I thought that the focus on them was extremely unnecessary. They didn't hit me as likeable and I couldn't care less for these one-shot characters. Their plot was extremely predictable, their personalities hit me as being bland and annoying and I couldn't feel any tension. I also find it hard to believe that they made it so far in the competition without summoning the god. Actually, even summoning it at that time was extremely stupid because their plan would have been revealed and made them lose in the next round.
They were one of the few examples of one-shot characters that I could care about because of their fleshed out and likeable personalities. Though, I have a soft spot for underdog characters and seeing their backstories and motivation for being in the tournament made me like them even more. Considering what their strategy was, I didn't think it was too hard to believe how they had been able to make it so far in the competition, especially when their decks were drastically different from how the other decks. I don't know if summoning their god was stupid. It would have made their next duel more of a challenge since the next team could have planned a strategy in advance to prevent them from doing that, but looking at the previous duels in the tournament to make a strategy rarely happen anyway. I don't think Team 5D's did that besides preparing for their match against Team Catastrophe.
Human said:
It didn't feel like it dragged on for me when the new strategies that were being set up to deflect and counter were great. I still found it to be underwhelming. How they lost was pretty stupid when they could have just won by ending their turn. They were interesting characters, but they didn't make much sense. I believe the reason why Jack decided to focus more on power like he did before was because he thought that with it he could destroy Andore with it. Unfortunately, he was deceived and ended up losing. If he wasn't, I'm sure that he would have focused less on power. Aki's development of becoming a D-Wheeler really interested me. How it affected the plot was great as well. If she didn't crash, then Crow wouldn't have felt more determined to avenge her. It affected Crow's characters and lead to some interesting interactions between them. Also, Aki could then get on the Ark Cradle with her D-Wheel. Yeah, it really was Yusei that beat them. The writers are immune from ever making his LP bar ever drop to 0 other than before the first episode.
I don't remember thinking that how they lost was stupid, but I was more disappointed that they had to lose. To be fair, Team Unicorn could have won by ending their turn too. Jack only focused on power to defeat Andore wouldn't be too bad if he kept focusing on power when he was trying to get Scar-Nova Dragon. Aki becoming a D-Wheeler was huge wasted potential that felt rather pointless to me. Getting in that accident did lead to Crow avenging her, which was kind of nice, but she didn't win a duel in the tournament and the only major impact her becoming a D-Wheeler had was Crow getting to duel earlier than he probably would have if he had, which is pretty weak if that's the only major effect D-Wheeler Aki had. Plus, getting to Ark Cradle with her D-Wheel isn't much of an affect on the plot when she could have just rode on Yusei or Jack's D-Wheel. It could have been handled much better and Aki could have actually done something with becoming a D-Wheeler, but that was all pretty much tossed aside so Yusei could win and Aki could be a benchwarmer. Technically speaking, Yusei's lifepoints did drop to zero once, but that was in his flashback duel against Jack, so I'm not sure if that really counts here.
Human said:
Yeah, it was sort of horrible. I still liked the duel though. My placing is:1. Team Unicorn
2. Team Ragnarock
3. Team New World
4. Team Taiyo
5. Team Those Bad Guys With The Hook Monster That Hurt Aki and Crow
Yeah it did feel random. My main two problems with it was the annoying familiar and how Jack "suddenly" changed his way of fighting by using a monster to deflect 800 points of damage back to the familiar, when for him to have such a card in the first place he must have already have changed.
I'd go with Team Taiyo, Team Ragnarok, Team New World, Team Catastrophe and Team Unicorn for my ranking of the duels in the tournament. Yeah, that was a problematic issue with Jack's deck and I didn't like how they made the Black-Winged Dragon part of the Crimson Dragon either, but it was still pretty fun and entertaining.
Human said:
It's not that I couldn't believe that the Crimson Dragon had such powers, but how it came out of nowhere.
It did come out of nowhere, but I could just go along with it.
Human said:
He could have thought that after he beat Paradox. Yusei would be questioned to either pick his friends, or preventing the Momentum explosion from ever happening. That would have lead to something interesting and compelling for Yusei to think about. He would obviously pick his friends, of course. Still, seeing him think about it would have lead to great entertainment value.
