Review of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

Having grown up watching 5D's and the original, as well as now being a huge fan of GX, I Really didn't expect this series to be as good as it was. I didn't like it as a child, not because I had watched it and disliked it, but because everyone around me said it was trash, and thus believed it was trash. This is where most of the criticism from zexal comes from: nostalgic kids who can't let go of 5D's, who didn't watch a single episode of Zexal (or watched the terrible 4Kids dub) and decided it was bad because it looks childish... Butthat's not how you judge a show. It's fair to dislike zexal if you have what it takes to criticize it, because I truly believe it to be a hit or miss series especially with its slow start, but don't make assumptions without watching it, and believe me, you should watch it. (reviewing zexal 1 and 2 here)

╰──➤⊱Story: 10/10⊰
I'm gonna try to get this straight without spoiling too much, but if you really want to discover everything from A to Z, you have been warned.
Zexal has the best utilized overall story of any generation. It's about a young boy who believes everyone can be better today than they will be tomorrow, and thus giving it his all in life to improve into a better, stronger person. This is his "kattobingu spirit", it basically means to never give up, because there is always a solution to any problems. And it's with this very childish, optimistic state of mind that he gets involved in the crazy plot that is zexal. He will in the first act face the conflict between the arclight family and Dr Faker, leading him to take place in the larger scale conflict between the Astral and barian world in season 2. Zexal is all about Conflict and how useless fighting is, yes, it sounds childish and overly optimistic - - that's the point. But I'll get to the themes later.
The story on itself starts slow, and it's a fair criticism that isn't neglectible. This is also one of the reasons why people gave up on zexal after watching the first 5 episodes or so, because let's face it, while the beginning isn't that horrendous on re-watch knowing everything that happens afterwards, it's really hard to get through the first time. But just as you may have already heard many times until now: it gets better, and just as every yugioh fans said at least once: it gets dark (really dark). Slowly, the plot becomes more and more focused and you realize how serious the stakes actually are, and get seriously invested in the show. And that's one of the qualities to zexal: it's Focused. Unlike arc V which loses itself on different occasions, GX which almost doesn't have any link between each seasons whatsoever or DM which gets criminally lost in filler, Zexal picks a good narrative, and actually keeps it until the end, developing it in the best way possible. And while the Pacing might be quite awful for the first twenty episodes or so, it weirdly speeds up through the entire show and has one of the best, most fast-paced finale of any season.

╰──➤⊱Art: 9/10⊰
Now what makes good art is very subjective and I get it may feel a bit offbeat for old times yugioh fans, so I won't really dive into that. However in terms of animation, this series easily gets a solid 9. Again, the first 20 episodes are very weak in that regard... It just catches up afterwards, and keeps a constantly wonderful animation until the end. DM's animation became very ugly starting from season 4, Gx's animation, while not ugly, wasn't anything special either, and 5D's was half of the time the best looking one, and half of the time close to the ugliest. Zexal is Consistent. The important moments get an incredibly fluid flow and it always looks relatively pretty. One criticism I hear a lot is the average CGI, which isn' T wrong, but it does look better than the one from 5D's, and even better than Arc V's at times. Even that gets better with time

╰──➤⊱sound: 10/10⊰
Music too is subjective, but all I can say is that the sound duels are everything I love in an original soundtrack. I'll link a few memorable osts for you to get your opinion (hope they won't get removed by youtube)
https://youtu.be/Ft8sP53HN-E
https://youtu.be/3EW_WBCet6U
https://youtu.be/B_uBAvULhNM
https://youtu.be/oeC1cMBYLXQ
https://youtu.be/twzbIjS4BVM
https://youtu.be/mUnD7D7LYTk
It's mostly orchestral, and it has a certain charm

╰──➤⊱dueling action: 8/10⊰

Now the one thing I have to give to zexal duels is that they weren't really that strategic. The best way to describe them would be over the top. Dueling in space with a monster the size of the planet, having your monsters reach hundreds of thousands attack point, and having a million effects revealed throughout the duel in a flashy way... Zexal has it all. And I don't say that as a problem, the zexal duels were so entertaining because of that, but it did lack a bit of tension and strategy because of that.

╰──➤⊱characters: 10/10⊰

Aand this is where I can't continue without spoiling, so... Massive spoilers ahead.
Zexal makes perfect use of its important characters. The only "irrelevant" characters are his school friends, who aren't supposed to play any role in the story whatsoever outside of slice of life interactions anyway, I'm fine with that. In terms of relevant characters... There's a lot to talk about.

– Shark: the one thing I wanted to point out is the fact that Zexal doesn't have a central vilain. Vector is kind of the one behind everything happening in season 1, and he plays a fundamental role in the barian onslaught arc to a point where we're even left to believe he might be the bad guy. Don Thousand plays the role of the overarching nemesis who has been manipulating everyone all along, but the sole reason he and the barians exist is because of Eliphas, the purist dictator of the Astral world so focused on the ideology of purity and order that he rejects any form of chaos whatsoever. But the true final antagonist of this series, leader of the Barians, is Nash, also know as Kamishiro Ryoga, Shark. This guy gets introduced in season 1 as the stereotypical "bully" character, cunning and not so nice. He was in reality very desperate, his sister, the only family he had, being in a deep comma at the time and needing money to pay the operation. However, his reputation had already been tarnished by the arclight family as they very intentionally made him cheat in a duel tournament, and ruined his reputation alongside his life. This lead him to take part in gang activities and become a bully to reach his once noble goals. Until Yuma came in his life and took him out of this situation, essentially believing in him when no one else did. From that point on, Shark and Yuma become Friends. Yes, they do share a rivalry with one another, but what is important is the fact that they are Friends before anything else. So in the end when he is revealed to be great vilain of the series, ancient leader of the barians granted a second life by a god who cared for him, a fact he himself ignored... It seriously hurts. Seeing him being forced to cut ties with his friends and with his own humanity to try to save his own world is beyond painful, because he isn't evil, and it's important to get that: the barians aren't evil. They only want to destroy the Astral world so that the barian world and their friends living there-survive. It's nothing more than a need to live, and nothing about that is evil. In the end, he's beaten by Yuma not because he was weaker, but because the latter had something no one else in this series, Astral like barian like human had: an optimistic desire of peace. Shark deserves happiness

