ARC-V Episode 125 Discussion - Mega Charizard Y

[KingJinzo]

The recap tells us that Yuya/Yuto vs Ruri & Serena happened at the same time when Yuri carded Asuka. Anyway, the Fall Season has started and now we have a new opening. Some of us were expecting the worst, but the opening is surprisingly good. The boys with their dragons, and the Kachou Fuugetsu reference with the girls. Hell, Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon looks even more heroic than Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon in the last three opening. The music is not bad at all, the visuals are nice, and it keeps Yuya's Entertainment. We also get a glimpse of old ARC-V characters we haven't seen in a while, giving a "final opening" vibe. Oh Ra, please, don't end it soon.

The episodes starts with Yuri vs Sora. Yuri has Antique Gear Hydra on the field, while Sora Fusion Summons Des-Toy Mad Chimaera with Des-Toy Fusion, using Scissor Bear and two DT Modokis as Fusion Materials, destroying Hydra with Mad Chimaera and taking control of it.

We go back to the threesome/foursome. Yuto uses an Action Card to destroy Parasite Queen, but Serena sends a Parasite Fusioner to the Graveyard to negate the destruction, losing 300 ATK . When Dark Rebellion goes Hangyaku no Lighting Disobey on Parasite Queen, but Serena uses the Queen's effect to equip Dark Rebellion with Ruri's Parasite Fusioner and decreases its ATK by 800, and then she activates her Trap Card Power Parasite to re-equip her Parasite Queen with her Parasite Fusioner from her Graveyard and boosting her with 300 ATK plus 300 ATK by Parasite Queen's own effect. With that, the damage Yuto would've taken is high enough to end the duel, but Yuto being not Yuya, he uses a Quick Spell Card to destroy all monsters and end the Battle Phase, but both Serena and Yuto use Parasite Fusioner's effect to negate the destruction of their monsters, and as a result, Dark Rebellion's and Parasite Queen's ATK go back to their original, and the Quick-Spell inflicts 800 damage for each monster destroyed during the Battle Phase, causing damage to the owners of the Parasite Fusioners, Serena and Ruri, the latter taking her first damage. Yuto sets a card and end his turn. For those who wonder why Yuto doesn't use Treason Discharge on Parasite Queen, it has been established in last episode that Parasite Plant protects the Parasite monsters from the opponent's monster effects.

Ruri uses Serena's Parasite Plant to equip Parasite Queen with a Parasite Fusioner from her deck and taking control of her, then she uses a Spell Card to equip Dark Rebellion with their Parasite Fusioners from their Graveyard. With that, Parasite Queen gains 900 ATK due to three Parasite Fusioners being on the field, while Dark Rebellion loses 1600 ATK. Parasite Queen attacks Dark Rebellion, but Yuto, with the help of his dragon, activates Evasion to negate the attack, but Ruri uses a Quick-Spell to attack a second time. Yuto does his own acrobatic thing and activates Miracle to negate the destruction and half the damage, but he gets hit by Parasite Queen's acid and lands on the wall, causing him to lose control over Yuya's body.

Spoiler Alert!

A little parasite lands on Yuya shoulder, Ruri sets a card and ends her turn, and Serena does the same thing what Ruri did, taking control of Parasite Queen with another Parasite Fusioner. She and Yuya go for an Action Card (yes, Serena does finally do some acrobatic stunts), and at that time, the parasite crawls inside Yuya's ear and head. Der Doktor tries to take control of Yuya's brain, but the parasite is simply sucked within Yuya's inner darkness, causing Yuya to awaken what people may call, yeah some of you already knows his name. Well, the moment doesn't last enough and Yuya goes back to normal. But it's enough to intimidate the girls. Serena attacks Dark Rebellion with Parasite Queen, but Yuya uses Yuto's Trap Card to discard the Action Card he just got when he and Serena had their little action thing, negating the effect and summon the Trap Card as an Effect Monster. Serena sends a card and ends her turn.

