Usually the main character of the YGO series is a good (or at least an experienced) duelist-Yuma is not. The music fits the mood well, and it's all very catchy. I always thought that it was very surprising for the Yu-Gi-Oh! series to have a great sound score. Now it actually looks like the two belong together. I think they realized this and made many improvements. In 5D's I thought it looked silly and clunky-not fitting in with the art-style. The new thing they did with 3D-ish monsters in 5D's returns in Zexal, but vastly improved. As always, the monsters are the highlight of Yu-Gi-Oh! animation. The characters-though slightly silly-are unique and do actually look good. It becomes hard to take the plot seriously at times, but this does die down a bit as it progresses. Zexal's demographic is clearly geared much more to younger children than the other series, and it hurts the story a little bit.

The problem lies with how the story is told. Of course, there are other people trying to get the 'Numbers' for some reason, and that adds to the depth of the story. It worked well for DM, and they improved on it by adding a twist that involved dueling other people who have cards known as 'Numbers'. Zexal is reminiscent of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in that the main character (in this case Yuma) must help restore the memories of his partner (Astral).

While Zexal does manage to have many good things going for it, it completely disregards what has continually improved in each series: characters.

It taught me to not judge a book by its cover, so I kept an open mind towards Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. Coupled with strong characters and a great storyline, 5D's is easily my favourite of the series. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's pushed the envelope with its outrageous concept (Riding Duels) and it succeeded. Each iteration managed to improve upon it's predecessors, while still keeping things 'fresh'. I've always been a big fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series.

List of yu gi oh zexal episodes