Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Images

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL is a Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga series and the successor to the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's series. It was followed by Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V on April 6, 2014.

The anime first aired on April 11, 2011 in popular evening slots in Japan on TV Tokyo. It introduces the Xyz Summon mechanic and Xyz Monsters. It also starts the use of the Series 7 card layout replacing the Series 3 layout used in later episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and the majority of episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

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PLOT:

Taking place in the near future in a place called Heartland City, the story focuses on Yuma Tsukumo, a young duelist who strives to become the Duel Monsters champion, despite being an amateur. One day, during a duel with a rival named Ryoga, a mysterious spirit called Astral appears before him, and helps him to win. Astral explains to Yuma he is searching for his lost memories, which have been transformed into 100 Xyz Monster cards called Numbers, which have been scattered across the globe. The Numbers have the ability to possess the duelists who own them, and bring out their darkest desires. In order to recover his memories, Astral teams up with Yuma in order to recover the Number cards. After coming up against a boy named Kaito Tenjou, who is hunting after Numbers, Yuma and Astral gain the ability to combine their forces using the power of ZEXAL. Entering the World Duel Carnival tournament, Yuma finds himself up against various rivals, including the vengeance-seeking Tron and the maniacal Dr. Faker, who seek the Numbers for their own gain.

CHARACTERS:

Yuma Tsukumo
The main protagonist of the series, a 13-year-old cheerful and energetic boy who is an underachiever in both school and duels, but always takes on any challenge and never gives up, an ethic he dubs "Feeling the Flow" or "Kattobingu da ore". Yuma is the current duel champion of Heartland City. Yuma's dream is to become the strongest duelist in the universe, but his dueling skills aren't that skillful. He wears a special key named the emperor key given to him by his traveling parents, which manages to unlock a door to another dimension, where he encounters Astral. He uses a Deck given to him by his father, largely consisting of monsters that have notable play on words. Many of his monster cards are Light and Earth attribute, especially his Xyz monsters. His ace card is "Number 39: Utopia", which is later able to be evolved into "Chaos Number 39: Utopia Ray".

Astral
The "Original Number", Astral is a mysterious spirit from another plane of existence who has to carry out an important mission, but unfortunately, Yuma is the only one who hears and sees him. A calculating person, Astral makes a list of his observations of Yuma and other human behaviors while offering his dueling wisdom to the boy in order to obtain the 99 "Numbers" Cards which are actually fragments of his memories which got scattered when he entered Yuma's dimension. It is thanks to his tuition that Yuma gradually becomes more skilled and experienced as a duelist while maintaining his positive outlook on life. Yuma and Astral's partnership is shown to be one of equals, though: from Yuma, Astral learns to be more positive and in touch with his emotions. He normally resides in a special world within Yuma's Emperor Key, featuring a strange ship whose parts become unlocked as Astral collects more "Numbers" cards. However, Astral is horrified to learn that his purpose is to destroy the world. Eventually, this is revealed to be a deception by Number 96 which turns out to be a corrupted memory known as a Forbidden Number.

Kotori Mizuki
Yuma's classmate and childhood friend. She will usually use her D-Gazer to watch augmented reality duels. Kotori also controls a fairy-type deck. She is shown to never leave his side, no matter what the circumstances, and seems to harbor a crush on Yuma. She is also intelligent, and good with computers. She has developed a rivalry with Cathy for Yuma's affections.

Ryoga Kamishiro
Yuma's rival and a good friend and one of the main characters who was originally a championship duelist before he was disqualified for peeking at his opponents cards, eventually becoming a delinquent and taking the nickname "Shark". Ryoga is now close friends with Yuma and fights the Barian threat alongside him and Kaito. During his duel against Yuma, he is briefly possessed by the Number card, "Number 17: Leviathan Dragon", but Astral takes it from him after Yuma defeats him. Like his namesake, he uses a deck filled with fish-type monsters, many being based on water and darkness, his key card being "Black Ray Lancer". This Xyz monster is normally unable to destroy Numbers, but Ryoga seems to have put some workarounds into his deck, such as the Spell card "Armor Xyz", which equips an Xyz monster with a second one, giving the first its attack points and Number status if the equipped monster is a Number. Shark eventually obtains "Number 32: Shark Drake" to use as his new ace card.

Kaito Tenjou
Kaito is the son of Dr. Faker, a "Numbers" Hunter, and one of the main characters who was collecting "Numbers" for his father in order to help his formerly sick brother, Haruto. Kaito now fights the oncoming Barian threat alongside Yuma and Ryoga. Assisted by a robot named Orbital-7, he has the ability to stop time for everyone except those that possess "Numbers". When Kaito defeats a "Numbers" Holder, he uses an ability called Photon Hand to remove the "Numbers" card from the person, taking their soul alongside with it, thereby rapidly aging the body of the person affected. Formerly, Kaito possessed 15 "Numbers", but they are now in the possession of Yuma. He wields a "Photon" deck, focused on extraterrestrial monsters and magic, and many of his monsters are associated with light and wind as a consequence. His key card is "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon", an anti-Xyz support monster.

Rio Kamishiro
Rio is the younger twin sister of Ryoga. As a part of Ⅳ's plan to use Ryoga as their assassin against Dr. Faker, he sent his son Ⅳ to duel her. It was there that Ⅳ played a card given to him by Tron which unknowingly caused the field to go on fire. Ⅳ was able to take Rio to safety, but she was severely injured. Ⅳ later lied and told Ryoga that he intentionally hurt his sister to keep with the plan, even though he hated the idea that Tron was using him to commit atrocious actions. She eventually regains consciousness after Ryoga saves her from one of Barian's mind slaves and enrolls into Yuma's school. Rio is initially shown to be a polite girl with charming looks and great athleticism that earn her attention from her classmates (especially Tetsuo, who develops a crush on her). However, as her brother Ryoga knows, she is actually quite irritable and stern. Despite all of this, she is afraid of cats.

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