Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL

'Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL (pronounced zay-al [IPA: zeɪal] in Japanese, pronounced zek-sul' in English) is a Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga series, set in the near future as the successor to the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's series.

The anime first aired on April 11, 2011 in popular evening slots in Japan on TV Tokyo. It introduces the Xyz Summon mechanic and Xyz Monsters. It also starts the use of the Series 7 card layout replacing the Series 3 layout used in later episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and the majority of episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

The English dubbed version premiered on October 15, 2011 on the CW4KIDS Toonzai. Official English subtitled episodes can be found on Hulu, though only available within the United States thus far.

Summary
In a city in the near future, Heartland City, kids and adults enjoy Augmented Reality Duels. Augmented Reality Duels are Duels that use Duel Gazers and D-Pads, which when the two are used together, whether on the ground or in the sky, cause monsters to erupt from buildings and fight each other. The hero is Yuma Tsukumo. At a beginner level, he's a champion at absolutely losing. Due to a chain of events, Yuma ends up challenging the number one delinquent at his school, Reginald. His destiny is changed by a bizarre door he's seen in his dreams. When Yuma unlocks this sealed door, countless lights fly from it and escape. And when Yuma comes to, he sees the mysterious entity, Astral, who came from a parallel universe, standing before him.

In order to regain Astral's lost memories, the flying lights from the door that have turned into the 99 "Numbers" cards, these two must work together. A series of mysterious and powerful rivals begin to appear before Yuma and Astral, slowly unraveling the mystery of the "Numbers" and of Yuma's family.

Characters

 * ''See: Category:Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL characters


 * Yuma Tsukumo
 * Astral
 * Tori Meadows
 * Bronk Stone
 * Reginald Kastle
 * Kite Tenjo
 * Orbital 7
 * Hart Tenjo
 * Caswell
 * Cathy Catherine
 * Flip
 * Mr. Heartland
 * Dr. Faker
 * Kazuma Tsukumo

Anime Only

 * Number 39: Utopia
 * Number 32: Shark Drake
 * Nistro
 * Dextra
 * Vetrix
 * Cinco
 * Quatro
 * Tres
 * Barian

Manga Only

 * Luna
 * Cologne
 * Captain Corn
 * Thunder Spark
 * Kyouji Yagumo
 * Evilader

Manga
The ''Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL'' manga is written by Shin Yoshida, illustrated by Naoto Miyashi and published by Shueisha. Unlike Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, the ''Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL'' manga was released before the anime and follows the same story as the anime up until Rank 009.

The series is set in the near future. Something unexpected happens as Reginald Kastle challenges Yuma Tsukumo to a Duel. When the mysterious entity Astral appears before them a new legend begins.

Spin-off
''Yu-Gi-Oh! D Team ZEXAL'' is a spin-off of the series made by Akihiro Tomonaga with the cooperation of Wedge Holdings. This spin-off is non-canon to the anime and manga series, and focuses on humor.

Just like in the anime and manga, the series is set in the near future. However, it has no relation to them. Here, Yuma already knows Astral since the beginning, and forms a Dueling Team with Tori, Bronk and Caswell.

Sequel
A sequel series, Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL II, will begin airing October 7, 2012.

Music
Japanese opening theme 1: Masterpiece
 * Performer: Mihimaru GT
 * Episodes: 001-025

Japanese ending theme 1: My Quest
 * Performer: Golden Bomber
 * Episodes: 001-025

Japanese opening theme 2: BRAVING!
 * Performer: KANAN
 * Episodes: 026-049

Japanese ending theme 2: Longing Freesia
 * Performer: DaizyStripper
 * Episodes: 026-049

Japanese opening theme 3: Soul Drive
 * Performer: Color Bottle
 * Episodes: 050-073

Japanese ending theme 3: Wild Child
 * Performer: moumoon
 * Episodes: 050-073

English theme: Take a Chance

The first official soundtrack CD, Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Sound Duel 1, was released by Marvelous Entertainment on September 28, 2011.

The second official soundtrack CD, Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Sound Duel 2, was released by Marvelous Entertainment on September 19, 2012. It includes two CDs.

Development
An encore screening of Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time on February 20, 2011 in Japan contained details on the production of ''Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL''. The second 2011 issue of Weekly Shonen Jump included details of the screening a competition on how one hundred and ten readers can win passes to see it.

4Kids confirmed that an English-language dub would premiere on October 15th 2011 at 9:30 AM.

Differences in adaptations

 * Some names are Americanized.
 * The names on the Duelist's picture are removed.
 * The Win Sound Effect is changed in The English Dub
 * Skirts are lengthened.
 * Astral's lower body appears to be blurred.
 * While closer to the original than most English adaptations of Yu-Gi-Oh!, dialogue is altered to include more jokes.
 * The backs of the cards have been edited to become the standard backing seen in the other series, with an exception in the first 8 episodes, when they reaired, the backings are changed. In episode 26 and later, the backing of the cards changed to how they appear in the World Duel Carnival arc, just like the Japanese version.
 * The scenes depicting Numbers users aging from "Photon Hand" is cut. Although this isn't the case for when Kite takes Reginald Kastle's soul.
 * Screams heard from the Astral World when it's being attacked are removed.
 * When an overlay unit is used, the sound effect is replaced with a new one.
 * The Life Points sound effects is replaced with a different one than the original.

