Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

'Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's' is a Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series, that began airing in Japan on April 2, 2008, as the successor to the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime.

This series was acquired by 4Kids Entertainment for broadcasting in the United States on Saturday, September 13, 2008. On June 1, 2009, Cartoon Network began airing Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's episodes weekly. It is shown on CITV in the UK at weekends in the afternoon. It is also being shown on RTÉ Two in Ireland weekdays in the afternoon.

The world English Premiere of this series was shown at the San Diego Comic Con 2008, on Thursday, July 24, 2008, where the first English dubbed episode was shown.

The Duelist Genesis and Duel Terminals were designed to introduce this new anime series to Yu-Gi-Oh! card game players. This series uses game mechanics from the Master Rules. The Synchro Summoning rule in particular is popular amongst some characters, who often feature their Synchro Monsters as the centerpiece of their Duels.

Characters

 * See Category:Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's characters

The main character designs are by Kazuki Takahashi.

Plot
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is set in New Domino City some time after the events concerning Yugi Muto and Jaden Yuki. A new form of dueling, "Turbo Duels"(Riding Duel), now take place on motorcycles called "Duel Runners". While regular dueling still exists, Turbo Duels have become a popular form of entertainment for spectators, who watch them in specially-designed stadiums.

Fortune Cup
Escape from Satellite

Jack Atlas stole Yusei Fudo's card "Stardust Dragon" along with the first Duel Runner that Yusei made. He then leaves the poorer "Satellite" area of Domino City and becomes a "Duel King" in the richer area, called "New Domino City". Yusei tries to meet up with Jack to get back what was stolen from him, fighting the Securities, who try to keep Satellite residents from entering New Domino City. Yusei meets Jack in New Domino and has a Turbo Duel with him. After both players ace monsters "Stardust Dragon" and "Red Dragon Archfiend" clash, a mysterious dragon appears, causing the Duel to prematurely end. A group of Security guards then arrive to arrest Yusei.

The Facility

Yusei is sent to the Facility. Here he learns the legend of the Signers. He also fights against unjust treatment of the inmates, particularly by dueling the warden Mr. Armstrong. After defeating Armstrong, Yusei is released. Yusei then takes time to retrieve his confiscated Deck and Duel Runner.

Fortune Cup

The Yliaster group hold the Fortune Cup in the hopes of gathering the Signers. Yusei is forced to enter, for the safety of his captured friends from Satellite. After many twists and turns in the Cup, 4 Signers are finally gathered through Rex Goodwin and Lazar's plans.

During Yusei and Jack's Duel, the Crimson Dragon reappears. Through the Crimson Dragon their Duel is transported elsewhere along with Luna and Akiza, who are watching. The 4 of them are witness the past, when the Stairway to the Dragon Star existed. As they pass it, Yusei notices 5 individuals on top of the Stairway who on that time carried the same Marks of the Dragon and were Signers back then. And after that they witness the future, where Satellite is being destroyed by a strange force, where on its remains a Spider mark appears. Jack pushes an intense Duel on Yusei in order to win and keep his title, but Yusei once again wins settling his score and being declared as the new King of Turbo Duels.

Dark Signers
After the Crimson Dragon is seen at the Fortune Cup the Dark Signers take action and begin preaching its evil and asking the people of Satellite to join them if they want salvation. They intend to open a gate to the Netherworld in the B.A.D. area of Satellite.

Despite Yusei's distrust of Rex Goodwin, he accepts his help to receive more knowledge of the Dark Signers. Yusei returns to Satellite to save his friends from the new threat. He is then reunited with his friend Crow, who is willing to assist in fighting the Dark Signers.

The Dark Signers turn out to be people who came back from the dead for power, revenge, or unfinished business. Their members include Yusei's former friend Kalin who believes Yusei betrayed him; Carly Carmine, a reporter who developed a crush on Jack Atlas; Misty Tredwell, a woman who believes Akiza Izinski is responsible for her brother's death; Devack, a man who unleashes Zeman the Ape King to spread evil in the Duel Monsters Spirit World; Roman Goodwin, the brother of Rex Goodwin; and Greiger, who still seeks vengeance on Goodwin.

During their Shadow Duels, the Dark Signers sacrificed the souls of hundreds of people so they could unleash the Earthbound Immortals.

