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Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL

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  • Accidental Innuendo: Rei giving Yuma his "V" cards, as in a set of cards with "V" as their archetype, takes on a whole new level of Ho Yay when you consider that in western slang, "V-card" refers to one's virginity.
  • Adorkable:
    • Astral. Every one of his attempts to understand human culture or emotions ends up this way. (The big eyes don't hurt.) Special mention goes to his first time experiencing food while he's merged with Yuma.
    • Alito imagining all the ways he could win Kotori's heart and him grinning as he and Yuma messed with each other after their first duel qualifies him.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • When Nash uses CXyz Barian Hope against Yuma, he pays 400 LP to activate its effect instead of using its Overlay Units because he says the units represent his fallen Barians. However, he even refuses to detach Vector's unit, even going so far as to imagine Vector dueling with him when he activates its effect, even though he made it clear just a few episodes ago that Vector "had no soul" (or "was on his thirtiest chance" in the dub). What changed Nash's mind? Is Yuma's All-Loving Hero personality rubbing off on him? Is he just acting on principle? Or did Vector's Heroic Sacrifice convince Nash that Vector really had changed for the better?
    • Durbe and Mizael are angry with Vector after he reveals he was Rei Shingetsu all along. Is it a case of Even Evil Has Standards or are they angry that Vector didn't tell them about the plan, which involved attacking Alito?
  • Americans Hate Tingle:
    • The series itself, though mostly in the west, specifically with the character designs and the younger protagonists. While it is often not looked at as being "epic" when compared to 5D's, it actually has better ratings in Japan than 5D's did. Coming out in the middle of the downfall of 4Kids and (possibly consequently) having what is widely considered the worst English dub in the franchise probably didn't help its popularity too much.
    • Yuma too is not as popular as the other main characters, at least in the anime. Reasons include his lack of dueling skill at the start, really stubborn attitude, his status as an Idiot Hero, hypocrisy, Shining Draws, and his dub voice. At least his Character Development and Break the Cutie moments were able to mitigate this to an extent.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Despite all that has happened to Yuma, especially with Vector, he has yet to actually deal with the betrayal. Shark even points out that he shouldn't be so trusting considering what happened but Yuma just says that he can't change his trusting nature. In the end, Yuma never does change his ways and that is what ultimately affords Vector a very small bit of redemption before death.
  • Anti-Climax Boss: For all that V was hyped, he didn't turn out all that impressive in his duel with Kaito. While part of the problem is how he spent the entire thing acting as Mr. Exposition, his strategy boiled down to tanking behind Dyson Sphere's ability to negate all attacks hurled at it, then direct attacking with its effect to bypass Kaito's Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. Effective, yes, but not on the level of nail-biting what will happen next sort of suspense that his brothers' duels had—and it's notable that much of the reason Dyson Sphere was a threat at all was that its effects incidentally happened to be a perfect counter to Galaxy-Eyes (something quite visible in all of V's future duels, where Dyson Sphere fails to really accomplish much). Kaito just so happened to have a perfect combo to summon Neo Galaxy-Eyes and win, and V had no counter for it despite having seen the same card defeat both of his brothers in their Tag Duel against Yuma and Kaito.
  • Ass Pull:
    • As per Yu-Gi-Oh! tradition, being the main protagonist means Yuma is entitled to as many of these as the plot demands. It's a specifically mentioned power when he's in ZEXAL form, Shining Draw, which allows him to create completely new cards out of thin air. ZEXAL II takes it a step further and allows Yuma to completely change a card in his hand, though this was done only once.
    • Eliphas demonstrated the ability to perform Shining Draws at will. However, this makes a degree of sense as he is the embodiment of and protection measure for Astral World.
    • Don Thousand's victory over Mizael. Having a card that can change any spell the latter plays is hokey enough, and being able to use it directly from the deck even more so. What truly makes it a shining example is that the card Don Thousand pulls from Mizael's deck, one that causes him to sacrifice all his monsters and take damage equal to their combined attack points to draw cards for each monster, is so counter-productive that it's a wonder why he even has it in his deck (and naturally, the card was never seen before or since).
    • The manga suddenly changes the gameboard around several times. First off, Doctor Faker and Mr. Heartland's motives go from wanting to destroy the Astral World to saving the human world to just destroying both worlds in a single chapter, with no explanation given at the time. Then Shark's hitherto-unmentioned Childhood Friend/Rival Turned Evil Yagumo takes over as the main antagonist. Then it turns out that Dr. Faker was Dead All Along and that Mr. Heartland was just controlling his image to manipulate Haruto and Kaito (it's at this point that it's revealed why destroying both worlds makes no sense - it's not actually happening). Then Yagumo kills Mr. Heartland in an utterly ridiculous way. Later, there's the emergence of E'Rah in the final duel that comes almost completely out of nowhere.
    • In the manga, Yagumo claims that he can reshape his blank Numbers - which ordinarily respond to the desires of their wielders - because he himself has no desires due to his nihilism. Many would contend that actively wanting to see the world destroyed is a desire much more substantial than a single spider's thread, as Yagumo himself puts it. While it could be explained by this desire actually being that of E'Rah, she wasn't created until later into the manga's runtime.