Staff
The following staff are credited.

Allusions to previous Yu-Gi-Oh! series
There are a lot of allusions to various other Yu-Gi-Oh! series within several episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. Most of these allusions have to do with characters or monsters, but there are some aspects of gameplay that bear allusions as well. Although Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's allude to previous series as well, there are more allusions in ZEXAL than in either series, though this is to be expected.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

 * Episode 15 features a Deck of Statue monsters that are based on monsters from the original series, like "Dark Magician" and "Blue-Eyes White Dragon".
 * Astral and Yuma's relationship shares many similarities with Pharaoh Atem and Yugi Muto's relationship, with the Emperor's Key taking the place of the Millenium Puzzle.
 * Kite Tenjo's will to protect his younger brother Hart is similar to Seto Kaiba's desire to protect his brother Mokuba.
 * Shark has a lot in common with Joey Wheeler, wherein both bully their respective series' protagonists, Yuma and Yugi, early on in the series, but then later become good friends. They also end up Dueling in tournaments, fighting for their sisters who are in hospitals.
 * Flip shares many personality traits with Weevil Underwood. Also, both cheat when they Duel by messing with their opponent's Decks beforehand.
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh! history, Yuma and Yugi are the only two protagonists so far that live with family members (Yuma with his sister and grandmother, Yugi with his grandfather, included his mother in the Manga only).
 * Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Girl are similar in appearance to Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl, respectively.
 * During the final Duel of the World Duel Carnival, the fact that the “Sphere Field” completely enshrouds the summit of the Duel Tower has a striking resemblance to the duels between Joey Wheeler and Marik Ishtar and later Marik and Yami Yugi in the Battle City Finals in which Marik swathes the entire tower crest on KaibaCorp Island into the Shadow Realm, forming a dark sphere.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

 * Anna Kaboom, first seen in episode 29, bears a slight resemblance to Jaden Yuki.
 * Similarly, Tombo Tillbitty, first seen in the following episode, looks much like Chumley Huffington and his father.
 * Shark's personality early on in the series is similar to that of Chazz Princeton.
 * Shark and Chazz have both donned blue attire at some point in their respective series.
 * Also, both Shark and Chazz are seen Dueling professionally and being banned from their respective leagues for breaking the rules.
 * Astral and Kite's rivalry, at least prior to the WDC, is similar to Jaden's rivalry with Zane Truesdale, in that the protagonist loses the first Duel (almost loses, in Astral's case, as the Duel is interrupted) and ties the second Duel.
 * Both GX and ZEXAL include schools as an important setting.
 * Yuma by the same token as Jaden, is a "slacker" in school. They also both sport red attire (Jaden's Slifer Red trenchcoat and Yuma's red jacket as well as red hair highlights.
 * In episode 17, Fortuno kidnaps some of Yuma’s friends; they are then put atop a pillar where Fortuno casts an illusion that they are standing atop lava; this is very akin to when Jaden first dueled Nightshroud in a volcano by which beforehand, Nightshroud abducted two of Jaden’s friends, Syrus Truesdale and Chumley Huffington, whom are subsequently plunked in a protective globe in the vicinity around ‘’actual’’ lava.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

 * Both the main protagonists live in futuristic cities in which there is a new style of dueling.
 * In addition, both protagonist's respective fathers are trapped in a different world (Dr. Fudo in the Netherworld and Kazuma Tsukumo in Astral World).
 * The concept of Xyz Summoning introduced in ZEXAL has a lot in common with Synchro Summoning, namely that both require all involved monsters to be on the field, both pay attention to Levels, and neither require any other cards.
 * Furthermore, Xyz Monsters are allegedly destined to destroy the ZEXAL multiverse, similar to how Synchro Monsters destroy the world in the future of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
 * The Xyz Monsters have their stars on the left side of the card, like the Dark Synchro Monsters used in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
 * Furthermore, both have the black borders.
 * When Kite is Dueling, after his outfit changes color, he bears a striking resemblance to Jack Atlas.
 * The Vetrix Brothers are similar to the Three Pure Nobles.
 * The first stage of the Duel Coaster is similar to the Battle Royal that Primo conducted in 106.
 * Yuma Tsukumo, Kite Tenjo and Reginald Kastle duel Dr. Faker in almost the same conditions from Yusei Fudo, Jack Atlas and Crow Hogan's duel with Rex Goodwin.
 * The relationship between Yuma, Kite, and Reginald starts to become similar to Yusei, Jack, and Crow's relationship.
 * The way Dr. Faker is possesed by Barian is similar to how the Earthbound Immortals possesed the Dark Signers.

Trivia

 * There has been no mention or the action of Synchro Summoning or Ritual Summon in the series so far, although "Iron Chain Dragon" was seen in episode 1's preview, and "Dark Tuner Nightmare Hand" was seen in both the episode and preview for episode 1.
 * Neither has any mention of a Duel Runner or a Turbo Duel. However, Reginald Kastle drives a motorcycle that has the same sound as a Duel Runner. Also, only in the manga, Thunder Spark Duels in a Turbo Duel-like system.
 * This series is the closest to real-world game mechanics than the other series, with the exception of the Duel Coaster.