Meanwhile, Yuri vs Sora continues from the point we have stopped, and yes, the Ancient Gear theme is playing in the background, which means shit is going to happen. Yuri activates Antique Gear inspection to return his stolen Hydra to his hand and draw a card. He trolls Sora with his egao, only to show his creepy eyes shortly afterwards and activating Polymerization a.k.a. Yuugou a.k.a. not Yuugo, fusing Golem, Wyvern and Gadget from his hand to Fusion Summon Ultimate Golem, attacking Mad Chimaera with it and winning the duel. He is about to card the little boy, but he stops when Yugo and our favorite British Anti-Hero with his obsession with Ds hit the scene.
hit the scene.

Back to Yuya's threesome with the two differently shaded purple Yuzus.

Spoiler Alert!

Now that Yuto's will is weaker, Yuya now draws his own cards from the deck (and Yuto's), drawing his Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. He uses Yuto's Magnet Ring to equip it with all four Parasite Fusioners (strengthening Dark Rebellion and weakening Parasite Queen) and tributes it to draw two new cards. Yuya activates Odd-Eyes Accel to Normal Summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon without Tribute, and the two dragons start to react for some reason. Serena activates her Trap Card Parasite Magic to use Ruri's Parasite Discharge from her Graveyard and Special Summon her third Parasite Fusioner from her deck, while in reaction to that, Ruri activates her Continuous Trap Card Parasite Generator to Special Summon another Parasite Fusioner from her deck and then she revives all four Parasite Fusioners from their Graveyards. And the Parasite Fusioners now count as two monsters each and they cannot be destroyed by the opponent's monster effects, also Parasite Queen gains a huge boost, going from 1800 to 5400 thanks to having "twelve" Parasite Fusioners on the field.

After Ruri's little taunting, der Doktor with his German title shows up on a holoscreen, only to show how he's taken control of Yuzu. Yeah, huge mistake. When Yuya is awakening, the Parasite Fusioners are trembling in fear, and yes, he awakens, using Yuto's Phantom Knights Connection to give Dark Rebellion Odd-Eyes' Level. And Yuto also awakens in sync with Yuya, but his eyes are the same as Yuya's. Yes, he literally has the same eyes. Alain overlays his two dragons, but instead of summoning Mega Charizard X, he summons Mega Charizard Y. But the big thing is, like Starve Venom previously, Odd-Eyes Raging has its effect buffed. Yuya detachs all Over Ray Units to destroy all other cards on the field, and while it does that, all Spell and Trap Cards have their effects negated. Due to that, neither Ruri's Parasite Generator nor Serena's Parasite Plant are able to protect their Parasite monsters from the dragon's destructive wings, and with that, Odd-Eyes Raging destroys nine cards and gains 200 ATK for each destroyed card. Serena and Ruri believe that if one of them are defeated, the other one would continue the duel, but since Odd-Eyes Raging can attack twice, they both don't "survive" Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon's Fungeki no Destruction Burst, creating a huge whole through the wall, although both girls don't look injured at all. Maybe for the better.

Yuya's gets back to his sense. He tries to talk to Serena and Ruri who pretend to be unconscious, and when Kurosaki regains his consciousness, Serena use the chance to kick Yuya's legs and both girls run away (and like Yuzu, Ruri runs like a girl). Kurosaki tells Yuya to follow them and leave him behind. What a nice dragon. Destructive to everything but the two girls who look like Yuya's to-be-girlfriend.

At that time, Reiji, Reira and Yusyo are surrounded by blue mooks who guide them to the Professor. Yuya follows Serena and Ruri to dem Doktor's laboratory and he's caged in by grids (at least those are faster than those grids Sora activated). Der Doktor leave with the four Bracelet Girls the room and keeps the screen on, so Yuya would follow the Professor's exposition in the next episode. With Reiji, Reira and Yusyo meeting the Professor, it's the first time since three years that Yuya finally sees his father with his own eyes, which coincidently is the same moment when Reiji meets his father again after three years. And the Professor isn't even talking to his son, but to Yusyo. What a great father he is. And Reira? How much does he even know about that guy. He's not even his adoptive father. He's just a stranger who is the biological father of his big brother.

Okay, here is the new ending. The music is meh, and the art is different, but it's still a lot nicer than the fifth ending. It features the four Dragon Boys with their Bracelet Girls interacting with each other in their free times. Yes, we even get YuriXSerena. Other than the eight of them, we get to see the You Show trio (Tatsuya, Futoshi and Ayu), Kurosaki and the Professor in this ending. Remember that Yugo and Rin have only each other in their daily life? Also, we get a photo of all eight of them, and Yugo being a funny idiot he is, he likes to take the spotlight. Like the new opening, the ending also foreshadows the two spoiler characters:

Spoiler Alert!