  • Bizarro Episode:
    • Episode 81 is probably the closest thing to this. It starts with Kotori and Cathy arguing about who's going to be the cheerleader for the Numbers Club and it suddenly snowballs into all members (plus Rio) arguing with each other. So Girag concocts a plan to defeat Yuma by helping him set up the 'Friendship Games' to make his friends make up and tells him to lose purposely. After all the games, Girag brainwashes Kotori and Cathy. During the finals, Girag is forced to partner with Yuma against the two girls much to his fear as he would be forced to return to the Barian World since Yuma would lose on purpose. After a bit of back and forth, Kotori uses Rank-Up-Magic Barian's Force forcing Yuma to take the duel seriously and win. It all makes so little sense that the episode might not exist at all with the only mention of it being when Girag reveals himself as a Barian to Yuma.note  Notably it's also the only episode where Kotori is seen dueling.
    • Episode 90 too counts as this, perhaps even more than Episode 81. Here's the plot. Orbital 7 falls in love with Lilly and due to a misunderstanding, he challenges Yuma to a duel. That's it. No Bariansnote , no important duel, no relevant plotnote . More than a Bizarro Episode though, it's much more of a Breather Episode, which is understandable considering the last episodes.
  • Broken Base:
    • While ZEXAL is pretty popular in Japan, the fans who receive the dub are divided over whether it's the worst series in the franchise or not.
    • Now that time has passed with ZEXAL having ended, the tone and pacing of the series create a bit of this; while many enjoyed the wide-expansive lore presented in the series, particularly in II, along with a decently epic adventure-based story, others do not like the uneven pacing of said plot, on top of the characters being criticized for being very one-note overall.
    • The duels. In general, ZEXAL has something of a reputation for weak duel writing, with earlier duels being very simplistic while later duels tend to be reliant on The Magic Poker Equation, and many duels can be described as "character goes into their main boss monster, and then uses situational Spells and Traps to protect for the rest of the game."
    • The ending of the series. Some fans argue that the vast majority of the killed-off cast being brought back to life- with their redemption arcs and (in the Emperors' case) Humanity Ensues aspects intact- via Astral's off-screen use of the Numeron Code is a complete cop-out that blatantly undercuts and cheapens the emotionally heavy storyline of the last couple arcs. However, other fans argue that, while perhaps somewhat cheesy in its presentation, it's a well-deserved case of Earn Your Happy Ending given the massive Trauma Conga Line Yuma and his friends were put through over the course of the season, on top of being an extremely open-ended Sequel Hook that lends itself to all kinds of Fanfic Fuel.
  • Catharsis Factor:
    • Gimmick Puppet Giant Grinder's destruction in Episode 43. Considering how incredibly creepy it is, and the way it destroys monsters by grinding them in its chest, Utopia Ray destroying it piece by piece is damn satisfying.
    • Considering the Triad of Terror were paid by Tron to get rid of Yuma, and are possibly among the vilest human characters in the whole show, their defeat by Yuma, Anna, and Gauche's hands is incredibly satisfying. Wolfsbane in particular tried to kill Yuma by trying to crash into his coaster with his, so him losing and failing to do so is even more satisfying.
    • Don Thousand's defeat. The guy has purposely ruined the Barian Emperors' lives in order to revive them as Barians, tried to destroy all the worlds and was just being an unpleasant douche altogether. He had it coming for a long while now.
  • Character Perception Evolution: In the West, Yuma was seen as a controversial protagonist while the series was airing and for several years afterwards, with many fans hating him due to his annoying behavior in early episodes, his lackluster Dueling skills, having to follow up Yusei, and Eli Jay's dub performance giving him a voice many have charitably called annoying. The lack of an offiical subtitled release for Zexal didn't help matters. With time and more easy access to fan-made subtitle tracks that cover the whole series, Yuma has received a lot of retroactive appreciation due to his development paying off in dividends, alongside his personality in the Japanese version smoothing out a lot of his character flaws quickly.
  • Complete Monster: Don Thousand is the god of Barian World who wishes to use the Numeron Code to destroy Astral World. In the past, Don Thousand had brought trauma upon the past incarnations of the Seven Barian Emperors, including causing Alito to be executed by his best friend, to corrupting Vector into becoming a tyrant that took thousands of lives, all while twisting their memories with his Over-Hundred Numbers to make them believe others were responsible for their suffering. In the present day, Don Thousand releases one million Fake Number cards onto Earth, amplifying the negative emotions of the people who picked them up, and increasing the hatred and chaos on Earth enough to allow it to be merged with Barian World. Don Thousand later has two of the Barian Emperors, Girag and Alito, further brainwashed to make them fight Yuma and Astral, whom they had befriended during their time on Earth. He also has the Barian leader Nash captured in an energy sphere, with his energy sapped into Vector's Life Points during Vector's duel with Dumon and Marin, Nash's soldier and sister, respectively. In his duel against Yuma and Nash, he forces them to make a Sadistic Choice with his Numeron Network card: leave it be, and Astral World succumbs to destruction, or destroy it and the energy that would be released annihilates Earth.
  • Crazy Is Cool:
    • Anna, and this extends to her Railway deck. Anna herself rides around on a flying cannon and has serious anger issues. Her deck includes such gems as a 5000 ATK monster that is easily summoned but requires a hefty cost, and a monster that destroys her own cards in order to damage her opponent.
