After 5D's

Well, a couple of months later, and I still haven't posted my final thoughts on the end of 5D's. And of course, I also ought to remark on the start of Yu-Gi-Oh! "unnecessary letters" ZEXAL.

First up: On the matter of the 5D's finale, I've made my position on it known before the fact, and it's a good darned thing that they delivered on that relationship, because seriously, that would have been the third time a Yu-Gi-Oh! series ended with no emotional resolutions for multiple relationships, and as I've stated in the linked post, I'm rather attached to the Yusei/Aki couple.

And it was satisfying. In fact, even aside from the beautiful visuals and direction of The Moment (TM), that was just about the most romantic thing ever. According to the Yu-Gi-Oh! wiki, Yusei told her she had "the best smile in the world," and she responded that he had put that smile there. Take that, Team Satisfaction orgy shippers. (Yes, they exist.)

On the last bit of the "action" plot, if you were wondering why Yusei and his bike turned gold at the end of episode 150, there is a reason beyond simply imitating series like Dragonball Z.

A musician who performed a huge amount of 5D's music later in the series was Masaaki Endoh. Aside from being guaranteed a spot on any "top ten musicians of all time" list I would ever put together, he's known for performing the opening songs of a number of anime, one of the earliest of which was "King of Braves Gaogaigar" (which I've talked about elsewhere at least a little bit).

In the series, there's a giant robot called Gaogaigar (which roughly translates, by the way, as "growl harm being," i.e. a growling guy that hurts you) who can pick up a hammer called the Goldion Hammer which causes him to turn bright, shiny gold in pretty much exactly the same fashion as Yusei did. If you think that's a coincidence, Endoh also performed the opening theme for another robot-based series called Daigunder, and in the last episode of that the titular robot turned gold for massive damage as the opening song played.

So my conclusion is that Yusei's "Over Top Clear Mind" turned him gold because Masaaki Endoh sang during the series more than once, and apparently that's a law of anime now.

On ZEXAL: It's no 5D's or original series, but it isn't GX yet either.

The emphasis on the new Xyz (pronounced "ex-sieze" for no reason beyond perhaps confusing English speakers) monsters strikes me as a colossal blunder, mostly because they're much lamer than Synchro Monsters. They're simple and easy to summon for the most part, but they generally have pretty limited effects and unpleasant drawbacks which are unnecessary. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if someone figured out how to break the game with the rules weirdness surrounding their non-levels.

So far, it seems to be the Yu-Gi-Oh! series with the smallest amount of ancient civilization references. I can't say I care for most of the characters, although the mystery of Astral is vaguely piquing my interest. (He's a character who literally knows nothing; he wondered why Yuma and his family were eating in one scene.)

My favorite character so far, though, is probably Yuma's older sister, Akari, as she's rather hot and also entertaining.

Of course, she makes relatively infrequent appearances. If this series was about her instead, I'd probably be hooked. As it is, searching for the episodes (since YouTube finally seems to be having some success at keeping users from posting them) feels more like a chore than entertainment.

For that matter, there's just a general lack of attractive female characters in ZEXAL. (Yuma's schoolmates aren't legal.)

Of course, in episodes seven and eight, we get this lady, the mother of the Numbers-possessed duelist of the week...

...and I can't say I minded seeing her. (Incidentally, the wiki doesn't appear to have an article for her yet.)

Of course, seeing her express concern over her son causes Yuma to flash back to a memory of his own hot mom, and while I can't say that I minded seeing the best shot of her that we've gotten so far, it's still a little weird.

Kudos for these being pretty much the least absent of all Yu-Gi-Oh! series' protagonists' parents, as even Dr. Fudo only showed up as a ghost and in a few flashbacks, and it'll at least be possible for Yuma's parents to show up in the series as not-dead people if the information on the wiki is correct.

Also, I think I would watch a show about hot shonen moms.

-Signing off.

Yusei and Aki Forever Into the Future

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is ending soon, and I'm of mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, 5D's was far better handled than its predecessor (because seriously, GX, what the heck?!), eventually using its own take on the Yu-Gi-Oh! world to create a story that is fairly unique and its own, and also is completely daft in a lovable way.

On the other hand, perhaps it's better that it's being retired while it's going well, because it looks like the developers are having terrible ideas again. (I'll hold judgment on "Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal [pronounced 'zeal' for no good reason]" until I actually see for myself that it's completely terrible, but it isn't promising.)

I'll still be sad to see it go.

Actually, there's an undercurrent that's been going on as the series has progressed where it seems that the opening and ending sequences have developed a slight disconnect, wherein it seems that Yusei's and Aki's relationship is developing at a slightly different pace than in the series itself.

I'll note that, while I am a dude and thus not much for "shipping" (unlike about a bazillion percent of this fandom), I totally ship Yusei and Aki like heck. But I'm not going to pretend that their relationship in the series even begins to parallel what we see, in the endings particularly.

