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Because I don’t waste time listening to dime-store YouTubers like Mangakamen who turn everything into a Tumblr-tier meme-fest. The guy single-handedly made Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s a laughing stock with his half-baked, emotionally stunted hot takes—especially his mindless Crow Hogan hate. It’s always the same tired American stereotype: “I don’t like orange birds, so he ruined the show!”

Newsflash: Crow didn’t ruin anything. What ruined the discourse was pseudo-critics like him reducing complex character shifts and production pivots into punchlines for clout. You think blocking him was harsh? No. It was necessary. Because 5D’s deserves better than being filtered through the lens of someone who’d rather be funny than factual.

Ah yes, the classic revisionist take by brain-dead Zoomers and fake fans pretending they’ve "done their research" because they watched a 10-minute clickbait video about the Yu-Gi-Oh! production timelines. Today, I’m here to torch the idiocy—because apparently saying 5D's was a “production nightmare” is the hot new cope for people who can't think beyond meme decks and nostalgia bait.

Let’s talk facts.

1. The Misconception About Episodes 65–154

Oh no, they say, “5D’s fell apart after episode 64!” Really? Then explain why the following 90 episodes still have thematic cohesion, escalating stakes, and an emotional payoff that’s miles beyond anything ZEXAL ever attempted. Yes, the Crimson Dragon lore was simplified. Yes, Kiryu was sanitized for the Saturday morning kiddie slot. And no, we didn’t get another “Dark Signers-tier” arc.

BUT GUESS WHAT?

This wasn’t a collapse. It was a pivot.

Unlike Arc-V, 5D's didn’t start vomiting new dimensions every 20 episodes because the writers were trying to retcon their way out of a creative black hole. 5D’s moved from mature dystopian themes to more shonen-flavored rivalry arcs—and while that shift was jarring, it was still internally consistent.

A pivot is not a disaster. It’s called surviving the executive board.

2. Compare That to Real Production Nightmares: Arc-V, VRAINS, SEVENS, GO RUSH!!

If you really want to talk production hell, let’s talk:

Arc-V: Went from dimension-hopping genius to “wait, who are we even fighting anymore?” The ending was so bad, even Nicolas Cage would have refused the script.

VRAINS: The main villain literally didn’t appear until 100 episodes in. Ghost Girl vanished like someone forgot she was on the cast list.

SEVENS and GO RUSH!!: These aren’t even Yu-Gi-Oh! anymore. They’re Saturday morning cartoons made by unpaid interns and toddlers with sugar highs. There’s zero weight to anything—just card effects and ADHD pacing disguised as “creative new formats.”

And you want to accuse 5D’s of being the broken one? Spare me.

3. The Production Behind 5D's Was Pressured, But Functional

People love to bring up rumors—“staff left,” “Kazuki Takahashi stepped in,” “sponsors clashed,” etc. Yes, some of that happened. But guess what? The show was still made, the animation quality was mostly consistent, and character arcs like Jack, Crow, and Aki didn’t just vanish into the ether like they would in later shows.

Aki’s screentime reduction? Corporate meddling—not “writing collapse.”

The WRGP arc? Still focused, with team-based themes that had actual buildup.

ZONE’s arc? Existential and thematic—even if rushed, it said something.

What 5D’s achieved under pressure is a miracle compared to the nonsense you get now where “friendship” is literally the only theme they can write.

Why Modern Fans Misunderstand Because they weren’t there. Because they’re used to overproduced, underwritten slop with pretty visuals and empty calories. Because they confuse tonal shifts with collapse. And because they don’t know how real production nightmares look when all they’ve seen is Reddit threads and top-10 listicles.

Final Words 5D’s is misunderstood not because it failed—but because it tried to be ambitious, changed direction under pressure, and still delivered one of the most emotionally consistent Yu-Gi-Oh! endings ever. The ones that followed? They didn’t just break—they gave up.

Ah yes, Yu-Gi-Oh!, the franchise that once stood as a paragon of edgy coolness and campy fun, slowly dissolved into a toxic pit of plastic smiles and fanboy delusion. And you want to talk about humility? Please. The so-called "humble" Yu-Gi-Oh! fans aren't humble—they're cowards hiding behind politeness to avoid confrontation with the obvious truth: ZEXAL and ARC-V were disasters.