    • For a different brand of "crazy" there's Cathy, an Elegant Gothic Lolita that imitates cat mannerisms to the point that she can actually talk to cats, commands a horde of cats, and has feline reflexes.
  • Creator's Pet: The Numbers Club in the manga are an admitted example; Miyoshi, the manga's artist, enjoys the characters, so writer Shin Yoshida gives them more screentime as a result, despite said screentime not really developing their personalities or dynamics. Shadow was another example of this, as Miyoshi had worked hard on designing him and didn't want him to be killed off so easily, so he received a larger role.
  • Creepy Cute: Haruto can come off as genuinely creepy, but his design also fits squarely into a typical cute child design.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Fans seem to be fine with Vector's sadistic manipulative personality. Some parts of the fandom redeem him by portraying him struggling with his past and claiming he's only evil thanks to Don Thousand's influence, and that all of the former's sadistic actions blamed entirely on the latter.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Haruto, Kaito's little brother for being The Woobie.
    • Anna, for being a far more badass female character than Kotori, and this extends to her deck. Konami seems to be aware of this, as Anna's Railway deck continues to be supported years after ZEXAL's conclusion (including two OCG-original Numbers relating to her deck motif). All of this culminates in Legendary Duelists: Sisters of the Rose - a set dedicated to supporting archetypes used by various female characters - which had Anna as the ZEXAL representative over the likes of Kotori, Droite, and Rio.
    • No. 96, a Creepy Awesome version of Astral who completely steals the scene whenever he shows up.
    • Gauche and Droite, two of Dr. Faker's Number Hunters, for both being likeable and badass.
    • Rio became intensely popular just hours after her design was revealed in the anime, getting dozens of fanarts all over Pixiv, and her personality was well-received too, as the first thing she did was call out Shark on his currently poor dueling performance.note 
    • The Tron family (Particularly III and IV) are some of the series' most popular villains for the depth their story added to the series.
    • Vector, full stop. He's often praised as one of the finest characters in the series even by those who don't like ZEXAL due to his sheer competence, hammy personality, and often entertaining and very dark humor.
    • A 2018 popularity poll revealed that Gagaga Girl was the most popular monster in the series by a pretty wide margin (beating out the #2 by almost a thousand votes), despite being a card that was only played in a handful of duels of which maybe one was significant to any degree. Wonder why?
  • Epileptic Trees:
    • Ever since the start of the series there has been debate over ZEXAL's placement in the timeline compared to all the previous YGO animes, because while it vaguelly references DM and GX at a few points (mainly the episode with the statues of DM-era monsters), it has no references to 5Ds whatsoever. The most popular theory was that ZEXAL takes place in an alternate timeline that diverged after GX. It took several years into Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links to finally clarify where the placement is: it has absolutely no relation with the rest of the series at all. Kaibacorp has never existed in the ZEXAL universe.
    • Somewhat relating to the above, there's a theory that Yusei invented Xyz summoning as a means of preventing the Bad Future caused in 5Ds by overusage of Synchroes. The above revelation in Duel Links indirectly disputes that.
  • Fanon: It's commonly assumed that post-canon, all of the Barians live with Shark and Rio in the Kamishiro Manor.
  • Fan Nickname: Many.
    • D-Gazers are called Scouters.
    • Heartfly for Mr Heartland after he assumes a fly form after he ends up in the Barian World.
    • Nashark and Merio for Shark and Rio after it is revealed that they are actually Nasch and Merag, the 2 missing Barian Emperors.
    • Shark Knight for Nasch's Over-Hundred Number, mainly due to the incredibly obvious Fun with Acronyms involved in its name: Silent Honor's Ark Knight.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple:
    • The slash fans dominate the ZEXAL shipping community, due to the closeness of the male characters. The most popular couples for these fans are Yuma/Astral, Yuma/Shark, Yuma/Kaito, and Yuma/III. Speaking of Yuma/Astral, the fact their relationship is similar to the one shared by Yugi and Atem (arguably that series' most popular couple) definitely helps.
    • Despite the fact that Droite has feelings for Kaito, her close relationship with Gauche, their contrasting personalities, and the fact that they're always in sync with one another has made Gauche/Droite the most popular pairing for both characters. It helps that these feelings didn't really pop up again after her duel with Tron, giving said fans some leeway.
    • There's also a group of fans who would rather Yuma go for Cathy or Anna than the often teased Kotori, due to the latter contributing almost nothing to the plot and being extremely unpopular with the fanbase, while the former two actually make an effort to get close to Yuma and help him and have much more interesting personalities.
  • Franchise Original Sin: Shining Draw is massively disliked for being considered little better than cheating for allowing Yuma to create new cards out of thin air. However, this was nothing new to the franchise. In the "Waking the Dragons" arc of the original series, not only was that the entire mechanic of the Legendary Dragon cards, but also one of the most well-received things in the season. And in 5D's, Leo and Crow both get their Signer Dragons mid-duel, Jack gets his Red Nova Dragon the same way and Yusei outright creates Shooting Quasar Dragon out of thin air. In fact, Jack and Yusei even being able to use Majestic Dragon to synchro summon Majestic Red Dragon and Majestic Star Dragon respectively could similarly be considered cheating, as they only have them whenever the Crimson Dragon comes to their aid. However, both of those ideas were introduced much later in their respective shows, neither were used as frequently, and in both cases, they didn't seem to be a pure "make the card I need for this exact situation" the way that Shining Draw was.
