I hope you all enjoy the video, I'm sorry for the censorship that was caused by 4K Media, but the uncensored version will be up on my patreon later today which you can view for a single dollar Patreon: www.patreon.com/MangaKamen Again, sorry about the censorship, but youtube's copyright system is easily abused by corporations who don't understand fair use.
@@MugdhaMahdiShams First off, it's my channel. You don't get a say in this. Secondly, you haven't SEEN the video yet, so you don't even know what I'm saying about this. If you actually looked at the time code, I actually mostly talk about Yugioh 5d's and Aki - So this isn't a LiS strange rant. Thirdly, LiS is dead? You do know that there's a LIVE ACTION adaptation coming out, right? And they brought out the remasters of the first two games, THIS year? Not to mention people talk about old games/movies ALL THE TIME. In addition, I didn't make the rants over and over again. The last video was a compilation that people asked me for, this is literally the 5th video over the course of over 2 years that even has a focus on the series. Fourthly, not all my LiS videos focused on Chloe - At best 2 of them. The other two were about the other two games in the franchise, with hardly a focus on Chloe - Did you even watch them? And finally... You don't get to tell me how to run my channel.
I too love our big tiddy plant psychic witch lady. One of the best written characters to come out of 5DS. I wish she had more duels in the last seasons outside of the Team Unicorn and Sherry Fights.
@@Megalopros Basically, the writers didn't want to do anything with Aki and Sherry: Yusei got all the attention for the rest of 5Ds, not losing any duels to put a cherry on the cake (Leo and Luna had it worse than Aki in my opinion)
@Megálopros Well, you can thank Carly's va for that. Sherry's entire backstory literally revolves around an illuminati-like cult that killed her parents. Sound familiar? I bet the dub censored this into that meme where Sherry's parents' souls got sent to the shadow realm for whatever unexplained reason. 🙄
@@djcreepypastaclown6555 ABOUT EXPLOITATION: RUclipsr Some More Nes and Telltale both covered this, for example in their video ‚The Past, Present and Future of Work’.
You know the sad thing is that Chloe has makings of a tragic villain who takes their search for justice too far and ends up becoming worse than the monster she's trying to fight. If you didn't have magic murder professor and the tornado death scene you could have had a game where she was the ultimate antagonist due to her choices. Instead of a poisonous love interest
I do actually think Chloe could’ve worked well as an antagonist, but the main issue is that the game expects you to like her despite making her as unlikable as possible.
that's the porblem, people think that elements of symapthy make a character sympathetic even if they do terrible things or act like awful people, as long as they have 'reasons' then their behaviour is excusable. But it's not, especially in fiction. If you think the viewer will like a mean character (and one who doesn't even care about a girl trying to commit suicide, at that) just because they're saaaaaad then you're a shitty writer. Or at least need help. The game expects you to want to love Chloe and see her as a romantic interest, when the reality is she's a terrible person who doesn't learn or grow and will always be a terrible person becaus eof that.
Aki is absolutely one of the best female characters in the franchise, her story is compelling and you do feel genuinely sorry for this poor girl. She really needed someone like Yusei to reach out his hand to her. I think it’s fittingly appropriate that Stardust’s ability is called “Victim’s Sanctuary”. It is a shame that she got put in the backseat post dark signers, but at least the games like Tag Force have picked up on some of her dropped story ideas like the whole thing with the Arcadia movement and Divine.
Late to the train of thought, but the dropped story ideas is related to Dark Signers business: See it turned out someone on the cast has Cult connections and half-suspected (do not quote me on this) that it might have hit a LITTLE too close to home, with some nasty aftermath effects on the arcs to come in a way, although the Divine case has been resolved, there's some background on that one
@Kyubey210 I believe at this point, everybody either knows the truth (due to the inconsistencies with season 2 plot moving forward) or denies it for the sake of a better outcome for the series. Which left many plot holes unresolved to be desired but whatever. The damage has already been done. There's nothing we can do but talk over what 5D's could've been if all the stuff behind the scenes didn't happen. Fyi, the cult's name that Carly's va was involved was called the 'Roma Sophia' cult. A bdsm kink fetish of all things...
5Ds is honestly still my favorite series despite the issues in Season 2. I certainly think it's not objectively perfect and there's a good deal I wish could be improved, but as an overall package I still loved the show (and personally, I think the final arc lacks the issues that the rest of Season 2 had).
@HeavyDonkeyKong well, it's definitely better than most ygo shows by far despite all its flaws. GX would've been a top contender if not for the fact for how dopey wack the first two seasons were...
Akiza is the best girl of YuGiOh. I will always have a love of GX and the original anime, but 5Ds was the best season and Akiza was definitely a female character just done well.
5DS might be looked at as the “show about people playing card games on motorcycles” by the general public, but it’s fascinating how much social commentary it explored through the plot.
@@amirgarcia547 Too bad it was a bit inconsistent. At one point, an entire stadium of people hated him for simply having a mark. At another point, he could casually stroll around the city and even approach government officials without drawing any attention.
@@justinjakeashton At that point, he was a celebrity though, since he had defeated Jack Atlas and won the Fortune Cup. There's probably a "he's one of the good ones" mentalities going throughout the city. Especially since Yusei mostly kept out of the media's attention after his win at the Fortune Cup.
@@Birthday888 Many people didn't even accept the result of that duel since they never saw what happened. There was a flash of light and the duel was just over.
@@justinjakeashton Yes, and many others were cheering for Yusei. Also, I'll point out that having a Mark doesn't mean you're from Satellite, which is the real reason why everyone was initially jeering Yusei (which was a dick move from Godwin because the announcer specifically states Yusei is from Satellite). Also, I'm pretty sure Yusei doesn't go back to New Domino City until Season 3, right? At that point the Daedalus Bridge would've been finished, so there would've been more marked people wandering around Neo Domino, and enough time has passed to the point where Yusei has faded in importance in the eyes of the public. So he's probably not as recognizable. Also, Season 3 is where the writing noticeably starts degrading in quality.
Just wish we could’ve seen Aki duel more. Come to think of it, characters being underutilized or straight up getting the shaft after a while seems to be a common problem across YuGiOh.
She had 6 duels within the first 64 episodes, three of them two parters (also note she didnt make her first appearance until episode 14 so its really 6 duels in 51 episodes). Thats not too bad for a non-lead character. Now post Dark-Signers arc? Yeah she was totally shafted.
@@PhenomsServant4 At least Aki fared better than Alexis: she didn't have any wins on her own (she got wins from dual duels, but the rest of her duels are losses)
@@Megalopros Sherry seems like a late introduction to the 5Ds cast and ends up being pretty forgettable (and WE ARE TALKING about the 5Ds final boss's henchman)
I learned who Akiza is in Duel Links where she often spammed my ears off activating all these Aromage cards. Haven't watched all of 5D's yet but it surprised me how much better she was written in the first season alone over basically every other main female lead. Alexis was vastly underused from the start while Akiza was straight up shoved aside for another character.
Now that I think about it, I didn’t hate Aki’s parents when they were introduced, her father in particular, even when I saw the subbed scene that the dub left out. You could TELL he was horrified that he hit his own daughter, and that he wasn’t sure what the hell to do. It was easy to see why both Aki and parents acted the way did towards one another, even though the actions taken and words spoken were by far not the best ways to handle their problems.😔 My little highschool self almost cried seeing Aki and her parents accept one another again. You don’t always see parents in anime genuinely apologize to a child that they wronged, or even ADMIT what they did was wrong and harmful. And At the time when I saw the scene, I hadn’t seen too many anime series at that point, so this scene was especially powerful to me for that reason.🥲 I do wish they would have shown more her family’s life after they reunited, instead of a line where Aki mentions how difficult it was at first, but still…😭…tears of happiness…those damn feels.🥲
Father of the year. Let's just push our monster daughter far, far away from us and let a school that further isolates her into loneliness deal with her because as a parent, I don't have the time, luxury and capacity to understand my own daughter's problems. Bruh, isn't it a parent's duty to understand their own child? 🤦♂️ You bring them into this world only to push them further away because it's easier and more convenient than to have to deal with it as a parent... This is something a majority of household families can relate to.
@@Evil_Beauty to be fair it was less they didn't understand her they were striaght up terrifide of her remember one of the flashback scene was litt aki accedintly hurting him while showing entire room and even some of the building were destroyed while on fire there reaction was understanable was it right hell no but understanable there human a species that are inherently flawed
@frank spick Aki had no control over over her psychic powers. Instead of TRYING to understand, they joined the bandwagon and labeled her as a "witch" out of fear and ignorance. And that's exactly what they got. They wanted a monstrous witch; they got one.
The major difference I see is that Aki wants someone to help her. Chloe does not. That's what separates the tragic from the bad boys (and bad girls). If someone wants to be helped, they will make it known - they will blame and loath themselves - and that's when you reach out to them. If they don't want to be saved - they'd rather blame and hurt others than take accountability - avoid them.
Manga you are absolutely crushing it with the vids lately. As someone who's convinced folks to take the 5Ds ride and seen them marvel at what it does right, this little case study was a delight.
If you're going to recommend 5D's to newcomers, you HAVE to recommend them to watch the Japanese sub version. There are things only the original Japanese version explains in further detail and shows that the dub leaves out.
When I first saw Aki in 5ds I honestly felt like I had a character I could relate to. My early teen years were a dark time. It was some heavy that dod involve parents being divorced and chasing down a father thay didnt give the time nor affection. It left scars. Aki was a great written character and overcame her obstacles and did mend her family dynamic. And while I may not have the same ending as her with my dad I did overcome a lot. Best Girl in all of yugioh and still my fav boss dragon
Ah yes my favorite wai- female YGO character and my favorite anime of all time, Aki and Yugioh 5Ds. And sh**ting on Chloe once again, another great video. For the Reaching Out section, there was some symbolism that I remember; Stardust's effect which stops any destructive effect, as Yusei names this effect, "Victim Sanctuary", which Aki is the victim herself, with Black Rose wildly thrashing showing that inner emotional conflict of Aki and Yusei (Sanctuary) is reaching out to her, venting out all of her sorrow, trying to open her closed heart which he manages to by breaking her mask which we see her tearing up, pleading for help. It's a really powerful episode, a favorite of mine.