Let’s go back to the early 2010s. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s had just wrapped up—gritty tone, motorcycles, character arcs, actual STAKES. And then comes ZEXAL, with its googly-eyed toddler art style and a protagonist so insufferable he made Jaden look like Shinji Ikari on depression meds. People had every right to complain—because the writing took a nosedive, the themes got baby-proofed, and the entire aesthetic screamed “we’re marketing to 6-year-olds now.” And what did the “humble” fans say?

“You’re just being mean. Let people enjoy things.” “You don’t understand ZEXAL—it’s about growth.”

No. It was about toys. And this false humility only gaslit the real fans into silence. People who grew up with Duel Monsters, GX, or 5D’s—fans who had a brain and standards—were told they were gatekeeping because they expected something with depth and consistency. Oh the irony.

Then comes ARC-V, which tricked everyone by pretending it was going to “fix” things. Synchros! Xyz! Fusion! All the dimensions! A multiverse! Everyone rejoiced—for ten episodes. But then came the tonal whiplash, pointless filler, and the glorious train wreck that was the ending arc. I swear, the writers were playing 52-card pickup with their script. And yet again, when people called it out?

“You’re just toxic. The show was ambitious!” “At least they tried something different.”

NO. Trying and failing doesn’t deserve praise. The “humble” fans who clapped like trained seals every time an old card showed up—those are the reason the community became toxic. They shamed criticism, labeled every negative opinion as “hate,” and buried real discussion under a wave of "positivity."

Humility isn’t a virtue when it’s used to shield mediocrity. These people weren’t being nice—they were being complicit. Their unwillingness to accept flaws is what led to the death of trust in the fanbase. Because now, if you criticize anything, you're “toxic,” you're “rude,” you're “not a true fan.”

Ah yes... The Dark Side of Dimensions. Or as I like to call it — The Dark Side of Desperation. You know, that movie where Takahashi tried to revive the original Duel Monsters era by duct-taping nostalgia to a high-frame-rate, glitter-bombed failure of a script.

Let’s be clear — DSOD didn’t “save” anything. It stole. It looted. It siphoned. It robbed ARC-V blind. Took its animation budget, its best animators, its marketing energy — all to create a glorified Kaiba ego-fantasy with a cardboard villain, a rushed ending, and Yugi acting like he forgot he went through 200 episodes of character development.

Meanwhile, ARC-V — which started with potential, mind you — got left out in the cold. And fans? Oh, the fans were too busy creaming themselves over pretty lighting and slow-motion particle effects to notice that absolutely nothing of substance happened in DSOD. "Atem returns... oh wait — no he doesn't. Oh look, Kaiba built a space elevator... because reasons." It's not a plot — it’s fanfiction with a movie budget.

"But the animation was god-tier!" Yeah, cool — and so is a diamond-encrusted toilet. Doesn't mean I want to sit on it for two hours and pretend it's high art.

The Japanese audience? Same reaction. Hype, confusion, disappointment. It didn’t move merch, it didn’t boost the game meaningfully, and all that effort for what? A temporary spike in Blue-Eyes White Dragon sales?

Let’s not forget: 2014 to 2017 — the fandom was a disaster zone. People were split between DM elitists crying for “the golden days” and newer fans trying to give ARC-V and ZEXAL a chance. And what happened? DSOD reinforced the gatekeeping. It told fans: “Nothing matters unless it's Yugi and Kaiba again.” OCG Stories got buried. Lost Yu-Gi-Oh! media vanished. And the people holding this franchise together — the animators, composers, and writers busting their butts weekly — got shafted while DSOD hogged the limelight.

I’m not saying nostalgia is evil. I get it. You want to see your childhood heroes again. But DSOD wasn’t made to honor the past — it was made to cash in on it, and in doing so, it derailed the present and poisoned the future.

Let’s get one thing straight: Yu-Gi-Oh! was never meant to be a happy, comfortable little ride for soft fans. It was about trauma, loss, pain, betrayal, loneliness — the kind of stuff people who’ve actually been through hell can recognize. But let’s be honest… Most fans will never admit that.

Because admitting it means confronting their own weakness. It means accepting that maybe this franchise speaks deeper to the broken than to the average.

Yu-Gi-Oh! didn’t give me depression. It spoke to mine. And if that goes over your head? You’re not listening. You never were.

The truth is, Yu-Gi-Oh! has always had shock value.

