Favorite Yugioh Anime?

[DLionHeart]

Just wondering which anime is the most popular 

[DifferentDimensionVanessa]

Voted for VRAINS. Myself and many others probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for DM, but VRAINS was the one I followed the most religiously, eagerly awaiting the next episode and the next one while it was running. Am so sad it had to stop.

Most people I know like GX but I can't say it's for me, lol.

If there was a Tag Force game that had Link Summoning, I'd surely be making more videos than the very few I have so far, but I still enjoy it either way!

[Sleepy]

I'm that GX vote up there. 
It's not the best in plot quality, it's not the best in gameplay IRL (god knows the GX era is like the dark ages for getting sealed packs because of how much specific junk with underpowered qualities you were bound to pull)... and when it was in its original run, I actually hated it seeing as how its tone was almost a mockery of the franchise compared to the original, and by the end I was eager to see 5DS replace it (which even to this day is an almost even spot in the top for me in my rankings). Not only that, it has some stuff I just feel ashamed to even know like how Jaden took down Sartorious' satellite xD

Yet, now with more series I no longer compare it strictly to DM and accept its town as its own thing, and I actually enjoy it a lot tbh. I haven't come back to rewatch episodes of any other series of Yugioh like I did this one. The power level when the plays work (and in the anime it pretty much goes guaranteed) is pretty fun and although not as complex as the modern game it is one that when I've experienced I know it leaves one wanting a rematch, while more modern gameplay like VRAINS stuff drains me and I eventually gotta go for a break more quickly. The characters also are among my favorite ones. Bonds Beyond Time Jaden is my favorite MC in the entire franchise and Bastion is my favorite non MC character. 

Other series have a bit of a tighter storyline too like, you can go to Arcana vs Yugi and you know exactly where they were coming to and where they were going to in a tight schedule with stakes, but GX I can find random nonsense and even though there ARE stakes often enough, it is like they lived through more days (and fair enough they spent 3 years in academy) and well, IDK exactly why it is but I feel a bit more breathing room there. 
***shrugs***

Even the best ones here have insufferable issues so I'm not saying it's any master piece, but it is a guilty pleasure xD

[Loleo]

Vroom Vroom

[The Nyx Avatar]

The original one. Yeah, it has its share of...stupid in it. But I really liked it. I liked how grounded and serious it felt, the MYRIAD of occult themes, the characters, the soundtrack. Even the Japanese version has a few bangers.

I didn't originally watch GX until the Supreme King Arc. But I accept it by now as a nice anime. It was more campy and silly in the first season, but at least it had some likeable characters. Even early on. And soonafter raised the stakes. And of course, occult themes.

I loved 5D's. I was doubtful of Synchro monsters. And now it's my favorite type of Extra Deck card! The stakes are high enough, likeable characters, occult themes, ect. It's just a damn shame what became of it after the Earthbound Arc. And the...nothing story Crow had. I was more interested in Aki's story from the manga. But nope! Blackwings were selling the best, so we have to can Aki and Leo's stories/arcs. Oh, also the censors in the dub are sad.

A lot of people bash on Zexal. I myself liked it. Even in dub. I liked seeing Yuma grow. And we had some nice characters along the way. Xyz Summoning was nice and easy. Sure, Yuma wasn't as easy to take seriously as Yugi or Yusei, but he didn't actively piss me off.

Arc-V, I dropped after the first season. From the animes I've seen, Yuya was my least favorite protagonist. But I watched this anime like I watched .hack//SIGN. Enjoying every character BUT our protagonist. I liked Zexal more than this anime.

 

And I can't properly judge VRAINS or Sevens. But...neither looked captivating to me

[DifferentDimensionVanessa]

On 12/31/2021 at 2:02 PM, The Nyx Avatar said:

 

 

And I can't properly judge VRAINS or Sevens. But...neither looked captivating to me

The first season isn't well-paced and had issues. It takes a while to pick up, but it does. Imo even DM takes a while to pick up, or even pick up a rulebook. Creates a barrier to entry compared to some other hit anime that catch you by Ep1 or Ep2.

[Nyappyyuki]

Just saw that 5D's  is voted by 3 people. but well...I  like the old animes more then the new like sevens or zexal....my favourite at all is  5D's (So i finished watching it already). Started to  watch Vrains but stoped after 3 episodes  and kinda saw through childhood the first Yugioh anime. At moment i am at the last saison  of GX  and and  watch it with a friend. but super slow... Also i think Arc V  is nice even i never finished it because of the concept  of Dimensions and bringing back Characters  from the Animes before it.