Aki went from a genuinely good character to a background prop once crow was introduced. It took until Sevens and the studio change to actually get well executed female characters in Yugioh
It will never stop baffling me how many times better female characterization came about...only to get kneecapped hard. Again and again. Harder and harder each time. After how much the creators seemed to _relish_ making Aoi suffer and wasting Emma...one can only imagine how much a seventh Gallop female lead would have been ground under heel.
@@christopherb501 Honestly, I think that Rio from ZeXal had it the worst. As if being comatose for the first half the series wasn't enough, she keeps suffering loss after loss and constantly put out of commission AGAIN when it seems like she only just got properly introduced. Even turning Varian did absolutely nothing to help her case. What's even sadder is that, compared to other boy-centric hobby anime like Beyblade, Yu-gi-oh!'s actually halfway decent about portraying female characters..... like, I get they're going for one type of target audience, but it's not like girls aren't completely disinterested in such hobbies (and really, how much upper-body strength do you actually need to shuffle a deck or launch a battle top?). But for what it's worth, I don't think certain female audiences particularly mind (no joke, Yu-gi-oh! may be one of the single biggest fujoshi magnets out there).
@@eavyeavy2864 Pretty much the reason I won't be bothering with the lore manga now. First story announced? Sky Striker, something female-centric. And who's the announced writer? SAME DAMN GUY, along with his same artist compatriot for the Zexal and Arc-V manga. At this point, I am beyond wanting to give Shin Yoshida the benefit of the doubt, and I just want him to *GO AWAY.*
The problem with Crow is that he was initially supposed to be the BBEG of the Dark Signer Arc. They changed it in an absolute last-minute decision when most of the season was already done, not only sidelining Akiza but also butchering Leo's whole arc - who, btw, was supposed to be the fifth signer, as shown by Lifestream Dragon being in the flashback. And why did they do it? Because "Blackwing was so popular". It wasn't even because of Crow, it was because of his F*CKING DECK! Seriously, I'll never forgive whoever drunkard thought that was a good call. That together with the whole situation around Carly's VA ruined what would've otherwise easily been the greatest YGO-Generation (story wise).
Aki was probably the last good female character we had for a while. In Zexal, yes we did have Rio, but she seemed more of a reason for the character development for Shark rather than her being her own character. And Kotori... Jesus Christ. In Arc-V, we obviously have the bracelet girls. Ruri and Rin did jack shit the entire anime, only serving as fuel for Yuto and Yugo, Yuzu was like Aki but worse, Serena was the only one that seemed to stay constant throughout the show and was a character i genuinely liked. Ironically, this is my favourite yugioh anime despite its MANY flaws... In VRAINS, we have Emma and Aoi. Emma doesn't have the best track record in terms of dueling and while the anime tries to make her show off as more competent, the fact she barely won any of her duels doesn't help. Yeah, she is a good hacker, but so is like, 90% of the cast. Aoi was probably the one closest to being like Aki: she started being part of the main trio, she had a good character arc, but was then shafted by the introduction of a secondary male character whose archetype got too popular. But the Miyu thing completely ruined her for me because it was so out of nowhere. She suddenly remembers this girl she met once and in the same episode, finds the Ignis that belongs to her friend and suddenly it's part of her character arc? I don't know, it doesn't just feel right with me. In SEVENS, i believe we not only have one, but several good female characters.
If we talk about SEVENS, the equivalent of Aki would be Asana: good presentation, good ideology, consistent characterization and an unusual deck for a female character (Wyrm) While Romin exists, she had standout duels and had a character arc that had closure, I find Asana to be a better made character than Romin.
In ZEXAL we had Anna who was comic relief more often than not but broke a bunch of conventions about female Yugioh characters, mostly the fact that her deck is not just the girliest archetype available and being tomboyish as heck. Serena is amazing but the show sidelined her hard in the end.
And then we have Anzu/Tea in DM lol... Who supposedly has the "best" duel record despite not having any relative importance throughout the entire show lol... Except maybe her duel with Penguin Dude, she did cheated at the end, though. Aoi's character growth was so weird... She went from using Trickstars to using an entirely new deck after that ONE loss from Soulburner. And to add insult to injury, it was supposedly the episode where she "evolved" from Blue Angel to Blue Girl (why the downgrade lol) where she had an extra deck monster outside of links as proof of her "evolving" character. Her character development went up and down just like her avatar changes lol...
To tell you the truth the character I looked up to as a kid was Akiza and want to be like her. Also even developed a character crush. I would try so hard to get Red Rose Dragon when I tried to use it would blow up and surprise me later as my weapon to destroy everything on the field. But I wanted to use a better way to help instead of destroying so I used Stardust. At first, I didn’t know what would happen when two meet and destroy each other once again, but eventually I learn how to use them together to help each other I figure it out. Now in the future there Black Rose Moonglow dragon it fit my style. Fitting my Lillie and Akiza's way of life as well. I developed my witch persona as well and worse even multiple masks. I’m lucky that I had a loving hand to catch me were loving and before I became a destructive force of nature. I blossom into a beautiful Lillie, people even help me grow a black garden. Helping me break free even if they got in my ivy shackles as well. I love the thumbnail as much as love Akiza, how did you figure out a way for me to make me lover her even more? Not to self to go to you if I want an Akiza look. Love the vid MangaKamen, keep up the good work.
@@diamanten1009 he’s so popular? Not really. I see more people hate him even back then over like him. I think he’s just a scapegoat for the decline in quality
An example of a tragic character that is well written and incredibly well done in video games for me is Alice Lideell from american mcgge Alice e Alice madness returns because despite the tragedies and traumas she has been throught she does her best to stay sane and carry on forward and she despite making mistakes and often neglecting herself and the outside she learns from her mistakes and matures as a person and deals with her problems in the best way possible with ups and downs. PS:great and deep analysis vídeo as always
Black Rose Love! Very happy to see you talk about Aki, since she is awesome! Tragic that such an initially well-written character got sidelined, but that is an unfortunate consistency in Yu-Gi-Oh anime…
Actually Kamen, this video just shows how much you’ve grown as a creator. I watched your old Batwoman video going over the first episode, and looking at that as a point of comparison for how you handle these situations, wether intentional or not, you handled it very well! The tv background fits much better with an older show, and the edits aren’t entirely in the tv background the whole time. Great job, and a great video to boot.
Aki for me was one of the best female leads. She ranks pretty high on my list of female leads and she made me very happy while also a little disappointed at the end of the show.
I love the backstory of Aki since I watch the show around 2009 and I feel that the first part of the series has the best writing in all of the animated Yu-Gi-Oh. And since then I have been obsessed with her until this day.
2:08 In 5D's the upper crust is in Tops specifically while the rest of Neo Domino is more of the upper-middle class. Arc-V didn't include Tops and made the entirety of "City"/Neo Domino the 1% because of the whole "there is no middle class" thing.
Always hate how 5DS never got a chance to live up to it's full potential, The Arcadia Movement and Carly were set up as major parts of the story, but because her voice actress was found to be part of a cult, all that stuff was cut and Carly was given basically a background role. In turn we were robbed of what likely would've been a lot more development for Akaza as a character. Writers should've just sucked it up and pushed forward.
Personally, I consider her the best Female YUGIOH character of the whole series. Aki has gone through so much, yet she changed for the better, especially when she began to trust Yusei. It’s one of the reasons 5D is amongst my favorite SERIES.
Before I watch it due to the disclaimer I gotta say I appreciate you and your videos as well as the work you and your team put into it. I'm sorry 4kids is being scummy as usual and I wish them a long and unrelenting rest in the depths of the netherworld. You and your team can enjoy a banquet fit for the gods. Thank you MangaKamen and team for all you do!
Even having watched the dub version (I was young and watched it as it aired), the message still comes across clearly. It's why to the day she's still one of my favorite characters from the series, unlike other characters, she has actual development. I mean how much of Yugi's entourage can say that? Heck, how many Yu-Gi-Oh characters besides the lead can say that at all?
@@V-Jes The biggest offenders of this are Zexal, VRAINS, and 5Ds Post-Dark Signers. Zexal: The only ones that matter are Yuma, Astral, Shark and Kaito (along with some antagonists) VRAINS: The only ones that matter are Playmaker, Soulburner and Revolver (the rest are extras or die every so often) 5Ds: The only ones that matter are Yusei, Crow and Jack (although Jack had a hard time) I would also say GX, but (aside from Jaden stealing all the duels) there are characters who have their moments to shine (and even defeat main antagonists like Supreme King)
TBQH, my main problem with Crow isn't even because of him stealing Akiza's spotlight in season 2. He committed a grave crime before that - he stole _Leo's_ spotlight in season 1. Rumor has it that Leo was originally going to be the fifth Signer, and indicators such as the appearance of Lifestream Dragon in a flashback with the five Signer dragons point toward that as well... but then Crow just swooped in and ruined all that because Blackwings good. Granted, this is mostly just because I actually liked the twins and thought they deserved more than the objectively worst Dark Signer duel and becoming little more than ineffectual cheerleaders in season 2, but. Aki's not the only one who got shafted by Crow.
@@gyppygirl2021 I’m pretty sure that that theory got shafted given the nature of how anime is produced and release, but I completely agree Crow was a completely unnecessary character and Leo should’ve gotten the mark at the end of the Dark Signer arc.
And if the writers needed to have Crow, he could’ve been inspiration for Lua. Both of them spend the Dark Signers arc as characters without signs and we could have gotten a great arc for Lua understanding his own self worth. There was a lot of potential with him not having a mark being a source of insecurity. They could have proved that they didn’t need marks to be helpful, and then after all of that effort, Lua could have been rewarded a mark, or better: neither of them got one. I feel like by giving a mark to every relevant character it portrays that you can only be important if you have a mark,, which kind of sucked for Lua because he really got shoved aside until he was needed for cheerleading and doing one cool thing around 80 episodes later. It also could have been interesting to have Crow lose in his duel with Bommer to up the scare factor of the Dark Signers. If we put this before the Demak duel, the DS become a bigger bad and something more dangerous for Luca and Lua. Lua would then display a lot of courage going up against someone from the same group that defeated his would-be role model, and we’d get a much more satisfying arc for him in general. Anyway this is just me rambling of would-be scenarios without any editing. Apologies if it’s messy hahah
Amazin Work MangaKamen. This is definitely my favorite of all your videos. And god bless that beautiful art you made. Keep up the great work. Aki is the best written ygo girl in the series overall despite the missteps in later seasons. Keep up the amazing work!
