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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