The 4 Signers, with Mina, Trudge and Leo followed Goodwin's instructions and try to activate the control units of the Original Ener-D Reactor, to stop the King of the Netherworld from appearing in their world. The Signers, Leo, and Crow faced off against the Dark Signers who were guarding their own unit. Although many of the Dark Signers had a change of hearts during their duels, they would then end up being controlled and possessed by the Envoy of the Netherworld forcing them to complete their task of defeating the Signer. Still the Signers manage to defeat all of the existing Dark Signers along with their Earthbound Immortals, freeing the souls of those used to summon the Immortals. Each Dark Signer turned to dust after their defeat. Despite defeating all the current Dark Signers, the Signers were unable to activate all the control units on time, thus the King of the Netherworld was resurrected.

Rex Goodwin, who had been using both sides as his pawns, acquired the powers of both a Dark Signer and a Signer, through death and Roman's amputated arm bearing a Mark of the Dragon. Goodwin holds the ultimate Shadow Turbo Duel inside his Condor geoglyph as a ritual to welcome the King itself. Yusei, Jack and Crow accepted and engaged against him on a 3-on-1 Duel. Crow and Jack take damage, rendering them unable to continue, leaving only Yusei to finish the Duel. Goodwin's Mark of the Dragon relocates on Yusei's arm, while Crow takes Yusei's old Mark of the Dragon.

As Yusei claims victory, the Crimson Dragon destroys the King of the Netherworld. With the exception of the Goodwin brothers, the Dark Signers are returned to life, with no recollection of their time as Dark Signers.

Pre-World Racing Grand Prix
At the beginning of season 2, a meteor in the shape of a giant tablet falls in the outskirts of the city. A group of servants of Yliaster arrive and manage to get Lazar to tow the tablet out of the crater.

Days after that, a mysterious Turbo Duelist named Ghost, appears and has been making other duelists crash after losing in a Turbo Duel. When Yusei duels him, he gets the upper hand only to have Ghost turn the tables and summon his Synchro Killer monster, "Machine Emperor Wisel". Ghost says to him that Synchro Monsters are proof of humanity's evolution and they are not needed on this world. After being pushed into a corner, Yusei comes out on top by summoning Majestic Star Dragon to defeat Ghost. After the duel, Yusei finds out that Ghost was actually a Duelbot. Much later after their Duel, Yusei and his friends go on numerous adventures of their own.

Yusei duels Prof. Rudolph Heitmann, at Duel Academy so that Leo, Luna, and their other classmates don't get expelled.

Crow duels Bashford, in a junkyard and tries to get him to move in with Martha.

Jack duels Don Piero, who convinces poor people into taking loans by signing unfair contracts.

Luna is saved by Leo and Yusei from a boy´s spirit named Haley, who thinks that Leo has come to hurt his little sister, Claire.

Yusei gets kidnapped by a rival team from the World Racing Grand Prix. Later, after being rescued by Akiza, a female Turbo Duelist named Sherry LeBlanc appears and duels against him. As direct result of it, Akiza Izinski makes a choice involving Turbo Dueling.

Yusei, who is looking for ways to defeat Wisel without Synchro Summon, is then challenged by the mysterious Vizor. During their duel, Vizor uses the new Accel Synchro Monsters.

Akiza Izinski takes the exam to get a Duel Runner License, and engages in her first Turbo Duel against Trudge.

Jack pursues and duels Syd, the leader of a gang of Duel Runner thieves, and gains a friend in Security officer Kazama, owner of Chaos King Archfiend.

Leo and Luna face off against Lester in a Turbo Duel, using a Duel Board.

Yusei reveals to both Crow and Jack, about Yliaster's involvement with the WRGP and about the Accel Synchro Monsters. Later, the 3 of them are in charge of taking care of an amnesiac young man named Bruno. Yusei spends time with him, as they share common skills and interest in mechanical engineering. As a result they are able to create an ultimate engine program. However Lazar steals it and the 4 of them go after him. At the end of the chase, Yusei ends up dueling against a Guard Robot, who has him and Lazar locked inside a warehouse.

Jack Turbo Duels against a Duelbot who has taken his identity.

Crow duels against Zora's son, Lyndon, in an effort to help him fix a broken clock in the town and prove to Zora that he can fix clocks.

Crash Town
Yusei receives a letter from a woman named Barbara. Her letter says that Kalin Kessler needs Yusei's help. He is in Crashtown, a town ruled by duels and is part of the Ramon gang, who send other duelists to slavery. Thus he is able to defeat him with the purpose of taking him away from that town. Unfortunately Kalin, Ramon and himself instead end up becoming slaves, due to Barbara´s plotted scheme with Malcolm. Later Yusei tries to escape from the excavation with Kalin, and end up encountering West and Nicko. However Lawton along with 2 other comrades appear too, therefore Yusei challenges him to a Turbo Duel, so that Kalin and the kids can escape. The duel ends inconclusively due to an underhanded action by Lawton, separating the kids from Kalin and Yusei and abducting them, thinking they met their demise when he saw them landing in a crevice. To his surprise, also doesn't really like when they return, challenging him to a Duel to free the town and retrieve the kids.