  • Growing the Beard: Zexal in general is agreed to start picking up after Kaito is introduced, but two other moments are specifically highlighted:
    • The Duel Carnival arc features more intense duels, introduces the Arclight siblings, who offered an intriguing sidestory that bolstered the main plot considerably, and shows Yuma’s growth as a Duelist.
    • Alternatively, ZEXAL II is viewed a lot better by some due to the introduction of the Barians, especially from episode 94 onward, though for the fans of the dueling, it ends up devolving very heavily into The Magic Poker Equation.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Kaito screaming Haruto's name is a meme, but it has become bittersweet since Haruto's ARC-V counterpart was turned into a card along with Dr. Faker's counterpart, serving as a Death by Origin Story for Kaito's counterpart.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Shark being scared because his sister was returning to school was funny enough and Astral's speculation that he's so worried because of the Barians is funnier. Then it turns out Rio is a Barian.
    • Shingetsu wearing a Dandylion cosplay was funny. Then you realize that this means that the person behind almost 100% of all the characters suffering... was wearing a Dandylion cosplay.
    • Umimi would later become an Xyz hating, blue-haired Fusion Duelist in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.
    • The entire tomato episode is this due to Yuya's fan nickname being tomato. This gets even more hilarious when one of the things seen is a tomato and eggplant hybrid acting as an incredibly early spoiler to Yuya and Yuto's fusion as Yuto's fan nickname is "eggplant".
    • Kaito Fusion Summoning Twin Photon Lizard during his duel with Shark retroactively spawned a million jokes about him being either a traitor or a "Fusion scum" as he returned in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V with a vehement hatred of anything related to Fusion.
    • Blade Armor Ninja having a statue as one of the "legendary monsters" in the Duel Sanctuary can seem incredibly egotistical for a monster that only shows up twice in the seriesnote , but in the TCG/OCG it turned out to be a surprisingly good Xyz Monster for a while, retroactively justifying its presence.
    • Ryoga shares the kanji of his name with a swordsman associated with the oceannote , on top of being an Aloof Big Brother and a villain in their respective series. The similarities in name would be noticed by people such as fans as well as Shark's Japanese voice actor Toshiki Masuda, which went viral on Japanese Twitter feeds.
    • In the dub, Yuma remarks "You just summoned your mom" after Nelson brings out Number 83: Galaxy Queen, which resembles his mother's character in the Show Within a Show that they star in. Fast forward to Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS and the line also becomes particularly apt for Spectre, who wholeheartedly admits that he sees his ace monster (a feminine tree spirit) as a Parental Substitute.
  • Ho Yay: Has its own page.
  • I Knew It!:
    • For a long time, fans have speculated that Shark and Rio were actually Nasch and Merag, the two missing Barian Emperors. Then comes Episode 121 in which it was finally confirmed.
    • The fandom's reaction to learning that Yuma would duel Astral at the end of the series as the ceremonial duel.
  • It Was His Sled:
    • "Shingetsu" is actually the human form of Vector, who was manipulating Yuma and the others the whole time until The Reveal.
    • Shark and Rio are Barians. Not even the official website for the TCG tries to hide it, with the blurb for the Legendary Duelists: Duels From the Deep set outright saying that Shark and Nash are the same character along with being the leader of the Seven Barian Emperors.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: There are a number of examples, but Shark was the first and the most famous example, with many people watching ZEXAL for him instead of Yuma.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Eliphas is the God of the Astral World who sent Astral out on his mission. Believing absolute order to be the only way for his world to survive, he tries to have his people who created him Rank-Up to combat the Barian World. When Yuma intervenes and challenges him to a duel, Eliphas makes full use of Shining Draw to give Yuma his biggest challenge yet. Upon losing said duel, Eliphas becomes more flexible and comes to accept The Power of Friendship. During the duel against Don Thousand, Eliphas takes Astral's place in a Heroic Sacrifice, tossing him Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force and entrusting the future of the Astral World to him.
    • Nasch, formerly known as Ryoga "Shark" Kamishiro, reassumes his identity after regaining his memories. Wanting to protect the Barian World at all costs, he leads the Barian Emperors' assault to wipe out Yuma and his friends. After getting caught in Vector's snaring trap and witnessing the deaths of Durbe and Merag, Nasch breaks free and defeats Vector, surpassing the latter's many tricks. Nasch teams up with Yuma shortly afterwards to defeat a common enemy in Don Thousand, being granted the latter's powers after they win. He then uses those powers to engage Yuma and Astral in one of the franchise's most climactic showdowns, only losing due to circumstances that he couldn't have known about. Never letting go of his reasons to fight, Nasch says goodbye to Yuma and Astral before dying, calling them his two best friends.
    • Astral is the final opponent that Yuma faces to secure his desired happy ending. Believing the Barian World to be the root of all chaos, he intends to use the Numeron Code to wipe it from history, even if its inhabitants aren't necessarily evil. Yuma challenges him to a duel for the fate of the universe, where Astral shows just how versatile he can be with all of his memories and Numbers restored. Understanding how mentally broken Yuma is in the aftermath of recent battles, Astral becomes a Warrior Therapist to help him recover from his trauma. When Astral loses the arduous duel, he spares the Barian World and its people, hoping to find another way to maintain peace.
