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cypsiman2It was a long and arduous journey, to make myself watch this entire series, to have to endure each and every episode in painstaking detail. But, I felt it important to do this, to engage in extensive, scathing, uncompromising criticism of one of the darlings of tvtropes and explain in exacting precision all the myriad ways in which this show was absolute trash, toxic. I felt this to be important, because in order to be able to truly appreciate the good, to be able to fully grasp the stories that do damn-near everything right, like Avatar The Last Airbender or Revolutionary Girl Utena or Suikoden V or True Grit or The Runelords or Mahou Sentai Magiranger, you need to have a firm understanding of how horribly wrong it can all go, and Yugioh GX provides a great example of that in just about every category you can think of and many more besides.
For example, tonal consistency; this show does not has it. Throughout seasons 1 and 2, Judai and company are subjected to incredible and dangerous trials, Shadow Duels where the loser could end up getting their soul sucked out, enslaved, or even killed in a couple of cases. Then of course there's the Association of Light brainwashing everyone into zombie minions of the apocalypse, with Judai just standing by as his friends are manipulated to act against their own interests. All of this and more, Judai faces with a blithe attitude, completely unfazed and unaffected for more then an episode by any of it. And through it all, we are told time and time and time and again how Judai is perfect as he is, ideal, an innocent, childlike free-spirit who not only does not need to grow up and apply himself, but should not even try to do so, that this would be wrong and unnatural and you should be ashamed of yourself for wanting Judai to become something other than himself. Then season 3 and 4, and all of a sudden the exact same sort of scenarios that Judai and company have already faced before are suddenly too much for our "hero" to handle, and now there's all this "psychological trauma" and anguish and misery and wangst and manpain that just wasn't there before. Again, the threat of death, insanity, of losing your soul, these were nothing new for Judai, yet somehow they suddenly have an effect upon him over a hundred episodes into the series. It is forced and contrived and speaks volumes of a gross lack of any real planning on the part of the writers. Hell, look at the whole "Light vs. Dark" imagery that the show attempts; in the first season, Light is good, and Dark is bad. Season 2, Light is bad, Dark is good! Season 3, Light and Dark are bad! Season 4, Light is good, Dark is bad but can be an effective weapon against itself. Not that this is in any way meaningful, as GX demonstrates some of the most inept handling of imagery ever in an anime.
Beyond the tone though, there are the themes of the series, and by and large, they are repulsively unpleasant; the central message of Yugioh GX is that the only thing that matters is how special you are, period. If you have a cosmically ordained destiny, are the reincarnation of the king of the universe, have a nigh-omnipotent spirit that will slavishly devote itself to you, and a dozen other features besides? Then it doesn't how lazy, incurious, unmotivated, and just generally an entitled brat, everything will just fall right into your lap, you will be adored by all, proclaimed the greatest and bestest person to ever live, an inspiration to all to improve themselves. But if you're a normal person, the kind of person you could actually meet in real life and relate to? Then it doesn't matter how smart you are, how focused and determined you are, how great your burden or noble your cause, you will fail, and you will do so in such a way that it leaves no doubt whatsoever that the cause of your failure was because you were a normal person. And don't you dare imagine that friendship amounts to anything in GX, it will unambiguously crush such notions while talking out the other side of its mouth about how great and wonderful friendship is to try and distract you. At best, friends are a tedious burden that the golden suffer to show us all how great they are, and at worst, liabilities for the only ones ever allowed to accomplish anything. No, what really matters is how strong your bond with your cards, little rectangles of cardboard, and no matter how many times we're shown the spirits that are supposed to inhabit each and every one of these cards, it still comes across as deeply solipsistic, symptomatic of a desire to retreat from reality as opposed to embracing it. Taken all together, the themes are deeply disheartening and despairing, making one question what the point of even trying is. At least, it would be if the story were at all well told, but it's not.