The duel rages on, with Lawton trying to defeat Kalin at all costs. However, Lawton is overpowered by Kalin and Yusei's tag team dueling. And as the duel progresses with Lawton about to lose, he and Barbara attempt to double-cross them again, but are stopped by Crow Hogan and Jack Atlas. In one last attempt, Lawton detonates explosives in the city creating a diversion. Kalin gives chase on Yusei's Duel Runner and catches him in order to finish his last turn. Kalin then ultimately defeats Lawton. After the duel finally ends, Lawton and Barbara are taken into custody by Sector Security. Yusei, Jack and Crow go back to New Domino City, while Kalin stays to restore the town, as well as for Niko and West. A close-up of the sign then shows that the town is now Satisfaction Town, in honor of The Enforcers.

World Racing Grand Prix
Yusei duels against Elsworth, who has broken into Sector Security´s HQ along with Sherry. When Sherry and Bruno try to scan the card Z-ONE, he, she and Yusei are momentarily transported to an odd area where a mysterious entity was.

Crow duels against Bolger in order to find out the truth about Robert Pearson´s death. During their duel, Crow obtains "Black-Winged Dragon", the same being his Signer Dragon.

Yusei Turbo Duels against Andore, the Ace player of Team Unicorn.

The WRGP finally commences, and the first duel of the preliminaries is Team 5D's against Team Unicorn. The series of duels are a long and hard one for them, but in the end they end up victorious.

The second team they face off against is Team Catastrophe.

After Team 5D's officially wins the round and enter the finals, Primo unleashes an army of Ghost's which he calls "Diablo" to cause wreckage upon the city. During this events Bruno in his Vizor form helps Yusei achieve Clear Mind and obtain the "Shooting Star Dragon" card. Yusei later uses it against Primo to defeat him. However Jakob and Lester later appear before him, Jack and Crow.

After this meeting, Jack and Yusei travel to Nazca summoned by Greiger. In there he duels against the Familiar of Red Nova and learns about "Burning Soul". With it he obtains the "Red Nova Dragon" card.

Later Yusei and company captures Lazar in order to obtain some clues about Yliaster. They ultimately learn about the groups contact with the Momentum Express Development Organization after having to beat Cup Ramen Man.

Yusei, Bruno and Sherry sneak into the company to find any clue to this group. There they learn about Infinity and experience its power as Yliaster to achieve Falsification of history.

Later Leo with the help from Yusei and Bruno help repair Team Taiyo's only Duel Runner. Meanwhile Crow, Akiza and Jack go to Team Ragnarok's Exhibition Duel.

The WRGP Finals commence with Team 5D´s dueling against Team Taiyo. Victory for Yusei and co. seems long as Sleeping Giant Thud is summoned during the match. However Team Taiyo is never the less defeated.

Yusei, Jack and Crow meet up with Team Ragnarok before their match. They learn the story behind the 3 Polar Gods of the Stars, as well as about the Rune Eye. Soon after, the 2 teams clash on the semifinals, each determined to win in order to face Team New World on the finals and stop Yliaster once and for all. Though Jack, Crow and Yusei are squared in by the 3 Polar Gods during the match, Yusei ends the duel with a victory.

Before the WRGP finals begin, Carly Carmine gets busy writing an article of Team 5D's, with the help of Akiza, Leo, Luna and Mina.

The World Racing Grand Prix finals begins with Team 5D's going against the Three Emperors of Yliaster. Team New World initial strategy during the match puts the Signers in a pinch, as Jakob's powerful Machine Emperor Grannel easily defeats both Jack and Crow. However even though Yusei has a chance to counter, the 3 individuals once again turn the table by combining into their true form Aporia. Although its Machine Divine Emperor Machinecle Infinity puts Yusei into a corner at first, Yusei is able to rise above the situation thanks to the combination of Shooting Star Dragon, Red Nova Dragon and Black-Winged Dragon. With this Team 5D's becomes the champion of the WRGP.

