Yuya Made Me Watch It...
Miyashita Yuya, I HEART YOU. (g)
So, I finally got to see a fansub of the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, the latest spinoff. I will admit to serious skepticism. I mean, card duels on motorcycles??? WTF? Plus, GX never caught me, and 5Ds is probably just another attempt to extend the franchise and sell more cards. Still, Yuya's in it, and I'm a RUN&GUN/Team Bacchus from AirMyu fangirl, so I felt compelled to check it out, just to see how he does.
Surprisingly, it doesn't suck. Yes, card duels on motorcycles is still a totally crack concept, but it actually didn't look that way. It helps that the D-Wheels have an autopilot system that activates during duels. Plus, oddly enough, it seems to add to the post-apocalyptic feel at times. That feel is definitely unexpected, as well. YGO! DM could get dark at times (the Ancient Egypt arc comes to mind), but 5Ds feels gritty. I definitely didn't expect that from a YGO! show, and it is catching my attention. I definitely want to hear how Domino City became basically two cities, one bright and shiny, and one an underground slum.
Going back to the duels, the monsters have the proper YGO! feel, but I will admit that the way magic cards are limited by the automagic Speed World field card that seems to be set every time there's a Riding Duel is puzzling. Why would you want to limit yourself that way? What happens if someone manages to negate Speed World in a duel? Does anyone even use non-speed spells any more?
As for the characters, Jack Atlus is obviously the heir to Kaiba Seto's arrogance. Therefore, I love him already. (g) I do love his attitude, though, that the King has to put on a great show for the audience - he knows he's being watched, and knows what to do for his fans. Yuusei's friends may show promise, but it's too soon to tell. I did get a kick out of Rally, the little thief - she's cute and spunky.
As for our hero, he's Kaiba's and Yami no Yuugi's bastard son. (g) He's got Yami's attitude towards the cards (voice, heart, what's the difference?) and towards duelists, while he's got Seto's mad l33t hacker/techie skills. That gets two thumbs up from me. I have to admit that I want to know about his and Jack's back story - what happened that let Jack go up from Satellite, and why did he steal Yuusei's card and previous D-Wheel? Of course, I can already see the Jack/Yuusei fics now (folks on playthedamncard have joked about it already as well).
Of course, I'm also biased towards Yuusei because Yuya's his voice. It's weird hearing Yuya being serious, after seeing him as Puck in AirMyu. He sounds really good, though. I forgot how deep his actual speaking voice can be, again because he's higher pitched as Puck. He sounds sexy. (g) I do want to hear/see more, especially when he confronts Jack, to really see how good a job he's doing, but it's a great start.
So, I totally heart Yuya, but I must also damn him, because I really didn't need to watch 5Ds before... and now I just might have to. That's two anime I never intended to see that I'm now liking thanks to RUN&GUN (the other being Lovely Complex, thank you so much, Akira).
So, I finally got to see a fansub of the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, the latest spinoff. I will admit to serious skepticism. I mean, card duels on motorcycles??? WTF? Plus, GX never caught me, and 5Ds is probably just another attempt to extend the franchise and sell more cards. Still, Yuya's in it, and I'm a RUN&GUN/Team Bacchus from AirMyu fangirl, so I felt compelled to check it out, just to see how he does.
Surprisingly, it doesn't suck. Yes, card duels on motorcycles is still a totally crack concept, but it actually didn't look that way. It helps that the D-Wheels have an autopilot system that activates during duels. Plus, oddly enough, it seems to add to the post-apocalyptic feel at times. That feel is definitely unexpected, as well. YGO! DM could get dark at times (the Ancient Egypt arc comes to mind), but 5Ds feels gritty. I definitely didn't expect that from a YGO! show, and it is catching my attention. I definitely want to hear how Domino City became basically two cities, one bright and shiny, and one an underground slum.
Going back to the duels, the monsters have the proper YGO! feel, but I will admit that the way magic cards are limited by the automagic Speed World field card that seems to be set every time there's a Riding Duel is puzzling. Why would you want to limit yourself that way? What happens if someone manages to negate Speed World in a duel? Does anyone even use non-speed spells any more?
As for the characters, Jack Atlus is obviously the heir to Kaiba Seto's arrogance. Therefore, I love him already. (g) I do love his attitude, though, that the King has to put on a great show for the audience - he knows he's being watched, and knows what to do for his fans. Yuusei's friends may show promise, but it's too soon to tell. I did get a kick out of Rally, the little thief - she's cute and spunky.
As for our hero, he's Kaiba's and Yami no Yuugi's bastard son. (g) He's got Yami's attitude towards the cards (voice, heart, what's the difference?) and towards duelists, while he's got Seto's mad l33t hacker/techie skills. That gets two thumbs up from me. I have to admit that I want to know about his and Jack's back story - what happened that let Jack go up from Satellite, and why did he steal Yuusei's card and previous D-Wheel? Of course, I can already see the Jack/Yuusei fics now (folks on playthedamncard have joked about it already as well).
Of course, I'm also biased towards Yuusei because Yuya's his voice. It's weird hearing Yuya being serious, after seeing him as Puck in AirMyu. He sounds really good, though. I forgot how deep his actual speaking voice can be, again because he's higher pitched as Puck. He sounds sexy. (g) I do want to hear/see more, especially when he confronts Jack, to really see how good a job he's doing, but it's a great start.
So, I totally heart Yuya, but I must also damn him, because I really didn't need to watch 5Ds before... and now I just might have to. That's two anime I never intended to see that I'm now liking thanks to RUN&GUN (the other being Lovely Complex, thank you so much, Akira).