Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Zexal

In the bustling and futuristic city of Heartland, a young boy named Yuuma Tsukumo has a dream that everyone his age wants to achieve—earning the title of the greatest duelist! Sadly, due to his lackluster dueling skills, this dream is far from achievable. But when the school bully, Ryouga "Shark" Kamishiro, splits the key given to him by his father into two pieces, he inadvertently sets Yuuma on a collision course with his dream.

Retaining one half of the key, Yuuma begins a duel with Shark, but soon realizes that his inexperienced skills are no match for him. In a sudden turn of events, Yuuma's key repairs itself, and the "Door of Destiny'' appears before him. Using the key to open it, Yuuma is greeted by an alien by the name of Astral—a being only he can see.

The bewildered Yuuma soon learns that his memories have been divided into 100 "Number Cards," all of which he must retrieve. However, he is also not the only one looking for them. Bombarded by these revelations, Yuuma, alongside Astral, must defend the world from the upcoming threats that loom over Heartland City—regardless of any divine intervention that may occur.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tenjou, Kaito Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Kamishiro, Ryouga Main

Masuda, Toshiki Japanese

Tsukumo, Yuuma Main

Hatanaka, Tasuku Japanese

Astral Main

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Mizuki, Kotori Main

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Mana Supporting

IV Supporting

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

III Supporting

Ikeda, Kyousuke Japanese

V Supporting

Yamamoto, Shouma Japanese

Mahado Supporting

Furuya, Daisuke Producer

Jitsumatsu, Teruaki Producer

Kuwabara, Satoshi Director

Matsuoka, Hiroki Sound Director

Reviews

Jan 1, 2017

jadedgalaxy

Recommended

Do I honestly think ZeXal deserves a 10/10? Not really (8 or 9 but not a perfect 10) but I wanted to offset some of the lower reviews, even just by a little.

I only watched the original Japanese version of Zexal, so I cannot comment on the dub other than Yuma's voice is horrendous.

Zexal has a really slow start, by that I mean really, you could skip episodes 3-9 and not really miss out on anything. And when I first started Zexal, Yuma was not my cup of tea. However, Yuma's growth in Zexal I is incredible. I find it a little unfair ... that people criticize Yuma for being childish when he's a thirteen year old boy. He just wanted to play card games and is dragged into harsh game of circumstances far beyond his control.

Zexal is my favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! series to date (followed by Arc-V>5D's>DM=GX) and Zexal does have it's faults. The plot is slow to start and some of the characters suffer a lack of character development but for the most part, the characters grow. Yuma begins to change, to grow, in more obvious ways at about episode 40. Astral constantly grows, changing and allowing his character to take shape along with Yuma's decisions. Shark really tastes the character development and Kaito grows so much in zexal I that I truly believe you cannot compare him in the beginning of zexal I to the end of zexal I. I mean, Kaito has taken the spot of my favourite anime character ever and did I think when I started watching zexal that I would love him that much?

While some episodes lack the refinement of others, Zexal is undeniably beautiful. The characters in zexal range from mind-blowingly gorgeous to adorable. (Seriously, Astral is gorgeous.) The art in zexal stands above with memorable character designs (almost everyone in zexal looks incredibly different, if I showed people pictures of the main cast I'm positive they wouldn't confuse any of them for each other.)

The Sound is also just wonderful. You start to notice the most incredible things when you watch episodes over again and listen to the sounds of the show. For example, if you listen carefully while Kaito summons his powered up Ace-Monster, you can hear Haruto's Theme. It's just... zexal has such memorable songs that I can pick up notes of sounds in the show and hum them at a whim.

I also find some of the reasons people hate zexal to be somewhat petty and marinated in nostalgia. Yuma doesn't use Hope anymore than Yusei uses Stardust or Yugi uses Dark Magician or even Yuya using Odd-Eyes. Yuma is incompetent because he is 13 and honestly, at 18, I still don't understand all the schematics of the game. All of the protags have pulled cards out of nowhere and well... have people actually watched more than 15 episodes? Because I seriously have to wonder sometimes.