Because when you get down to it, the writing is just really, really bad. The dialogue is frequently vapid, with lines like "You must become evil to destroy evil", which both fails to make any sense on the face of it, and also has no connection to what's taking place on screen; I mean, where in all of Judai's senseless, gratuitous genocidal rampage across the alternate dimension was he fighting or destroying evil, as opposed to just engaging in it? And then there's just the construction of the plot itself, writing down what happens when and what effect this has on the next event and so on and so forth, pretty basic stuff for a narrative, and yet GX fails at that too. Repeatedly, again and again, events just happen for the sake of happening with no logic behind them, and plot holes of all shapes and sizes litter the countryside. You have Kagemaru's scheme, who's entire premise fails to make any sense and from what we're told, could have been accomplished much more quickly and easily without the supernatural shennanigans of the Seven Stars, you have Saiou and the Light of Ruin, who again could have accomplished his exact goal quietly and discretely without drawing anyones attention before it was too late, you've got Yubel who pointlessly turns the entire student body into zombie slaves and was always a psychotic little obsessive well before hir supposed "corruption" by the Light of Ruin, and then you've got "Darkness", who went from being a generic mook to the ultimate final big bad; that last one is particularly irritating, because there are so many people out there who compare "Darkness" to Yami Bakura, and don't fucking understand everything that is wrong in that comparison. Mind you, that's probably because they watched the anime instead of the manga, and thus missed out on all the set-up with Bakura and his constant presence in the original story.
Really, GX has a major problem with its villains engaging in egregiously convoluted plans when there are so many simpler, easier, and more direct ways for them to achieve their ambitions. Of course, one could compare this to a bond movie, where if the villains were smart Bond would be dead in the first five minutes and there'd be no movie; what this comparison is missing out on is that a Bond movie can at least manage to be fun, while GX is tedious and painful and therefore anything that would cut it short would make it better. But beyond even their needlessly over involved plans, the villains are poorly characterized and not in the least bit threatening. Kagemaru, decrepit old man in a diaper. Saiou, hobo who is randomly possessed by evil cosmic space radiation. Yubel, the only thing scary about hir is that sie fucking wins. "Darknss", goathead and seaweed hair. Their is no depth or substance to any of them, there isn't the anguish hidden behind the face of a clown like with Pegasus, there isn't the misplaced vendetta against a true injustice like with Malik, there isn't the descent into darkness as with Thief King Bakura and Akhenadin, nothing of the sort with the GX knockoffs. And where Pegasus and Malik had distinctive minions who managed more then a single joke's worth of characterization dragged out past the point of reason, the same could not be said of the mooks of the week in GX, who were just so strongly defined by whatever deck they were using, it was just ridiculous.
But of course, the most important part of any story lies in its characters, and it is here that Yugioh GX experiences its greatest failure. The characterization and development of those characters is just terrible beyond measure; on occasion, a decent character will be introduced, like Misawa, or Asuka, or Fubuki, or Amon, but these characters are either ignored, derailed, or most often, both. The ones who do receive focus fair no better, as rather then develop these characters or have them demonstrate the characteristics that are supposed to make them likable and appealing, we are instead told about how great they are while being shown the exact opposite. While most glaring in the case of Judai, Manjoume and Shou are also the principal victims of this sort of characterization, being treated the way obsessive Seto Kaiba fans treat Jounouchi, pathetic jokes to highlight how absolutely perfect and solitary indispensable our "hero" is. And really, regardless of how important and central a character is first presented as being, it never takes long for them to fall by the wayside so as to give yet more screentime and importance over to Judai, like some twisted variation on the inverse-ninja law of competence, where the more characters get introduced, the less important any of them are. Save of course, Judai, who just keeps getting more cosmic doo-dads and sparkly sparkles to try and cover up the fact that he is a complete void of characterization. Why do I say this? Because his only interest is in card games. He can only relate to someone else through card games. If he can't play card games, he has nothing left. It's like if you were to write a samurai story, and the lead's only interest was in swordplay and nothing else, or a western where the only thing the hero talks about is gunplay; no matter how important the central gimmick of your story may be, trying to define the entirety of your character around that with no outside interests whatsoever...well, Judai's existence says it all, doesn't it?