  • Memetic Badass: Jin/Fortuno is this by fans who realized that he obtained Big Eye and Shock Master, two of the greatest Number cards in the game's history (Shock Master was even banned in all major formats by 2016). This lead to confusion as to how he managed that and how Yuma even managed to beat him, mixed with him being jokingly treated as a high-tier threat.
  • Memetic Loser: Japanese fans have latched onto Durbe as a completely incompetent figure, given how he's ostensibly meant as the overall leader of the Barians early on but doesn't seem to have much control of his subordinates, his backstory involving a military disaster he was in command of, and his stoic personality often making him come off as The Comically Serious (especially given that some of his cards have rather goofy Japanese names, most notably "Holy Lightning BOOKS."). The fact that he spends his first real focus episode powerless, gets attacked by a bear, and falls into a hole doesn't really help, with fans frequently describing him in the same terms as a Cute Clumsy Girl. He doesn't fare much better in the West, where he's largely seen as one of the more boring Barians in terms of design and personality, but he does have a fandom in both regions who largely like him as a bit of a guy-failure, exaggerating his mourning for Nasch and Merag for comedic value while comically suffering.
  • Memetic Molester:
    • Jin, due to his insane stalkerish obsession with Kaito, his dialogue when interacting with the Numbers Club, and his general appearance.
    • Kaito himself went memetic on at least one forum after some of his... expressions in Episode 22.
    • IV quickly reached this point, mostly because of his obsession with "fanservice" and inflicting it on everybody he meets, whether they want it or not. Tron also raised a few eyebrows with his torture of Haruto in episodes 41-43, which he really seemed to be enjoying far more than he should.
    • Number 96: Black Mist has definitely earned this reputation, thanks to him using his tentacles to restrain Yuma and Astral on separate occasions, laughing like a maniac, and his wide array of creepy facial expressions. The dub even has him mockingly call Vector his "pet."
  • Memetic Troll: Vector. Aside from his actions described under Memetic Mutation, there's also his stunt in his duel with Nasch, where he pretended to have turned to good and then revealed that it was all a trick. Fortunately, Nasch was too smart to be fooled.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Don Thousand in order to ensure his revival, he traveled the world and selected seven humans who had connections to the Legendary Numbers, which had sealed most of his power. Not too bad right? Look at his methods for doing so. As an example, he brainwashed Alito's best friend and the ruling court to execute Alito, something that everyone had managed to notice, and just before Alito was executed, Don Thousand altered his memories to make it seem that he had been heartlessly killed, instead of being framed by a God of Evil. The end result was filling Alito with so much hatred, he was revived as a Barian. Then look at what happened to the other Emperors. Don Thousand essentially ruined their lives all to fuel his comeback, which also ended up tearing up nations and killing large numbers of innocents. Oh, and this includes being responsible from turning Vector of all people from a decent guy into the monster he is now.
  • Narm: Has its own section on the franchise's page.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page. Despite being one of the Lighter and Softer entries in the franchise, at least at first, it's still Yu-Gi-Oh!
  • Nightmare Retardant: Vector's gloating can approach this, slightly less so in the dub surprisingly.
  • Older Than They Think: The idea that Duel Disks can be used for communication actually appeared first in 5Ds as a plot device in Yusei's Duel Disk as a way for him to clear Aki's name for her involvement in Toby's murder by tricking Divine into admitting it and broadcast it to Misty.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • Semimaru/Erazor for being the only one of the Fearsome Four to be a legitimately terrifying villain. Even Mr. Heartland finds his methods over the top.
    • Astral in Dark ZEXAL mode, which is honestly creepy due to how extremely out of character it is for him, and would still be creepy by normal standards anyway.
  • Pandering to the Base: While the franchise is aimed at kids to begin with, the series seems to be deliberately appealing more to the younger kids for having a brighter, more childish art style, a protagonist who's much younger then the previous ones (and acts like it too), a general Lighter and Softer feel and having a quiz show explaining some of the most basic concepts of the game. Oddly enough, the series also featured many Callbacks to Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters, which could be seen as pandering to the original fanbase, or simply adapting the original concepts for a new demographic. However, following III's duel with Yuma, it goes into much darker content. The series is only a Sugar Bowl on the surface.
  • Questionable Casting:
  • Replacement Scrappy:
    • The real Numbers 1-4 are widely loathed in comparison to their so-called "Fake" counterparts, due to being considerably more boring and sharing the exact same effects, even after being finally released in the TCG/OCG.
    • E'Rah in the manga for Don Thousand (who was already disliked in the first place). She's generally viewed as one of the most Generic Doomsday Villains in the franchise, has a thoroughly uninteresting deck, and shows up out of nowhere during the final duel with Yagumo to hijack the match. note 
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
    • Yuma in the manga is a downplayed case. While he's still a total goofball, he's not as stubborn or hypocritical as his anime counterpart, and he doesn't do Shining Draws too much. He also fares better against Kaito in their second Duel and ends up winning.
