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Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush is the most ambitious show in the franchise with aliens, a continuous plot throughout, deep connections with the previous show and a lot of other spoiler reasons. However, did the execution match these lofty ambitions? Well that’s what I will try to answer with this review.

Firstly, I highly recommend watching Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens before diving into this series. Without going into details, Go Rush references Sevens a lot including plot points late into the anime. Furthermore, the payoffs in Go Rush hit more if you have watched it and Sevens is just a good series in general. They share most of their staff ... too so you’ll have a better idea of what to expect.
I will also make comparisons to Sevens because they are so connected it can feel like they're two sides of the same coin.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about Go Rush itself. It doesn’t have the best start with a lot of tutorials for people new to the game. It’s justified in the story but it’s not really fun to watch. Thankfully it does pick up and I would say the overall dueling quality of the show is pretty good.

As for the cast, the aliens feel like aliens which is both a good and a bad thing. It’s a good thing because it makes them stand out even among all of the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters we have gotten over the years and it creates interesting new conflicts. However them being aliens sometimes makes it hard to relate or even to understand them. There were times where I just didn’t really get what was going on.
The character that suffered the most of this for me was the main character Yuudias. For most of the show I wasn’t a big fan of him and there were instances where I didn’t like how he reacted to the events of the story. He’s not a bad character though and I ended up liking his arc in the end.
One of the alien characters that I found well-executed was Zwijo. His motives are often unknown but in this case it feels deliberate. He also has a ton of charisma and almost every scene he’s in feels impactful.
Regarding the human characters, having twins as main characters was a good idea and it delivers with emotional moments. Yuuhi was someone I didn’t like much at the beginning with really bad comedic scenes but his development made him grow on me. As for Yuamu, she’s a solid character all the way through with the clash between her intelligence and her feelings. I would say she’s one of the best female characters we’ve gotten in the franchise.
The rest of the human cast are all variants of Sevens characters. There are some that I like better like Manabu and Yuuna and others that I don’t like as much like Manya and Rovian.
Overall, I think the cast is good with a lot of characters to like and to think about. My gripe is that the connections between them can sometimes feel a bit weak so I didn’t get attached to them as much as I thought I would. A lot of them are supposed to be friends but we don’t see them hang out or have fun that much as a result of the series being plot-focused.

Talking about the plot, I thought it was interesting and went to some unexpected places. Of course this being a show aimed at kids some things like the war on Velgear couldn’t be fully explored but they did what they could.
What wasn’t handled very well in my opinion was the comedy. Comedy is very subjective but I liked Sevens’ comedy so I expected to like it here too. However, it just didn’t happen and I pretty much never laughed. There were even two episodes that I specifically remember because the comedy was bad. It’s not a deal-breaker because Go Rush isn’t comedy-focused like Sevens was but it’s a shame nonetheless.
The biggest improvement this series made over Sevens were the antagonists. They have menacing moments and varied motives that make sense. One of them is even one of the best characters of the show and stands up to past Yu-Gi-Oh! villains which is a high bar to clear!

All in all, Go Rush is probably my least favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! show but it’s not bad at all. As somebody who enjoys character-focused stories the most I liked Sevens more but I could easily see someone prefering Go Rush.
It’s definitely one of the weirdest anime I've watched too so it stands out for that alone!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens is the seventh entry in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise (I don’t count the 1998 Toei anime).
My reason for making this review is to incite people to give a chance to the series despite the low rating and the hate surrounding it because while it may not be what hardcore Yu-Gi-Oh! fans wanted, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad anime!
I will be making broad comparisons with other series in the franchise since most of the people that know Sevens are Yu-Gi-Oh! fans but the show is totally stand-alone.
It is important to note that as of the time I am writing this, there is no ... legal way to watch the show outside of Japan and Korea which can be a turn-off.

