History Anime / YugiohZEXAL

One day, Yuma is forced to duel the local rising Dueling ace, Ryoga "Shark" Kamishiro, and in the middle of their duel, a mysterious blue person, Astral, appears before Yuma, unable to be seen by anyone else, and directs Yuma to victory against Shark. Astral has lost all of his memories but Yuma's card Number 39. Aspiring Emperor Hope, as well as the other Number Cards that seem to be oddly falling into other people's procession, are the key to getting them back. With Yuma's passionate heart, and Astral's brilliant dueling skills, the two work together to get back Astral's memories, all the while as Yuma begins grows as a Duelist. A new partnership will shake the world of Dueling!

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Aspiring Emperor - Hope. It's Japanese name is Kibou-Ou - Hope, which literally translates to "King of Hope - Hope". The English card's name changes it to "No. 39: Utopia."

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The gate Yuma opened at the end of the first episode releases all of the numbers, most of whom take people over and make them evil, with the exception of the one Yuma gets which is Aspiring Emperor - Hope. Releasing various evils? And Hope being released with them? Now doesn't this sound familiar to the story of Pandora's Box?

* ThePowerOfFriendship: This is a Yu-Gi-Oh series, it's to be expected.
** [[spoiler:The literal power of Friendship gives Yuma and Astral the ability to summon Chaos No. 39 Aspiring Emperor Hope Ray]]

* [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Superpowered Chaotic Side]]: [[http://images.wikia.com/yugioh/images/1/15/ChaosNumber39UtopiaRay-JP-Anime-ZX-Sealed.png Chaos Number: 39 - Aspiring Emperor Hope Ray.]]

* FireForgedFriends: Yuma and Shark seem to finally be friends after their Tag-Team Duel, due to Yuma's constant protection of his life points and defense of Shark's own personal failings in front of their opponents. Shark even let's Yuma keep the card he trusted him with to win the duel.

* DuelingShows: With ''CardfightVanguard'', which started airing earlier this year.
* DuelToTheDeath: If Yuma duels against someone with a Numbers Card, Astral's existence is tied to Yuma's life points. The more damage Yuma takes, the more Astral begins to fade out of existence, and should Yuma lose, Astral would die.

** Episode 27 has soccer-themed duelist Kakeru using a monster by the name of Captain Wing, an obvious nod to the famous soccer anime ''CaptainTsubasa''. [[hottip:*: "Wing" is [[ThisIsMyNameOnForeign the English translation of "Tsubasa."]]]]

* SugarBowl: The city of Heartland is very colourful, and covered in images of... well... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin hearts]]. [[spoiler: Averted; Below the city is a massive garbage dump where they are dumping the trash of the entire city into different dimensions and causing the suffering of the creatures residing within them. [[MagnificentBastard And no one in the city could possibly guess due to the happy, colourful nature of the city]]]]

The dub is being produced by FourKidsEntertainment and airs on TheCW 4Kids Toonzai in the U.S. A subtitled version is also available on [[http://www.toonzaki.com/zexal Toonzaki]].

** Yuma duels someone on top of a moving train, just like in [[Anime/{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} the original]].

** Yuma duels someone on top of a moving train, just like in[[Anime/{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} the original]].

* BorrowedCatchphrase: Tetsuo and Cathy have borrowed Yuma's Kattobingu catch phrase.

The fourth series in the ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' franchise. (The title is pronounced "zeal" in the Japanese version and "zek-sul" in the English dub.)

* AnimeFirst: Unlike ''[[{{Yu-Gi-OhGX}} GX]]'' and ''[[{{Yu-Gi-Oh5Ds}} 5D's]]'', this is [[AvertedTrope averted]] for this series, as the manga made it out before the anime.

* ContinuityNod[=/=]ContinuityPorn: Episode 15 featured nearly every major card used by the main characters of the [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} the original]] and [[{{Yu-Gi-OhGX}} the GX era]] as wooden statues. Yuma, Tetsuo, and hardcore duelist fans who had watched the original had a {{Nerdgasm}} when the 'statue duel' brought the original ace cards (Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes, Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl) to life.
** In continuance of tradition, TheHero's ace monster has Attack and Defense of 2500 / 2000 and takes 2 monsters to summon under normal circumstances.[[hottip:*: [[YuGiOh Dark Magician]] does have 100 more DEF, though.]]

* {{Expy}}: Yuma looks like a cross between Jaden of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'' and a ''Anime/Beyblade'' hero.

** Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Girl, anybody who's watched the [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} original]] series knows about this one.

* LighterAndSofter: Compared to ''[[YuGiOh5Ds 5D's]]'' pre-episode 64 setting, Zexal's Heartland is a SugarBowl.

** Kaito Tenjo: Hmm. BadassLongcoat? Check, MoralityPet little bro? Check. Adopted by some dude in a suit who's using them to his own gain? Check. [[OlympusMons Big, Badass LIGHT Dragon with 3000 ATK]]? Double Check. Even his Mons (Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon) point to being an ([[YourMilageMayVary arguably well-done]]) Expy of Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

The fourth series in the ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' franchise. (The title is pronounced "zeal" in the Japanese version and "Zek-sol" in the English dub.)

Replacing the D-Wheels of the previous series and Duel Disk models are the brand new D-Gazers and D-Pads, an eyeglass piece along with the new model of Duel Disk for augmented virtual reality duels, that allow for more visual destruction of the environment, giant score cards for life points, and an overall enhanced dueling experience. The story stars new protagonist, Yuma Tsukumo, a 13 year old middle school student who tackles life and dueling with everything he has, despite lacking skill. While his duel skills aren't impressive, his love for Dueling can't be matched.

* NumericalThemeNaming: III, IV, and V are all brothers and are named after roman numerals. Oddly enough, Tron, their other brother, is not named for a number.

** There's also Yuma and Takashi's off screen duel where Takashi wins without losing any of his lifepoints.

The dub is being produced by FourKidsEntertainment (yet again) and airs on TheCW 4Kids Toonzai in the U.S. A subtitled version is also available on [[http://www.toonzaki.com/zexal Toonzaki]].

*** Made even more funny since Astral is Syaoran

* AlternativeForeignThemeSong

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Tokunosuke

* ForgottenChildhoodFriend: Anna

* {{Expy}}: Yuma looks like a cross between Jaden of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'' and a ''BeyBlade'' hero.

* HotBlooded: What makes Yuma unique among the other Yu-Gi-Oh protagonists is that he's beyond hotblooded when it comes to dealing with everything, especially dueling. Life better watch out, cause he'll bring it to 'em.