    • Kotori's World Duel Carnival incarnation is considered immensely superior to her anime, manga or any other incarnation, mainly due to being an Adaptational Badass, her absolutely broken deck, and having an expanded characterization and much bigger role as an actual WDC contestant (which means she can actually Duel) other than a Flat Character or Yuma's personal cheerleader. While not completely rescued, since there are some who are pissed off that an originally useless character became a Game-Breaker, her popularity gets a significant glow-up thanks to that game.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Both Tasuku Hatanaka and Satoshi Hino get to voice Ultra Warriors in the Reiwa Era—with the latter voicing Ultraman Titas in Ultraman Taiga, and the former being the titular Ultra of the eponymous succeeding season after Taiga.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Tokunosuke/Flip is unpopular since he's a slimy cheat who was too Easily Forgiven and generally causes more harm than good to those around him. He's basically the result of the series taking an Expy of Insector Haga/Weevil Underwood and trying to make him a good guy, but without really toning down the traits that made Haga/Weevil such a Hate Sink in the first place.
    • Final boss characters in the franchise tend to be fairly unpopular among the fanbase, but Don Thousand was one of the most disliked for a while. It mostly owes to his fairly lacking motivation, the fact that he absolved all the Barians of their sins by being behind the Start of Darkness of every single one, including Vector so they could be Easily Forgiven, and his final Duel, which took The Magic Poker Equation typical to the franchise to heights such that he didn't seem skilled so much as impossibly wanky. His Numeron Deck is also tremendously disliked; the Gates, which were the true Numbers 1-4 all have the same effect and are viewed as less interesting than the Fake Numbers 1-4 seen earlier, in addition to becoming very potent after being released in the OCG, while his Number 1000 monsters are disliked for their uninteresting designs and ridiculously overpowered effects and ATK that break the rules of the game. While Don Thousand does have some fans, he usually ranks in the lower tier of final villains.
  • Scrappy Mechanic:
    • Shining Draw is massively unpopular amongst the general fanbase, who consider it to be little better than cheating. In defense, the villains are often just as bad, but cheating or overpowered villains is nothing new in the franchise, and Yuma is the only protagonist to consistently respond by using it. Compounding the issue is that it further fuels his deck's overcentralizing on Number 39, and that almost all of the cards he first used via Shining Draw (the only exceptions being Numeron Force and Tornado Bringer in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo) stayed strictly in the category of "one-off cards he used to win just that one duel and never used again" - contrast to, for instance, Yuya's Pendulum Magicians or Yusaku's Storm Access monsters, which they actually kept in their decks and incorporated into later strategies.
    • A common effect later in the series was allowing a monster to be treated as more than one Xyz Material. This generally didn't sit well with the fandom, as it stunk of lazy card design and was an anticlimatic way to summon an Xyz monster, especially when all of the cards with this effect were altered to summon other monsters in the card game- Konami only began releasing monsters that can be treated as more than one XYZ Material in 2024, for reference, a decade after the show started.
  • Signature Scene:
    • Kaito's introduction episode where he casually stops time and eviscerates Yuma in a duel.
    • Kaito and Yuma vs III and IV, ending with Kaito's first summon of Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.
    • Vector and Yuma's duel in Sargasso, especially Vector revealing the extent of his lies to Yuma and managing to create the One-Scene Wonder of Dark ZEXAL due to driving a wedge between Yuma and Astral.
    • Kaito and Mizael's final match happening on the moon, while seeing him gain his own Number in Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon.
    • Yuma and Astral's duel in the series finale, particularly Yuma creating his own Number in Future Number 0: King of the Future, Hope as the capstone to his character arc.
  • Slow-Paced Beginning: One of the wider criticisms Zexal gets is this- the first ten episodes are largely slice of life episodes that establish the setting, a lot of the supporting cast, and Yuma's lack of real skill with the game, with the only major plot beat being Shark starting to warm up to Yuma. It's only when Kaito joins the story in Episode 13 that the story begins to kick off.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some people who were fond of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's' Darker and Edgier tone didn't like the characters or plot...though when the series got its dark moments, they hit quite hard.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Rio is introduced with a badass personality and an excellent dueling debut, but doesn’t do anything relevant to the plot other than serving as Shark's motivation. aiding Yuma when he was attacked by an army of Barian-possessed students, and receiving visions in some of the Mythyrian Tombs to explain the backstories of the Barians. Even her Face–Heel Turn as Merag has little impact due to lumping her in with the other Barians and Shark/Nasch's perspective on the event overshadowing her the entire time. It doesn't help that not long after into said Face–Heel Turn, Vector kills her and Durbe. More annoyingly, she never gets to meet IV, the person who set her on fire, until the final episodes of the show, and they never speak on-screen.
    • Anna was well-liked for her badassery, bombastic design, and Crazy Is Cool tendencies, in addition to her unique deck. Unfortunately, not only does she only show up once an arc at best, but these appearances tend to be Contrived Coincidences.
    • Luna from the manga. A female Number Hunter who ropes Shark back into the fight with a decent duel, knew Doctor Faker and the Tenjo brothers, and has a badass moment where she saves Shark and Yuma from Kaito. That's really about it aside from being Ms. Exposition, despite Miyoshi and Yoshida noting that she would be one of the rare female duelists.
    • Tetsuo has a good enough introduction, especially as he averts this trope from his initial concept where he was just one of Yuma's bullies ala Ushio, and he has his excellent duel with Black Mist and some well-done What the Hell, Hero? moments (in contrast to Takashi), being much more grounded compared to Yuma. Then he and Takashi get Worfed by IV, putting him out of action until ZEXAL II, where he doesn't fare much better and his crush on Rio is barely explored (although the removal of their duel may have been due to Executive Meddling).
