Kachou Fuugetsu (The decks of the four Yuzus)

[KingJinzo]

Kachou Fuugetsu (花鳥風月) is a Japanese saying which means literally ("flower, bird, wind and moon"), but means "Experience the beauties of nature, and in doing so learn about yourself." Some of us have already figured out that the decks of the Yuzus, at least half of them, are based of that saying. When I was thinking about which Yuzu would be which Pretty Cure, my initial thoughts were:

Yuzu = Cure Flower, the Cure of flowers
Serena = Cure Moonlight, the Cure of moon (hilariously, Cure Moonlight's civilian name is Yuri Tsukikage)
Rin = Cure March, the Cure of wind
Ruri = Cure Egret, the Cure of birds

Then I remember that Futari wa PreCure Splash Star worked also with the Kachou Fuugetsu concept, my next thought was:

Yuzu = Cure Bloom, the Cure of earth/flowers (ka)
Ruri = Cure Egret, the Cure of birds (chou)
Serena = Cure Bright, the Cure of moon (getsu)
Rin = Cure Windy, the Cure of wind (fuu)

And then I realized how much the Yuzus have in common with the Splash Star Cures.

For those who don't know, the Pretty Cures from Splash Star are a duo of magical girls using the power of the nature to fight evil. Notably, unlike other PreCure series, the heroines Saki and Mai have two Cure identities rather than only one. Saki is both, Cure Bloom (flower/earth) and Cure Bright (moon), while Mai is both, Cure Egret (birds) and Cure Windy (wind). This slightly mirrors the fact that Yuzu and her three counterparts are alternate versions of themselves.

Spoiler Alert!

Left to right: Cure Bloom & Cure Egret


Left to right: Cure Bright & Cure Windy

Yuzu's Melodious deck are full of fairies, and fairies have usually a strong connection to flowers, and indeed, her Melodious Choir monsters are based on flowers. Serena's Moon-Light... I don't need to say anything about that. As hinted by Rin's Lucky Pied Piper (WIND attribute) and Ruri's feather-themed accessory, it's very probable that Rin is going to use a WIND deck, while Ruri is going to use a Winged-Beast deck like her brother Kurosaki.

While it does not say anything about ARC-V, in Splash Star, Bright and Windy are stronger than Bloom and Egret, which is slightly reflected in Serena's very offensive style in contrast to the more defensive Melodious style (more in real life). So, I speculate to Rin to have an offensive deck and Ruri to have a less aggressive deck, but again, the power scaling of Splash Star has nothing to do with ARC-V - by the way, either of the four forms can create magic shields, so neither form is more defensive than the other. Since I'm speaking about Splash Star so much, here's another trivia fact: Despite each of the four forms can fly, Bloom is more ground-orientated, while as Bright, she's more sky-orientated. Egret is more sky-orientated, while Windy is more ground-orientated. This is obviously not the case for Yuzu and Serena's monsters. Yuzu's monsters can fly, while Serena's monster don't (technically, they do). But it might does apply for Rin and Ruri. Birds usually fly and the sky is the space of freedom, and while the wind is often related to the sky, it is also related to speed. Rin is a D-Wheeler and the faster she drives, the stronger blows the wind at you (that's why Stardust Dragon is a WIND monster).

Yuzu and Rin are shown to be more down to earth, as both the flower and the wind in Kachou Fuugetsu are more bound to the ground rather than the sky. So far, they seem to share most of the common traits: they are the tsundere to rather silly guys (less silly in Yuzu's case), they want to become pro duelist in their own world, and they have very similar character traits, heck they even have a thing for the color pink. Ruri and Serena are both the rebel type who want(ed) freedom. Ruri is a rebel against Academia due to the fact they destroyed Heartland, being forced to be a fighter to save her homeland, while Serena wanted to be a soldier and disobeyed the Professor to escaped from her prison. Maybe Ruri also wanted to be a pro duelist before the invasion, but since it has been already invaded, her background is ultimately different from Yuzu and Rin's now. The sky is a symbol of freedom, both of the girls wishing for different types of freedom. Of course, there is also the opposite. Yuzu lived with her father in a warm and peaceful home, while Rin lived as an orphan in the slums. Ruri is a survivor of a war and was forced to fight on the battlefield, while Serena was on the invaders' side, but was isolated from the frontlines and stayed at their base. (Saki and Mai are also foils to each other.) Speaking of Ruri and Serena, since Ruri's last name is Kurosaki (I must think of Ichigo Kurosaki for most of the time, and his signature technique Getsuga Tenshou is moon-themed; he has a younger sister named Yuzu Kurosaki.)