And even on the level of just being an advertisement for the goddamned card game, GX fails at that as well; the duel choreography is wretched with multiple examples in every season of a gross misplay that only happened to force the particular outcome desired by the writers, way too many one-shot cards that are never seen again, decks that are just ridiculously weak and proclaimed super-powerful, and the emotional meaning behind the duels is just non-existent, so any sort of memorability is also non-existent. A bit ironic, considering how big a deal GX makes out of bonding with one's card spirits.
So, in summation, GX fails in every category known to man, and a few more that haven't been discovered yet.
For example, tonal consistency; this show does not has it. Throughout seasons 1 and 2, Judai and company are subjected to incredible and dangerous trials, Shadow Duels where the loser could end up getting their soul sucked out, enslaved, or even killed in a couple of cases. Then of course there's the Association of Light brainwashing everyone into zombie minions of the apocalypse, with Judai just standing by as his friends are manipulated to act against their own interests. All of this and more, Judai faces with a blithe attitude, completely unfazed and unaffected for more then an episode by any of it. And through it all, we are told time and time and time and again how Judai is perfect as he is, ideal, an innocent, childlike free-spirit who not only does not need to grow up and apply himself, but should not even try to do so, that this would be wrong and unnatural and you should be ashamed of yourself for wanting Judai to become something other than himself. Then season 3 and 4, and all of a sudden the exact same sort of scenarios that Judai and company have already faced before are suddenly too much for our "hero" to handle, and now there's all this "psychological trauma" and anguish and misery and wangst and manpain that just wasn't there before. Again, the threat of death, insanity, of losing your soul, these were nothing new for Judai, yet somehow they suddenly have an effect upon him over a hundred episodes into the series. It is forced and contrived and speaks volumes of a gross lack of any real planning on the part of the writers. Hell, look at the whole "Light vs. Dark" imagery that the show attempts; in the first season, Light is good, and Dark is bad. Season 2, Light is bad, Dark is good! Season 3, Light and Dark are bad! Season 4, Light is good, Dark is bad but can be an effective weapon against itself. Not that this is in any way meaningful, as GX demonstrates some of the most inept handling of imagery ever in an anime.
Beyond the tone though, there are the themes of the series, and by and large, they are repulsively unpleasant; the central message of Yugioh GX is that the only thing that matters is how special you are, period. If you have a cosmically ordained destiny, are the reincarnation of the king of the universe, have a nigh-omnipotent spirit that will slavishly devote itself to you, and a dozen other features besides? Then it doesn't how lazy, incurious, unmotivated, and just generally an entitled brat, everything will just fall right into your lap, you will be adored by all, proclaimed the greatest and bestest person to ever live, an inspiration to all to improve themselves. But if you're a normal person, the kind of person you could actually meet in real life and relate to? Then it doesn't matter how smart you are, how focused and determined you are, how great your burden or noble your cause, you will fail, and you will do so in such a way that it leaves no doubt whatsoever that the cause of your failure was because you were a normal person. And don't you dare imagine that friendship amounts to anything in GX, it will unambiguously crush such notions while talking out the other side of its mouth about how great and wonderful friendship is to try and distract you. At best, friends are a tedious burden that the golden suffer to show us all how great they are, and at worst, liabilities for the only ones ever allowed to accomplish anything. No, what really matters is how strong your bond with your cards, little rectangles of cardboard, and no matter how many times we're shown the spirits that are supposed to inhabit each and every one of these cards, it still comes across as deeply solipsistic, symptomatic of a desire to retreat from reality as opposed to embracing it. Taken all together, the themes are deeply disheartening and despairing, making one question what the point of even trying is. At least, it would be if the story were at all well told, but it's not.