Looking forward to more on Aki, easily my favorite female character also featured in my favorite season in yugioh. When I tell friends just enough of what happens to Carly, Misty and Aki (up to end of dark signers) they don't believe me when I tell them its yugioh. Especially 5Ds. I just... We have Egyptian gods crafted onto one card(if copied they smite you, really). We have a school island with an active volcano where MANY supernatural things happen. And wilder things, but no. It was motorcycles that was TOO FAR.
God I love akiza/ aki so much as a character. The sub has been on my watchlist for a while now but I'm getting the urge to watch it thanks to content like this. 5ds is one of my favorite seasons of yugioh for multiple reasons and aki is one of them. I kinda wished they didnt put her on the back burner in the later seasons and gave her more stuff to do but it is what it is. Also I would LOVE to see her black rose dragon get a proper upgrade like yusei and Jack's dragons. Maybe a majestic rose dragon or something lol
I had never heard of Aki before today, and I have an appreciation for her backstory because of this video. Lots of people lash out and follow the wrong people out of loneliness and desperation for connection. Chloe lashing out and being a jerk isn’t really the problem in LIS-she’s still bearing a trauma, her “Divine” is missing, and though her mother does try to be supportive, it sometimes feels like she’s given up. The issue with Chloe is that she doesn’t grow and take responsibility for her behaviour until the game is about to end, leading to a fun example of telling, not showing. We don’t get to see Chloe changing now that Max is back in her life. Most of the moments where she seems happy or she’s bonding with Max are constantly undercut by another moment of Chloe being verbally abusive or manipulative. The writers had the groundwork but failed to solidify the foundation.
Oh man, she’s awesome in Season 1. And she even RESCUES the main character when he’s kidnapped later on. Yes, you read that right that right. A yugioh girl rescuing the main lead.🤩 Plus there’s even enough chemistry between her and the main lead, that made them one of my earliest anime ships during highschool, and is still one of my strongest.🥰👍
@@lunartears6761 Aki rescued Yusei at the beginning of s2. But agree with everything else. If they were in almost any other anime Yusei and Aki could’ve reached Edward and Winry level popularity.
@@PhenomsServant4 that’s what I was referring to.😅 That made her badass to me, because when I saw 5d’s, it was the newest Yugioh spinoff. Tea and Alexis were the previous heroines, so Aki actually saving Yusei with her OWN abilities with little help (especially since crow and jack blew it off😂), cemented her as the best female lead In yugioh (at least to me), and I still think that, even with other the existing spin-offs. It’s a damn shame, and a missed opportunity that they nerfed her for the most part after that, especially due to behind the scenes drama with Carly’s actress.😔
@@lunartears6761 The cult thing would only end up affecting Carly (and Aki, but mostly everything related to the Psychic Duelist Movement) Doesn't take away from the fact that Leo and Luna were wasted after the Dark Signers arc (with Aki following them since other plots could have been developed for her that are not related to the Movement, but the writers didn't want that and took away her powers)
Not really.... Tea was useless Mai was underused Alexis was underused Aki had an amazing story and development only she became less important in the later seasons Tori was useless Rio was underused Yuzu did start well but later got wasted in the most humiliating way possible Blue angel/girl/maiden started ok but was really badly treated in the majority of the series in the most humiliating way possible
@@pokeymaster9415 I was thinking Celina or Serena. Yeah the bracelet girls got wrecked but they’re still head and shoulders above the rest. Her and Akiza are the best
@@pokeymaster9415 Don't forget Carly, Sherry and Emma. Carly: Aki Treatment 2.0, but she became more useless. Sherry: Pretty forgettable for a villain's henchman. Emma: Nothing standout about her other than being a hot girl. This all feels weird not having a decent female character during the Studio Gallop era (well... we have Aki, Tea and Serena I guess)
6:27 LK made dismissive jokes about GX too but apparently he's actually been enjoying it after actually watching it. I'm sure the same will be true of 5D's if and when he gets around to it.
While akiza is sidelined for season 2, I do like the small snippets we do get during that span. Learning to be a riding duelist, that one duel akiza did have vs team unicorn until crow used his healing factor to heal his arm months too early, that sherry tag duel, and of course moving on with her life to be a doctor.
This is a great video. As a 5ds lover you properly explained everything about her and the setting of 5ds which is why I keep trying to get my friends to watch the sub.
Mangakamen, I just watched your analysis of Akiza Izinski, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Admittedly, Akiza was my first anime crush, and my favourite of the YuGiOh girls; she is, personally, the most captivating. A sentiment I maintain to this day. Akiza was discriminated because her psychic abilities. Estranged by her parents, alienated by her peers, she eventually creates the black rose persona, like a totem from which to draw strength. Desperate, she reaches out for help and comfort, and Sayer twists her pain to his advantage. Then enter Yusei, another social outcast, reaches out with compassion and understanding, he guides Akiza to overcome her isolation, realising that she is not alone. She has friends. She has family. And most importantly, she is loved. Overall, I still believe Aki to be the best YuGiOh girl. A skilled duelist, an intriguing person, her tragic story is another testament to 5d's being one of my favourite series; the real world problems from systematic oppression, to class warfare, and generic discrimination, make the series so grounded and relatable. Good luck with your channel, I hope it expands far and wide. Peace ✌🏻
U can say what you want about the script but the casting was great I love everyones voices, and there is far less of GX questionable voices because of 5D's more serious tone
I think I found a new drinking game for Mangakamen. Take a shot every time he; References Yugioh Talks crap about Life is Strange References Persona References Jojo's Bizarre Adventures
The voice acting in the first three Yu-Gi-Oh series was stellar. So I really feel bad for people that only watched dub. Yugi's voice, Kaiba's voice, Judai's voice, Yubel's voice, Yusei's voice, Aki's voice. Yusei's monologues were basically the highlight of 5D, which is why it worked when his monologue convinced Aki to change.
Aki is someone anyone can relate to when it came getting bullied in school. I was in middle school when I was bullied and it got too intense when I almost went mute bcuz it was too cruel. Watching aki getting help had me crying as a teenager while aslo given me hope. I'm actually happy I watched 5DS since it's actually my favorite yu-gi-oh series.
It’s a shame Aki got shafted after season 2. The head writer changed between season 2 and 3 and the new head writer went on record saying “I have no idea how to write female characters”. So he just didn’t try to and benched Aki. There’s an episode in a later season where there’s a tournament and Aki is literally labelled as a “benchwarmer”. It also doesn’t help that Aki’s VA was part of cult but that didn’t come out till later and wasn’t the reason she got written out of the show.
I really enjoyed aki's story She went through alot and it leads her to alot of experiences which is more than can really be said for Female leads before & unfortunately after Cause future seasons never develop the lead this much ever again
@@christopherb501 everyone gave up sevense from the moment they saw it and so they don't agnoladge it's existence (And i say that as someone who watched and enjoyed it,)
my favorite character of all yugioh series, and the existence of duel links make me like her more i could role play as her! Plus black rose effect so satisfying to pulled off, imagine if yugioh solid vision and psychic duelist are real, and that dragon is the last thing you see before you lose terrifying.
Aki was fascinating for me to watch in the 1st 2 seasons which at the time in yu-gi-oh anime it wasn't that common then. So she made in impact and made us root for her.
Even with the rushed resolution of her storyline and the general (but not complete) sidelining of her character, Aki is still pretty well done, and of the first six (I haven't seen how Romin's story plays out, but I hear that she's rather good for having such low stakes, so she's comparatively as good), still easily the best. Anzu is undeniably a strong emotional character, but the nature of the story means it's not worth as much as one would like to hope. Or, rather, in spite of the sheer behind the scenes shitstorm that caused the redrafting of the second half, primarily Konami's decision to cash in the fad of Blackwings, Aki's character still is rather strong when taken into wider context. I personally don't mind all that much that she got sidelined, mostly coz I look at that period as a time for her to heal and recover her life, even away from the frontlines. If it meant staying out of active dueling against the bad guys, then one can't really blame her. Blame the writing, not her. (I just found out that the marriage reasoning for Aki's VA isn't the case). It's still janky, and the only true success she had from the second arc to the ending (yes, the ending was a win for her IYKWIM) was emotionally carrying the 2v1 against Sherry. Crow was faltering, but Aki was the one who stood her ground against Sherry using her own experiences to snap Sherry out of what Aki saw as the same trap she fell into in Divine's hands. The false promise of salvation, safety, and happiness fueling her to ruin the futures of others. Crow was merely the muscle of the fight, but Aki was the MVP of that 2v1. (Side note: I actually like Crow. I don't like the idea that he was originally meant to be villainous/antagonistic in any form, let alone the final Dark Signer, but I do agree that turning him into a Signer over Ruka first was a bad move. It would've been nice if he was a normal, albeit powerful, member of the team. If he had to be a Signer, let it be at the end. Yusei needed at least ONE member of the former Team Satisfaction to NOT have been antagonistic to him from the get go.) Aki did get sorta sidelined, but it was still a lot better than Yuzu becoming a plot device after ep 77 and Aoi constantly being overhyped but always failing to live up to the hype of her development.
Only thing I have to disagree on is Crow getting pushed because of his cards. This is inconsistent with numerous other occasions. Cards like Shaddolls, Nekroz and Monarchs are potent and popular, never show up or are only used by one-shot losers. Cards like Trickstars and Altergeists are potent and popular, and used by well-liked characters, they get shafted like crazy. Cards like the OG E-Heroes and Neo-Spacians make no competitive splash in their own day, get shilled in the show constantly. The "buy Blackwings" theory doesn't hold up given all the other cards out there that get a push or don't, unless there's an executive(s) that just _really_ likes the fruits of the birdbrain and wants to keep doling them out for some reason.
Aki’s not only the best female character to come from Yugioh, but imo flat-out the best Yugioh character in general. While it’s a shame how much she becomes sidelined in the later seasons, she’s basically near perfection in the Dark Signers arc, and her relationship with Divine is honestly the most tragic part of her story. Being that while this anime involves children card’s games and people with weird magic powers, Divine is pretty much a parallel to abusers in real life. Where they’ll take advantage of someone who’s hurt or vulnerable just to use them for their own selfish needs. And despite how terrible Divine was, because he was the one who gave Aki a helping hand when no one else would, her entire perspective of him was clouded and distorted-again, just like abuse irl. It’s really deep and solid themes to portray in a show that’s primarily marketed to children, and while they didn’t handle Aki’s character perfectly, as I said, what’s there was still strong enough to have her truly capture my heart. And while this video is mostly Aki-centered, I’ll definitely never grow tired of hearing you dunk on Chloe lol. As I always say, I truly think she would’ve worked much better as an antagonist, but the fact that the creators make her character so unlikable despite clearly intending for you to like her just goes to show how much they screwed up with writing her character.
