Story 10
Art 8
Sound 8
Character 10
Enjoyment 10
Overall 9.5 out of 10.
My first review here, so I apologize if the set up is not to your liking. However, I thought that a lot more people needed to give this anime a try, especially since many people have given up on the series. If you want to know, there is a brief comparison of this and the other yugioh series down near the bottom. It explains each of their weaknesses, and how Arc V has overcome them.
Going to start with the overall rating, which you can use as a quick review. So, overall, despite the lower art and
...
sound values, this series gets a 10 out of 10. The story subtly introduces important plot points from very early on, and brings everything together in a timely and well thought out manner. The art was amazing for yugioh, good for anime. Sound: it had some catchy tunes, and was a bit better than a lot of anime, but other than the super catchy ones, was pretty average. Enjoyment: it kept me hooked and on the edge of my seat. Actually still is, and I can't wait to see more!
Next: You probably want to know about the new dueling gimmicks, and if they are stupid or not. Well I can tell you that they aren't, although you will probably think so at first. With the invention of "real solid vision", the fields and the monsters become real when playing the game(think of duels of darkness). Spread across these fields are weapons called "action cards" which are basically quick play spell cards that you don't have to draw to get. However, you have to find the action cards first(which can be hard at times), and even then you can only have one in your hand at a time. Action cards make the duels a lot more interesting, because characters will move around on the field(sometimes with the aid of their monsters), looking for these cards, and characters other than the main character can and will use them. Because the monsters and the field are real, Dueling has evolved more into the show business side of entertainment, unlike the rest of the series. So characters will often legitimately be in the spotlight, and they always do their best to put on a good show. Which is why it seems a little stupid at first (kinda like "omg why are you saying cheesy stuff like that") but once you realize that they are in show business, you stop feeling that it's stupid, realize it makes more sense than the rest of the series, and then might(like me) find the old style duels a little more boring(although I still love them)
Alright, so first off, the story. Now, at the time of writing this, they have released 64 episodes, 63 of which I have seen(the 64th episode wasn't subbed when I had the chance to watch it). I really, really don't want to give the plot away, since that is half the fun, but a quick one sentence summary is: it starts off happy and kinda silly, with deeper plot points introduced early on, and as those plot points are revealed, the story progressively gets darker and edgier. Not too dark though-this series does a wonderful job of balancing the happy and darker episodes. It never really goes too far for you in either direction, and they never have either the dark or the happy/funny scenes come completely out of nowhere. Oh and when I said plot points are introduced early on-they hint at some things as early as episode 2, and most of the major plot points are hinted at by episode 20, although they aren't really elaborated on until about the 30's.
If there were any flaws it might have to be that the story starts out a little slow. However, the story gains speed quickly, and when everything starts going down, it goes down fast. At some point you are like "all this happened in 10 episodes??" or "wow things are a lot different now". But not different in a bad way.
Anyway, I am a sucker for the stories which have a lot of plot introduced seemingly randomly, or introduce plot without you realizing it, and then piece it together for you and make you go "oh! Wow! So that's why....". And this series does that well. You can tell that they had planned everything out from the beginning, and that really makes the story shine.
Next we have the art. It's really good for Yugioh standards (especially the pendulum summons), but the currently running anime it's about average. So it gets a 7. Although the art and animation have places where they really since, you can sometimes pinpoint episodes where the art is of lesser quality(although it usually means they saved their budget for the next episode), and they have a few stock clips, like all yugioh series. Although they try their best to change up the stock clips(sometimes changing what characters are saying when they use an extra deck related summon).
Sound. It got an 8 ‘cause even though it has a few tracks that are really catchy and I notice(especially the first opening and the 3rd ending theme), most of the time I don't notice the sound. Which is perfectly fine, since you don't and the sound to detract from the series, and I didn't notice any unfitting out background music I didn't like, it's just not too outstanding from most of the other anime I have watched. Still, that first opening is really, really catchy. So is some of the background music...
Character gets a perfect 10 out of 10. Although there is one character hated by the fandom(Futoshi, the "shivers" kid), he ends up growing on you a little, gets pretty good character development, and has a great deck. Besides him, I have found all of the other characters to be really likeable, and most characters(even characters introduced for only an episode) get some kind of background and/or character development. What really made me happy though is that there are few one-time characters/enemies, and many of them come back to be important characters later, getting character development in the process. Of course, there are still a few one-time only characters, but they choose well. And I have got to admit, while I didn't necessarily like all of the one-time characters, they are all memorable. Which is good. And the main group gets so much character development, it's almost like season 3 of gx-but longer.
Enjoyment is a perfect 10 out of 10. It drew me in from the start and keeps me wanting more. There were 2 nights I could hardly sleep I was so excited to watch the next episode. It has great rewatch value too- after you catch up, you can go back to watch from the beginning, and notice a lot of the subtle hints towards the overall direction of the plot.
So if you want to know how this compares to the other Yugioh anime(from what I have seen and heard about them), for me it goes:
Arc V > Gx/5ds > Original > Zexal
GX was bad to start with, but got wayy better. It also kept characters and locations from the original series. The duel school thing was kinda stupid, but totally something Kaiba would do so...
5ds started off really good(and the motorcycle thing was actually really cool and not overused), but ended up with the weaker seasons last. Also brought in Syncro summoning, and only mentioned fusion summoning once. And acted like the other characters never existed, except in the movie. Although all the characters would still be alive....Seemingly has no normal schools.
Original was good, although the duels could get really long. Some of the characters were pretty unlikeable too.
Zexal is okay, although the main character is pretty unlikeable. Same issues as far as 5ds goes with not bringing back characters or other summoning methods. Instead focuses only on XYZ summoning. Seemingly has no normal schools.
Arc V: made duels a lot more interesting and entertaining( I thought it was stupid at first, but it entertainment duels are really entertaining. And not as stupid as they seem. Especially when you consider that dueling is entertainment anyway, so it actually makes more sense). They actually go to real school for the first time since the original series, and the "duel school" is really just a cram school/after school thing. Much more believable. They also bring back all the summoning methods, and a few characters from other series, and make them important. In fact, the characters brought back are more important in arc v than the brought back characters in GX(although that wasn't hard). Actually, arc v makes everything more believable....and they act more realistically too. For example, since they have "real solid vision" they can move around the field, so at one point they use the solid monsters to run away, and don't bother slowing themselves down with a duel. Also even when they do duel, when they get into a really dangerous situation, sometimes they try and run away. Which is what real people would do. And also what no one ever seemed to do in the other series.
Jul 16, 2015
Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Arc-V
(Anime)
add
Story 10
Art 8 Sound 8 Character 10 Enjoyment 10 Overall 9.5 out of 10. My first review here, so I apologize if the set up is not to your liking. However, I thought that a lot more people needed to give this anime a try, especially since many people have given up on the series. If you want to know, there is a brief comparison of this and the other yugioh series down near the bottom. It explains each of their weaknesses, and how Arc V has overcome them. Going to start with the overall rating, which you can use as a quick review. So, overall, despite the lower art and ... |
