synchro World is dealing with a Elites VS Commoners conflict. I wonder where they are going to land though- if they happen to land in the Villa sector, without any D-Wheels, they are probably going to have to enact that Solid Vision technology to ride their monsters out of there (which would be glorious to see how they would react to that- especially since they shouldn’t be able to lock them into Forced Duels TROLOLOLOLOL). Actually, the one thing I look forward to the most is seeing Yuuya remind everyone how to duel for fun again. We have learned from Yuugo today: Dueling in this world is a source of survival, and it’s all about winning, but because if you lose- you lose everything. So I look forward to seeing Yuuya tackle this issue and dazzle them with his Entertainment Tour.

Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V Ep 54 Img 0031
SAY IT WITH ME EVERYONE! RIDING DUEL, ACCELERATION!!!!!

As someone who watched 5Ds, it is a bit difficult to tell whether or not Top City is the “new” Neo Domino City/Commons Sector: Satellite, or simply the answer behind the mystery of everyone sharing the same faces from different realms: Parallel Universe. At the moment I am leaning more towards the later because of the circumstances revolving around the plot-line.
Anyhow here’s how this place works:
You have the Top’s Villa Sector and the Commons Sector. The Top’s sector is occupied by the Elite folks who control 99% of the city’s wealth while the Commoners only only get 1% of it. Commoners are forbidden of entering the Elite’s territory and as of the late, they and the Security have been deliberately targeting Commoners to arrest and capture them in order to cast them into Interment Camps and I’m sure it is just as dark and ugly or more than we what we had seen back in the early episodes of 5Ds. When chasing their target, the Cops will activate a Forced Duel, locking the target into a duel. If they target loses, they are arrested, if they win- they are free to go (unless they have updated the system to override the defeat buster).
SO NEXT WEEK GUYS, WE’RE IN FOR A RIDING DUEL! FUCK YEAH!
But on the more most important note: we have been introduced to the Synchro Arc Villain! I wonder what kind of nasty ambitious plans this guy has in store… BUT WHO CARES ABOUT HIM RIGHT NOW, RIDING DUELS FTW!

If you skipped the OP, you missed out on a lot of new contents. I absolutely LOVED how they shifted from the Standard Realm Action Duel theme intro to the Riding Duel Acceleration themed intro! BRING ON THE CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES!

PS: Yuuri is a such a Psycho Creep.

Random Note of the Week: You know shit is real when a mother tells her kid not to touch a Commoner’s D-Wheel because they might get infected.

Eva

Blogging Anime since Summer 2009, & Founder of AngryAnimeBitches Anime Blog ...I may or may not be addicted to writing

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. elhienn

    YAYYYYYYY!!! I WAS WAITING THE ENTIRE DAY FOR YOUR REVIEW! 😀 😀
    WOW! I lost my shit when I saw the Action Duel Segment being substituted by the Riding Duel and I was saying the entire time “Do it, Do it” and when Yugo said “Riding Duel: Accelaration!” I turned into a puddle.*q*
    Man… Where to start, this episode was so good! Yuzu’s centric episodes are always good hahah~! I really don’t remember the last time I watched a anime not “aimed to girls”(see, most cast being girls) when a girl gets a episode and it’s so interesting! Yuzu for best female character of the year XD(Ok, jk, jk)
    Yugo, dude, personal space, you know what is that? Oh boy, this episode was hard for my shipper hard, because in one hand, Yugo and Rin are cute and Yugo acting like a lovestruck schoolgirl is hilarious, and in other, he was being so sweet and nice to Yuzu and these two hit off so well that AHAHWHWHAHHSA, I’M SHIPPING EVERYONE WITH EVERYONE, FUG!
    Ahem, I think they are hiding Ruri for last becauseeither she’s the strongest of the Yuzus, or her bracelet has a very powerful effect or it’s because they are showing Yuzus in the world of Summoning methods: -Serena(Fusion-Gx)->Rin(Synchro-5d’s)->Ruri(Xyz-Zexal)
    Also, not meant to be disrespectful to any female character but…
    SUUUUUUUUCK THAT! THAT’S HOW YOU WRITE A GOOD FEMALE CHARACTERS BIATCHES!!*Shows middle fingers*
    If I received a dollar for each character that the writers made for either being only a love interest, a token female just to say that there’s none, a 100% plot exposition with 0 of character and jobbers that are only meant to make other characters to defeat them or even super annoying “Mary Sues” without flaws I would be rich!
    Also, characters that only are motivated by the other and don’t have aspirations for themselves.
    Yuzu is everything in one package and make it work: She’s important, she has flaws, she develops because she wants to be strong to protect everyone(not only Yuya), has great interaction, connection or clicks really well with other characters and also develops them(ie. Serena, Yugo and maybe even Sora depending who he duels, Yuya or her), and don’t angst more than necessary and her bond with Yuya is so strong that they are fan favorite couple for Yuya even for the Yaoi shippers, that’s a big achievement in itself, and after that small period of people hating on Yuzu because of the memes around her I didn’t see any other comment bashing her! HAHA, Female characters are usually target for intense bashing but where it is with Yuzu?HA!
    The only two moronic things that Yuzu did was to hit Yuya for being jealous of Mieru and her overthinking about Yuto = Yuya, but then we know that everyone in this series is hair/blindcolor so it’s not even an issue, and best of all, it’s not an excuse made for Yuzu to not look retarded, but because the plot demands so.
    Ahem, sorry again for gushing about Yuzu, I know I do this every time but I really can’t help it! I never saw a female character get a A+ development treatment, specially in Yu-Gi-Oh of all franchises! And I missed the Gorgeous Queen after months without seeing her on screen hahaah ;w;
    One thing that I find very interesting for this setting about Yuzu (possibly) learning Riding Duels/Synchro Summon is the resources.
    Her fusion monsters could either come from Sora or she could very well buy it from a local store, but in this dog-eat-dog world, where if she ever has money it might not be the money used there, Yugo being a “Common” that uses the same cards he used a child(in other words: Poor) Yuzu wouldn’t find new cards with the same ease.
    So this leaves her with these options:
    1- Be a Yusei and scrap cards that no one wanted from the trash as well as picking the necessary parts to build a D-Wheel with the Help of Yugo.
    2-Duel people with Ante-Rule in effect to acquire new cards and parts for her D-wheel.
    And let’s not even start about in which way she could learn Synchro! Or Yugo teaches her(My shipper heart will be pleased, also, any interaction with them is nice, they hit THAT well) or another character teaches her giving Yuzu another person to interact and forge a bond with, either way, EVERYTHING LOOKS PROMISING! All Hail the Queen of Hard Work!8D