Ark Cradle
However after this events, the Grand Design gets finally completed allowing the gigantic Ark Cradle to descend upon the city. Team 5D's, with the help of Team Ragnarok, infilrate the citadel in order to stop it from annihilating the entire city within 12 hours. Standing in their way is Sherry LeBlanc, having aligned with Yliaster upon seeing the future, the reborn Aporia, the mysterious turbo duelist Antinomy, and the enigmatic master of the Ark Cradle, ZONE.

Upon reaching the Ark Cradle, the Signers are split into groups by Z-one. Akiza with Crow, Jack with the twins and Yusei with Vizor. Each group then go to stop the 3 Planetary Gears withing the citadel. Akiza and Crow go first going up against Sherry who is fighting so that Z-one can grant her wish of being able to reunite with her family. However the 2 Signers working as a team defeat her and Sherry ends up shifting sides again, holding the promise to her father of doing justice.

The next group to arrive at the second gear are Jack, Leo and Luna. In there they are shocked as a rebuilt Aporia appears before them. He forces them to as duel attaching devices that are linked to their lifepoints and lives. The duel ends up being a battle of despair against hope, as Leo fights against Aporia intensively. Such that Leo is awakened as the 6th Signer, obtaining Life Stream Dragon, and helping the duel turn around that in the end Aporia loses. However after the duels ends, the grounds where they are ends up collapsing and the trio escape. They all 3 watch as Aporia falls and dissapears.

Finally after this, Yusei and Vizor arrive to the third gear. On there, Z-one restores Vizor's memory so that he can fight against Yusei. The duel begins after Vizor reveals to Yusei who he really is. During the duel, Antinomy overpowers Yusei with its Delta Accel Synchro monster. However Yusei's will earns him victory, yet because of the duel, a black hole was formed sucking up both duelists. After Antinomy reveals to Yusei the true reason he fought against him, sacrifices itself so that his friends can survive. Before dying, Antinomy tells him to change the future by using the light beyond Accel Synchro.

After the finally Planetary Gear is stopped the group reunites. They all learn about who Bruno really was and go to where Z-one, all of them settling to stop him once and for all. Reaching to where their final opponent is, Yusei intents to fight against him just to be stopped by a changed Aporia. He has appeared there with the intention of dueling Z-one which surprises everyone. The human robot reveals its reasons and also what was Z-one's original plan from the beginning. However the machine God easily defeats Aporia with the help of his Temporal Machine Gods.

After this as a final will, Aporia fuses its duel disk to Yusei's runner so that the final battle against Z-one can commence. Before the duel, Yusei obtains all the Signer Dragons cards from its friends. With this he flies towards Z-one thanks to Aporia's powers. Finally the match begins, during the initial part the mysterious God´d mask is shatters revealing its face. Furthermore his futuristic background is told up in which it lead Z-one to modify all of himself to become Yusei Fudo. As the duel advances the machine God overpowers Yusei with its Temporal Machine Gods. Yet one final encounter with Dr. Fudo allows Yusei to obtain a new power, "Shooting Quasar Dragon". With it Yusei is able to finally cause a reversal on the duel allowing him to cause some major damage to its opponents life points. Yet Z-one as a last chance tries to defeat Yusei with its Ultimate Temporal Machine God Sephiron, however its new monster isn't enough to bypass Yusei´s final strategy. In an ultimate attack using Stardust Dragon, Yusei wins. After the match the only pending business is the Ark Cradle itself to which Z-one sacrifices himself in order to disintegrate the citadel.

Team 5D's Future
After a few months since the battle with Z-one, everything on New Domino City is marching towards a brighter future. However during that time the Signers have seemed to distanced themselves from one another. Furthermore are unclear on what path to follow toward their own futures. Akiza is about to graduate and unsure whether or going abroad to study medicine. Crow works as a Public Security officer, however he receives an invitation from a Pro Dueling League from overseas. Yusei has the completed the Fortune mainframe, and now unsure of what to do next. Leo and Luna has been told that they may have to leave New Domino City to live with their parents. Meanwhile Jack is looking to regain his title as King of Duelists after receiving an invitation from the Ride Ace League. For this has been fighting against various tough opponents. After the group gathers, he appears to tell them this, and Yusei seeing that he and the others are unable to go on their own paths, challenges him to a duel.

The duel begins with each other summoning their respective Ace Monsters, and as Jack attacks its opponent with Red Dragon Archfiend, Yusei activates Star Excursion removing both their monsters. Yusei declares that with them gone their own futures have disappeared as well, and so that through their duel everyone will able to find it. After Jack and Yusei bring out their ace monsters, Yusei ultimately emerges the victor of the duel. He states that his battle with Jack has made him realize that he wishes to remain in Neo Domino City, while the rest of his friends go their separate paths with knowledge that they will one day be reunited.