    • Part of the reason that Kotori garnered such a controversial reception for years was that despite having a very large amount of consistent screentime, nothing was ever done with her character outside of just being support to Yuma. There were some glimmers and hints of concepts that could've been done with her, one idea somewhat early on, and shown in the second ending, is her secretly being terrified of the dangers of Number dueling and watching Yuma having to get hurt. In terms of Number monsters, Number 49: Fortune Tune is often cited as a Number she could have obtained to fit her bird theming, and is even a card she uses in video games such as World Duel Carnival, however, she never comes to possess it or any other Numbers in the anime or manga. Ultimately, nothing ever came from such ideas; her relationships with other characters, such as Cathy and ironically, Yuma himself, never really grew or changed in the course of the show.
    • Mirai is overshadowed by her husband in a similar manner to Shark overshadowing Rio, to the point where it's not hard to wonder why she was even written in as disappearing.note  It gets worse when you realize that while Kazuma's disappearance was explained, Mirai's was never brought up, again making one question why she was said to have disappeared as well.
    • Charlie is introduced as Kazuma's assistant and had access to a Number as well, meaning that he was in a position where he could've explained more about the story's lore and drop some hints about Kazuma's presence. Instead, he's ultimately an Old Flame of Akari's and disappears after his debut two-parter.
    • Kaito fell into this to some degree in ZEXAL II, where now that his arc with Haruto was over, there seemed to be nowhere for his character to ever really go. As such, he appeared much more sporadically and no new ideas were ever displayed with him beyond a brief suggestion of his being The Atoner for his actions as the Number Hunter; though he and Mizael are shown to have a rivalry, it seems much more one-sided on Mizael's part than from any agency on Kaito beyond him being the only one who has the skills needed to take on Mizael's Over-Hundred Number.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot
    • In the anime, the concept of Yuma taking the Numbers used by his opponents is never utilized to its full potential; Yuma relies mostly on Utopia and its upgraded forms, at least when in a duel involving Numbers (which is every duel of any significance), and once he obtains a new Number, chances are good that it will never be used again. It's particularly irritating since he uses Gagagas, which have the gimmick of highly variable levels, but he almost never makes use of their abilities in favor of going straight for Utopia whenever possible. Though the show attempts to play this as Utopia being a card of great personal importance and the majority of Yuma's other Numbers not liking him so it becomes risky to rely on non-Utopia Numbers, it results in his duels becoming decidedly formulaic. In fact, as the series goes on, he actually starts using other Numbers less, with Leviathan Dragon and Terror-Byte being phased out. The manga thankfully averts this trope, while maintaining Yuma's use of Utopia. It helps that Yuma has a smaller Number pool closer to his deck's default levels, making it easier for him to call said Numbers out.
    • The ZEXAL power, essentially the source of the series' name and the key to the lore of the story, is never expanded upon. Its origins were never fully explained and it never really existed as anything more than a power-up to give Yuma ZEXAL Weapons to win the duel. Dark ZEXAL is an even greater example of this, as it only appeared in one duel, and it too was never explored as a potential Superpowered Evil Side.
    • ZEXAL II is shown to have the power of "Shining Evolution" which can reveal the "true form" of a card. This is only used once, changing Rank-Up-Magic Barian's Force to Rank-Up-Magic Numeron's Force. However, Vector gave five other Barian cards to Yuma as Rei, but these cards are never seen again, nor do we ever see their "true forms".
    • A relatively minor complaint stems from the fact that despite Shark gifting Yuma Armored Xyz, the card is never used again. Considering that Yuma faces Shark in high-stake duels twice (one when's the latter is mind controlled by Tron and the second when Yuma faces him as Nasch), it would have worked really well for Yuma to use Armored Xyz.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Many aspects of Kyoji Yagumo The Woobie status fall flat upon closer inspection. Yes, it is terrible that his efforts to find his brother were All for Nothing since said “brother” was actually an impersonator who killed the real one, but the fact that Kyoji was turning a blind eye to obvious signs that this was the case makes it seem like he loved the ''idea'' of having a brother more than the actual person. If not then he actually would’ve spent time around his “brother” and quickly saw that they didn’t act remotely alike, to say nothing of how quickly the impersonator folded when Kyoji noticed he was right handed. Additionally, him claiming to have killed his brother when telling Ryoga how miserable he is when in reality he avenged his brother comes across as him lying to elicit sympathy, as opposed to actual trauma.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion:
    • Astral is largely androgynous, so he can be mistaken for female if someone hasn't seen the series.
    • III/Trey is so frequently mistaken for a woman that it's common to call him the best girl of the series. The fact that plenty of fanartists like to draw him crossdressing (and he's been cosplayed by girls too) just makes the confusion even greater. Duel Links even referenced this in the Japanese version of his dialogue with Anna in her event, where she mistakingly thought III was a girl.
  • Viewer Name Confusion: When the anime first came out, most people - including translators - started calling the anime's new summoning method "Exceed", following the pattern of the previous ones (Fusion, Ritual, Synchro). However, that turned to be Japanese Ranguage at work, and the real name of the method was "Xyz", referring to directional coordinates. Konami even made it a point to show the correct spelling in one interview. That doesn't stop some people from still using "Exceed" though. Additionally, the summoning mechanic is officially spelled with normal capitalization, though that doesn't stop people to this day spelling it in all-caps as "XYZ" (which in-game refers to a different set of cards entirely).