Aside from the Kachou Fuugetsu theme, the other most notable theme is music. (There is a music-themed PreCure series, but it does not fit with ARC-V at all). The Melodious archetype is based on vocals, musical structures and different types of music. The Moon-Light archetype is based on dancing. It is hinted that Rin's deck is based on instruments, but it is rather hard to figure out the connections between birds and music other than singing. It would be hilarious if they turn out to be rockers, but it would be interest if they represent different genres. Another possibility is sound or dynamic. Or even rap. Maybe you have other ideas.

Edit: Rin uses Wind Witches and Ruri uses Lyrical Lusciniae.

[LolsterXD97]

Let's see:
Yuzu is Flowers (Bloom Diva and Bloom Prima). They sing. Melodious focus in powering up each other and overwhelm with numbers, just like Yuya with Pendulum Summon and Perfornapals with their ATK changing effects.

Serena is Moon (Moon-Lights). They dance. Moon-Lights focus on beatdown, I bet Yuri will focus on beatdown too.

Rin is Wind (Lucky Pied Piper which uses a wind instrument). They play wind instruments. We saw Yugo likes fast and powerful plays, so I bet Rin will go that way too (And remember she cornered Yugo in a flashback, so she can be on the same level of power as him).

Ruri is Birds. They would sing. Yuto relies on effects in the Graveyard so I bet Ruri will too, also some Special Summon hate as part of being Shun's sister.

My reaction after reading your post is: Symbolism is for real. I have never thought of the birds and moon being deep wishes of Ruri and Serena wanting freedom, while wind and flowers meaning Rin and Yuzu had better lifes compared to them.

[KingJinzo]

By the way, I didn't about that flashback about Rin cornering Yugo; that was a subtle hint for me that her playstyle might be aggressive. But there is no guarantee for that. It could be very defensive, yet a dominating playstyle as well. I personally see Lucky Pied Piper as a hint for her unknown deck and maybe she doesn't have that card anymore. Yes, Yugo had Maken Dharma when he was kid, but that doesn't necessarily apply to everyone (I never saw Kaiba playing Basic Insect). And I feel it's kind of odd to play with a Gemini deck in a Synchro Dimension. Well, it is not impossible to Synchro Summon with a Gemini deck, but Gemini deck's aren't the fastest deck either. I'm actually surprised that Yugo doesn't spam Synchros as much as Yaiba and Crow. Considering how similar Yuzu and Rin are, I can imagine Rin's deck being a Synchro Spam. Whether she plays with Gemini or not is up in the air.

We know thar Raidraptors are spam friendly, as pretty much most Xyz deck tend to be. But it is hard say anything about Ruri's deck strategy, as we know the least about her (for now). There already was a thread about her deck, so some stuff has already been discussed. But I'm sure that her birds are humanoid-female, similar like Harpie's, and I would not be surprised if she would reuse the Harpie archetype. Archetypes have been recycled in the past, such as Red-Eyes in GX, and I don't need to mention any recycled archetype in ARC-V. But if we look back at Mai Kujaku, the Harpie's represented female strength, being sexy, aggressive and powerful. The archetype has gotten so much support, it's probably the most powerful girls deck in real life (unless I've somehow overseen the Traptrix). Ruri's appearance doesn't actually fit the archetype (at least, she doesn't look like Mai), but Yuto described her as strongwilled, and Yuri also described as determined as Rin and Yuzu. Personality-wise, she appears to be the softest of the four girls, at least how fanart portrays her (then again, fanart also portray Rin being softer than Yuzu, despite both seems to be equally aggressive). Seriously, we only got one flashback of her, and that wasn't even neither Kurosaki's nor Yuto's flashback; it was friggin' Dennis! Show more of her already!

[LolsterXD97]

I'm seeing Ruri playing singing birds as the Main Deck, but the Extra Deck will be humanoids birds, like Rio whose Zerofyne has more human apparence compared to her birds. I'm expecting all the remaining Yuzus' decks to be good, because look how Moon-Lights ended irl. I would also like another Synchro Deck and maybe some support for the lower Ranks from Ruri.

[KingJinzo]

Another question is when Yuzu will going to use Synchro and Xyz at all. And if she does, will her monsters be Melodious Choirs? Probably they will. She doesn't have enough flowers.

[LolsterXD97]

Another question is when Yuzu will going to use Synchro and Xyz at all. And if she does, will her monsters be Melodious Choirs? Probably they will. She doesn't have enough flowers.

She still needs to get Pendulums too. And then there was the theory that there world be a Melodious Songtress for each Summoning method, but that was broken with Solo (Technically she benefits Tribute Summon and Xyz Summon).