Introduction
Yugioh Sevens is the latest Yugioh anime to have come out, following the ending of Yugioh Vrains. Sevens is a massive departure from the existing style of Yugioh anime, with a very different approach. This is partly due to the change in studio; Studio Bridge instead of Studio Gallop. At the time of writing, we are twelve episodes in. This article will discuss how the series has been so far, based on those initial twelve episodes.
I’m going to give some of my thoughts and opinions about the beginning of Sevens. If you haven’t seen it yet, maybe this will convince you to give it a go. This is for the version in Japanese with subtitles, as we have no information about a potential English Dub. Note that this article will contain a lot of spoilers for the series.
What is Sevens?
This series has been controversial. People would see that it’s much more directed at children than prior series have been. On a surface level, there’s not as much darkness as previous series and a complete lack of stakes. It’s nothing like Vrains before it. The stakes are something I’ll bring up again later. People may compare it to Yugioh GX Season 1, which had a number of ridiculous premises. However, I wouldn’t make that comparison, because GX still had that Yugioh vibe. Sevens, compared to the other shows does not really have that Yugioh feel to it in the same way.
Stylistically, it’s out of place. The animation is very different for instance. If you put the character images from Sevens and past shows next to each other, they would not match. If you want that familiar Yugioh style, this isn’t the place. But let’s look at Sevens in a vacuum. Look at it as its own entity. It’s not Yugioh, but it’s something else and that something is good. In that vacuum, I think it’s pretty fun and worth watching. I’d like to see a return to classic Yugioh at some point, but I’m happy with Sevens.
Where this series excels is the comedy. It’s incredibly wacky and ridiculous and filled with puns. In Episode 10, a character’s name roughly means “Look behind you!” This causing Luke to take that literally. Japanese puns can be very odd, but you find yourself laughing along when you learn what it was. Yuugo’s recurring pun during Arc V proved popular. Summon Chants for ace monsters are back and they tend to be quite lighthearted.
Yuga - the Protagonist
Let’s take a look at the main character of Sevens. Yuga Ohdo. No, not Odo from Deep Space Nine; he can’t shape-shift. Yuga is an interesting protagonist as his motivations are very different to past ones. You’d think he would be wild and hyper like the early trailers suggested. But actually, he’s relatively calm and acts more of a straight man to his friend Luke. In a way, Yuga has similarities to little Yugi in that regard, reigning in the more wild Joey/Jonouchi. Although they are much younger than any past protagonist. Although, they can still wonder around the city unaccompanied by adults. Adults barely exist in this show, with some notable exceptions.
Yuga is the friendliest guy around. He would give a mugger his wallet so they don’t steal it. In fact, he basically did something like that. When Mimi Adachi attempted to steal his secret notebook, he decided to just give it to her instead. He’s incredibly earnest and nice and that actually makes him a very likable character.
He’s also naive to an extent, as he doesn’t really pay attention to potential stakes. That in turn gets rid of those stakes. People duel him because they believe he controls Rush Duels, his creation, but if they just spoke to him, they’d see he wants to share it anyway. However, despite his niceness bordering on naive, he’s usually fairly smart and figures things out before everyone else. In fact, he’s also fairly mature in ways, keeping calm and collected in situations that others are stressed out by.
Rush Duels
The motivations could be described as “Game Modder decides to fight against Digital Rights Management”. Goha City is super strict in its rules. These rules usually revolve around the number six, as six represents stuffiness. The rules even extend to dueling, preventing things like unsanctioned trades. In response, Yuga uses his technological ability to create Rush Duels. Goha Corp, who run the city, try to get rid of it. That’s the main premise for Sevens.
Rush Duels are part of the controversy Yugioh Sevens had going into it. They are directed at younger viewers as a more simplistic version of the game. Every duel so far in Sevens has been a Rush Duel. Yugioh fans were not happy at the statement that regular duels are considered part of those stuffy old rules. Especially since Rush Duels are closer in scope to really old Yugioh anyway; Tribute Summons and bad attack Level 5s being the norm. While that may be annoying, the Rush Duels themselves are fun. They are super fast-paced and the show usually gives them a reason to need to be quick. Strangely, every card has Rush Duel printed on it, despite it being an illegal modification to the game.