  • Vindicated by History: For years, ZEXAL was the whipping boy of the franchise in the West due to following up on the much-loved 5D's, Yuma's grating personality and allegations of being a cheater due to Shining Draw, and the slower, lighter pace of the opening episodes before the arc storylines began with Kaito's introduction, leading to it being seen as when the anime shows began to fall off. With time and more fans of the show growing up on the internet, alongside a growing awareness of the second half of the series and its darker, more character-driven plotlines, this has generally faded and ZEXAL nowadays has a large number of fans in the west. Notably, this only really applies to the Western fandom- the Japanese fandom adored Zexal from launch and reports indicate that its reruns on TV were able to consistently beat new episodes of ARC-V and VRAINS.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: While it starts out with a lighter, more whimsical tone, ZEXAL eventually shows its teeth and contains some quite dark imagery and storylines.
    • Events often cited as evidence that ZEXAL isn't a kid's show: Tron being an Abusive Parent towards his children, encouraging or forcing them to hurt or even kill to satisfy his goals, Vector's manipulation of Yuma and subsequent "Mind Rape", Dark/Black Mist/No. 96's tentacles, which have been used to bind both Yuma and Astral, as well as his general personality, especially after teaming up with Vector and episodes 101-102 which feature a story about a king who executed his people and committed suicide himself, complete with illustrations. Then you have 103, where a gladiator is all but shown to have been executed via decapitation.
    • As of the sixth arc, it is very clearly no longer a kid's show. Character deaths are being thrown around almost casually, with 17 characters—among them the Arclight Brothers, Durbe, Rio, Alito, Girag, Kaito, Vector, Mizael, Eliphas, and a number of Yuma's friends and allies from the past—getting killed off before the season even reaches the same number of episodes.
  • The Woobie:
    • Baby Tragon. Poor critter's been used by Tokunosuke to presumably rig countless duels in his favor. Let's also not forget Baby Tragon is a Rank 1 Xyz Monster (lowest possible rank), has low ATK/DEF stats, and has an effect confined to only supporting allied Level 1 monsters (in other words, useless for the most part). Baby Tragon's card picture even features him having a very sad face. This story ends with a happy ending, though: Baby Tragon jumps up and flies around with joy when Yuma opts to befriend him and properly use him in the on-going duel instead of abandoning/mistreating him like most other duelists. Yuma gets to keep him, too!
    • Most of the Barian Emperors qualify too, with the revelation that Don Thousand screwed up their pasts and made them Barians just because they happened to be connected to the Legendary Numbers. With Vector's true memories being revealed, he too is a Woobie, but a Jerkass Woobie (emphasis on Jerkass).
    • The manga's original characters include a few, namely in Hartland's three Theme Park mascots. All three are homunculi created from objects that developed some kind of will: Captain Corn was once a kernel of corn that had lodged in a pirate captain's compass, Thunder Spark from an Electron, and Princess Cologne from an abandoned doll. All three antagonize the heroes under threat of losing their human forms if they lose, which they all do. At least Cologne, the Woobiest of the three gets a happy ending courtesy of Yuma.
    • Kyoji Yagumo from the manga. Orphaned and separated from his little brother Yuji at a young age he became desperate to become a Duel Monsters champion in order to meet his brother again, and succeeded. This is where it got ugly; turns out his brother got abandoned by his adoptive family and ended up living in a delinquent center with a roommate who happened to resemble him. When said roommate realized that Yuji was related to a "cash cow" he strangled Yuji and took his place. When Kyoji eventually found out he tried to strangle the imposter himself but he was unable to after the imposter repeated the last words Yuji had said as he strangled him. Then an evil god stepped in so he could kill the Asshole Victim. However… (see Unintentionally Unsympathetic).
  • Woolseyism:
    • When calculating the chances of Charlie McCay rolling perfect 6's on his dice, in the Japanese version, Astral mistakenly calculates what the chances would be of getting extra 6's at once, while referring to what he is rolling there and then. That is a textbook example of the Gambler's Fallacy. In the English dub, Astral uses the same numbers, but he also specifies how many 6's he's rolled so far and what the odds of getting that many are.
    • When Astral discovers that Yuma is using a Barian card, in the original Japanese version, Yuma says he stole the card from Girag. Astral buys it, despite it not being in Yuma's nature to steal a card by force, even from a Barian. In the English dub, Yuma's lie is changed to him saying that Girag dropped it by accident, so Yuma just picked it up, which is far more in character for him to do.
    • When Kite is dying on the moon in the dub, Dr. Faker tells him that's there's a medical transport on the way. While this can come off as Narm in the attempt to avert Never Say "Die", the fact that Kite clearly does end up dying (given his spiritual presence later) and Faker's quote immediately afterwards makes it seem like Faker is just desperately trying to reassure his son that everything will be okay.
    • Nasch blatantly calls Yuma a liar only in the dub when he mistakes Yuma's vow not to defeat him for a vow to throw the duel or not to attack him, driving home Yuma's Exact Words vow better than the original version did.
    • Whereas the original stopped Astral’s observations in ZEXAL II, the dub continues them until the final episode, leading to a heartwarming moment as Astral leaves.

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