Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-Nonexistent

Yugi vs Marik in the Battle City Finals during Yu-Gi-Oh!

So I know I said I'd stick with video gaming stuff with this blog, but I'm a true geek at heart (and really I thought about making this an entire geek blog whilst including video games, but that decision is still being made. Let me know what you guys want).  Anyway, this is definitely something that got me a tad bit rattled.  And by a tad bit, I mean holy crap how did this show get messed up this bad?!? I'm talking about Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, which is the newest installment of Yu-Gi-Oh! spinoffs to promote the new way of summoning in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game.
 Every so often, a new Yu-Gi-Oh! gets released along with a tweak to the trading card game, starting with 5D's which introduced Tuner monsters and the Synchro summoning method, going to Zexal which introduced the XYZ summoning method, and now continuing into Arc-V which is introducing the Pendulum summoning method.  Let me just start with the trading card game and saying that this mess of a game, in my opinion, is kind of broken at the state that it is in.  I didn't really realize how broken this game was until I tried explaining the game to people who had never played before and wanted to learn.  This game is now only for seasoned veterans, and these veterans make people feel bad about not knowing how to play the game.

Jaden vs Zane in the Graduation Match in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

It was hard enough for me, someone who had played Yu-Gi-Oh! when the most complicated thing was a Fusion summon and a Tribute summon, to make my journey back into the game a few years ago.  So many forms of summoning and new rules were thrown at me and the people who were supposed to be my mentors made me feel like absolute garbage for not knowing what I was talking about anymore. I felt like and old guy who lost his touch with technology and is trying to learn a new trick, but teenagers who know what they are doing won't give him the time of day.  So trying to teach people now, when this even newer way of summoning is being introduced, is almost impossible because of the culture that this game exists inside of.
 People have no chance of reliving their childhood by re-learning this game anymore, and even if they did, its not the same game anymore.  Its completely different with decks that don't even let their opponent take 1 turn before they are defeated, and decks that by design kill life points to the point of no return.  This game has definitely transformed into something that is a broken game that only true veterans can master, and that is definitely a pity.  So let's move on to the actual show itself, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-Vile.
I was actually kind of excited for this release, as even though the card game itself was turning for the worse, the anime was actually still pretty entertaining.  The original Yu-Gi-Oh! is still the best of its kind for sure, but the most recent series, Zexal, wasn't half bad.  It was a feel-good anime, which isn't terrible if done correctly, and Zexal was.  There was also a pattern in the series releases that I was also looking forward to seeing, Yu-Gi-Oh! was a rather dark series followed by Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, which was a lighter series with a goofy protagonist.

Yusei vs Jack on their Duel Runners in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

 Next was Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's, which was another darker take on the series, taking place in post-apacolyptic Domino City (New Domino) and Zexal was about as light as GX (but a tad bit darker due to the Number cards and Chaos Number cards.) Following this flow, you would think that Arc-V would step up and be another darker anime, which I was actually looking forward to seeing.

Yuma vs Shark during the World Duel Carnival in Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

 Although Zexal did a pretty good job and keeping darkness in its theme, it wasn't as central as Yu-Gi-Oh! or 5D's.  What we got instead, was pretty devastating.  The intro to this show says it all, it is light, bubbly, and is very reminiscent of My Little Pony.  The directors of this show must have been thinking that 5 year olds play this card game (granted, it is a children's card game, but that didn't stop the original series from making their theme dark...for god's sake people's souls were taken in the original!) It seems that every TV show that was mildly BA that is still around is attempting to dumb itself down to the lowest common denominator in order to either remove the risk of getting shut down in this oversensitive day in age, or appeal to a larger audience.  With Yu-Gi-Oh!, I don't see the latter being a good reason for dumbing the show down this far.  The only people that play this card game are 15-30 something year olds who have nothing better to do with their lives than to keep updated with the latest banned cards and the latest releases.  At this point, it has to obsess your life or you're going to be left behind, which is something that no pre-teen can really handle or manage. So what is the point of directing this new show to kids who don't even know how to play the game and can't play the game well?

Yuya Sakaki from Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V

It all circles back to the money aspect that was explored in the last article concerning Call of Duty and it's quest to keep the same formula whilst to keep making money.  That isn't quite the case here, however, it is a factor.  By appealing to the lowest common denominator and involving as little of the actual card game as possible, children will be entertained by the bright, shiny colors of the show and not care that the show is not a good Yu-Gi-Oh! show, just a good show.  However, for us Yu-Gi-Oh! fans, this is definitely bad news.  A show that we watched growing up dying in this way is heartbreaking, and quite frankly, it hurts.  It definitely shows that some studios just don't care about their source material and just want to keep making their money the only way they know how.

Hope you guys liked it! Let me know if you'd like to see more in the way of geek material, or if you'd like to stick with just video games.