And to show that I'm paying more attention to these things than is really sane or healthy, I'm going to go through each of the 5D's Japanese series openings and end credits, and list the correct sequences that the characters appear in, in the name of seeing the development of their relationship via spacial arrangements.

In the first opening, the order is Yusei, Jack, Aki, the twins, and Rex Goodwin. In the corresponding ending, only Yusei and Jack appear.

In the second opening, the order is Yusei, Jack (with Carly briefly), Aki, the twins, Crow, Misty and Carly, Kiryu/Kalin, and then Yusei again. In the corresponding ending, we can see Yusei on what used to be the Junkpile of Solitude in the first opening, now crowded with a huge number of people, the closest of which are Jack and Aki. The character order is Yusei, Jack, the twins, Aki, Crow, and then Jack, Aki, the twins, and Yusei again. There's a second character cluster after this that has Aki and Jack a nearly equal distance from Yusei (though Jack is closer, the image is slightly misleading because the characters are of such disparate heights and standing on different levels).

The third opening plays with Yusei, Jack, and Crow as the Three Musketeers/Caballeros/whatever. Character order is Yusei, Jack, Crow, Aki, and the twins (plus a gaggle of those schoolmates who haven't been seen in ages), followed by Dark Glass/Vizor/Bruno and Sherry disguised as a dude (though this was one of the openings that changed over time, and I'm looking at the first version).

Here's where things start getting more interesting. Observe the following screenshot.

Now, what's interesting here is that it looks like Crow is between Yusei and Aki, but he actually isn't-if you look closely, he's actually standing slightly behind both of them.

And here's the last bit of this particular opening sequence:

Aki is wearing skimpier clothes than she does at any point in the series and is looking at either Jack, Yusei, Crow, or the TV Tokyo logo. Since she likes Yusei better than the other two and isn't likely to be breaking the fourth wall, I'd judge she's looking at Yusei particularly.

In the third ending, the first character order is Yusei, Jack, Crow, Aki, and the twins. Then comes Jack, the twins, Crow, Aki, and Yusei... and it's in this Brady Bunch style box, with Aki next to Yusei.

There's a third and a fourth sequence mixed in with each other, but the third doesn't have Yusei, while the fourth is Yusei, Jack, Crow, Aki, and the twins again.

Somewhere in there (I think) is this still image-while the focus is on Jack and Crow, look at Yusei and Aki in back there.

There's also an upward-panning shot which shows Yusei at the top, and Aki is the second from the top, and at the end is a rather... peculiar portrait of Yusei, which becomes the frame for a group shot that shows the gang clustered around Yusei... and Aki is once again standing closest to him.

The fourth opening doesn't have any of those slideshows or such weirdness-instead, it has a sequence which pays attention to normal motion and the laws of physics. (Go figure.) It should be noted that Aki's sexy biker suit makes its first appearance in an opening here.

The ending, however, is something of a whirlwind of sequences, featuring Crow, Jack, Yusei, and Aki, then Jack, Crow, Yusei, and Aki, and then Jack, Yusei, Aki, and Crow. (Whew.)

There's also this brief sequence where we see them walking in line, and Aki is standing in front of Yusei.

And there's also the strongest indicator I've yet listed, this still image:

Yes, it would seem that, in ending sequence land at least, the two are dating by the fourth ending sequence.

And here she is, ensuring that Bruno/Dark Glass/Vizor/Antinomymony keeps away from Yusei.

The fifth opening has an order of Crow, Jack, Yusei, Aki, and the twins, and a cluster of Aki, Crow, Yusei, Jack, and the twins.

The fifth ending finally has figured out how to be internally consistent, because it features the same order-Yusei, Jack, Crow, Aki, and the twins-twice... even though this is the "wheeler order" sequence, where it'd have made more sense to have it be Jack, Crow, Yusei, Aki, and the twins.

Then comes this crowning indicator of where their relationship apparently is in ending land:

The "standing in the forest looking in awe at a giant obscured Duel Monster" stage.

It looks like a pretty serious relationship at this point.

Chances are, there won't really be any more new Japanese 5D's openings or endings (unless maybe the final ending is like what they did for the Duel Monsters series), but perhaps it's for the best. Imagine where it would go from here if one takes into account the fact that apparently their relationship moves faster than in the series itself.

Imaginary ending six still, courtesy of GDG (and with a greyscaled screenshot in the background):

Imaginary ending seven still:

(Don't tell me you don't think Yanagi's qualified.)

And the still from an imaginary eighth ending:

By the twelfth, we'd be seeing them in the nursing home.

...

No, now that I think about it, I want to see that after all.

#@%& it, Konami!

-Singning off. (Gack, stupid keyboard. I knew it would happen sooner or later.)