Well, after all  5D's my favourite :D

[Nerdling Wagonwheel]

Yuma was my favorite protagonist because he reminded me of my dueling journey which besides all the magic science and aliens they were the same. There was an ad that I thought was person on this thread.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Nerdling Wagonwheel

[Booloomer]

Only one I've seen is the Original. I loved it back in the day, although I do see now some of the things that were...uh...less than savory in it.

Probably my biggest beef with the Original is with Stitches. I thought Yugi would have a really cool and creepy duel against an opponent who didn't speak, but of course Marik had to take control of Stitches and MENTALLY speak through him, and of course, he couldn't just SHUT UP for ONE SECOND. On the plus side, I particularly remember that battle because it was such an amazing battle, especially near the end. Having Stitches lose the duel by running out of cards was very climactic.

[Joey the Questionable Guy]

i gotta say Arc-v it was the second yugioh show i could watch on Netflix and has always been near and dear to my heart

[Yusandra jetesa]

In order: 5ds, arc 5, zexal, duel monsters, vrains, sevens, gx

[Chu The Shooting star]

NOw that I started watching it, Arc V all the way

[cr47t]

if you all don't mind, i'm gonna also talk about the actual game in addition to my opinions on the various show eras, as well as my history with them.

the one im most familiar w/ is DM, b/c i watched seasons 2/3 some time back. even so, i was starting to play YGO around the time xyzs came out, and so i had a lot of catching up to do. in the end the shows seemed interesting as add-ons but the real draw to YGO for me was spending time with my new friends. time moved on, we split up and i went to different places. eventually i took a hiatus from YGO, due to noticing the occult motifs (not themes imo) during a puritanical phase of mine (which, looking back, was kind of insufferable even for me). i was still earning things, and eventually i realized that it was just there to make moralists mad (hence "motifs"; there's no real room for commentary on them = no theme) and wanted to jump in again. then covid came along and i had to find a new place. now my life is in a position that i find very scary, and YGO local tourneys really has become a central part of my routine, being the main opportunity i have to meet and see other people in person on a regular basis. if it werent for YGO i think i might have thought i would have to run away or do something else stupid that could land me in the funny home.

what i think i'm trying to say is, i dont think the shows were ever the point of YGO, if not for people playing the game then at least for me. the shows served as gateways and sustainable points of interest, but really i think we all came for the hobby that brought us and others around us together. i know this is kind of off-topic, but i'm saying this because, as a person concerned more with consequences of media than what the thread calls for, i think this history between YGO and me really helped me become a better person now than i was before, through the people i met at locals and on here. i hope it has made you guys better too - thanks everyone

[Mr. Best Male 2008]

GX sub and dub because they're the only ones I've watched. Dub is up there with Ghost Stories and season 1 Pokémon dub for peak comedy.

[Chu The Shooting star]

gotta say dis:the original is also nice and sweet.

[Tinkerer]

I think I was the one who picked Sevens?  No regrets, Sevens was great!

[I Hate Snatch Steal]

I picked 5d's as my favorite. It may in part be that it was the first series I saw subbed from start to finish but nothing afterwards beat it. I was skeptical of "card games on motorcyles" after I saw the first episode but it had amazing characters and climactic plots that really drew you in and also has my favorite moment in all of yugioh.

I won't comment on DM and GX because I saw those in English up until mid GX season 3 so it wouldn't be a fair comparison.

Zexal was annoying at times when it was trying and failing to have comedic filler but looking back on it Yuma's Katobingu motto was a nice lesson for the viewers. (For those who don't know he means never giving up no matter how many times you're knocked down and continuing to challenge yourself) As an aside, some subtitles "translate" this as "bring it to em" which sounds WAY better than the dub's choice of "feel the flow". I've only heard about 10 seconds of Zexal's dub and Yuma's English voice actor sounds like a 10 year old trying to sound stupid as part of an impression. Zexal also had some memorable moments and duels. My main dislike is that Yuma's tendency to be forgiving and trusting of everyone, even the villains that are straight up evil or that have abused his trust, does make me like the series less.