Zarc and Ray.

Now for the preview:

Spoiler Alert!

-The Professor is doing his exposition.
-A black man (or simply a younger Professor Leo Akaba with hair with more enthuasism) is studying Wheel of Prophecy and Hazy Flame Sphinx.
-We see the silhouettes of Odd-Eyes Dragon (yes, the original one), Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon and Starve Venom Fusion Dragon (you and your evolution theories, s*ckers).
-Yuya's Pendulum is glowing and he and Yuto are awakening.
-Looks like Edo and Kaito are trying to help him out of the cage while he's awakening.
-Something about one world and Pandora's Box.

Next week I'm on a convention, so I might not be able to post the next "review" early, but maybe later. Well, I hope I can find a computer.

[LolsterXD97]

Spoiler Alert!

I like how Phantom Knights Position made the Xiang duo useless (also Odd-Eyes Accel was nice too).

The episode seemed fine, I enjoyed Raging Dragon laying waste to the room and the Doctor finally shitting his pants. But so much Parasite support instead of the girls' own Decks is meh (only Discharge was enough tbh).

I hope the preview finally shuts down the "SVFD is an evo" theories since Odd-Eyes Dragon also appears.

Personaly I liked both Opening and Ending, way better than Light of Hope and Vision. Also since this doesn't spoil too much, it doesn't get outdated as quickly as Light of Hope. We also get to see Leo's cards and silhouetes of Zarc and Ray (which basically are SSJ Yuya and Yuzu with longer pigtails).

[KingJinzo]

But so much Parasite support instead of the girls' own Decks is meh (only Discharge was enough tbh).

I think that's the point. We didn't see enough of the Parasites since the previous duels were much shorter. It also gives us more personality to dem Doktor and how well Parasite cards can be included in Fusion decks, giving you a Parasite-hybrid option. After all, it metaphorically fits how the parasites are infecting their decks and that the infection is spreading across their whole decks. Of course, more Moonlights and Lyrical Lusciniae could have been nice, but since they don't support each other very well, Serena and Ruri's combi wouldn't work as well as with the Parasite support.

[Kishin]

Real damage or not.

If Raging dragon was able to do that much damage to the room. Those girls shouldn't be able to run while getting a full blast from Raging dragon.

Anyway playing Bleach-Treachery at the scene Yuuya go berserk. Man.. its so epic.

[KingJinzo]

Real damage or not.

If Odd-Eyes Raging was able to do that much damage to the room. Those girls shouldn't be able to run while getting a full blast from Odd-Eyes Raging.

Maybe love spared their health? Or they are really, really tough.

[HelixReactor]

I really like this new opening. Maybe it's just me but I felt like it had a lot of 5d's vibes.

I'm fine with this new ending, too. But it's a bit too upbeat/happy, and,at least for this episode, it didn't fit at all the tense conclusion. If this really is going to be the final ending, then all episodes will most likely end in a pretty negative tone, and it'll get annoying really quickly. In any case, seems like whoever made the sequence checked the fanarts about the adorably abusive relationship between Yuri and Serena, as well as Shun not approving Yuto's Dark Rebellion against the bro code :P

Anyway, for the episode itself, I don't much to say except that Berserk/Awakened/Teenage Tantrum Yuya gets more disturbing than ever whenever something tries to take control of him. Serena and Ruri are lucky to have a plot armor solid enough to not only let them survive Raging Dragon's attacks, but also almost immediately recover from them.

In any case, I don't think the Doctor was shown on the opening, no? This probably means that the mind conrol sub-plot will be over soon, hopefully.

[KingJinzo]

I really like this new opening. Maybe it's just me but I felt like it had a lot of 5d's vibes.

I'm fine with this new ending, too. But it's a bit too upbeat/happy, and,at least for this episode, it didn't fit at all the tense conclusion. If this really is going to be the final ending, then all episodes will most likely end in a pretty negative tone, and it'll get annoying really quickly. In any case, seems like whoever made the sequence checked the fanarts about the adorably abusive relationship between Yuri and Serena, as well as Kurosaki not approving Yuto's Dark Rebellion against the bro code :P

Many series with dark plots have upbeat openings to lighten up the mood of the viewers. Well, it does a good job with that. It's not like CHALLENGE the GAME which is basically a death theme.