Overall, with my high enjoyment of the show, all I can really say is the zexal experience will be different for everyone. However, if you were to take anything from my review, actually try the show for yourself rather than listen to what everyone has said about zexal. Because, I used to hate zexal and thought it was crap before even giving it a chance but now that I've watched it, I absolutely love it. So seriously, rather than fall onto the "Hate-Zexal bandwagon", maybe give it a chance first then you can decide whether you hate it or not.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 14, 2012

CaptainKishimoto

Mixed Feelings

I've always been a big fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series. Each iteration managed to improve upon it's predecessors, while still keeping things "fresh". Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's pushed the envelope with its outrageous concept (Riding Duels) and it succeeded. Coupled with strong characters and a great storyline, 5D's is easily my favourite of the series. It taught me to not judge a book by its cover, so I kept an open mind towards Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. While Zexal does manage to have many good things going for it, it completely disregards what has continually improved in each series: characters.

{Story} - [7/10]
The story of ... Zexal is reminiscent of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in that the main character (in this case Yuma) must help restore the memories of his partner (Astral). It worked well for DM, and they improved on it by adding a twist that involved dueling other people who have cards known as "Numbers". Of course, there are other people trying to get the "Numbers" for some reason, and that adds to the depth of the story. The problem lies with how the story is told. Zexal's demographic is clearly geared much more to younger children than the other series, and it hurts the story a little bit. It becomes hard to take the plot seriously at times, but this does die down a bit as it progresses.

{Art} - [8/10]
Zexal has great art. The characters—though slightly silly—are unique and do actually look good. As always, the monsters are the highlight of Yu-Gi-Oh! animation. The new thing they did with 3D-ish monsters in 5D's returns in Zexal, but vastly improved. In 5D's I thought it looked silly and clunky—not fitting in with the art-style. I think they realized this and made many improvements. Now it actually looks like the two belong together.

{Sound} - [9/10]
I always thought that it was very surprising for the Yu-Gi-Oh! series to have a great sound score. The music fits the mood well, and it's all very catchy.

{Characters} - [4/10]
Here is where Zexal goes wrong. Usually the main character of the YGO series is a good (or at least an experienced) duelist—Yuma is not. It's an interesting route to take, but it does kind of hurt the story a bit. However, the real problem is the group of characters Yuma normally hangs out with. They're what I would call "passengers"; they're just there for the sake of being there, and they do not add anything whatsoever. In some cases it's okay to have a few, but there are FIVE of them. That's simply overkill, especially when they don't even duel once in awhile. With Yuma being the only one amongst them to duel regularly, it makes the duels boring and predictable like an episode of Power Rangers. The story would've been much smoother if it was just Yuma, Kotori, and maybe another duelist to fill the void (not Tokonosuke, he's THE worst character I've ever seen in any anime). The supporting cast is easily the worst of all the YGO series. It's like they took everything bad about DM's supporting cast, and enhanced those traits (as well as adding another character). It's a huge disappointment considering that 5D's nailed it. I would assume part of the reason it's like this is again because of the younger audience. Luckily, there are some good characters who happen to be Yuma's rivals and/or enemies (ex. Shark). Without them, this would probably be completely unwatchable.

{Conclusion}
I'm a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan, and that's the main reason why I still continue to watch Zexal. There are definitely some enjoyable things to see, but the question is whether or not you're willing to watch through the agonizing parts to get there. If the characters and childish tone doesn't bother you, then you may end up liking Zexal. Final score - 6/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 2, 2022

toastalchemist

Not Recommended

Zexal is the middle stepchild of Yugioh. It’s not iconic like the original series, funny like GX, or ambitious like 5D’s, but boy, it’s trying really hard. The whole thing feels very by the numbers. It does not do anything new or interesting, it takes no risks. Yuma is an overly enthusiastic moron who loves card games but also often shows disinterest in them. The villains are stock and have little motivation. Tori is girl. There is not enough of the Best Boy, Flip. The plot was simple and unnecessarily complicated at the same time. I stopped trying to follow it not because it was ... difficult to follow, but because I just stopped caring. This was the worst Yu-GI-Oh series so far. So, of course, I will watch part two, because I hate myself and crave pain like a cartoon cereal mascot craves whatever sugary treat children are trying to keep from him.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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