    1. Eva

      I lost my shit too, I was screaming! XD BLESS THE DIRECTOR!
      HOW CAN YOU NOT SHIP YUZU WITH EVERYONE?! SHE IS SO COMPATIBLE. /SLAPPED
      I KNOW I WANT TO SHIP YUUGO x RIN BUT YUUGO x YUZU IS FREAKING CUTE TOO. SHIP ALL THE SHIPS!
      YUZU IS OUR QUEEN, WE CAN GUSH ABOUT HER HOWEVER LONG WE LIKE! 8D
      LMFAO at “Be a Yusei” point. Actually thinking about it, it would be really cool to see her collect cards from the different dimensions and merge them into her deck! 8D A signature and keepsakes of her travels across Dimensions!

  2. Chris Marshall

    I’m just going to wait until Jack and Crow start talking until I speculate if this is an alternate 5D’s or a 5D’s prequel. Because if this 5D’s after the actual 5D’s, then everything Yusei did to abolish the separation of power was in vain. I’m kind of leaning towards parallel universe because it shows Jack using a different duel disk along with the tops being literally built over everything (if I remember correctly, the tops were just tall ass buildings in 5Ds while in here the tops are literally floating cities….If i remember the op correctly)

    1. Eva

      Yeah I’m going to wait for that too. It would break my heart into a million pieces if they were to make the Synchro Realm the same universe as the 5Ds Series. YUSEI BUSTED HIS ASS OFF TO RID OF THIS BULLSHIT! *TEARS* But yeah, I am fairly confident this is the Parallel World/AU edition. In fact, I am quite curious to see how differently Jack and Crow AU characters would be compared to the original. It’s not every day when you get the chance to see an AU edition of a set of characters from a previous series.

  3. 75chaosflare

    I always like how Yuzu has been important for the majority of the plot and the one to calm down the misunderstandings. An example is when she tries to convince Serena of the Xyz Dimension leading her to indirectly save Shun from being carded. And recently when she figured out that Yuri set both Yugo and Yuto to attack each other.
    My thoughts on this would where most of the previous protagonists don’t exist and Yuya and his counterparts portray as their roles but are somewhat opposites:
    (Yugi is shy and a pro where Yuya is seen as emotional and a rookie)
    (Judai is good and free-loving about dueling where Yuri is evil and sadistic term of fun)
    (Yusei is serious and calm, where Yugo can be reckless seemingly acts a little like Yuma)
    (Yuma is carefree and happy going, where Yuto is anti-hero like acts more like Yusei):
    Standard: While this doesn’t relate to Yugi but there were similarities towards DM, LDS is more morally questionable KaibaCorp with how it monopolized the extra deck.
    Fusion Dimension: Without Judai, Academia seems more elitist, with some such as Sora holding the “strong survive while the weak deserve to be killed” mentality,,. which is basically the arrogant “Obelisk Blue > All” thinking that was around in early GX.
    Synchro: Without Yusei, City is more segregated physically than it ever was in 5Ds. It seems like the higher towers are for the rich whereas the poor are on ground level. Probably with the sector security are as corrupt as early 5Ds.
    Xyz: Without Yuma/Astral, no Numbers and it looked seemingly peaceful as it probably never had a mayor/president of Heartland that was secretly evil like Mr Heartland or over-reliance on machines to do everything had negative consequences until Academia invaded and carded everyone. I don’t know what else it could be since it wasn’t shown anything much.

    1. Eva

      I was just thinking of that. I can see it happening and it would certainly add an interesting touch to the series in general. The AU where the previous main characters do not have a significant role or never existed (or to make things darker, in this edition, Baby-Yusei didn’t make it out alive if the Zero Reverse tragedy still took place).
      Annnndd I just made myself sad.

  4. partner555

    Looks like the Synchro dimension has its own problems…

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