Rush Duels help the pace of the show, as they only last a couple turns at most. This means a full duel is in a single episode. Two Part duels won’t be often. While this may affect some of the back and forth, it gives more time for character stuff.
Currently, we don't know if Rush Duels will be released outside of Japan. For now, they remain among the Japan Only Cards.
Luke, Gakuto & Kaizo
Yuga’s motivation is to spread Rush Duels and promote it as something fun people can do. He doesn’t really wish to be a “Duel King." Instead, it’s Luke who has that goal. Luke is the more rambunctious kid who can be a bit much, but is tempered down by the others. Like Joey before him, he’s the center of a lot of the jokes. He’ll often realize things a lot later than anybody else. It’s kind of interesting to see the deuteragonist have the goal of being the best, rather than the protagonist.
Luke would probably be a bit too much if he were the main character of Sevens, but he’s balanced out by the rest of the cast. In addition, he seems to have some sort of mysterious power where he can break down electronics.
Gakuto is also a main cast members and is the very stuffy student council president. Part of the show involves Yuga and Luke loosening him up a bit. Character development has been happening somewhat, which is nice this early. There is also Romin, who we’ll talk about more shortly in the next section.
Yuga also modified this drone to create Kaizo, who appears to be sentient. Kaizo is girl obsessed to a fault. Kaizo can often clash with the cast because of this. But it also allows them to manipulate him into helping too, for comedic effect.
Stakes
Sevens, as previously mentioned, lacks stakes. It’s incredibly self-aware and pokes fun at itself doing this. When Mimi duels Yuga for the notebook, it’s actually the stakes that are swapped. If she wins, she doesn’t steal it and if he wins, he lets her steal it. It’s completely bonkers. Of course, in the end, the notebook has nothing of value in it. There’s an episode where Gakuto loses and retires from the student council as per the terms of losing. However, that doesn’t’ stop him from be re-elected the next day.
They usually befriend the episode’s opponent. When they duel over the last batch of noodles, Yuga wins and just goes to share it anyway. The show clearly revels in this absurdity so far. Everything turns out okay and there’s laughs along the way.
Goha Corp
There’s a couple mysteries and plots going on the background that may ramp things up later. First, we have Goha Corp trying to take down Rush Duels by wiping video evidence from the web. In the first episode of Sevens, they introduce the concept of Goha Corp banning duelists who receive a certain amount of strikes. However Rush Duel being installed gets rid of that problem pretty much right away. This means the first episode spends a lot of time in something that doesn’t really matter in the long run as a stake.
Like the Streisand Effect, this all only leads our protagonists to work harder to spread Rush Duels. They have to deal with the popularity, including people trying to defeat Yuga and prove their superiority. It kind of echoes how in Yugioh Arc V, Yuya debuted Pendulum and attracted a lot of attention. The head of Goha has so far been pretty much a non-entity in the show, only having cameos and not really speaking. He’ll probably matter much later, but right now he’s not doing anything.
RoaRomin and Mysteries
In Episode 10, the mini arc with Roa begins. Roa is the cousin of Romin who is one of the main characters. He’s a duplicitous guy who wants to take over Rush Duels from Yuga. This storyline hasn’t been resolved at the time of writing. Romin is the female lead and is a guitarist. She had a secret that led to Roa using it to have her spy on the team, but the secret is revealed in Episode 11. Due to having a different studio, there might actually be potential there for the female lead to not lose. That was something that happened in past Yugioh shows a lot. In Episode 11, Romin actually manages to win a duel against Gakuto, which bodes well there, but it’s still early days. Here’s hoping they get some more wins during the series.
Roa reveals during Episode 12 that Yuga’s ace monster “Sevens Road Magician” potentially be a fake card. This creates a bit of stakes with the cliffhanger at the end of Episode 12. Of course, if the Magician wasn’t a real card, then how come it has a bunch of support cards? That is a bit of a plot hole.
