Webtoon Spotlight

Random Spotlight#7: Why Yugioh Zexal is My Favorite

Okay, I was going to leave Yugioh for a little while, but I thought about tackling something head-on. I was a little afraid to talk about this last time, but given my new electric courage, I might as well say something controversial: Yugioh Zexal is my fave series, and it's one of the best in the franchise. If you think this is a foolish statement, then prepare yourself because today I'll be explaining how this series compares to others, stands on its own 2 feet, and how the stigma is for people who want to get into Zexal.

Note

So I'm just going not to claim the dub in this review since I will admit that it removes and takes away a lot of meaningful scenes. I can't save the dub, so I won't even try and praise the sub.

Story

In a far off and stable future, young protagonist Yuma Tsukumo is aspiring to be a Duel Champion in the energetic Heartland City. The only problem is that his skills make early Joey Wheeler look like the King of Games. Despite this, Yuma keeps trucking along with the only thing his dear father left to him, the promise always to have a Kattobingu spirit, and a mysterious key that he left for safekeeping. Like any Yugioh series Yuma eventually ends up having to duel a kid named Shark after he stole one of his nameless friends' decks. Throughout the duel, he's getting creamed like Krispy until the true power of his Key awakens. It brings him to a mysterious door that tells that he will obtain a great power at the cost of that which he values most.

Deciding to take the offer, Yuma plunges his key into the door to unlock a doorway to the mysterious dimension known as Astral World. From this gateway, a mysterious alien named Astral traveled through it, helping Yuma win the duel through his advice. It is then revealed that upon his arrival to Earth, Astral's memories were split into 100 powerful Number Cards that held the secrets to an immeasurable power ripe for the taking. Furthermore, it's revealed that even one of these number cards can possess and corrupt the wielder to do terrible things. Finally, it's revealed that forces of the chaotic Barain World also seek the Number Cards as well to survive their long-standing conflict with the Astral World. So with enemies coming from the literal stars themselves ready to threaten everything Yuma holds dear and most of Astral's power being hidden away, the two must work together to survive. Lucky for them, when two distant souls become one, the power of Zexal is revealed, a power that just might be what they need to survive.

Cast

With that bucket of plot out of the way, he might as well tackle Zexal's biggest controversy out of the way: Yuma Tsukumo himself. For those of you who haven't seen my Ranking of the Yugioh Protags, I'll be brief on my feelings on him. Overall I always thought that Yugioh Zexal was a bit of a soft reboot of the franchise with Yuma kind of being the poster boy of that message. With Yugioh being more complicated and competitive, I find it honestly refreshing to have an mc that is not good at your title game. Yugi was a gaming nerd, Jaden was a savant and Yusei was a genius, Yuma is an average 13-year-old kid who just wants to be good at a popular game. This fact makes it so that his relationship with Astral is far more necessary and made him the first mc at the time to have concrete development from start to finish.

Despite all that, I will admit that Yuma does have negative qualities to him; he can be impatient, stubborn, and easily annoyed. However, these qualities are both overshadowed and even rectified by Yuma's best qualities. And that shows in his ace monster Number39: Hope. Because Yuma is Hope. I hope to be better, hope to have a second chance and hope to aim for the top when things get bad. This philosophy works as we do see him win and develop on his own when he needs to. Through this hope, Yumas was able to turn his biggest enemies into friends. There were many times in Zexal where Yuma was viewed as a failure, but that never stopped him from dusting himself off and trying his best to reach for the sky.