What makes Aki's situation worse is how you can connect every Signer Dragon to a form of protecting people. Stardust Dragon is a defender, constantly coming back to protect. Red Dragon Archfiend uses absolute power. The others each have effects that allow them to protect themselves and their duelist. Then there's Black Rose Dragon. Her form of protecting is through sacrifice. She is summoned and takes out everything, at the cost of herself. Her other effect isn't exactly used to protect, but the cost is sacrificing what was possibly an ally that helped her. Also, what was the obsession with skirts on almost everyone?
This makes me appreciate not just Akiza but the 5ds series. It was able to tackle real dark topics and do a good job at it. Akiza is the best female Yugioh character. Hate how she got replaced by Crow, especially after all that growth, but still appreciate her nonetheless. I still love and appreciate 5ds and it's still my favorite Yugioh series of all time. However, I can't say the same about Chloe. Very self-absorbed, thinks all her problems are far worse than others, and will practically dangle that guilt above Max's head. Not to mention she doesn't change anything about herself or properly addresses her flaws. She's just unbearable to deal with. Yeah, I feel bad for her backstory but that's where it ends.
Sorry you ran into problems with 4K Media. Companies tend to put copyright claims on everything. As much as I loved this video, I can't wait to see the third part of your "problems with the girls of Yu-Gi-Oh" series (and hopefully a video analyzing Yubel).
I don't remember how I found out about your channel or stumbled into watching your videos lol as far as I can tell I've been subscribed for a long time. But damn I just got into binge watching your stuff, and I love it. Totally enjoy what you do, you clearly put a fair amount of effort into it, and it shows in your production quality. It's been very fun to watch and dare I say it's educational in a very fun way. Keep it bro, I'm so glad you made these videos.
Another difference I feel between Aki and Chloe is that Chloe chose to be the terrible person she became. She had every chance to stop and didn't take it. While Aki, Aki felt she didn't have that choice or the chance to stop. But when she realized she could stop, she did. Aki chose to be better and make up for the bad things she did. Chloe doesn't give a fuck about what she does.
@@PhenomsServant4 I know he was even supposed to be the final dark signer but I’m glad they didn’t do that because he would’ve had a even dumber motivation than Declan
In my own fantasy I re-imagine what Aki and Yusei part 2 should have been like along with her plot: Essentially the plot would still be the same and Yusei still does win. But post duel she uses her psychic powers and runs away back to Arcadia instead of forgiving her parents and hugging them. She then begins to reflect and question does her parents truly miss her and even asks Divine in which he sees he's going to lose his valuable asset he continues to essentially manipulate and brainwash her. Or she keeps telling herself that they abandoned her and that Divine is her top priority showing he has a grip on her emotionally. Divine seeing Aki troubled asks what's wrong and she tells him what happened and about her mark(Idk if Divine knows about her mark at all but if she did then scrap her telling him about the mark). Back to the cast. Her mom then breaks down and essentially gets her own character moment, aside saying very to no little dialogue, expressing how it's their fault and how she misses her daughter and possibly bringing up any fun times they had. The father continues to ask Yusei for help and they do so with Luna then expressing how her monsters feel since she can sense duel spirits and even say what her Ace truly feels like with how Ancient Fairy dragon can talk she can hear the signer dragons voices and basically be the communication between the humans and dragons instead of having Ancient fairy dragon being the only dragon to essentially talk. The overall thing would be Aki questions herself and the words Yusei tells her echoes through her mind but Divine eases her so she is being pulled back and forth. This could set up Yusei vs Divine but then that would set her up as a damsel so instead, she could have her turnabout and then notices when she asks questions regarding what he sees her and he slips or she overhears a conversation of Divine and a grunt or Arcadia grunts talking about her and how she is nothing more than a tool. Another way to set up Divine vs Aki is that she finds out Divine killed Misty's brother and how he killed lots of people. Seeing this she then sees the hole she dug for herself and decides to take matters into her own hands and stop him since his next target were going to be Rua and Ruka (Leo and Luna in the dub). She didn't want the blood on her hands knowing 2 kids died after the other deaths of including Misty's brother since she was blamed for that but she then knows the truth. And shoot if they did follow that plot of Aki going against Divine Crow could have been a dark signer that Divine killed during his experiment too or was killled trying to save a child from the orphanage who was rumored to have psychic powers but were of satellite so the higher ups didn't care and would show the oppression that those with a mark have still so he wants to take out the entire Arcadia movement and even its members while Yusei recognizes its Crow and hasn't heard from him since when they were little or on a day he goes off by himself and Yusei couldn't stop him. The rest? Well I haven't come up with anything else.
5:14 who came up with the designs for neo spacian’s cause I just wanna know why some just rock an entire bakery and a half ON TOP OF all the “back shot” angles you get throughout the series. Hell as dedication to the craft I sat through the ENTIRETY of GX anime and took so many screenshots of 90% of all close up booty angles I filled a discord server with them with E heros/neo spacian ‘s alone-
I didn't really think much of Yu-Gi-Oh crushes back then, I was legit more focused on the card games, but now, Aki's in my Top 3 Yu-Gi-Oh waifu list. Mostly because she's one of few yu-gi-oh girls to actually duel all the time, instead of just sit back and only duel every now and then for plot reasons
The best female character in this entire franchise. Who proceeds to do basically nothing for half the show and is regulated to a literal team benchwarmer. Kinda says everything about Yu-Gi-Oh female characters.
At least she wasn't thrown thru a building and turned into both a brainwashed damsel AND a literal MacGuffin in a tube (in quadruplicate, no less!), or killed off three times in one show. ...GODS it is sad when despite Aki's downturn, she's STILL by far the best-treated leading lady in the Gallop era...
I hope you all enjoy the video, I'm sorry for the censorship that was caused by 4K Media, but the uncensored version will be up on my patreon later today which you can view for a single dollar
Patreon: www.patreon.com/MangaKamen
Again, sorry about the censorship, but youtube's copyright system is easily abused by corporations who don't understand fair use.
can u scream AMONGUS in ur next video
I really think you're overdoing it now man. Chloe sucks, we get it. But LiS is dead now so move on instead of making LiS rants over and over again.
@@MugdhaMahdiShams First off, it's my channel. You don't get a say in this.
Secondly, you haven't SEEN the video yet, so you don't even know what I'm saying about this. If you actually looked at the time code, I actually mostly talk about Yugioh 5d's and Aki - So this isn't a LiS strange rant.
Thirdly, LiS is dead?
You do know that there's a LIVE ACTION adaptation coming out, right? And they brought out the remasters of the first two games, THIS year?
Not to mention people talk about old games/movies ALL THE TIME.
In addition, I didn't make the rants over and over again. The last video was a compilation that people asked me for, this is literally the 5th video over the course of over 2 years that even has a focus on the series.
Fourthly, not all my LiS videos focused on Chloe - At best 2 of them. The other two were about the other two games in the franchise, with hardly a focus on Chloe - Did you even watch them?
And finally... You don't get to tell me how to run my channel.
@@zer0vanisher796 Pay me 200 on Ko-Fi, and sure.
Yes I enjoyed the video for sure thanks for putting so much work in your videos!
I too love our big tiddy plant psychic witch lady. One of the best written characters to come out of 5DS. I wish she had more duels in the last seasons outside of the Team Unicorn and Sherry Fights.
Same here
@@Megalopros Basically, the writers didn't want to do anything with Aki and Sherry: Yusei got all the attention for the rest of 5Ds, not losing any duels to put a cherry on the cake (Leo and Luna had it worse than Aki in my opinion)
Yeah same here
@Megálopros Well, you can thank Carly's va for that. Sherry's entire backstory literally revolves around an illuminati-like cult that killed her parents. Sound familiar? I bet the dub censored this into that meme where Sherry's parents' souls got sent to the shadow realm for whatever unexplained reason. 🙄
@@djcreepypastaclown6555 ABOUT EXPLOITATION:
RUclipsr Some More Nes and Telltale both covered this,
for example in their video ‚The Past, Present and Future of Work’.
You know the sad thing is that Chloe has makings of a tragic villain who takes their search for justice too far and ends up becoming worse than the monster she's trying to fight. If you didn't have magic murder professor and the tornado death scene you could have had a game where she was the ultimate antagonist due to her choices. Instead of a poisonous love interest
I do actually think Chloe could’ve worked well as an antagonist, but the main issue is that the game expects you to like her despite making her as unlikable as possible.
OH! I think I can see her as that instead ironicly.
You could’ve even have her go through an actual redemption arc
that's the porblem, people think that elements of symapthy make a character sympathetic even if they do terrible things or act like awful people, as long as they have 'reasons' then their behaviour is excusable.
But it's not, especially in fiction. If you think the viewer will like a mean character (and one who doesn't even care about a girl trying to commit suicide, at that) just because they're saaaaaad then you're a shitty writer. Or at least need help.
The game expects you to want to love Chloe and see her as a romantic interest, when the reality is she's a terrible person who doesn't learn or grow and will always be a terrible person becaus eof that.
@@sarafontanini7051 idk if you're describing Chloe or the diamonds from steven universe lmao
Aki is absolutely one of the best female characters in the franchise, her story is compelling and you do feel genuinely sorry for this poor girl. She really needed someone like Yusei to reach out his hand to her.
I think it’s fittingly appropriate that Stardust’s ability is called “Victim’s Sanctuary”.
It is a shame that she got put in the backseat post dark signers, but at least the games like Tag Force have picked up on some of her dropped story ideas like the whole thing with the Arcadia movement and Divine.
A misunderstood character with an actual backstory. Unlike a certain bird brain with broom stick hair...
Late to the train of thought, but the dropped story ideas is related to Dark Signers business:
See it turned out someone on the cast has Cult connections and half-suspected (do not quote me on this) that it might have hit a LITTLE too close to home, with some nasty aftermath effects on the arcs to come in a way, although the Divine case has been resolved, there's some background on that one
@Kyubey210 I believe at this point, everybody either knows the truth (due to the inconsistencies with season 2 plot moving forward) or denies it for the sake of a better outcome for the series. Which left many plot holes unresolved to be desired but whatever. The damage has already been done. There's nothing we can do but talk over what 5D's could've been if all the stuff behind the scenes didn't happen.
