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 stafftoo 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!