"Training Days, Part 1", known as "A Fight to the Death, The Duel Lodge - Resurrection of Legendary Monsters!!" in the Japanese version, is the fifteenth episode of the Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL anime. It first aired in Japan on July 18, 2011 and in the United States on March 17, 2012.
Having clearly seen Kite's power, and how utterly hopeless they are, Yuma and Astral are keenly aware that they cannot easily recover. At that time, Yuma talks to his grandmother. She mentions a mysterious old man named Roku at a Duel Sanctuary who owns a wooden statue of the Legendary Monster "Dark Magician", who is waiting for Yuma and his crew. Yuma makes a strong wish based on his desire to train and get better!
Summary
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It is at least a day after the duel Yuma and Astral had with Kite, and both are thinking about how close each of them were to losing their souls and number cards. Yuma tries to cheer Astral up telling him that Kite will come back for them and they need to be ready for him when Bronk and Tori come in. They show him an advertisement of the World Duel Carnival and how many duelist will be coming from around the world for the tournament. Yuma speculates that Kite will be there and looks worried. Bronk and Tori start to notice this and don't know whats wrong. Haru comes in and ask Yuma to take a delivery of food to a friend who lives outside of town. Yuma complains that it is the weekend and doesn't want to do it, but after Haru shows her temper Yuma agrees.
A few hours later shows Yuma in the evening trying to get the foods up a huge sets of stairs, and complains how tired he is and it seems to go on forever. Bronk tries to reassure him that if stops now he would have to take all the food back down, and with that new determination Yuma becomes the first person to make it up the hill. At the top of the hill there is a dojo. Yuma walks inside and finds there is no one around. From above a shadow is seen and jumps on the bag. Outside Bronk and Tori here Yuma yell and run in to see what is the problem. Yuma claims that there is a monkey on his back, but they see that it is an old man eating the food. Astral can be seen above floating not taking any notice to the situation.
After the old man eats all the food, he reveals that he is Roku, but they are to call him Master Roku, which leaves them all confused. It then changes back to Yuma house when Kari learns that Haru sent Yuma to Duel Sanctuary, which she thought was a bad idea as it was apparent against whatever their parents had told them. Haru tells her that they both know that Yuma's love for duel is unbreakable and that it was better that they prepare him for what lies ahead, leaving Kari confused.
Back at the dojo Yuma, Bronk, and Tori are surprised that they are not able to get home. Roku explains that they missed the last bus, while at the same time they needed to clean up the room due to the note Haru gave Roku saying they would do everything for him. They started cleaning when Yuma sees a door and wonders where it leads. When he opens the door, he find a room full of duel monsters statues of legendary monsters, Bronk and Tori soon follow him and are amazed of all the statues, and even Astral starts to take interest. Roku appears and explains that the statues were built in the name of all people who mastered the art of dueling under his wing. Tori is amazed by statues stating that they look like they are about to moved. Roku then explains that they do move in the duel and challenges Yuma to show them.
"Statue" monsters.
To start the duel, they have two monsters each brought out for each of them. Roku had Blue-Eyes Statue Dragon and Red-Eyes Statue Dragon while Yuma Statue Dark Magician and Statue Dark Magician Girl, with all monsters having 0 attack and cannot attack. Yuma then looks confused thinking that Roku was just kidding that the statue were able to move, with Roku saying that their ability to move is for Yuma to make. Astrals understands this and tells Yuma he has the ability to unlock their potential in his deck. Yuma understands this and draws and activates the field spell card "Statue World" which restores the attack of all statue monsters and allows them to attack. Bronk says that this was the greatest thing he saw, with Tori shaking her head in embarassement. Yuma then has Statue Dark Magician attack Red-Eyes Statue Dragon. Roku compliments Yuma but ask him "You may have made a monster move, but can you truly "move" a monsters. Yuma ask him what he meant as he had his monster destroy Roku's monster. Roku then that Yuma needs a new perspective, and somehow became Dark Magican himself. Astral comments that this was an interesting scenario.
The "Statue" monsters are restored.
Roku then begins his turn, by drawing his card. He then plays Polymerization which fuses his three Blue-Eyes into the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Statue Dragon which destroys Statue Dark Magician Girl. Roku then uses De-Fusion which returns his Ultimate Dragon to his extra deck and special summons his three Blue-Eyes Statue Dragons again. Realizing what is going to happen Yuma starts to get scared, begging Roku not to attack. Roku explains that the fear he is experiencing is natural when staring in the eyes of a powerful foe, and this fear is something that even Duel monsters experience when they are brought out to duel. He then proceeds with attacking Yuma and winning the duel.