 

Arc-V started off strong with an intriguing plot where it has plenty of mystery but if you go back and watch it it makes perfect sense what everyone was doing and why. The series had may strong and admirable characters like Yuto and Akaba Reji and some nice duels. Yuya didn't seem to be a bad protagonist at first with at first being the operative word. It all came crashing down in episode 110 however. Despite certain events theoretically leading to a character development moment for Yuya where he realized that sometimes you need to take things seriously and defeat your opponent instead of preaching about dueling bringing smiles all the time. The writers threw all of that away and Yuya learned nothing. Also to top it off everyone else around him magically and unconvincingly adopted his mindset as if they were brainwashed. There were still some decent duels after but that moment killed my interest in the plot. Ironically my favorite moment in this series is after that namely when Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon makes it first appearance. My final criticism is that Kurosaki's duel vs Katio should have ended differently because it showed legitimate character development and not blind preaching.

 

Vrains is a series that I know a lot of people dislike but I however liked it. Yes the first season had issues with flashback episodes and I don't defend that. What I do defend was the interesting plot and good characters. Yusaku aka Playmaker seems like a slightly worse version of Yusei but I'll take that over some of the protagonists we got. The dueling also felt climactic and epic. One high point of the series that I do have to mention is Takeru aka Soulburner. He was a great addition from the energy of his first Reincarnation Link summon, which I'm very glad that they brought back summon chants for that moment, to showing the viewers the fact that one can go beyond the scars of their past and surpass them.  Also, he's less wooden with his emotions than Yusaku.

Sevens took everything that made Japanese dubs of yugioh good such as the climactic plots and characters that you could get behind and replaced it with English yugioh gx at its most inane and cringy. The viewers are given no reason to get behind Yuga's quest to promote rush duels, not even a reason that they disagree with. All you get is one line from Yuga: "I felt that dueling has become rigid". Why? No one knows and its never explained beyond that one sentence. Also, there's no plot tension because Yuga could lose 1000 times to the antagonists and nothing would change. Its already explained early on that the Rush duels can't be deleted out of the duel disks no matter what happens to Yuga. Most of the episodes involve either cringy filler or attempts to have a serious plot that are all pointless in the end. As an example of the latter an antagonist tries to steal Yuga's notebook in hopes that it contains the secret of uninstalling rush duels, gets caught, and has to win the notebook in a duel as result. She loses, is given the notebook anyway for some reason and guess what? Nothing in there made any difference so the whole episode was pointless. Also the filler is never funny. None of the characters are worth watching or caring about. However, for some ridiculous reason the 8th series seems to be sevens 2.0.

[Horu]

I choose 5Ds because.....

CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES!!!!!

[BobasasStrong]

i will put them in order:

Arc-V, GX, Vrains, Zexal, 5D's, Duel Monsters

I haven't watched Sevens yet.

[DifferentDimensionVanessa]

On 12/11/2022 at 7:48 AM, BobasasStrong said:

i will put them in order:

Arc-V, GX, Vrains, Zexal, 5D's, Duel Monsters

I haven't watched Sevens yet.

You're entitled to your opinion but I think it's notable that someone put Duel Monsters in dead last, we.... don't see that every day :P Hope you have at least seen Dark Side of Dimensions.

[Horu]

DSoD is an important part of the story

[Ericbarker306]

For me it is Zexal. 

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal deserves much more respect. The core theme is awesome (idealism has its place, even in a world of various shades of gray). Has the best animation, best characters, best world building, artstyle, amazing duels in the second half, and the most charismatic and awesome villains and antagonists. Second half is the darkest of any yugioh show. Yuma's character development is amazing, from a rookie to a skilled player. Ryuga is hands down the best written rival. Barian arc is the peak of the entire franchise. Kaito is the MAN. And the girls are really cute (<3 <3 Kotori <3 <3). She actually confessed to the mc unlike the other yu-girls ;-;

From what I have seen people don't give Zexal the recognition it deserves. Brush it off as bad when its amazing, 5D's and DM are overrated imo.

[DKG Masala]

5D is the best one...

[Jalouis]

5DS is peak Yu-Gi-Oh anime, it's the best of the Post-DM anime even it could've been even better if it wasn't undergoing so many changes during the Dark Signer Arc. There's also quite a bit of love for Sevens, mainly due to the waifu fest that anime has.

[Alvakim04]

I only watched GX, because it is the only one to follow the card game's original rules.