Lastly, there’s the mystery of this strange underground monument. This is where Yuga was able to install Rush Duels to the Duel Disk system, after beating the Hologram Man. However, upon a return visit, the place is empty. However, there’s some weird symbols on the ground that may be important later. The Hologram Man provides more mystery as the real person that looks like them gave Yuga his “Sevens Road Magician” card many years ago.
Mimi Atachi
I wanted to take a whole section to talk about Mimi Atachi. Primarily because they are one of the best parts of Yugioh Sevens. They are probably the funniest character. Mimi is a thirty-seven year old woman who has some sort of condition that causes her to look like a child. She is secretly one of the higher ups at Goha Corp, who run the city. Her young looks have caused her a lot of trouble in life. This leads to even having to wear a sign at bars saying she’s an adult. So honestly, she gets a lot of props for getting a high-level position at a company despite that.
Mimi is sent undercover at the school as a fake elementary school kid. She befriends the main characters and becomes a recurring character. Her son also shows up at one point. She tends to sneak around in the background. This allows us to have some outside commentary from an adult character. That gives her a good role in Sevens.
Despite looking like a kid, Mimi yearns for the late 80s and is terrible at acting like a kid. Her deck is themed around Japan’s ‘Bubble Era’, with classic monsters like “Mystical Elf” going clubbing. She hasn’t really modernized, even using older technology like cassettes. This provides a great contrast to her appearance. Funnily enough, she’s voiced by a fifteen year old. That makes it a teen pretending to be an adult pretending to be a kid. It has lots of layers.
Mimi - Unexpected Depth
Despite secretly working for the bad guys, she becomes a sympathetic character. There’s actually a lot of depth to them. They even accept their son for liking Rush Duels, after initially being upset about it. Mimi’s character development is actually a pleasant surprise I didn’t expect from a show like this. I figured they’d be a minor character but they’ve had a pretty big role. I imagine this could lead to some sort of face turn down the line as they begin to understand Yuga’s motivations. Sometimes they find themselves unwittingly rooting for the protagonists, so there’s a complexity there.
In Episode 10, she weirdly becomes a fan girl for Roa, who actually is very young. This is a bit weird. Perhaps Mimi even forgets sometimes and loses herself in the role.
Episode Quick Round-Up
Here’s a quick summary of the first ten episodes of Yugioh Sevens and what goes on. Another reminder that this contains spoilers.
The opening theme, "Nanananananana" is very fun and high energy. It’s incredibly catchy and I enjoy it, so give it a listen. The ending theme, “Goha 7th Elementary School Song” is not as fun in my opinion, as its ironically a bit too drawn out and long-winded for this show.
Episode 1- “Let’s Go! Rush Duel”
Yuga meets Luke and together with Romin and Gakuto, they go to a mysterious place to challenge the Hologram Man. Yuga defeats him and his “Blue-Eyes White Dragon” in a Rush Duel, using “Sevens Road Magician”. This changes all the Duel Disks in the city to turn into 7-shaped Rush Duel versions. It’s a relatively alright introduction that sets up the show.
Episode 2- “The Man Who Possesses a Demon”
Luke walks into a wall. Then he duels Yuga and wins. This shows Yuga isn’t going to be one of those always-wins guys at least. Rush Duels become popular in the city. Luke’s weird power, the “Pauli Effect” is shown. More character establishing stuff.
Episode 3- “Romin’s Secret”
The cast try to figure out Romin’s secret motivations, but don’t. Still, some exploration of Romin’s character and how she got her ace monster card. Even though she loses the duel here, it makes sense here. She’s using a near-replica of Yuga’s deck in this one, after all. I like how they sometimes give some back-story to the ace monsters in Sevens.
Episode 4- “Farewell, Student Council President”
A pretty entertaining one, which sets up stakes and completely destroys them. Gakuto’s character is explored really well as well as his sidekicks. Yeah, he’s got these two deputies who follow him around all the time. His ace monster is another pun and his duel style is like Japanese theatre. The ending is very fun, giving a good idea of what Sevens is supposed to be like in terms of comedy.