Fyi, the cult's name that Carly's va was involved was called the 'Roma Sophia' cult. A bdsm kink fetish of all things...
5Ds is honestly still my favorite series despite the issues in Season 2.
I certainly think it's not objectively perfect and there's a good deal I wish could be improved, but as an overall package I still loved the show (and personally, I think the final arc lacks the issues that the rest of Season 2 had).
@HeavyDonkeyKong well, it's definitely better than most ygo shows by far despite all its flaws. GX would've been a top contender if not for the fact for how dopey wack the first two seasons were...
The distorted Audio is perfect for this even if not intentional because of 4k media
Still wished I could've shown the scenes.
@@Mangakamen true but it's better than get a strike for fair use
@@Mangakamen I know that feel. Creativity and passion getting stifled always sucks.
@A Cool YooToobist memories from 4kids 🙃
@A Cool YooToobist You must be a elitist who like to cast judgement before thinking. I was a KID back then
Akiza is the best girl of YuGiOh. I will always have a love of GX and the original anime, but 5Ds was the best season and Akiza was definitely a female character just done well.
Nah you capping ong
I thought GX was the terrible one?
GX definitely isn't better than 5DS
Not n the slightest. She was barely a character
If Aki is barely a character then all the other female leads are cardboard.
5DS might be looked at as the “show about people playing card games on motorcycles” by the general public, but it’s fascinating how much social commentary it explored through the plot.
Ikr, just the whole thing of Yusei being hated and looked down upon just because he’s from Satellite I thought was mighty interesting.
@@amirgarcia547 Too bad it was a bit inconsistent. At one point, an entire stadium of people hated him for simply having a mark. At another point, he could casually stroll around the city and even approach government officials without drawing any attention.
@@justinjakeashton At that point, he was a celebrity though, since he had defeated Jack Atlas and won the Fortune Cup. There's probably a "he's one of the good ones" mentalities going throughout the city. Especially since Yusei mostly kept out of the media's attention after his win at the Fortune Cup.
@@Birthday888 Many people didn't even accept the result of that duel since they never saw what happened. There was a flash of light and the duel was just over.
@@justinjakeashton Yes, and many others were cheering for Yusei. Also, I'll point out that having a Mark doesn't mean you're from Satellite, which is the real reason why everyone was initially jeering Yusei (which was a dick move from Godwin because the announcer specifically states Yusei is from Satellite).
Also, I'm pretty sure Yusei doesn't go back to New Domino City until Season 3, right? At that point the Daedalus Bridge would've been finished, so there would've been more marked people wandering around Neo Domino, and enough time has passed to the point where Yusei has faded in importance in the eyes of the public. So he's probably not as recognizable.
Also, Season 3 is where the writing noticeably starts degrading in quality.
Just wish we could’ve seen Aki duel more. Come to think of it, characters being underutilized or straight up getting the shaft after a while seems to be a common problem across YuGiOh.
She had 6 duels within the first 64 episodes, three of them two parters (also note she didnt make her first appearance until episode 14 so its really 6 duels in 51 episodes). Thats not too bad for a non-lead character. Now post Dark-Signers arc? Yeah she was totally shafted.
@@PhenomsServant4 At least Aki fared better than Alexis: she didn't have any wins on her own (she got wins from dual duels, but the rest of her duels are losses)
@@Megalopros Sherry seems like a late introduction to the 5Ds cast and ends up being pretty forgettable (and WE ARE TALKING about the 5Ds final boss's henchman)
@@Megalopros Aki's VA was mostly absent from Season 2's production, hence why she got benched as a result.
@@Megalopros Production times =/= Episode airdates
I learned who Akiza is in Duel Links where she often spammed my ears off activating all these Aromage cards. Haven't watched all of 5D's yet but it surprised me how much better she was written in the first season alone over basically every other main female lead. Alexis was vastly underused from the start while Akiza was straight up shoved aside for another character.
Lmaooo, that is an unfortunate introduction to her character
Either can be used with Aromage in fuel links
Aromages are very annoying to deal with. But in story Akiza does say a lot of sad stuff like being sorry for disappointing her friends etc.
waigt a minute. I USE AKIZA AND AROMAGE!!!! Wait...Yeah I do. That's the character and deck i use...
@@redthewifeyhunter4034 you tried a Rose Dragon deck with her? I'd like to but I only have 1 Black Rose so I can't use Black Rose Gale.
Now that I think about it, I didn’t hate Aki’s parents when they were introduced, her father in particular, even when I saw the subbed scene that the dub left out. You could TELL he was horrified that he hit his own daughter, and that he wasn’t sure what the hell to do. It was easy to see why both Aki and parents acted the way did towards one another, even though the actions taken and words spoken were by far not the best ways to handle their problems.😔
My little highschool self almost cried seeing Aki and her parents accept one another again. You don’t always see parents in anime genuinely apologize to a child that they wronged, or even ADMIT what they did was wrong and harmful. And At the time when I saw the scene, I hadn’t seen too many anime series at that point, so this scene was especially powerful to me for that reason.🥲
I do wish they would have shown more her family’s life after they reunited, instead of a line where Aki mentions how difficult it was at first, but still…😭…tears of happiness…those damn feels.🥲
Father of the year. Let's just push our monster daughter far, far away from us and let a school that further isolates her into loneliness deal with her because as a parent, I don't have the time, luxury and capacity to understand my own daughter's problems. Bruh, isn't it a parent's duty to understand their own child? 🤦♂️ You bring them into this world only to push them further away because it's easier and more convenient than to have to deal with it as a parent... This is something a majority of household families can relate to.
@@Evil_Beauty I’m not excusing it. It wasn’t right of them to push Aki away. If anything I felt even worse for her FAR more than I did her parents.
@@Evil_Beauty to be fair it was less they didn't understand her they were striaght up terrifide of her remember one of the flashback scene was litt aki accedintly hurting him while showing entire room and even some of the building were destroyed while on fire there reaction was understanable was it right hell no but understanable there human a species that are inherently flawed
@frank spick Aki had no control over over her psychic powers. Instead of TRYING to understand, they joined the bandwagon and labeled her as a "witch" out of fear and ignorance. And that's exactly what they got. They wanted a monstrous witch; they got one.
ABOUT EXPLOITATION: RUclipsr Some More News and Telltale both covered this,
for example in their video ‚The Past, Present and Future of Work’.
The major difference I see is that Aki wants someone to help her. Chloe does not. That's what separates the tragic from the bad boys (and bad girls). If someone wants to be helped, they will make it known - they will blame and loath themselves - and that's when you reach out to them. If they don't want to be saved - they'd rather blame and hurt others than take accountability - avoid them.
Crow: You want some real emotional investment, did you know Shun and I were cursed to use birds!?
O
M
G
XD
Thanks for that one!
Manga you are absolutely crushing it with the vids lately. As someone who's convinced folks to take the 5Ds ride and seen them marvel at what it does right, this little case study was a delight.
Great to hear.
Happy to hear to, since I've had a hand in editing a good amount of the recent ones.
If you're going to recommend 5D's to newcomers, you HAVE to recommend them to watch the Japanese sub version. There are things only the original Japanese version explains in further detail and shows that the dub leaves out.
@@Evil_Beauty Oh believe me, I know. Not recommending a butchered and unfinished story here, only the genuine article.
When I first saw Aki in 5ds I honestly felt like I had a character I could relate to. My early teen years were a dark time. It was some heavy that dod involve parents being divorced and chasing down a father thay didnt give the time nor affection. It left scars. Aki was a great written character and overcame her obstacles and did mend her family dynamic. And while I may not have the same ending as her with my dad I did overcome a lot. Best Girl in all of yugioh and still my fav boss dragon
Ah yes my favorite wai- female YGO character and my favorite anime of all time, Aki and Yugioh 5Ds. And sh**ting on Chloe once again, another great video.
For the Reaching Out section, there was some symbolism that I remember; Stardust's effect which stops any destructive effect, as Yusei names this effect, "Victim Sanctuary", which Aki is the victim herself, with Black Rose wildly thrashing showing that inner emotional conflict of Aki and Yusei (Sanctuary) is reaching out to her, venting out all of her sorrow, trying to open her closed heart which he manages to by breaking her mask which we see her tearing up, pleading for help. It's a really powerful episode, a favorite of mine.
Aki went from a genuinely good character to a background prop once crow was introduced. It took until Sevens and the studio change to actually get well executed female characters in Yugioh
It will never stop baffling me how many times better female characterization came about...only to get kneecapped hard. Again and again. Harder and harder each time. After how much the creators seemed to _relish_ making Aoi suffer and wasting Emma...one can only imagine how much a seventh Gallop female lead would have been ground under heel.
@@christopherb501 Honestly, I think that Rio from ZeXal had it the worst. As if being comatose for the first half the series wasn't enough, she keeps suffering loss after loss and constantly put out of commission AGAIN when it seems like she only just got properly introduced. Even turning Varian did absolutely nothing to help her case.
What's even sadder is that, compared to other boy-centric hobby anime like Beyblade, Yu-gi-oh!'s actually halfway decent about portraying female characters..... like, I get they're going for one type of target audience, but it's not like girls aren't completely disinterested in such hobbies (and really, how much upper-body strength do you actually need to shuffle a deck or launch a battle top?). But for what it's worth, I don't think certain female audiences particularly mind (no joke, Yu-gi-oh! may be one of the single biggest fujoshi magnets out there).
Vrains lmao. Nah, 5ds writer have grudge against female. I don't watch vrains after people tell me same writer is hired
@@eavyeavy2864 Pretty much the reason I won't be bothering with the lore manga now. First story announced? Sky Striker, something female-centric. And who's the announced writer? SAME DAMN GUY, along with his same artist compatriot for the Zexal and Arc-V manga. At this point, I am beyond wanting to give Shin Yoshida the benefit of the doubt, and I just want him to *GO AWAY.*
The problem with Crow is that he was initially supposed to be the BBEG of the Dark Signer Arc. They changed it in an absolute last-minute decision when most of the season was already done, not only sidelining Akiza but also butchering Leo's whole arc - who, btw, was supposed to be the fifth signer, as shown by Lifestream Dragon being in the flashback. And why did they do it? Because "Blackwing was so popular". It wasn't even because of Crow, it was because of his F*CKING DECK! Seriously, I'll never forgive whoever drunkard thought that was a good call. That together with the whole situation around Carly's VA ruined what would've otherwise easily been the greatest YGO-Generation (story wise).
