Introduction
In the bustling and futuristic city of Heartland, a young boy named Yuuma Tsukumo has a dream that everyone his age wants to achieve—earning the title of the greatest duelist! Sadly, due to his lackluster dueling skills, this dream is far from achievable. But when the school bully, Ryouga "Shark" Kamishiro, splits the key given to him by his father into two pieces, he inadvertently sets Yuuma on a collision course with his dream.
Retaining one half of the key, Yuuma begins a duel with Shark, but soon realizes that his inexperienced skills are no match for him. In a sudden turn of events, Yuuma's key repairs itself, and the "Door of Destiny'' appears before him. Using the key to open it, Yuuma is greeted by an alien by the name of Astral—a being only he can see.
The bewildered Yuuma soon learns that his memories have been divided into 100 "Number Cards," all of which he must retrieve. However, he is also not the only one looking for them. Bombarded by these revelations, Yuuma, alongside Astral, must defend the world from the upcoming threats that loom over Heartland City—regardless of any divine intervention that may occur.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
12 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Pexcel
Holy mother of dogshit. I don't even know where to begin. I think the biggest flaw with this show is it's lack of direction and horrendous pacing, because in all honestly it felt like torture watching this. Let me try to go into more depth about my issues with Zexal for you.
I recently picked up Zexal after wanting to know more about the Barians and the general lore of this installment as I thought the concept of "Number" cards (and their evolutionary "Chaos" counterparts) were really cool. Turns out, this ENTIRE season is nothing but pure "Villain of the week" slop that stretches out till the very last episodes.
The story starts off with our questionably autistic protagonist Yuma, who meets an alien known as Astral who's lost all memories from his life. Yuma then decides to team up wit…
Read at the sourcetoastalchemist
Zexal is the middle stepchild of Yugioh. It’s not iconic like the original series, funny like GX, or ambitious like 5D’s, but boy, it’s trying really hard. The whole thing feels very by the numbers. It does not do anything new or interesting, it takes no risks. Yuma is an overly enthusiastic moron who loves card games but also often shows disinterest in them. The villains are stock and have little motivation. Tori is girl. There is not enough of the Best Boy, Flip. The plot was simple and unnecessarily complicated at the same time. I stopped trying to follow it not because it was difficult to follow, but because I just stopped caring. This was the worst Yu-GI-Oh series so far. So, of course, I will watch part two, because I hate myself and crave pain like a cartoon cereal mascot craves wha…
Read at the sourceWickedRei
Yu-gi-oh Zexal is my favorite from the franchise.
At first I wasen't appealed by the characters designs and ages, I didn't want a 13 years old as a main character in Yu-gi-oh, it felt awkward to me. I decided to give it a try and I was possitively surprised.
*Stroy: (8/10)
The introduction is kind of slow paced (You could honestly skip to the second arc at episode 26 and you could still catch the story) The anime get really interesting with the second arc, the main setting start to web itself and it continue to be linked until the end of the anime without being too repetitive.
Most duels are fun and complicated enough to feel hyped. Of course, you know it is somewhat predictable especially when it's Yuuya's duel but it's still interesting, XYZ monsters are a nice addition.
*Characters:…
Read at the sourceI--was
Having grown up watching 5D's and the original, as well as now being a huge fan of GX, I Really didn't expect this series to be as good as it was. I didn't like it as a child, not because I had watched it and disliked it, but because everyone around me said it was trash, and thus believed it was trash. This is where most of the criticism from zexal comes from: nostalgic kids who can't let go of 5D's, who didn't watch a single episode of Zexal (or watched the terrible 4Kids dub) and decided it was bad because it looks childish... But that's not how you judge a show. It's fair to dislike zexal if you have what it takes to criticize it, because I truly believe it to be a hit or miss series especially with its slow start, but don't make assumptions without watching it, and believe me, you shou…
Read at the sourcepartiallight
Now, now, ZEXAL. The thing with ZEXAL is that if you do not dig the aesthetic, you will have a hard time watching it, especially if you want ~edge~ in your children's card games. Anyway. On with it.
Story - 6. It's a card game anime. It's pretty straightforward, really. A pokemon-esque treasure hunt, one tournament; an underlying purpose and other worlds. It's hard to rate it here because without ZEXAL II, said treasure hunt doesn't lead much anywhere.
Art - 7. ZEXAL is the prettiest YGO. Some animation is *really* wonky (episode 1 and 2 are unfortunate examples), some is vaguely bad (like the ep where Kaito is naked) but only in the sense that everything looks sorta chibi but sharp-faced. But then you have gems like 58 and 10 and overall relative consistency in a 73-episode show which…
Read at the sourcejadedgalaxy
Do I honestly think ZeXal deserves a 10/10? Not really (8 or 9 but not a perfect 10) but I wanted to offset some of the lower reviews, even just by a little.