An extended ending will be featured on the final DVD of the series, confirmed by Katsumi Ono. This will contain new scenes, although it is unknown at what points chronologically they will occur.

Development
Kazuki Takahashi had promised himself that Yu-Gi-Oh! GX would be the last Yu-Gi-Oh! series. However, he was approached at the end of 2006 with the idea for ''Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's''. The production staff and TV board were long time associates and friends, who had spread Yu-Gi-Oh! to many people in the world, so Takahashi agreed, under the condition that this would be the last Yu-Gi-Oh! series. Despite this, another series Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL has since been created.

With the intention of being different rather than repeat the same ideas, Takahashi prepared for criticism and decided how the setting would look, designed the main characters and the D-Wheel(Duel Runner). The story development was left to the writers.

The first episode aired in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 2, 2008, with subsequent episodes every week.

Differences in adaptations

 * In the Japanese anime, the class system between the upper class residents New Domino City and the often rejected residents of Satellite is a recurring theme throughout the series. While the class system exists in the English anime, it is not as severe and much less emphasized. Some dialogue referring to the class system such as "Satellite scum" is replaced. Nerve and Blitz also had their names switched, so now they are Blitz and Nervin respectively.


 * The English dub adds a card explanation when a certain card is played during a duel, usually once an episode. It displays the card's ATK and DEF, type, attribute and effect (if it's a monster). With Spells, Speed Spells, and Traps, it just explains their effect.


 * In the English version changes have been made to character names and personalities. Certain scenes and images have been altered and removed as well. The show's darker content also has been changed in order to give the show a more Western younger feel and make the show more marketable across non-English countries.


 * The original music and sound effects are completely replaced in the English version. Much of the 4Kids dub sound effects are made from the original Japanese sound effects or are made sounding like the sound effects from the original Japanese version, though much quieter. But this is the first of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime dubs to have some of the sound effects from the original Japanese version used along with the music completely replaced.


 * Things such as nudity, religions, blood, weapons, killing, and death are censored in the English version.


 * Life Points, ATK, DEF, and Level meters are redesigned in the English version.


 * Due to FCC regulations as well as to make the show more marketable to non-English speaking countries and even for the purposes of cultural streamlining, intended to make the show more understandable or palatable to Western audiences, instances of Japanese and English text are airbrushed out, blurred or replaced with horizontal lines, odd-shapes, and other meaningless symbols in the English version. Not only that but this is the first of 4Kids anime adaptations to ever show Japanese and English changed to languages similar to Latin. The text on the Duel Runners are edited out or replaced with some kinds of symbols. When the players' Life Points reach 0, the screens on the Duel Runners have the word "DEFEAT" replaced with a big X.


 * The show is one of 4Kids' anime dubs to still be close captioned by the National Captioning Institute.


 * The English dub excluded episodes 36-41 from their original television run; however, 4Kids has since put the missing episodes on the 4Kids website. The television broadcast continued from episode 42 onwards.


 * According to the 4Kids' website, the second season (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Road to Destiny) is set to air on September 18, 2010 on Toonzai. It will air two new episodes every Saturday after that. The first season of the dub returned to the CW4Kids on May 29, 2010 at the 11:00 AM block. On August 7, 2010, the CW4Kids aired the first season finale. On Saturday, August 14, 2010, 4Kids showed reruns of the first season beginning with Yusei's second duel with Dark Signer Kalin and ending with the first-season finale once more on the same date as the premiere of "Road to Destiny". However, the  11:00 AM slot was replaced by the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, and now only one new episode airs at 11:30.


 * In the current fall line-up, Toonzai!, a name given by 4Kids to emphasize the fact the the majority of its current running shows are anime series, began airing the new season of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Road to Destiny on September 18, 2010.


 * 4Kids has decided to skip Episode 85 and has confirmed that on November 27, it will go straight towards the Crashtown arc after episode 84 airs in English. However, Episode 85 aired later on February 5, 2011, after being put up on Hulu, Toonzaki, and the 4Kids website.