Aki was probably the last good female character we had for a while.
In Zexal, yes we did have Rio, but she seemed more of a reason for the character development for Shark rather than her being her own character. And Kotori... Jesus Christ.
In Arc-V, we obviously have the bracelet girls. Ruri and Rin did jack shit the entire anime, only serving as fuel for Yuto and Yugo, Yuzu was like Aki but worse, Serena was the only one that seemed to stay constant throughout the show and was a character i genuinely liked. Ironically, this is my favourite yugioh anime despite its MANY flaws...
In VRAINS, we have Emma and Aoi. Emma doesn't have the best track record in terms of dueling and while the anime tries to make her show off as more competent, the fact she barely won any of her duels doesn't help. Yeah, she is a good hacker, but so is like, 90% of the cast. Aoi was probably the one closest to being like Aki: she started being part of the main trio, she had a good character arc, but was then shafted by the introduction of a secondary male character whose archetype got too popular. But the Miyu thing completely ruined her for me because it was so out of nowhere. She suddenly remembers this girl she met once and in the same episode, finds the Ignis that belongs to her friend and suddenly it's part of her character arc? I don't know, it doesn't just feel right with me.
In SEVENS, i believe we not only have one, but several good female characters.
_Yuzu started strong but she fell flat in the Synchro Dimension Arc_
_I love Serena and I wish she had more screentime_
With Rio it was the awful barian twist which makes no sense because how did number 17 take over shark
If we talk about SEVENS, the equivalent of Aki would be Asana: good presentation, good ideology, consistent characterization and an unusual deck for a female character (Wyrm)
While Romin exists, she had standout duels and had a character arc that had closure, I find Asana to be a better made character than Romin.
In ZEXAL we had Anna who was comic relief more often than not but broke a bunch of conventions about female Yugioh characters, mostly the fact that her deck is not just the girliest archetype available and being tomboyish as heck.
Serena is amazing but the show sidelined her hard in the end.
And then we have Anzu/Tea in DM lol... Who supposedly has the "best" duel record despite not having any relative importance throughout the entire show lol... Except maybe her duel with Penguin Dude, she did cheated at the end, though. Aoi's character growth was so weird... She went from using Trickstars to using an entirely new deck after that ONE loss from Soulburner. And to add insult to injury, it was supposedly the episode where she "evolved" from Blue Angel to Blue Girl (why the downgrade lol) where she had an extra deck monster outside of links as proof of her "evolving" character. Her character development went up and down just like her avatar changes lol...
finally, my favorite Yugioh character (and she's the character i have a crush on) gets a good video from you, awesome
same ,
@@silverdust4197 yep, heh
Why do you have a crush on a drawing?
To tell you the truth the character I looked up to as a kid was Akiza and want to be like her. Also even developed a character crush.
I would try so hard to get Red Rose Dragon when I tried to use it would blow up and surprise me later as my weapon to destroy everything on the field. But I wanted to use a better way to help instead of destroying so I used Stardust.
At first, I didn’t know what would happen when two meet and destroy each other once again, but eventually I learn how to use them together to help each other I figure it out.
Now in the future there Black Rose Moonglow dragon it fit my style. Fitting my Lillie and Akiza's way of life as well.
I developed my witch persona as well and worse even multiple masks. I’m lucky that I had a loving hand to catch me were loving and before I became a destructive force of nature.
I blossom into a beautiful Lillie, people even help me grow a black garden. Helping me break free even if they got in my ivy shackles as well.
I love the thumbnail as much as love Akiza, how did you figure out a way for me to make me lover her even more?
Not to self to go to you if I want an Akiza look.
Love the vid MangaKamen, keep up the good work.
Great video,aki was always of favorite of mine when I was younger.
And knowing that the crow slander is still coming puts a smile to my face
Glad you enjoyed it
Honestly, I don’t think he’s all that bad
@@joegreen3802 he wasn't really a bad character but he was so popular that it ruined the show
@@diamanten1009 he’s so popular? Not really. I see more people hate him even back then over like him. I think he’s just a scapegoat for the decline in quality
Guess who came back to arc v? Not akiza lol
An example of a tragic character that is well written and incredibly well done in video games for me is Alice Lideell from american mcgge Alice e Alice madness returns because despite the tragedies and traumas she has been throught she does her best to stay sane and carry on forward and she despite making mistakes and often neglecting herself and the outside she learns from her mistakes and matures as a person and deals with her problems in the best way possible with ups and downs.
PS:great and deep analysis vídeo as always
Black Rose Love! Very happy to see you talk about Aki, since she is awesome! Tragic that such an initially well-written character got sidelined, but that is an unfortunate consistency in Yu-Gi-Oh anime…
Rose Bouquet Deck FTW
Aki is such a great character for her backstory, powers, and such....hell I own her Rose Dragon cards
Actually Kamen, this video just shows how much you’ve grown as a creator. I watched your old Batwoman video going over the first episode, and looking at that as a point of comparison for how you handle these situations, wether intentional or not, you handled it very well! The tv background fits much better with an older show, and the edits aren’t entirely in the tv background the whole time. Great job, and a great video to boot.
They really did almost nailed it with this one
I have the feeling that Kamen will clown on Chloe to the day he dies like Alex from Yiik
I love Aki. I just wish she had more moments to shine.
Right, CROW?!
@@Ramsey276one Fuck that birdbrain.
Aki for me was one of the best female leads. She ranks pretty high on my list of female leads and she made me very happy while also a little disappointed at the end of the show.
Akiza is really the best written female yugi character so far is too bad her character arc got short but least they put effect into her character
Besided her "detailed designs" her character traits were massive
I love the backstory of Aki since I watch the show around 2009 and I feel that the first part of the series has the best writing in all of the animated Yu-Gi-Oh. And since then I have been obsessed with her until this day.
I have more sympathy for Aki or Akiza (depending on the region) then Chole that doesn't wind up in a wheelchair
Sadly, the kind of indoctrination Aki goes through really does happen a lot in real life. And often in plain sight. It even gets defended.
Get off Facebook, people; its continued profile only leads to more of this.
@@christopherb501 Twitter too.
2:08 In 5D's the upper crust is in Tops specifically while the rest of Neo Domino is more of the upper-middle class. Arc-V didn't include Tops and made the entirety of "City"/Neo Domino the 1% because of the whole "there is no middle class" thing.
BRILLIANT
Always hate how 5DS never got a chance to live up to it's full potential, The Arcadia Movement and Carly were set up as major parts of the story, but because her voice actress was found to be part of a cult, all that stuff was cut and Carly was given basically a background role. In turn we were robbed of what likely would've been a lot more development for Akaza as a character. Writers should've just sucked it up and pushed forward.
Personally, I consider her the best Female YUGIOH character of the whole series. Aki has gone through so much, yet she changed for the better, especially when she began to trust Yusei. It’s one of the reasons 5D is amongst my favorite SERIES.
Before I watch it due to the disclaimer I gotta say
I appreciate you and your videos as well as the work you and your team put into it. I'm sorry 4kids is being scummy as usual and I wish them a long and unrelenting rest in the depths of the netherworld. You and your team can enjoy a banquet fit for the gods.
Thank you MangaKamen and team for all you do!
Here's a fun fact the actress who voiced her in Japanese is the Yellow Ranger in Dekaranger that became Power Rangers SPD for the US.
5D's plot was probably rewritten and so, Aki could have had a storyline where she destroyed the whole Arcadia movement
Even having watched the dub version (I was young and watched it as it aired), the message still comes across clearly. It's why to the day she's still one of my favorite characters from the series, unlike other characters, she has actual development. I mean how much of Yugi's entourage can say that? Heck, how many Yu-Gi-Oh characters besides the lead can say that at all?
It feels like a lot of female character get pushed to the side in yugioh
Pretty much every character gets pushed to the side in yugioh unless they are the protagonist.
@@V-Jes The biggest offenders of this are Zexal, VRAINS, and 5Ds Post-Dark Signers.
Zexal: The only ones that matter are Yuma, Astral, Shark and Kaito (along with some antagonists)
VRAINS: The only ones that matter are Playmaker, Soulburner and Revolver (the rest are extras or die every so often)
5Ds: The only ones that matter are Yusei, Crow and Jack (although Jack had a hard time)
I would also say GX, but (aside from Jaden stealing all the duels) there are characters who have their moments to shine (and even defeat main antagonists like Supreme King)
Talking about Crow in 5Ds is going to be a whole can of worms by itself isn't it...?
TBQH, my main problem with Crow isn't even because of him stealing Akiza's spotlight in season 2. He committed a grave crime before that - he stole _Leo's_ spotlight in season 1. Rumor has it that Leo was originally going to be the fifth Signer, and indicators such as the appearance of Lifestream Dragon in a flashback with the five Signer dragons point toward that as well... but then Crow just swooped in and ruined all that because Blackwings good.
Granted, this is mostly just because I actually liked the twins and thought they deserved more than the objectively worst Dark Signer duel and becoming little more than ineffectual cheerleaders in season 2, but. Aki's not the only one who got shafted by Crow.
@@gyppygirl2021 I’m pretty sure that that theory got shafted given the nature of how anime is produced and release, but I completely agree Crow was a completely unnecessary character and Leo should’ve gotten the mark at the end of the Dark Signer arc.
@@dragonstouch1042 Yes, Leo deserved more. :
And if the writers needed to have Crow, he could’ve been inspiration for Lua. Both of them spend the Dark Signers arc as characters without signs and we could have gotten a great arc for Lua understanding his own self worth. There was a lot of potential with him not having a mark being a source of insecurity. They could have proved that they didn’t need marks to be helpful, and then after all of that effort, Lua could have been rewarded a mark, or better: neither of them got one. I feel like by giving a mark to every relevant character it portrays that you can only be important if you have a mark,, which kind of sucked for Lua because he really got shoved aside until he was needed for cheerleading and doing one cool thing around 80 episodes later. It also could have been interesting to have Crow lose in his duel with Bommer to up the scare factor of the Dark Signers. If we put this before the Demak duel, the DS become a bigger bad and something more dangerous for Luca and Lua. Lua would then display a lot of courage going up against someone from the same group that defeated his would-be role model, and we’d get a much more satisfying arc for him in general.
