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NEWS: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal II to Debut on October 7 in New Timeslot


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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 3945
PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 1:48 pm Reply with quote
Keep on milking the cash cow Laughing Laughing Laughing
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 2:02 pm Reply with quote
Zexal was an extremely solid series that hit all the right notes in terms of presentation and direction. I can see why it revitalized the franchise and is so popular, they pretty much took what made Duel Monsters and GX great and distilled it down. I can't wait to see the second series. Hopefully the new villains are as interesting as Tron and Dr. Faker were.
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Hagaren Viper



Joined: 28 Apr 2011
Posts: 761
PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 3:09 pm Reply with quote
Really? I haven't heard much good about Zexal so far, I guess it must have gotten better as time went on. I do find it a little amusing that new time slot = new name. Digimon Xros wars did the same thing.
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 4:05 pm Reply with quote
Maybe it has some haters, I don't know, but I do know Zexal's been getting better ratings and a lot more fanworks compare to the last series (5Ds), it's almost back up to where it was during the GX-era where the franchise was at it's peak in popularity.

Though I guess the series does have a bit of a slow start given it has to introduce the pretty big cast one by one. It picks up around the time Shark comes back for his tag duel with Yuma, and hits it's stride when the World Duel Carnival and the Tron Family are introduced. GX had a similar problem where the beginning was slow until the Phantom Demons and Sevenstar Assassins were introduced.
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Dark Absol



Joined: 09 Dec 2009
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 7:08 pm Reply with quote
Misleading title is misleading.
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Tenbyakugon



Joined: 11 Jan 2012
Posts: 788
Location: Ohio, United States
PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 7:37 pm Reply with quote
Not the most creative sequel title. Too many series coming out as of recent are riding on the coattails of Pokémon Best Wishes! 2... I feel like there are too many series coming out with numbered sequels, and Pokemon BW2 actually had some thought put into it other than, "Well, it's gonna be the second series-durr." =/
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 7:51 pm Reply with quote
Mainly because it's switching slots.. but shows used to do this all the time. Sailor Moon, R, S, SuperS, Stars.. Oamajo Doremi, Sharp, Dokkan, Motto.. usually just signifies a new arc/direction for the series. Naruto and Naruto Shippuden too I guess, and Dragonball/Z
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Tenbyakugon



Joined: 11 Jan 2012
Posts: 788
Location: Ohio, United States
PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 8:37 pm Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
Mainly because it's switching slots.. but shows used to do this all the time. Sailor Moon, R, S, SuperS, Stars.. Oamajo Doremi, Sharp, Dokkan, Motto.. usually just signifies a new arc/direction for the series. Naruto and Naruto Shippuden too I guess, and Dragonball/Z


I don't know about those others, but Naruto Shippuden could've just kept the title Naruto as it was for the manga, "Shippuden" as a subtitle not really focusing on Part 2 of the manga nearly as it does focus on the development of Naruto's wind chakra nature which Kishimoto has shyed away from, and as far as I know, DBZ being the title for "part 2" of the Dragonball anime pertains to virtually nothing; "Z" isn't meant to stand for anything except that it is the last letter in the English alphabet, so in my opinion any symbolism is too vague at best.

Switching time slots isn't the best reason either. It makes no sense to re-title it just so people will notice that it moved around by a few hours.
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White Lightning Alchemist



Joined: 11 Nov 2008
Posts: 51
PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 8:48 pm Reply with quote
Hagaren Viper wrote:
Really? I haven't heard much good about Zexal so far, I guess it must have gotten better as time went on. I do find it a little amusing that new time slot = new name. Digimon Xros wars did the same thing.


I'm only 26 episodes in and find that it's pretty terrible. 5D's was really good for the first 64 episodes (The Digimon Tamers of the franchise, IMO) so I'm pretty disappointed that the franchise returned to complete mediocrity. Zexal doesn't even entertain me though, at least GX could do that.

The show doesn't have very likeable, relateable, or interesting protagonists. So far the only interesting character is Kaito who's pretty much just a Kaiba-expy. Even as a card commercial it fails as I the only card that's really gotten me to go out and buy Zexal era cards was Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. I've mostly stuck to buying reprint packs of older series cards or none at all.

I keep watching, hoping it gets better, but I doubt that'll happen. Although GX eventually did get good and at least watchable after that, so I guess we'll see. I don't have much faith in the guy in charge of the series though as he's written some of my least favorite parts of the franchise (Duel Monsters Season 4, GX Season 4, and 5D's 65+).
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:22 pm Reply with quote
5Ds.. Digimon Tamers?