– Vector: Vector is pretty much the only evil barian there is. He gets introduced in the series as an adorable ally who doesn't want anything more than the happiest for everyone... Only for it to be geniusly revealed 30 episode later to have been a huge lie. He's the biggest a-hole there is, having trolled everyone with the greatest pleasure he could find there, mocking not only the characters but also us, the viewers, for having believed in his dumb lies. However what's important to see here is that Vector WAS initially a kind individual who desired peace before anything else. His memories had been altered by Don Thousand all along, making believe he had killed his parents and forcing the idea he was a psychopath into his mind. But when he hears this fact, he doesn't care. Instead, he trolls everyone again by making it seem like he cares, and uses it to his own advantage. To Vector, the fact he was once a good person before being manipulated just isn't important, it's not what's going to turn him into a better individual, because the one he is right now isn't that. He was one of the most fun vilains I have seen in Anime, not only being very threatening and interesting, but also actually being very funny, having a very messed up and quite honestly mature humor. And the fact he stayed evil doesn't mean he didn't have a tearjerker, satisfying conclusion to his character.

– Astral: Astral is an interesting character, because he is a being made of nothing more than order, the creation of the Astral world to destroy the Barian world... But he loses his memory because of Yuma's father trying to protect him. What is compelling about Astral is seeing how this character builds himself based on the informations he witnesses and how he makes his own vision of things through the show. It's a brilliant example of nature vs Nurture like in Vector's case, -he has been created to destroy the barian world, so is he going to do it in the end, despite everything he has learned with Yuma? This character of order slowly learns chaos thanks to Yuma and is faced with the realization of what is known as feelings, and how it can mean both pleasure and pain. He's definitely more than an Atem rip-off.

– Yuma: what people usually don't understand about Yuma is that he doesn't have a character arc, because he's not supposed to. Yes, he does emotially grow and gets better at the card game, but his character stays the same through the entire show, and it's a fundamental element. In episode 1,this loser kid opens the door of destiny, releasing Astral in his world, but also being presented with the idea that eventually, this power he obtains will make him lose the most important person to him. And for about 140 episodes, we are left wondering who that person might be, only for it to finally be revealed in his duel with Nash. The person he was going to lose wasn't Shark, it wasn't Astral, nor was it anyone around him: it was him, himself and he alone. Throughout the entire show, he is told that the interdimensional war that no matter the result, one side has to be eradicated in the end. The idea that one world strictly cannot, and will not exist while the other one is around is almost pushed down his throat at multiple occasions and it messes with his already damaged brain at this point... So much that, in the very end, he believes it. In his duel with Nash to decide of the outcome of the universe, he was about to kill his best friend in order to save the Astral world. This is what it really meant to "lose himself", the person who always did what needed to be done to avoid conflict. And through this duel, he manages to realize his failure and does what he always would have done : he cancels his attack despite the drastic turn this duel had taken and tries to think of a better way. In other words, he's like a Judai that managed to stand back up before he actually fell. In the end, he managed to pull himself together and stay the happy and naive child he always was, because that's what's best for him. Why do people want him to change when his entire development is that he shouldn't? And remember, he's nothing more than a little pure child taken in the interdimensional war that is zexal, it's... Pretty much normal he cries at the death of his friends, and that he's lost for pretty much the entirety of the final arc. Even more considering how caring and emotional he is.
And the message zexal is trying to give is very deep; there is always a better solution than conflict and hatred. If Yuma didn't negate his attack at that moment, Nash would have activated his trap and Yuma would have lost. Yuma tried to find a better solution, and even if that meant the Astral world had to accept chaos once more and by that, be in danger at all times, it doesn't really matter because everyone is safe and everything is fine. That's why the ending of zexal felt too simple for most people, it's because it is. They make us understand that things don't have to be complicated to be fine, and that a happy ending is possible even in the darkest stories. It's a perfect conclusion for such a series.

╰──➤⊱enjoyment: 9/10⊰

This series, not taking in account it's first share of episodes and it's few uninteresting filler episodes, was very entertaining for the most part. This is mostly due to the animation, the music, the story and the characters, so nothing much to say here. If you like it, it will be entertaining. If you don't, it will probably be a drag.

╰──➤⊱overall: 9/10⊰

If I was ranking the first act alone, I would probably give it a 7. If I was to rank the second half... Honestly a 10 although I might be biased. I think a 9 fits the overall series well, and for good reasons. It's probably the most emotional I have ever been about a yugioh series, and I'm a huge fan of the franchise. I guess it wouldn't please everyone, like I said it's a big hit or a big miss, but for me, it's only a few details away from perfection and I hope more people will be able to appreciate it in the future.