Anyway this is just me rambling of would-be scenarios without any editing. Apologies if it’s messy hahah
@@missromantic idk, I think I like these scenarios better than what actually happened...
Magnus from Chrono Trigger the man who couldn't change time alone.
I got confused for a second there and thought "There's a character named Chloe Price in Yu-Gi-Oh?'
Amazin Work MangaKamen. This is definitely my favorite of all your videos. And god bless that beautiful art you made. Keep up the great work. Aki is the best written ygo girl in the series overall despite the missteps in later seasons. Keep up the amazing work!
Thank you! Will do!
You're welcome!
Looking forward to more on Aki, easily my favorite female character also featured in my favorite season in yugioh. When I tell friends just enough of what happens to Carly, Misty and Aki (up to end of dark signers) they don't believe me when I tell them its yugioh. Especially 5Ds.
I just... We have Egyptian gods crafted onto one card(if copied they smite you, really). We have a school island with an active volcano where MANY supernatural things happen. And wilder things, but no. It was motorcycles that was TOO FAR.
I really wish Aki dueled more. There was so much potential with Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS' protagonists for each having different specialties.
God I love akiza/ aki so much as a character. The sub has been on my watchlist for a while now but I'm getting the urge to watch it thanks to content like this. 5ds is one of my favorite seasons of yugioh for multiple reasons and aki is one of them. I kinda wished they didnt put her on the back burner in the later seasons and gave her more stuff to do but it is what it is. Also I would LOVE to see her black rose dragon get a proper upgrade like yusei and Jack's dragons. Maybe a majestic rose dragon or something lol
The crowd to Yusei: You might be poor but at least you're not a woman
OUCH
32:37 Huh Blood/"Ruddy" Rose Dragon even has a second effect that sacrifices itself to prevent destruction.
More like trag-e-tiddie
...
I'll show myself out
Take me with you
I open the door
. . . . But with a smile
have fun , outside, but think about what you said .
Aye at least you tried 😂
I had never heard of Aki before today, and I have an appreciation for her backstory because of this video. Lots of people lash out and follow the wrong people out of loneliness and desperation for connection. Chloe lashing out and being a jerk isn’t really the problem in LIS-she’s still bearing a trauma, her “Divine” is missing, and though her mother does try to be supportive, it sometimes feels like she’s given up.
The issue with Chloe is that she doesn’t grow and take responsibility for her behaviour until the game is about to end, leading to a fun example of telling, not showing. We don’t get to see Chloe changing now that Max is back in her life. Most of the moments where she seems happy or she’s bonding with Max are constantly undercut by another moment of Chloe being verbally abusive or manipulative. The writers had the groundwork but failed to solidify the foundation.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Oh man, she’s awesome in Season 1. And she even RESCUES the main character when he’s kidnapped later on. Yes, you read that right that right. A yugioh girl rescuing the main lead.🤩
Plus there’s even enough chemistry between her and the main lead, that made them one of my earliest anime ships during highschool, and is still one of my strongest.🥰👍
@@lunartears6761 Aki rescued Yusei at the beginning of s2. But agree with everything else. If they were in almost any other anime Yusei and Aki could’ve reached Edward and Winry level popularity.
@@PhenomsServant4 that’s what I was referring to.😅
That made her badass to me, because when I saw 5d’s, it was the newest Yugioh spinoff. Tea and Alexis were the previous heroines, so Aki actually saving Yusei with her OWN abilities with little help (especially since crow and jack blew it off😂), cemented her as the best female lead In yugioh (at least to me), and I still think that, even with other the existing spin-offs.
It’s a damn shame, and a missed opportunity that they nerfed her for the most part after that, especially due to behind the scenes drama with Carly’s actress.😔
@@lunartears6761 The cult thing would only end up affecting Carly (and Aki, but mostly everything related to the Psychic Duelist Movement)
Doesn't take away from the fact that Leo and Luna were wasted after the Dark Signers arc (with Aki following them since other plots could have been developed for her that are not related to the Movement, but the writers didn't want that and took away her powers)
Akiza is tied for best Yugioh girl with a few others
Not really....
Tea was useless
Mai was underused
Alexis was underused
Aki had an amazing story and development only she became less important in the later seasons
Tori was useless
Rio was underused
Yuzu did start well but later got wasted in the most humiliating way possible
Blue angel/girl/maiden started ok but was really badly treated in the majority of the series in the most humiliating way possible
@@pokeymaster9415 I was thinking Celina or Serena. Yeah the bracelet girls got wrecked but they’re still head and shoulders above the rest. Her and Akiza are the best
@@pokeymaster9415 Don't forget Carly, Sherry and Emma.
Carly: Aki Treatment 2.0, but she became more useless.
Sherry: Pretty forgettable for a villain's henchman.
Emma: Nothing standout about her other than being a hot girl.
This all feels weird not having a decent female character during the Studio Gallop era (well... we have Aki, Tea and Serena I guess)
6:27 LK made dismissive jokes about GX too but apparently he's actually been enjoying it after actually watching it. I'm sure the same will be true of 5D's if and when he gets around to it.
While akiza is sidelined for season 2, I do like the small snippets we do get during that span. Learning to be a riding duelist, that one duel akiza did have vs team unicorn until crow used his healing factor to heal his arm months too early, that sherry tag duel, and of course moving on with her life to be a doctor.
God this show was amazing I remember waking up every morning at my grandmas daycare center with the other kid and watch it on 4kids
This is a great video. As a 5ds lover you properly explained everything about her and the setting of 5ds which is why I keep trying to get my friends to watch the sub.
Glad you enjoyed it
Mangakamen, I just watched your analysis of Akiza Izinski, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Admittedly, Akiza was my first anime crush, and my favourite of the YuGiOh girls; she is, personally, the most captivating. A sentiment I maintain to this day.
Akiza was discriminated because her psychic abilities. Estranged by her parents, alienated by her peers, she eventually creates the black rose persona, like a totem from which to draw strength. Desperate, she reaches out for help and comfort, and Sayer twists her pain to his advantage. Then enter Yusei, another social outcast, reaches out with compassion and understanding, he guides Akiza to overcome her isolation, realising that she is not alone. She has friends. She has family. And most importantly, she is loved.
Overall, I still believe Aki to be the best YuGiOh girl. A skilled duelist, an intriguing person, her tragic story is another testament to 5d's being one of my favourite series; the real world problems from systematic oppression, to class warfare, and generic discrimination, make the series so grounded and relatable. Good luck with your channel, I hope it expands far and wide.
Peace ✌🏻
Usage of VA-11 HALL-A OST really makes me wonder about your thoughts on that game.
I've been mostly in charge of the soundtrack in the last couple videos I've edited, so I'm glad people have been enjoying them.
"And I hate Crow."
I second this.
U can say what you want about the script but the casting was great
I love everyones voices, and there is far less of GX questionable voices because of 5D's more serious tone
I think I found a new drinking game for Mangakamen. Take a shot every time he;
References Yugioh
Talks crap about Life is Strange
References Persona
References Jojo's Bizarre Adventures
The voice acting in the first three Yu-Gi-Oh series was stellar. So I really feel bad for people that only watched dub. Yugi's voice, Kaiba's voice, Judai's voice, Yubel's voice, Yusei's voice, Aki's voice. Yusei's monologues were basically the highlight of 5D, which is why it worked when his monologue convinced Aki to change.
Aki is someone anyone can relate to when it came getting bullied in school. I was in middle school when I was bullied and it got too intense when I almost went mute bcuz it was too cruel. Watching aki getting help had me crying as a teenager while aslo given me hope. I'm actually happy I watched 5DS since it's actually my favorite yu-gi-oh series.
It’s a shame Aki got shafted after season 2.
The head writer changed between season 2 and 3 and the new head writer went on record saying “I have no idea how to write female characters”. So he just didn’t try to and benched Aki. There’s an episode in a later season where there’s a tournament and Aki is literally labelled as a “benchwarmer”.
It also doesn’t help that Aki’s VA was part of cult but that didn’t come out till later and wasn’t the reason she got written out of the show.
I thought Carly's VA was in a cult while Aki's VA got pregnant during 5D's.
@@mikai4738 no, Aki’s va was in a cult and her pregnancy happened way after 5Ds was already finished.
In other words, the "Seth MacFarlane defense".
Divine always seemed like a groomer to me, his relationship with Aki had a lot they couldn't show I bet.
I really enjoyed aki's story
She went through alot and it leads her to alot of experiences which is more than can really be said for Female leads before & unfortunately after
Cause future seasons never develop the lead this much ever again
You mean the character who became tragically dethroned by the mature attitude of the internet? Glad to know more about her,
I think you can remove the probably. Aki IS the best written female character in yugioh
Not saying much considering that all the girls can be labelled
Useless
Unimportant
Weak
Or get ruined later
@@pokeymaster9415 Serena and Aoi could've been great but Nope. They just got sidelined and lost every duel respectively
@@kingkaiser95 If Sevens hadn't come along, I'd have just given up.
@@christopherb501 everyone gave up sevense from the moment they saw it and so they don't agnoladge it's existence
(And i say that as someone who watched and enjoyed it,)
@@pokeymaster9415 *Sevens
*acknowledge
*its existence
Waiting for the Chloe vs Raiden deathmatch video essay soon.
7:55 the distorted audio makes this absolutely terrifying
my favorite character of all yugioh series, and the existence of duel links make me like her more i could role play as her! Plus black rose effect so satisfying to pulled off, imagine if yugioh solid vision and psychic duelist are real, and that dragon is the last thing you see before you lose terrifying.
"An economy heavily influenced by card games."
As someone who already spends thousands on card games, I would be fine with this.
Aki was fascinating for me to watch in the 1st 2 seasons which at the time in yu-gi-oh anime it wasn't that common then. So she made in impact and made us root for her.
The distorted voices scared the shit out of me, My brother, My dog, my cat, and my Turtle
ABOUT EXPLOITATION: RUclipsr Some More News and Telltale both covered this,
for example in their video ‚The Past, Present and Future of Work’.
The English Dub of Jack Atlas is a treasure and I'll not hear otherwise. "So it's glue then? You're telling me you worship MAGIC GLUE."
Thanks for the great video.