Duelists dying mid-battle.

Parents abandoning children.

Characters spiraling into madness. That wasn’t “dark for the sake of edgy.” That was real. That was earned.

But the fandom? They treat it like a meme. They don’t respect the emotional weight — they drown it in TikToks, fanboy jokes, or “look how funny this dub line is.” They took a story about survival and identity and turned it into a playground for clout-chasing content creators.

They don’t get it. They never will.

Because these fans — these so-called "defenders" of the community — aren’t listening. They only care about defending their favorites, mocking others, and saying “let people enjoy things” when the criticism hits too hard.

We didn’t leave the community because we hated Yu-Gi-Oh! We left because we loved it too much to watch it become a circus.

Let’s get something straight: being in the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom is like trying to debate inside a daycare. And I say this as someone who cares about the franchise. It’s one of the worst fanbases out there — worse than WWE fans crying over Roman Reigns, worse than toxic anime fans who gatekeep One Piece arcs.

Why?

Because Yu-Gi-Oh! fans don’t read. Not the card effects. Not the rulings. Not even the damn subtitles or context of the show.

It’s a meme, yeah — “Yu-Gi-Oh! fans don’t read” — but it’s also real. These people will play a 3000-word effect card and still ask, “wait what does it do?” Or watch Arc-V and think Zarc was the good guy, because reading nuance is too hard.

But the worst part?

They confuse being offended with being right. Say Zexal was rushed, they scream “subjective!” Say GX Season 4 was better than all of Sevens, and they say “you’re just nostalgic!” Say 5D’s had a broken production but still had better character arcs than any of the Rush shows? They fall apart. Cry “boomer.” Call you toxic.

Meanwhile WWE fans can handle Brock Lesnar busting someone open. Anime fans can break down story arcs, animation budgets, and character writing. Yu-Gi-Oh! fans? They think calling out a poorly written duel is “drama.” They think someone criticizing Vrains means you hate the franchise. They think a DM-era fan has no right to talk unless they praise Sevens or Rush.

Let’s be real: the idea that "every Yu-Gi-Oh! series is equal and it's all just subjective" is total nonsense. It’s not criticism — it’s a defense mechanism. A blanket excuse so fans can protect their favorite shows from being judged on effort, writing, animation, and actual merit.

You hear it all the time:

“It’s just subjective bro, let people enjoy things.” Nah. That’s not how real critique works. That’s just lazy fans — mostly Americans — trying to sugarcoat mediocrity. They think just because some boomer on Twitter dunks on Zexal or Vrains, it’s some attack on their soul. Relax. A show getting called out for poor pacing or bad direction doesn’t mean it's hate speech.

These people don’t want fairness. They want comfort. They scream "equality" across the shows, but deep down they know:

5D’s had ambition.

DM built the brand.

GX had heart. Meanwhile Zexal and Rush are seen as baby toys but get pampered by the "let people enjoy things" crowd. What happened to expecting effort?

It’s not about being mean. It’s about standards. If someone says 5D’s had better animation, stronger themes, and more character depth than Sevens — that’s not “being mean,” that’s just true.

That American clickbait Republican sellout, JosiahRises, is once again making videos with misleading titles like “lefties crying”—when in reality, they’re not. It’s just bait to grab attention. Sure, he makes a few valid points, but he repeats the same message over and over in nearly every video.

His clickbait thumbnails are pure cringe. It’s obvious people like him are coping, and grifting off outrage just to make money from views. He clearly sounds like he’s panicking because America is a sinking ship.

In one of his recent videos, he called out Rosie O’Donnell and Kevin Nash (yes, the WWE guy) for supposedly not “respecting” the 4th of July. But their reactions were pretty normal — they just criticized a holiday that no longer makes sense in a collapsing country. Still, this YouTuber twisted it into fake drama just to roast them and rile up his audience into harassing people.

JosiahRises also has this weird ego trip where he steals celebrity photos, slaps watermarks or some Photoshopped nonsense on them, and acts like he’s doing something brilliant. Seriously?

If you need to know what I think about this, I'll put it like this.

Americans and their 4th of July stans are like clowns — they can’t handle criticism, but they love dishing it out, especially when it comes to non-American content. This one’s just another Texas redneck crying while his city sinks, lol.