I only watched the original Japanese version of Zexal, so I cannot comment on the dub other than Yuma's voice is horrendous.
Zexal has a really slow start, by that I mean really, you could skip episodes 3-9 and not really miss out on anything. And when I first started Zexal, Yuma was not my cup of tea. However, Yuma's growth in Zexal I is incredible. I find it a little unfair that people criticize Yuma for being childish when he's a thirteen year old boy. He just wanted to play card games and is dragged into harsh game of circumstances far beyond his control.
Zexal is my favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! series to date (followed by Arc-V>5D's…
Read at the sourceAlylui
OK, this is my very first review ever so go easy on me here.
SPOILER WARNING! I REPEAT, SPOILER WARNING!
Story: 6/10
Basically the story is about this person called Yuma, who comes across this alien called Astral who is on a mission to collect all 99 number cards. I personally think that the story isn't bad, but it's just not handled in the right way, the tone is a little to airy. And 4Kids just made it WORSE because they can't bring themselves to use the word "die".
Art: 7/10
The art is really good, but there are some times where the character faces are a bit derpy, but overall not bad.
Sound: 6/10
The sound was a step down in my opinion, and I just didn't enjoy it as a used to.
Characters: 2/10
THIS is where Zexal goes wrong. I'm just going to do the main characters because I don't…
Read at the sourceWe_EGAO_now
Working out when you're fat and out of shape sucks. You realize how weak you actually are and you can't even put weights on the bloody bench press bar. But after a while, things change. You start to feel better: you feel energized more often, your body feels less toxic, you can actually do physical labor without collapsing within the first five minutes. It's a wonderful feeling, and it's what the Zexal experience is. The first part is pretty mediocre, with some of the better episodes keeping it from being truely bad, while the second part is pretty damn good. We're not here to talk about the good of Zexal though; it's time to delve into the reason why I find it hard to recommend to people.
First and formost, the story. It's basically, "YUMA HELP ME FIND THE NUMBERS TO GET MY MEMORY BACK K…
Read at the sourcezauru
to be completely fair, if you aren't willing to watch through the first season of zexal to get to zexal II, then this yugioh series isn't really for you. zexal tends to have a slow 'childish' start/feel to it, but trust me, this improves a whole lot.
as for zexal by itself, i would say its a decent series (trying to be unbiased here). however, there are evident problems such as yuma's companions aside from kotori, shark, astral, ect not having much development - making them unlikable or forgettable. as for yuma himself, i believe he undergoes a lot of development, starting off as one of the worst dueling protagonists of them all.
however, i have to give the original zexal some credit - for example, the introduction of kaito is probably one of the most serious elements of the series. in…
Read at the sourcewelpppppp
Ah, Zexal. Never have I ever seen so much heat for a spin-off than for this one. I can see why, though. A number of the first episodes are in fact filler. Perhaps people even form a false-opinion of it before going into watching it due to LittleKuriboh making fun of it in his Abridged Series.
I'd like to convince you guys that this isn't in fact a bad show.
☞ STORY: 8
Zexal brings back the plot of another being helping the main character in order to retrieve their memories. Except this time no one beyond the protagonist can see him (Astral), which adds in a great comedic affect.
-The problem with the story is that the plot doesn't really kick in until the Arclights come in, which isn't until around ep 30. If you get bored of some of the first episodes, just skim through them (unless Ka…
Read at the sourcechaosflame5
This review will be based on the original Japanese version, not the edited English version.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, the 4th series of the whole Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, was a massive disappointment compared to the previous three series. Unlike the previous three, where they were all connected chronologically. But Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal has no connection to any of the previous three series at all. So basically, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal is a series on its own. It does not serve as a sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s. This series should never have existed, but unfortunately, it did came to existence. This series is a lot more childish compare to any of the previous three series, which made this series far less enjoyable than the previous three series. Some people thought that Zexal is a sequel, as some monsters from Duel Monst…
Read at the sourceCaptainKishimoto
I've always been a big fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series. Each iteration managed to improve upon it's predecessors, while still keeping things "fresh". Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's pushed the envelope with its outrageous concept (Riding Duels) and it succeeded. Coupled with strong characters and a great storyline, 5D's is easily my favourite of the series. It taught me to not judge a book by its cover, so I kept an open mind towards Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. While Zexal does manage to have many good things going for it, it completely disregards what has continually improved in each series: characters.
{Story} - [7/10]
The story of Zexal is reminiscent of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in that the main character (in this case Yuma) must help restore the memories of his partner (Astral). It worked well for DM, and they improv…
Read at the source