Story:
Sevens’ story is pretty simple given that the anime is aimed at a younger audience. Oudou Yuuga, the main character, is a student of Seventh Goha Elementary School who feels that the current format of dueling is too rigid. Therefore, he thought up a new format called Rush Duels by himself. With the help of his classmates Luke and Gakuto, he manages to install Rush Duels in Goha city’s system. From there, his goal is to promote Rush Duels and protect them from the people opposed to the change.
Rush duels are different from Master duels which were used in all of the other shows. In this format, you can draw until you have 5 cards in your hand every turn and you can normal summon as much as you want. The extra deck summoning methods are also gone for most of the show which makes duels much simpler. I know a lot of competitive Master duel players hate Rush duels and dismiss the anime for this reason. I can’t blame them but I think they’re a nice change of pace. However, it’s true that the early duels aren’t that good and kind of predictable since they’re used as tutorials.
The anime employs a 13 to 15-episode arc structure which has its ups and downs. On one side, that means that arcs and duels never drag on too long so you don’t really have time to get bored. On the other side, 13 episodes isn’t a lot of time to develop new characters and plot lines. This is a problem in multiple arcs but especially in the 4th one which is a tournament arc.
Another thing to note is that unlike other Yu-Gi-Oh! shows, Sevens doesn’t drop plot lines and likes to make seemingly unimportant details important later on which I definitely appreciate. It’s also a comedy-based show with very few life-or-death situations so don’t go in with the wrong expectations or you could be disappointed.

Art:
The biggest change going from Studio Gallop who made the previous shows in the franchise to Studio Bridge was dropping the classic Yu-Gi-Oh! chara-designs. I do like the old designs better but while they may seem generic at first glance, Sevens’ designs aren’t bad either. My main issue is that they were probably changed because the old ones were too complicated to animate but the animation hasn’t improved. The show never looks horrible but there aren’t a lot of sakuga moments either which is a shame. It’s not that much of a surprise though since Bridge has never done any great shows animation-wise.

Sound:
Every Yu-Gi-Oh! anime has a good soundtrack and Sevens is no exception. It doesn’t reach the heights of 5D’s or Arc-V but I really like Romin, Luke and Neil’s themes in particular.
The 1st opening is very catchy which fits with the tone of the show. As for the 2nd one, it’s more of a classic shonen opening which works as well. The 1st ending is the school anthem sung by the cast which is cute and the 2nd one is a comfy upbeat song. Overall, I like all the theme songs but my favorite is still the 1st opening.
There are also two insert songs which is pretty cool.
The vocal performances are great both in comedic and serious moments. As usual with Yu-Gi-Oh!, there are a lot of new seiyuus so their performances stand out even more, in this case the highlight being Ishibashi Hiiro as Yuuga. At first I didn’t like his voice that much but he really improved over the course of the series and in the end his performance fits Yuuga perfectly.

Character:
Oudou Yuuga: Yuuga is a kind, calm and intelligent character who makes deductions to solve problems on his own. He’s the inventor of Rush duels and unlike past protagonists his goal is for everyone to have fun, not to be the best duelist. He’s a pleasant character to watch and even though he can feel kind of underused there are big moments that remind you that he’s the main character.
Kamijou Tatsuhisa aka Luke: Luke is the deuteragonist of the show. He’s a self-centered, naive and pretty dumb elementary schooler but he’s very good at dueling and he comes through for his friends when it counts. His goal is to become the King of Duels and there are a lot of mysteries surrounding him. Luke is by far the most hated character of the show from what I’ve seen online since he can be annoying and the creators gave him a lot of screen time, especially in the second half. I can’t deny that Luke being my favorite character might have improved my enjoyment of Sevens which is why I felt the need to say it here.
Kirishima Romin: The main female lead. Romin is a guitarist for the school band called RoaRomin. Initially, she has no interest in dueling and hides secrets from the rest of the group. She’s by far the best treated female lead in Yu-Gi-Oh! history with meaningful wins all the way to the end of the show. Her character arc is nothing special but it’s fine for what it is.
Sougetsu Gakuto: Gakuto is the student council president and the heir of the Sougetsu clan. In the 1st episode he’s very over the top and kind of obnoxious but he quickly becomes likable as the straight man of the group.
These are the main four characters and most of the story revolves around their dynamic. The show does a good job showing you that they’re a group of friends despite their differences.
There are a lot of side characters but the most important ones are the rivals for the first 3 story arcs: Roa, the singer of RoaRomin, Neil, the administrator of Goha city’s system and Asana, the president of Sixth Goha Elementary School’s machine cavalry club. They each get their own character arc which are for the most part satisfying to follow.
The rest of the cast is relatively well-used with each character making at least one other appearance after their debut episode. Female characters also get treated like normal characters which shouldn’t be something I have to make note of, but the way they were handled in other Yu-Gi-Oh! anime was so bad that this is an improvement.

Enjoyment:
Overall, I had a lot of fun watching Sevens. It has a lot of flaws and I wasn’t a big fan of the last arc but the lighthearted tone was a nice change of pace and the cast was generally treated better than in past entries. If you want to watch a series that doesn’t take itself too seriously, I would recommend it!

Thank you for reading!