Because when you get down to it, the writing is just really, really bad. The dialogue is frequently vapid, with lines like "You must become evil to destroy evil", which both fails to make any sense on the face of it, and also has no connection to what's taking place on screen; I mean, where in all of Judai's senseless, gratuitous genocidal rampage across the alternate dimension was he fighting or destroying evil, as opposed to just engaging in it? And then there's just the construction of the plot itself, writing down what happens when and what effect this has on the next event and so on and so forth, pretty basic stuff for a narrative, and yet GX fails at that too. Repeatedly, again and again, events just happen for the sake of happening with no logic behind them, and plot holes of all shapes and sizes litter the countryside. You have Kagemaru's scheme, who's entire premise fails to make any sense and from what we're told, could have been accomplished much more quickly and easily without the supernatural shennanigans of the Seven Stars, you have Saiou and the Light of Ruin, who again could have accomplished his exact goal quietly and discretely without drawing anyones attention before it was too late, you've got Yubel who pointlessly turns the entire student body into zombie slaves and was always a psychotic little obsessive well before hir supposed "corruption" by the Light of Ruin, and then you've got "Darkness", who went from being a generic mook to the ultimate final big bad; that last one is particularly irritating, because there are so many people out there who compare "Darkness" to Yami Bakura, and don't fucking understand everything that is wrong in that comparison. Mind you, that's probably because they watched the anime instead of the manga, and thus missed out on all the set-up with Bakura and his constant presence in the original story.
Really, GX has a major problem with its villains engaging in egregiously convoluted plans when there are so many simpler, easier, and more direct ways for them to achieve their ambitions. Of course, one could compare this to a bond movie, where if the villains were smart Bond would be dead in the first five minutes and there'd be no movie; what this comparison is missing out on is that a Bond movie can at least manage to be fun, while GX is tedious and painful and therefore anything that would cut it short would make it better. But beyond even their needlessly over involved plans, the villains are poorly characterized and not in the least bit threatening. Kagemaru, decrepit old man in a diaper. Saiou, hobo who is randomly possessed by evil cosmic space radiation. Yubel, the only thing scary about hir is that sie fucking wins. "Darknss", goathead and seaweed hair. Their is no depth or substance to any of them, there isn't the anguish hidden behind the face of a clown like with Pegasus, there isn't the misplaced vendetta against a true injustice like with Malik, there isn't the descent into darkness as with Thief King Bakura and Akhenadin, nothing of the sort with the GX knockoffs. And where Pegasus and Malik had distinctive minions who managed more then a single joke's worth of characterization dragged out past the point of reason, the same could not be said of the mooks of the week in GX, who were just so strongly defined by whatever deck they were using, it was just ridiculous.
But of course, the most important part of any story lies in its characters, and it is here that Yugioh GX experiences its greatest failure. The characterization and development of those characters is just terrible beyond measure; on occasion, a decent character will be introduced, like Misawa, or Asuka, or Fubuki, or Amon, but these characters are either ignored, derailed, or most often, both. The ones who do receive focus fair no better, as rather then develop these characters or have them demonstrate the characteristics that are supposed to make them likable and appealing, we are instead told about how great they are while being shown the exact opposite. While most glaring in the case of Judai, Manjoume and Shou are also the principal victims of this sort of characterization, being treated the way obsessive Seto Kaiba fans treat Jounouchi, pathetic jokes to highlight how absolutely perfect and solitary indispensable our "hero" is. And really, regardless of how important and central a character is first presented as being, it never takes long for them to fall by the wayside so as to give yet more screentime and importance over to Judai, like some twisted variation on the inverse-ninja law of competence, where the more characters get introduced, the less important any of them are. Save of course, Judai, who just keeps getting more cosmic doo-dads and sparkly sparkles to try and cover up the fact that he is a complete void of characterization. Why do I say this? Because his only interest is in card games. He can only relate to someone else through card games. If he can't play card games, he has nothing left. It's like if you were to write a samurai story, and the lead's only interest was in swordplay and nothing else, or a western where the only thing the hero talks about is gunplay; no matter how important the central gimmick of your story may be, trying to define the entirety of your character around that with no outside interests whatsoever...well, Judai's existence says it all, doesn't it?
And even on the level of just being an advertisement for the goddamned card game, GX fails at that as well; the duel choreography is wretched with multiple examples in every season of a gross misplay that only happened to force the particular outcome desired by the writers, way too many one-shot cards that are never seen again, decks that are just ridiculously weak and proclaimed super-powerful, and the emotional meaning behind the duels is just non-existent, so any sort of memorability is also non-existent. A bit ironic, considering how big a deal GX makes out of bonding with one's card spirits.
So, in summation, GX fails in every category known to man, and a few more that haven't been discovered yet.