"Blue-Eyes Ultimate Statue Dragon" attacks.
After the duel, Roku remarks that despite pushing him too far, Yuma had felt the fear all monsters feel whenever they are summoned to battle, and when Yuma makes that fear his own and learns how to tame it, he wil truly be able to "move a monsters".
The next morning Yuma is seen cleaning the statues. Bronk reminds Yuma that they were to catch a movie today. Yuma tells if they wanted to go, they could go, but he was going to stay behind to clean the statues. Tori, liking the kind of person Yuma was turning into, decided to stay behind to make breakfast for Yuma. Bronk frustrated that both of his friends bailed on him decided to stay. Roku comes in and appreciating what Yuma is doing, starts to leave but halts when Yuma remarks towards one of the statues being bronkens and leaves with a frown.
Roku then goes outside the Dojo thinking about the kind person Yuma and compares Yuma as the opposite of "him". A flashback is seen with a man who had apparently did something bad at the dojo in the past. Back in the present Roku sees a man walking up the path and realizes that it is "him". The man guesses that Roku wasn't expecting to see him here, Roku say's that he is right, as Roku said he wasn't supposed to come back here.
Featured Duels
Yuma Tsukumo vs. Roku
Set Handicaps
Roku controls "Blue-Eyes Statue Dragon" (3000/2500) and "Red-Eyes Statue Dragon" (2400/2000); Yuma controls "Statue Dark Magician" (2500/2100) and "Statue Dark Magician Girl" (2000/1700). All of those monsters have their ATK and DEF reduced to 0 via their effects.
Turn 1: Yuma
Yuma activates "Statue Zone".
Yuma draws and activates "Statue Zone" which negates the effects of all "Statue" monsters on the field, returning their stats to their original values. "Statute Dark Magician" attacks and destroys "Red-Eyes Statue Dragon" (Roku 4000 → 3900).
Turn 2: Roku
Roku activates "Polymerization", fusing the "Blue-Eyes Statue Dragon" on his field with the two in his hand to Fusion Summon "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Statue Dragon" (4500/3800) in Attack Position. It attacks and destroys "Statue Dark Magician Girl" (Yuma 4000 → 1500). Then, Roku activates "De-Fusion", returning "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Statue Dragon" to his Extra Deck and Special Summoning three "Blue-Eyes Statue Dragons" (3000/2500 each) from his Graveyard, all in Attack Position. All three "Blue-Eyes Statue Dragons" attack "Statue Dark Magician", with the second attack hitting directly (Yuma 1500 → 0).
Yuma Tsukumo vs. Kaze
Turn 1: Yuma
Yuma Normal Summons "Gagaga Magician" (1500/1000) and Sets a card.
Turn 2: Kaze
"Flame Armor Ninja" and "Air Armor Ninja".
Armored Ninja - Blade Heart
"Blade Armor Ninja" is Summoned.
Kaze Normal Summons "Flame Armor Ninja" (1700/1000). He then activates "Armor Ninjitsu Art of Teleportation", letting him Special Summon a "Ninja" monster from his hand with less or equal ATK to "Flame", though neither monster may attack this turn. He Special Summons "Air Armor Ninja" (1400/1400) in Attack Position. He overlays his two Level 4 monsters to Xyz Summon "Blade Armor Ninja" (2200/1000) in Attack Position. "Blade Armor Ninja" attacks "Gagaga Magician", but Yuma activates his face-down "Gagagashield", which equips to a Spellcaster-Type monster he controls and prevents its destruction by battle twice. He equips it to "Gagaga Magician", so it is not destroyed (Yuma 4000 → 3300). Kaze activates the effect of his "Blade Armor Ninja", detaching an Overlay Unit to allow it to attack again (Yuma 3300 → 2600). "Gagagashield" prevents the destruction of "Gagaga Magician" by battle and then destroys itself as its effect was used twice.
Duel continues in the next episode.
Featured cards
The following cards appeared in this episode. Cards in italics debuted here.
Trivia
- Using "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" and then "De-Fusion" to Summon 3 "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" to defeat the main character and teach them a lesson was first used in the episode 34 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, with Kaibaman and Jaden Yuki.
Differences in adaptations
- In the Japanese version, Roku tells them they'll have to sleep over for the night and Yuma commenting they couldn't sleep in "such a filthy place" while in the dub Roku tells them they have to stay and clean.
Errors
- In the English dub, Roku mistakenly states that he is using "Polymerization" to fuse three "Blue-Eyes Statue Dragons" from his Graveyard and hand, when he should have said field and hand.
- When Haru appears at the beginning of the episode, Tori is shown without socks even though she was seen wearing them in a prior scene.