Regarding when the series is going to end, they were rumors about Spring 2017, which means that ARC-V would have at least two anime seasons, Fall and Winter. The Spring Season starts in April and ends in June, so if ARC-V would end in the Spring Season, it might in the end of June 2017. So, there might be one to two potential new opening and ending themes after the Fall Season ends in December 2016/early January 2017.

[marsh381]

Maybe its because time just goes by fast when you're in college but honestly I don't see pendulums warranting and major discontinuation for another new theme. Personally it doesn't appear they were around that long (or maybe its because there isn't a lot of pendulum archetypes in comparison with the others. Because in 5D's Synchro's were the base of majority/all the archetypes, Zexal XYZ's, and with Arc-V they kind of split things up amongst the 5 (rituals included)).
I hope that Arc-V has another run after this arc because looking back, each YGO series has had 2 major different stories in them, but Arc-V has just has one.
Hell, if YGO continues (this franchise ain't dying anytime soon) with a new cast I at least hope they just continue to build off of the existing card types instead of making new ones.
Fingers crossed for a time-skip of Arc-V to have them a little older in Arc-V2?


*personal thoughts*
regarding the opening, I do admit I was surprised by how well the opening turned out. Maybe its because they didn't have all the band members sing at once for the main parts and just kept to one guy, only introducing other members during the chorus. Because I will say, if everyone in that band started singing at once it would have immediately sounded like the Ed song we have. (and damn, the ed has so many screen-capable moments)

[iNfiniTe Se7eNz]

I think we have a serious contender for one of the worst YGO OPs ever, just in terms of music.

As for the episode itself: it's another "Hitotsu Ni shows up and does fucking nothing" episode. Good to know they're still squandering screentime with pointless shitty duels and refusing to create meaningful character interactions or plot points. At least Haou Resturyuu was fucking cool. Too bad any menace it had was invalidated by the discrepancy between vaporizing a metal wall and leaving two girls unscathed beyond knocking them over. I'm half-convinced part of the reason they brainwashed Yuzu was so that they didn't have to give her lines that would be important to her character, or further her relationship with Yuya.

[KingJinzo]

I think we have a serious contender for one of the worst YGO OPs ever, just in terms of music.

I don't think so. Tastes are different. For me, the worst ARC-V opening is Burn!, and it's very popular by some viewers. I like Pendulum Beat! more than Burn!, Kirifuda and let's see if it surpasses my fondness of KIBOU NO HIKARI. I don't think it won't beat Believe×Believe or HANATE imo. Not to mention that the opinion of music changes after hearing them several times.

As for the episode itself: it's another "Hitotsu Ni shows up and does fucking nothing" episode. Good to know they're still squandering screentime with pointless shitty duels and refusing to create meaningful character interactions or plot points. At least Haou Retsuryuu was fucking cool. Too bad any menace it had was invalidated by the discrepancy between vaporizing a metal wall and leaving two girls unscathed beyond knocking them over. I'm half-convinced part of the reason they brainwashed Yuzu was so that they didn't have to give her lines that would be important to her character, or further her relationship with Yuya.

As "pointless" as the duel was, it gave Yuto the limelight he needed, giving him more cards after he got wasted in episode 37, revealing us his relationship with Ruri and it establishes the teamwork of the Bracelet Girls with the Parasite archetype, and it gave us more insight of the interaction between the two souls, more magical aspects behind Yuya and his counterparts, more glimpses of the darkness's power and more of synchronization.

Yes, Yuya's victory didn't make any difference, since he got captured anyway, but at least we get to see more of the darkness before we get the exposition episode next week. Yuya's experience in these last two episodes might get into play in the next episode. Also, why having one plan instead of having two? After all, showing of the power of the parasites is part of the Doktor's sadistic character. You may call the duel pointless because it didn't advance the plot or made difference to the whole situation, but you can't call it shitty just because of that. Yuto was amazing, as well as Serena and Ruri's coordinated teamwork, and then there is Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon. The duel itself was not bad at all.