Episode 5- “Luke, a Manly Battle”
A discussion on journalistic integrity. The crew try to put Rush Duels in the newspaper, but the reporters are terrible people. Luke defeats them in order to convince them not to be terrible. Only for Luke to put something a little untrue in the newspaper himself. This is the point where we get a whole bunch of filler characters almost every episode. These characters have a specific gimmick. In this case, newspaper printing. The duel was a pretty good one here.
Episode 6- “I Beg Your Noodle! Ramen Duel!”
Yuga duels a Ramen themed duelist in order to win the last bowl of ramen. Predictably, they go to share it anyway. But then, wait! Luke swipes it himself. But hey, everything’s okay because there’s more ramen really. In terms of plot, this is also when they learn the mysterious underground monument has vanished. It’s another funny episode, with Kaizo shenanigans too.
Episode 7- “The Transfer Student is an Elementary Schooler?”
The introduction of Mimi, who buys the cast VHS and Cassettes. This is probably one of the best Sevens episode thus far. The shot of Mimi at a bar is tragic and somehow in a full episode, we get a lot of character stuff. Then she tries to steal Yuga’s notebook and somehow ends up dueling him for the right to not steal it. Losing, she gets to keep it, but as expected, it’s not very useful.
Episode 8- “Post-Apocalypse and Napolitan”
Mimi’s son isn’t getting any spaghetti so he dresses up as a mad max character and duels Luke. Surprisingly this weird premise turns into a good episode with more Mimi character stuff. At this point, the show has definitely found its footing as a lighthearted time with a good, well balanced cast.
Episode 9- “Wonderful Jurassic”
Dino DNA, but not really. Apparently it’s a manly desire to meet a dinosaur. This guy says “Jurassic” at the end of every sentence. Jokes on fossilized poop because this show does not shy away from that kind of humor. The dinosaur turns out to be a misunderstanding.
Episode 10- “A Terrifying Ghost Story Duel”
The crew go to see Roa and Romin’s band play, but it’s all a trap. Roa wants to “own Rush Duel” which doesn’t really make much sense, as Yuga basically lets anyone do what they want anyway. Romin is blackmailed by her cousin. Luke duels a guy with a pun name and wins, as they come to an understanding. The pun gets a bit tiresome; they probably should have said it slightly less.
Episode 11- “No More Holding Back!”
Romin duels Gakuto as she is blackmailed to work for her villainous cousin Roa. We get a bunch of minor characters whose personalities are modeled on food. There’s a Duel Guitar with a secret food compartment. It was a good episode, explaining Romin’s betrayal, in a comedic manner of course. They’ll get over it quick.
Episode 12- “The Forbidden Ace”
Yuga starts his duel with Roa, with Rush Duels on the line. We get some back-story on how Yuga obtained his ace monster “Sevens Road Magician”. However, we have some stakes here with him not allowed to draw it without being disqualified. Roa has a lot of cards that give the opponent draws. That usually would be not a good idea in a duel, but in this case his aim is different. The episode ends with a cliffhanger, so we’ll have to see what happens later. Also Mr. Goha actually speaks briefly. The filler food characters also provide commentary.
Conclusion
That’s my Yugioh Sevens Round-Up for the first twelve episodes! Hopefully those who are watching the show are enjoying it. Sure, it’s mostly aimed at a younger audience than Yugioh usually is, but it’s still fun. When it comes to kids show, some aren’t really watchable by an older audience, but some are. This is the latter. While it’s very different to other Yugioh shows, I’d still recommend Sevens if you haven’t seen any yet. It’s still early days, so it’s a good time to catch up.
Twelve episodes in, we’ve got a good start despite some classic early filler type episodes. The cast is established and they are balanced well. There’s still a lot left to explore. Primarily, the mystery of the hologram man and the mysterious monument. I also imagine we’ll get more Goha executives showing up. The show is well paced and we are starting to get any idea of the world it’s in.
Sevens is the Yugioh we have right now, but there’s something to enjoy. Unleash your inner juvenile humor. Thanks for reading.