German adaptation
As of May 26, 2010, Germany, who had previously based their adaptation on the 4Kids version, switched to basing it on the original Japanese version of the show, starting with episode 65. This adaptation is largely unedited; the 10th small anniversary sequence, along with the openings, FREEDOM and BELIEVE IN NEXUS, is kept intact, along with the rest of the soundtrack used in the series. It uses the same names for the characters previous to Episode 65 used in the 4Kids version, with some exceptions, and the small VS. clip before a Duel starts, and the screen that appears during the Standby Phase of a Turbo Duel are edited to include those. Sometimes, violent scenes are cut and dialogues about deaths or the like are changed. The title card, the card of the day sequence, and the ending themes, -OZONE- and Close to you, are cut out. Every story change, such as Trudge having met Yusei before their Duel in Episode 1, is reversed. Only flashbacks of earlier episodes got old dialogues within.

Episodes

 * Episode listing (season 1)
 * Episode listing (season 2)
 * Evolving Duel! Stardust VS Red Demons (OVA)

DVD release

 * See: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's DVD listing

A 28 minute DVD, containing the special episode is included in the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG - Duelist Box.

Music
Japanese opening theme: Kizuna (Bonds)
 * Performer: Kra
 * Album: Kizuna
 * Episodes: 01-26

Japanese ending theme: START
 * Performer: Nakagauchi Masataka
 * Album: START / Sun will shine away
 * Episodes: 01-26

Japanese opening theme 2: Last Train - The New Morning
 * Performer: Knotlamp
 * Episodes: 27-64

Japanese ending theme 2: CROSS GAME
 * Performer: アリス九號 (Alice Nine)
 * Episodes: 27-64

Japanese opening theme 3: FREEDOM
 * Performer: La-Vie
 * Episodes: 65-103

Japanese ending theme 3: -OZONE-
 * Performer: Vistlip
 * Episodes: 65-103

Japanese opening theme 4: BELIEVE IN NEXUS
 * Performer: Masaaki Endoh
 * Episodes: 104-129

Japanese ending theme 4: Close to you
 * Performer: ALvino～Alchemy vision normal～
 * Episodes: 104-129

Japanese opening theme 5: Road to Tomorrow ~Going My Way!!~
 * Performer: Masaaki Endoh
 * Episodes: 130-153

Japanese ending theme 5: Future Colors
 * Performer: Plastic Tree
 * Episodes: 130-154

Japanese insert song: You Say ~Ashita e~ ("You say... to tomorrow")
 * Performer: La-Vie
 * Episodes: 72, 90, 92

Japanese insert song: Clear Mind
 * Performer: Masaaki Endoh
 * Episodes: 109, 110, 122, 129, 134, 153

Japanese insert song: YAKUSOKU NO MELODY (The Melody of Promises)
 * Performer: Masaaki Endoh
 * Episodes: 154

The first soundtrack, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Sound Duel Vol I features music from the Fortune Cup. The second soundtrack, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Sound Duel Vol II features music from the Dark Signers arc, as well as music from Season 2 of the anime. The Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Sound Duel Vol III features music from the Second Season, including the Ark Cradle arc.

The 4Kids TV website held an open vote for what should be the theme of the English dubbed version of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. Eight one minute songs were playable. The song with the most votes would be chosen to be featured when the dub premiered on CW4Kids on September 13. The voting was only open to those who had registered an account on the 4Kids.tv website.

Users could vote for one of the following songs.
 * Better be Better than Best
 * Hyper Drive
 * Let's Ride, Let's Go
 * Need for Speed
 * Rev it Up
 * Secret of Five‎
 * We are the Ones
 * We Ride to Survive

English opening theme: Hyper Drive
 * Episodes: All episodes

The Italian version of the series, although based on the English adaptation, uses a different theme song.

Italian opening theme: Yu Gi Oh Duel Runner
 * Episodes: All episodes

Title misinterpretation
Though "5D's" stands for "5 Dragons", it has been incorrectly quoted as standing for "5 Duel Scoop" by 4Kids. V-Jump magazine printed a feature in its "Yu-Gi-Oh! Ōkoku" (Yu-Gi-Oh! Kingdom) series in which "5DS" (without the apostrophe) was labeled as "5 Duel Scoop," with "scoop" referring to the information within the feature itself. Merchandise, television commercials, the logo itself, and other references all state the name as "Faibu Diizu". ICv2 News also has the name "5 Duel Scoop" incorrectly listed in its 4Kids article. In the 4Kids version, 5D's stands for 5 Dimensions, and is labeled when televised in the UK as such. The real meaning of the title is revealed when the signers and their friends take part in the World Turbo Duel Grand Prix as "Team 5D's" in allusion to the five marks of the dragon they possess.

Manga
The Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's manga is published in V Jump. It maintains the characters and settings from the anime, but uses a different storyline and characters are given different cards.