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, 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.

Starting with the show's fourth arc, the show was advertised under the name '''Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL II''' (pronounced zay-al [IPA: zeɪal] sekando in Japanese, pronounced zek-sul second in English), but both NAS and TV Tokyo classify it as the same show, with the episode numbers continuing from where it was left off instead of returning to the start.

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 including a young boy named Kite Tenjo, retribution-seeking Vetrix and the maniacal Dr. Faker. ''Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL II'' takes place after the first series. The curtain falls on the World Duel Carnival, peace has finally returned to Heartland City. But now, a messenger from the Barian World, hostile to the Astral World, is aiming at taking the "Numbers" and Astral for himself. In order to protect him, Yuma, Kite and Shark join together to combat the Barian threats.

Characters

 * ''See: Portal:Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL anime characters


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

Anime only

 * Anna Kaboom
 * Rei Shingetsu
 * Rio Kastle
 * Number 39: Utopia
 * Number 32: Shark Drake
 * Nistro
 * Dextra
 * Vetrix
 * Quinton
 * Quatro
 * Trey
 * Vector
 * Gilag
 * Durbe
 * Alit
 * Misael

Manga only

 * Luna
 * Cologne
 * Captain Corn
 * Thunder Spark
 * Kyoji Yagumo
 * Eviluder

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.

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

Japanese opening theme 4: Unbreakable Heart
 * Performer: Takatori Hideaki
 * Episodes: 074-

Japanese ending theme 4: Artist
 * Performer: Vistlip
 * Episodes: 074-

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 and socks on female characters are lengthened.
 * Astral's lower body appears to be blurred out with extra lighting.
 * 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 Point sound effects is replaced with a different one than the original.
 * Riceballs and other Japanese cultural references are sometimes removed.

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.
 * Kite Tenjo signature card, "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon", has a lot of similarities with Seto Kaiba's signature card, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". They have same name structure, both cards are Dragon-Type, LIGHT Attribute monsters with 3000 ATK and 2500 DEF and both cards have, in addition, an Extra Deck monster upgraded counterpart: a three-headed version with 4500 ATK (the "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" and "Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon").
 * 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.
 * Rio Kastle has had bandages on her eyes, similar to Serenity Wheeler.
 * Flip shares many personality traits with Weevil Underwood. Also, both cheat when they Duel by messing with their opponent's Decks beforehand.
 * "Gagaga Magician" and "Gagaga Girl" are similar in appearance to "Dark Magician" and "Dark Magician Girl", respectively.
 * The World Duel Carnival shares a lot in common with the tournaments of the Yu-Gi-Oh! second series anime.
 * It is the first tournament in Yu-Gi-Oh! anime history since Battle City to require participants to collect what are essentially pieces of a puzzle (in the WDC, Heart Pieces; in Battle City, Locator Cards, which contain pieces of a map) in order to enter the final round.
 * Also, the Duel Coaster becomes the first site of the Carnival finals, in the same way Kaiba Craft 3 became the first site of the Battle City Finals (albeit with different rules).
 * Furthermore, during the second round of the World Duel Carnival finals, each Duel is held on a different field with its own unique characteristics, similar to the KC Grand Championship, and somewhat antithetical to Duelist Kingdom, where the finals were held in the castle on a normal field and the remaining Duels were on special fields.
 * "Rank-Up Magic - Barian's Force" is similar to "The Seal of Orichalcos" by how the the logo on the cards appear on the foreheads of the people who use it, make monsters stronger by dark magic, used by the main antagonists and appear in season 4 of their respective eras.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

 * Yuma Tsukumo's signature card, "Number 39: Utopia" is similar to Jaden Yuki's signature card "Elemental HERO Neos". Both are white colored Warrior-Type LIGHT Attribute monsters with 2500 ATK and 2000 DEF.
 * 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.
 * 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 lost in a different way (Dr. Fudo died after the Zero Reverse incident and Kazuma Tsukumo was trapped 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.
 * Both of Yusei's and Yuma's signature cards belong to the monster Types introduced within their respective series ("Stardust Dragon" is a Synchro Monster, while "Number 39: Utopia" is an Xyz Monster).
 * 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 first stage of the Duel Coaster is similar to the Battle Royal that Primo conducted in 106.
 * Yuma, Kite and Shark duel Dr. Faker in similar conditions to Yusei Fudo, Jack Atlas and Crow Hogan's duel with Rex Goodwin.
 * The way Dr. Faker was possessed by Vector is similar to how the Earthbound Immortals possessed the Dark Signers. They both made "deals" with the dark side yet the force possesses them when they experience a change of heart.
 * The Chaos Xyz Monsters from ZEXAL II work much like the Meklord monsters, designed specifically to destroy the "Numbers" as Meklords target Synchro Monsters.
 * Rio Kastle and Luna share common traits with each other; they both have older twin brothers and they have connections to two different worlds: the Barian World and the Duel Monster Spirit World.
 * Rei Shingetsu is similar to Vizor, as they were both originally affiliated with a main antagonist in some way (Vizor with Z-one and Rei with the Barians) and that they both masquerade as best friends to the protagonist (Vizor with Yusei and Rei with Yuma) only to later reveal their real associations, yet also their true intentions.

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.
 * Since players follow the rule on setting monsters in face-down Defense Position, this series is the closest to real-world game mechanics than the other series (as they summon monsters face-up if putting in defense mode). The only noted exception in ZEXAL is the Duel Coaster.