Odd comparison given how hated 5Ds is where Tamers is regarded quite highly. I'd compare it more to Frontier; both series that tried to deviate from the established formula and got slammed for it (though I still enjoyed them both)
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White Lightning Alchemist



Joined: 11 Nov 2008
Posts: 51
PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 1:35 am Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
5Ds.. Digimon Tamers?

Odd comparison given how hated 5Ds is where Tamers is regarded quite highly. I'd compare it more to Frontier; both series that tried to deviate from the established formula and got slammed for it (though I still enjoyed them both)


I wasn't going by hated or liked, I was going by how both transcended the genre and became something else entirely and are two of the very few toyetic anime that I could call genuinely "good" anime and not just watchable toy shows. Like I said, I'm just speaking for the first 64 episodes of 5D's where it was a cool sci-fi show with some excellent social commentary, not the rest were it turned into the show everyone hated.

In my experience, most people who watched those earlier episodes liked them, it wasn't until the end of the Dark Signer arc where things turned sour. And even then I see more praise for those episodes than Zexal, although I haven't been out to any dedicated Yu-Gi-Oh! communities after all the regulars left Janime, mostly stick to general animation places.

As for the Frontier comparison, I'd go with Capsule Monsters there, although I'm sure we'd all rather forget that series, and it's a HUGE disservice to Frontier which was the last Digimon series I could really get into. Dropped Savers half-way through although Xros Wars looks cool, I just didn't want to watch fansubs as I like to support series legally. I suppose it's on Crunchyroll now, but that's a lot of episodes to go through. I've been trying to catch up to Pokemon: Best Wishes! (31 episodes through so far) and I've been wanting to try Cardfight! Vanguard past the first two episodes as well. Although, I'm too poor to afford the expensive cards now (And I'd rather spend money on Magic: The Gathering since I just met people who play it).
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Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:13 am Reply with quote
4Kids literally would've come up with a better title than just slapping "II" on it. Laughing
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:00 am Reply with quote
White Lightning Alchemist wrote:
I wasn't going by hated or liked, I was going by how both transcended the genre and became something else entirely and are two of the very few toyetic anime that I could call genuinely "good" anime and not just watchable toy shows. Like I said, I'm just speaking for the first 64 episodes of 5D's where it was a cool sci-fi show with some excellent social commentary, not the rest were it turned into the show everyone hated.


That seems a bit.. [insult removed]. I don't consider 'toyetic' a valid reason to consider something a 'lesser' show. Especially when most anime is made to sell a product or merchandise to begin with.

Quote:
As for the Frontier comparison, I'd go with Capsule Monsters there, although I'm sure we'd all rather forget that series, and it's a HUGE disservice to Frontier which was the last Digimon series I could really get into.


Capsule Monsters doesn't exist as far as most fans are concerned, given it's a 4Kids produced spin off and not canon with the anime continuity. Then again, 5Ds is in limbo as well given the rumors Zexal may have replaced it given the director's comments on Twitter, but nothing official has been stated.

I mainly compare it to Frontier because how Frontier abandoned the 'partner' aspect of Digimon in favor of making the kids turn into the Digimon Kamen Rider/Super Sentai style and is such a different format. An interesting gimmick, but it seems most people didn't like the deviation.

Likewise, 5Ds stands out from the others given:

-Yusei is actually pretty confident/pro at dueling (Compared to Yugi, Judai, and Yuma who either suck at dueling, are considered the underdog, or have self confidence issues)
-Yusei has no otherworldy entity of questionable morality bonding with him. (Yugi has Atem, Judai had Yubel, and Yuma has Astral. Judai also has Daitokuji's spirit too in the end I guess if you count that.)
-Yusei has no humanoid signature monster with a fan-favorite female side kick. He has a dragon, which is usually what the YGO rivals have (Yugi had Black Magician/Black Magician Girl, Judai had Featherman and Burst Lady, and Yuma has Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Girl)
-Yusei doesn't have a Kuriboh mascot which helps him duels at certain times (Yugi has Kuriboh, Judai has Winged Kuriboh, and Yuma has Kuribolt)

Looking at that, you can kind of see why YGO fans consider it an oddball out of them all. And in that case, I suppose Zexal is similar to Xros Wars in that both of them largely return the franchises to their original format and were pretty popular.
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kanechin



Joined: 21 Jan 2012
Posts: 447
PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:33 am Reply with quote
Everything about Zexal sucks...Yuma's stupidity, Kotori's existence (doujin fame is bs), the plot. Only half decent thing is Kaito which isn't enough to save the series. Should have taken a 3 year break after 5D's.
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:19 pm Reply with quote
kanechin wrote:
Kotori's existence (doujin fame is bs)


The director mentioned on twitter how popular she is and how he's happy about it They've even started using her to advertise the card game in TV commercials. Can't really blame the doujin artists for capitalizing on what they're given when the animators are doing it on purpose.
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