Even with the rushed resolution of her storyline and the general (but not complete) sidelining of her character, Aki is still pretty well done, and of the first six (I haven't seen how Romin's story plays out, but I hear that she's rather good for having such low stakes, so she's comparatively as good), still easily the best. Anzu is undeniably a strong emotional character, but the nature of the story means it's not worth as much as one would like to hope.
Or, rather, in spite of the sheer behind the scenes shitstorm that caused the redrafting of the second half, primarily Konami's decision to cash in the fad of Blackwings, Aki's character still is rather strong when taken into wider context. I personally don't mind all that much that she got sidelined, mostly coz I look at that period as a time for her to heal and recover her life, even away from the frontlines. If it meant staying out of active dueling against the bad guys, then one can't really blame her. Blame the writing, not her. (I just found out that the marriage reasoning for Aki's VA isn't the case).
It's still janky, and the only true success she had from the second arc to the ending (yes, the ending was a win for her IYKWIM) was emotionally carrying the 2v1 against Sherry. Crow was faltering, but Aki was the one who stood her ground against Sherry using her own experiences to snap Sherry out of what Aki saw as the same trap she fell into in Divine's hands.
The false promise of salvation, safety, and happiness fueling her to ruin the futures of others. Crow was merely the muscle of the fight, but Aki was the MVP of that 2v1.
(Side note: I actually like Crow. I don't like the idea that he was originally meant to be villainous/antagonistic in any form, let alone the final Dark Signer, but I do agree that turning him into a Signer over Ruka first was a bad move. It would've been nice if he was a normal, albeit powerful, member of the team. If he had to be a Signer, let it be at the end. Yusei needed at least ONE member of the former Team Satisfaction to NOT have been antagonistic to him from the get go.)
Aki did get sorta sidelined, but it was still a lot better than Yuzu becoming a plot device after ep 77 and Aoi constantly being overhyped but always failing to live up to the hype of her development.
Only thing I have to disagree on is Crow getting pushed because of his cards. This is inconsistent with numerous other occasions. Cards like Shaddolls, Nekroz and Monarchs are potent and popular, never show up or are only used by one-shot losers. Cards like Trickstars and Altergeists are potent and popular, and used by well-liked characters, they get shafted like crazy. Cards like the OG E-Heroes and Neo-Spacians make no competitive splash in their own day, get shilled in the show constantly. The "buy Blackwings" theory doesn't hold up given all the other cards out there that get a push or don't, unless there's an executive(s) that just _really_ likes the fruits of the birdbrain and wants to keep doling them out for some reason.
Akiza is the perfect character for this trope, Chloe is...a good attempt
Aki’s not only the best female character to come from Yugioh, but imo flat-out the best Yugioh character in general. While it’s a shame how much she becomes sidelined in the later seasons, she’s basically near perfection in the Dark Signers arc, and her relationship with Divine is honestly the most tragic part of her story. Being that while this anime involves children card’s games and people with weird magic powers, Divine is pretty much a parallel to abusers in real life. Where they’ll take advantage of someone who’s hurt or vulnerable just to use them for their own selfish needs. And despite how terrible Divine was, because he was the one who gave Aki a helping hand when no one else would, her entire perspective of him was clouded and distorted-again, just like abuse irl. It’s really deep and solid themes to portray in a show that’s primarily marketed to children, and while they didn’t handle Aki’s character perfectly, as I said, what’s there was still strong enough to have her truly capture my heart.
And while this video is mostly Aki-centered, I’ll definitely never grow tired of hearing you dunk on Chloe lol. As I always say, I truly think she would’ve worked much better as an antagonist, but the fact that the creators make her character so unlikable despite clearly intending for you to like her just goes to show how much they screwed up with writing her character.
What makes Aki's situation worse is how you can connect every Signer Dragon to a form of protecting people. Stardust Dragon is a defender, constantly coming back to protect. Red Dragon Archfiend uses absolute power. The others each have effects that allow them to protect themselves and their duelist. Then there's Black Rose Dragon. Her form of protecting is through sacrifice. She is summoned and takes out everything, at the cost of herself. Her other effect isn't exactly used to protect, but the cost is sacrificing what was possibly an ally that helped her.
Also, what was the obsession with skirts on almost everyone?
This makes me appreciate not just Akiza but the 5ds series. It was able to tackle real dark topics and do a good job at it. Akiza is the best female Yugioh character. Hate how she got replaced by Crow, especially after all that growth, but still appreciate her nonetheless. I still love and appreciate 5ds and it's still my favorite Yugioh series of all time.
However, I can't say the same about Chloe. Very self-absorbed, thinks all her problems are far worse than others, and will practically dangle that guilt above Max's head. Not to mention she doesn't change anything about herself or properly addresses her flaws. She's just unbearable to deal with. Yeah, I feel bad for her backstory but that's where it ends.
Sorry you ran into problems with 4K Media. Companies tend to put copyright claims on everything.
As much as I loved this video, I can't wait to see the third part of your "problems with the girls of Yu-Gi-Oh" series (and hopefully a video analyzing Yubel).
Love this video bro made me think of my childhood
New to the channel but i must say that this was a beautifully made video and handled the topic with care *chef's kiss*
Thanks and welcome
I don't remember how I found out about your channel or stumbled into watching your videos lol as far as I can tell I've been subscribed for a long time. But damn I just got into binge watching your stuff, and I love it. Totally enjoy what you do, you clearly put a fair amount of effort into it, and it shows in your production quality. It's been very fun to watch and dare I say it's educational in a very fun way. Keep it bro, I'm so glad you made these videos.
Thank you very much, I greatly appreciate it and hope that you continue enjoy the vids and that others will come to enjoy them too
Another difference I feel between Aki and Chloe is that Chloe chose to be the terrible person she became. She had every chance to stop and didn't take it.
While Aki, Aki felt she didn't have that choice or the chance to stop. But when she realized she could stop, she did. Aki chose to be better and make up for the bad things she did.
Chloe doesn't give a fuck about what she does.
Finally, TheDuelLogs showing up in a MangaKamen video
The distorted audio just kills me especially with the dub 😭😂 im crying laughing
Your art is really good especially the silhouettes
All characters for those who don’t know
0:47 gamma
0:48 Haida hyaena
0:49 the stoat\po3 and leshy
0:50 aki (obviously)
The only saving grace of crow is that blackwings are awesome cards but I wish they would’ve gave aki more screen time
Blackwings being awesome cards are the whole reason Crow got more focus to begin with.
@@PhenomsServant4 I know he was even supposed to be the final dark signer but I’m glad they didn’t do that because he would’ve had a even dumber motivation than Declan
And Black Rose Dragon on its own is more interesting than all those interchangeable birds put together. Try again.
Can we talk about how your editing in this video is top-notch?
Thank my editor for that.
In my own fantasy I re-imagine what Aki and Yusei part 2 should have been like along with her plot: Essentially the plot would still be the same and Yusei still does win. But post duel she uses her psychic powers and runs away back to Arcadia instead of forgiving her parents and hugging them. She then begins to reflect and question does her parents truly miss her and even asks Divine in which he sees he's going to lose his valuable asset he continues to essentially manipulate and brainwash her. Or she keeps telling herself that they abandoned her and that Divine is her top priority showing he has a grip on her emotionally. Divine seeing Aki troubled asks what's wrong and she tells him what happened and about her mark(Idk if Divine knows about her mark at all but if she did then scrap her telling him about the mark). Back to the cast. Her mom then breaks down and essentially gets her own character moment, aside saying very to no little dialogue, expressing how it's their fault and how she misses her daughter and possibly bringing up any fun times they had. The father continues to ask Yusei for help and they do so with Luna then expressing how her monsters feel since she can sense duel spirits and even say what her Ace truly feels like with how Ancient Fairy dragon can talk she can hear the signer dragons voices and basically be the communication between the humans and dragons instead of having Ancient fairy dragon being the only dragon to essentially talk. The overall thing would be Aki questions herself and the words Yusei tells her echoes through her mind but Divine eases her so she is being pulled back and forth. This could set up Yusei vs Divine but then that would set her up as a damsel so instead, she could have her turnabout and then notices when she asks questions regarding what he sees her and he slips or she overhears a conversation of Divine and a grunt or Arcadia grunts talking about her and how she is nothing more than a tool. Another way to set up Divine vs Aki is that she finds out Divine killed Misty's brother and how he killed lots of people. Seeing this she then sees the hole she dug for herself and decides to take matters into her own hands and stop him since his next target were going to be Rua and Ruka (Leo and Luna in the dub). She didn't want the blood on her hands knowing 2 kids died after the other deaths of including Misty's brother since she was blamed for that but she then knows the truth. And shoot if they did follow that plot of Aki going against Divine Crow could have been a dark signer that Divine killed during his experiment too or was killled trying to save a child from the orphanage who was rumored to have psychic powers but were of satellite so the higher ups didn't care and would show the oppression that those with a mark have still so he wants to take out the entire Arcadia movement and even its members while Yusei recognizes its Crow and hasn't heard from him since when they were little or on a day he goes off by himself and Yusei couldn't stop him. The rest? Well I haven't come up with anything else.
I'm here to fulfill my portion of Black Rose Love
i watched that scene of her father calling aki a monster in the original japanese dub. man. that shit hit different....
5:14 who came up with the designs for neo spacian’s cause I just wanna know why some just rock an entire bakery and a half ON TOP OF all the “back shot” angles you get throughout the series. Hell as dedication to the craft I sat through the ENTIRETY of GX anime and took so many screenshots of 90% of all close up booty angles I filled a discord server with them with E heros/neo spacian ‘s alone-
I was looking foward too this for so long not enough people talk about the sub i luv ur vids
I just wish I could've used the audio - Oh well, you can watch the uncensored version on my patreon for a dollar if you want.
I didn't really think much of Yu-Gi-Oh crushes back then, I was legit more focused on the card games, but now, Aki's in my Top 3 Yu-Gi-Oh waifu list. Mostly because she's one of few yu-gi-oh girls to actually duel all the time, instead of just sit back and only duel every now and then for plot reasons
The best female character in this entire franchise. Who proceeds to do basically nothing for half the show and is regulated to a literal team benchwarmer.
Kinda says everything about Yu-Gi-Oh female characters.
At least she wasn't thrown thru a building and turned into both a brainwashed damsel AND a literal MacGuffin in a tube (in quadruplicate, no less!), or killed off three times in one show.
...GODS it is sad when despite Aki's downturn, she's STILL by far the best-treated leading lady in the Gallop era...