Excited for the new YGO movie with the original cast? I´m not. I´m patiently waiting for each new episode of this new series...it is all I need for my YGO fill.
seriously Holy Shit, this series is great! It´s basically a love letter to YGO. Ill try to keep the big reveals as vague as possible
The Plot
Note; I refuse to use the lame names from the dub.
Coming from the dumpster fire that was ZEXAL I really had low expectations on this one, and seeing it start as a school-lifey "Wanna be the very best" series similar to ZEXAL worried me a lot. But the series slowly twists itself into a series with a looming threat, a sense of hopelesness and an all out war between duelist factions.
Summary of the plot as follows:
Series main character Yuya Sakaki aspires to be an entertainment duelist (A duelist who makes every duel a show for the audience and makes them smile) just like his missing (of course) father.
Yuya attends to the You Show Duel School his father founded with her friend/not-so-subtle love interest Yuzu Hiragi and some other kids, there they learn the most basic kind of duel strategies mostly based on tribute summoning, all focused on entertainment.
Rich Kids in town attend the LEO Duel School, directed by series rival Reiji Akaba, there they exclusively learn the most advanced strategies, based on Fusion, Synchro and Xyz summons from the previous series.
Everything changes when Yuya´s cards misteriously morph during a duel into Pendulum Monsters, making Yuya the first person able to Pendulum Summon.
This catches Reijis attention and he decides to obtain the Pendulum Summon for his School, resulting in him orchestrating a tournament between schools...
Ok no seriously hear me out, don´t leave, it gets much better.
During this time Yuzu encounters a young man who looks exactly like Yuya,this guy has extremely powerful Xyz Summons, more powerful than anything in LEO Schools.
Yuzu investigates the kid until eventually finding out his name is Yuto, a survivor from a dimension where duelist only know about Xyz Summons (Later revealed to be an alternate Heartland from ZEXAL) which was devastated by military invaders from another dimmension calling themselves the Fusion Academia which only know of Fusion summon (They are later revealed to be a twisted version of GX´s Duel Academy)
Yuto and his comrade Shun start attacking everyone in Yuya´s town using Fusions trapping them inside cards (A la Pegasus from the Original) and later they become involved into the LEO School Tournament...soon enough it is revaled that many of Yuya´s friends participating in the tournament are actually agents from the Fusion Dimmension, sent to pave the way for a full scale invasion on Yuya´s Standard Dimmension, also Yuya and Yuto discover a strange connection going far beyond their looks.
After a giant confrontation withwith former friends resulting in several losses, Reiji from the LEO school anounces that he knew about the invaders all along, and that the tournament between Duel Schools was just a way to select the best warriors possible to start a counter attack on the Fusion Dimmension. The Team is named "Lancers" and Yuya and his surviving friends,Reiji and his little brother, plus Shun are selected as Lancers and they embark on a desperate mission to warn the Synchro Dimmension about the war in an attempt to gain new alies for the upcoming battles.
The Characters
Yuya Sakaki; Obsessed with being an entertainer Yuya often gimps his duel strategies in favor of giving a good show, during the course of the series he will constantly question his philosophy of dueling for fun and making people happy, or winning quickly and mercilessly in order to save lives. Discovering the Pendulum Summon allows Yuya to quickly evolve as a duelist...but what kind of duelist?
His deck is half a Circus mascot deck full of cute animal characters for when he wants to put up a good show, the other half of his deck are powerful dragons and magicians for when he needs to reck shit. Eventually he learns to Fusion, Synchro and Xyz Summon too. His ace card is the Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
Yuzu Hiragi: A girl who loves music and dueling, she's Yuyas best friend. Probably one of the better female characters in the franchise (Which is not saying much) as she keeps the plot going by herself during most of season 1, even when in distress she´s always fighting. Her deck focuses on Fairies named after classical music composers, eventually she learns to fusion summon.
Reiji Akaba: The CEO of LEO Corporation and LEO School, while he is a serious but kind man and his intentions to stop the fusion dimmensions are noble, his methods are very questionable. His deck is based on Famous Kings, Philosopher´s and Inventors. Reijis massive skills allow him to perform fusion, synchro,xyz, and pendulum summons in a single turn.
Yuto: A young man from the Xyz Dimmension who looks just like Yuya, his ace card is the Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon
Yugo: A young man from the Synchro Dimmension who looks just like Yuya, like everyone on the Synchro Dimmension he duels on a motorcycle, his ace card is the Clear Wing Synchro Dragon
Yuri:A young man from the Fusion Dimmension who looks just like Yuya, he´s the third in command of Academias Invading Forces, a cruel kid with a misterious agenda. his ace is the Starvenom Fusion Dragon.
The Duels
Duels are played with the official advanced TCG rules with a twist, The field and monsters are real and inflict real damage with the bonus of being able to find Bonus Action Cards hidden on the field as you move through the duel. This duels are called action duels and fix the amount of situational BS on a character´s deck (And real TCG) by making Action Cards the situational BS itself.
Nevertheless the Duels are personal, fun and with high stakes.
References to other Series
While the series itself exists in a completely alternate universe the universe is filled to references to previous Yugioh series.
The fusion Academia wears the color of the egyptian gods as rankin. Aster Phoenix from Gx is their commander in chief while Alexis Rhodes is a rebel who seemingly refuses to uses fusions in favor of Rituals
The Synchro dimmension´s duels are played on motorcycles and a reimagined Jack Atlas sits above all duels, bored as no one can challenge him.
The Xyz Dimmension's destroyed and ravaged Capital is ZEXAL's Heartland so this series actually lets you watch ZEXAL burn to the ground! also the only good thing about that series, Kaito, appears as an angry duelist hellbent on destroying everything in his path to avenge his family lost during the fusion onslaught.
Also this intro for the Synchro Dimmension and Xyz Dimmension Arcs are pretty damn cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeeVnopXJ0E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icdHntLBhFE
For more info please visit our OT!: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=797483