Like I said before, America is not your friend — nor a country that deserves credit or respect from outsiders. Its people are often racist, bigoted, and homophobic toward foreigners and non-American media. The moment someone from outside criticizes America, they melt down and start roasting our content just because we dared to say something.

What really gets me is this person using hashtags instead of proper sentences. He’s clearly not very smart.

And to the American Yu-Gi-Oh! fans who suddenly act like they hate 5D’s again—like it’s 2015 all over—have you forgotten something? Japan loves every Yu-Gi-Oh! show. They support the franchise so much that Konami keeps the good content for them—because they know the Western fandom is a joke.

American Yu-Gi-Oh! fans are nobodies. Petty, toxic, and constantly ruining things for the rest of us. And of course, what do they do? Blame localization. Every. Single. Time. Like 4Kids was some evil empire instead of just a dubbing company doing their job.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: MangaKamen and the vocal part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! community are full of hypocrisy. MangaKamen is only in it for grifting, while most Yugitubers are sell-outs who clickbait with Duel Monsters nostalgia or endlessly repeat that “4Kids ruined Yu-Gi-Oh!” for the ten-millionth time this year.

Then you’ve got MangaKamen making hit pieces on 5D’s, trashing Yusei for being “too perfect,” while hypocritically defending Seto Kaiba and whatever else fits his narrative. He’s just another stereotypical American who always wants to be right, even when he’s completely wrong—just another loud voice in today’s left-leaning society trying to preach nonsense.

Meanwhile, the Yu-Gi-Oh! community keeps crying over whatever nonsense the American fanbase throws at us—acting like their virtue signaling and endless takes on Atem are somehow gospel. Every week it's the same: “Yu-Gi-Oh! is so depressing now,” or “Atem and Seto were the peak,” as if Dark Side of Dimensions wasn’t already enough of a mess.

These are the same clowns who hate on every spin-off while pretending Duel Monsters was flawless. Then you've got the ZEXAL fans, always yelling about how ZEXAL is "peak" and preaching about the animation like it matters more than the story. Ever since 2015, they’ve acted like their word is law—when deep down, you know ZEXAL fans are even crazier than the far-left crowd. And that’s exactly why I can’t stand these buffoons.

But if you really want to know the truth? I can’t stand the Yu-Gi-Oh! fanbase—because they ruined the community back when Arc-V was still brand new.

They kept blaming 4Kids like it was some evil force, when in reality—newsflash—it was just a DUBBING COMPANY, you nitwits. All this fake “equality” talk in the fandom, where you’re guilt-tripped for disliking a show or being critical, like you’re not allowed to have a damn opinion without someone preaching at you to “stay humble.”

And don’t even get me started on the whole 2015 mess with the 5D’s production drama. That was the start of all the fandom wars. Twitter’s Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom? Beyond toxic—people literally got doxxed. Tumblr's no better—they throw tantrums when you tag anything negative. Like seriously, I don’t give TWO SHITS what you think—I’ll say what I want.

Yu-Gi-Oh! fans today are soft and fragile. Their masculinity is so paper-thin, they’d melt under Donald Trump’s temper. And to make it worse, some even had the balls to call my posts “satire”—as if I’m making any of this up. I’m dead serious.

You wanna know why I really started hating this community?

Because of Tumblr user RainbowYuto, who hijacked the fandom—and those jerks from the ZEXAL side like MizarMizanity and her cronies. They’re the ones who started this mess. They twisted the fandom into something unrecognizable.

The current Yu-Gi-Oh! product is nothing more than Duel Monsters propaganda. Ever since 2015, that’s all we’ve been force-fed. The anime has been reduced to trash, and the only thing they keep shoving down our throats is nostalgia bait.

You won’t even give OCG Stories or OCG: The Animation a chance—but you’ll fall over yourselves praising Dark Side of Dimensions like it gave “closure” or Kaiba had some deep motivation. Give me a break. DSOD was Takahashi’s bag of lies, and y’all bought into it like fools.

I’m glad it’s over. This era of overhyped Duel Monsters worship and fake emotional depth? Done. We’re finally entering a new age of Yu-Gi-Oh!—one that existed before all the woke nonsense started infecting the fandom. You know what it’s called? Peace and quiet. I won again.

So do me a favor: If you don’t read the actual Yu-Gi-Oh! cards or watch the anime? GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE COMMUNITY. Stop whining about me, about this, or anything else.