I still don't know if he would have thought of it after defeating Paradox since thinking about his friends helped him to win and he already knew that if Zero Reverse didn't happen, then he may not have met Jack, Crow, Aki and the twins, as well as all of his other friends from Satellite. It might have been an interesting moment to see him consider, but it wasn't necessary and I don't know if the Crimson Dragon would have gone along with that anyway.
Human said:
Judai affected the plot, was shown to help Yusei by telling him of what happened to Pegasus and defeated Paradox, but was his character affected like Yugi and Yusei? No, it wasn't. Which is why it would have been a way better idea to show the Duel Academy be destroyed instead. Seeing the place being destroyed would have affected his character like how Yugi's was affected having his grandpa be dead and how Yusei had to save Neo Domino City for his friends.
Seeing Duel Academy being destroyed might have been an interesting choice to make, but since he was traveling around after graduating, I'm not sure how that would have worked. It's not like he didn't have enough motivation to face Paradox like Yusei and Yugi did after facing against Paradox.
Human said:
The story really was engaging. It just made me feel that there could have been more. The animation was fantastic and a nice sight to see. I was glad to see Star Dust Dragon's CGI animation on the show. Pokemon's tenth anniversary Darkrai movie was great and it entertained me more than BBT. It suffered from being too similar to the other movies, resulting in it not getting that much of a special feeling.
If there was more time, I think that they could have done more with the characters and the duel. I was referring to the Mirage Pokemon special since that was promoted as the tenth anniversary special. The Darkrai movie was the tenth movie, but I don't think it was treated as an anniversary special like the Mirage special or the Bonds Beyond Time movie were. I liked the Darkrai movie, but I was more entertained with Bonds Beyond Time movie.
Rio Kamishiro said:
The episode listing for Zexal II sounds like it might be a little slow at first, but they still sound enjoyable. Less than a week left for the premier~
The first couple of episodes sound like a decent/interesting start, but the episodes after that don't sound too appealing, especially the class rep episode. I'll still watch it, but none of the information for the episodes really blow me away. I'm still thinking of getting B2/W2 on that day more than the premiere for Zexal II.
FinalArcadia said:
I think the WRGP dragged, even during the later parts. There were so many long duels, and I think I would've liked it more had Yusei, Jack, and Crow not all been on a team together, so we could've split the focus somewhat. Team Taiyo's episodes were well-handled, but with Team Unicorn and Team Ragnarok, it felt unnecessarily long to me.Whereas with the World Duel Carnival, there were many different motivations at work; Yuma being...Yuma, Kaito entering at Heartland's orders, Shark going to avenge his sister, Tron wanting revenge on Faker... I liked that we got to see what drove the different competitors in the tournament. After the initial preliminary rounds, things were top-notch for me.
I would have preferred it if most of the duels didn't result with Yusei winning the match for the team and there were more focus on the other characters. While I liked the duel against Team Ragnarok, it was pretty long. The WRPG definitely dragged on and most of the duels weren't that great, but I still think I prefer it over the WDC. Neither arcs are what I would consider good tournament arcs, but I could at least care about most of the characters in Team 5D's while the only character I could feel invested in during the WDC was Shark. I think I like Tron more than Team New World, at least before they became Aporia, since Tron actually did something to progress his goal and he was more entertaining, but the fact that the bulk of the tournament focused on Yuma, who I don't care at all for to begin with, and there's only a couple, at the most, of his duels that I did like, I'm going to go with the WRGP. However, both would be some of my least favorite tournament arcs.
FinalArcadia said:
Yeah, I anticipate Zexal II to be very slow-moving at first, much like the beginning of Zexal was. And it'll take a hell of a lot for the Barian World people to measure up to Tron's role as an antagonist (for most of the WDC anyway) in fact, it will be impossible, LOL, but I still feel that the series will be enjoyable.I definitely can't wait to see the new opening and ending. From the little clips of the opening that have been heard in trailers, the song itself sounds awesome.
I'm hoping that it won't be slow-moving like the first season was. That slow pace was pretty bad for me, but at least there aren't a lot of two-part matches thus far. Tron has been one of the more entertaining villains for me as well, so I'm curious to see how the Barian World villains turn out. The bits of the opening from the trailer sounds pretty good, but seeing the whole opening would give me a better idea for the song.
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