Webtoon Spotlight

Random Spotlight#10: My Complicated Feelings On Yugioh Gx

Seven days, that's pretty much how long it took for Yugioh to shift into the first of its many spin-offs. From it, we got one of the most heavily debated Yugioh series of all time: Yugioh Generation Next or should I say Yugioh Gx. While the series does have a strong fanbase behind it, others have described it as being one of the worst entries in the franchise. Others have also described the series as the "best" because of the sheer amount of memes it's responsible for. With all of these factors combined, Gx is a bit of a mess, a mess I've got lots of complicated feelings about. And considering that #GXMonth is almost over, I might as well explain my complicated feelings on this conflicting series.

Note

Like with all the series, I've been reviewing the anime sub instead of dub. While I dislike the Arc-V dub the most, I will also admit that Gx suffered the most from its dub, given the final season was completely cut short. Also, keep in mind I'm going to be far more critical of this series then Zexal and 5D's; I might even say how other series improved on Gx's formula. Still take this with a grain of salt since I do think Gx is the sort of the halfway point of the series I've watched. It's not the worst, in my opinion, but it's not the best either. In line with this,k I want to get this off my chest real quick. It irks me when people look to newer series like Yugioh Zexal and Arc-V and immediately write it all off as "kids" stuff when Gx existed. Like it or not, guys this is a series where teenagers that look like young adults use children's card games to decide the fate of the universe, I don't think that this series won't ever be at least somewhat silly and we shouldn't try to fool ourselves, now onto the review proper.

Story

Ten years after the original series ended, Seto Kaiba, in his infinite wisdom, has decided to teach the newest generation of duelists at an island called Duel Academy. This is the story of how a young boy named Jaden Yuki soon attends said school as he defeats various evil entities with his friends.

Cast

Might as well say it right here and now Gx might have the biggest cast in all of Yugioh with its recurring main cast if we're talking about just Jaden's main ensemble throughout the entire series, we have Syrus, Chumley, Alexis, Atticus, Chazz, Hassleberry, Blair and Bastion in no particular order. While having a big cast isn't necessarily a bad trait (in fact, it's par for the course when it comes to most shonen anime), I don't think Gx was able to handle it's big cast very well in the grand scheme of things. And I wouldn't be so opposed to this if it weren't for one simple fact: they're all duelists. Not only are they duelists but duelists that are being raised to be some of the best of the best in the world under the same affiliation. DM and Zexal don't have that problem since their main cast aren't meant to be professional duelists. That combined with GX's often large scale arcs and Gx really could have handled things better.

With that out of the way, I will admit that Gx has a lot of memorable characters, with our main character Jaden Yuki being a great example. Jaden's fun and bright attitude made him the perfect poster boy for Yugioh's new era and are probably why Gx has one of the stronger fandoms of the list. Also much like protagonists before and after him, Jaden's deck almost speaks for himself.

Jaden's Elemental hero/Neos Spacian deck, I think, is easily the most iconic deck out of the entire 5. Which is probably why Konami decided to double down so hard their production, that unintentionally gave Jaden something he always used to great effect: utility. It doesn't matter what hand Jaden had because between his powerful support cards with his incredible search and recovery cards allow him to bring out his big guns at the drop of a hat. Of course, this is all in service to the ...NUMEROUS fusion cards at his disposal (Flare Wingman, Flare Neos, Thunder Giant, and Wildedge to name a few heavy hitters) with Neos probably being the standout amongst them; like how does this man not have like 15 STDs from all the monsters he's fused with thematically though the Elemental Heroes work great with Jaden, as their over the top, colorful and well heroic nature reflects his message loud and clear. Their reliance on fusion could also be a way to symbolize Jaden's inner synergy and harmony with his cards as well.